A quick personal note. You are going to see the phrase “wiring” often. This is when I take all the math, functions, and helpers from C++ and link them together in Unreal through Blueprints. The tedium of this should not be understated. That repetition is what turns the data into the visuals and information you actually play with.
Note
That's my, uhm, whine for the week. ;p
This Week's Actual Work
Friday Dev Notes — September 4, 2026
Infopedia Built
- Added all currently known game information
- Includes formulas showing how values are determined — it's sci-fi, why make the player guess?
- Supporting DataTables are accessible so players and modders can customize or expand the information
Budget Analyzer Built
- Gives the player a clear picture of where they are, where they are short, and what is causing it, so they can make informed decisions
- The AI could already analyze this information; it was important for fairness that the player have the same visibility at their fingertips
- Underestimated how many User Widget helpers this would require — a real “holy crap” moment, but a happy one
- Supporting DataTables are also available for modding/customization
Turn / Time System Corrected
- Properly scoped game turn, month, and year into the simulation state
- Fixed the previous implementation issue
- Turn and date now display properly on the main information band at the top of the screen
Sector Card Build Completed
- All currently required sector data is displayed
- Cards populate correctly from live simulation data
- Sector cards are now clickable and pass the selected Sector ID into the Player Action Screen
- Related display and data bugs resolved
Body / Sector Control Logic Corrected
- Corrected an older ownership assumption left over from the earlier body-centric design
- Sector ownership is now treated independently
- A faction controls a celestial body only when it controls all of that body's surface sectors
- Orbital / space sectors do not count toward body ownership and can remain independently contested
Player Action Screen Wiring Continued
- Selected celestial bodies now pass correctly into the Player Action Screen and its supporting widgets
- Body, sector, faction, and resource information, plus date and sector-control percentage, now populate from live simulation data
- Fixed widget initialization-order issues where body-specific information could be requested before a valid Body ID existed
- Removed a startup divide-by-zero warning caused by that initialization timing
Sector Improvement Panel Built & Wired
- Built the 4×4 improvement grid used to display infrastructure within the selected sector
- All 16 improvement slots now populate from live simulation data
- Improvement type, icon, tier, and production/extraction information are displayed from the underlying simulation state
- Improvement icons were added to the improvement DataTable so the UI stays fully data-driven
- Empty and occupied slots now display correctly
Sector / Improvement Interaction Wired
- Clicking a sector refreshes the improvement grid for that specific sector
- Improvement cards are now fully clickable, and all 16 slots correctly report which slot was selected
- Clicking a slot reads its current live state and distinguishes an empty slot from an occupied improvement
- This creates the interaction path needed for building, upgrading, replacing, removing, and configuring improvements
Live Improvement Display Tested
- Built a Chemical Refinery through the simulation command system and confirmed it appeared in the correct sector improvement slot
- The refinery displayed its icon, tier, and extraction information from live game state
- Confirmed the same slot correctly changes from empty to occupied after construction resolves
Command Validation Bug Resolved
- Fixed a major issue where construction could exceed the available resource-node capacity
- Example: a sector with three Chemical nodes can now support only three Chemical refineries — a fourth is rejected immediately
- Fixed for both single builds spread across turns and multiple build orders issued in the same turn
- Pending orders are now taken into account when validating a new command
- Player and AI command validation now use the same authoritative command rules
- Bugs fixed before release to players — I know, what a revolutionary concept!
In-engine screenshot — Turn 2, Nov 2743
Per the notice above: what you see is what you get.