Patch 0.9.4.2 - Engine upgrade, joystick fixes, and cloud-saves
Core
- Upgraded UE4 engine from 4.18.1 to 4.18.2
- Game-progress, key-bindings, and other saved data is now synced to the Steam-cloud
Input
- Joystick-axis values are now shown in real-time from the controls-menu (helps with mapping axes to the correct controls)
- Modifier keys (shift, alt, ctrl) are now allowed in key-bindings
Bugs
- Fixed issue with idle joystick-axis values reverting to -1 (causing uncontrollable spinning and other undesired behavior)
UI
- HUD is now automatically hidden when in-game menu is displayed (reduces visual clutter and increases menu readability)
Audio
- Reduced memory-footprint of larger audio-files (music, vocals)
- Tutorials no longer require all rings to be cleared (destroying large enemy vessel is enough)
Bugs
- Checking the joystick-bypass checkbox will now zero-out all internal joystick-axis values
Patch 0.9.4 - Unreal 4.18 upgrade, Vive support, and heavy optimization
Core
- Upgraded engine from UE 4.17 to 4.18
- Drastically reduced texture-memory usage by optimizing mip-maps
- HTC Vive should now work via the OSVR plugin (needs testing)
- Eliminated many unused materials and textures to lower required disk-space
- Joystick-input is now fed through the UE4 raw-input plugin
- Reduced all texture-pool sizes (varies with texture-quality setting)
- Lowered overall game-size by nearly 2GB (~50%)
Controls
- Angular drag is now customizable (very useful for joysticks and VR)
- Joystick-buttons are now customizable from any control-mapping field (shown as GenericUSBController Button)
- Up to 8 joystick-axes can now be mapped (must be manually set for now)
- Steam Controller plugin is now enabled
UI
- Improved visibility of menu-text
- Changed off-screen target-reticle to a simpler arrow-design
- Added angular-drag slider and joystick-axes fields to the controls-menu
Visuals
- Increased resolution of some skyboxes
- Reduced debris in frigate-explosions
Bugs
- Fixed issue with loading-screen hanging occassionally due to a race-condition
- Eliminated NULL-spawning attempts by injecting class-validity guards
- Removed excessive debug-logging from motion-controllers
Patch 0.9.3 - VR support, improved HUD, tighter controls, and much more
Gameplay
- All levels now playable in VR (tested with Oculus)
- Increased auto-thrust aggression to allow tighter turns
- Radio-messages can now be heard/seen as a spectator
- Spectator max-time increased from 10s to 20s
- Re-balanced several missions
- Missile-boats are now present in more OBA-missions
- Added a planet and more asteroids to Maki Transit mission
- Added territory-objectives to Menace mission
- Smoothed out auto-movement throttle (thrusters now operate more smoothly when braking)
AI
- AI will now abort rearming if an enemy-target is in range (and they are capable of attacking it)
- AI is now generally more accurate with their shots (especially interceptors)
- Smoothed out AI-targeting (less erratic movements)
UI
- Simplified mission-selection by placing all missions (including tutorials) into missions-menu
- Added VR-menu
- All menus are now 3D menus (for VR compatibility)
- Controls-menu is now accessible from the main-menu
- Gamepad and keyboard now control a mouse-cursor to navigate menus
- Developer console is now available for debugging
Graphics
- Optimized internal graphics-settings for VR
- Screen no longer darkens when using a lower post-process quality
- Reticles are now thinner and brighter
- Turret-reticles now scale with distance to reduce visual clutter
- Radio-beacons now have a pulsating-effect
- Health-bars in cockpit are now comprised of thinner bars
- Increased the size/readability of some cockpit-text
Bugs
- Fixed issue with control-mappings not being saved between game-sessions
- Fixed rare random freeze that occured while browsing menus
- Turret-hitboxes are now properly destroyed (were previously left floating in space)
- Fixed issue with Ishtar not detecting opponents in some missions
Core
- Reticles and objectives are now rendered in 3D-space instead of being drawn directly to the screen
- Optimized cockpit-rendering by reducing re-draws of several text-elements
- Moved cockpit-room out of level-bounds in all missions
- Projectiles no longer collide with the fighter or turret they were fired from
- Now using an up-to-date basescalability.ini
Patch 0.9.2 - Major graphics update, new conquest-style maps, and official Linux support
Graphics
- Created all new planets and moons
- Re-textured and created new materials for all asteroids
- Removed fog from all missions (much clearer skybox)
- Shadows are no longer entirely black
- Created all new explosion-debris with more visual variety
- Expanded skybox size by 625% (by volume) in all levels
Gameplay
- Added new conquest-style gameplay mode
- Expanded the boundaries of most levels
- Replaced "Boreas Recon" level with new conquest-style mission "Overreach"
- Changed format of mission "Dante Guerrillas" entirely
- Overhauled "Hammurabi Encounter" mission
- Raised topspeed for most fighters by 50%
- Rebalanced all projectile-damage
- Selecting nearest enemy now only selects damageable enemies
- Frigate doors now block debris, gibs, and LOS-checks
- Created new freighter and added to "Dante Guerrillas"
- Created new machine-gun turrets for new freighter
AI
- AI is now capable of prioritizing and taking territories
- AI now chooses weapons based on damage-threshold of target
- Turrets now have even targeting-priority (compared to fighters)
- AI is now more likely to gang up on targets
- Fixed issue with AI not obeying level-bounds
- Fixed issue with AI accelerating faster than its engine-limits (in some cases)
Audio
- Music now changes dynamically in most levels
- Playlists are now supported and used in most levels
- Lowered missile-turret muzzle-volume
UI
- Updated all mission-splashes to reflect major visual changes (in mission-menu)
- Implemented territory-markers with radial progress-bar
- Added territory-objectives to navball (lower left)
Bugs
- Turned off debris-shadows in some levels
- Fixed issue with lasers not registering kills/damage on turrets
- Windowed-setting is now properly saved
- Projectile-impacts are no longer attached to debris
Core
- Vehicles can now be invulnerable to some weapons and not to others
- Game-state is now kept in a proper game-state object
- Implemented beam super-weapons (not currently used)
- Asteroids now inherit static-props
Patch 0.9.1 - Improved Linux & SteamOS support, laser weapons, and many core changes
Gameplay
- OpenGL support for Linux and SteamOS
- Turrets can now be healed by medics
- Fighter-explosions now move in the direction of the destroyed fighter
- Colonists mission has fewer enemy EMPs
- EMPs can now be deflected with shields
- Reduced duration of EMP-effect
- Added playable laser-equipped fighters to oba-okada-minefield and oba-firefight missions
Visuals
- Brightened world-environment in all levels
- Fixed distorted cockpit-rendering in OpenGL
- Rendering in DirectX and OpenGL are now almost identical
- Target-icons are now thinner and rendered additively
- Cockpit-rendering should no longer be cropped on ultra widescreens
- Asteroid-fragment explosions are now attached to frigates that collide with them
- Removed black smoke-particles from fighter-explosions
- Reduced opacity of smoke-fingers in fighter-explosions
- Dead pilots are now visually culled at greater distances
Input
- Duplicate key-mappings for the same action are no longer allowed
- Added 3440x1440 resolution to graphics-menu
UI
- Resolution is now properly saved and loaded from graphics-menu
- Fixed menu-placement for ultra widescreens
- Mouse-input in menus are no longer captured outside of menu-buttons
Core
- Improved overall performance by turning off unnecessary cockpit scene-capture rendering
- Reduced number of concurrent post-process elements
- Created new menu-handling interface
- Decoupled impacts from vehicles
- Turned off framerate-capping and smoothing
- Decoupled GShields from spaceships
- Decoupled turrets from spaceships
- Decoupled thrusters from spaceships
- Created thruster-controller to handle thruster-collections
- Decoupled turret-wrecks from turrets
- Most actors are now spawned anonymously within a BP-component
- Actor-classes are now checked before actor-spawning
- Decoupled hangars from spaceships
Bugs
- Team-exclusion in GShield is now changed when spacecraft-team is changed
- Fixed duplicate key-mapping error
- Fixed missing 120mm-bullet impact
- Fixed 0-index access of level-time and level-victories from mission-menu
- Fixed divide-by-zero warning in oba-practice-level
- Fixed skills-warning in spaceship-spawner
- Fixed debris-padding warning in debris-field
- Fixed rank-warning in vehicle
- Fixed ping-warning produced from debris-culling
Patch 0.9.0 - Major engine upgrade and EMP missiles
Gameplay
- Added new EMP missile that temporarily shuts down fighters and turrets
- Created new Dominion-freighter variations
- Added Dominion-freighter activity to applicable levels
- Converted Menace mission to a campaign-mission
- Added some radio-dialog to Menace mission (sets up future mission)
- Converted Banshee Inspection mission to a standalone mission
- Increased pacing of Maki Transit mission
- Added Lancer-EMP and Lancer-Medic-EMP gunship variations
- Added Phantom-EMP fighter variation
- Fixed initial trajectories for playable fighters in most missions
Core
- Upgraded Unreal engine to 4.17.0 (from 4.8.3)
- Builds are no longer packaged in PAK files
- All objects are now visually culled at long-ranges
- Added concept of electrical-power to all ships (for EMP)
- Moved save-game logic to a game-instance object
- Decoupled many ojects from one another and removed some circular dependencies
- Increased use of interfaces to facilitate polymorphic object-interactions
Visuals
- Improved lighting and colors overall (due to engine upgrade)
- Rebalanced lighting in all levels
- Shadows are now softer
- Fixed some misplaced textures on OBA-outpost
- Regenerated and optimized all LODs for every mesh (help me)
- Added scanline-effect to HUD
- Created new hologram-material (more visual clarity)
- Added a space-particle effect to the player-view (helps with gauging speed and direction)
- Simplified atmospheric effect on planets
- Health-icons no longer shown over hangar-bays
- Regenerated the Ishtar dome-mesh to fix geometry-artifacts]
- Reduced frigate-explosion particles for optimization
UI
- Added gamma and brightness sliders to the Graphics menu
- Created a separate Audio menu
- Added a master-volume slider
- Moved camera-preference to Controls menu
- Redesigned Missions menu background
- Updated all mission-preview images
- Added a mission-loading screen
- First campaign-mission from each faction are no longer locked initially
Audio
- Lowered rail-impact volume
- Lowered volume of missile-swoosh sound (when homing-missile activates)
- Added SFX for electrical shutdowns and reboots
- Added SFX for EMP-explosions
Bugs
- Fixed intermittent background-flickering in some levels
- Fixed exaggerated streaks of light in some levels
- Fixed issue with AI sometimes following their dropship
- Fixed stats for Minesweeper mission being saved incorrectly
- Fixed issue with squad-level-waypoints not clearing when player takes control
New gameplay trailer on Steam and YouTube
I recently put out a new trailer with the latest gameplay footage. I may create another trailer that highlights the major features with on-screen text and include some video of the HUD. Thoughts?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn7iUPN458E
Patch 0.8.4.1 - Mission improvements, gamepad fix, and balancing
Gameplay
- Added outpost, more asteroids, and freighters to Boreas Recon mission
- Added several freighters and increased pacing in Hammurabi Encounter mission
- Changed dropship-pathways and increased pacing in Juno Waystation mission
- Missiles, flak, and mines now deal significantly more damage on direct hits (apparent when shooting turrets)
Input
- Gamepad-bypass now bypasses sticks in addition to buttons
UI
- Added grit to ASTROKILL logo
- Redesigned Doomsday Games logo
Audio
- Reduced radio-chatter in some missions
Core
- Converted "trackers" and "spotters" from Actors to Actor-Components (reduces overall Actor-count)
Patch 0.8.4 - Gamepad customization and gameplay balancing
Gameplay
- Missiles do more damage on direct-hits and less splash damage
- Projectile damage more balanced overall
- Colonists mission is more difficult
- Turret-explosions do more splash damage
- Tarkana is now destructible in Firefight mission
- Added new Beltor outposts to various missions
Input
- Gamepad is now fully customizable from the Controls menu
- Camera-view now toggles between 3 views
Visuals
- Improved some materials on the Hammurabi
AI
- Medics now favor healing friendlies over chasing out-of-range hostiles
Core
- Programmed customizable gamepad-support via XInput
- Redesigned light-beacon system to improve efficiency and randomness
