Captain, we have reports of an update being sent out! (Finally)
B.O.S.S. has been hard at work developing a new game and that’s caused
issues with our roadmap for this game. That said, we have made an amazing leap in progress on Empires of Creation. We’re now working on the most up-to-date version of Unity and have added in additional content with much more planned, our main focus has been on fixes and optimisation. We’ve implemented optimizations that should boost CPU & GPU performance by at least 20% to improve the player experience and have fixed many major and minor bugs throughout the codebase in an effort to lay down a more stable basis for future expansion. This new update is a milestone that brings us ever nearer to the stage of full release.
We want to take this game to a stage we can be really proud of it and to do that we would really appreciate your help. We need bug reports and your feedback to help direct us finish this game and bring you an amazing and complete experience.
Signing out for now,
B.O.S.S.
What we have done -
Added:
Hover effect to pointer places
New bloom effect
New Audio Engine
8 new objectives
Glow effects to menu arena mode select
Improved:
Updated to Unity version 2017.1.0p5
Significant CPU & GPU optimisations for the UI, Fleets & Graphic Effects
Improved tutorial and fixed many tutorial issues
Max active objectives extended from 6 to 9
New dialogue to stop player requesting too many objectives
Fixed issue where player’s ship jiggles
Fixed issues with Bloom effect
Fixed issue with colony removal
Fixed issue with side ship list not updating correctly
Fixed a number of issues with fleet battles
Fixed issues with player retreating from battle
Fixed issue with objective generation where the player would be given objectives to attack friendly empires
Fixed objectives list issues such as getting to many objectives an the last panel not displaying correctly
Fixed issue with arena perimeter lines displaying inappropriately
Many additional bug fixes that are to minor to put here
Stay up to date: Website: http://empiresofcreation.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/eoc_game
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/empiresofcreation
Trello: https://trello.com/b/nbX8MOzu/empires-of-creation
BETA UPDATE!
Welcome To The Beta Update Post!
From Alpha to Beta, a game that communicates with it’s community
Against the grain set by big budget productions, we go above and beyond what AAA companies and most big name Indie Devs bother to do. We are an Indie team with a project we intend on releasing in a state that harkens back to the days of old when you weren’t bombarded with weekly patches for a released game. With dedication and resolve on making a game that is both fun and playable on release, we have been adamant in our goal to release this Space Simulator in an ideal state. Intently listening to any and all feedback from the community, we invite and encourage players to give their honest thoughts and finding on the game, and after almost two years, we are finally ready to bring this game Empires of Creation into its Beta phase!
“Even the brightest of diamonds needed to be polished to reach perfection”
Sometimes the community is right! Believe it or not, the developers aren’t all knowing, and if the majority says something is wrong with the game, then something is probably wrong with the game. From bugs, to balancing, to even aesthetics, we have always listened to our community’s feedback. A game is nothing without its community, and the great developers always give the community a chance to voice its opinion.
The most prominent aspect the player has to deal with is going to be the User Interface, a clean, well made UI is always going to make an integral difference in whether or not the player will enjoy their time. “[The] user Interface is EXTREMELY TINY making everything difficult to read”, “What is it with this font size 6?”, using the feedback of the community, we worked on the UI to make as enjoyable to look at as possible, namely in adding an auto scaling feature so that no matter what resolution you are running at, the UI is clear and legible!
In many games, battle sequences are a main part of the experience, meaning that its mechanics need to be fun and balanced. “Engagements seem to end far too quickly”, “laser based ships feel like pointing a laser pointer at the enemy”, “I get constantly bumped by enemy fleet. Small little ships that are 1/4 of a size of my giant USS Enterprise are able to push my ship”. The feedback from the community on the battle mechanics proved invaluable in the balancing and general improvements. We adjusted damage rates, speed-, ship health+, and many other factors to produce a fun and balanced combat system.
Objectives give meat to the game, a clear path on what you can actually do in the world the developers have created! “some changes are required. These could include game objectives”, “there is nothing to do except clicking and shooting into dumb AI”, “There's basically no game to play here... nothing to interact with”. We are happy to announce that the game now has 6 different types of dynamic missions based with race specific text and more incoming! We have also fully implemented Empire relations to give the player more in depth interaction with the other denizens of the galaxy.
“It’s journey is never truly over, it’s merely the beginning of a new path”
We are actively working on producing a better game every day, giving it that final shine. While we have addressed a number of issues brought up by the community, there are still some things we are working on improving. “The tutorial doesn't explain enough to get you through the game”, “Very incomprehensibly short tutorial that didn't really teach me anything useful about the gameplay”, The tutorial has been a crux of the game for awhile, and is on high priority to address in the Beta.
With other projects on the horizon and EoC nearing its completion, B.O.S.S. will look back and remember the road they traveled, bettering themselves as creators and people to make a better future. The team at B.O.S.S invites you to share in this journey and its future, come help them perfect Empires of Creation!
“To some the sky’s the limit, but to others it’s space and beyond”
(If you have posted a review or comment in the past and it wasn’t mentioned here but you feel it should have been, please contact us and we will get back to you ASAP!)
GAME UPDATE! Alpha 4
Welcome Commander, to Alpha Update 4
As we work diligently to bring you new updates, you must now work just as much to maintain your relationships with other empires. Today’s update includes many new features, most notably the beginning of diplomacy! Declare war against the traveling O’au, sign a peace treaty with robotic Enement, betray your friends, survive, and conquer the galaxy!
We have also added a new system that allows control over the production of ships from planets you own! Do you want your your capital to be the place to buy your main firepower? Do you want a colony dedicated solely to birthing new Colonizers? Then have no fear!
We have many more plans in the works that we can’t wait to release, but for now, we’ll leave you with these teasers~ Who know’s what they are or what effects they may have.
For the rest of what’s new and improved, please look no further than below for the changelog~
We’ve recently had to push the timeline of the game’s official release back by two months. Work has not been progressing as fast as we would like, and for that we apologize. However, on the bright side this means that you all have a couple more months of steady updates and content still to come out!
Building off of the many graphical improvements from last month, we’ve listened to feedback and are continuing to work on the UI elements of the game. This month one of the new biggest features has been a couple of updates to ship UI. We wanted to make it easier to sort through and manager the various units the player employs.
We’ve also completely overhauled the camera system for stability and performance. This might sound a bit boring, however this has allowed us to do a couple of cool new things. For instance, the angle on the camera is no longer fixed. Since the game is built within Unity and exists in a fully three-dimensional environment, this allows the game environment to feel more dynamic.
The effect is subtle, but we feel it added a much needed “depth” to the presentation of Empires of Creation we felt was lacking. This new system should allow us to add in further refinements and improvements when it comes to the visual presentation of the game. Additionally, it should reduce the amount of bugs related to the camera in the future.
The next biggest addition isn’t one that has necessarily been added to the game. Our artist has been hard at work creating new assets in order to bring Steam trading cards to Empires of Creation. In addition to a set of five wonderful cards, players will be able to collect a set of backgrounds, badges, and even steam emoticons.
These new art assets will add even more flavour and detail to the world of Empires of Creation. We hope to launch the new cards soon, so keep an eye out!
For everything new or changed with this update, see the full changelog below.
Added:
Improvements:
Stay up to date:
GAME UPDATE! Alpha 2
Hello and Welcome to the Second Official Update!
We’re currently focusing on creating a timeline to take the game from it’s current state to a full, finished product. As a team, we’ve decided to release future updates on a monthly basis as we push towards the finished game.
In addition to some bug bashing, This month has been primarily about improving many of the graphical elements in game and pushing ahead with making a more realistic and graphically impressive galaxy.
We are using good old perlin noise along with a good chunk of smart maths to provide realistic asteroid field formation:
A lot of work has also gone into the User interface to improve user interactability, such as Objective hover, an objective list, and, perhaps most importantly, the UI is now re-scalable:
Finally, we have implemented a few new gameplay mechanics, such as Trading as a colony interaction, and colony Sieging, and a new credits menu planet:
In addition to all the new implementations, we’re currently working on our set of Steam trading cards, as well as dialog for the interactions that take place in the game. Look for those in future updates!
For everything new or changed with this update, see the full changelog below.
Added:
Improvements:
Stay up to date:
Website: Empires Of Creation
Twitter: @eoc_game
Alpha V1.0a Hot-Patch
Hello and Welcome to the Official Alpha Update,
This Hot-Patch for the latest update has improved on some of the bugs and minor inconsistencies that were released. This impromptu update should help with the minor aesthetics and core functionality of the game.
Fixes:
Stay up to Date:
Safe Space Travels!
GAME UPDATE! Alpha 1
Hello and Welcome to the Official Alpha Update,
It’s been over two months since our last update, and we must apologize for such a long wait, especially given our minimal upkeep of our social media. The primary reason for the delay between updates is due to our desire to refine our product based upon user comments/reviews.
We set about making a clear push towards tying together EOC's core gameplay systems into a coherent gaming experience. We have a very involved and holistic strategic experience in mind with this game, and the bulk of our work has been taking the concepts and systems that are already laid out, yet inaccessible or vague, and turning them into a more polished and interactive experience.
Perhaps the most important Single-Player development has been the addition of an in-game tutorial. Players will be given the option to engage in an interactive tutorial that teaches basic controls and concepts.Some specific tutorial topics include:
We've also added an entirely new and exciting game mode for players to enjoy in the meantime while we continue to craft a more accessible and in-depth Single-Player Experience.
Our New Arena Mode is a wave-based survival experience where players will fight off endless attackers until ultimately being overrun. Players will have a choice of permanent upgrades at the end of each wave, and are occasionally given temporary buffs to help in surviving the onslaught.
In order to make the interactions the player has with the galaxy more engaging we have implemented a dialogue system which allows you to perform a number of interactions with colonies.
In addition to these new implementations, the game is available on Mac & Linux
TLDR: We are sorry for the long wait, we’ve implemented systems to make the game’s features much more accessible such as the tutorial & dialogue system and have added an arena mode to allow immediate access to some of the more explosive elements as we craft the single player into the larger more in-depth experience we strive to provide.
Steam:
NEWS AND UPDATES!
What have we been doing?
We've been focusing most of our attention on expanding the game so it has an overarching purpose. Prior to our changes, we had many systems in place intended to urge long term play, but none of the systems were tied together by clearly defined goals. Our first solution, of many to come, is that we've devised a Procedural Objective System. Some star colonies will now periodically offer the player mercenary objectives to destroy enemy ships. These objectives, when completed, will reward the player with credits and ship experience, so there's a platform for progress.
Our team has decided that as we push our systems forward, we would like to make our concepts and progress public. To allow for this, we've set up a Public Roadmap that can be found HERE, so anyone can contribute to the direction of the game.
When is the next update?
You can expect a live Update Next Weekend (12/12/15)
