Beyond Aphelion - What is the game?

[⛊ Quigybobo]

Beyond Aphelion — A Subspace Legacy

Carrying a torch forward in a collective vision. Built from scratch in Rust.

What is it?

A spiritual successor to Subspace/Continuum. Same physics DNA — discrete 40-step rotation, 80-step rotation for large ships, axis-separated wall collision, gravity deceleration per hull, values pulled from .conf files and validated against 40 client. Arrow keys + ctrl. No WASD. If you've flown in SS, you already know how to fly here.

What's playable right now?

Ships & Combat

8 hull classes, 28 variants — each with unique stats from TOML config
All original ships from subspace.so that is even more ships.
Bullets, bombs (per-hull bounce count), burst lasers (wall ricochet)
Double barrel, multifire spread
Cloak, Stealth, XRadar, AntiWarp — per-hull energy drain
Repel — deflects projectiles and bombs
Strafing, cruise mode, docking
 

Enemies

9 types with boids flocking behavior
Chase, converge, rally when sectors clear
Deployable turrets with configurable ranges

World

Galaxy map with sector-to-sector warping
Conquest — destroy stations, claim sectors
Frontline war with counterattack waves
Galaxy simulation — sectors fight each other off-screen

Editor

In-game sector editor
.lvl import — fly your old Subspace maps
All tuning in TOML files, just like .cfg

In game config editor.;

Multiplayer

TBA 

Single player is the zone editor. Build sectors, place enemies, tune your settings. Multiplayer is the game. Fly what you built with other people.

I am back in school currently for computer science. I have 2 other silent partners helping develop as well in their spare time. 

More updates coming. Happy to answer questions.

Come join our discord. https://discord.gg/XUWxsvDPmd

[xorlof]

I had played SubSpace waaaay back in the day, back when it was still in the original public beta, and I loved it. The gameplay was so simple and so fun. I fell away after a while (well before Continuum). I've only recently remembered it and how fun it was, and looked for a modern version. Well, I was surprised to find out that the OG is still alive (via Continuum client)!

...but I DO think the community could benefit from a modern client. My plan today was to download Continuum and play for a while and see if I still liked it as much as before. If so, it sounded like a fun project to re-implement, but then I saw this post. 🙂 My vision for a modern implementation was to make it .io style--just open a web page, type a nickname, and go (no downloads, no logins unless you want to protect your nick, etc.) However, you seem to be actively working on a replacement and I see no need to fragment things. However, how do I go about having a look at what you've accomplished? What platforms do you support? Any screenshots?

[⛊ Quigybobo]

2 hours ago, xorlof said:

I had played SubSpace waaaay back in the day, back when it was still in the original public beta, and I loved it. The gameplay was so simple and so fun. I fell away after a while (well before Continuum). I've only recently remembered it and how fun it was, and looked for a modern version. Well, I was surprised to find out that the OG is still alive (via Continuum client)!

...but I DO think the community could benefit from a modern client. My plan today was to download Continuum and play for a while and see if I still liked it as much as before. If so, it sounded like a fun project to re-implement, but then I saw this post. 🙂 My vision for a modern implementation was to make it .io style--just open a web page, type a nickname, and go (no downloads, no logins unless you want to protect your nick, etc.) However, you seem to be actively working on a replacement and I see no need to fragment things. However, how do I go about having a look at what you've accomplished? What platforms do you support? Any screenshots?

Hey xorlof, welcome and thanks for the interest!

It is really cool that you were thinking about a browser-based implementation — that's actually what dotproduct did (open source Subspace in the browser). Beyond Aphelion takes a different approach: it's a native desktop client built in Rust with the Bevy engine, so it runs at 60fps with no browser overhead, map editor, ship editor.

What's working right now (single player):

• Authentic Subspace physics — 40-step discrete rotation, arrow key controls, gravity deceleration, the whole deal. If you played original SS, it'll feel familiar immediately
• 8 hull classes (Scout through Capital) with 28 variants, each with distinct physics pulled from real SS .conf files
• Full combat — bullets, bombs with shrapnel, bouncing projectiles, EMP bombs, afterburner, cloak/stealth/xradar/antiwarp
• Galaxy with multiple sectors, warp gates, conquest system, frontline wars
• In-game .lvl map importer — you can load original Subspace maps directly
• Built-in zone editor (the vision: single player IS your zone editor, multiplayer IS the game)

Multiplayer is code-complete with server deployed — 60Hz tick(not 100% set yet), Subspace-style reconciliation (velocity extrapolation + smooth correction, hard snap only when necessary). Needs more testing with real players.

Platform: Windows right now. Bevy/Rust compiles cross-platform so Linux and Mac are possible down the line, but Windows is the focus.

No public download yet — still in active development. Best way to follow along and see screenshots/videos in the Discord: https://discord.gg/beyondaphelion. I did see that you joined the discord.

[xorlof]

Sounds sweet! I am going to keep my eye on the project. Based on your description, it seems like you are trying to have a very authentic subspace feel, which I appreciate. Have you ended up reverse engineering everything (formulas, etc) or have these already been documented somewhere? While much feels like can be guessed at with reasonable accuracy, I'd be very curious to see specifics and it sounds like you're really far in the core gameplay! Holler if you want another tester.

Mind pointing me to the dotproduct web client one too? My google-fu is failing me today.

[⛊ Quigybobo]

Hey Xorlof,

 

I do believe this is it https://github.com/sharvil/dotproduct . Happy to share what information I know. 

 

I will definitely have the need for testers, thanks for the offer!