Hello! Sorry for no news from us for a long time. The game is not abandoned but in active development, as usual. We just reconsidering a lot of core features, game design elements and going to solve all of these issues which should be solved long time ago.

The biggest changes will be related to base building aspect and attempts to make learning curve much smoother.

We like base building, especially if base is moveable, because mobile base is cool.
So when we started development of Celestial Command we planned that at some point of gameplay, the player will be able to build huge ship which will act like mobile base, but this feature still not implemented and we are going to solve that with the next update.



Previously we had the next plan:

1. You start with simple small ships
   
2. You should build own space station within first hours of the gameplay
   
3. Somewhere after 10 hours of gameplay you will be able to build a capital ship and continue journey using it as a mobile base.

But turned out that such approach has a few problems:

1.
Construction of space station it is a complex task, it is not just a bunch of walls and door like in classic survival games. It is a large amount of different modules which should be built in specific combination and even positions.
When player starts the game first time he almost immediately encounter with such a complex task which is extremely unfriendly and should be changed. Also it just does not have sense because initial station always looks almost the same.

2.
Transition from station to moveable base is very unobvious. It is hard to understand when exactly it is possible or necessary and how gameplay will be changed. Also it means that previous station will be leaved behind or reconstructed? That sounds not too pleasant considering that station was a home for a long time.



So in order to solve these issues we decided to do the next thing:

• It will be unnecessary to build starting base manually, you will receive the base almost instantly within first hour of the game, and later you can upgrade or rebuild it as you wish.
  
• This will be not a station, but flagship, huge mobile base with its own role, so "build static space station phase" will be completely skipped and mobile base will be achieved much earlier, so new player will dive immediately into combat and mission tasks instead of complex attempts to build a station.

Let's think about, what is a "base" in survival game?

1. This is a place where you can store various items, so flagship will have large and cheap cargo storage
   
2. This is a place where located most "workbenches", so flagship will be the only place where production modules can be placed and used
   
3. This is just a protected place where you can go inside, close the "door" behind and be protected against dangerous environment outside, so we decided that flagship should be large enough to fit smaller ships inside its hangar bays. Another benefit from such approach - if you have several various ships of different design and colors, flagship itself will looks beautiful from outside view, since colorful small ships will be hidden inside its hangars.
   
4. Also the base is not a weapon itself, it should be protected. So it will be impossible to place weapons on the flagship at the beginning. However, at late game flagship can be upgraded and act not only like a carrier, but a battleship.

Also, since it will be not just a base, but mobile base, we want to implement another purpose for flagship - it will be the only way to travel on large distance, simply saying, warp drive can be installed only on flagship and it will move only a things which located inside its hangar bays.



Here is a simple analogy, flagship can be considered as large sail ship, locations in space - islands, smaller ships - individual characters. So characters is unable to move between islands without a sail ship.



All of these things should make an interesting difference between large flagship which acts like a mobile base and smaller frigates which purposes to perform combat, gathering and logistic operations.
We want to improve base building aspect long time ago and seems like this is exactly want we want to achieve.





Another aspect which will be heavy redesigned it is a crew system. Currently the system is quite overcomplicated, unobvious and sometimes tedious.

Micromanagement of different types of regular crew between different modules turned out an unnecessary feature, so instead, there will be only 1 type of regular crew, and it will be automatically distributed across entire ship.

The only purpose of crew system is to make ships "alive", and single type of regular crew will be enough to achieve that.



Instead of micromanagement of regular crew we want to focus on improvements in ships to ships combat aspect which is much more interesting and visually enjoyable.

Officers also will be redesigned. Currently there is an option to assign several officers to the same command module, but there is no point to assign "not a full stack of officers", so instead we decided to allow only one officer (captain) per ship, instead its skill tree will be much larger, so different captain may have different skills and specializations.

Each ship will be considered as single character, with its own portrait, name and specialization. Such approach should be especially good for co-op multiplayer.



We noticed an interesting thing - usually it is more fun to fight against enemies who are not similar to you. Who looks different and uses different tactics. That could be especially noticeable in various zombie games or similar games where you need to fight not against humans, but against some kind of creatures.

So, additionally to standard modular enemy ships, you also sometimes will encounter something very unusual.



But more details about that will be revealed later.



Since flagship with its warp drive will become the main method to travel between planets and systems, the role of warp gates will be changed.

Warp gates no longer provides a route trough entire galaxy, instead, it will provide transportation within the same system, it also will be a part of some missions where frigates (smaller ships) should perform some tasks in location where flagship can't arrive (because it can't fit inside a warp gate)




We plan to do that somewhere at January but not sure when exactly. We will keep you informed about progress and try to avoid such a long delays between news.

And also, Happy New Year! : )

Planets
• Added two locations on planet surface! At this moment it is available in sandbox and battle game modes
  
• Random weather effects
  
  
  Control
• Improved control keys for engines, now you can use Space \ C buttons to move your ship Up \ Down which is very comfortable. Shift + WASD or arrow keys can be used for pitch \ yaw \ roll if needed, but in most cases it is not necessary and the ship can be controlled only with (WASD \ QE \ Space \ C) buttons, nice and simple like in 2D, but now in 3D!
  
  
  
  
• Auto stabilize center of thrust with center of mass" button is greatly improved and now works properly in 3D, for engines in all 6 directions with any possible configuration! Now the ship can be almost perfectly balanced and it will move exactly in desired direction while it still fully physical and realistic! This feature also perfect for a ships with asymmetrical design.
  
  
  
  
• Now when you activate altitude stabilizer, it will set its current altitude as a target altitude
  
• Added anti gravitational drive which build in command modules and allows to keep ships in air, also it creates dust cloud when hovering above ground at low altitude
  
  
  
  
• If "roll and pitch stabilizer (RPS)" enabled, "torque stabilizer" will stabilize ship only along vertical axis and it no longer interrupts functionality of RPS
  
• Added new lines in control settings, less hotkeys is "hard coded" and now available to change in settings
  
  
  Battle mode
• In battle mode visibility no longer limited by range of radars
  
• Rockets no longer detonate if hit another rocket of the same faction
  
• Explosion of rockets no longer cause damage to ships of the same faction (simple way to avoid friendly fire)
  
  
  World
• Added possibility to create a world with custom planet size, maximum possible size is 20 times bigger than current planets. This feature designed only for sandbox mode, "for fun with physics" and not suitable for stable gameplay
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Size and mass of all planets now is the same which makes orbital physics more consistent and understandable
  
  
  Collisions
• Increased velocity threshold for collision damage from 40 to 100 (earlier even small collisions was too devastating)
  
• Now collision effects will be created even for collisions which does not cause damage
  
• Improved audio effect on collisions
  
  
  Miscellaneous
• Improved localization system which should be much more comfortable for translators
  
  
  Modules
• Starting ship a bit redesigned
  
• New engines now has proper visual effect
  
  
  
  
• New decorative module for starting ship design
  
• Regular engine now available in 3 different sizes
  
  

Control
• Fixed an issue when engines control keys didn't reacted if clicked quickly
  
• If left shift \ ctrl \ alt is used somewhere - its right variant can be used as well
  
• Removed useless hotkeys options from engines
  
• Grabber no longer has "2" hotkey by default which is not allowed for module hotkeys
  
• Engines now works properly on thrust less than 10% so torque stabilizer now works properly in orbital mode and "reduce thrust to 10%" button now works properly too
  
  
  Miscellaneous
• Flame effect of engines no longer casts shadow
  
• Fixed typo in main menu "Survival"
  
• Preview of solar panels no longer push a ship while moved
  
• Removed sound of engines at low thrust (when stabilizer enabled and activated an engines at 1% thrust)
  
• Custom interface scale no longer cause incorrect scale and position of window with info about modules
  
• Solar panels no longer works in the shadow of planet
  
• Large engines now has proper thrust value

Actually idea of that feature was quite unexpected even for us : )

We didn't thought about planet because it was impossible in 2D, but since the game going to be full 3D, we just thought "Hey, we want to add planets now! That is not too hard, but add so many new possibilities and makes visual so much better!"

And indeed, new possibilities is great!



So here is some frequently asked and potential questions about upcoming features and what we are planing to do with planets:


Not a seamless transition, it will be similar with jump to another system. The ships approach a planet and appears above planet surface in different location.

Yes, full day \ night cycle

Yes, including rain and snow

Yes

No, it is not possible. Each surface location it is quite small area on the planet with boundaries, similar with such areas in space.

Yes, there will be several more different landscapes and biomes

No, we want to design it as barren landscapes which looks more Sci-Fi place and also good for optimization. Also, it emphasize that planets is not suitable for camping with camp fire and such "Nature" stuff.

Each landscape is handmade but using a tool for procedural generation. It is technically possible to generate it procedurally but this process is too long for real time, but faster methods provides not the best result.


Yes, on teaser trailer you can see that ships falls on the ground during combat

At this moment, anti-gravitation drive which built-in command module. Everything not attached to command module will fall on the ground.
That is not a bad solution, because this is quite common concept in many Sci-Fi movies and games where huge ships keeps itself in the air without any visible engines below it.
However, most likely later we will add AI which will keep ship in air using 4 engines on the sides.

We will solve it with simple solution, there will be a special engines which consume much less fuel (maybe only energy) but works only on planets.

Yes, with proper animation.

We would like to implement wheels but turned out it is technically complex task, so no wheels at this moment, but probably we will implement that as soon as we will figure out how to do that.
However, most likely we will implement hover drive and mech legs, but not sure yet, additional research is required.

Requires some additional research but most likely yes. Probably even with submarines.

No, we don't want to implement that in Celestial Command, it is quite hard to implement properly and small size of region will restrict a freedom, also we just want to focus on large spaceships such as frigates cruisers, carriers which supposed to be massive, slow and epic, mostly located horizontally with possibility to change its altitude up and down. Wings for such ships just does not suit its concept.
However downward pointed engines will allow to build VTOL vehicles such as helicopters.
Also, when drones will be implemented, there will be "drones" which actually pre-made planes with wings which will be fast and agile, but its physics will be very simplified so basically no, there will not be aerodynamic flight model based on realistic wings.

No, the game should be only about building and control of vehicles. But layer it will be possible to deploy small ground vehicles from the landed ships in order to explore areas which is not accessible for large spaceship.

Yes, the same constructions as ships or stations can be located on the ground and it can be considered as a ground base. It should be physically stable, if not, we will implement a possibility to "lock" it on the ground.

Yes, but only limited amount from rare specific points to prevent balance issue and avoid "source of infinite resources"



First version of planets with some features planned to be released in “Preview” build within 1-2 weeks.

In this update we added brand new game mode, called "Battle", where you can easily set up fleets for oppose factions and observe an epic space combat.



Technically, it was already possible before via sandbox mode, but it was extremely inconvenient and required quite long manual world reloading to clean up a world after each battle. But in this mode everything should be nice and easy to use.



You may ask why we decided to implement another game mode instead of focusing on "survival" game mode?
There is several reasons:



1. Main feature of the game it is a ship building, but survival game mode restricts a creativity, so we want to create various mini game modes to use and test created ships in various situations.



2. Battle mode it is one of such environment where people can play with ships in combat situations without distraction on repairing after each battle and attempts to find a proper enemy fleet.



3. Survival mode it is a complex task. It is a well balanced collection of all game challenges in the single persistent world. So each "mini challenge \ game mode" it is actually a part of future survival game mode. In that way it is much easier to develop individual parts of the game instead of single big task.
When every game feature will be properly designed and tested in sandbox mode it will be easier to implement in the survival game mode in proper way.



Overall, we are very happy with such new concept, because earlier it was almost impossible to participate in large scale fleets battle, but now it is very easy to launch and play with different ship designs.
Also it is great for testing of various weapons, features and overall ship performance.



In the next update we plan to greatly expand such concept and implement more environments and challenges for created ships.












Improvements

• New "Battle" game mode which is great to test various ship designs against each other or just observe large scale epic battle
  
• GUI: Redesign of main menu in order to provide better interface for new game mode and other upcoming features
  
• GUI: Some new icons in various places of interface
  
• GUI: Now DPS value displayed for various weapons
  
• Changed default controls: Camera rotation = RMB, Camera pan = MMB or Space
  
• Cannons, lasers and rockets no longer cause damage to its own ship where it installed
  
• Improved smoke trail effect of rockets
  
• Added new model of rockets

Fixes

• Turret target prediction works again
  
• Nuclear reactors works again
  
• Fixed material of new engine
  
• "Hide interface" button now hides everything, including notifications
  
• Ship in edit mode no longer tries to keep designated altitude if this mode was enabled before
  
• GUI: Removed "J" and "W" symbols from various GUI in order to avoid confusion with real world values and keep interface simple to understand
  
• GUI: Fixed non-rounded "max flow" value for some power storages

Another update on the way to stable version 0.9.

In this update various aspects of the game was fixed and adapted for 3D physics and mostly the game should work well in 3D space now.
Also we added new weapons of various sizes which will be needed for upcoming combat update.

For the next preview update we will focus on combat aspect, more accurate balance for modules, AI and another improvements for large scale fleet battles.




Improvements

• Modules: Added a lot of new weapons and existed weapons is fixed and improved
  
  
• Modules: Shield generator now properly works in 3D and its functionality overall improved
  
  
• Modules: Triangle modules has new model and also now it can be properly attached to each other
  
• Modules: New radars of various sizes is redesigned and properly functional now
  
  
• Modules: Life support modules a bit redesigned
  
• Modules: Turret platforms a bit redesigned
  
• Modules: Parameters of all modules is rebalanced
  
• GUI: Redesigned "total inventory window", now it displays current and maximum volume of cargo hold, also icons no longer respawns each second and its values updated every frame instead of once per second
  
  
• GUI: Redesigned "specify transfer amount window"
  
• GUI: Range of new turrets now displayed as full circle without side borders
  
• Starting ship a bit redesigned with new radar
  
• Preview of weapons now has the same green color as standard modules
  
• Removed several rarely used hotkeys from default settings
  
• Added muzzle fire effect for rocket launchers
  
• Pistons and rotors now much more sturdy and keeps its state better during influence of external force

Fixes

• Engineering modules now properly construct modules in 3D space
  
• Radius of engineering modules now displayed properly when ship is inclined
  
• Salvaging of debris works again
  
• Multiplayer: Position of objects now synced in 3D
  
• O2 and H2 counters no longer inverted
  
• Rockets no longer spins during flight
  
• Guided rockets now properly works in 3D
  
  
• Static solar panels works again
  
• Check of line of sight for solar panels now works properly in 3D space
  
• Modules now can be properly connected to 2x1 adapters
  
• Module preview now much less likely will flicker while you are trying to place it
  
• Preview of large modules no longer appears too close to camera
  
• R F keys no longer moves preview module (it no longer necessary)
  
• Removed unused selection frames which can be found in game world
  
• Move tool in ship editor now works again (but only in 2D at this moment)
  
• Now when you hover cursor on mounting point in order to attach or detach it - it will be visible through the module
  
• Possibility to connect two parts in open space by clicking on mounting point now works again
  
• Altitude stabilizer now works only if a ship oriented horizontally
  
• Now weapons can be placed only on turrets of the same size tier
  
• Crew rename button works again
  
• Fixed "Energy consumption" instead of "Energy production" on module's interface
  
• Shields no longer ignore objects which was located inside its sphere during previous activation
  
• Power generators works again
  
• Magnetic docking now properly works in 3D
  
• Escape pods now properly works in 3D
  
• Shipyard parts and warp drives now has proper 3D colliders
  
  
  
• Autopilot and NPC movement now works again
  
• Now turrets will properly track target in 3D space
  
• Modules which works incorrectly when placed on rotor or piston no longer can be placed on it (rotor and piston designed only for decoration purposes and for fun with grabber)



That update took a bit more time than we expected initially but also this is probably a biggest update in the history.

Actually it is not completely ready yet but we decided to release it in preview branch because some aspects of the new update already more or less ready and the previous update was way too long ago.

Note, this is an early preview build which is provided to show upcoming features.
Many various features can be incomplete or broken.



At this moment we have large list of tasks in TO DO list regarding this preview build, so if you encountered a bug or incomplete feature, bug report is not required because most likely this is already in our TO DO list.

Later, when additional testing will be required we will make an announcement about that.
However feel free to discuss preview build in the Discord chat, there is a new channel "preview-version" for that.

In order to enable preview version, do the next steps in your Steam app:



More info and pictures in our previous posts:

https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/1595890716660832240
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/3727223146682132461
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/1690470748510608281
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/2082293429501557004
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/2082293429505943986
https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/announcements/detail/2202765987124786942


Large Improvements

• Full 3D physics! A lot of modules and functionalities is adapted in order to work in full 3D! Ship editor, engines, turrets, solar panels, orbits, interface, physics, almost every aspect of the game is reworked and improved!
  
• Ship editor: Brand new "ship building in isolated environment" feature which allows you to get unlimited ship building creativity in non-sandbox game mode, create a blueprint and project it on existing ship with automatic reconstruction with engineering modules or shipyard!
  
• Ship editor: New when you press X on module, this module will be marked as "for deconstruction" it will be deconstructed by any engineering module nearby
  
• Ship editor: Changed a way how engineering modules works, now you place blueprints instead of incomplete modules and engineering modules works on such blueprints nearby
  
• Ship editor: Added mirror (symmetry) mode which works for module placement and painting
  
• Ship editor: Destroyed modules create a blueprints on its position which makes repairing after combat super easy and comfortable
  
• Ship editor: Repairing of modules is much easier now because it requires only special repair kits instead of huge amount of different resources
  
• New modules: A lot of new weapons and modules for capital ships including capital-size hangar and functional gate
  
• New modules: Redesigned solar panels
  
• Docking ports now has "magnetic feature", it will automatically move the ship to position which required for docking when two docking ports is close to each other, as result docking of two ships now is much easier and comfortable
  
• Multiplayer: Huge improvements for multiplayer, many various bugs is fixed now
  
• Tractor beam now applies proper force to objects with different mass, objects with mass 1 and 1000 will be moved correctly with normal speed, instead of ultra slow or fast, also maximum range is increased and in result tractor beam no longer useless
  
• Combat: Now cannon's projectile can penetrate trough several objects if previous object has less HP than damage of this projectile and also damage to the next object will be reduced accordingly. This feature is important for game balance when large slow firing cannon shooting at a ship which consist of many small modules with low HP, so single module with 1 HP no longer able to stop a projectile which able to cause 100 damage
  
• World: Stars in galaxy now located more uniformly (fixed issue with large empty areas and stars which are too close to each other)
  
• World: Changed a way how network of warp gates is generated, now it is a highway which go through entire galaxy which gives you a way to explore and encounter more challenges
  
• UI: Entire user interface is greatly redesigned and improved in many various aspects
  
• UI: Build menu now have buttons for categories and modules sorted by name
  
• Greatly reworked energy shields, now it have new visual \ audio effects and new functionality. One energy shield per ship for better usability and visual effects. No overpowered damage on impact. Much more obvious and balanced recharging.
  
• Now if you will lost all ships a convenient window with "Load" and "Main menu" buttons will appears, instead of respawn window which was removed because it caused an issue with possibility to duplicate a lot of resources easily
  
• Modules which remains after NPC ships, no longer can be attached to your own ship (it only can be deconstructed for resources) because it caused major issue with game balance and also encouraged to assemble unpretty "Frankenstein's ships"
  
• AI: NPC ships now will retreat if lost its weapons
  
• AI: NPC ships now rotates its ship to the target much better
  
• AI: Enemy ships now moves randomly instead of sitting at the same position

Small improvements

• Ship editor: Holding Shift no longer required in order to place several modules one after another, this mode now enabled by default which should be more convenient because in most cases "shift mode" is required
  
• Ship editor: Now some large modules can be placed only on own space station or capital ship
  
• Ship editor: Now you can hold left mouse button and drag a cursor in order to place many modules by single move
  
• Ship editor: Now radius and direction of warp drive and shield displayed above its preview
  
• Ship editor: Now you can deconstruct \ delete all modules which selected with move tool
  
• Ship editor: Engineering modules in auto mode now will prefer a nearest tasks instead or random tasks within its radius
  
  
• UI: Main menu redesigned, now it is more clean and easier to use
  
• UI: Button in main menu and some in-game buttons now animated
  
• UI: Inventory icons now displays integer values instead of decimal and power storages display values in 15.6k format instead of 15627
  
• UI: Now when you click on window - this window will display on top of other windows
  
• UI: Now when you hover cursor on module in build menu - its info will be displayed on the right side instead of near cursor, which is more comfortable
  
• UI: Added button "sort by name" and "sort by time" to window with saved ships
  
• UI: Added button "open main menu" on the top-left corner of the screen
  
• UI: Value of current credits changed with smooth animation
  
• UI: In-game menu now have the same design as main menu
  
• UI: Total mass and inertia tensor of ship now displayed in more comfortable format
  
• UI: Crew window is a bit redesigned and now it is more convenient to use
  
• UI: Weapon groups now can be enabled with buttons "1-6" instead of combination "Shift + 1-6" which is much more convenient
  
• UI: Weapon direction indicator now displayed automatically once you enabled a manual mode and no longer requires to press separated button
  
• UI: Weapon direction indicator now have a bit more minimalistic design
  
• UI: Dialogue window with NPC stations is redesigned for better usability
  
  
• New starting ship
  
• Now you can see an info about ammo usage when hover cursor on weapon in build menu
  
• Now when you want to load ship from file, radius of "free space seeker" will be different according to ship size
  
• Now you can select an angle of newly loaded ship with A \ D buttons
  
• Radius of xenon collector in aero mode now much larger, in result it is more obvious to use
  
• Added options to invert mouse wheel and change its sensitivity
  
• Combat: Projectiles now have zero chance to bounce off targets which has low HP
  
• Combat: When shield colliding with module or another shield - another object no longer receive damage, as result shield no longer can't be used as overpowered ramming weapon
  
• Now crew of a ship is able consume food and oxygen from docked ships
  
• It is no longer possible to set a module hotkey which already used in global hotkeys list
  
• Camera now focused on center of mass instead of command module
  
• Rotation speed of planets and clouds now looks a bit better
  
• Added hotkey to show FPS counter

Fixes

• Fixed an issue with small jittering of modules at close zoom and also physics is a bit more accurate now
  
• Anti aliasing effect now works as intended
  
• Ship editor: Fixed a bug when sometimes new modules after placement appears not in the same position where was located its green preview object
  
• Ship editor: Fixed a bug when not all mounting points of modules were connected after it was moved with "Move Tool"
  
• Auto mode now properly works for engineering modules on shipyard
  
• Rockets no longer cause damage due collisions (only from its own explosion), as result rockets no longer so overpowered
  
• Removed outdated buttons in sandbox menu
  
• Turret based rocket launcher now has correct rate of fire
  
• NPC ships no longer tries to use escape pod launchers as a rocket weapon
  
• State of ship stabilizer now can be saved and loaded
  
• Hotkey for "Auto center of thrust" now works properly
  
• Calculation of path for ships no longer cause FPS spike
  
• Clicking on planet in aero mode no longer cause an error
  
• Sliders in control panel of shields now displays correct values when you click on several different shields
  
• Ships no longer invulnerable for beam weapon after its shield depleted
  
• In aerodynamic mode planets on map no longer moving on its orbit
  
• Weapon groups no longer can be switched during usage of some input field
  
• Light beams of shipyards no longer visible in space when out of range of radar

This is pretty important topic because some people started to worry that after switching to full 3D the game will lose its attractive simplicity of navigation.

And this is completely understandable, to be honest we were worried about this too. We had a theoretical plan how to keep control simple, but this plan wasn't tested on practice.

Turned out, nothing to worry about, the new system works amazingly well!

We developed two new types of stabilizers:

1. Roll and pitch stabilizer
It will automatically keep your ship in horizontal orientation



2. Altitude stabilizer
It will automatically keep your ship on specified altitude relative to zero plane

Both stabilizers activated by default and in most cases, you don't need to deactivate it.
While it active - you can control your ship using WASD QE buttons as before and the ship will move on horizontal plane like in 2D.



Also, you can change altitude using special buttons and a ship will keep specified altitude.



And also, you can disable these stabilizers and move in 3D space freely if you wish.
Shift + WASDQE controls ship's roll, pitch and vertical velocity.



Minimal complexity of ships also not too much increased, all what you need relative to previous 2D version, is just to add 8 additional maneuvering engines, 4 on top and 4 on bottom near each corner so a ship will use these engines in order to control its orientation.

Also center of thrust now can be displayed for all 6 directions which is useful in order to adjust all engines relative to center of mass.

Yes, yesterday's post was not a joke.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/CelestialCommand/partnerevents/view/2082293429501557003
Actually we planned to publish that announcement at March 31, but a bit more time was required so we delayed it on the next day, but turned out that the next day is April 1, so we decided it would be interesting to publish announcement today : )

Of course it would be too cruel if such announcement was an April joke, so it is not.
In the next update Celestial Command will be with full 3D physics and ship editor!

So, most systems already adapted for functionality in 3D but need to implement a few more systems before new version can be released in experimental build.

Also we are working on design of various modules and placement of mounting points to provide enough parts to create ships with various design.

Some modules remodeled and a bit redesigned because it should have proper dimensions on vertical axis too and also additional mounting points.
For example new corridors has more symmetrical profile and can be stacked to each other with different angles.



Fun fact, after we switched to 3D, we need less variations of basic shapes to achieve various ship designs. Only a few basic shapes is enough because now each module can be rotated on any direction which creates much more possibilities for construction.





Situation with turrets also became simpler, now it is just a simple flat looking platform which can be placed on any surface with different angles, so weapons can be placed on top, bottom or side part of the ship.



All weapons is adapted for 3D and now can be pointed up or down.



Also wreckage in 3D space looks quite epic.



To make salvaging process more convenient we will extend functionality of tractor beam so it will attract debris closer to robotic arms or drones will help with that task (because drones is possible now, but it will be added a bit later)

As we said in previous posts, ship building is the most important aspect of the game and for the next update we are trying to add many new parts in order to make ship building more diverse and open now possibilities for creativity.

Some time ago, when we already prepared large parts for capital ships and started to thing how to add even more freedom and creativity to the ship building, we thought it carefully and came out to the simple conclusion:

2D physics has more restrictions and disadvantages than advantages.
Full 3D physics will add extreme amount of freedom and creativity for ship building process.

People often asked us for a various 3D features such as:
• Possibility to place turrets on top of the ship like on real life battleships
• Hangar bays with drones
• Solar panels which placed horizontal and not blocked with the ship itself
• More "vertical" ship design instead of flat ships

We even created items in the FAQ to explain why these features can't be implemented (due various restrictions related to 2D physics):
https://trello.com/c/CUsCP7ut
https://trello.com/c/WB6s9LZF

But if we will make the game full 3D, these issues related to 2D physics will be no longer relevant and features listed above will be possible!
So we decided to do that!

Important to mention that the main advantage of 2D physics it is simplicity of control and navigation. You can fly your ship using only WASDQE buttons and no need to worry about 3-rd dimension. This is actually pretty important because navigation in 3D space could be complex and confusing.

However there is a solution which allows to keep that advantage even in full 3D.
Most objects still will be located on horizontal plane, such as asteroids, stations and other ships so you still will be able to control your ship using only WASDQE buttons.

Even if the ship is drifted a bit on vertical axis - we added a new special stabilizer which will automatically keep ship in horizontal plane.
But if you wish to leave horizontal plane, you no longer bound to it and you can do that.

Here is some examples of new 3D ships with new modules and weapons
Possibilities for ship building now is really amazing!







Indicators of altitude relative to standard zero plane



What about orbital mechanics, orbits now can be not only equatorial but inclined too



Customizable point light sources which also may act as flashing lights





Customizable spotlight sources



Changed the way how modules are placed, Now after placement it appears as transparent object which become active after engineering module will work on it for several seconds.
It should make construction process much more convenient.



If you lose part of your ship, blueprint for reconstruction will be automatically created so you can repair your ship easily on shipyard. This feature is extremely helpful for repairing after combat.



Also we want to say special thanks for everyone who supports us on Patreon! Without your help we would not have enough funds to develop such a large and long update.
Fortunately, with you help we can do it!

When it will be released? We are not sure yet, but after this blog post we will try to post progress reports more often.
Also, due large amount changes and possible bugs we will release it in experimental build first, but it will be available for everyone and no additional access will be required.
We will publish a news when it will be done.

Thanks!