Quick Update 2

Not a lot has happened in the last week. Mostly clean up and making the interface work a little smoother. I have been struggling with the combat system. It doesn't like to play nice, however it is continuing and I hope to have the basics working sometime soon.

As of right now we have:

• NPCs following targets.
• NPC’s are determining if a target is one they should attack. There are 3 zones. Depending on the players faction score the NPC might not attack. If the player is hated he/she will be attacked when they enter zone 3, if disliked then it won’t happen till zone 2 and neutral or above won’t happen unless the NPC is fired upon.
• NPCs are attacking but the damage is≈ not showing up on the components, shields, or armor as it should.
• Firing using different weapon types. Only kinetic damage has been added so far.
  • Lasers
  • Plasma bolts
  • Missiles
  These are basically working but the rounds are not being projected correctly. They are appearing correctly but they are usually pointed in the wrong direction.
• The “Server Not available” screen is now appearing if the client cannot contact the server.
• Client – Server version mismatch now shows when the client is too far out of date.
• Loot coding are started.
  • When a NPC dies it will drop 1-3 components from the ship.
  • Every NPC ship is geared out the same as player ships so you can see any of the 7 components :
    • Armour
    • Engines
    • Power generators
    • Shield Generators
    • Ship Hull
    • Weapons
    • Capacitors
  • The Components will retain their damage (except for the hulls as stated above) and will be fully repairable at a space station.

Back to work!

Sriro / Richard M.

Quick Update

It has been a while since I posted anything, so I am going to start fresh like I did with the game client. Not a lot has changed in the way that I want the game to work, and a lot of the earlier (2013) setup is what I am using. Not the code, just the plans. The video engine is much better. I am using the DarkRift network system which is making my life a lot easier and thus speeding up how much code I am getting done in my limited evening time. The graphics in the game I am buying so don’t knock them too much it is all I can afford unless you want to buy/make them for me (insert smile face here). Everything else I am doing myself. The game is a long way from complete but I am getting slowly. I am putting at least 30 hours a week into the game.

I have created to-do lists that mark the end of each milestone for the game. These lists will be growing over time as I discover things that I have missed. Hopefully not too much. The milestones are pretty generic but I will list them so that you at least have an idea of how far I have gotten. By breaking it down into stages and items, it makes the project seem a little less daunting.

• Alpha 0. 84 Items to complete. Of those 68 are complete or almost 81%. These are mostly the biggest parts like the combat system, merchant system, chat system and the list goes on.
• Alpha 1. 28 Items to complete. This stage includes parts like guilds, guild chat, additional ships and the fast travel system.
• Alpha 2. This is the last Alpha stage. There are only 13 items at this stage but some of them are rather large like the auction house (we need to come up with a better name for it maybe a competition once the bulletin board is up) and micro transaction system.
• Beta 1. Final closed test. 21 items to take care of here. Items include PVP zone, stress testing and of course the “Alien” race.
• Beta 2. Open to everyone. Only 6 items here but they are big ones, like better graphics. The ships I am using now are low quality and are meant to be place holders for the ones that I will need to contract out for.
• Release. Once everything is buttoned up from Beta 2 I will be releasing the game.

I am hopeful that I will get in to Steam’s “Green Light” program. For that I will need a video and pretty stuff for people to look at. It will come hopefully during Alpha 1 or 2. As I am sure that you all are aware (you’re here aren’t you) the web site is also going through major changes. A friend is creating it for me. Once the forum is up be sure to tell him how great it all looks. During all of these stages I will need testers. Be sure to sign up for it on the account page (as soon as it is up). However in the meantime, register. That way you will have a better chance of making it in to the testers list. Please be aware that there is a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) in place until the game gets to Beta 2. It’s part of the process to become a tester. You will also notice that during each phase the testers will be required to perform a certain number of tests per week. Each test should be at least an hour. For Alpha 1 it is 1 test per week, for Alpha 2 it is 2 per week. They are not unreasonable. Testers will also be required to have a github account for logging bugs. Again you will be asked for it during the tester signup.

And finally a quick list of the “Stuff That Is Working”

• Player movement. It is a fly-by-mouse system (I hope to support joysticks).
• Combat system is 80plus percent done. Players can shoot and destroy enemies. Enemies will track you down if you agro them, or you can flee and they will return to their spawn location.
• Basic HUD is in place as you can see from the screen shots that are posted.
• Merchant system is fully working even if there are only 200 or so items. Buying from and selling to a merchant is available on the public space station.
• The universe has changed from multiple 30k cubes to a single cube that is 1.7x10 to the power of 308. So they are just a little larger.
• All space objects are dynamic so just before release you will notice that the celestial objects will start moving.
• A million other little things that I am forgetting right now.

Going forward I will try to put up an update every week. If you want to chat with me, most nights I am on Jolly’s ventrilo and also in GameVox in the Bringers of the Dawn channel.

Cheers,

Sriro / Richard M.