The making of the next greatest Space Sim/Strategy game "Admirals & Captains : The Prelude" DOWNLOAD

==================DOWNLOAD PRE-ALPHA PREVIEW=====================================
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5gBU0VVYsRINUptbDBhMGhTTUE/view


WHAT IS ADMIRALS AND CAPTAINS : GALACTIC CONQUEST?
It is a strategy game with similarities to Homeworld & Sins Of A Solar Empire but from a first person perspective.
You will be able to seamlessly traverse any and all ships in your fleet, setup wings and battle groups and command your fleet in battle as an admiral should, watching the battle unfold outside of your capital command ship windows OR allow the AI lieutenant admiral to take over and join the action by taking a bomber, capital ship out into the fight.
In AAC:GC you will be able to captain your ships, or admiral fleets of ships. As a captain you will give orders too ship AI Controllers, as an Admiral you can command the Fleet (and individual ships) of your space empire.

This is a strategy/action game NOT an MMO. You will NOT be grinding for hours to collect wares for you next ship.

You will NOT be personally going out and mining and staring at asteroids for hours on end. You will order your fleet to do it. You will gather resources by capturing planets, stations and mineral fields on the field of battle (a galaxy) consisting of up to 100 planets.

This game will be easy and intuitive to navigate with an arcade style look and feel. Controls will not be complex and players will be able to jump right in and take command in minutes.

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Note:
This is the game I have always dreamed about and waited decades for a developer to build, but has never happened.
When Star Citizen came out I was so excited but as time went on I knew it wouldn't be a space strategy game but a pay to play MMO.

Are you tired of MMO's and want a strategy game like Sins Of A Solar Empire and the space simulation of Star Citizen Combined? I do.

I do so much I have put my life savings at risk and learned to be a Unity developer. (*was already a C programmer specializing in AI algorithms & pattern recognition systems)
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I am building a space sim game like no other in existence. (in my opinion

It is similar to Star Citizen but only in the sense that you can fly any space ship. In Admirals & Captains you can fly capital ships, fighters, bombers, shuttles and even escape pods.

You can Shoot the weapons on any of them but guess what YOU DON'T have to if you don't want too. You are the captain and a captain gives orders to his subordinate AI's. Don't like your Gunner Or Pilot, Relieve them from duty and take over while a AI captain takes your place.

This game will consist of 2 parts:
Admirals & Captains : The prelude
A single player version of the game that has MANY of the game mechanics that will be in the kickstarter version of the game. This game I am building SOLO. It will have the prelude to the story for "Admirals & Captains : Galactic Conquest". Anyone who Pledges or Pre-Orders will receive this game for FREE plus early access.
In this game you will be a Captain of a star ship and you will be introduced to the story of the AAC universe.
This game will showcase game mechanics such as the seamless planetary landing, weapons systems, damage collision systems, procedural planet surfaces, AI Controllers (Pilots, Gunners, Engineers)/Ability to order them/take over control, Sector Travel and player mission mechanics.


Admirals & Captains: Galactic Conquest (Will need Kickstarter/funding)
This game will consist of 2 parts, single player and multiplayer.
Single player and multiplayer will have Strategy game style game sessions with 8 to 16 factions per universe with up to 100 sectors of space.
In single player you will be pit against AI factions in a battle for galactic domination. Human players will be able to join your session as Captains and Captain ships in your fleet OR take over an AI faction as an Admiral if you allow it in the game settings.

In Multiplayer you will be pit again Human and or AI admirals in control of opposing empires. To destroy an empire you will need to capture its planets and sectors and capture or kill all of their Fleet Admirals.

The initial game mode will be Hardcore, You only live once. If an opposing admiral discovers your location and drops in on you out of hyperspace laying waste to you capital command OR whatever ship you may be in You better get to the shuttle or escape pod before your ship blows up if you lose the battle.

If you have no support ships OR fleet in your wing and you lose your ship and have no escape pod or shuttle you will be stuck there unless you have a friend come captain a ship in your fleet to rescue you OR you have a comm tower in range allowing you to order a ship in your fleet controlled by an AI captain to rescue you.

If you don't have a comm tower in range of your space suit floating in space well, you will live until you run out of oxygen and then it is game over Admiral.

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I am not going to go into great detail here about the game mechanics as they will be on the website "admiralsandcaptains.com" which I am currently in process of building. Its hard to find time as a solo developer to build the game AND the website but I can being that I am also a LAMP developer.

Once the website is built I will be launching a kick starter campaign.

WHAT I WILL NEED INITIALLY (to build the complete game : (Multiplayer fleet combat simulator/ Galactic Conquest):
-Modelers & Texture Artist
-Advanced Shader Artist (Mabey)
-Additional Programmers (experienced with multiplayer integration)
-Sound designer

*********THIS IS PRE-ALPHA*********
A lot of mechanics / textures and models are unfinished. I am currently working on procedural generation systems for planetary surfaces, mesh deformation of planet surfaces, LOD systems. Controller Transition systems (seamless entry and exit from planetary surfaces to and from ship). I am indeed working on a lot of things 15+ hours a day. until my arm literally hurts.

This preview showcases the seamless planetary landing system, and a rough version of the space sim flight controls.
You can currently fly to and from the planets land, get out and enjoy the view ..

Sponge Bob and the music will not be in the game, that is there for my own entertainment purposes. All rights to them are reserved to their respective owners.

CONTROLS:
To fly the ship:
Go to the center console in the cockpit and press E to enter the ship X to exit (At anytime during flight, even planetary re-entry).
To open the rear door:
Look at the button and press E.
During Flight: (rough and unfinished but functional)
W for forward S for breaks, Q and E to roll, Left Shift for Afterburners, Backspace for all stop.
Landing while in orbit of a planet:
Hold Tab until the ship lands and releases you from flight controls OR press X to exit the flight controls and the ship will fall with the speed of the planets gravitational forces.

Please comment with SPECS of your machine and average frame rate indicated on the top right indicator.
No need to post any bug reports at this time, as it is still largely a work in progress.
THANKS,
JOHNNY BROWN - One Man's Dream Game Studio



==================DOWNLOAD PRE-ALPHA PREVIEW=====================================
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5gBU0VVYsRINUptbDBhMGhTTUE/view

 

Got any screenshots to showcase aswell? Videos? For those who do not want to download files.

 

Here is a video but isn't as up to date as the demo available for download.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5gBU0VVYsRIaE93a1JlQm83T0U/view

 

I'm putting my heart and soul into it, and the fact that I have played every space game known to man From Freelancer to the X series to Evochron mercenaries and so many more.

I aim to fix what is missing in the space sim strategy Genre. A game where you are so immersed, you feel like a real captain of a star ship, a game where your orders matter and can change the game world.

A game of conquest and pure action! No grinding. No paying to play with best ships, EVEN in alpha.

I have programmed a system that will allow me to drop in ANY ship model with an interior in literally less than 20 minutes and have it flying an usable in game.

I may allow a game mode where people can import there own ships and set them up and share them with friends.. a dream come true for modelers that love to design ships.

(even if it makes less money by not "selling" ships because I don't care about money as long as my bills are paid so I can continue to be among the living and continue my work).

If this fails I lose everything ;( I'm living off savings from selling my online business and investing all that I have into the production of this game.

So it has to be the most fun space sim game ever created And it will be.

 

Screenshots

 

more screen shots Planet Side!

 

Last one ;O

 

59 views and only one comment come on guys! At least a keep up the good work.. give me something!

 

Very ambitious.
I missed the part where you listed your previous experience that has set you up to take on such a monumental project.
Do you have any released games? Any prior experience other than playing similar games - which btw is only helpful for design.

 

I do not.

I have extensive experience in C in other fields.

This first version may be rewritten after it is kickstarted. I am implementing API classes to plug in multiplayer later into all of my controllers.

If it works great if not some of it will be redone. My procedural generations and prefab storage systems won't be along with my procedural ship setup system.

I am building this now to get my idea out there, the real meat of the game will need funding to accomplish most likely.

I am still learning a lot, and learn quickly.

Nothing will stand in my way of getting this game into production. After all I am working full time on it spending my MONEY.

After selling my online business, I made the decision that I am tired of web development and am going to pursue my dream of building the game that NO one has built.

I want to feel like Captain F**** Picard giving orders on my bridge engaging in fleet battles from the view of the ships bridge, windows OR the Fleet Command (interface).

The game X-Rebirth SHOULD have been but failed miserably
"Sad face ".

The first Mini-Game "Admirals & Captains - The Prelude", I promise you I CAN build on my own. I have to get it out there and raise money or I will go bankrupt.

 

The first part of the game that will be released before I launch the kick starter campaign most likely will have the "Captain" part of the game. Where you can give orders to your crew and do the first mission in the game. There will be a pilot, gunner and engineer.

Will be fun doing a path finding system with raycasts I look forward to it. And I have a passion for AI algorithms.

 

And yah, I am wanting to raise AT LEAST 3 to 10 million dollars in a year after it is kickstarted. I believe the fleet combat/galaxy conquest system is doable for under 5 mill with a team of modelers/animators and coders.

Though as a green horne game developer I am not sure about costs at this point.

3d warehouse can only get you so far there is a very limited number of ships with usable interiors and I am not that "jazzed" about modeling.

 

I can do
-environments,
-ships setup system (nearly done) where you can drop ANY ship with an interior in and set it up in minutes ready for game play.
- Procedural planet surfaces and atmospheres
- Player and AI controllers
- Weapons Systems (Turrets)
- Collision & Damage systems on ship colliders
- Ship animations
- Seamless planetary landings AS you have seen in the prototype
- Custom LOD system

And im sure a lot more before it is all said and done. I'm prepared to take on any challenge, I accepted that when I embarked on this crusade .

As far as multiplayer I would need to bring in someone experienced, definitely and I am prepared to do so. I am prepared to get a building and hire people and open a studio.

 

If Christ Roberts can do it why can't I ?

My game will be better than Star Citizen in terms of fun SC is great and all but it is NOT a strategy game and mark my words it will be PAY to win.

I don't even need 150 million dollars, just 10% of what he raised to make a better, MORE immersive game built around strategy mechanics instead of MMO mechanics which is SC's massive limitation.

 

Who wants Sins Of A Solar Empire from the view of a capital ships bridge??

Who DOESN'T? Instead of selecting your units and moving them from a top down view you will form wings and battle groups and order them to Go to X and Do X or defend a target ect.

 

I do have experience playing every strategy and space sim game known to man since 1992. Does that count?

I really feel like game developers these days don't actually PLAY video games and thats why most of the games coming out suck especially PC games (NO MANS SKY FOR EXAMPLE).

I also have 33,752 kills on battlefield 4 if that counts for something haha ,
http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf4/soldier/SmilingShooter/stats/454036648/pc/

 

Please take no offense - I might be totally wrong, but I dont think the game as it looks right now will have a successful kickstarter.
The visuals are too rough imo.
Kickstarter has gotten a lot tougher for obvious reasons - high profile, big money flops - which has had a trickle down effect requiring unknown developers to have to hit it perfectly on KS. This isnt something that happens much (est. >10%).
This includes the look of the game.
Even experienced devs with several mid-quality or higher games successfully released have had KS failures due to past disappointments by other known developers, that have resonated mostly downwards to impact success of KS attempts from solo indie developers.

I still wish you luck. The details you have listed sound really cool - though I hope you rethink KS - because it would suck to see that stressful process ultimately derail your progress.

 

I building this game whether I have to beg borrow or sell my house. And the visuals in this game are meant to be Arcadish as the game will have an arcade style to it.

Also dude .. this is just an early prototype check back in 3 months. I will be posting updates.

When the full "Game" prototype with weapons, ship damage systems and the first in game mission is ready complete with a fleshed out story, WEBSITE ready to go.. Maybe I'll get a publisher to fund me.

I don't accept that I cannot build a bad ass game being the bad-ass programmer that I am.

And by the way I just added Clouds to my planets and it is Sexy as can be over 100 FPS with no LOD system!

 

I am going to BLOW your mind bro

 

Visuals aren't everything in a game, its what you can DO, how you interact, your environment. X3 Rebirth had great visuals but I didn't even make it half way though the campaign before I forgot I was even playing it, unlike x3 Rebirth and Reunion which I had hundreds of hours of fun in.

In this game you can land on planets seamlessly, and eventually it will be a part of the games mechanics with the fleet battles and capturing planets. Planets will have defense platforms that can shoot into space and outposts (possibly even a First person shooter addon later) but not planned right now. It is very possible.

Also NEVER said I was launching it on kickstarter in its current condition "Shakes head". I only posted here to get feed back on the general "idea" of the game.

 

You know what, clouds aren't enough. I'm adding a simulated weather system with up to 4 large storms, which will effect the ship and player on the ground in various possible ways.

1. Wind Sheer, forces that randomly sheer the controllers (ground FPC and SHIP) in the direction of the storm.
2. A Gravitational storm, a storm that would smoothly change the direction of gravity with random intervals ans strengths and depend on the mass of the object.
3. Ice Storm (this one would be fun).. we all know about that ice physics material...
4 Hurricane (Extreme Forces) in the radius of a sphere.

Ill be back in a week to show you guys my ground planetary weather simulation which will effect the ship and player. I may have to go ahead and do a procedural-ish basic damage detection system on the ships colliders. Like I said before I am not a modeler, this ship I have in the game I got from sketchup and modified for my purposes. I have learned enough sketchup and blender to be dangerous.

The beauty in what I have already created is that I can go change the components in sketchup to any configuration, to prepare it for proper mesh colliders for the "damage simulation".

I can import the same model and have it game ready in mere seconds, even with changing component configuration in the modeling software.

I did this so that I can import any model fairly quickly when I get one from a modeler.

The only manual setup is adding lights, triggers, animations.
The models do have to be prepped for damage receiving components in the modeling software.

The ships in this game will take varying degrees of damage based upon the component hit on the exterior AND the interior.

There will be missiles in this game and they will have explosive damage that can bypass the ships hull and strike internal ship compartments.

This game may have arcade style look and feel but the simulation at the heart of it, will blow your mind.

My Dream, Your Reality... there's my slogan for One Mans Dream Game Studio.

 

I quite like the art style. It's VERY retro looking, but in a really good way.

Keen to see more. Good luck with it.

 

That's what I thought too. I like the bright stars, the real sky if you were in space would be extremely bright without the planets atmosphere blocking the light, along with planetary light sources (light pollution).

I want the game to have the feel of a fantasy world, but life like physics simulations. Being a solo developer that is programming oriented, I have to reduce my workload in some ways, I want to have the best graphics in the world but, the simulation is the core of the game. That is what game developers these days have lost sight of in my opinion and why I have decided to peruse my dream of becoming a game developer after a successful career in web development.

I can make a difference, I can bring something new and unique to gaming, a game I have thought long and hard about for over 10 years when I go to bed at night. A game I thought of every time a new space sim or strategy game came out that totally disappointed me (there haven't even really been any new space sim games lately unless its a stupid MMO that whats to bilk your wallet with extreme prejudice ).

So in a sense, this game didn't just pop into my head one day. Star Trek : Bridge commander comes to mind.

What im building is basically going to be "like" Star Trek bridge commander in the sense that you will be able to captain a ship, in your ship will be NPC controlled AI's which will have a task (engineer,pilot,gunner) and in the single player campaign an archeologist.

It will be like Sins Of a Solar Empire, in the sense of how ships will move through the galaxy and the galaxy in this game will be structured similarly and you will be able to conquer planets/sectors, destroy stations and planets will produce resources in a near same fashion, in fact the resource system in general will be close to that of Sins.

You will also build new ships in a similar fashion at ship yards that you construct using your resources, different types of ships will require different resources and amounts.

Fleet combat will be Epic and I am hoping to achieve the same level of action that is in X3:Rebirth (the only thing they got right in that game, beautiful space battles with lots of projectiles rendered. I aim to be tracking up to 50,000 at once or more.

As far as experiencing a starship fleet battle and planetary landing from the FIRST person perspective with full ship interiors, correct me if I'm wrong but Star Citizen is the only game attempting to achieve it and it is not even out on the market.

Keep in mind Star Citizen is a MMO not a strategy game. I only make the comparison to my game because there is nothing else for me to compare to as far as I'm aware.

 

And yes I know about the floating point issues in unity. The way im designing the game, this won't be a problem. You won't be needing to exceed 14,000 units in any direction. Everything in each scene the player interacts with will be within 10,000 or less.

Planets/sectors will be self contained in an individual scene, so there will be a loading time (hyperspace animation) in between. All of my planets that are procedural generated are saved at that point to a static gameobject so loading should be near instantaneous.

 

I just love this work, I am building a hurricane simulation that you can see on a planet from space that you can land on get out and experience. Who would of thought. Im thinking of doing at least 3 types of storms to start out with so that planets are more interactive, and dangerous. I definitely want the experience of being on some planets to feel like humans should'nt be there. Incredibly hostile environmentally. I will also be making life like earth like planets and alien worlds. I just chose to start out with a volcanic world, you have to start somewhere.

You could be engaging enemy planetary defense and all of the sudden a fast moving storm approaches. A storm that you may or may not cause you to need to seek shelter for your person, and potentially your ship depending on your ships Mass.

 

Cool! Sounds like a well thought out pipeline for getting content into game quickly. Something that planning, as you've done, is extremely important to perform when designing to working on a game solo.

 

Guess I need to master particle shading, any ideas on how to cover a massively large area, with volumetric clouds that inst bill boarded and looks correctly. I can make the eye/tornado part of the hurricane/storm but making the massively large spinning cloud around it it challenging since I cannot find anything online about making such a large particle effect in unity and making it look correct.

I think im going to try to make a custom particle sheet which inst not circular but more flat so I can control the height of the particle effect.

I cant have 10000 particles. its a massive object so I have to keep optimization in mind all the time.

basically I am trying to make the storm a large particle effect with as few particles as possible while still looking good on the ground and from space.

Any ideas from you super experienced developers lol?

 

I think the key lies in making the correct shaped particles on the sprite sheet so they look correct scaled, more flat instead of round. Still will have to use a decent amount of particles to make it look correctly scaled to 2 to 3000 units of space.

So this will limit the number of storms I can have on each planet. To make up for this im going to make the storms fairly large, each storm covering up to 10 or 15 % of the planets surface. The storms will be moving across the surface being an obstacle for the player, never knowing when a massive deadly storm will come over the horizon while you are engaged in battle. A storm which will have twirling "Sphere" colliders within it (invisible to the player of course), each with a varying degree of Force properties. So if you enter the storm, you will not be able to predict what will happen to you. Since you will be getting hit by all kinds of turbulence, which "can" damage the ship if the force exceeds that of which the ships "hull" can receive. (which will be a large enough force to make you lose control of the ship temporarily).

The sphere colliders will be twirling randomly inside the storm at the speed of the storms rotation or wind speed.

The same sphere colliders that will apply (Random between 2 constants) force to the ship when triggered will also hit the player in first person, but will be scaled down somewhat. 2 different models I guess but one set of sphere collider triggers.

The storm for the volcanic world will be a fire storm, with lightning that can damage the ship as well.



https://www.codeandweb.com/blog/2014/03/28/using-spritesheets-with-unity

 

Have you considered creating a number of 'storms' as mesh object / models?
Maybe as meshes then fx could be created to show heat lightning, shading changes from above (cloudy areas getting lighter/darker).
A number of mesh objects could be pulled from an array (i no code so this might not be correct term) to randomize planetary whether.

 

I created a pretty nice looking storm using 10,000 particles. The issue right now is the particles swirwl is a straight horrizontal circle and do not curve around the planet and the planet isnt large enough to make up for it.

Well, I don't know about planets in unity. With a 64,000 vertices limit I can't make the planet look good without doing something like converting Terrain into mesh, putting it into a cube and then transforming said cube into a sphere.

And, I am getting "shaking" of my camera as far as 15,000 units from center changing interpolation makes no difference.

I'm starting to think Unity isn't a good engine for what I want to do.

 

I'm going to try and implement this, if it is possible to use local Gameobject space to get around the floating point conundrum, smoke and mirrors folks smoke and mirrors.

http://wiki.unity3d.com/index.php?title=Floating_Origin

 

Maybe World Streamer could help you out. Really Solid asset.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/36486