Hey Guys,

Just an quick update, I've still been progressing well on this and am getting a little excited at times with how it is looking if I do say so myself :) I've been working on the research system, including the GUI (still programmer graphics), some early resource and trade balancing. I still have to implement some of the research options so they actually effect the stat you researched, some are working as planned though.

I've also added a basic 'next unit' cycle, so when you finish moving something it will select and focus the next available ship to move. Adding this makes it start to feel much more like a game and less tech demo-y! It's amazing how even quite simple things to add make it feel so much more playable.

I plan to release another public build in the near future but I won't promise an ETA just yet as I'll probably just get distracted adding more and not meet it anyway ;) I could get back to updating the changelog on the blog but not sure if it was worth doing? Happy to hear any feedback or questions from anyone or if a few people would really like another build I could focus on that?

Token screenshot of the current research screen, mainly to show what you can do, not the awesome GUI I have in place...

Hi all, I had been holding off from a blog hoping to have a new demo release to go with it but time seems to be dragging on and I keep working on other things but not always fixing the base playability or stability just yet... oh well.

Overall I've added quite a bit since my last blog, including but not limited to: Missiles, post processing effects, turrets, sound effects, started research mechanics, module sizing, mixed planet population races, ship crew race, planet habitability (temp, gravity, atmosphere, etc)... so I've haven't been idle with it. I did quite a few fixes and performance increases too, though probably added a few things that need fixing in the mix there too :)


Here is a quick example of the post processing effect, this hasn't been tweaked at all for stars it looks way better but a bit strong on the ships a planets probably but cool to know what can happen at least

Here is what it looked like without:

Below is what some of the combat can look like now, certainly a lot better than what I start, might do a video later, as it looks better in motion:

And here is another example of missiles but also showing what I hope to do with research, though a lot prettier GUI of course! Basically you choose individual stats to research but each level has diminishing returns but is infinite though going too far wouldn't be worth it. Technically this way can't run out of things to research, also other stats for the same module still get a diminished return so you don't just automatically choose the first 5 level for each stat until it isn't worth the effort anymore you have to choose whats most useful and go for that first.

Each stat can have a different return so if damage would usually be the best thing to research you can decrease the value of research to make it more of a choice between other stats, Also you wouldn't have all stats available for research with each module but just the most useful ones for that module type, this is all just specified in the techs themselves (I don't want to have 10 choices and really you'd only even pick 3-4 of them)

This is still early stages, but to progress in the the tree itself for new module types, you can have prereqs and what level that prereq must be on, i.e. totally made up but say you want to the 'super mega blaster' you need to research 'mega blaster' MK X first (9 levels of any mega blaster stat) and also could have another prerequisite of "weapon theory" lvl 5 as well. After you have the Super mega blaster you can still continue to research 'mega blaster' if it is still in use and you want to improve it more.

This is all subject to change and testing\balancing of course but is what i'd like in it, would be great to add some tech randomization too but need to do it properly if at all so not planning that feature yet. I'd be happy to explain any more details I may have left out if anyone has questions?

Thanks,
Paul

Just noticed with the ship design changes I've put in that ships costs have gone up and caused an issues with corps not been able to afford to build the basic combat ships for you. I've created a quick fix to allow corps to actually build the ships you request, also added WASD + arrow key camera control as well. Just copy over the old .exe file


http://www.sendspace.com/file/xtlsv4

Hi All,

It's been quite awhile since an update so I thought I'd put up a new in-development version to download instead of trying to remember all the changes I've added since last version. this is very much a dev version without any polish, little testing and most features still incomplete if there are there at all, use at your own risk ;)

hopefully this will still give you an idea of what I am aiming for and a little bit of the feel of the game. Happy to hear any feedback or questions you may have with the current version and the design of it.

Enjoy!

http://www.sendspace.com/file/8zxp6g

Hi,

I've still been spending a decent amount of time continuing the game. Lately I've been working on ship and module damage and starting work on the effects associated with it (added turrets while I was at it!). I'm got a short clip showing the early test of taking damage and the effects applied to the ships (super early version, very basic explosions for now)  

Still have a bug that I am still trying to find the cause that you might notice near the end of that. Otherwise I'm slowly getting the details in that I've been planning. Still have the basic shaders and effect for the ships but this is just for testing, it's still a 4X game and you never zoom in that close to the ships.

I plan to work a bit more on the ship design screen and interior views then add another ship size with equivalent weapons for it then should be able to release another public test to get some feedback!

Any feedback or queries welcome :)
Thanks, 

Hi All,

Just a quick update, I've been expanding on the ship designer at the moment, I have placeholder meshes for loading for internal modules (which will also have collision meshing for weapons that penetrate through the armor\hull when hit). These load with a mesh based collision footprint (doesn't have to just be a square, any mesh shape with work) for positioning and overlapping checks. 

Loading, saving and modifying designs is in and all working now, I think next I'm going to start work on the internal damage simulation so you can see internal damage and even weapons pass right through if they have high penetration stats and the ship is already damaged, etc.

Below is an in-game early screenshot (plenty will change still I'm sure) the render window. I also plan to be able leave it open (resize it if you wish) to show current combat and weapons as selected ship takes hits during combat if you want.

Once I get the internal combat damage showing and working I might release another public test release if anyone wants to test it out. I have plenty of graphic improvements I know how to do and will do sometime soon, like shadows, lightning, normal mapping, glow, HDR, real ship internals, real module models, etc 

I would be glad to hear any suggestions\feedback?

FYI, I'm off to Hong Kong for 2 weeks for holidays so don't expect to see any updates here but I will have a few days after to play with this before I'm back to work :)

I've been working a bit on the GUI preview details, this will show details about the grid your mouse is hovering over while you have a ship selected. It will show details such as the default order if you right click, how much cap you should have once you arrive if moving, what damage you can deal and chance to hit percent of each weapon, this takes into account cap once you arrive and stats of your ships and the hostile ones as shown in the early GUI below:

The other current progress has been on ship design, I've decided to go full module layout\design with an internal grid. Below is the start of it which mainly has been getting preview windows working that render available hulls and rotate when mouse over. Grid positioning has been setup too which is loaded from an image to represent available grids. I will add background textures to make it a little more like a control window but it isn't going to take up fullscreen because I really want all GUI screens to still allow access to the main window (albeit a smaller space on the side or something) incase you want to check something in game when you're deciding on ship design options.

The grid will be rendered with a textured model of the ship internals, plus sides to tie it in better (looks like the ingame ship with the roof off). Probably won't render green but this is just for testing at the moment, I'll also have fixed grid positions for certain ship types to represent specialized ships that need to be designed around their specialization. For example colony ships need a colony ship hull because much of the systems are integrated into the hull. From a gameplay point of view this is mainly so I don't have to penalize or add some other stats to stop players using colony ships for combat because they have more internal space (easier to balance from my point of view).

This is just the current plans for modular design and specialized equipment and will be optional for user created mods if desired.

As always would be glad to hear any feedback or questions you have.

Thanks,