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Games Void Surfer (Formerly Spacecraft) [RELEASED!]

Discussion in 'Projects In Progress' started by Serinx, Jan 30, 2020.

  1. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Void Surfer is a 2d spaceship building and combat game for PC.

    It's now released on steam!
    https://store.steampowered.com/app/1579690/Void_Surfer/?beta=0

    Twitter @VoidSurferGame

    You can customize your ship using various modules which provide offensive, defensive and other benefits. You use these same modules to give your ship a unique look with various colours and shapes.

    You can then use this ship to fight battles in the galaxy and collect more resources to continue upgrading your ship.

    Void Surfer has 3 modes:
    -Story Mode - follow a short story where you start out as a Void Surfer Recruit and work your way up to general to defeat the forces of Emporer Ironfowl.
    -Survival Mode - survive as long as you can against waves of enemies. Salvage their remains to upgrade your ship and figure out the best builds for getting further!
    -Power Struggle - capture objectives alongside your army and battle the enemy force. Watch out, a rogue Void Surfer is on the enemy team!

    Here's the trailer:


    Let me know what you think!
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2021
  2. Serinx

    Serinx

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    I spent some time tidying up the UI and I'm pretty happy with the general direction of it, although it's still a bit bland.

    I also added module rotations (dunno why I didn't add this sooner!) and module painting for a bit of personalization.

    Here's a vid!

     
  3. Serinx

    Serinx

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    New background and a planet!

     
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  4. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Planets are now interactable in that you can build modules into the slots when you're near them.

    For now, there's only an automatic turret available for planets.
    I plan on adding more weapons, shields and utility modules such as resource processors, repair stations, docking stations.

    Adding the modules to the planet works in a similar fashion to how you add them to the ship, but they don't need to be connected to a "core module" and they work independently.

    There's also a limited number of slots so you need to choose wisely and explore to find more planets and bigger planets!

    Here's a video of it in action. The enemies pounced on me a bit earlier than expected so I had to build my turrets mid battle!

     
  5. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Thought this was pretty cool, I learned about predictive aiming so the turret will shoot ahead of its target based on distance, velocity of the target and velocity of the projectile.
    I rendered a yellow crosshair to show where the turret is aiming in order to hit the moving target.

     
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  6. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Been a little while since the last update, here's what I've been working on:
    • 3 new planets: Leafy, Puffy and Icy
    • 2 new planet modules: Resource Gatherer (this replaces the "Resource Processor" circles) and Docking Station (this replaces the "modify ship" button)
    • Updated visuals for the orbital cannon
    • AI now spawn periodically in neighboring sectors rather than only once per sector
    • Ship now has a "gyroscope" on the core module which allows you to rotate the ship to face the cursor without having to use turning thrusters (you can still use turning thrusters if you want a faster rotation)
    Here's a video showing it all in action :)

     
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  7. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Looks lovely :)
     
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  8. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I do wonder, would you consider add, or experiment with gravity near planets and sun?
    Your project evolved so much since you started. Well done.

    Sorry for my very brief responses.
     
  9. Serinx

    Serinx

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    @Antypodish A brief response is better than nothing!

    I've definitely considered the gravitational pull but there is a lot of things to consider.

    I need to find a good balance between realism and fun.

    Do you think there would be any fun mechanics using gravitational pull?

    Currently, I've got black holes which are like obstacles that the player needs to avoid and they'll pull in anything that gets close enough with the force getting weaker over distance.
    Watching projectiles orbit the black holes is quite entertaining and I suppose it could be fun to "bend" bullets around a planet to hit a ship on the other side.

    Definitely worth playing around with!
     
  10. Antypodish

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    I think yes. I personally love that stuff. Shutting something hidden, playing with gravity and flying around things. Considering playing something like Angry Birds in space :p
    You don't need make like super realistic. Keeping arcadish way should be interesting. For example, forces acting, only when close enough. I think only challenging part will be the AI, to recognize and act upon such mechanics of gravitational pull.

    You could also consider adding experimental switch in gameplay options, for switching gravity On/Off.
     
  11. Serinx

    Serinx

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    I spent a bit of time working on fixing up friendly fire, so now you can't damage your own ship and you can place weapons anywhere you like because the projectiles ignore your ship and only damage enemies.

    Part of this was driven by the new "autoturret" weapon which works the same as the orbital cannon on the planets except it's on your ship! (with slightly less damage).

    I also started adding a map that shows which sectors of the galaxy you've explored.
    I always struggle with UI scroll views so it's been a bit painful but I think I have the base of it working nicely.
    I'm going to add the ability to place waypoints and obviously some indicator to show where the player is in the galaxy.

    Here's a video where you can see some of the new things!



    I've got about 10 more items on my Trello to complete before I build another playtest... stay tuned!
     
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  12. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Where has the time gone!?
    March is almost over and I feel like I haven't gotten very far but there's a lot of tedious stuff I've been working on which I'm glad I've finally conquered.
    Now I can make way for more fun stuff!

    So what was I doing?
    I added a minimap, I gave up on the idea in the video above because the scrollrect really wasn't playing nice with dynamic updates to the content. I went with a simple minimap for now which just shows a small icon for different things in the unverse:



    I put together a small tutorial for learning to pilot the ship.
    With feedback from these forums, I cut down the ship building tutorial to some very basic steps to get people into the action faster.

    Fixed loads of bugs
    Added lots of Menu updates for easier navigation
    Added automatic saving when quitting or going to main menu

    Fixed a MAJOR performance issue

    Added resources which can be drilled into - this is still a work in progress.

    There's a new build up on my Itch page.

    I'd appreciate some feedback if anyone has the time. Particularly around the following:
    1. Was the Tutorial easy to follow?
    2. Was the Tutorial frustrating in any way?
    3. Do you wish anything was explained more?
    4. Was anything explained too much?
    5. Do you think you needed the tutorial?
    6. If you encountered an enemy, were they too difficult/easy?
    7. Did you encounter any bugs?
    8. Do you have any ideas for improving the existing systems?
    9. Do you have any ideas for new enemies, weapons or planets?
    10. Other comments
    Cheers!
     
  13. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Quick update - Energy swords! (will be in the next build)

     
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  14. Antypodish

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    Landing on the sun is the best ;)
     
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  15. Serinx

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    I've been thinking I'll increase the immersion of the planets by having a "Landing view" where you can actually see a representation of the planet at ground level.
    I think I'll show the planet modules you've built too, space out around the scene.

    Attached the beginnings of the frost planet landing view.

    Also, a space dragon in progress!

     

    Attached Files:

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  16. Serinx

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    Chopping up the void serpent! I changed the code a bit so I can have a dynamic length on the serpent and you can actually kill it and harvest resources from it now!



    If you've been following, you might notice that there are also some triangle hull modules on the ship now to make it look a little less blocky.

    Anyone have some ideas for what kind of attacks the void serpent should have?

    Let me know!
     
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  17. Antypodish

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    Maybe gazing laser eyes?
    Like 2 strong long beams, in direction of looking at.
    Or, Grip of Boa, when any ship is near any part of serpent's body, ships will receive damage.
     
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  18. Serinx

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    @Antypodish cool ideas! I like the gazing eyes, maybe if you get too close his eyes will drag you in like tractor beams and then he bites.

    I built on your Grip of Boa idea and added spikes that shoot out of his tail. Devastating at close range.
    Check it out!

     
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  19. ianswerquestions20

    ianswerquestions20

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    Neat!! I can't play the exe right now, but it looks like a lot of fun. I hope it's ok if I make a couple suggestions (mostly visual):
    • A parallax background with different layers would look cool and add to the overall aesthetic.
    • Space font please!! https://www.1001fonts.com/space-fonts.html
    • I may have missed this, but are the resources in the corner clickable buttons? To me they look that way - I almost think it would look better to add more of a hud or no background at all, if you could make them look good like that.
    • I love the "Rigidbody2D is destroyed but a script is still trying to access it" errors haha. Just making sure you aware of it.
    Would it be possible for you to export the project into a WebGL build and upload it? I feel like more people would try it if they see it.

    I look forward to seeing more progress!
     
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  20. Serinx

    Serinx

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    @ianswerquestions20 Hey thanks for the feedback!
    Parallax background layers is definitely on the list.
    Those fonts look cool! I'll try some out.
    The resources aren't clickable but I see what you mean. I'm just being lazy and reusing some of the art for now, I will improve it at some stage!
    Yes I see the errors haha.

    I will do a webgl build next time (hoping it works fine in WebGL).
     
  21. ianswerquestions20

    ianswerquestions20

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    Great! I'll keep following this thread for updates. Good luck!
     
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  22. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I am very impressed, how you turned this idea in :)
    The shooting spices adds to visuals, gives time for player for react and plus some fun.
    Well done.
     
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  23. Serinx

    Serinx

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    As requested, there is now a WebGL build on my Itch page
     
  24. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Someone on reddit mentioned that my projectiles and explosions were a bit lackluster, so I grabbed some free assets and tried them out. Looks pretty decent I reckon! what do you guys think?



    Next I want to juice up the audio a bit and maybe include some screenshake (Don't worry, I'll add an option to disable it and make it subtle)
     
  25. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Small update. Added a settings menu (only 1 setting at the moment) and adjustable screenshake for explosions.

    The shake is weaker at a distance and the setting defaults to around 10% of the maximum shake.

    I went a bit overboard with the upper limit...

     
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  26. Serinx

    Serinx

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    I fixed up a few small things I'd been ignoring. I really need to rework the audio which I've touched up a little in this video. Now when playing multiple thrusters and blasters it will automatically utilise the same audiosource where possible to prevent the horrible overlapping sounds. I also added some variation to how the blasters fire which make it look and feel a lot nicer. Turning is now more a constant speed rather than lerping the rotation for better accuracy and more control.



    I'm thinking the player needs some purpose now, so I'm going to introduce a very basic quest system. I can piggyback on my tutorial system for this and I think it'll add a lot of replayability.

    The quests will be along the lines of "bring me the heart of a void serpent" or "deliver 100 stone to Frostgaard"
     
  27. Serinx

    Serinx

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    I've been doing some bits and pieces but nothing major. I've recently played around with 2d lights which I think could add some pretty interesting game elements.

    I'm thinking I'll create a very dark sector in the universe with no stars and lots of dangerous obstacles, you must slowly navigate this dark sector using your torch and locate valuable resources as part of a quest.

    Here's a video showing some of the things I've done with lighting:

     
  28. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Another small update. Fixed a major bug that was bugging me... is that why they're called bugs? My whole "Sector" design where resources were tied to a sector and disappeared if you went too far away was great for performance, but kinda sucked when resources went missing as you carried them!

    Resources are still spawned within a sector, but moving them out of a sector will reassign them to the sector they enter - so simple! why didn't I do that sooner o.0

    I also added waypoints on the map, still a WIP, but this will be great to incorporate into the quest system too. I can say "go to this waypoint" rather than "wander around aimlessly until you find the resource I want".

    I'll try to get a new build up on itch real soon. I'm happy that it works in webgl to some extent! It will be great to get some feedback on the new stuff.

    As always, let me know if you have any ideas for how I could advance this game.

    I'm stagnating a bit now so I'm thinking once I've got some quests in place I'll cut and flesh out and polish.
     
  29. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Mmmm... waypoints and salsa

     
  30. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Finally got a new build done.

    Before you play:
    • Pay attention to your energy bar in the bottom right, if you run out - you're stranded!
    • You can refuel at a docking station
    • In the ship builder screen, you can click "GAINRESOURCE" to cheat and get 10 of each resource
    • I recommend you "Quit without saving" if you die
    • If it breaks on you completely, hit the HARD_RESET button in the shipbuilder screen or the main menu
    https://serinox.itch.io/spacecraft

    Here's a list of the changes:

    Features:
    1. Added an energy system. Modules each have an energy capacity and will use up energy. You can recharge at a docking station
    2. Added 5 new enemy ships
    3. New sectors and stronger enemies appear as you travel further from the center of the universe
    4. Module hitpoints and energy are now saved
    5. Resources now spawn in center after tutorial (the center sector was empty before)
    6. Prevention methods for player messing up the tutorial
    7. Beam effect now connects to resources when being towed using the resource gatherer
    8. Assigning a key to the core module will allow you to "Jump Home" (to the last docking station you were near)
    9. Tab will toggle the HUD
    10. Hovering over a module button in the ship builder will now give a short description and some stats
    11. Modules now drop resources when destroyed
    12. Game will now prompt you if your save is potentially incompatible, and give you the option to erase it
    13. Added some music
    Bug fixes:
    1. Fixed a bug where resources would disappear when carrying it too far
    2. Fixed performance issue when player dies
    3. Fixed some UI overlapping issues
    Other:
    1. AI no longer chase resources, they just patrol, idle, and fight the player
     
  31. sinaj

    sinaj

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    Hello, I like your game, it remindes me a Sega game (StarFlight), one of my favouret games when i was a child. But it was very hard :mad:

     
  32. Serinx

    Serinx

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    @sinaj Thanks! That game looks great. I like the idea of landing on planets to mine for resources. Wonder If I could implement something similar. Maybe just "fly low" on the planets so it would have the same mechanics as the space exploration but have a different background and enemies...

    What were your favourite parts of that game?

    I like how the UI is sort of like the ships cockpit, maybe I will incorporate something like that too.

    I also like the encounter/introduction with enemies before engaging in combat and the game over screen haha. Loads of ideas from this, thanks!
     
  33. sinaj

    sinaj

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    HI, I loved that this game was so challenging, it was very hard to upgrade your ship to get to the next solar system because you need a lot of fuel for that, and the saddest part was when you spended all money for the upgrades, you tried to get to different solar system and suddenly you step on an enemys ship and get blown up and you don't have any money for repairs :D I loved when you need to search a planet for good resources, but some times you landed on planet and there was a storm and it damaged ship, so you need to find a better place to land. I liked when I harvested full ship with great resources but some times I didn't recalculate how many fuel i have to get to the station and I just got stuck near the space sation Yes and I liked the part when you need to introduce myself to the enemies, some was friendly and some was evil, and sometimes they gave some secret coordinates to some secret places, but I never got that far so I dont know what was there and the enemies was very challenging, you had to have a good shooting skill or good weapon upgrades and I think the enemies sometimes called for help and suddenly there where 2 or 3 ships and then you are doomed . I think if someone make game like this on mobile it would be nr.1 space game. Oo and the map for this game was huge. And one more thing this game was awesome. Thanks for bringing back some childhood memories ;)
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2020
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  34. Serinx

    Serinx

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    @sinaj that sounds very challenging! I think my game has the same problems with fuel/energy - I will make sure to add more reminders and backup fuel sources for when you get really stuck, but the main thing is planning ahead.

    I'm not sure if I want it to be "hardcore mode" where losing your ship is the end - that might be quite frustrating if you've spent a lot of time building up a really big customized ship and gathered loads of resources.

    That just gave me an idea - give the player an option to "rebuild" their destroyed ship if they have enough resources.

    Ooo and another idea - deploy an "escape pod" which is basically a tiny ship that you can slowly fly back to base with.
     
  35. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Wow, it's been a month since my last update! Time flies when you're banging your head against a wall I suppose.

    I've been ploughing through a bunch of changes and the list is a lot bigger than I realised!

    I had a few tricky implementations and bugs, but all in all I think I made a decent amount of progress.

    Here's a video which shows some (not all) of the changes:
    Edit: Youtube processing failed


    And here's the list (at least everything I wrote down):


    New Features:
    -Added gigantic destructible asteroid which can be drilled into for resources.
    -Added "component crates" which, when destroyed, drop a module blueprint.
    When flying over the blueprint, you will unlock a random module.
    -Modules must now be unlocked via blueprints in order to build them (some are unlocked by default)
    -Modules are now separated into categories and you can show/hide locked modules
    -Added basic ship "stats" display on ship builder screen
    -Text now appears to show when power or resources are gained in game
    -Added hotkeys for rotating(R) and deleting(DELETE) modules - these hotkeys wont work in keybind mode
    -Ship rotation is now slower when the ship is heavier
    -Docking station now repairs all modules
    -Modules now "spark" when damaged
    -Added message when modules haven't been assigned a key which prevents you from Deploying
    -Added more animations to the tutorial
    -Added better module descriptions which show the damage of weapons
    -Added gyroscope accelerator module which increases turn speed
    -Added lithium and uranium resources
    -You can now move (very slowly) with your thrusters when you're out of power

    Tweaks:
    -Reduced damage of all weapons and reduced hitpoints for resources
    -Gatherer now has more range
    -The module disconnected icon is now a more visible red lightning bolt
    -Changed the module list from a vertical list to a grid

    Bug fixes:
    -Fixed bug where AI could fire lasers 100s of times at once, instantly killing the player
    -Fixed a lag spike when flying near the docking station


    I'll try to get a new build up soon if anyone is interested. Cheers.
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2020
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  36. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Been making small tweaks and fixing bugs and performance issues. I made the void serpent a bit more interesting to fight - he'll now coil up to defend his head and spray you with corrosive acid if you get too close!

    Check it out:

     
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  37. Serinx

    Serinx

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    New build up with the following major changes:
    • You no longer need to build on planets - all planets come with a resource collector and a docking station
    • You can now trade resources with planets via randomly generated "Deals"
    • Modules can be unlocked using blueprints which are found in diamonds scattered through the galaxy
    • The void serpent has reared it's head in the "Voidus Serpentus" sector
    I'd appreciate it if someone could give it a go and answer these questions.
    1. What did you like?
    2. What didn't you like?
    3. What did you wish there was more of?
    4. What did you wish there was less of?
    5. How long did you play?
    6. Are there any features you expected to see that weren't there?
    7. Can you post a picture of your ship? (if you customized it)
    8. Describe your combat experience (if you had one)
    9. Did you encounter any bugs? (details)
    Before you play:
    • The tutorial is very short - don't be discouraged :p
    • If you've played before, click the "HARD RESET" button on the Main Menu - the old save files might cause issues
    • When you get to the part of the tutorial where you add the laser, you might have to click the Crosshair (offense) button first to show the laser (Don't know why, only seems to happen in WebGL).
    https://serinox.itch.io/spacecraft
     
  38. Serinx

    Serinx

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    I had some good feedback on the Feedback Friday thread so I've been reworking the game quite a bit.
    The general feedback was - nice features, but nothing to pull you in, aim for, and keep you playing
    • I have taken away the literal "endless universe" because it makes it too hard to make interesting encounters - its all just copy paste sectors and it was also causing some performance issues.
    • The solar system is now a "room", and new solar systems will be unlocked which you can jump to once you collect enough resources.
    • The UI has been modified to look a bit cleaner and "less gradients" as someone suggested.
    • The ship modules are now more solid colours which look a bit better imo.
    • Resources now spawn based on where you're moving, rather than a set amount being spawned per sector.
    • Added wormholes which appear and start spawning enemies (previously the enemies would just appear out of nowhere in a sector)
    • Fixed some collision performance issues
    • Added a custom crosshair to make aiming feel a bit better
    • Turning is now much faster

    I've also been trying out "user stories" to develop new sets of features and I like how it gives me a structured direction for a piece of development. Here's an example story and video of the result:

    bold is an object and italic is an action - these things require some form of development (although it may already exist)
    "I deployed to the universe after modifying my ship in the tutorial.
    A message appeared, telling me a wormhole was opened and enemies were coming through.
    A waypoint appeared, pointing in the direction of the wormhole.
    I flew over to it and fought a few enemies.
    I then destroyed the wormhole and it dropped resources.
    A message displayed telling me I had closed the first of many wormholes."

     
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  39. Serinx

    Serinx

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    I've had 2 common complaints which were sort of clashing:
    1. When your ship gets too big, turning is too slow - making it difficult to fight
    2. Having a big ship that turns too fast seems unrealistic, basically all ships are variously sized fighter ships

    I've decided I'll keep the slow turning when your ship gets larger and add some new weapons which work better for large ships.

    Introducing Aimable Weapons! You can now get modules which fire toward your cursor rather than straight ahead. This means you can shoot in any direction and dont have to worry about pesky small ships running circles around you. This combined with the A&D turning (instead of mouse turning) will make large ships much more viable despite being slow turners.

    Here's a video to show it:

     
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  40. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    Really cool so far. Well done keeping strong.

    I had your thread on watch, but somehow forum decided to not inform me, about your new posts. :/
    But I am back here, thx to your other thread, regarding damaged vehicle problem.

    You got probably most what you need until now.
    I would like to sneak it something shamelessly, hopefully inspirational for you.
    I was hosting and recording series of multiplier sessions, for alpha From The Depths game, back in 2015.
    This is however fully 3D. But you may find some of inspiration for your project in this vid.


    Shame that YT took in vid comments feature out.
    [/spoieler]
     
  41. Vryken

    Vryken

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    This is looking really great. It reminds me a lot of Reassembly, and I adore that little game:

    If there's one thing in particular you could add that Reassembly doesn't have, it would be a mirror-mode in the ship building editor. That would be fantastic.
     
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  42. Serinx

    Serinx

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    @Vryken Thanks for sharing that! It looks extremely similar to what I'm going for. I might have to buy it and try it out.

    I don't want my game to look like a rip-off so I'll try to deviate and improve on it.

    The mirror mode for ship building is a great idea :) I'll throw it on my list.
     
  43. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Been a little while since my last post. I've been trying to define what "done" will look like which is a lot harder than it sounds!

    I decided to go with a more linear playstyle where you progress through different solar systems, collecting new tech and encountering new worlds, allies and enemies, building up your ship until you're powerful enough to take down a big baddie who threatens the existence of the universe.

    Here's a little video showing a little escort quest (I know) i've been working on... it's been a bit of a challenge working out how to save the state of progressive systems, but I think I've got it down now - might need a bit of refactoring if I want to reapply it though!



    I also played around with the effects a bit. Might be a bit over the top with the thruster effects but I'm all for that!
     
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  44. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Here's another little video. Added another quest and I'm kinda getting the workflow down. It's very hard and time consuming to add these quests so I think I'll only do a few of them and try to make them a bit longer.
    Making them longer means I really need to make sure you can save/load at different points nicely, but I think that's better than copy pasting quests too much.

    I think I'll have a final "wave defence" type quest for each solar system where you can really test out your weapons, as well as one or two unique quests per solar system.

    In this quest, we see the Void Serpent actually incorporated into the game properly!

     
  45. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I am just curious, what is the hardest part, you hit on?
     
  46. Serinx

    Serinx

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    @Antypodish The hardest part for me is ensuring that the quest is "unbreakable". At any point in the quest, someone could decide to save and quit the game, or load another scene. I need to think about how to resume the quests at different points and that can involve re-instantiating different prefabs in the right places and assigning progress variables.

    One example is when I spawn the void serpent, it's easy to save its head location, but I also need to think about how much damage each segment has taken, which ones have been destroyed, whether the segments are mid-attack/animation and what AI state the serpent is in.

    Probably a better approach would be to prevent saving during this battle...

    I don't have much experience with saving/loading and the system I've built wasn't really designed for quests!

    If I spent some time rebuilding my save/load system it would be quite beneficial but I have very limited time, so I'm just going to power through a few quests and call it a learning experience!

    If you have any tips or links on an easy way to improve on this, I'm all ears!
     
  47. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I see.
    No specific tips or links.
    But based on gameplay of many games, as you mentioned, avoid saving during battles.
    That for few reasons.
    One is that you mentioned, which introduces complexity.
    Other is, that player may by accident save the "loosing" state and that may be more frustrating than playing fight again.

    Otherwise, you probably be better consider every game element as per RTS games. Track every unit state and AI states. Serialize world and allow save. Then load and deserialize.

    But I assume, you just need to worry really about game state. In worse case scenario, you dont even save player position, but last visited city / planet. And when loading, spawn player there.

    I would start from last point. Then expand from there, if I feel it is required, or beneficial to gameplay and players.
     
  48. Serinx

    Serinx

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    @Antypodish I think the idea of avoiding/preventing saving during quests or battles is a good idea actually. I do prevent the player from docking at a planet if they're in combat (near an enemy), so I think I should apply the same logic to being mid-quest or mid-battle when they attempt to quit the game.

    This would allow me to create much more complicated quests without having to serialize the progress.

    The only downfall would be that you can't save during a long quest, but perhaps I could add automatic saving at key points between quests or break the quests into "parts" where you can save inbetween each part and there is no need to serialize anything except remember which part to start from.

    Thanks for your input! I think this will simplify my code a lot by implementing this rule.

    Edit: I was playing the Witcher 3 recently and there are many times where you can't save the game, I wonder if this is the reason!
     
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  49. Antypodish

    Antypodish

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    I don't know if technical matter is in particular case, but I suspects so. You see, Witcher allows for modding, including new quests. Saves are not small either. The story lines, missions and side missions are split indeed into smlaler set of tasks. During mission itself saving system do not need to worry about health, position, or state of events and conversation choices. That would be bringing tons of uneccessery complexity. Instead, game permits to save compleae state of the tasks.

    I.e. Did you allow Ciri go by her own for meeting with whiches?
    Did you discussed masters with red baron or the names he had I forgot.

    Or when fighting specific monsters. You can save befor, or after fight.
    Allows to replay fight, and gives a chance to prepare yourself. Changing signs, or make potions.

    In FF7 for example, when you escape mid battle with boss, when you come back again, boss is of full health. So you need fight all again. Many gamea are like that.

    This way you can make missions as complex as you like. But just worry about final outcomes.
    Technically reducing save files to KB rather MB. Not to mention saving logic mechanics, to accommodate all possible variations.
     
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  50. Serinx

    Serinx

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    Been busy making tweaks and little fixes to get a playable build ready.

    I've added in several missions which currently just chain from one to another (linear).

    For simplicity I think this is the best approach, coupled with small random world events in between main quests I think this will give the player enough to do.

    You can try out the build HERE or watch my latest video to see some of the stuff I've been working on :)



    Appreciate any feedback. I may also post to Feedback Friday with some updates if I get feedback before then.