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[Fat Pug Studio]

I don't get how it actually works. The net pulls the enemy AND deals damage? How does it work with multiple enemies on the screen?

[KPas]

I don't get how it actually works. The net pulls the enemy AND deals damage? How does it work with multiple enemies on the screen?

The net consists of 24 strings. The endings of the strings are projectiles. So you can look at it as a cluster of harpoons tied together in the net's center.
Common collision detection leads to contact points between harpoons and asteroids/ships. The corresponding strings are then attached to their targets. So all hit enemies end up within one elastic web.
And over time each string ending deals damage by leaking plasma.

[KPas]

This is a large turret with a perma-rotating mine launcher. It fires a salvo of 10 mines at the player. The mines explode in contact with any object except the turret and other mines. The spread is quite predictable, so the player can move appropriately. But as soon as the mines explode, the shockwaves begin to alter the trajectories.

[KPas]

Another enemy from the higher levels: the big guard.
Like the smaller guards it uses an arc scanner which emits a red flash and a faint sound. You have to watch out for those signs.

[Schrompf]

The flash light and particles sure look nice on this one. But can I actually influence the outcome of this battle? Seems like player control and movement mechanics don't allow evading damage.

[Rarykos]

Oy you're still on this !
That's awesome!

I love how the game has expanded since I last saw it.
Such a funny feeling.

Anyway, I'm writing because the last gif is a bit epilepsy-inducing
Maybe you could limit the range of these flashes, to less screen area?
They could stick around for 2 frames more and be more solid, but they wouldn't make me dizzy! 

My friend is making https://store.steampowered.com/app/846030/V_Rings_of_Saturn/
Maybe you can steal some ideas! 

[KPas]

The flash light and particles sure look nice on this one. But can I actually influence the outcome of this battle? Seems like player control and movement mechanics don't allow evading damage.

First of all: Thanks!
A reasonable question. My purpose was just to draw attention to the big guard and it's firepower. So I moved right under it's nose in order to trigger the salvos. Usually you would watch out for the red flash and the corresponding sound to be prepared and open fire on the guard before it does.

Oy you're still on this !
That's awesome!

I love how the game has expanded since I last saw it.
Such a funny feeling.

Anyway, I'm writing because the last gif is a bit epilepsy-inducing
Maybe you could limit the range of these flashes, to less screen area?
They could stick around for 2 frames more and be more solid, but they wouldn't make me dizzy! 

My friend is making https://store.steampowered.com/app/846030/V_Rings_of_Saturn/
Maybe you can steal some ideas! 

Hey, thanks for revisiting and all the nice words!
Regarding epilepsy: I keep that in mind. Thanks for the hint!
Before I can steal further ideas I first have to realize some others first.

[KPas]

This is an advanced weapon: the Saw MG FF. It's an upgraded sawgun.
FF stands for friend-or-foe (or was it fire-and-forget?). The projectile picks and chases the nearest enemy.
The magazine allows a salvo of 3 sawblades. Reload duration is just as long as the durability of the sawblades.

Anyway, I'm writing because the last gif is a bit epilepsy-inducing

I changed the color of the arc scanner's flash: it is blue now. Does color make a difference at all?

[KPas]

Constellations

In Savage Vessels the map doesn't show the level's border. That border can always change when asteroids move. And I think it would damage the game's atmosphere of threat if the player would be able to see that dynamic border on the map.

But it's hard to see where you've been already and where not. Often you sense that you've overlooked something and you explore certain areas two or three times.

In order to give the player more orientation and the possibility to plan further steps I vizualized the level's structure partially. Therefor I did it like the astronomers and separated everything into constellations.

Because the levels are assembled from predefined invariable regions it was obvious to assign a constellation to each region. A region's individual bodies correspond with the constellation's stars. The bodies got names and connections are drawn.

Here we see 2 regions. The first one consists of one big body. Therefor it has only one star named Tunguska. The second one consists of the three stars Medusa-1C, Militech and Anomaly. Every constellation has a certain topic so the names of the stars have something in common. (Here the topic is Teleglitch) ...




Once the player spots a certain body (vaguely) it is shown on the map as "unknown". When the body has been viewed completely it's name is shown. Independently the body's connections are drawn. That way the player gets hints where to go next.
Here we see 2 examples ...






This measures are meant to be helpful without making it too easy. The player can proceed constellation by constellation for example. Also the player can memorize the constellations.
Here we see a couple of fully explored constellations, zoomed out ...

[KPas]

This is another type of enemy. It's inspired by submarines because I wanted some sort of opponent hiding in hyperspace and surfacing. Technically speaking the ship is uncloaking of course.

The player sometimes tends to follow the level's edge, and these subs are lurking right there. A nasty surprise.

As you can see it's turning speed is low and it doesn't chase the player at all. Just for the record: It would have been possible for me (or you) to get away from it, but I wanted to get the howitzer's salvo on camera ...

[PetSkull]

Looks stunningly good. Eager waiting to be able to play it!

[KPas]

Thanks a lot for your encouraging words! 

[KPas]

In Teleglitch you can combine two shotguns and get a new weapon with doubled firepower. The same applies to some other weapons.
In Savage Vessels you have your space ship with three hardpoints. So the combing mechanism is replaced by an accumulation mechanism: you can craft up to three weapons of the same type and have them in use all at once.
If these weapons have magazines then they fire alternately which results in a doubled or tripled rate of fire.

Time to pay that annoying harpoon driller back and give it a chisel walrus mustache  ...

[KPas]

About torpedoes and expectations

When I implemented torpedoes first I defined them as bullets technically. Now, in my game engine bullets can't interact. They affect other object types like ships or asteroids.

But when facing torpedoes first you think about shooting them down somehow, don't you? I think so.

So, I reworked it all. Now torpedoes are nothing else but ships (technically). You can shoot them down und they can be affected by explosions etc.

[KPas]

So, the game will be finished this year and the Steam release might happen in the first half of 2020.

The demo on itch.io is outdated now. I marked it as closed.

I considered Early Access. But that doesn't suit my development style. It requires getting every aspect of the game into a marketable state and then continuing development together with your buyers and fans.

Early Access is NOT a stage of play testing the finished game, which I rather want. Perhaps I can lure some people into an easygoing closed beta test ...

[KPas]

This is again about lore and story.

Here you can re-read the last and only entry on the subject. What it said was:

certain level formations get striking names. Small notes are added to some of these names (observations, questions etc.) Step by step the player absorbs all the hints and get's an idea what happened and what's going on.

I still like this approach but it has a flaw: how the hell are the notes connected with positions and with timing? -- So I worked on that and came to a solution, for now.

1) On timing

In order to embed the moment of a note in the game world I implemented some system messages:

• Radio traffic
• Scanning result
• Database access
• Computer evaluation

So every time a note is revealed on the map, one of the above messages appears on the top of your screen and turns it into an event, which, needless to say, has a certain point of time.



2) On positioning

In order to give reasons to a note's location on the map, the system works like a GPS logger. So the notes are no longer attached to the letterings. Rather the logger makes a map entry at your current position.

In map mode you can move the cursor to every entry and read the lines. If you really want.

[KPas]

Steam urged (not only) me to complete some graphical assets. I took this opportunity to redesign the logo, header, titles etc.
This has been needed because the old design was based on the reddish ore asteroids only. By now there are 3 types of asteroids: ore, ice and stone.
Also I wanted to include a few of those vessels mentioned in the game's name.

First I converted the main menu or rather the titles. What you see is background action. The driller takes apart all of the non-alphabet asteroids:



And the above mentioned graphical assets now look like this:

[KPas]

View range vs screen aspect ratio

The following image shows: the view range circle (red) exceeds the screen (yellow) by design.



As a result, the areas above and below the screen are always out of sight.
Nevertheless all opponents within those areas can see you. When they're attacking, you will see them quite late.

In order to remove the issue I implemented the possibility to tilt the view by 90°.



First I wanted to avoid an extra key. So when moving the cursor to the edges the view would tilt. But now and then you would tilt the view by mistake which does more harm than good.

So I ended up with the F key which fits with WASD (re-mapping possible anyway). The first keystroke tilts the view, the second one undoes it. Im not completely dissatisfied with that.

[KPas]

As part of the preparation for the planned beta test I made a new gameplay trailer:

[KPas]

Closed Beta Test on Steam has begun



Sign up here

... I should say, that I want to remove all issues from the product in order to give the customer a pleasant experience. But the truth is rather: in order to avoid reasonable rants later, after launch, I would like to trigger all the issues in a controlled and relaxed environment. And if I can't remove some flaws I would like to have a list of "know issues" at least.