Hello for everyone!

You had no news from us for a long time, but we have a reason for it, paperwork took some time, it is almost completed (we will inform you when it will be done). Also implementation of AI broke multiplayer and save\load, so we made a lot of efforts to resolve those features together.

Seems like this is slowest period during development of Celestial Command, but we always learn new things, achieved new experience and now the development should be even better! :)

Of course, many things in the game is far from perfection, but with the help of yours suggestions, bug reports and support we are seek to it! :)



Our plan was to make multiplayer completely finished, fully polished and stable, but this task turned out pretty complex. We managed to return the multiplayer functionality back, but it still have bugs, and lags may cause some inconvenience for connected players.

We will gradually improve multiplayer during the development progress, so it will be better and better. But the most important, we will keep it in working condition and we will not disable it again, when some new feature, will conflict with the multiplayer. Instead, we will adapt this feature for multiplayer from the beginning.

After long time you are probably waiting from us big updates, but unfortunately this update doesn't bring too many new things. Mainly the update fixes the multiplayer, AI for multiplayer and some improvements. And also experimental auto pilot!

We have a great desire to make you happy with this update by adding some amazing things, but you waited long time and we cannot no longer without update (it brings us enthusiasm), so we prepared for you this update.



But soon we will make a really big update!
From this point, we are starting working on 0.7, which will bring completely new 3D graphics.
Don't worry, the performance will be good and the gameplay will remains intact.

You may thinking that graphics is irrelevant, or the game may lose its 2D charm, but don't worry, we can assure you that you will be impressed.

Besides, during the development of new graphics we will showing you intermediate result and asking for your opinions.

Thanks for you patient!



Improvements

• Many various improvements and bug fixes which makes multiplayer work again (including AI and sandbox tools).
  
• Added experimental "Auto pilot" feature, it is available from sandbox menu.
  
• The window of the game can be resized to any custom resolution by mouse.
  
• Interface of options is slightly changed.

Fixes

• Shield saves its parameters between game sessions and working correct in multiplayer.
  
• Turrets is adapted for multiplayer. Rotation is synchronized between players and projectiles launched in correct direction.
  
• When game loaded, the camera focused on the ship by default.
  
• Deconstruction of module in sandbox mode now is working in multiplayer.
  
• NPC stations keeps his command "Keep circular orbit" even after game saved and loaded.
  
• Fixed ability to respawn in single in multiplier (however, in some rare cases the problem still exists, will be fixed later)
  
• All list of buttons in "sandbox tools" window is adapted for multiplayer (such as refuel, recharge, ship duplication, AI)
  
• Client no longer able to save game (only server can do it).
  
• Behavior of AI is adapted for multiplayer. Players can duplicate his ship, activate AI and it will follow the owner (or attack, if AI faction assigned to Enemy), even in multiplayer.
  
• Fixed "Status of trajectory" when the ship orbiting the star from "Escaping" to "Stable".

Hello for everyone!

You had no news from us for a long time, but we have a reason for it, paperwork took some time, it is almost completed (we will inform you when it will be done). Also implementation of AI broke multiplayer and save\load, so we made a lot of efforts to resolve those features together.

Seems like this is slowest period during development of Celestial Command, but we always learn new things, achieved new experience and now the development should be even better! :)

Of course, many things in the game is far from perfection, but with the help of yours suggestions, bug reports and support we are seek to it! :)



Our plan was to make multiplayer completely finished, fully polished and stable, but this task turned out pretty complex. We managed to return the multiplayer functionality back, but it still have bugs, and lags may cause some inconvenience for connected players.

We will gradually improve multiplayer during the development progress, so it will be better and better. But the most important, we will keep it in working condition and we will not disable it again, when some new feature, will conflict with the multiplayer. Instead, we will adapt this feature for multiplayer from the beginning.

After long time you are probably waiting from us big updates, but unfortunately this update doesn't bring too many new things. Mainly the update fixes the multiplayer, AI for multiplayer and some improvements. And also experimental auto pilot!

We have a great desire to make you happy with this update by adding some amazing things, but you waited long time and we cannot no longer without update (it brings us enthusiasm), so we prepared for you this update.



But soon we will make a really big update!
From this point, we are starting working on 0.7, which will bring completely new 3D graphics.
Don't worry, the performance will be good and the gameplay will remains intact.

You may thinking that graphics is irrelevant, or the game may lose its 2D charm, but don't worry, we can assure you that you will be impressed.

Besides, during the development of new graphics we will showing you intermediate result and asking for your opinions.

Thanks for you patient!



Improvements

• Many various improvements and bug fixes which makes multiplayer work again (including AI and sandbox tools).
  
• Added experimental "Auto pilot" feature, it is available from sandbox menu.
  
• The window of the game can be resized to any custom resolution by mouse.
  
• Interface of options is slightly changed.

Fixes

• Shield saves its parameters between game sessions and working correct in multiplayer.
  
• Turrets is adapted for multiplayer. Rotation is synchronized between players and projectiles launched in correct direction.
  
• When game loaded, the camera focused on the ship by default.
  
• Deconstruction of module in sandbox mode now is working in multiplayer.
  
• NPC stations keeps his command "Keep circular orbit" even after game saved and loaded.
  
• Fixed ability to respawn in single in multiplier (however, in some rare cases the problem still exists, will be fixed later)
  
• All list of buttons in "sandbox tools" window is adapted for multiplayer (such as refuel, recharge, ship duplication, AI)
  
• Client no longer able to save game (only server can do it).
  
• Behavior of AI is adapted for multiplayer. Players can duplicate his ship, activate AI and it will follow the owner (or attack, if AI faction assigned to Enemy), even in multiplayer.
  
• Fixed "Status of trajectory" when the ship orbiting the star from "Escaping" to "Stable".

It's been a year since we released Celestial Command in Steam Store, and we want to summarize this year.
Since this is our first project, it was easy to make a mistake with the timing, so our prediction to complete the game before summer 2015 turned out incorrect.

However, the game, which was started as "simple shooter on the mobile phone" turned into full scale, serious game with amazing community and we can proud with that.

Early screenshots of the first version of the game for Android devices:






But at some point we are realized that we can't develop just another one "submarines in space", so we had two options.
Actually develop the game about submarines, redesign modules, add some underwater effects.
Or make the space more realistic.

It was hard to design beautiful underwater world in 2d graphics, so we tried to implement orbital mechanics and the result turned out incredible!

Later we realized that thanks to the Steam Greenlight, the PC is not unreachable. And actually PC is much more serious than mobile platform, so we decided to move away from the casual game and start to develop Celestial Command.

Lets look at the deference from the earlier versions.

Menu

Old


New


Editor

Old


New


GUI

Old


New


As you see. A lot of thing was changed. A lot of things still will be changed in future, and the most amazing things still to come.

Thanks you for your suggestions, bug reports and support. Without that we would have lost the most important resource which is sometimes very lacking - enthusiasm.

Yay! :)

It's been a year since we released Celestial Command in Steam Store, and we want to summarize this year.
Since this is our first project, it was easy to make a mistake with the timing, so our prediction to complete the game before summer 2015 turned out incorrect.

However, the game, which was started as "simple shooter on the mobile phone" turned into full scale, serious game with amazing community and we can proud with that.

Early screenshots of the first version of the game for Android devices:






But at some point we are realized that we can't develop just another one "submarines in space", so we had two options.
Actually develop the game about submarines, redesign modules, add some underwater effects.
Or make the space more realistic.

It was hard to design beautiful underwater world in 2d graphics, so we tried to implement orbital mechanics and the result turned out incredible!

Later we realized that thanks to the Steam Greenlight, the PC is not unreachable. And actually PC is much more serious than mobile platform, so we decided to move away from the casual game and start to develop Celestial Command.

Lets look at the deference from the earlier versions.

Menu

Old


New


Editor

Old


New


GUI

Old


New


As you see. A lot of thing was changed. A lot of things still will be changed in future, and the most amazing things still to come.

Thanks you for your suggestions, bug reports and support. Without that we would have lost the most important resource which is sometimes very lacking - enthusiasm.

Yay! :)

Negative result - also a result.

As you know, development of the Celestial Command is not restricted to the solid plan. It is not only stable routine coding, but also experiments and researching of new methods and tools. And as in any research, sometimes turned out that wrong direction was chosen. But even negative result allow to make one step back and choose more correct direction.

We spent 3 week to learn and research a new network tools which was provided in Unity 5.1 supposed to be much better than the current one, but turned out that it is still not fully completed and have some important flaws which didn't allows us to use it for the game.

This 3 weeks was not completely useless, this experience will be helpful later, when we will use this system. However at this moment, unfortunately it didn't bring any new things in the Celestial Command.

We apologies for everyone who waited for multiplayer in 2 weeks (it was 3 weeks ago) but we need more time. We returned back to the previous backup version and will continue from here. We will continue to work on the current network system. And actually it is good, because turned out that recreation of the network code using new tools requires more efforts than completion of the current network code. Especially considering the fact that we already have quite large experience with the current network system.

Also we want to notify you that now we are in business trip related to our company so the next update will be after this week.

But In order to try to compensate this unpleasant pause in updates, we made little update which we managed to do before the trip. We have great to-do list for various improvements and everything is going well we just need a time to implement all these plans.

Thanks for your understanding and support! :)



Improvements

• Added auto save. Interval of the auto save can be adjusted in game options. Now it should helps in case of bug with physics. However it is still incomplete and makes only one auto save file (not several), we will improve it slightly later.

Fixes

• Prefix of H2 and O2 connectors of fuel generator changed from "input" to "output".
  
• Warp trajectory no longer displayed for detached warp drive.
  
• Now an interface of warp drive displayed with the correct width.

Negative result - also a result.

As you know, development of the Celestial Command is not restricted to the solid plan. It is not only stable routine coding, but also experiments and researching of new methods and tools. And as in any research, sometimes turned out that wrong direction was chosen. But even negative result allow to make one step back and choose more correct direction.

We spent 3 week to learn and research a new network tools which was provided in Unity 5.1 supposed to be much better than the current one, but turned out that it is still not fully completed and have some important flaws which didn't allows us to use it for the game.

This 3 weeks was not completely useless, this experience will be helpful later, when we will use this system. However at this moment, unfortunately it didn't bring any new things in the Celestial Command.

We apologies for everyone who waited for multiplayer in 2 weeks (it was 3 weeks ago) but we need more time. We returned back to the previous backup version and will continue from here. We will continue to work on the current network system. And actually it is good, because turned out that recreation of the network code using new tools requires more efforts than completion of the current network code. Especially considering the fact that we already have quite large experience with the current network system.

Also we want to notify you that now we are in business trip related to our company so the next update will be after this week.

But In order to try to compensate this unpleasant pause in updates, we made little update which we managed to do before the trip. We have great to-do list for various improvements and everything is going well we just need a time to implement all these plans.

Thanks for your understanding and support! :)



Improvements

• Added auto save. Interval of the auto save can be adjusted in game options. Now it should helps in case of bug with physics. However it is still incomplete and makes only one auto save file (not several), we will improve it slightly later.

Fixes

• Prefix of H2 and O2 connectors of fuel generator changed from "input" to "output".
  
• Warp trajectory no longer displayed for detached warp drive.
  
• Now an interface of warp drive displayed with the correct width.

Hello!

Here is one another little update.
And time to decide what to make for next big update. There is several amazing features in plans, and it is hard to chose one.

Earlier we plan to make a 3d graphic for version 0.7. But now we thinking: It is just a graphic, it is not so important until gameplay is not ready. If we understand right, gameplay is more important than a graphic, for most people.

Besides, there is still several critical flaws in core systems. First of all, it is multiplayer. It is broken during several last versions, so we decided to temporarily disable it until it will be fixed. (Yes, again, sorry about it).

But now it is a different.

The current version of Celestial Command uses Unity 5.0, but in version 5.1 developer of the Unity added completely new network system. We checked it some time ago, and it is amazing!

At the matter of fact, our current network implementation is not very good. It was a first experience which tooks 2 month. And now we are want to recreate it with new Unity network system. It should solve many previous problem and we wish to make it quality and stable. No unpleasant lags and new public servers.

We just can't deal with the fact that we wrote "Multiplayer" at Store page, but it Is actually broken. So now it is our primary goal.

In this time it should not take so long time. Probably a week, or two.
Anyway we still will upload some little updates with bugfixes and little improvements and keep you inform about progress.

And yes, we know that single player is far from perfection. But it working. And it is important to develop stable multiplayer before many others features. And any feature will be better with the multiplayer.

Thanks! :)


Improvements

• Added zoom in and zoom out buttons for those who don't have mouse scroll wheel. Hotkey can be designated in options. By default it is < and >
  
• Returned buttons to switch next \ previous ship. Hotkey can be designated in options.

Fixes

• Save \ Load for modules in sandbox now works correctly
  
• If your ship is docked to trade station and your docking port is destroyed - AI of the station doesn't breaks
  
• Icons of resources is slightly redesigned in order to correctly display values with 4 digits (for example 380.2)
  
• Fixed a bug when you can lose control on the ship after construction of new command module.
  
• Now, when you drag a resource from one container to another, and the first container was destroyed - the dragged icon will disappear (instead of freeze on the screen).

Hello!

Here is one another little update.
And time to decide what to make for next big update. There is several amazing features in plans, and it is hard to chose one.

Earlier we plan to make a 3d graphic for version 0.7. But now we thinking: It is just a graphic, it is not so important until gameplay is not ready. If we understand right, gameplay is more important than a graphic, for most people.

Besides, there is still several critical flaws in core systems. First of all, it is multiplayer. It is broken during several last versions, so we decided to temporarily disable it until it will be fixed. (Yes, again, sorry about it).

But now it is a different.

The current version of Celestial Command uses Unity 5.0, but in version 5.1 developer of the Unity added completely new network system. We checked it some time ago, and it is amazing!

At the matter of fact, our current network implementation is not very good. It was a first experience which tooks 2 month. And now we are want to recreate it with new Unity network system. It should solve many previous problem and we wish to make it quality and stable. No unpleasant lags and new public servers.

We just can't deal with the fact that we wrote "Multiplayer" at Store page, but it Is actually broken. So now it is our primary goal.

In this time it should not take so long time. Probably a week, or two.
Anyway we still will upload some little updates with bugfixes and little improvements and keep you inform about progress.

And yes, we know that single player is far from perfection. But it working. And it is important to develop stable multiplayer before many others features. And any feature will be better with the multiplayer.

Thanks! :)


Improvements

• Added zoom in and zoom out buttons for those who don't have mouse scroll wheel. Hotkey can be designated in options. By default it is < and >
  
• Returned buttons to switch next \ previous ship. Hotkey can be designated in options.

Fixes

• Save \ Load for modules in sandbox now works correctly
  
• If your ship is docked to trade station and your docking port is destroyed - AI of the station doesn't breaks
  
• Icons of resources is slightly redesigned in order to correctly display values with 4 digits (for example 380.2)
  
• Fixed a bug when you can lose control on the ship after construction of new command module.
  
• Now, when you drag a resource from one container to another, and the first container was destroyed - the dragged icon will disappear (instead of freeze on the screen).

Hello!
Just a quick update here with little improvements.



The next few updates we plan to fix critical bugs and make various improvements. And answer on all unread messages of course.


Improvements

• New icons of storages and resources. Actually these icons was in earlier versions, but we decided to slightly improve them and return back.

Fixes

• Copy of the ships which was docked or "grabbed" to another ship, no longer bound to previous object.
  
• Grabber work again.
  
• "Request for docking" buttons now appears again. Also it is slightly optimized (2% of performance)
  
• Reaction wheel can be toggled on \ off. (But still required improvements).

Hello!
Just a quick update here with little improvements.

The next few updates we plan to fix critical bugs and make various improvements. And answer on all unread messages of course.


Improvements

• New icons of storages and resources. Actually these icons was in earlier versions, but we decided to slightly improve them and return back.

Fixes

• Copy of the ships which was docked or "grabbed" to another ship, no longer bound to previous object.
  
• Grabber work again.
  
• "Request for docking" buttons now appears again. Also it is slightly optimized (2% of performance)
  
• Reaction wheel can be toggled on \ off. (But still required improvements).