Let's throw down everything going on with Bullet Hell ADANCED and the ongoing Unreal Engine 5 upgrade.
Everything now compiles. The .EXE is stable and launches. Boom. We're in business. Unfortunately so many features are being added that the Unreal Engine 5 update will not be available till later this year. What we have in the pipeline for you: Solar System Mode When you're not engaged in combat at the fleet level, you'll play a turn based movement game where the minimap is an entire solar system. Heavily inspired by the Mass Effect map and the works of Robotech/Battlestar Gallactica/The Expanse/Ender's Game: Is a moon between you and another planet's long range line-of-sight fleet detection satellite with linked orbital heavy-laz-cannons? Is there a fleet behind an adjacent moon you're about to move to? Should you use scarce fuel resources to fold space to anywhere in the same solar system or use engines or silent gravitational assists? Your fleet and the enemy fleets can all receive a "Prepared", "Neutral", or "Unprepared" status when entering fleet combat based upon how everything plays out here. Being of a Prepared status lets your fleet reposition/rotate before combat and also fire anti-capital-ship weapons at round start, have all your allied AI Fighters and Frigates already deployed, FTL spun up and possibly more gameplay buffs!
New Areas of Operation Feature Three Areas of Operation are now featured to separate ship to ship combat specializations.
Mothership AO: The Mothership is now seen at the bottom of the gameplay area. Civilian/Colonist/Unarmed Escorts also reside here. Only Motherships can fire at other Motherships. Escorts can't be attacked. A player's entire fleet combat escort must be destroyed for the Mothership & Unarmed Escorts to come up to the fleet level and be exposed to normal weapon fire.
Fleet AO: Your Fleet Battleships/Destroyers/Carriers/etc reside on this level. Fleet to Fleet combat happens at this level. The Player's Superiority Fighter and the Enemy's Superiority Fighter's (max 3 per side) may also fight on this level. Extremely dangerous for Superiority Fighters to fight on this level as they can get hit by powerful anti-capital-ship weaponry. Land Mechs may attach to friendly capital-ships and boost firepower.
Fighter AO This level takes place high above the fleet. Fleet is slightly blurred out and a hex grid becomes visible. Special HUD option available to make all enemies on level exceptionally visible. AI Fighters, Bombers, Drones, Frigates and Superiority Fighter's may play at this level. If one side loses 80% of units here, the AI's will attack the fleet from above. ONLY short ranged chainguns, anti-fighter missiles and flak cannons may fire from the fleet into this level. All units that can play at this level may respawn from the fleet Carrier/Mothership they spawned from, save for a time delay penalty. Destroy the parent ship and the deployed AI Fighter/Bomber/Drone/Frigate will not respawn.
MULTIPLAYER
4-Player ad-hoc multiplayer gameplay is going to be our goal, but has no official ETA. Gameplay will consist of Player 1 in control of "Fleet Command" and 3 players in control of individual Superiority Fighters. This will be the true ruleset of the game whereas the single player game will have a significantly easier difficulty to makeup for multi-tasking Fleet Command and one Superiority Fighter.
Exodite Colony Simulator
Lots of thought has gone into the possibility of a lite population simulator to represent all military personnel, workers, colonists and refugees that live on the Mothership, her fleet and protected civilian vessels. The loss of a civilian science ship with food production capability should be felt as much as the loss of a heavy cruiser. Training new refugees into scientists/engineers/military personnel takes time. Keeping veterans alive becomes wise. Repelling ship boarders becomes important. Every turn is measured by population and resources.
All in all, Bullet Hell ADVANCED is moving forward. As much as there are things not rendering at certain distances, gameplay trial and error, AI suddenly not working, all errors are eventually being fixed while we create new errors from new features ;) Next update will still be this "Mid-Game" level gameplay, then we'll head back to level 1 and flush out the entire tech tree from beginning to end. Tech debt is being kept to a minimal. The gameplay is being held as the core. The graphics are are still the afterthought.
' What happens after the core features are in place? ' When the game is fun and the gameplay loop is to a point of my liking, we will start a Patreon, look for Kickstarter-esque funding and keep the Steam cost priced low. I think truly successful games are fun because they are fun and don't need exuberant price tags ;) I have an entire style-guide already in place for a 3D Artist if money is ever made. And an entire story if a team is ever assembled. As for now, it's happily funded personally by the solo programmer, for our enjoyment.
Lastly, thank you for everyone posting feedback on these forums and stopping by the Discord! You rock! https://discord.com/invite/WNCAPrwfAS I look forward to showing you new milestones. Happy Everything -Artificer Cascadia Development
Fleet Formations Enabled! 5/6/2022 Patch Notes
Fleet Formation has been programmed. When a system has been clear of hostiles, you can enter the Command Fleet Mode (default key 'M') then press the Fleet Formation button in the bottom left corner of the screen. This will enable you to change the formation of your fleet as you see fit. This feature is a prerequisite to the upcoming Shipyard systems, which will enable the player to purchase new ships for their fleet. It will also give players an edge on battles in which the fleet gains initiative.
Initiative will be important for all encounters, and will be determined by the procedurally generated events the player fleet encounters, as well as soon to come systems that the player will be upgraded. Upgrading sensors, engines and recruiting more powerful psykers as crew members will increase the chances of the player gaining favorable intiative.
Initiative, after stats are calculated will go to one of three different types:
Ambush - The fleet has been ambushed! The enemy fleet attacks IMMEDIATELY. The player fleet must wait 10 seconds before it can return fire. Equal Engagement - Both fleets are surprised by each other, and both will open fire in 10 seconds. Favorable Battle - The player fleet takes initiative and fire IMMEDIATELY! The Enemy fleet must wait 10 seconds before returning firing and launching fighters.
More to come! -Artificer Cascadia
Hotfix update 5/4/22
5/4/2022 hotfix notes:
Fixed the lighting in the Main Menu. The Main Menu now includes a link to the Discord. Fire Mission action (default middle mouse button) now spawns an effect showing which enemy capital ship your fleet will be firing upon. Fixed Event systems not spawning enemies nor allowing you to continue the game. Fixed collisions for multiple enemy capital ships. Store systems now bring up the store. Added a visual effect showing when the Player's starfighter is being healed and reloaded when within mothership range.
More to come!
Massive Roguelite Update to Bullet Hell ADVANCED!
Bullet Hell ADVANCED has changed so much that the closed beta has now been moved to the default public Steam branch. Player feedback is encouraged. Please note that this is still in early access state. Best of wishes and happy Spring to everyone! -Artificer Cascadia
BHA Fleet Combat Module Preview
Bullet Hell ADVANCED is a mashup between FTL, Homeworld, and various Bullet Hell shooter games. Really trying for that fleet combat feeling from the old Freespace 2 game in this segment. This video shows off the newest revision of the fleet to fleet combat! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xymmD2dzwzw
Solar System Progress
Closeup look of one planet that can be generated within a solar system. More updates to come soon!
Solar System Preview
Small preview for the new solar system module being added to Bullet Hell ADVANCED. The new order of map progression will be Celestial Body > Solar System > Sector > Galaxy.
Players will be able to choose which celestial body in a solar system the want to warp to; Space stations, Moons, Planets, asteroid belts and more!
Mini-Boss Solar System now active
New solar system has come online! The Mini-Boss solar system is now active and when you warp into it you will fight a Mini-Boss along with an escort fleet.
This new solar system is an attempt to showcase the bullet hell within a bullet hell scale push. Still rough, but we're going for a brave new concept.
New afterburner effect for when you're in Fighter Mode. Changed the spawn location code for Hostile and Extreme-Hostile solar systems. Should give for a more "us" vs "them" battle layout.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLBEDUpA4u0
RC1 Update: Fixed Map + Added Mothership Support
Bullet Hell ADVANCED Steam optional BETA RC1 has been update! Fixed many issues!
To enable this mode you must right click on Bullet Hell ADVANCED in your Steam Library > select "Properties > go the "BETAS" tab > type in sneakapeeka1010 and click "CHECK CODE" > then select "beta - beta" from the drop down menu.
First off, the sector map and galactic map have been fixed. You can now choose where to jump and subsequently each jump will take away one fuel point from your Mothership. Fuel and more can be purchased from one of the randomly generated Store systems spawned in your current sector. There are a maximum of 2 Stores that can spawn in each sector.
The store UI has been completed to a level of basic functionality. You can purchase different weapons from different stores, as well as items and systems for your Mothership or Fighter. Mothership vitals can be purchased from every store, which are Jump Fuel, Reactor Fuel, Repair Hull Points, purchase Kinetic/High-Ex/Energy/Flak ammo as well nukes for your mothership to fire at enemy capital ships.
The Mothership now acts as a resupply vessel during combat. Simply enter the Mothership's shields and you will automatically transfer ammo from the Mothership to your Fighter. On top of that, you will regen your shields doing this - but at the cost of forcing the Mothership to recharge it's own shields at HALF the normal rate. Choosing when to do this will be vital to gameplay, and will introduce greater risk to your Mothership.
Offensive play will remain the only way to get through Bullet Hell ADVANCED. Anyone who attempts to hide behind their Mothership's shields as a gameplay tactic will never be able to progress passed the first sector.
Your mothership now recharges its shields, but when the shields have been taken down to zero, the shields are broken and will not come back online until enough energy has been generated to restore 1/5th of your total shields. This will force you to destroy the most dangerous enemies in a system first so you can reduce the damage being taken by your mothership. Once the shields go down - hull damage is incurred and may only be repaired at Store systems. If hull goes to zero - that's game over.
Cheers!
Bullet Hell ADVANCED Steam Beta option RELEASED!
Bullet Hell ADVANCED has just released Beta RC1 for the Rogue Galaxy Mode! To enable this mode you must right click on Bullet Hell ADVANCED in your Steam Library > select "Properties > go the "BETAS" tab > type in sneakapeeka1010 and click "CHECK CODE" > then select "beta - beta" from the drop down menu.
BOOM. You can now play the new combat system and sneak a peek at the new Rogue Galaxy Mode. GET IT!
Once again, the password for the new update is sneakapeeka1010
If you have any trouble with the new build, please create a discussion thread. Cheers! -BHA Team
