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[friken]

Combat is certainly looking like classic star control, which I think personally is fantastic, though you need joystick support.

I couldn't agree more! So much so that I added controller support last week It was a lot of fun to get two controllers going for 2 player battle. At the moment though the camera system was only made for single player. We had so much fun though, now we need to decide if it is worth the effort to change the camera system to allow 2 player, same screen battles. Without changing the camera, online battles would work fine.

[friken]

I say in regards to Star Control 2, the thing that drew in a lot of people was the story and exploration elements. The music was absolute classic as well, and you've done the hard part there - capturing the sounds and instruments.

A lot of people loved the combat. In fact, I've never heard anyone praising the story of SC2 before.

So, I guess, YMMV.

I remember a few friends played StarControl 1-2 when I did, back in 1992, and they loved the battles, but didn't get into the rpg/adventure part. Personally, I loved both.

[Gregg Williams]

Combat is certainly looking like classic star control, which I think personally is fantastic, though you need joystick support.

I couldn't agree more! So much so that I added controller support last week It was a lot of fun to get two controllers going for 2 player battle. At the moment though the camera system was only made for single player. We had so much fun though, now we need to decide if it is worth the effort to change the camera system to allow 2 player, same screen battles. Without changing the camera, online battles would work fine.

If you plan on putting it on console, I'd think this would be a big win. If its PC only.. not sure.

[friken]

If you plan on putting it on console, I'd think this would be a big win. If its PC only.. not sure.

Our goal is pc/mac/xbox1/ps4/linux(for steambox). I suspect console release(s) would be after pc but my crystal ball is broken and we are still in the process of indie signup for consoles.

[Gregg Williams]

Then I would redo the camera, zoom is just based on distance between opponents anyways isn't it?

[friken]

We have changed a lot since the build posted here. We have moved away from a looping battlefield and experimenting with a camera system the mostly centers player with a look-ahead when far away from enemy (and screen edge marker), then when close enough to an enemy, the camera lerps to center between player and enemy. This model will allow battles with more than a single opponent, something we are considering. It would also allow for single mode explore/fight. Still doing a lot of experimenting and tweaking to something that feels right. The looping battlefield has a lot of issues and overall, I'm just not liking how that system translates from old-school games to today. I'll try and post a video or build to show you what I mean.

[Gregg Williams]

Ah yeah, no looping would change things dramatically. Especially when it also comes to using the planet/sun for gravity maneuvers that were often critical for slower ships to compete with faster ones.

[friken]

We plan on having gravity from stars and planets, but a slingshot without the battlefield looping would be less helpful unless you really got that lucky sling in the right direction. With looping you could sling at warp speed and if you miss target just keep going around and angles usually would eventually line up

[Gregg Williams]

Yeah, which was often critical to pull off with slower heavy vessels. I did way to many multiplayer battles in SC 1 on the genesis.

Oh well, look forward to seeing updates

[friken]

Krex vs SunDagger:

Krex ship is now playable, with long range flak canons. Aim the broadside launchers and fire away. The longer you hold fire the further they go. Release to pop the flak.

SunDagger, Attached to the power of the stars, when they run out of power they dive through a star to recharge. Dive deep enough and pull star plasma to toss at your foe.



Next up, to add ramming to the front of the krex ship. Going to try two different methods and see what we like best. Either momentary forward burst of speed to ram, or launching the front 'claw' section forward to bite/chomp on impact. Not sure which will turn out better.

[Gregg Williams]

Looks good, though I wonder if maybe the background shouldn't be darker. Its quite bright, and active which makes the shots not as easy to track as possible.

[friken]

Looks good, though I wonder if maybe the background shouldn't be darker. Its quite bright, and active which makes the shots not as easy to track as possible.

I'm not sure what codec fraps uses but it seems to amplify the hdr/glowiness of the scene and over saturate compared to actual play. I'll be posting a demo build shortly to get feedback on controller support. When I do, I'm curious if you'll think the same in-game vs the compressed/glowy video.

Either way, good point because video/images needs to look good enough to to entice players interest to even check it out.

[Gregg Williams]

If your able to release a Mac build I can test controller support on that

[friken]

Yep, I can do a mac build. I will do a webplayer first most likely (which works fine on mac/safari)

[friken]

Animated GIFS to chew on:
Solar Exploration:


Gravity Slingshot:


Krex Cruiser vs SunDagger

[JobLeonard]

This looks gorgeous, following. Also very cool that you are working on this all together - I hope the development doesn't cause any tension withing the family .

[friken]

This looks gorgeous, following. Also very cool that you are working on this all together - I hope the development doesn't cause any tension withing the family .

Heh. we haven't killed each other yet... but it is early yet

[Christian]

Coming along nicely! I remember when you first posted on GAF. The game has progressed quite a bit since then

[friken]

This week we spent a lot of time making gas giants come to life w flowing bands of gassy awesomeness:


We also redid our sun surface to be more sun-like with flares erupting from the surface:


The CrystalShip is now in-game w/ a cool pulsing structure. Next week we will work on it's unique attacks, creating mico singularities:


And last up we have started mocking up some alien dialogue UIs... I'm still letting this one simmer.. feedback please:

[DarthBenedict]

Those stars are really impressive.