End of Day 3! I spent this morning implementing god rays as per slicer4ever and Thaumaturges suggestions:

The effect certainly looks good (I think it is broken at some angles though) and I believe it is helping to show where the cool spots are behind the asteroids. But, it only works when the camera is facing the sun :( I have created a couple new camera modes. As well as my original chase cam I have added a chase cam that tilts towards the sun (to try and keep the god rays working) and as another suggestion, a top down camera. Top down is really good for navigating, but the fancy god rays don't show up and it just doesn't look as good, ill tweak the angle so its more aesthetic. I'll probably add a key to change the camera view and let the user choose.

As for the cool spots, I still havent implemented actual shadows, I'm hoping this will better show as the ship enters and exit the area. I'm also thinking of adding a small bunch of particles around the ship like nebula gasses, and marking them as shadowed or not, essentially drawing where the cool area. Since the ship is locked to a plane for movement this should very precisely show the cool area.

The rest of and most of the day was spent implementing physics. I tried a couple of physics libraries designed for C#, I struggled with crashes, and license woes for a lot of them, but in the end I found Jitter. It was quite easy to get up and running too and the results are good so far. I now have collisions with the asteroids! Still didnt get the death mechanic in, only just got the physics working a few minutes ago!