Working more and more towards a well implemented base ownership mechanic. Its been sometimes rough going due to having to put in many sub items to get to major goals.
For example - wanting to create a counter attack type mechanic (where factions will try to re-capture bases) means that I need to give the player proper tools to defend a base. Which requires many additional changes/additions/features including a thriving economy, a way to make money and gather resources.
Indie Faction:
You can think of this faction as individuals and small groups similar to you, with their own agendas - usually making money. These are traders, miners and combat pilots, unaligned with any particular faction, that have dealings with all of the factions. The player can't raise faction score with them, however if the faction score is negative, it will rise once you stop being hostile to them.
Base management:
You now have control over bases economy, you can designate a base as a resource supplier or a resource requester, your other bases will full fill these orders via indie transport ships. This lets you create resource loops via a very simple interface that's self managing (indie ships).
Player building platforms:
You can now manually - build defensive and production platforms at your owned bases.
Mining:
You can now assign transport ships to support your mining ships, making mining more efficient. Simply select a transport ship and right click one of your mining ships, the transport ship will ferry the ore from your mining ship back to the base.
Field Patrol:
In order to make mining safer, you can now assign patrol ships to fields, select a combat ship and right click on the field. This ship will now patrol the field and attempt to destroy any hostile ship within the field. If you are friendly to them, other mining ships will pay you a small fee for this service.
What's next?
More work towards the base ownership mechanic. Working towards the ability to build ships (instead of buying them) via resources. Then working on a "counter attack and re-capture" mechanic and further elements of base ownership/capture.
Thank you for your support!
Paul
Happenings - Refuel, Platforms and Gates
Hey guys!
Hope you all had a good holiday season. Here's what's been happening.
Ever since the "fuel" mechanic was added - Link - a way to refuel without docking was in the "planning" stage. Thanks to some new 3D art - we now have refuelling platforms and you can refuel "in space" - simply fly near a refuelling platform and you'll be refuelled.
Platforms:
Bases will now build platforms - both for defense and production. This is continuing on the path of fully implementing base ownership/capture as well as the upcoming improvements to the economy (making it dynamic).
Player manually building platforms (near owned bases) will be added soon.
Gates:
In the original - Void Destroyer 1 - gates were a big part of the game. So I'm very happy that they've been added to Void Destroyer 2. Giving players of the original that extra bit of continuity and for both old and new players another cool element to enjoy.
When you find two linked gates - you can use one to travel to its partner. This travel happens much faster than most ships normally travel. So I imagine it will be used by seasoned players in larger (thus slower) ships.
To use a gate: Travel to a gate, target the gate, open up comms (SHIFT + C by default), the gate should activate, fly into the gate.
These are the first steps in gates and as we proceed towards release they will be further improved via letting non-player ships use them as well as adding missions/etc relating to them.
What's next?
I'll probably spend the next week or so working on bugs and issues that are outstanding. Sort out any new issues with refuelling/gates/platforms as wel as toss a few improvements their way. Then continue working on base ownership and the economy.
Thank you for your support!
Paul
Base Capture/Ownership - First Steps
Hey guys!
Exciting times! We are taking the first steps towards Base Capture/Ownership!
When it comes to - Base Capture/Ownership - this is a pretty ambitious and wide reaching goal/plan for Void Destroyer 2. So this update brings only the very first few steps.
Personally the way I like to do game development - is frequent but small updates, versus having you guys wait months for big patches. I think that many frequent updates are better in terms of "Early Access" often I can get feedback faster, and potentially shift towards things that will work out better in the end.
I like to think that this aspect of the game (when completed) is about 1/3 of the game. So overall its huge - but taken one step at a time in development terms.
So stay tuned to changes/updates/improvements/additions.
Here's a brief summary of the recent changes:
Base Ownership/Capture:
Player can own bases (currently via capture)
Some bases generate resources (eg: mining base mines ore)
Resources will now be kept track off - whether via trade or production
Bases can generate income (credits)
Credits are generated via various ways
Credits are spent on defense (both internal crew and external ships)
Player can give/take credits from owned bases
Things to be aware off or watch out for:
Early steps!
Testing/balance/feedback needed.
Might be buggy or confusing.
Incomplete/WIP GUIs and interfaces.
What's next?
More and more work towards Base Ownership. Including building platforms, improving/balancing the economy, working on base defense and offense.
Looking back:
Thanks for the incredible support you guys have given Void Destroyer 2. When 2015 ended and I looked back at it - I thought to myself that it might have been the best year of my life. Now looking back at 2016 - I'm thinking that it might have been the best one.
2017 is looking good as far as me continuing full time indie game development - and that is thanks to your support. I hope that I look back on 2017 as better than 2015 and 2016 - thanks!
I wish you guys a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays and a everything the best for 2017.
And - a finished and incredible space sandbox game - Void Destroyer 2 - glad that we'll do it together.
Thank you for your support!
Paul
Detour - Black Market
Hey guys!
This was originally planned to be an update about "base captures" - but I took a bit of a detour.
For one thing - the Thanksgiving Holiday and various other real life things got in the way and for another - capturing bases will require a "landing craft" type ship - and this isn't a ship you'd expect to buy at your local civilian base. So in order to make base capturing possible for players still toeing the "lawful" line - I've put in "Black Market" bases.
I don't rememmber exactly how this idea came about - but it stemmed from the desire of players to buy military ships and "The Pirate Life" and how going pirate tends to have its pros and cons. It opens up a portion of the game and locks the more peaceful one. Black Market bases are a way for players to get their hands on military hardware and to have a in between in "The Pirate Life" - whichever side you are on. Black Market bases also became a bit more important with the addition of "ship capture ships" being given to pirates and now will become even more important when "base capture ships" arrive - to support the base capture mechanics.
Another cool benefit of Black Market bases is pirates having a bit more options on where to land - you can't actually be an enemy of a Black Market base because they don't have their own ships, traffic around their bases is made up of other factions.
So to be a bit more specific:
Black Market Bases/Faction:
2 bases added to the Overworld
Don't have their own ships
Currently don't have missions (might change in the future - if I can think of some)
Sell other faction ships (including military/pirate ships)
No mission rank requirements
Ship cost is doubled (the sellers have to make a tidy profit)
It is a crime to purchase these ships (non - kill on sight level)
I hope that this adds a nice element of flexibility to the game and further enhances your enjoyment!
In other news - some new ships are on their way (some might already be in by the time you read this update) - here's a "turn table" style vid that I've gotten from the artist:
When the capture resistance rating reaches 0 the ship is captured
Ship capture ships are "one use only" - plan carefully
Other/misc:
4 Ships added
-- 1 variant of an existing ship, 2 new ships, and 1 variant of a new ship.
Auto dock
-- You can request auto dock via comms (SHIFT + C by default - target a base first)
-- Auto dock is permitted if you have a large ship or if you have a decent mission rank
-- This can significantly reduce the "time till dock"
Entering Overworld
-- Leaving a "gravity field" is changed - SHIFT + ENTER (Overworld toggle) while in gravity field will engage gravity drive to make leaving gravity fields quicker
-- When outside the "gravity field" Overworld mode will automatically engage
-- This can significantly reduce the "time till overworld"
More on ship capture:
Ship capture is a pretty big deal and could have pretty big balance issues. Many of these types of issues haven't been much looked at, so like I've said these are the initial steps and things will change. With your feedback I'll be able to make better decisions to balance and improve the new mechanic.
Starting out on ship capture:
Since this is a new feature - try capturing smaller ships first (corvettes) then move on to larger targets. Versus trying to go for a giant ship first that might be very hard to capture.
What's next?
I'm going to begin looking at base capture and ownership. This is a big big deal and could cause a huge shift in how the game plays, due to it changing the layout of the map.
For example - if you capture all the pirate bases of a particular pirate faction, does that faction even exist any more? These questions will need to be looked at and thought over.
After that?
After the initial steps in base captures - most likely I'll work on the economy. Making it a bit more dynamic, making pirate attacks more likely (making it a bit more dangerous than it is now), and related items.
And after that?
Bit hard to say - potentially working on the story? This will depend on how ship capturing is going, how base ownership works out and how the expanded economy shapes the game.
--
Very excited to bring you guys ship capture - hope that you guys check it out, post commends, issues and feedback on the forums, and keep letting other's know about Void Destroyer 2.
Thank you for supporting the project, the great feedback and reviews (which - now increase the project's front page visibility)!
thanks guys
Paul
Dev Video - Overworld mode and other improvements
Hey guys!
I've put together a dev video summarizing the recent updates.
Time dilation auto toggle - on selection and move command
Intelligence added to mouse selection
Overworld to Ship mode transition:
Persistence of ship group(s)
Persistence of watched object(s)
Persistence of ship posture settings (eg: Engage/Do Not Engage, weapons hold)
Persistence of formation types and leaders
Improved ship positions (no longer smashy smashy ships)
General:
Zoom improvements
Various other bug and crash fixes
What's next?
The plan is to start on ship captures. Starting with capturing fighters/gunships via a gunship class ship, then moving onto capturing larger ships via a small corvette class ship.
This will require art assets (new ship models) so it might take longer than the usual updates as a portion of the work is outside of my arena (I rely on contract artists for the ship models).
So the ETA is about a week for my side and about another week for the art side, for the initial model.
I'm not exactly sure how many will be added. This tends to depend on me and the artist working together to make the new ship(s). Often ideas are tossed around and we end up with additional cool stuff! We'll see!
After that?
Most likely work towards base captures. This is a pretty big undertaking, so the initial steps will be basic and preliminary, and we'll expand from there as the project moves towards Release.
And after that?
After the initial steps in base captures - most likely I'll work on the economy. Making it a bit more dynamic, making pirate attacks more likely (making it a bit more dangerous than it is now), and related items.
Once again - thank you very much for supporting the project! This has been a great month - since our Early Access launch. I hope that you guys continue checking up on the game's recent updates, giving me your feedback, and spreading the word!
The podcast touches on a lot of topics related to Void Destroyer 1/2, as well as space games and gaming in general.
Space Game Junkie is a great site to learn about - you guessed it - space games. Its also a great community and has always been welcoming to both fans of space sims and creators (both large and small).
I especially love checking out their YouTube channel to watch vids of new space games and old. Pretty amazing and inspirational!
Their other podcasts are pretty amazing too, including ones with some classic space game devs (like Homeworld Cataclysm, Freespace, and more!) and with more recent releases.
Hope you check out the podcast and the site.
And as always - thanks for your support!
Paul
Space Game Junkie Podcast starting shortly - 7:30PM Central
Stream Specific Chat Room - https://discord.gg/ZvY7dhk (If you've not used the link above, this will put you in a different room specifically for the stream)
For the past two weeks or so I've been focused on adding new missions.
Here's a list of missions added:
Steal cargo pod
Combat escort
Repair ship
Combat scout
Defend asteroid field
Mining escort
Destroy smuggler cache
For the most part I'm very happy with how these turned out! Some I think are very - very - memorable experiences.
The big issue prior to adding some of these missions was that some factions had very few missions - and in some cases not enough missions for players to buy all the ships for a faction.
For the most part this is now fixed - except for the "mining faction" - which needs more than a few missions added to their list.
While adding these missions - various issues, bugs and features were worked on and added. For example the "fuel system" was added in response to the "Steal cargo pod" mission - taking forever to get to the mission area in a slow transport ship. You can also now hire repair ships, in response to the "Repair ship" mission being added, and so on.
This brings up the number of "generated missions" to over 30. Hopefully 20ish more will be added prior to release. Though, the more the better to avoid the feeling of too much repetativeness which tends to be a big issue with sandboxes.
Next up (rough plans - may change):
I'm going to work a bit on the "Fleet" screen in Overworld, spending about a week there.
After that (rough plans - may change):
Work on ship captures.
After that (rough plans - may change):
Start working on base captures.
How I tend to work is - put out a initial, incomplete, version, see how it works/feels, let it sit for a bit, then improve. Chances are that I'll hop back and forth into some other areas (for example improving the fuel system) - so this is a rough plan.
Again - thanks for your support! The feedback, ideas, thoughts, posted on the forums! The great reviews and letting your friends know!
thanks!
Paul
Dev Video - Fuel Mechanic
Hey guys!
I wasn't planning on doing this update/vid so quickly - but that's how things sometimes go. While adding a mission involving a slower ship - I couldn't take the slow rate of travel (to a far away destination) so I decided to do something about it.
Add a way for the player to boost overworld speed - at the cost of "fuel."
I've put together a video showcasting/explaining the first steps in this direction:
The idea is that - when docked at a base your ship "refuels", and can use that fuel to gain 2x to 4x boost in speed. Larger ships have more fuel capacity. This is to decrease travel time and the sometimes annoyance of frequent combat (this was a pirate mission - I was hounded by bounty hunters).
The important thing to remember is that this is speeding your ship up while you have fuel, versus slowing you down when you don't. Its an addition.
More work will be done to enhance/flesh out this mechanic - for example re-fueling stations, and the ability to re-fuel from a ship in your fleet (if its carrying energy cargo pods). I might also tweak the rate of travel and the amount of fuel ships can carry. For example fighters and smaller ships might have too much right now, and larger ships might have too little. As always I'm open to feedback on this.
I hope that this change aleviates some of the longer travel time in larger ships - the game isn't about long travel, but about what you do during it and what you do when you get to your destination.
