Hello!



If you have been following the development process for a long time you would know that despite the game already 3 years in development, we are still ready to make big and fundamental improvements if it will be necessary for the quality of the game. This happened with 3D graphics and another core features.
And now we are going to make another big change in the gameplay.

Some time ago we started to feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Celestial Command. And after we analyzed several another space games, we realized a simple fact:

Almost every space game have any kind of "global map" or "galaxy map" and possibility to travel from one system to another! (Actually we didn't found any successful, space game without this feature)
And this is something which also should be in Celestial Command.



Any open world game should have something which may be called "diversity of environment". For example, if we are talking about not a space game, for example a game about character / car / sail ship / plane etc. - such game may have only single location ("jump gates" is not required) because diversity of environment created by different biomes and landscape (snow, grasslands, mountains, oceans, desert etc.). As result, you may travel between different locations and it will be fun to explore the world.

But if we are talking about space game, there is no landscape in the space, because space, you know, quite empty. Diversity of environment should be created by different types of stars, planets, nebula, backgrounds, black holes.
Such things can't be put into single planetary system (because one planetary system may have only one background and a star).
The single planetary system in space game will feels empty despite its actual size.
This is why galaxy map is required and it is essential aspect of most space games.



On the image in this post you may see a prototype of galaxy map which contains 200 stars.

How it will work? There will be galaxy map to travel between stars and also "system map" to travel between star, planets, moons and some locations in asteroid field or deep space.

In exchange, size of location will be reduced and each location will have only 1 central object (planet \ moon \ star). However, size of planets will be increased in several times. Movement between planets will be possible only using warp drives and jump gates.
Despite the fact that size of location will be reduced, entire game world will feels much larger due the possibility to jump between systems.

New types of stars will be added. Including binary stars and blackholes. Plus, a lot of new backgrounds will be added. Each planetary system may have its own background, which will significantly increase a visual diversity.



Don't worry, it still will be here. Asteroids, debris, space stations and ships will be on orbit of central object (star, planet, moon). By the way. Moons will be added.
However you will not be able to travel between planets using only engines and orbital maneuver. It will be possible only using jump drive or jump gate.
Someone can be upset about this fact, but make note that currently "interplanetary maneuver" looks very weird due tiny size of the system and do not bring too much fun for the gameplay.

So we think that it is acceptable price for a possibility to explore the galaxy. The most fun part of orbital mechanics in CC, it is an objects around planets and this aspect will be intact (or even better) because planets will be a bit bigger. Besides that, it will allows us to fix some critical bugs with physics and improve overall performance.

Also it will be possible to rotate planets and moons around their central object. As result, price of jump between planets may depends on distance between them.

By the way, we are also started to working on implementation of tech tree and more advanced AI which is also two essential features which should be in the Celestial Command, but firstly we will implement a galaxy map.
We will try to implement this new feature as soon as possible, it should take not too much time. We will keep you informed.

And Happy New Year!

Hello!



If you have been following the development process for a long time you would know that despite the game already 3 years in development, we are still ready to make big and fundamental improvements if it will be necessary for the quality of the game. This happened with 3D graphics and another core features.
And now we are going to make another big change in the gameplay.

Some time ago we started to feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Celestial Command. And after we analyzed several another space games, we realized a simple fact:

Almost every space game have any kind of "global map" or "galaxy map" and possibility to travel from one system to another! (Actually we didn't found any successful, space game without this feature)
And this is something which also should be in Celestial Command.



Any open world game should have something which may be called "diversity of environment". For example, if we are talking about not a space game, for example a game about character / car / sail ship / plane etc. - such game may have only single location ("jump gates" is not required) because diversity of environment created by different biomes and landscape (snow, grasslands, mountains, oceans, desert etc.). As result, you may travel between different locations and it will be fun to explore the world.

But if we are talking about space game, there is no landscape in the space, because space, you know, quite empty. Diversity of environment should be created by different types of stars, planets, nebula, backgrounds, black holes.
Such things can't be put into single planetary system (because one planetary system may have only one background and a star).
The single planetary system in space game will feels empty despite its actual size.
This is why galaxy map is required and it is essential aspect of most space games.



On the image in this post you may see a prototype of galaxy map which contains 200 stars.

How it will work? There will be galaxy map to travel between stars and also "system map" to travel between star, planets, moons and some locations in asteroid field or deep space.

In exchange, size of location will be reduced and each location will have only 1 central object (planet \ moon \ star). However, size of planets will be increased in several times. Movement between planets will be possible only using warp drives and jump gates.
Despite the fact that size of location will be reduced, entire game world will feels much larger due the possibility to jump between systems.

New types of stars will be added. Including binary stars and blackholes. Plus, a lot of new backgrounds will be added. Each planetary system may have its own background, which will significantly increase a visual diversity.



Don't worry, it still will be here. Asteroids, debris, space stations and ships will be on orbit of central object (star, planet, moon). By the way. Moons will be added.
However you will not be able to travel between planets using only engines and orbital maneuver. It will be possible only using jump drive or jump gate.
Someone can be upset about this fact, but make note that currently "interplanetary maneuver" looks very weird due tiny size of the system and do not bring too much fun for the gameplay.

So we think that it is acceptable price for a possibility to explore the galaxy. The most fun part of orbital mechanics in CC, it is an objects around planets and this aspect will be intact (or even better) because planets will be a bit bigger. Besides that, it will allows us to fix some critical bugs with physics and improve overall performance.

Also it will be possible to rotate planets and moons around their central object. As result, price of jump between planets may depends on distance between them.

By the way, we are also started to working on implementation of tech tree and more advanced AI which is also two essential features which should be in the Celestial Command, but firstly we will implement a galaxy map.
We will try to implement this new feature as soon as possible, it should take not too much time. We will keep you informed.

And Happy New Year!

Hello!

For a long time, resource connectors had some fundamental flaws. Power connectors is not intuitive and hard to use. People said us a lot about this and we are thinking about how to improve it.
So now we decided to completely redesign this system.

Resources connectors for fuel and building materials still intact, but power system is completely changed.

Now power systems works more like a real electricity. Almost all electrical devices was redesigned, so most of them can work even if you have not enough power, but efficiency also will be reduced.

Also, it is no longer necessary to have power storage on the ship. Electrical devices now can take energy right from the power sources.

All power consumers can be turned on / off in order to control power level.



Power storages now have limited speed of charge / discharge.



Also we added nice graph which displays energy consumption and production.



Rendering of radius circle of radar is greatly improved. If you have many ships with radars and no longer will looks like a bunch or chaotic circles.





Also you can disable radar circles, markers and HP bars



Improvements

• Completely new power system with much better functionality, usability and performance
  
• Power monitor is fixed and improved. Added a graph which represents power production and consumption levels
  
• Turrets now requires power in order to rotate
  
• Added possibility to turn on \ off any electrical module from the power net
  
• Most devices which consumes power now have different mechanics. They can work at insufficient level of power with lower efficiency.
  
• Changed mechanics of energy shield. Now it have different recharge rate based on power level
  
• Radar may work with insufficient power supply, but it will provide lower radius
  
• Lasers now have different effectivity based on power level
  
  
• Circles which represents radar range now combined with each other and no longer displays inner segments which greatly improves usability and comfort of radars
  
• Space stations now have holiday appearance
  
• Added possibility to switch on / off displaying of various GUI elements, such as: HP bars, radar markers, radar range
  
• Magenta icons of radar no longer will appears over your own ships (these icons is useless for own ships)
  
• Space stations and big ships will no longer became invisible as soon as at least one of their module exited your radar range. They will became invisible when they center of mass exited radar range

Fixes

• Fixed a bug with invisible ship inside a range of your radar which appears in some cases after you built a new module
  
• Button "Duplicate ship" removed from sandbox menu because it caused a lot of bugs with the new ship. Instead of that, in order to duplicate a ship, you should use save load menu which is much more reliable.
  
• Center of Mass and Center of Thrust icons no longer remains visible after active ship is destroyed
  
• Now you can move the camera by middle mouse button after active ship is destroyed
  
• On off state of mining laser now correctly saved and loaded
  
• Power monitor now shows correct values

Hello!

For a long time, resource connectors had some fundamental flaws. Power connectors is not intuitive and hard to use. People said us a lot about this and we are thinking about how to improve it.
So now we decided to completely redesign this system.

Resources connectors for fuel and building materials still intact, but power system is completely changed.

Now power systems works more like a real electricity. Almost all electrical devices was redesigned, so most of them can work even if you have not enough power, but efficiency also will be reduced.

Also, it is no longer necessary to have power storage on the ship. Electrical devices now can take energy right from the power sources.

All power consumers can be turned on / off in order to control power level.



Power storages now have limited speed of charge / discharge.



Also we added nice graph which displays energy consumption and production.



Rendering of radius circle of radar is greatly improved. If you have many ships with radars and no longer will looks like a bunch or chaotic circles.





Also you can disable radar circles, markers and HP bars



Improvements

• Completely new power system with much better functionality, usability and performance
  
• Power monitor is fixed and improved. Added a graph which represents power production and consumption levels
  
• Turrets now requires power in order to rotate
  
• Added possibility to turn on \ off any electrical module from the power net
  
• Most devices which consumes power now have different mechanics. They can work at insufficient level of power with lower efficiency.
  
• Changed mechanics of energy shield. Now it have different recharge rate based on power level
  
• Radar may work with insufficient power supply, but it will provide lower radius
  
• Lasers now have different effectivity based on power level
  
  
• Circles which represents radar range now combined with each other and no longer displays inner segments which greatly improves usability and comfort of radars
  
• Space stations now have holiday appearance
  
• Added possibility to switch on / off displaying of various GUI elements, such as: HP bars, radar markers, radar range
  
• Magenta icons of radar no longer will appears over your own ships (these icons is useless for own ships)
  
• Space stations and big ships will no longer became invisible as soon as at least one of their module exited your radar range. They will became invisible when they center of mass exited radar range

Fixes

• Fixed a bug with invisible ship inside a range of your radar which appears in some cases after you built a new module
  
• Button "Duplicate ship" removed from sandbox menu because it caused a lot of bugs with the new ship. Instead of that, in order to duplicate a ship, you should use save load menu which is much more reliable.
  
• Center of Mass and Center of Thrust icons no longer remains visible after active ship is destroyed
  
• Now you can move the camera by middle mouse button after active ship is destroyed
  
• On off state of mining laser now correctly saved and loaded
  
• Power monitor now shows correct values

Just a quick update with some important fixes.

Besides that, Autumn sale launched today! Celestial Command now 20% off during sale.


Improvements

• List of random planets for background of main menu a bit changed
  
• Now in Chinese, Japanese and Korean localizations, symbols should have correct, bigger size (let us know if it is still unreadable somewhere) (Known issue: After you selected a language, you need to restart the game in order to apply correct size of symbols)

Fixes

• Fixed an impossibility to change a language
  
• Fixed an "Error" text instead of name of Engineering module Mk2
  
• Fixed "Button" text instead of resolution menu in game options
  
• Fixed a bug when actual build radius of shipyard is smaller than visible radius of yellow circle

Just a quick update with some important fixes.

Besides that, Autumn sale launched today! Celestial Command now 20% off during sale.

Improvements

• List of random planets for background of main menu a bit changed
  
• Now in Chinese, Japanese and Korean localizations, symbols should have correct, bigger size (let us know if it is still unreadable somewhere) (Known issue: After you selected a language, you need to restart the game in order to apply correct size of symbols)

Fixes

• Fixed an impossibility to change a language
  
• Fixed an "Error" text instead of name of Engineering module Mk2
  
• Fixed "Button" text instead of resolution menu in game options
  
• Fixed a bug when actual build radius of shipyard is smaller than visible radius of yellow circle

Greetings!



It is already 3 years since the first version of Celestial Command was released in Steam!
Many interesting things was added during the year.

When we started a development, we planned to finish the game much earlier, but since it is our first project and the project is technically very complex and unusual, this will take more time than we expected.

We are always learning, finding new methods and technologies, implementing the best one.
We are continuing to develop the project and listen a community, your reports and suggestions is really helpful and allows us to achieve such results! Thanks you!





In this post we explained our thoughts about engineering modules and realistic robotic arms.
But current engineering module is too small and also looks not exactly as we want.
So we added a new module which is much more functional and looks better.






New main menu. Now each time when you start the game, you will see a beautiful planet (picked randomly)




A small bonus for those who would like to check out how the game looked 3 years ago. We added a possibility to launch the most first version of Celestial Command released in Steam.

In order to do that, open properties of Celestial Command, Beta tab and select "old version".

If you are interested, check this out. We was surprised how much the game changed during 3 years!

Links on previous posts
2 years of development
1 year of development



Improvements

• Added new engineering module with larger range of reach
  
• Added new starting ship which have center of mass in the geometric center of the ship, so it will flight straightforward when your press W and will not require additional setup with engines
  
• Added new background of the main menu (previous one caused a bug with save load in orbital mode)
  
• Improved glow effect for star
  *] GUI of Warp drive destination point is a bit improved
  
• Radius of shipyard increased from 30 to 40 in order to allow to construct a ship when you docked to the docking port
  
• Default construction ship in sandbox mode now have new engineering module
  
  Audio
  
• Added random pitch deviation for explosion sound in order to diverse sound effect of mass ship explosions
  
• Added new audio effect for heavy cannon (now it really sounds like a heavy cannon)
  
• Changed sound of module and rocket explosion to more low frequency audio effect
  
  AI
  
• AI torrents (of pirates) no longer attacks invulnerable NPC stations
  
• AI turrets no longer opens fire before turret will be aligned with the target
  
• AI turrets no longer stop fire when targeted not in the exact center of a target
  
• If a ship have several rocket launchers, it will fire with 0.5 second interval (not simultaneously)
  
  Rockets
  
• Torpedoes now have 2 seconds arm time, so they will not explode near your own ship
  
• Changed sound of rocket starting engine
  
• Disabled particle collisions for smoke trail of rockets, that improves performance and removed
• incorrect rendering of trail
  
• Rockets now have less powerful engine and no longer so overpowered
  
• Improved explosion visual effect of rockets
  
• Engine visual effects of rocket now have smaller size
  
• You no longer can target rockets into your own ships

Fixes

• Fixed an impossibility to load a game (orbital mode) from the in-game menu
  
• Fixed a situation with invisible ships in range of your radar
  
• Fixed "trail of sparks" of laser impact visual effect
  
• Now you can set destination for warp drive in aerodynamic mode as intended
  
• Now you can focus camera on the star
  
• NPC stations now can be selected even outside of radar range
  
• Now you can select module objective of mission even if it is outside of radar range
  
• Camera sensitivity no longer depends on FPS or game speed

Greetings!



It is already 3 years since the first version of Celestial Command was released in Steam!
Many interesting things was added during the year.

When we started a development, we planned to finish the game much earlier, but since it is our first project and the project is technically very complex and unusual, this will take more time than we expected.

We are always learning, finding new methods and technologies, implementing the best one.
We are continuing to develop the project and listen a community, your reports and suggestions is really helpful and allows us to achieve such results! Thanks you!





In this post we explained our thoughts about engineering modules and realistic robotic arms.
But current engineering module is too small and also looks not exactly as we want.
So we added a new module which is much more functional and looks better.






New main menu. Now each time when you start the game, you will see a beautiful planet (picked randomly)




A small bonus for those who would like to check out how the game looked 3 years ago. We added a possibility to launch the most first version of Celestial Command released in Steam.

In order to do that, open properties of Celestial Command, Beta tab and select "old version".

If you are interested, check this out. We was surprised how much the game changed during 3 years!

Links on previous posts
2 years of development
1 year of development



Improvements

• Added new engineering module with larger range of reach
  
• Added new starting ship which have center of mass in the geometric center of the ship, so it will flight straightforward when your press W and will not require additional setup with engines
  
• Added new background of the main menu (previous one caused a bug with save load in orbital mode)
  
• Improved glow effect for star
  *] GUI of Warp drive destination point is a bit improved
  
• Radius of shipyard increased from 30 to 40 in order to allow to construct a ship when you docked to the docking port
  
• Default construction ship in sandbox mode now have new engineering module
  
  Audio
  
• Added random pitch deviation for explosion sound in order to diverse sound effect of mass ship explosions
  
• Added new audio effect for heavy cannon (now it really sounds like a heavy cannon)
  
• Changed sound of module and rocket explosion to more low frequency audio effect
  
  AI
  
• AI torrents (of pirates) no longer attacks invulnerable NPC stations
  
• AI turrets no longer opens fire before turret will be aligned with the target
  
• AI turrets no longer stop fire when targeted not in the exact center of a target
  
• If a ship have several rocket launchers, it will fire with 0.5 second interval (not simultaneously)
  
  Rockets
  
• Torpedoes now have 2 seconds arm time, so they will not explode near your own ship
  
• Changed sound of rocket starting engine
  
• Disabled particle collisions for smoke trail of rockets, that improves performance and removed
• incorrect rendering of trail
  
• Rockets now have less powerful engine and no longer so overpowered
  
• Improved explosion visual effect of rockets
  
• Engine visual effects of rocket now have smaller size
  
• You no longer can target rockets into your own ships

Fixes

• Fixed an impossibility to load a game (orbital mode) from the in-game menu
  
• Fixed a situation with invisible ships in range of your radar
  
• Fixed "trail of sparks" of laser impact visual effect
  
• Now you can set destination for warp drive in aerodynamic mode as intended
  
• Now you can focus camera on the star
  
• NPC stations now can be selected even outside of radar range
  
• Now you can select module objective of mission even if it is outside of radar range
  
• Camera sensitivity no longer depends on FPS or game speed

In this update we fixed some important bugs with radar, so a ships no longer will suddenly disappear right in range of your radar.

Besides that, stability of multiplayer now should be a bit better.

New options for world generator:


Maybe size of the changelog is not very impressive, most time was spent on analysis of magic bugs with a radars and improvements of core, and now this important feature should work as intended.

We will try to add more interesting features in the next updates.

Oh, and by the way! Celestial Command is 20% off until 1 November.



Improvements

• World: Added 4 new options for "generate world" window (amount of small asteroids, big asteroids, presence of pirates and NPC stations). It can be used to create a world with less amount of objects or almost an empty world in order to increase a performance
  
• Network: When new client connecting to multiplayer game, the game will be paused and other users will see correspondent message (this should solve a various desync problems)
  
• Network: Added notification on client side, when client lost connection to the server
  
• Network: Added possibility to set server password (and now this feature works correctly)
  
• GUI: Yellow circles in tutorial now have the same animation speed on any game speed

Fixes

• Fixed broken tutorial (it was accidentally broken at previous update)
  
• Fixed important bug when some ships became invisible even inside a range of your radars
  
• Invisible modules, debris and asteroids no longer can be highlighter or selected by cursor
  
• Invisible engines no longer have visible visual effect and audio effect
  
• When someone built a module to its invisible ship (which outside of range of your radar) the new module also will be invisible

In this update we fixed some important bugs with radar, so a ships no longer will suddenly disappear right in range of your radar.

Besides that, stability of multiplayer now should be a bit better.

New options for world generator:


Maybe size of the changelog is not very impressive, most time was spent on analysis of magic bugs with a radars and improvements of core, and now this important feature should work as intended.

We will try to add more interesting features in the next updates.

Oh, and by the way! Celestial Command is 20% off until 1 November.



Improvements

• World: Added 4 new options for "generate world" window (amount of small asteroids, big asteroids, presence of pirates and NPC stations). It can be used to create a world with less amount of objects or almost an empty world in order to increase a performance
  
• Network: When new client connecting to multiplayer game, the game will be paused and other users will see correspondent message (this should solve a various desync problems)
  
• Network: Added notification on client side, when client lost connection to the server
  
• Network: Added possibility to set server password (and now this feature works correctly)
  
• GUI: Yellow circles in tutorial now have the same animation speed on any game speed

Fixes

• Fixed broken tutorial (it was accidentally broken at previous update)
  
• Fixed important bug when some ships became invisible even inside a range of your radars
  
• Invisible modules, debris and asteroids no longer can be highlighter or selected by cursor
  
• Invisible engines no longer have visible visual effect and audio effect
  
• When someone built a module to its invisible ship (which outside of range of your radar) the new module also will be invisible