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[Walt Destler]

I got a few reports that saving the game, either manually or via auto-save, would crash the game. This has now been fixed. Please download the latest version here: http://starwright.waltdestler.com/

Thanks!

[Walt Destler]

Which much relief, I've finally released version 0.3.0 of StarWright! (Which you can download here.) This release contains a handful of balance changes and, much more exciting, completely revamped art for the ship interiors.

The new art is much more detailed and attractive than the old "art" (which was really just quick "programmer art" sketches). Most of it is even animated! While I don't consider this art to be "final" and I intend to eventually have it replaced by a professional artist, I think it's good enough for (what is currently) a free game. Even so, I welcome your feedback on it if you have any!

Here's a (rather rough) gameplay video featuring the new art:





And a handful of screenshots as well:

[Walt Destler]

Today I released version 0.4.0 of StarWright. The big feature of this release is a new weapon: the Small Laser Blaster!

The Small Laser Blaster is an energy weapon that fires pulses of raw energy. Unlike the cannons, the laser blaster draws its power from plasma batteries instead of using ammo that has to be manufactured elsewhere. Compared to the cannons, the laser blaster deals less damage but has a higher rate of fire and is considerably more accurate. Its rounds also cannot penetrate inside enemy ships, unlike the cannons, making it more effective at destroying perimeter systems than interior systems.



Related to the addition of laser blasters, the player now starts with a new class of ship, which I dubbed the Model-1. The Model-1 is a bit smaller than the previous starting-ship, and instead of having two Regular Cannons it has two Small Laser Blasters. I made this change to reduce the number of game mechanics that the player has to learn and understand at the beginning of the game; laser blasters use no ammo, and so the player only has to understand the power mechanic instead of both the power and ammo mechanics. Also, because laser blasters are more accurate than the cannons, new players will be frustrated less by missed shots.



I have also made some major balance & pacing adjustments in this release. First of all, the damage dealt by all weapons has been greatly increased (cannons do more than twice as much damage); a change I made to increase the pace of combat, which I felt was feeling sluggish. Also, the thrusters and the Ammo Factory both use power much more rapidly, which, combined with the power-consuming new laser blasters, makes balancing power usage and providing sufficient reactors & power supplies much more important.

Go ahead and download it now! I welcome all of your feedback!

[Equalizer]

Have you considered adding some sort of armor that can be placed in front of your own weapons to protect them?

The following design sort of accomplishes this and is efficient at killing stuff in bounty mode while taking relatively low cost damage.



Obviously it gives up having the guns being able to pivot but the advantage is they are really hard to hit without first wearing down the armor. The armor is of course much cheaper to repair.

[Walt Destler]

Have you considered adding some sort of armor that can be placed in front of your own weapons to protect them?

The following design sort of accomplishes this and is efficient at killing stuff in bounty mode while taking relatively low cost damage.

Obviously it gives up having the guns being able to pivot but the advantage is they are really hard to hit without first wearing down the armor. The armor is of course much cheaper to repair.

Hey that's a really cool ship! Yeah, putting armor in front of the weapons like that is certainly a valid strategy. The tradeoff is of course it's much harder to aim at specific parts of enemy ships, but the extra protection might well be worth it.

To answer your question, yes, I am planning on adding shields pretty soon. My currently thinking is that a shield generator will be a 2x2 room (not sure yet if you'll have to place it on the exterior) that projects a shield in a curved arc of about 90 degrees 5-6 tiles away. The shield drains power every time it takes damage, so you have to keep feeding it a lot of power. It also builds up heat which dissipates at a constant rate, and if it overheats then the shield either shuts down for a bit or maybe even explodes (also haven't decided yet).

[AndeCon]

Having a problem with starwright. Starwright requires .net framework 1.4.6 but windows ten does not support that version of framework. If there is some way to fix this problem or do I have to wait for an update?

[Walt Destler]

Having a problem with starwright. Starwright requires .net framework 1.4.6 but windows ten does not support that version of framework. If there is some way to fix this problem or do I have to wait for an update?

Sorry, I'm not sure I understand... StarWright requires .Net 4.6.1, which works fine on Windows 10. (I develop on Windows 10.) What's the exact error you're getting?

[AndeCon]

The .NET Framework 4.6 redistributable does not apply to this operating system. Please download the .NET Framework 4.6 for your operating system from the <A HREF="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=528220">Microsoft Download Center</A>.

Pretty much the error which comes up when I try the .net installer, but there is also no support is terms of how to fix the problem on Microsoft's website.

[Walt Destler]

The .NET Framework 4.6 redistributable does not apply to this operating system. Please download the .NET Framework 4.6 for your operating system from the <A HREF="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=528220">Microsoft Download Center</A>.

Pretty much the error which comes up when I try the .net installer, but there is also no support is terms of how to fix the problem on Microsoft's website.

Okay, so let me get this straight: You get that error while installing StarWright 0.4.1 on Windows 10?

Can you try running StarWright anyway and see what happens?

Here's the only information I could find on debugging that error on Windows 10: http://superuser.com/questions/964729/net-4-6-re-installation-on-windows-10

[AndeCon]

Already installed Starwright, no problems, just on launch of  SW 4.1 I get the error. Thanks for the link aswell checking out the solutions.

[Uros]

I love this game!! FTL with Dwarf Fortress! 

[Walt Destler]

I love this game!! FTL with Dwarf Fortress! 

Thanks so much! Glad you like it!

[wizered67]

Tried this yesterday and really enjoyed it! I definitely will keep following this and trying out the new versions Quick question, is it possible to have multiple ships at once? When a piece of a ship broke off it seemed like it let me modify the piece separately. Would that essentially let me construct a second ship? Or does that not work? Also I really enjoyed the bounty mode, but are you planning on adding stuff other than just destroying ships? Again, great work with this game!

[AndeCon]

Starwright works now (windows had turned .net 4.6.1 off)

Loving the new asthetic, and the new laser adds variety to ships. One thing that annoys me a bit is the parts that break off a ship are still considered "alive" and are still being targeted. I would like if a broken piece of ship is deactivated if it is not connected to the command module.

[Walt Destler]

Tried this yesterday and really enjoyed it! I definitely will keep following this and trying out the new versions Quick question, is it possible to have multiple ships at once? When a piece of a ship broke off it seemed like it let me modify the piece separately. Would that essentially let me construct a second ship? Or does that not work? Also I really enjoyed the bounty mode, but are you planning on adding stuff other than just destroying ships? Again, great work with this game!

Glad to hear you enjoyed it!

Yes, it is possible to have multiple ships using the method that you describe. Eventually I will let the player purchase additional ships, but for now the only way to get an additional ship in the bounty mode is to get a piece blown off and then modify that piece into its own ship.

Eventually, yes, I'm planning on there being a lot more to do and more places to go, but that's a long ways off. For now I'm concentrating on making ship design interesting and ship vs ship combat fun.

Starwright works now (windows had turned .net 4.6.1 off)

Loving the new asthetic, and the new laser adds variety to ships. One thing that annoys me a bit is the parts that break off a ship are still considered "alive" and are still being targeted. I would like if a broken piece of ship is deactivated if it is not connected to the command module.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll think about whether everything on a broken-off piece should deactivate if it gets separated from the control room.

[Walt Destler]

Well it took me a lot longer than I anticipated, but sounds are finally here! (Or should I say hear?) I just released StarWright 0.5.0 which you can download, play, and hear right now!

I had told myself for the longest time that sounds were a lower priority than getting in core gameplay features. I guess that might be true to an extent, but now that I'm playing the game with sounds, I'm really regretting not adding audio months ago, because the game feels much better with sound effects. (And also some accompanying screen-shake effects, which really help to give the sounds some added punch.)

I wrote a long-ish blog post about the sound design and implementation, which you can read here if you're curious: http://blog.waltdestler.com/2016/02/starwright-050-sounds.html

[EJlol]

If I go into blueprint mode, the game freezes

[Walt Destler]

If I go into blueprint mode, the game freezes

Hmm, well that's odd! By "freeze", do you mean just freezes and doesn't do anything, or crash with an error message?

If you could PM me your log file, I'd greatly appreciate it. C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\StarWright\log.txt

You could also trying downloading a previous version (such as 0.4.4) and see if that works for you.

[EJlol]

If I go into blueprint mode, the game freezes

Hmm, well that's odd! By "freeze", do you mean just freezes and doesn't do anything, or crash with an error message?

If you could PM me your log file, I'd greatly appreciate it. C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\StarWright\log.txt

You could also trying downloading a previous version (such as 0.4.4) and see if that works for you.

With freeze, I really mean freeze. I played it in window mode, and as soon as I clicked blueprint button, it frooze. I was even unable to move or close the window. I had to kill it with my task manager. After that I tried again, but again the game froze.

I tested the game at my work, so I cannot send you that logfile at this moment, however just now I also tested it at home, with the same result: The game froze again. The logfile doesn't seem to contain any error or anything. I will PM you the logfile so you can have a look at it.

[Walt Destler]

With freeze, I really mean freeze. I played it in window mode, and as soon as I clicked blueprint button, it frooze. I was even unable to move or close the window. I had to kill it with my task manager. After that I tried again, but again the game froze.

I tested the game at my work, so I cannot send you that logfile at this moment, however just now I also tested it at home, with the same result: The game froze again. The logfile doesn't seem to contain any error or anything. I will PM you the logfile so you can have a look at it.

This bug is fixed! Please download 0.5.1 at http://starwright.waltdestler.com/ and it should work now.