# Illustrated overview — ten reading guides This companion opens the complete reference through ten editorial and visual guides. Every earlier text source and artwork file remains preserved. Concept boards are representative overview illustrations; diagrams and interface sheets carry the precise relationships described in the writing. ## ILL-S01 — Read the whole direction Begin with the promise of the experience, then choose the world, system, or object you want to inspect. The visual guide opens the complete writing; it does not replace it. SUBSTELLAR begins with a familiar place worth repairing. Gathering, making, travelling, discovering, and returning connect that place to a larger world. The underground is a geography of routes, water, life, resources, and communities. Space extends those same activities into environments with different demands. This illustrated overview gives every major content family a visible point of entry. Established text and supplied references remain intact. New concept boards show representative appearances and activities; diagrams explain the relationships; interface sheets show how the information could be presented. A representative board does not complete every dedicated object, region, or operating-state view. Read a chapter summary to understand its purpose, follow the related visuals, and open the full passage when you want the detail. Use stable section links when discussing a change. Browser review notes can be exported, while the text, catalogues, figure descriptions, and editable diagrams travel with the downloadable folder. ### What to look for - A useful home and a dependable return make exploration meaningful. - Depth, industry, and space are connected parts of one experience. - The complete text remains the authority for names, relationships, and scope. Overview coverage: Ten reading guides, a chapter directory, a visual catalogue, and explicit coverage notes. Dedicated views still tracked: Individual model views, regional variants, and final production assets retain their separate backlog. ## ILL-S02 — Follow the workflows The diagrams and interface sheets make preparation, contribution, construction, travel, and return readable as sequences of decisions. Exploration supplies a reason to make something. A material becomes a fitting, a fitting improves a service, and that service changes the next journey. The existing progression chart relates industrial capability to the wider campaign. The new process figures trace the shorter loops inside it, including their alternatives and interruptions. Construction has visible stages and real material custody. The controller should explain what is needed, what has been supplied, what is committed, why work is blocked, and what the player can do next. Regional participation, shared ownership, and a useful return journal support the same experience when players leave and come back. Twelve interface references are grouped into four editable sheets: construction; community and return; navigation and preparation; and spacecraft, readiness, and accessibility. Their example screens illustrate the established information requirements. They are documentation layouts, with example states and any provisional quantities identified, rather than screenshots of an existing game interface. ### What to look for - Useful outcomes connect the steps in each workflow. - Blocked and paused states need understandable next actions. - Diagrams and interface layouts use precise labels from the writing. Overview coverage: Construction-state figure and all twelve interface references on four sheets. Dedicated views still tracked: Alternative screen sizes, every possible UI state, and final interaction assets are further visual work. ## ILL-S03 — Make Old Valley useful The opening is a connected sequence of places and practical improvements: guesthouse, crossing, quarry, Copperwash, and the first workshop service. The guesthouse provides the first dependable return point. The authored crossing opens a route. The quarry introduces useful work and a bounded underground expedition. Copperwash Channels gives that expedition a local identity through pale rock, copper staining, roots, water, landmarks, and a readable return. The first workshop joins the Carpenter and repair bench, the Alloy hearth, and a hand-operated Hoist and lift installation. The bronze path turns accessible copper and planned tin into fittings for an improved cargo cradle. An iron alternative preserves the practical reward. The material-chain figure separates shared construction costs from preparation and shows why the two-stack hoist demonstration is useful. These scenes introduce Old Valley's later life. The full five-chapter sequence continues through a working settlement and the first market. A limited workshop service at the end of this opening does not silently complete the grain mill, wider service network, or market. The existing settlement-cycle diagram and full Old Valley chapter retain that longer progression. ### What to look for - Each repaired place changes what the player can do. - The first workshop creates a visible practical improvement. - Settlements remain useful after their introductory story event. Overview coverage: Both commissioned opening boards, the route diagram, and the complete first-workshop material explanation. Dedicated views still tracked: Final structure interiors, every construction stage, resident portraits, and the full market scene remain dedicated views. ## ILL-S04 — Read Earth's second geography Seven realm identities contain thirty-five named experiences. Their transitions and lateral geography matter as much as their depth. The Overworld is the familiar home landscape. Shallows connects its roots and water to the first descent. Deepwilds concentrates living habitats. Underreach emphasizes mineral structure and working routes. Abyss introduces exposed voids and dark waters. Mantle makes heat and shelter legible. Core concludes the deep-crust journey through the fictional Heart environment. These are irregular regions with shelves, basins, pockets, and overlapping approaches. The additional geography figure explains this through a conceptual route and cross-section. It deliberately does not allocate permanent Y bands to the seven realms. The written working envelope remains 512 total block levels, from Y minus 192 through 319; it is not 512 blocks of underground depth. The existing Earth diagram lists every named experience and anchor. The retained Overworld, Deepwilds, Abyss, and four-realm overview art establish the major visual range. Read those pictures for terrain character, scale, shelter, and activity. The individual experience and transition views remain visible in the detailed visual register rather than being counted complete from a shared overview. ### What to look for - Recognizable landforms and routes make the underground navigable. - A region needs worthwhile activities and a dependable way home. - The Core is the fictional Heart, not the literal planetary centre. Overview coverage: Realm comparison table, retained identity art, complete experience index, and an additional geography/route figure. Dedicated views still tracked: A separate activity, refuge interior, and regional-variation view for every Earth experience remains beyond this overview pass. ## ILL-S05 — Live through a Moon or Mars expedition Arrival, shelter, regional exploration, useful local work, and returning home give the existing destination chapters a clear visual sequence. The Moon starts with Earthrise Rim and Shadow Basin, then continues through Regolith Hollows, Basalt Galleries, and Glassfall Vaults. Its silence, dust, exposed routes, shelter, instruments, and protected supplies give familiar actions a different character. The first complete expedition arrives prepared from Earth; the lunar refuge is commissioned before the first committed underground descent. Mars joins Windcut Tablelands and Buried Delta to Ochre Galleries, Brine Scarps, and Rootstone Chambers. Weather, old drainage, field travel, and the Frontier Yard connect the surface to the underground. Materials and local services strengthen subsequent journeys without making local discoveries prerequisites for surviving the first arrival. The paired expedition figure sits alongside the existing layer diagrams and overview boards. Together they explain what the player does, what belongs to each region, and how the outpost supports the route. The complete Moon and Mars expansions retain the detailed expeditions, hazards, construction, progression, and revisit value. ### What to look for - First-arrival supplies come from the world the player can already use. - A refuge supports exploration and protects the return journey. - Local materials improve sustained activity and create useful homecoming rewards. Overview coverage: Complete regional comparison, existing layer/identity visuals, and a paired expedition workflow. Dedicated views still tracked: Each outpost interior, weather condition, rover activity, and regional close-up remains a further illustration task. ## ILL-S06 — Compare the farther worlds The destination atlas distinguishes each world's activities and purpose while preserving optional branches and the proposed continuation beyond Sol. Ceres makes fractured routes and anchored cargo work central. Europa places expeditions beneath ice in a pressure-shaped environment. Io turns thermal timing and shelter into practical fieldwork. Titan joins haze, shorelines, weather, and a useful harbour. Pluto closes the Solar System journey through cold, autonomy, instruments, and the Far Observatory. The proposed Afterlight continuation moves from Cairn's fractured places and interpretation to Morrow's living waters and cultivation. The existing overview boards already give these destinations distinct visual identities. This guide places their images, materials, signature projects, and campaign roles beside one another so their differences can be reviewed directly. The principal route remains Earth, Moon, Mars, Europa, Titan, and Pluto. Ceres and Io are optional branches. Cairn and Morrow remain a proposed later continuation. Mercury, Venus, Uranus, and Neptune retain their explicit further-design status; Jupiter and Saturn provide orbital and sky context for the documented moons. An atlas entry does not imply an additional completed landing campaign. ### What to look for - Each destination changes the experience of preparation and fieldwork. - Optional branches provide useful choices without becoming hidden universal gates. - The atlas clearly separates documented campaigns, orbital context, and further design. Overview coverage: One consistent destination comparison, annotated retained overview art links, and explicit scope for every represented body. Dedicated views still tracked: Additional regional, outpost, interior, and activity images for the farther destinations remain named future work. ## ILL-S07 — See how industry belongs in the world Machinery should look like useful equipment with a readable physical job. Its breadth grows through clear production relationships and distinct capabilities. The industrial catalogue contains sixty-six named functions across ten capability bands. Early craft becomes mechanical and powered workshops, attainable Tier 1 preparation, regional industry, deep thermal and chemical work, planetary services, and later specialist science. These bands are not rocket tiers or a requirement to finish every earlier machine before exploring. The early/regional board and the advanced board establish complementary visual languages. Benches, furnaces, forming equipment, power sources, loading, reaction vessels, optical work, composites, and optional advanced energy can share a coherent material vocabulary while retaining visibly different jobs. The network figure separates material flow, service power, storage, and freight. The full text provides the detailed machine roles and process narratives. An overview illustration makes the equipment easier to imagine; it does not approve unseen recipes or turn a decorative pipe into a new required process. Optional advanced industry remains optional, and first-flight preparation retains its accessible Earth-based path. ### What to look for - A machine should explain its purpose through shape, access, material flow, and state. - Shared services connect distinct processes without hiding their costs. - Advanced machinery expands choices and sustained operations. Overview coverage: Two machine-family boards, an industrial flow figure, and capability/role comparisons linked to the sixty-six-function catalogue. Dedicated views still tracked: Individual orthographic, connection, and operating-state plates for every machine remain separate from representative family coverage. ## ILL-S08 — Connect a resource to a useful object Materials, products, tools, and equipment belong to a clear gathering-to-use story. Their appearance should stay recognizable across different environments. The written catalogues cover nineteen Earth resource families, eighteen planetary materials, ten processed-product families, and thirty-two equipment families. They describe sources, uses, preparation, and the capabilities an object provides. These categories overlap with machinery and space-system entries; their totals are not a count of unique finished game assets. The material board distinguishes representative natural deposits, recovered samples, and processed appearances. The equipment board emphasizes recognizable silhouettes, working ends, carrying or attachment, and useful field roles. Existing suit and space-system references supply additional visual context. The figures and catalogues connect each pictured representative to its stable source identifier. Ore recognition, gathering, processing, and a worthwhile expedition should reinforce one another. A later material can improve a service without invalidating familiar resources. A loadout can answer a route's particular needs without becoming a universal gear score. Precise quantities remain in the relevant written example; the concept boards do not invent a new recipe table. ### What to look for - Show a material's source, sample, and product as distinct useful forms. - Equipment is organized around capabilities and preparation. - A representative sheet introduces a visual family; dedicated item views stay indexed. Overview coverage: Representative material and equipment boards, capability comparisons, and source-linked catalogue navigation. Dedicated views still tracked: Every individual material sample, tool state, grip, attachment, and worn view retains its dedicated visual task. ## ILL-S09 — Meet the living landscape Creature behaviour, useful plants, food, cultivation, encounters, and quiet activities make the world feel inhabited between major discoveries. The Earth roster contains twelve creature families, ten plant and fungal families, and four signature encounter proposals. Their identities include habitat, posture, behaviour, utility, and counterplay. Food, farming, fishing, gathering, and cultivation create reasons to return to a place and tend it. The creature board introduces representative silhouettes and behaviours at a readable player scale. The plant board connects habitat, harvestable growth, and cultivated forms. The retained Deepwilds image and realm art provide broader environmental context. Appearance proposed by a new board remains a visual interpretation of the written role, rather than a silent change to that role. Life is concentrated where habitat supports it. Quiet and sparse regions are part of the contrast. Encounters need recognizable signals and a useful player response, while a natural discovery or cultivated refuge can provide a satisfying expedition outcome without combat. The document's audio, weather, and presentation direction remains linked to these experiences. ### What to look for - A habitat helps explain why a creature or plant is present. - Behaviour and useful interaction matter as much as silhouette. - Calm, domestic, and cultivated scenes belong beside danger and discovery. Overview coverage: Representative creature and plant boards, habitat/interaction notes, and links to the complete life and encounter catalogues. Dedicated views still tracked: Each creature pose, warning behaviour, habitat, growth stage, encounter scene, and character portrait remains individually tracked. ## ILL-S10 — Understand the Explorer as a complete expedition Your confirmed reference sheets connect the Explorer, its parts, preparation machines, equipment, and mission into one illustrated chapter. The Part Fabrication Table and Rocket Assembly Station have different jobs. Parts are prepared and checked, an authored vehicle is assembled in a linked berth, and the commissioned Explorer is supplied for its intended mission. The assembly figure connects those steps to the existing component and hardware references. The service figure distinguishes propellant, breathing supply, electrical power, and control. It also explains the relationship between the proposed craft envelope, pad, access, and cabin. The nine-block height, three-by-three body, and five-by-five fin envelope remain a proposed fit arrangement. The pad's half-block deck is distinct from its raised service pose. These labels describe the current design proposal rather than a measured finished model. The mission combines a working airlocked cabin, appropriate carried equipment, an Earth-prepared refuge, and protected return allocations. The first lunar landing uses supported natural ground, with no prebuilt lunar pad or factory required. The Moon workflow and mission-readiness interface complete the visual explanation of departure, fieldwork, and return. Tier 2 and Tier 3 retain their supplied overview artwork and deferred detailed expansion. ### What to look for - The confirmed artwork anchors appearance while diagrams explain relationships. - Assembly, services, access, cabin, cargo, and return readiness belong to one mission. - Proposed dimensions and dedicated later-tier production views remain clearly identified. Overview coverage: Source-linked hardware explanations, assembly and service diagrams, retained confirmed sheets, and mission/interface cross-links. Dedicated views still tracked: Further exact cutaways, final model turnarounds, every operating-state view, and Tier 2/3 production art remain beyond this overview.