Starfield Lines

Gameplay is divided into two phases: navigation and construction. In the navigation phase, the player controls a survey ship using a mouse or controller to click and drag a trajectory line between star nodes. The ship automatically follows the drawn line, consuming fuel proportional to distance and gravitational pull. Fuel is replenished by docking at stations or harvesting gas giants. The construction phase occurs on planetary surfaces, where the player places modules such as refineries, habitation domes, and relay towers. Modules are selected from a radial menu activated by pressing the spacebar or the right shoulder button. Placement requires a flat terrain area, indicated by a green grid overlay. Resources are gathered by sending probes to asteroid fields via a dedicated probe management screen, accessed by pressing the 'P' key or the Y button. The interface displays a top-down map of the current system on the left side of the screen, with a resource inventory bar at the bottom. Zooming is controlled by the mouse scroll wheel or the left analog stick. Ship movement is paused when the inventory or map screen is open. Combat is absent; conflict is resolved through economic sabotage, such as blockading a trade line by placing a minefield module. The game autosaves every five minutes and upon exiting a system.