Carriers have been one of the most requested features for Stellar Warfare. I've spent the last month working to add them to the game.
Over the past few days you guys have seen me post a bunch of small updates regarding Carriers, Fighters and Bombers. While not perfect yet they are now functional and smooth running enough to be added to the game. While there is likely styll some balancing to do the current state is pretty good!
So hop in wave defense, singleplayer or multiplayer and have some fun!
You can also join the Discord here in order to more easily find multiplayer or coop players: https://discord.gg/KrWbsdX
[previewyoutube="cPaCDtIsmWY;full"]
Here are some of the devlog notes from the last few days:
storage now gives +500 instead of +400 of each storage
fighter and bomber hangar structures now only spawn if done building
added fighters and bombers to the cinematic camera (untested)
singleplayer carriers are now a bit buggy, attempting to fix
Bombers and fighters keep respawning in SP. Fixing now.
fixed bombers respawning instantly in sp
fixed big explosions when fighters die
fixed ficghters now docking after killing all targets in sp
fixed construction lights not showing in sp
prevented fighters to set themselves as target and launching themselves as a result of them being in range
prevented fighters and bobmers from launching if the target is an inactive gameobject
fixed that the AI fighters kept respawning because they didnt check if the target was alive before launching
fixed fighters after respawning in SP return to carrier right away
doing 1 more multiplayer test and if it succeedds then i will upload it ot steam
coop is NOT tested
fixed fighters after respawning in SP return to carrier right away
uploaded the new version to steam
fixed; references not set for fighters and bombers causing bugs in multiplayer (i think, will test tomorrow)
fixed; craft health reference not set
fixed; able to target units with fighters
increased time warthog-rounds are visible in MP
made fighters and bombers more 3dimensional by having them go in more directions after attacks
fixed the bomber and fighter network reference not correctly set
fixed not giving enough data to the thing that sets the references for fighters and bombers
updated stellar warfare icon
much better
fixed fighter color trails
updated the Stellar Warfare big logo
not sure if we will keep it though
fighters and bombers finally seem to work as intended in multiplayer
i should really test singleplayer...
fixed bomber patterns and multiplayer bugs
lowered volume of bombs and the fighter cannons
So here we are! Let me know in the community forum if you guys have any feedback or cool new ideas!
Changed bomber attack formation
The attack pattern of bombers have now been optimised.
Fixed some bomber/carrier related bugs
Fixed some bomber/carrier related bugs
V1 carriers, fighters and bombers!
This one was rough. But I've just added the first iteration of carriers to the game!
The main changes are; - You can now see in the ship editor which ships, weapons and modules you dont have unlocked yet - You can now build a fighter carrier - You can now build a bomber carrier - You can now build a defensive fighter hangar - You can now build a defensive bomber hangar - Added The Avenger (new heavy ship) - Added the Bulwark (new heavy ship) - Added several new weapons - Added the Repeater Barreler anti-heavy turret - Added the Mini Repeater anti-medium turret
Bombers fire plasma bombs which are anti-heavy. Fighters launch on their own and shoot down nearby fighters and bombers. This is the first iteration of this functionality. Will refine it as we move further though Early Access.
[previewyoutube="06rHZxS36Js;full"]
I will now post the rest of the things I've done since last time below. Unedited. In chronological order. - Added Carriers - Added bombers - Added barrel rolls to bomber attack patterns - Added re-targeting for bombers - Bombers now retreat the moment the carrier gets out of range - Tweaked the attack patterns for bombers (balance between breaking off, barrel rolling, dodging, restarting attack runs) - Was hoping to get all the fighters/bombers done today, but i now doubt that that is going to work. Just made a list of what I still need to do and its at least this; - Carrier attack distance is now set correctly - Bombers now fly in a straight line for a few seconds after spawning - Bombers can now be retrieved by the carriers - did a fighter weaponry test. Not satisfied yet - added named states for bombers (goToTarget, breakOff, returnHome) - increased stability and control over bomber states by forcing them to stick to certain states - refined bomber states further - carriers can now spawn either fighters or bombers - split up the behavior scripts for fighters and bombers - fighters now chase bombers - fighters are now more nimble than bombers - fighters now fire minigun rounds at the bomber - added targeting and behavior for AI fighters/bombers - fixed a bug where if a carriers goes out of range while a fighter or bomber is breaking off that the fighter or bomber would stay stuck in the 'break off' routine - seperated fighter/bomber craft movement code because otherwise fighters and bombers would move twice as fast in MP - fixed a bug where if a carrier lost its target then comes into range again that it didnt pass on the target to its fighter/bomber craft - struggling with bomber aim prediction - Got a working version of the bomber aim prediction now finally - edited fighter minigun sound - edited super heavy explosion sound - edited bomb drop sound - The fighter weaponsfire sounds are from a modified A10-Warthog sound byte (cropped, added more bass, fade in and fade out, lower pitch) - split up craft health component - working on setting craft trail colors based on player colors - fighters now damage bombers - fighters now damage other fighters - fighters and bombers now explode individually (so a formation of 3 becomes 2, then 1, then 0 and its considdered dead) - fighters now pick a new target if their old one has died and there is a new one in range - if fighters cant pick a new target after killing the old one then they will return to the carrier - fighter and bomber health should now be synced over network - updated fighter and bomber carrier models - Added The Avenger - Added The Bulwark - Added the Repeater Barreler anti-heavy turret - Added the Mini Repeater anti-medium turret - Did a multiplayer carrier test. Fighters didnt launch - Rebuilt the game - Did another multiplayer carrier test. Fighter and bomber behaviour illogical. Errors when retrieving trail color. Fixing. - Fighters and bombers are now actually fighting in multiplayer - Fighters were not fighting and weapons fire was not shown over multiplayer, now it is - Fixed a bug where the fighters and bombers couldnt access the network component - Found out bombers dont launch bombs currently and just circle the opponent in multiplayer. fixing - Bombers now fire but the bombs dont collide - The bombs dont collide because the bomber projectiles currently dont have an owner. Fixing. - Bomber projectiles now hit in multiplayer. They just don't deal damage - Movement for opponents fighters and bombers is a bit jittery, but that could be because i'm playing against myself. If not then i need to smooth it in the future - Bombers deal damage now, but their projectiles are not visible over the network for the other player for some reason. Perhaps the spawn position is off because it sort of uses the carrier as the origin point. It could also be related to this line "(PV.IsMine)// this is preventing bombers from doing damage in multiplayer, so im disabling it" - Fixed bombers not firing over network when target was a building rather than a unit because it couldnt find the movescript - Split up the bomber networking and local code. Expecting bombs to actually behave as they should now over network - made fighters and bombers fly out of the carriers faster - Did a test with rigidbodies on fighters. It fixed the 'stuttering' that enemy fighters and bombers were showing. Still, have to improve it some more ofc - Added rigidbodies to fighters adn bobmers - Added fighter hangar defensive structure - multiplayer fighters and bombers now move smoothly. The issue was the teleportation setting in photon - set the network teleport distance of all ships from 3 to 20 to remove stutering - Reverted fighter and bomber synchronisation from rigidbody to transforms to increase performance. Works well when I use photon classic transform view. Will possibly apply this to all ships in the future to increase performance - Added defensive bomber hangars as per @Darenkel (GMT-5) suggestion - fixed bomber trail colors - Fighters and bombers now have a line and a smoke trail. Might tweak later until i'm happy with the looks - this was very complex but docking now works - bomber bomb drop sounds are now network synced - fixed incorrect trailcolors in MP - combat finally looked good for fighters and bombers in multiplayer in the latest test i did. Still have to improve somet hings though - Fighters and bombers now respawn properly in multiplayer - networked miniguns are visible again - fixed multiplayer respawns for fighter and bomber craft - might have fixed fighter and bomber trails looking weird on craft respawns - basic fighter/bomber iteration working i think - carriers now show a red glow when replenishing fighter/bomber craft - added hangar lights to fighter and bomber defensive structures as well - added unit thumbnails for the Bulwark, Avenger, Fighter Carrier and Bomber Carrier - notifications for harvester, unit and building under attack now only happen once per minute - singleplayer carriers are now a bit buggy, attempting to fix - Bombers and fighters keep respawning in SP. Fixing now. - fixed bombers respawning instantly in sp - fixed big explosions when fighters die - fixed ficghters now docking after killing all targets in sp - fixed construction lights not showing in sp - prevented fighters to set themselves as target and launching themselves as a result of them being in range - prevented fighters and bobmers from launching if the target is an inactive gameobject - fixed that the AI fighters kept respawning because they didnt check if the target was alive before launching - fixed fighters after respawning in SP return to carrier right away - doing 1 more multiplayer test and if it succeedds then i will upload it ot steam - coop is NOT tested - fixed fighters after respawning in SP return to carrier right away
Fighters update 2
I am not sure how much I've already shared about fighters/bombers. There were however some issues with them moving in a jittery manner. I've smoothed that out today and I'm back on track with implementing them.
I've also done the following:
Did a multiplayer carrier test. Fighters didnt launch
Rebuilt the game
Did another multiplayer carrier test. Fighter and bomber behaviour illogical. Errors when retrieving trail color. Fixing.
Fighters and bombers are now actually fighting in multiplayer
Fighters were not fighting and weapons fire was not shown over multiplayer, now it is
Fixed a bug where the fighters and bombers couldnt access the network component
Found out bombers dont launch bombs currently and just circle the opponent in multiplayer. fixing
Bombers now fire but the bombs dont collide
The bombs dont collide because the bomber projectiles currently dont have an owner. Fixing.
Bomber projectiles now hit in multiplayer. They just don't deal damage
Movement for opponents fighters and bombers is a bit jittery, but that could be because i'm playing against myself. If not then i need to smooth it in the future
Bombers deal damage now, but their projectiles are not visible over the network for the other player for some reason. Perhaps the spawn position is off because it sort of uses the carrier as the origin point. It could also be related to this line "(PV.IsMine)// this is preventing bombers from doing damage in multiplayer, so im disabling it"
Fixed bombers not firing over network when target was a building rather than a unit because it couldnt find the movescript
Split up the bomber networking and local code. Expecting bombs to actually behave as they should now over network
Made fighters and bombers fly out of the carriers faster
Did a test with rigidbodies on fighters. It fixed the 'stuttering' that enemy fighters and bombers were showing. Still, have to improve it some more ofc
Added rigidbodies to fighters and bobmers
This is the current work in progress state of it: [previewyoutube="E1xFnzw9H-s;full"]
Carriers, fighters and bombers next week
One of the most requested features was carriers with fighters and bombers. I have some tests for it done already, but you can expect a bigger update next week with everything in it!
[previewyoutube="YtC3SvAQS5s;full"]
PS. I still need a lot of help with marketing, spreading the word, contacting streamers and increasing funding. If you can help in any of these areas or want to help in other areas then it would be much appreciated!
Matchmaking directions
Because the playerbase is still growing its sometimes hard to find multiplayer games. To that end I did the following steps to help people find games for now.
- I added a multiplayer disclaimer to the multiplayer lobby - I added a 'find players on discord' button to the multiplayer lobby for all who dont know it exists - I added another 'find opponent on discord' button to the multiplayer game list menu for those who check that screen when no one is online - I've styled some of the multiplayer buttons to fit better on smaller screens
Please use the @Looking For Game tag in the discord to tag others who wish to play ^^
Several resolution improvements for those with widescreens + blackhole tweaks
updated the stellar warfare logo
improved black hole quality
did skybox tests
Changed coop and skirmish setup GUI scaling to 'shrink' instead of 'best fit' and set the vertical resolution reference to 768 to hopefully prevent issues on smaller or ultrawide screens
Improved main menu for those with small vertical resolutions
Improved multiplayer main menu for those with small vertical resolutions
Improved scaling for score screen
improved scaling for options menu
Improved scaling for 'the light' men
Weekly games
Having trouble finding a game? Because the game is still growing the lobbies are often empty even though there are lots of people willing to play. That's why I have set up a discord (https://discord.gg/KrWbsdX) bot that will handle organize games on a weekly basis.
These weekly games take place on: - COOP Tuesday (8:00 CET Amsterdam time) - Battle Royale Friday (20:00 CET Amsterdam time) - Multiplayer Sunday 1 ( 8:00 CET Amsterdam time) - Multiplayer Sunday 2 (20:00 CET Amsterdam time)
If you want to join just go to the corresponding channels on the discord and click on the icon to join under the event so that people know how many others will show up.
The games will be held at the exact same time every week so that it is easy to find. If all these times are bad for you please let me know a new suggested and I will set up a bot for that as well so that it is easy to find people to play with around those times.
Of course you can also play at other times by just asking for people to play with in the #looking-for-opponent channel and tagging the @LookingForGame role. If someone wants to play you can then join one of the voice channels if you prefer. You can assign yourself a 'looking for group' role there which allows others to notify you when they want to play.
Join the discord You can join the discord here: https://discord.gg/KrWbsdX
Happy hunting!
Weekly updates will be replaced by patch notes in Events & Announcements channel
Weekly announcements and patch notes usually have a lot of overlapping content. Because of this I will only post patch notes instead of weekly updates now. With the exception of very specific cases of course.
