So right now, market forces are mainly interested in making Space Engine the successor to Celestia, rather than a game? I don't mind it that much personally -- Celestia needs a successor with better graphics.

So right now, market forces are mainly interested in making Space Engine the successor to Celestia, rather than a game? I don't mind it that much personally -- Celestia needs a successor with better graphics.

I can't say with certainty what the "market" wants (there are so many niches within the software market that you can probably find success no matter what type of product you want to make, if you make it well and market it well), but SE was always a sort of "spiritual successor" to Celestia, and its planetarium functionality always had priority over any game development. This has been the plan for many years. Planetarium features added as the engine develops, and when the engine and planetarium program are sufficiently "complete", then development of games can begin.

I don't know to what extent financial realities will affect that sequence of development, but that's what the plan has always been.

I know this may be an unpopular opinion, but I feel space engine should remain a simulator. The grand scale of this game is so large, I think actually adding game elements would take away from ten plus years of development. People would care more about "objectives" than actual exploration and discovery.

I am also fearful that if it becomes multiplayer, the game would be too large for any effective interaction. Not to mention, you need to remember that planets are themselves divided into geopolitical territories. It wouldn't exactly be fun if you discovered a planet, and a higher ranked player started overtaking a planet you looked for for months, only for him to find it in a day because you discovered it and steal it.

I 100% agree on that. The way SE is now it why I love it so much, its purely discovery and simulating and not clouded by other stuff.

Only thing I hope that becomes of it is more detail and more ways to extract and present data/facts from the objects in SE. Kind of like reading a junior encyclopedia and then moving to a full adult encyclopedia. Same subjects but much more detailed and rich in information. This is pretty much already happening as we know it.

To tell you the truth, I’ve never been more excited for an update in my life.

I know it's a very forbidden question, sorry, but can we expect a release before 2019, because I can't stop refreshing your site every 1 or 2 days ? I miss so much my VR wonderment moments with the DK2 since a few years. I hope also that it will be possible to bind every parameters with a controler. For example, I didn't find a way for binding the world scale (eye separation) to my Xbox 360 controler, very useful when switching from a galaxy to a planet perspective for example. It was also difficult to turn off all the UI for a complete immersion. I hope that these things will be possible with the new release.

milkyparadise, it's not a forbidden question. It's a question whose answer doesn't change with time, here or in FAQ Just check website news regularly.
I think this post, which is updated from time to time, answers at least partially to your question (stereobase).
http://forum.spaceengine.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31#p83

To tell you the truth, I’ve never been more excited for an update in my life.

To be honest that's how I feel about each new version. One of the main reasons I play the Powerball/Mega Millions every drawing is to completely fund Space Engine's development. 

[quote="Mosfet"][ref]milkyparadise[/ref], it's not a forbidden question. It's a question whose answer doesn't change with time, here or in [url=http://spaceengine.org/manual/]FAQ[/url] Just check website [url=http://spaceengine.org/news/]news[/url] regularly.
I think this post, which is updated from time to time, answers at least partially to your question (stereobase).
[url=http://forum.spaceengine.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31#p83]http://forum.spaceengine.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=31#p83[/url][/quote]

Thanks Mosfet, I even didn't have to read past the second line of changes for being reassured.To be honest, I never launched SE in 2D, people who didn't try SE in VR can't imagine how much it's awesome.

From what I hear about it from other beta testers, VR is steadily improving nonetheless.

How do you become a beta tester?

JKerman, you dont.

How do you become a beta tester?

The Beta has enough testers.

How much more work do you think is left to do until 0.9.9.0?

I'm curious, will ocean floors be a bit more... dynamic? Such as some areas being deeper than overs, ravines, etc?