Star Command Galaxies
Alpha 10 Patch Released on BETA Branch
We have just released a patch to Alpha 10 beta. We have a ton of bug fixes to the issues that have been raised in the forums as well as the addition of a notification area for game events. We also took a new approach to our UI scaling that we think should be much more consistent for lower resolutions.
Release notes below:
- Implemented a new method for scaling resolutions (still a work in progress)
- Added in info bar underneath clock for notifications
- Catch for when the game tries to reserve crew data after the crew has already been saved and despaired
- Fixed D3RP chatter issue
- Fixed head crab crash
- Fix to crew not being able to be hired
- Fixed Player Ship Panel tab descriptions
- Top bar will now be on top of all menus
- Fixed ShaderBindings.gen issue
- Fixed a potential drag and select crash
- Grammer fixes
- Fixed money not being given during tutorial
- Fix to MouseGUI null ref if player ship isn’t present
- Escape Menu should no longer try to unload the Colony if one has not yet loaded
- Revised ship purchasing panel
- Various adjustments to all missions
- Potential fix to wall swap frame issue
- Removed floor of heavy human door
- Fixed new object particle
- Changed loading screen to show the game hasn’t locked up
- Fix to missing outlines
- Removed crew from shuttle to help starting tutorial
- Null ref adjustments for cursor manager
- Cleaned up lockers for simplicity
- Removing Antiquated Faction Distress call
- ESC menu now properly pauses the game
- Refined game tips
- Fixed motivations being full and crew not talking to each other
- Fix for missing ShipCaptain as QuestGiver
- Headcrabs animation fix
- Fix to Food/Energy hiding on the Crew Panel GUI when you select a captain, then another character.
- People who have a status effect will no longer enter Bored State until that effect is removed.
- TV’s added in!
Please post any new bugs to our forums. Can't wait to get your feedback!
Cheers,
Warballoon
Example of Our Awesome Community
We have been working on Star Command for a long time - more than five years to be exact. We love the game but more than that we love our fan base. They are a combination of hardcore Trekkers, gamers, artists, developers and tons of other walks of life. We have worked VERY hard to accumulate the 10,000 Facebook followers we have, the 6,000 twitter followers and all of the wonderful people who follow us here on Steam.
We just released Alpha 10 onto our beta branch and got a lot of great feedback. We had some major bugs that we fixed and now we are working through all the gameplay bugs, weird issues and other things that have been discovered before we release the build to the larger public.
We want to take a second to single out one of our community members, CornDog who, unsolicited, took a lot of his own personal time to compile a list of his playtest through Star Command Galaxies. He was kind enough to put up a google doc with screenshots for us to go through. CornDog is not the only one doing this. There are a ton of you including Lemon Head, kornellbrown, Sworded5 and hundreds of others that do this every time we make a release.
We want to say thanks and convey how much we appreciate this element of our community. Anyone that is still invested in Star Command Galaxies after all this development time is truly our core audience and people we do not take for granted. We know you have literally thousands of choices when it comes to the games you play and that you have stuck with us as we have continue to iterate on Galaxies is a testament to you more than it is to us.
We have an awesome community and we will do our very best to make sure that Galaxies is everything you guys want.
Cheers,
Warballoon
Alpha 10 On Beta Branch
BUG FIXED
We have fixed the hiring bug that many players were seeing over the weekend. Try it out!
To get onto the beta branch, go to your library. Right click on “Star Command Galaxies” and go to properties. Go to the BETA tab and select “Public Beta.”
We are so excited to begin rolling out Alpha 10 through the public beta branch. This represents a ton of hard work over the last six months. Let us start by acknowledging the long wait between releases. We think that the numerous changes, fixes, upgrades and additions are worth the wait. We can’t wait to start re-engaging with the community as we move back to our regular update schedules with our stable release.
So what’s new?
EVERYTHING!
Basically the game is brand new.
- Brand new UI
- Completely reworked mouse and controls
- Over 300+ bug fixes
- New ships
- New weapons
- New kits
- New missions
- New tutorial
- Melee combat
- Physics
- Revised lighting
- Balance across the board.
In other words: we highly recommend this update.
But a few things first:
Loading take a long time!
This will be optimized over time and it primarily has to do with the amount of LUA’s in the game for mod support. For now please be patient when you start or continue a game (up to a minute or so).
If something breaks, quit the game and restart
We have done as much testing as a 5 person team can do but we definitely missed some major league things. If something breaks we recommend that you save and try to reload. If the game still won't work quit out to desktop then restart and reload. That should do the trick. We will continue bug fixing as we go.
Take screenshots of errors
If you get an error in the console please click on the red text and take a screenshot of the expanded message. Please submit the screenshot and circumstances around the error to our steam forums. This would be greatly appreciated.
Previous save games won't work
Sorry folks, those old saved games aren’t compatible with the new release. Time to start that new crew!
Please help us with resolution problems
We have been doing our best to work with all resolutions, in particular anything around 1280x720. The game was built around 1920x1080 monitors so we do HIGHLY recommend running in that mode if you can. Please take any screen shots and list the resolution you are in if you are seeing some funky things with the new UI.
The starting text will be an animated sequence at release
You will see an block of text at the beginning of the game. This is the set up for your goals and will be video upon release. But it does help set the scene and give you your over arching goals.
Games end
This release basically ends after you destroy the pirate space station. Our next update will add the second portion of the game where you meet the other alien races and build your coalition.
Enough talk. Go try it out and tell us what you think. Post any bugs in our forums. Let’s do this thing!
Cheers,
Warballoon
Update: Private Testing Results
As some of you may know we have been running some private tests with our users trying out the latest Alpha. To be clear: we understand that as an Early Access supporter you have the right to try out the game early and help define the direction of the game. It's something we love about EA and really want to embrace.
For the short term, however, we have been doing very small tests to see how all of our numerous improvements, additions and changes have settled down. Over the last couple weeks we have taken a lot of learnings to improve the game.
Right now the final remaining items are resolution issues with monitors at 1280x720 or so. We are having trouble making sure text is readable and interface components are not hidden.
We also have seen in our playtests that we have been asking too much of early game players. We are rolling out fairly complex missions when early game captains really just want to collect supplies, crew, staff, weapons and kits. Everything else seems to be running very smoothly. Tutorial seems to get everyone to speed on all the games core concepts, building looks to be intuitive and smooth, combat is drastically improved and our interface appears to be communicating all the information we intended. In other words: we're close.
We will be changing the early game missions so that the are more reflective of building forces and making sure that some of the more confusing elements are really clear (promotions are a bit muddy right now). After that we will be rolling the game up on the beta branch to look for any game breaking bugs or quick fixes before we release the game on the Alpha branch to every one of our users.
We know the best way to improve our reputation is to deliver a great product. We have a very large fanbase and we are thinking about them around the clock. The reason we haven't released anything is NOT because we want to alienate (pun intended) our fanbase - we just know that we are in a development season of polish and setbacks.
We were just at Steam Dev Days and got a lot of great advice from the creators of Don't Starve, Darkest Dungeon, Awesomenauts and other great EA indie titles. We just have to stay the course and keep making the game as great as possible then re-engage with our fanbase when we have something that is really great and we can build on.
We didn't get all of our followers by producing crappy games. But we understand the frustration. It's all warranted and we are pretty confident the new version of the game will help everyone feel like their investment was worth it.
We have always looked at Star Command Galaxies with the "games as a service" model - a platform for us to execute on for the foreseeable future (two years plus). We love this game and we want to keep expanding it, creating new races, new ships, new planets and use community feedback to make the ultimate ship simulator. But we have to have a great foundation to work from and that is the part that is taking the most work.
We would ask for more patience but we know that is in short supply. So the quality of the next release is what we must rely on.
Can’t wait for everyone to try it out.
Cheers,
Warballoon
We Need Testers to Stream!
As we finish up Alpha 10 we are in need of some patient players who would be willing to play the game for us on livestream, either through Twitch or Steam.
This is playtesting, bug testing, etc. There are bound to be lots of problems but you will get a first look at the newest version of the game.
If you are intersted in playing the game for us please friend us (warballoongames) and tell us you are up for some live streaming. We will send you the login info for the private test.
Can't wait to watch!
Cheers,
Warballoon
We're Close - Check Out Our Trello to Prove It!
To begin with, if you are interested in our day-to-day bug list and things we are working on we have just made our Trello list public. You can literally see everything we are working on as we get ready for our next release. Check it out here:
https://trello.com/b/62lIsFwL/alpha-10-tutorial
So what's done?
We have physics, equippable kits, melee combat, store building, encounters, lighting and probably about 1000 other things all set.
We are currently still polishing the second half of the tutorial that introduces ship systems and power management and working through the intial encounters after you have built up your station and set off with your ship.
If you are curious about why things take a while feel free to take a look at our bug list. We play the game nightly and submit any game ending/null reference stuff in the moring to work on then continue on our path.
Polishing a tutorial has, by far, taken the most time. Everything works but not everything works great - and that's what we want. As an example: during the tutorial a shuttle comes in to drop off some new staff for you hire on your station. Right now the ship does not arrive - the guys just appear. This is probably ok for gameplay but it really kind of ruins the sense that you are in a living, breathing galaxy. These are the types of things that we want to zero in on and fix up before we push our next release.
The team is working extremely hard. After the next release we should be in such a better place to work with our community on bug fixes, new content and other fun stuff. We are confident you will enjoy the next release - the jump between the previous version is pretty astronomic.
Cheers,
Warballoon
Status Update: Explosions, UI and Tutorial
We have wrapped up our UI transition as well as the adding in the ability to build stores on your station. This is huge for us - it has been in progress for quite a long time and the game is in a solid, playable state.
We have also added in physic effects for exposions, vacuums and other entities. What does that mean? Your guys will get knocked around and sucked into space when huge explosions occur. It's really fun and adds a ton to the game.
Our goal for this week is to get the tutorial portion of the game in (called Phase 0) and move into polishing our Phase 1 missions (intiial encounters dealing with pirates and other low level enemies). After those are in a solid state we will probably move towards pushing a new build.
Our goal is to get to the content phase as fast as humanly possible. We don't consider the tutorial or anything we are working to really be that - it requires too much custom content and special conditions to be considered template style missions that we can use across the game. But our ability to quickly generate content is very encouraging - it's something we have been chasing for over 3 years and we feel like the game is at the point were we can just make awesome things like new weapons, new ships, new missions, new kits, and lots of world building stuff rather than working on bugs, crashes, lighting, physics and UI.
We are hard at work and are really trying to get Alpha 9 into your hands by the end of the month.
Cheers!
Warballoon
UPDATE: Stores, AI and Brand New UI!
It has been a long time - too long! We always want to keep our wonderful community in the mix and we have done a poor job of that recently. That said, the rumors of our demise have been GREATLY exaggerated.
So what have we been doing? Working. A ton. And we want to show you what we have been working on.
To begin with we have more than doubled our team size with the expansion of our funding. This means many more people working on Star Command Galaxies - and much more content being built.
We have been focused on moving towards Beta and finishing all features and focusing purely on content. The game is (relatively) bug free and we have undertaken to the final features. So let's take a look at what we have been doing!
Overhauled UI
Along with Stores, we have been focused on revising our UI based on user feedback and improvement based on lessons we have learned during the development of Galaxies.
We are implementing a brand new system that is cleaner, less cluttered and takes into account how people are reading the screen.
We placed everything that involves your ship and crew at the bottom of the screen. In our previous UI your eyes had to move to all three corners of the screen to make assertions about the status of your ship and crew. Now you should have to do a lot less searching to understand who needs to be healed, how much energy you have and what the abilities of a crew member are.
You will notice we have switched to bright pink for all energy sources. We found that many players were confused on what was using energy and where it was coming from. We have changed all in game assets that generate or store energy to reflect this as well so it is much easier to find an enemy generator or battery.
With the crew dock we really wanted to focus on who was using each ship system and what type of bonus they were receiving. This was always a little bit hazy and unclear in the old UI and we feel like the new system makes it very clear who is using what and what the status of that system is.
For the crew elements we really wanted to bring some elements forward and move some elements back in order of importance. Things like their equipment and any kind of status effects are much more clear now.
Mission information and goals should also be much clearer as we have revised that to be much more goal orientated. We felt that the drop downs on the lower right hand corner in the old UI were confusing and cumbersome.
When you mouse over objects that crew members can interact with you will get a lot more information about what exactly you are going to be using and what it will do for your character.
Right now the game does a poor job of showing you that this character will like that bed vs. hate a different type or what the results of using an item will be.
We are also revising things like Crew Details and just about every other menu in the game as we prepare for beta and release. We have learned many lessons about our own game and feel like this final UI will help players really understand what to click and why.
Even our dialog system will be getting an overhaul.
Stores
As we have developed new encounters and missions it became clear that we needed to close the gameplay loop. After you collect your resources and new crew members we want you to make progress in the game - and this is where stores come in.
At your space station you will now have the ability to upgrade stores. These add areas like general stores, security stations, embassies, ship hangars and a lot more. Within each of these stores are elements called modules: these are customized shops who offer exclusive equipment, characters or abilities. Each of these will require you to collect resources like money, scrap and extra crew to operate them. For example, if you build an embassy you will need to find a level 4 character of another race in order to operate them. If you find, or level up, a Midorian to the prerequisite you can now open a Midorian Embassy Module, giving you access to Midorian missions and other perks.
This really is the last major feature of the game. For us it closes the loop on exploring, collecting and upgrading your capabilities in order to fight off the enemies of the galaxy.
AI
We have fixed 85% of our issues in regards to AI. Characters are dying correctly, their target acquisition is smooth and consistent and right now we are working on more advanced concepts like race tactics and goals. This will likely be an area of focus all the way up to release but we feel that the game should be fair, challenging and, most of all, fun.
Grol
We have implemented the Grol, the big enemy of the first release of Galaxies. These will be the boogeymen of the galaxy, pressing the player to make allies and upgrade their ship and station to combat the threat. After we launch we plan to introduce other major enemies like the Cortex.
Missions and Encounters
We have finished our encounter system and have been lining up the final list of missions and encounters that we are going to produce for the release of the game. Right now we have a single test mission for each of the archetypes (explore, destroy, collect, etc) and as we finish all of our features and move into beta our primary focus will be on this content.
Other Tweaks
Some minor stuff we have been working on includes adding drinking to characters in the game, fixing up a lot of the animation inconsistencies like where weapons emit from and we are currently exploring getting destruction physics in the game for grenades, ship weapons and other explosions that will lead to characters being thrown in the air - and possibly sucked into space.
In conclusion, we have not stopped working one bit on Galaxies. We are in a transition point as we lock down our final features and finish off our UI. We are working on getting a release out as soon as our UI, stores and the final game flow are in. After that our only focus is on content, content, content.
As a rule, the quieter we are the more we are working. We are really very very focused on getting Galaxies in the most stable, fun and expansive point we can. We are confident the wait will be worth it.
We love our community and have worked VERY hard to build it and have a relationship with you. As we come up for air during beta we will be much more involved in the forums and gathering feedback for the full release of the game.
We hope that you are as excited as we are for the next update - should be the best yet.
Cheers,
Warballoon
The Future is Bright!
We want to start by apologizing about our lack of communication over the last month or so. We have been extremely busy and wanted to catch you up on some great news and what we have been working in.
First and foremost we wanted to announce that we have secured funding for the launch of Star Command Galaxies! What this means is that all our cost-of-living and development expenses are now covered and Star Command Galaxies will be released. This is very much a product of your continued support for our game as the reviews and interest from the forums was a big part of us getting the last part of our funding.
So what does this mean? We will be developing towards a full release from this point on which means we are closing off features and getting the beta as quickly as humanly possible. We will do our best to have updates on Early Access but our goal is very much a solid, bug free fun as hell full release.
So what have we been doing? On top of the business end of things we have been working on lots of great new features:
Encounters
Running into adventures on random nodes in the galaxy that challenge you and your crew with situations like exploring a derelict ship, helping a ship of sick people, rescuing a prisoner from a pirate ship and more surprises. We will continue to add to our encounters during the summer so that we have tons of content by launch. These are very far along though and have improved the fun factor of the game immensely.
Base Building
You will now be able to build stores on your space station in order to buy equipment for your ship, recruit new crew, equip your crew and lots of other fun stuff.
Improved AI
We have done a ton of work improving our AI and you will see substantial improvements to your crew’s behavior as well as the enemy tactics. This is ongoing but the next version should show a ton of improvement.
The Grol
The ultimate enemy of the Star Command universe is now in the game. We are still polishing their AI, behavior and strategy but all assets have been implemented.
New UI
We are revising our UI to be clearer, easier to read and better for low and high resolution monitors.
So when is the next release? We should be rolling some stuff out on the beta branch sometime this month as we move to a testing phase and hopefully have a big update in June. Again, we are no longer looking at the 30 day cycle but focused on closing out features and getting the game released.
We are super excited about the future and want to thank all of our fans for their support. Lots of awesome stuff coming.
Cheers,
Warballoon
The Future Is Bright!
Crew Combat
Reveal FOW on this ship map to 80%
Kill 10/All enemies
Kill specific character
Repair ship
Heal crew
Cure disease
Kill pests
Special store/trade (special store?)
Retrieve and Deliver Unobtanium Rod®
Impress us on your ship
Ship Combat
Survive X minutes against a ship (who then leaves)
Destroy ship
Make sure this ship survives for X minutes against a foe
Give me 500x or else I will kill you
Give me a crew or else I will kill you
Grol
Multiplying tactic
Can stop you from warping
Always pursue
Very powerful/auto rehealing
Base Building
Build general store (food, supplies, ships)
Build defenses
Build weapons depot
Build recruiting station
Build bar
New Zones
Quest Examples
Build JumpGate
Build Buoy
Destroy Space Station
Destroy X Ship
Allies
Mission Examples
Escort me to X
Deliver me X
Give me a new crew member
Kits Gear Levels
UI
Start game on space station with no ship and infestation. Slowly build your and take out a ship to collect some resources so you can build the shops.
Build out shops by collecting resources from encounters
Encounter, encounter, encounter
Build defenses to fend off pirates which are your first “clear this out” problem.
Introduce to neutral unity who you can befriend. Complete basic missions to do so.
Build a jumpgate mission
Greetings Star Commanders!
We want to start by apologizing about our lack of communication over the last month or so. We have been extremely busy and wanted to catch you up on some great news and what we have been working in.
First and foremost we wanted to announce that we have secured funding for the launch of Star Command Galaxies! What this means is that all our cost-of-living and development expenses are now covered and Star Command Galaxies will be released. This is very much a product of your continued support for our game as the reviews and interest from the forums was a big part of us getting the last part of our funding.
So what does this mean? We will be developing towards a full release from this point on which means we are closing off features and getting the beta as quickly as humanly possible. We will do our best to have updates on Early Access but our goal is very much a solid, bug free fun as hell full release.
So what have we been doing? On top of the business end of things we have been working on lots of great new features:
Encounters
Running into adventures on random nodes in the galaxy that challenge you and your crew with situations like exploring a derelict ship, helping a ship of sick people, rescuing a prisoner from a pirate ship and more surprises. We will continue to add to our encounters during the summer so that we have tons of content by launch. These are very far along though and have improved the fun factor of the game immensely.
Base Building
You will now be able to build stores on your space station in order to buy equipment for your ship, recruit new crew, equip your crew and lots of other fun stuff.
Improved AI
We have done a ton of work improving our AI and you will see substantial improvements to your crew’s behavior as well as the enemy tactics. This is ongoing but the next version should show a ton of improvement.
The Grol
The ultimate enemy of the Star Command universe is now in the game. We are still polishing their AI, behavior and strategy but all assets have been implemented.
New UI
We are revising our UI to be clearer, easier to read and better for low and high resolution monitors.
So when is the next release? We should be rolling some stuff out on the beta branch sometime this month as we move to a testing phase and hopefully have a big update in June. Again, we are no longer looking at the 30 day cycle but focused on closing out features and getting the game released.
We are super excited about the future and want to thank all of our fans for their support. Lots of awesome stuff coming.
Cheers,
Warballoon