Noctis (video game)
Noctis (Latin for "of night") is a computer space flight simulator video game released in 2000 by Italian programmer Alessandro Ghignola. It centers around first-person visual exploration of the fictional Feltyrion galaxy, which is presented as being approximately 90 thousand light-years in radius - double that of the nonfictional Milky Way Galaxy - and containing over 78 billion stars, many of which host star systems with exoplanets and natural satellites. Gameplay. Players take the role of a silent protagonist pilot operating a Stardrifter, a fictional spacecraft capable of instantaneous interstellar travel. This mode of transportation acts as  a primary game mechanic wherein players may approach various star systems to both refuel their vehicle utilizing lithium ion ejected from stars, and to physically land their vehicle on exoplanetary surfaces - barring gas giants, substellar objects, and what the game identifies as unstable worlds - and then explore them. The explorable locales in the game feature a variety of procedurally-generated atmospheres, climates, flora, fauna, and ruins. Despite the program's the relatively small size of less than one megabyte, billions of worlds can be explored due to its content being generated procedurally, including several types of planets and 12 types  of stars (indicated in-game with a number accompanied by the letter "S"). Players are not presented with a specified goal or win condition, and are instead encouraged to catalogue and annotate discoveries they make during gameplay. These notes are then stored in a common database of stellar bodies called the "GUIDE", which was manually synchronized and made accessible by other players via updates. These "GUIDE" updates were originally provided manually by Ghignola, who regularly compiled new versions based on emailed submissions of players, and allowed the compilation to be downloaded using an in-game "Inbox" feature. Ghignola ceased making  GUIDE updates from 2005 to 2008, before resuming this service. History. Alessandro Ghignola began creating "Noctis" in 1996. "Noctis" versions I-IV were written in C and Assembly. "Noctis I" through "III" are still available on the AnywhereBB website and contain features that were abandoned with later releases. Section::::"Noctis IV", "NICE". "Noctis" was originally based on DOS and uses a fixed display resolution of 320 x 200, and an upper limit imposed on the walking distance from a planetary landing site (this restriction does not necessarily limit the player's ability to traverse the planet, as players may freely take  off and land elsewhere to continue their exploration). These limitations do not apply to the Feltyrion galaxy itself. The current version of the game is called Noctis IV. In the release of "Noctis IV", Ghignola included a facility to have planet names and notes sent back to him and then compiled into the "GUIDE". Players could then share their findings with others, and a community of explorers soon developed, utilizing the "Noctis" forums as the primary method of communication. This community often vied for a wide range of notable discoveries, such as the planetary system with the most planets or  the biggest tree in the "Noctis" universe. The source code for "Noctis IV" was released to the public in 2003 under the WTOF Public License, which has led to the creation of a fan-made "mod" to the game called "Noctis IV CE" (commonly abbreviated "NICE"). "NICE" includes bug fixes and additional features which increase the playability compared to "Noctis IV". The terrain generation code has also been altered in the "NICE" version - this renders many remarks made in the "GUIDE" for "Noctis IV" largely invalid when used in "NICE". Future version ("Noctis V"). A future version of "Noctis" (tentatively  named Noctis V or Noctis NoVa, and sometimes abbreviated as simply NoVa) was under development as of October 11th, 2001. "Noctis V" is intended to relieve the walking distance restrictions of the current "Noctis" platform (as described above) due to the new version of "Noctis" is being developed in Linoleum, a low-level programming language created by Ghignola that is currently being shaped to better suit "Noctis". Because "Noctis" and Linoleum are being constructed simultaneously, "Noctis V"'s development has been slowed significantly. Screenshots and details have been revealed by the developer indicating that the game's rendering engine has  been completely redone from scratch, with Ghignola first having attempted to simply translate the "Noctis IV" engine into Linoleum before giving up and rewriting it. Ghignola has also mentioned experimenting with weather and particle effects, possibly including weather such as snow and dust storms in the game. There is no set release date for "Noctis V", but Ghignola has repeatedly assured the game community that he has not given up on the project and has no intention of doing so. The most recent statement was released in an interview with Videogame Porpourri on May 9th, 2012, where Ghignola stated "["Noctis  V"] keeps living in a corner of my mind, on a sort of unwritten post-it note. But it's there, ready to strike as soon as it gets an opportunity to incarnate." Reception. The game gained popularity in early 2000 after receiving a very favorable review in Home of the Underdogs's list of worthwhile free games. "Noctis" earned a score of 9.43 out of 10 as well as the site's "Top Dog" award. The reviewer noted amongst other things the magnitude of the galaxy to explore and the total size of the simulator, which is less than  one megabyte. An in-detail article of The Escapist's Phillip Scuderi noted the philosophical depth of "Noctis" in 2006.