Dev Diary #3: Working in New Classes and New Ideas
Hi
While I continue working in big features like new missions types and mechanics, the growing consensus among players that have shared their feedback is that they want "more of everything" so now I'm also preparing two new recruitable soldier classes for a future big patch: Human Assassin and Krell'Sha Raider.
Human Assassin:
The Human Assassins come to fill the typical sniper/silent killer role that current classes don't cover. While I don't plan to create a whole squad concealment mechanic (unless people ask for it) I would still like to have some minor ambush mechanics with this class that allow for killing while avoiding detection.
This class will also have a new type of weapon: sniper rifles, railguns and other long range weapon I'm still thinking about.
Krell'Sha Raider:
You've seen these birds before, it just makes sense that a race of savage alien warriors can be recruited as pirates so I'm creating this new type of Melee/Ranged hybrid unit that can use and collect bloody trophies and also engage in a "blood rage" that gives it a buff and an extra action.
Notes:
- Both classes are still in development (as you can see in the screenshots I haven't even painted them yet) so I'm open to ideas regarding special skills (as long as they don't require rewriting too much stuff). - Currently it looks like classes are "genderlocked" but I assure you that's only temporary due to other priorities, my long term plan is to have male and female models for at least the human classes so in the future there's more variety.
What about the existing classes?
I'm planning to add more skills to the existing classes, the thing is some of them require that I write new mechanics. For example, I would like to make melee more powerful so I made melee weapons ignore shields but I'm also planning to add a "Parry" skill that stops enemies charging at you or getting too close. Some actions could also grant extra actions to soldiers if they kill an enemy but I need to write that code first (and test it).
I'm also thinking about adding more customization eventually. Right now the customization options I have are one body, 3 heads and a few textures per class so many soldiers look the same. So far players haven't asked a lot for extra customization but I imagine that's part of the "more of everything" request I keep hearing so I would like to eventually add more options, maybe even add actual faces to the soldiers.
Of course, all that work in faces will require time (I'm more of a coder than a 3D artist so creating new assets is something that takes a lot of my time to get it right) but in the meantime I could add accessories to soldiers (like hats, armor pieces and others) in order to give an extra layer of customization:
New Ideas for the Stations:
While I'm planning to make an overhaul of the space station mechanics and interface in the future I thought in the short term I could add a new tab: a Bar. This bar could be used to invite a round to your soldiers and pay for information. This information could unlock hidden missions in a system and later be the start of a whole new quest system.
The Space Stations overhaul will be big enough to need its own announcement in order to be fully explained but for now I can tell you that the idea is to have different stations that offer new services like special quests, positive/negative trait modifications, arenas where you can fight, maybe specialized markets/bars/nightclubs to deal with loyalty issues and recruitment, etc.
I also know people want a way of dismissing soldiers, in the short term I'll just add an option in the stations (and possibly a random event could let you throw someone through an airlock) but in the long term I would also like to have penalties for dismissing soldiers with debt or low loyalty (maybe these dismissed soldiers could try to get revenge once the Rivals system is ready).
What else?
Work continues in other features that I've promised before like Rivals and Space Combat. These new features and the new classes have proven to be very challenging but that shouldn't stop me from releasing other medium sized patches with content before they are ready. I want to make sure people don't feel abandoned so I'm considering short and long term content for the game and if a week I don't have a new patch I can still post these dev diaries to reassure people that I'm working in the project.
Sorry for all the text but much of the work I'm doing right now is only code so there's not much visuals to share yet.
Regards, Jorge
P.S.: you probably noticed there was a patch yesterday, I didn't make an announcement because it was just a fix for a bug related to the Personal Shields.
Ironman, Shields, Ragdolls and more!
Hi
Here's a new patch with a bit of everything:
- New Ironman Mode: stops you from saving manually (make sure you have autosave enabled so there's at least one save in case of any problem). - New Personal Shield Gear: protects from damage by giving you a shield bar with 4 hit points. Melee attacks ignore shield.
- Added "ragdoll deaths" and extra death animations for most enemies so they don't look always the same and the bodies fall more naturally.
- Added Xeno Eggs special loot that can only be sold at a special lab encounter. - Added "Passengers" loot (basically a way for the player to get some money from evacuating people in certain special scenarios). - Added new lab encounter: now you have 50% chances to find a lab orbiting a gas giant that can buy your xeno eggs or that you can raid for loot.
- Added new action to Human and Void Spawn Mercenaries: Hail of Bullets. - Removed Void Roar action from Void Spawn (if you have a previous save file with it you can still use it though). - Added sorting buttons to soldier list. - Added option to invert mouse zoom. - Fixed a bug where some enemies could perform a double movement melee attack and then still have an action. - Fixed a bug where dialogue screen would still be active after returning to Main Menu during Tutorial scene. - Fixed a bug where pressing Escape during an enemy animation could cancel it. - Fixed a problem with grenade trails doing a circular animation. - Some other minor fixes and changes.
Plan for Future Patch:
Unless there's some urgent fixes or players prefer otherwise I would like to take my time with the next patch so it's bigger and includes major features. I will most likely go with the Space Combat system and start creating new "Victory conditions" (currently missions are just "kill everything to win" so I would like to make scenarios with timers, for example a ship that's powering it's jump drive, or loot that you must carry like a heist and maybe more advanced stuff like bounty hunting or defensive maps).
I would also like to know what do you think about the current size of the maps, is the current size ok or would you prefer bigger and more detailed maps?
What do you think is more pressing? and what do you want but you can wait for it? (basically your short term and long term wishlist for the project).
Thanks for your feedback, it has been very different from what I expected so now I decided to focus in what players are actually demanding instead of what I though they would want while I was developing it.
Regards, Jorge
Minor Fixes: Krell'Sha ship encounter and Mission counter
Hi
Here's a small patch with some minor fixes:
- Fixed issue with the Krell'Sha ship encounter having enemies being revealed through walls and doors. - Fixed issue with the missions counter for soldiers having a number bigger than reality.
What about content?
I am working in new stuff like a few encounters and personal shield items but those will take me some days so I decided to release this minor patch right now so players wouldn't have to wait for these fixes.
I'll post a new Dev Diary soon with more information about what I'm preparing for the next Content Patch.
Regards, Jorge
New Encounters and Orbital Bombardment Mechanic
Hi
It took me longer than expected but here's the patch I promised last week with new content and many changes.
Besides content this patch adds a new ship bombardment mechanic that can be used in ground operations (it can't be used when boarding enemy ships). For this mechanic to work you need to buy and install the "Siege Cannon" weapon that can be found in space station markets in the late game (so after the 3th or 4th jump). For now this mechanic only works as a ship bombardment action but the idea is that later you'll have access to other ship components that can help during combat like: advanced scanners, deploying support and maybe even deploying additional troops and turrets.
New Content:
2 Combat scenarios:
Alien planet wth stranded Krell'Sha enemies.
New cargo ship.
2 Random events:
Soldier making items.
Soldiers fighting.
4 New ship components:
Medbay: heals 1 HP per turn without visiting a space station.
Siege Cannon: allows orbital bombardment in planetside missions.
Shield: protects during certain dialogue events.
Mining Beam: allows to get additional resources in asteroid fields.
New "Gear" slot that allows for new items to be equipped.
5 New items:
Advanced Nano Medkit.
Healing Grenade.
Gear: Armor Vest (+1 Armor).
Gear: Auto Loader (+3 Free Reloads).
Experimental Quest Item: Ship Marker (an item obtained after capturing a cargo ship and that can be sold to scavengers).
Modified typical Scav Ship encounter to have dialogue and the possibility of selling ship markers or get your ship repaired instead of only combat.
QoL Improvements and Fixes:
Added button to see list of soldiers (and Pay Now button) inside a station.
Added "Unequp All" button in Squad Selection screen (this button and the one for AutoEquip are on top of the screen now).
Fixed problem with Acid/Corroded visual effect not disappearing after using a Medkit.
Fixed bug where equipment of dead soldiers was lost despite having a successful mission.
Disabled Soldier voices when ordering them to move (I'll add an option to mute them completely later but for now this should help reduce the annoyance they could cause on some players).
Fixed low damage for the FireBlade weapon.
That's it for now, I know there's still a lot of requests I haven't solved yet but I can assure you that I'll get to them eventually and my plan is to keep making patches like this one: with new content and mechanics and not only fixes.
In the meantime please feel free to share your feedback and ideas, I'm working on this game full time. And if you want to support me further please consider leaving a review.
Regards, Jorge
Dev Diary #2: New Content based on Feedback
Hi
Now that the game's been out for more than a week and many players have shared their opinions I can start setting priorities. While I have many plans for the game it seems more varied content and anything that improves replayability needs to be addressed first (according to player's feedback) so I'm preparing a patch with new combat encounters, items and a few new mechanics:
What I'm doing right now:
Right now I'm working in new combat scenarios and random events because I know the existing ones are getting repetitive. Now, making combat scenarios is more time consuming than making only fixes and QoL improvements so I only ask for patience while I make them (I was hoping to have a content patch for this week but it will have to wait until next week).
Adding to that I'm also working in new ship parts and mechanics from orbital bombardment weapons to medbays to support your troops (and to give more use to the Ship Upgrades Screen):
And finally I'm adding new items like Healing Grenades, Advanced Medkits and I even added a new "Gear" slot so the soldiers can equip additional items like Armor Vests:
Of course, I'm also working in your feedback regarding fixes and QoL improvements and trying to finish the "Dynamic Rivals" feature that I've been postponing for a while.
And after this?
After this patch, I'll have to decide if I keep working in more scenarios right away (maybe even a new soldier class) or if I try adding new major features. One possibility is starting to work in some Progression / Roguelite mechanics, I think that should help increase replayability and I have some ideas that you may find interesting.
Thanks for reading and for having patience with the development. Many have mentioned the potential the game has so it's up to me to reach that potential by constantly adding new content and features and I only hope you stay for the ride.
Cheers! Jorge
Some Urgent Fixes (and Autosave)
New Features:
- Added Autosave at the end of every turn in Star Map (option activated by default). - Added option to limit framerate between 30fps and 120fps (this should help reduce temperature in high end machines due to a quirk of the engine). - Added basic Game tab to Options panel (only basic options for now).
Fixes:
- Fixed major bug where combat missions never end due to error in processing experience points(*). - Fixed major bug where double movement messed with the melee hit chances. - Fixed scaling of Main Menu, Intro and Ending screens so their user interface and text grows proportionally in big resolutions. - Reduced base volume of Pod engine during boarding animations (please tell me if this is good enough or it needs more tweaking). - Fixed problem where "Pay Now" button allowed the player to spend more money than possible. - Added missing "Heavy Cannon" weapon to markets in space stations and pirate lairs.
(*) There's still the rare chance where a scenario won't end right away after killing the last enemy but now it should be enough to perform an action (like Reload or Defense) to trigger the Debrief Panel if there's really no enemies left.
Thanks for your patience and sorry again for the inconvenience. I'll keep working constantly in your feedback and bug reports so please keep them coming.
Regards, Jorge
New Patch! Double Movement and some Fixes
Hi
I decided to rush this patch instead of wait till next week because some issues were a bit urgent. I still hope to have a patch next week with at least some new content instead of just fixes and QoL improvements. That said, this patch has a new feature that players were requesting a lot: Double Movement.
Now you can move your units quicker and can also use two moves to perform a melee attack at distant targets with the Raider class.
Fixes and Minor Changes:
- Fixed access to empty areas outside the walls of the Lab scenario. - Fixed movement range so soldiers can't move beyond their actual range or give long turns around walls. - Fixed problem with Container encounter not giving loot. - Reduced cost of Techno Sorcerer spells from 2 AP to 1 AP.
Please let me know if you have any issues or new feedback, I'm 100% dedicated to improve the game. if you want to support what I'm doing please consider leaving a review, that helps me a lot with visibility.
Regards, Jorge
First Patch! QoL Improvements and Minor Fixes
Hi
For the first public patch of the game I decided to make some quick but necessary changes:
Quality of Life Improvements:
- Added lines that show if a cell has line of a sight to a target (see screenshot below). - Added a button to Space Station UI to sell all loot at once.
Fixes and Minor Features:
- Fix to Drifting Containers random encounter not being random enough. - Fix to Defense action not working properly. - Added soldier class descriptions in Soldier Panel. - Fix to rare invisible enemies in final scenario. - Other minor fixes.
What's Next?
I am reading all your feedback and ideas so please keep them coming. I would like to go for now with weekly patches with content, fixes and improvements but for some major features I would probably need more than a single week, I'll let you know if that's the case so please consider following the game for updates.
If you want to support me further please consider leaving a review, it really helps with visibility. If you already did then thanks a lot!
Cheers! Jorge
Void Marauders is now available in Early Access!
After a year and a half of development, Void Marauders is finally available on Steam.
Now it begins the Early Access process where I hope I can get enough player feedback to take this game in an interesting direction but even without feedback I have several ideas about content and features that I would like to add to the game.
Status of the game
Currently the game has 4 soldier classes, a basic skill tree, basic items, weapons and enemies and a functional campaign of 6 systems + 1 last battle. One feature that I promised but it's not yet ready is the Dynamic Rivals, I still need to fix some issues but my first priority now is to get this feature in the game. Of course, players can always ask me to change my priorities with their feedback.
What's After that?
Once that is done I should start working in new content (combat scenarios, weapons, items and maybe a new soldier class) and "combat depth". Currently the missions are limited to "Kill All Enemies" types of objectives, I want to add more objectives like disabling enemy ship systems, raiding locations before a timer runs out or reinforcements show up, bounty hunting, etc.
While this games takes major inspiration from XCOM it also takes some inspiration from FTL by having procedural systems with random encounters in order to increase replayability.
Thanks for reading and I hope you still enjoy the game at this early stage and if you want to support me further please consider leaving a review, that helps a lot with visibility. And if Early Access is not your thing please consider adding the game to your wishlist.
Thanks, Jorge
Early Access Launch on March 29!
Finally! after several delays the game is at last coming to Early Access on March 29.
First I would like to apologize for the constant delays, I was expecting to have an Early Access version during last year but the project kept growing and needing fixes and even now it still needs a lot of work before I'll consider it finished.
As a one man developer I know I should try to keep my ambitions in check but making big games is just something I enjoy doing (and frankly all my ideas are kinda ambitious).
Status of the Game:
The game in its current stage doesn't have much content and the combat needs a lot more depth and variety but you can play a procedural campaign from beginning to end, recruit from 4 soldier classes and fight various types of enemies. At the moment you can only play the basic pirate campaign but later I hope to add more campaigns.
What's next?
During these last days I'll be busy working in fixing last minute issues and promoting the game but during the first weeks of Early Access I'm hoping I can add some interesting features like:
- Space Combat System. - More mission types. - More depth and variety in combat. - More soldier classes. - More enemy variety. - More Dynamic Rival types and interactions.
Of course, the priority I give to these tasks could vary depending of the feedback I get from players. Maybe players want other features to be tackled first (like extra customization or modding) or they find issues that I've missed during my tests so I would need to be flexible.
