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[GroZZleR]

Kickstarter

Greenlight

Remnant is a real-time 4X space strategy game set in a single planetary system. Some of the features that make Remnant unique are:

• Full 3D Battles: Combat takes place in completely open space with full six degrees of freedom. No tiles. No grids. Simplified Newtonian physics allow movement in one direction while facing (and attacking) another.
• Espionage: A complex espionage system involving agents that gain experience and level up. Capture or assassinate other player's governors, admirals and spies or disrupt their fledgling empire through sabotage and subterfuge.
• Orbits: A dynamic map where all planets, moons and asteroids move in orbit as the game progresses. Colonizing a moon will keep the colony at arm's length but not yield as many resources as capturing the more vulnerable outer planets and asteroids.
• Logistics: Resources are local to each planet rather than empire wide. The transportation of resources from mining worlds to forge worlds create emergent supply lines that are vulnerable to disruption.

[ryansumo]

I'm a big fan of 4x games so looking forward to seeing where this goes.

[bdsowers]

Yay 4x! What other games are you using for inspiration? There are so many good ones out there - both board & video game alike.

[blekdar]

Ohhhhh man. I drained a lot of time into Star Wars Rebellion back in the day. While it may not have held up as well as some other games, I still enjoy it for what it is. Kudos, if you can improve upon that game's formula, I'm in.

[GroZZleR]

Been distracted wrapping up some Flash sitelocks the last two days.  I'll be able to focus more starting tomorrow.

Today I learned that I have a lot of reading to do on shaders.  I eventually managed to hack something together that looks OK but it has a long way to go.

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I'm a big fan of 4x games so looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Me too, in both regards.

Yay 4x! What other games are you using for inspiration? There are so many good ones out there - both board & video game alike.

Rebellion and Civilization are the ones I've sunk the most time in over the years.  Sins of a Solar Empire is up there too, though more RTS than 4X.  I just picked up Endless Space, Galactic Civilizations 2, Star Ruler and StarDrive during the winter sales (bundle maybe?), so I have plenty of study material.  Anything you'd recommend?

Ohhhhh man. I drained a lot of time into Star Wars Rebellion back in the day. While it may not have held up as well as some other games, I still enjoy it for what it is. Kudos, if you can improve upon that game's formula, I'm in.

I absolutely adore Rebellion's take on the micro/macro aspect.  It has just the right amount of both from beginning to late game.  I consider the combat system and (lack of) diplomacy system as the weakest points, and the aspects I'm going to try to focus on improving.  What do you think?

[BananasGoMoo]

Yay 4x! What other games are you using for inspiration? There are so many good ones out there - both board & video game alike.

Rebellion and Civilization are the ones I've sunk the most time in over the years.  Sins of a Solar Empire is up there too, though more RTS than 4X.  I just picked up Endless Space, Galactic Civilizations 2, Star Ruler and StarDrive during the winter sales (bundle maybe?), so I have plenty of study material.  Anything you'd recommend?

If you need more study material, try the game Distant Worlds: universe (its on steam).

[GroZZleR]

The Borg have nothing on the dreaded Unit Cube:


I've spent the last few days just working on special fx and rendering related things as that's my weakest point and I want to bank as much experience as possible before diving into gameplay coding.  I think having semi-attractive things will also keep me motivated.

Not too much to report when it comes to "learned a lot".

* * *

If you need more study material, try the game Distant Worlds: universe (its on steam).

I've heard very good things but it's pretty pricey.  Been on my wishlist for a while.  Thanks for the heads up, though.

[autumnspark]

Today I learned that I have a lot of reading to do on shaders. 

Man, the horizon atmosphere haze looks pretty sexy to me. Seems pretty realistic how you only see at essentially dawn or dusk from very far away.

[BananasGoMoo]

The Borg have nothing on the dreaded Unit Cube:


I've spent the last few days just working on special fx and rendering related things as that's my weakest point and I want to bank as much experience as possible before diving into gameplay coding.  I think having semi-attractive things will also keep me motivated.

Not too much to report when it comes to "learned a lot".

* * *

I've heard very good things but it's pretty pricey.  Been on my wishlist for a while.  Thanks for the heads up, though.

if you want, I can add you to my steam sharing list, so you can play/study the game whenever I'm not playing a game. PM me if you feel like doing that (is this allowed? moderator message me and I'll remove this message if it's not).

[GroZZleR]

The last piece of the "I don't have a clue how to accomplish this from the get go" pie (though I prefer pecan) came together today: swapping out models for UI elements at various levels of zoom.  It actually wasn't as difficult as I imagined, though it's not working perfectly just yet because not all of these cubes are linked as a single group, but that should be an easy fix.



I'm going to spend my weekend playing around in Sins of a Solar Empire to really nail all the nuance of that amazing camera system.  Anyone have any suggestions for improvements or other games with such fluid cameras?

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Man, the horizon atmosphere haze looks pretty sexy to me. Seems pretty realistic how you only see at essentially dawn or dusk from very far away.

To be honest I want the giant, gawdy atmosphere for that extra bit of sex appeal... realistic or not.  I appreciate the feedback though.

if you want, I can add you to my steam sharing list, so you can play/study the game whenever I'm not playing a game. PM me if you feel like doing that (is this allowed? moderator message me and I'll remove this message if it's not).

That's an incredibly generous ofter mate but I'll have to respectfully decline as I simply do not know entirely what that entails and what the risk involved are.  Very much appreciate your generosity though!

[DwarvenArtisan]

That looks very promising already!

[BananasGoMoo]

That's an incredibly generous ofter mate but I'll have to respectfully decline as I simply do not know entirely what that entails and what the risk involved are.  Very much appreciate your generosity though!

Ok, no problem. If you ever change your mind you can PM me and we can talk about it.

[GroZZleR]

Grabbed a ship from the asset store and found the amazing Spacescape by Alex Peterson for generating the skybox.  Going to be an amazing tool in the future.

Overall lighting sucks but progress is progress!  (Click for 1080p)


Hoping to have some pretty space battles going on by the end of the week.

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That looks very promising already!

Thank you very much!

[GroZZleR]

I've been working on the battle system and ship customization.  The objective is to allow players to customize the various hardpoints on a ship's hull to place specific turrets, counter-measures, subsystems (like shield amplifiers) to create a more dynamic battle environment.  I can place turrets myself in the Unity IDE and they'll behave accordingly, but there's no way for player's to do it just yet.  I'd say it's about halfway there.

I'm not entirely certain on how I want the battles to unfold.  I definitely want the movement to be automatic, so a more slowpaced player doesn't feel completely overwhelmed by frantic RTS action.  I've been toying with a system where the battle pauses every X seconds and allows the player to issue one command to a specific ship or a class of ships ("Launch countermeasures!", "Fire torpedos!", "Shields up!") and the rest of the battle rages autonomously.  To me, this captures the idea of being an admiral of a navy, not able to micromanage every single ship but direct the big picture.  What do you guys think?

The battles right now are fairly stiff looking -- I need to find a way to add nice camera movement and cuts. (Click for 1080p)


Hoping to have something prettier to show off for this coming screenshot Saturday.

[mosseljongen]

Looking good!
As for you battle system, have a look at flotilla. I handles movement in a similar way, teams get to give orders during pause and then carry out in realtime.

[Chris Koźmik]

I've been toying with a system where the battle pauses every X seconds and allows the player to issue one command to a specific ship or a class of ships ("Launch countermeasures!", "Fire torpedos!", "Shields up!") and the rest of the battle rages autonomously.  To me, this captures the idea of being an admiral of a navy, not able to micromanage every single ship but direct the big picture.  What do you guys think?

I like it, but I loathe micromanagement in general, not all players would agree
Althrough every X seconds maybe is too much? Maybe instead make per battle limit (like 5 orders per battle)? Or some mixed system (one order per 10 seconds but no more than 5 per battle)?

[GroZZleR]

Beams are in.  Can you spot them?  8D


(click for 1080p)

Next up is actually being able to play a battle.  I'm not really sure how I want the ships to stand off.  Here's the general setups I've noticed after watching hours of sci-fi footage on YouTube:



My gut says congested would be the most visually pleasing but might be a real nightmare for gameplay.  I'm also not entirely sure how the battle would start in that state -- though it could be pretty cool to have to find your bearings after your fleet warps in.  My second favourite would be pursuit.

What do you guys think?

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Looking good!
As for you battle system, have a look at flotilla. I handles movement in a similar way, teams get to give orders during pause and then carry out in realtime.

You know, I got Flotilla in a bundle a long time ago and still haven't given it a whirl.  Thanks for the reminder!

I like it, but I loathe micromanagement in general, not all players would agree
Althrough every X seconds maybe is too much? Maybe instead make per battle limit (like 5 orders per battle)? Or some mixed system (one order per 10 seconds but no more than 5 per battle)?

I totally understand what you mean with micromanagement.  Nothing more tedious than having to go through the motions of a battle that feels over from the start.  I want it to feel like a hands off light show when you're crushing your opponent and very "any wrong move could tip it" when you're evenly matched.  It's definitely not going to be easy.

[Chris Koźmik]

I think you should start with battle mechanic, not visuals. How the player gives orders and how the orders affect the battle. Then based on these you will know what kind of view fits the mechanic you have choosen.

[GroZZleR]

I've spent the last few weeks writing behind the scenes, boilerplate code: message systems, event systems, component managers, camera controllers, object pools, etc. etc.  Absolutely nothing exciting visually and I definitely didn't want to bore you to death with the details.  I do have a solid foundation going forward, at least, and will be able to share more interesting things going forward.

Here's a mockup of the UI that I had in my head.  It looks absolutely dreadful.  I'll need to consult with a professional in the future:

[GroZZleR]

Here's a mockup for the planet UI.  Feedback very much appreciated here:


Structure portraits courtesy of David Revoy from the Wikimedia Commons.