This few days we worked on various routine stuff, such as save\load for crew, GUI tweeks etc. This update turned out too long, time to finish it as soon as possible.

There is new Ion Engine for picture


Meanwhile, there is a couple of thoughts that we want to say:

1. We should to try to do less new features in one update, but make it more often, otherwise the update turns out too long and boring to waiting for it, besides those pictures and GIF animations probably tease you, especially if new feature is already done, but still not uploaded.

2. We suddenly discovered that in our game lacks the very important thing which should be implemented in most games. AI (Artificial Intelligence). If we analyse the game then we can conclude that most of the games is a competition with the computer or a live opponent. It means that the AI and\or multiplayer is a crucial features for most games.

So, when we will finish with this update, the next update will be focused only on AI and a various tools to play with it. Hope it will make gameplay a much more fun, because so far the game is quite boring without it.

The multiplayer also will be improved, but later, as we discussed earlier, will be better to do more "gameplay" first, so multiplayer will be more fun in cooperatiev with friends.

There is new Ion Engine for picture


This few days we worked on various routine stuff, such as save\load for crew, GUI tweeks etc. This update turned out too long, time to finish it as soon as possible.



Meanwhile, there is a couple of thoughts that we want to say:

1. We should to try to do less new features in one update, but make it more often, otherwise the update turns out too long and boring to waiting for it, besides those pictures and GIF animations probably tease you, especially if new feature is already done, but still not uploaded.

2. We suddenly discovered that in our game lacks the very important thing which should be implemented in most games. AI (Artificial Intelligence). If we analyse the game then we can conclude that most of the games is a competition with the computer or a live opponent. It means that the AI and\or multiplayer is a crucial features for most games.

So, when we will finish with this update, the next update will be focused only on AI and a various tools to play with it. Hope it will make gameplay a much more fun, because so far the game is quite boring without it.

The multiplayer also will be improved, but later, as we discussed earlier, will be better to do more "gameplay" first, so multiplayer will be more fun in cooperatiev with friends.

Hello! After long time without news we have some (I believe) good news. These two weeks we worked on a little bit of everything. Mostly over things that have the most likes on trello page, the crew, their needs, experiences, AI, and orbital mechanics.

Actually we made a small mistake. we're worked on a crew, but at some point we became not satisfied that the planets move in perfectly circular orbits and we decided to fix it. However, it was harder and took longer than we expected. Eventually we spent almost a week on various improvements and refactoring of code of orbital mechanics. Unfortunately the new system does not bring much new right now, but it will be much easier to do it in the future.

The orbits of planets now is slightly elliptical, that is more realistic and there is prototype of orbital planner.



The shield now have an adjustable radius of protection field. The more radius - the more energy consumption. It is calculated as area of sphere so energy consumption rising not linear. Simply saying, large station requires a lot more energy to maintain the shield than small ship.
Radius can be changed only on reactivation and reactivation requires some time.
Also shield can be expanded and used to protect other things around. Everything which was located inside the shield when it was activated - no longer affect on it (able to fly in\out).



The shield operator now gains the experience for each point of received damage. The more experience it have, the less energy consumption and less damage receiving.


Shield skill increased (Yes, there is mistake in word "Engineer", already fixed)

Hello! After long time without news we have some (I believe) good news. These two weeks we worked on a little bit of everything. Mostly over things that have the most likes on trello page, the crew, their needs, experiences, AI, and orbital mechanics.

Actually we made a small mistake. we're worked on a crew, but at some point we became not satisfied that the planets move in perfectly circular orbits and we decided to fix it. However, it was harder and took longer than we expected. Eventually we spent almost a week on various improvements and refactoring of code of orbital mechanics. Unfortunately the new system does not bring much new right now, but it will be much easier to do it in the future.

The orbits of planets now is slightly elliptical, that is more realistic and there is prototype of orbital planner.



The shield now have an adjustable radius of protection field. The more radius - the more energy consumption. It is calculated as area of sphere so energy consumption rising not linear. Simply saying, large station requires a lot more energy to maintain the shield than small ship.
Radius can be changed only on reactivation and reactivation requires some time.
Also shield can be expanded and used to protect other things around. Everything which was located inside the shield when it was activated - no longer affect on it (able to fly in\out).



The shield operator now gains the experience for each point of received damage. The more experience it have, the less energy consumption and less damage receiving.


Shield skill increased (Yes, there is mistake in word "Engineer", already fixed)

Just a quick post about shield generator.



It will consume energy each seconds when is active and additional amount of energy on each impact. The radius of shield may be slightly changed in the setting of shield generator and the amount of consumed energy depends on the radius.



Also we like that the shield is invisible when is active and become visible only on impact.

Just a quick post about shield generator.


It will consume energy each seconds when is active and additional amount of energy on each impact. The radius of shield may be slightly changed in the setting of shield generator and the amount of consumed energy depends on the radius.



Also we like that the shield is invisible when is active and become visible only on impact.

Thanks for your suggestion in previous post when we discussed the plan of development. as we understand, the priority is next: New Features -> Gameplay -> Multiplayer. So, lets do this. Fortunately, multiplayer is pretty functional, we just need to implement some kind of lag compensation, but we will make it little bit later. For now we decided to implement several new features and after that, missions and finally gameplay.

So, we started a new big update which will add new features, but this time decided to share the progress so you know how things are going.

The main feature of this update will be the crew! And it will looks like something like this.



Someone may be disappointed, you probably expected that each module will have a visible interior and visible little humans inside. But we decided to make the crew as the icons above modules.

The game is quite technically complex, and visible interior inside the ships is quite a difficult task, besides, the player likely will be focused on events outside the ship, so the interior will have not enough attention.

Now the concept is slightly different, earlier, the player controls a ship, now we want the player controls the crew, and the crew controls the ship.

For example a player may have several crew members, they belong to him, but they can be located inside the ship which belongs to another player.

Actually the ships are no longer have a owner, it is just a ship. The ships can be controlled by players whose crew member takes the pilot's seat. At the same time, crew of another player may occupy turrets and two players will control different systems of the same ship. We think it's cool. :)



Crew members require food, water and resting in the special modules. Also it will have skills which will increase with the time. Skills will be very important (not just a +5% to evasion). There will be pilot, engineer, miner, gunner, medic, trooper, radar operator, shield operator and maybe something else. Also ships should have life support module which is defines the maximum amount of crew on the ship.

Also we want to implement escape pods. The life of each crew member should have high value. Later we plan to implement missions where you should save the crew of NPC and other players.



Also we added polar grid, which can be turned on\off and will help to feel a movement thoruh the space



Start to add ion engines



Discription and tips for modules in build menu

And also we removed "New Ship" button, now you can build second Command Module on your active ship, assign a pilot, disconnect it and it will acts as a new ship!

Of course there still a lot of work with a crew before an update, but we think it should not take too much time.
If you like such kind of posts, we will publish something else along the development progress.

upd:
About ship boarding, what we are thinking, crew members will have skill "close combat", when two crew members of opposite factions located in the same module. They will slowly attack each other and causing amount of damage which is depends on the skill.

However, this system has some problems, like the fact that the modules have a limited number of slots, and if all slots are occupied, then the attacker will not be able to enter it. Maybe we'll figure out something later.

Thanks for your suggestion in previous post when we discussed the plan of development. as we understand, the priority is next: New Features -> Gameplay -> Multiplayer. So, lets do this. Fortunately, multiplayer is pretty functional, we just need to implement some kind of lag compensation, but we will make it little bit later. For now we decided to implement several new features and after that, missions and finally gameplay.

So, we started a new big update which will add new features, but this time decided to share the progress so you know how things are going.

The main feature of this update will be the crew! And it will looks like something like this.



Someone may be disappointed, you probably expected that each module will have a visible interior and visible little humans inside. But we decided to make the crew as the icons above modules.

The game is quite technically complex, and visible interior inside the ships is quite a difficult task, besides, the player likely will be focused on events outside the ship, so the interior will have not enough attention.

Now the concept is slightly different, earlier, the player controls a ship, now we want the player controls the crew, and the crew controls the ship.

For example a player may have several crew members, they belong to him, but they can be located inside the ship which belongs to another player.

Actually the ships are no longer have a owner, it is just a ship. The ships can be controlled by players whose crew member takes the pilot's seat. At the same time, crew of another player may occupy turrets and two players will control different systems of the same ship. We think it's cool. :)



Crew members require food, water and resting in the special modules. Also it will have skills which will increase with the time. Skills will be very important (not just a +5% to evasion). There will be pilot, engineer, miner, gunner, medic, trooper, radar operator, shield operator and maybe something else. Also ships should have life support module which is defines the maximum amount of crew on the ship.

Also we want to implement escape pods. The life of each crew member should have high value. Later we plan to implement missions where you should save the crew of NPC and other players.



Also we added polar grid, which can be turned on\off and will help to feel a movement thoruh the space



Start to add ion engines



Discription and tips for modules in build menu

And also we removed "New Ship" button, now you can build second Command Module on your active ship, assign a pilot, disconnect it and it will acts as a new ship!

Of course there still a lot of work with a crew before an update, but we think it should not take too much time.
If you like such kind of posts, we will publish something else along the development progress.

upd:
About ship boarding, what we are thinking, crew members will have skill "close combat", when two crew members of opposite factions located in the same module. They will slowly attack each other and causing amount of damage which is depends on the skill.

However, this system has some problems, like the fact that the modules have a limited number of slots, and if all slots are occupied, then the attacker will not be able to enter it. Maybe we'll figure out something later.

So, we are not sure about what to do in next update, and we want to ask you about it.

We have three main direction:

1. Procedural generated missions and challenges. (Not a pre-made storyline). This is also including any kind of "gameplay goals" for example, gathering resources and selling it on NPC stations or something like that.

2. New features and new modules. First of all this is a crew, then new modules such as shield, torpedoes and various fun things to play with it in sandbox.

3. Multiplayer. Turned out that multiplayer is no longer playable due very uncomfortable lags, so it requires massive improvements and bugfixes.

So what do you want to get first?
You can describe your opinion here, or just vote for one of three variants by clicking "Like" at our Trello page.

So, we are not sure about what to do in next update, and we want to ask you about it.

We have three main direction:

1. Procedural generated missions and challenges. (Not a pre-made storyline). This is also including any kind of "gameplay goals" for example, gathering resources and selling it on NPC stations or something like that.

2. New features and new modules. First of all this is a crew, then new modules such as shield, torpedoes and various fun things to play with it in sandbox.

3. Multiplayer. Turned out that multiplayer is no longer playable due very uncomfortable lags, so it requires massive improvements and bugfixes.

So what do you want to get first?
You can describe your opinion here, or just vote for one of three variants by clicking "Like" at our Trello page.