This weekends update brings a host of changes to the game. And since it is the holiday season in various regions of the world, let's get down to business and go over the update goodies!
Changed how the player fighter is spawned into the hangar
- The player will now spawn and the fighter will be aligned to the carrier deck. The rig for launching and landing will also get aligned in this process meaning fighters will now have their wheels touching the hangar deck during launch and landing and even when respawning.
Added new artwork for the Radiator, Radar, and Fuel Injector modules
- New artwork has been added to visually represent these modules on the fighter. Planning new modules to be added in the future.
Added basic TrackIR integration. Expect changes in the future
- This is a quick and dirty integration designed for testing. Still waiting on feedback from the team that works on TrackIR before finalizing the integration.
New conversations and characters in the Galley
- Around 20 conversations have been added to the GALLEY. These will pop up at various points throughout the main campaign. Some of these conversations are with characters not previously seen in the GALLEY. More coming in the future.
Significant tweaks to how the Radar behaves
- In this new setup, the radar visual in the cockpit will track general positional data. No targets will be marked until they are within the radars range fan for establishing an active lock. At which point the target box will become active. Establishing an active lock will allow the radar to provide additional information like object type and distance. Once an active lock is established, that lock cannot be broken until the target has fallen completely out of radar range.
Tweaks to how countermeasures behave
- Lifetimes on countermeasures have been changed. Flares are in the middle, chaff the longest, and the EM field the shortest. With this change comes a failure chance for each countermeasure that is deployed. Flares have the highest failure rate, with chaff in the middle, and the EM field having the lowest failure rate.
Fixes
- Fixed extraction mission on Khatir. - Fixed missing collision mesh on orbital stations in Bodenga Low Orbit level. - Tweaked physics and render engine settings to affect better overall performance. - Modified tunnel terrain on Frontiers Reach Sector 42B map to make the tunnel run on Mission 01 easier at the end of the tunnel. - Fixed bullets colliding with countermeasures when they were not intended to. - The compass indicator overlay will now automatically toggle off when on space missions. - Optimized bullet behavior. - Compass indicator will now toggle off when on space missions.
Patch Update for Version 0.8.120222
This is a small patch that fixes some minor bugs. - Fixed a critical issue in the Special Assignments list that would cause duplication of mission buttons. - Added 3 new Special Assignment missions for the new Festival of Renewal Seasonal Event. This event is free to participate in and is geared towards helping to fill out the lore and provide an opportunity to earn some low stress salvage. This event will automatically popup any time you play the game in the month of December.
Hotfix #1 for Version 0.8.120222
- Fixed and issue that caused the mission list at the holotable to not refresh under very specific conditions. - Updated credits.
Update to Version 0.8.120222
This Friday I am releasing the full first campaign which is now 25 missions in total. This campaign spans the bubble of human habited space and should help familiarize additional mechanics and characters. This might seem a bit much, but it's important for what comes after.
The WARMAP in this new setup will have more of a smoothed out introduction into normal play with the WARMAP being more of a sandbox you can play with in some senses.
Nerfed turn rates on all NPC fighters.
- All NPCs, enemies and allies alike have had their turn rates nerfed slightly to make all engagements easier.
Touched up all smoke and explosion VFX.
- All VFX have been touched up. More touch ups and additions in the works.
Fixed a few bugs on the WARMAP that caused some levels to not load properly.
- A few nodes on the WARMAP did not load appropriately. This should now be fixed.
Added new Great Tower Assault and Fleet Battle scenarios.
- Great Tower Assault and Fleet Battles have been added to the WARMAP. Great Tower Assaults are to Independent Nodes, what Brigade Carrier Assaults are to Confederate Nodes. Fleet Battles are basically the same, but for space only nodes.
Great Tower Towns
- In the Frontiers Reach Universe, Great Towers are basically old school central defense posts. These have been added as a town to each map and are used in the new Great Tower Assault scenario.
Added instant action
- Instant action which will randomly pick 1 of 3 fighters and then randomly pick 1 of 5 maps to play the Instant Action scenario in. This scenario is pretty fluid but does have hidden objectives to be complete if the player so chooses.
NPCs now have flare countermeasures
- Some NPCs now have flare counter measures and use them at chance upon missile detection.
Numerous Artwork Optimizations
- The process of combining mesh artwork in various places throughout the game has begun. This will more or less seal the deal for numerous assets and level and render them unchangeable unless under the most dire of circumstances.
Gravity and Flight Change
- How gravity affects starfighters at lower speeds has been changed and should make it easier to fly at lower speeds and through tighter spaces.
Touch ups, Tweaks, and Bug Fixes
- Numerous bugs and tweaks have been made to the main campaign missions to better tell the story and to smooth out the experience. More are in the works.
Frontiers Reach is Officially in Beta
All of the core systems are in place and working together.
From here on the goal is to expand and refine while producing content for the game.
FLEET STATUS MENU
- Fleet status screen is going in this weekend. This will be functional and tied into the warmap and missions so when you complete missions to rescue vessels in distress they will be added to your fleet. This will be tracked in the FLEET menu. This fleet will not be present during missions; rather it will be rallied at a location in the game universe for reference later down the line.
Below is a list of fixes
- Modified Mission_01 tutorial messaging slightly. - modified the flight model so that under 75% throttle, gravity will begin to be felt but in a gradient relative to your velocity. - RCS system will now work even when the throttle is at 0%. - HUD color swapping has been added to all starfighters.
Hotfix #1 for 07.100122
Fixed a bug that caused all new characters to be set to veteran
Patch update for Version 0.7.100122
Kicking this one out early to get ready for a week of IRL business.
Fixed - HOTAS controls should now function as expected. - Control rebindings should now save and load as expected. - Control rebindings are now available in the pause menu when on missions. - Some HUD colors are now toggleable. - New controls added to control bindings menu. - Fixed bug in config menu. - Reworked weather effects for extreme worlds. - Added a new tutorial to the main menu. - Added an option to toggle whether a new game should start at the beginning of the main campaign or at the end. - Worked wingmen into all warmap missions. - Fixed a bug that caused the paint menu to not appear.
Patch Update for Version 0.7.100122
Fixes : - Fixed control bindings not saving and loading properly. - Fixed pitch invert not working.
Update to Version 0.7.100122
Todays update is pretty routine. Further expansion and refinement of those things already in the game. However I have news to accompany this update.
As of yesterday I am now, technically, unemployed.
I have my staffing agency looking for new work and I myself with be doing groundwork on this front as well. Until then though I am back to working on Frontiers Reach full time!
While it was interesting working at a major corporation, I experienced many of the negative stereotypes I expected to experience and have experienced at previous jobs. Which killed any desire I had to remain working there.
The manipulation. Not talking about critical issues. Dancing and tip toeing around peoples feelings and egos. Irrational behavior based entirely off of misconceptions about what other people have said.
The list goes on.
I have absolutely zero interest in dealing with such things.
But enough of my complaining....
We have updates to cover and a game to keep building.
Level Set Dressing - The past month I got started on set dressing the planetary levels with towns and villages. Some levels even got some new environmental features. This effort has been primarily focused around planetary levels so far but will eventually be extended to space levels.
New Starfighter - Last month was apparently Starship September, so I ran through a new design process with the community to create the Yankowics EF-18 Kruk. It's an agile, but lightly armed and armored electronic warfare platform. In terms of gameplay balance this means it has the highest radar range of anything in the game right now.
Experimentation with AI Generated Imagery - This past week, I took some time to look at AI generated imagery. I'm hesitant to consider it art in the way I consider the work of Rembrandt or da Vinci to be art. But I do find it to be an outstanding tool for idea generation. In this, I find a tool that is perfect for communicating better with existing artists. While none of the images you will see below are images I would consider for final products, they are great resources for handing to a character artist. This is what we would call a Moodboard. A collection of images that best describe an idea without actually creating it. Leaving things open to interpretation and extrapolation on the part of the artist who is tasked with using it. This should bring out the best of both worlds.
Patch Update for Version 0.7.082722
- Rebalanced fighter cost to make them a bit cheaper across the board. - Minor tweaks to setup tools for naval units on planets that have water. - Minor tweaks to AI to keep them from flying in circles.
