Void Destroyer
Secondary Weapons and Other updates - development video log
Recently there's been quite a lot of changes and since some of them are very cool to show off I created a video update.
To summarize - many ship secondary weapons have been added/changed. With the goal of them being unique, tactical, hard to use, powerful, and most of all fun.
For example - as far as I know Void Destroyer is the only space sim with flame throwers (a new secondary weapon) - does that make it the greatest space sim of all time? Yes it does... of course opinions vary, but it has my vote ;)
Check out this (rather long) video update and as always let me know your feedback.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DG5y0mwNj0
Direct link: here
Thank you for supporting the project!
Paul
PS: if you want to skip to the flame thrower part try this - http://youtu.be/_DG5y0mwNj0?t=9m43s
Command ship - upgrades and abilites
As some examples:
You can use the "Tractor Beam" ability on an enemy ship to pull it closer to you, then blast it away with an upgraded main gun.
You can use "Azu's Gambit" to trick enemy ships to focus their fire on the command ship and use "Return to Sender" to return incoming missiles back to their mommas.
You can lay down a "Radiation Field", and then quickly thrust backwards using "Withdraw" so as to take minimal damage from it. And why not lay down some missile mines while you are at it?
Once you are at a safe distance, use "Rapid Repair" which quickly repairs damage, but leaves the command ship extremely vulnerable to weapons fire.
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The goal of command ship upgrades is that they fit the "theme" of the command ship - a lot of the abilities are based on controlling the enemy or the battle. Another goal of these abilities is to provide synergy with other abilities like the examples I listed above.
The main goal - as always - is to give you the player a cool and unique experience. Command ship upgrades/abilities strengthen the play style that likes to focus on piloting the command ship.
So the first pass might be imbalanced, lacking sound and visual fx, some upgrades/abilities might be too weak, some might be too strong. I'd prefer them to be too strong rather than too weak so that they aren't a waste of time. Keeping that in mind I'm looking for feedback from you guys. Adding in these abilities is actually very easy, the more challenging part is merging them with the game play/story and balance of the game.
What's next on the horizon? Next up is overhauling the way that the abilities are presented, instead of a list have a "sort of a" action bar like interface for them. After that I'm going to work on adding many alternate fire options for ships - to strengthen the - "piloting other ships" aspect of the game.
As always thanks for your support.
Paul
Final Story Missions
If you want to provide feedback on them read below - if you don't want even the tiniest bit of a spoiler stop reading now. Or potentially finish the story missions then read the below :)
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Here's the thing - the game has multiple endings, they are designed to allow room for future games/expansions/etc, endings are hard.
I'm looking for feedback on what you guys think of the endings since at this point they can still be changed/improved/etc.
My goal was for them to make sense in terms of the rest of the story and the game's setting and again - to allow for future games/expansions/content etc. Ending things in a somewhat open ended manner might have the annoying feeling of watching a movie and knowing that part 2 will come next year and you can't wait, some players might feel - "hell yeah!", while others might feel "dammit!"
I've personally been in both camps myself in terms of both movies/games/etc.
Anyway - I've rambled long enough - looking forward to your feedback and the nearing release.
thanks for supporting the project!
Paul
New development video
I'm nearly done with the "quick pass" of the story - I've taken a bunch of detours along the way, adding very important (but minor in terms of coding features), tweaking existing ones and adding loads of polish.
Some of the features/polish is the ability of bases to have a dedicated fighter slot (making fighter production much faster). Adding to the "resource request" system so that it works via gates and finally enabling/giving the "ship posture" controls to the player. Letting the player control how their ship(s) respond to enemies. These items became an obvious need to add/tweak when I did the story pass through.
I've added 10 new instant action scenarios - these are simple dogfight type missions. Letting players have space combat without some of the real time strategy elements getting in the way of enjoying the ship to ship combat engine. Instant action scenarios are a great opportunity for me to give players a challenging battle or a unique perspective on the game world (via being able to pilot other faction ships).
There's been loads of tiny polish given to the game, many issues were looked at and I've tried to finalize them versus putting them off like I tended to do before. For example I'm pretty sure that the sound "pop" issues are a thing of the past, and tactical mode to ship mode toggling has had a few bugs fixed. Issues like - when a map first loads - a single frame would render without the visual "outline and toon" effects added have been fixed - while small are an important step towards reaching full release.
Anyway - I've put together a development video for those interested in a more visual demo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tnIczGCiJc
Link to Video on YouTube
What's left:
Finish up the story pass through (about an hour to two hours worth of story to go). Finish up the story. Add about 4 or more instant action scenarios. Finish the GUI elements (this unfortunately depends on outside artists). Finalize and finish up command ship upgrades. Most likely add in a "base versus base skirmish" type "addon" (letting you setup a quick base versus ai base battle) to the Instant Action mode of the game. And that's it - we would be at the "released" stage - and then go beyond that.
The above seems like a lot - but as usual... I'm pretty optimistic and the above are mostly finishing touches.
I mentioned this in the end of the video, but I'll mention it here as well - I'm nearly a year behind schedule. It is pretty obvious that I'm unable to estimate time very well and I constantly think about that - and to cheer myself up I think that the game is a much better game as a result of a longer development.
Once again thank you for supporting the project during Early Access.
If you have any issues or feedback please let me know.
Paul
Another quick update
Story/mission wise the game is nearly complete - the next mission update should include the conclusion of that aspect of the game. But before I start working on that I'm going to revisit the rest of the game and see what needs to be improved.
One aspect that I kept seeing that needs a look at is ship build times - I'm not sure whether I'll just decrease them, add in an "research upgrade" to decrease them, or allow bases to build more than one ship at a time or some combination of the above (or another solution).
I'll see where there is a need for music in the earlier game and add it in (now that there are a lot more music tracks than when I started).
I will most likely also add in a few features - for example the ability to get resources via gates (versus just nearby bases).
Finally I'll see where the earlier story could benefit from game engine improvements and from things I learned over the more than a year that the story game play has been in development. I'll try to make battles bigger without necessarily increasing the difficulty.
So I hope to work on the above for the rest of the week, and then continue towards release.
Thanks for supporting the project!
Paul
PS: once the above are done I'll post a "what is left to do" type of an update.
Quick update - new story content
Going to spend the upcoming week or so polishing this new content and then continue working on the next segments of the story.
Thanks for supporting the project!
Paul
Achievements are in!
The first batch of achievements are "story" achievements - achievements that are unlocked via playing through the game's story. They are in a way - fairly obvious - though there are a few that are branches of the main story and/or somewhat unusual player actions/choices. There are also a few that are unlocked via playing instant action scenarios. More will be added as the story aspect of the game gets completed and instant action scenarios are finalized.
Achievements are in a basic state - a few of them aren't possible to unlock yet. I have to tweak some missions and code to watch for the event(s) that unlock them. That will be soon fixed along as well as - hopefully - the addition of achievements that are more "game play mechanics" based, unlocked via playing a certain way, defeating enemies and other stats.
I know that value of achievements can vary greatly among players, even to the point that some of you don't care about them at all. Still I hope that for those that do care about achievements - they are an added value to the game and a increase of your enjoyment of it. The game offers challenging missions so I hope that seeing an achievement pop up after a conquest gives you guys an added boost of satisfaction.
As always thank you for supporting the project.
Paul
PS: I haven't spent a great deal of time thinking of achievements and what value they bring to players (reletively speaking - compared to the time I've spent thinking about other aspects of the game) . So I mainly have my own game playing as a guideline and what I imagine they mean to other players, so it would be greatly appreciated if you let me know your thoughts through feedback on the forums.
Void Destroyer - Iteration 21 Update
- New story content - about 2 hours worth
- New instant action scenario
- Earlier story content revised/updated/improved
- Story/dialog/mission writing updates/edits/tweaks thanks to an outsider writer
- 5 new ships (3 new ships - 2 variants)
- Added new build able defensive platforms for the "rock guys" faction
- "Mines" can be "built" the way that stations are
- New HUD elements (target related)
- Resource request system - have more than one base? Transfer some resources via cargo ships
- Multi controller support. For those with HOTAS and/or wanting to use a two joysticks at the same time
- Redone station upkeep
- Numerous enhancements, tweaks and bugs fixed - change log
What's next:
We are about 2 or 3 more updates until the story line is complete - I'm not entirely sure because I'm not exactly sure how it all ends. Once the story line is complete - focus will be given 100% to art related assets polish and misc issues. Also I'm hopeful that Steam Achievements should be nearing the horizon.
Other happenings:
Check out this new art:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=300193174
This is the basis of new Steam banners/capsules for the store and related pages. I have it set as my desktop background :) If you want the 1080p version here's a link to download it.
Thanks for supporting the project!
Paul
Quick update - new story content
I've just added the next segment of the story (and an unlockable instant action scenario) and will now spend a few day polishing it up (there are some potential ways of "breaking" the mission(s) that I have to consider and put in work arounds/branches) and then post a larger announcement.
Feel free to let me know your thoughts on the new story content (especially this - the new mission is fairly elaborate and is a bit of departure from "usual" missions in games) and any other aspect.
thanks for supporting the project!
Paul
Void Destroyer - Iteration 20 Update
For a more exciting look at the update check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8FhZfgk8BY
Direct YouTube link: Video 1
For a "developer commentary" overview check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQRVTBI-L34
Direct YouTube link: Video 2
Some highlights of recent updates:
- 21 new ships
- New weapons
- Area of effect damage clouds
- Heat seeking mines
- Beams
- Area of effect damage clouds
- New features
- Smooth camera transitions
- Physical attachments to objects
- Shields
- Smooth camera transitions
- New enemy factions
- GUI and HUD enhancements (still heavily under construction)
- New missions
- New instant action scenarios
- New boss fight
- New instant action scenarios
- Improvements to the existing game missions
And loads of other improvements/additions/fixed - for a full log see here
What's next?
Work will continue towards new story content. The end 50% of the story should go a lot faster - once you climb a mountain - it tends to be easier to get down.
More GUI and HUD work.
More bug fixes and features.
Big issues?
Outside of bugs, the two biggest issues are that the AI still tends to clump and the AI is too independent. Upcoming GUI improvements will give the player more control over their fleet's behavior, making them more obedient or independent depending on situation need - up to the player.
Thank you for supporting Void Destroyer's Early Access - without your support this labor of love would be a greatly diminished.
Thank you for your continuing support and for helping spread the word to other gamers.
Paul