KickStarter Stellar Tactics, a sandbox sci-fi RPG - now available on Early Access

[ERYFKRAD]

Nice, wonder if boarding will be implemented.

Probably not with only 4 person crews.

Repelling boarders then.

 

[StellarTactics]

Yes, boarding will be implemented. Likely after the initial release.

My current plans are that you will need to disable the ships systems, weapons and engines by targeting them in combat without destroying the hull. That's what the three green dots next to the enemy target indicators on the left of the screen are for. Once they are red, those systems are down and the ship is disabled. After that you will need to hack the airlock security and then you are free to board the ship. Every ship (40 total) will have it's interior fully modeled and you will need to defeat the crews with your team of mercs gaining access to the bridge. Once the crew surrenders or is defeated you will be able to hack security overrides on the bridge and the ship becomes yours. You can then have a tug tow the ship to a nearby station and the ship becomes yours to scrap, sell or use as you like.

In some cases capturing a ship will be a mission objective and you will contact the person who gave you the mission remotely and they will give you your mission rewards as credits, loot etc. There will likely be other boarding mission types to retrieve data, eliminate a target etc.

Combat during boarding missions will be exactly like the current ground game, fully realized top down isometric. I won't be adding a screen with a couple of progress bars that show a randomly generated boarding scenario. You will need to fight your way through the ship with your boarding party to gain access to the bridge, looting and pillaging on your way.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Awesome.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

Awesome.

 

[StaticSpine]

Awesome.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1519260397784082262/

Progress update - 9/29/17
Hi everyone - hope you had a great week. I'm going to post these every Friday so you know how things are coming along with space combat and other content.

This week:
--All 40 ships are now combat ready and playable by both the AI and the player.
--The combat pause system is in. When you pause combat the entire universe stops allowing you to pan your camera to get a better sense of the environment around you, turn turrets on and off, target enemies and turrets individually, review scanning data and manage your energy. While combat is paused you can also review inventory, character info, log data, the universe map and all ship data including swapping team members to various ship stations in the ship UI.
--Combat damage tables are complete and balanced as far as I'm going to take them for now - I'll tweak things once you get a chance to play with space combat and I gather feedback.
--Shield damage mitigation is in and working. Shields mitigate different types of damage based on the quality of the shield you have equipped. You can buy and loot varying quality tiers of ship equipment so as you explore, your ship's equipment will improve (and so will the AI).
--I'm working on the ship scanning system today which is nearly finished. The team member assigned to the electronics station of the ship UI gains experience from scanning and as they improve in skill will gain perks that you can customize. Scan data will provide you with more/better information. Some of the info you won't get at lower levels of scanning skill are enemy turret damage ratings and shield mitigation bonuses.

A few things about space combat and shields:

• Ion weapons can turn the tide of battle and are very important. This weapon type is a shield killer and comes in three varieties - projectile, beam and missile. You can of course choose to equip any type of weapon you like, however, if you scan a ship and it has multiple Ion weapons and you do not, you should run or make sure your ship can handle the damage.
  
• Ion weapons do increased damage against shields which is then mitigated by the shields ion resistance ratings.
  
• Ion weapons do very little damage against ship armor.
  
• Non Ion "beam" weapons do 1/2 damage against combat shields and are then mitigated by the shield resistance rating for that damage type.

So, beam weapons are not very useful against shields unless they are Ion based. Depending on the number of mounts you have on your ship, you may want to balance your weapons accordingly. I was trying out a matched enemy ship that had two ion weapons, a missile turret, an two Gauss cannons. I had 2 missile launchers and a few Gauss cannons and the other ship tore me up. I think the key here is picking your fights. I would have been fine against another ship with matching equipment. If I had quality shields that were attuned to Ion damage, I would have likely survived.

And now for something different!
Missiles come in three base types - explosive, thermal and ion. I'll be adding a warhead settings menu for each missile type that lets you customize their payload for specific purposes like disabling turrets/engines, evading ECM and chaff, range/damage, splash damage and a few other settings. Settings for missiles are a trade-off - each of the below can increase/decrease damage based on how you set up the missile. Missiles are configured once and all missiles of that type use those settings until you change them. This may not be in for the initial release of space combat.

• Setting the missile for longer range adjusts damage values down and conversely shorter range increases missile damage
  
• Setting missiles to evade ECM and chaff will reduce damage output, however, they are more likely to evade active countermeasures.
  
• Splash damage reduces damage and affects more sub-systems (Shields/Turrets/Engines etc)
  
• Targeting specific systems increases damage to that system and reduces damage the hull of the enemy ship once the shields are down.

At least that's the plan. Once I get the warhead settings menu in place I'll play test it to see if the system is practical.

In other news a third mission set is being worked on now that the caves are done. It's shaping up nicely and will go in the game after space combat is finished. I'll share a screenshot once the lighting is finished.

Until next week...

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1488861734103910328/

Progress update - 10/6/17
Hi everyone. Here is the update for this week. Hope you all have a great weekend.


Mining and Combat
Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork
By: Stellar Tactics
Mining lasers have been moved to the new turret system. Details in the today's progress update - https://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1488861734103910328/


Added experience system for piloting, weaponry, electronics and targeting skills. You gain experience at the end of combat for each skill assuming you have a team member assigned to the appropriate station on your ship.

Completed key bindings for turrets - Keys 1-6 - press for individual targeting - hold and release to toggle turrets on/off.

Mining lasers moved to turret system. Can individually target each mining laser to multiple asteroids.
--Combat while mining possible. Mining is a bit less peaceful now as it is possible to be attacked by hostile ships while mining.
--Mining turrets come in light and heavy variants.
--Mining turrets will come in various quality tiers similar to combat turrets and can be purchased or found as loot drops. Higher quality mining lasers will generate bonuses to the yield of rare minerals.
--Mining lasers draw energy from your capacitor and have no ammunition requirements
--Mining turrets use the same energy management system as combat turrets. You can balance energy to engines and shields against your capacitor charge. You need to power up your turrets to mine asteroids.
--You can mine while in combat with enemy ships. Larger ships have more turret mount points and you can balance mining with defensive turrets
--Heavy mining turrets generate twice the yield and consume twice the capacitor charge of light turrets. Yield is modified by your skill in mining. When perks for mining go in you will be able to fine tune mining in a number of ways based on your selections.
--Mining turrets can be brought on and offline for energy management as needed
--Mining can be quite profitable and you're going to need the money to purchase new ships and equipment - ships are expensive. As an example the Pharris Crate MRCH-4 has six turrets total, 3 laser turrets and 3 missile turrets for defense. Filling the cargo bay (1700 cubic meters without a cargo expansion ) and not being picky about the mineral yield can net you around 34,000 Credits per trip. Imagine what you could do with a Behemoth CRG-2 which has 4 heavy turrets that will fit heavy mining lasers and 180,000 cubic meters of cargo space!
--I'll be adding asteroid and asteroid field scanning during alpha so you can evaluate the quality of the mineral yields for various asteroid fields. Rich asteroid fields will be guarded and you may need to purchase mining rights from the local faction authority or face resistance.
--I'll be adding the ability to eject cargo for the space combat update.

Moved all new effects (impacts, beams and explosions) to ground combat.

That's it for this week - back to work...

 

[da_rays]

I just cant believe how much work and passion is put into this . After each update , the game get more and more solid / new gameplay / tweak fix and so on , it just tell me that when this game will be out of early access , with full content , balanced xp/skill/combat , it will truly be uphold as one of the ''very good'' ( to be taken with a grain of salt ) Space / Sci fi cRPG .

There is not much to remember aside Buck Rodgers , Star wolves serie , Albion...KOTOR 1 and 2 . Really hope we can see a new standard being set.

Im trying to not spoil myself , but if that update is coming very soon , im gonna crack , I really want to see how he handle spaceship combat and the fluidity it have with the rest of the game .

 

[YES!]

Yes, boarding will be implemented. Likely after the initial release.

My current plans are that you will need to disable the ships systems, weapons and engines by targeting them in combat without destroying the hull. That's what the three green dots next to the enemy target indicators on the left of the screen are for. Once they are red, those systems are down and the ship is disabled. After that you will need to hack the airlock security and then you are free to board the ship. Every ship (40 total) will have it's interior fully modeled and you will need to defeat the crews with your team of mercs gaining access to the bridge. Once the crew surrenders or is defeated you will be able to hack security overrides on the bridge and the ship becomes yours. You can then have a tug tow the ship to a nearby station and the ship becomes yours to scrap, sell or use as you like.

In some cases capturing a ship will be a mission objective and you will contact the person who gave you the mission remotely and they will give you your mission rewards as credits, loot etc. There will likely be other boarding mission types to retrieve data, eliminate a target etc.

Combat during boarding missions will be exactly like the current ground game, fully realized top down isometric. I won't be adding a screen with a couple of progress bars that show a randomly generated boarding scenario. You will need to fight your way through the ship with your boarding party to gain access to the bridge, looting and pillaging on your way.

This all sounds awesome but I wonder about the requirement of needing to kill all three systems. My thoughts are from sci-fi and historical fiction and I have no actually knowledge of boarding a ship, but in those genres you boarded by closing with the ship and breaching if necessary. Boarding is the main way of shutting down weapon systems in both genres, and is usually the way to nullify and take a ship with out destroying it. This system seems backwards as you nullify it and then when the ship is at your mercy you board and put yourself at risk of losing everything.

Personally, I like the idea of boarding a ship being necessary to nullify it as a threat without the probability of destroying it. Or at least having the opportunity to have an enemy ship surrender to you when you disable it without having to board.

I am all for a system being good as a much higher priority than realism so this is just my thoughts.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

Looks sweet but why only 4 characters?

 

[Iznaliu]

http://www.stellartactics.com/one-year-anniversary/

Sep
23
ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
Don Wilkins No comments



It’s been one year since Stellar Tactics first released on Steam Early Access and it’s been a great year for the game. With the help of the community I’ve crushed hundreds of bugs, implemented community suggested feedback and the game is very stable with over 100 hours of content with the addition of the Abandoned Research Facility.

Looking back I’m really proud of the progress I’ve been able to make and I hope you can all see the passion and dedication I have for the game. I couldn’t have done it without your feedback and support. Stellar Tactics has always been intended to be a Sci-Fi sandbox that I could fill with content and story for years to come. I expect the game to expand quite a bit over the next year and I hope you all will join me as I work towards releasing space combat and add the other systems that need to go into the game before the FTL gates open at Alpha.

Speaking of which, a little progress update here in areas other than space combat. Since my last update all of the space stations for the game have been completed and are now ready to populate out into the void:











Procedural cave systems have all been modeled and laid out and are currently being lit and populated. When they are done they will be ready to be added to the random mission generator and distributed out into the universe.


And finally, a new procedural set for station mission interiors is being worked on as I type this. So, there is a lot of progress being made and I’m working to get everything in the game so even more content is ready for all of you.

I’d like to thank you all for your support and patience as I continue to expand the Stellar Tactics universe. As always I’ll keep you updated, answer any questions you have and work hard to make sure the game is fun and stable.

-Don Wilkins

 

[StellarTactics]

Thanks for posting updates here Taka-Haradin puolipeikko and Iznaliu.

Thanks da_rays - I'm making progress every day.

YES! - The boarding system will come after the initial release. Right now the idea is that you will need to disable certain systems so the ship is disabled to the point where it cannot micro-warp or escape before boarding is possible. So, disabling of systems is a prerequisite to boarding using some of the skills you develop in the game through space combat and hacking. I'll certainly be play testing the system so it is fun and not a chore. The space exploration system is just as much an RPG as the rest of the game. Your space specific skill lines progress over time making your team/ship more powerful. I'm working on skills and tying them into the ship systems this week.

Grampy_Bone - The game is balanced around a 4 member crew. In space you have 4 main ship stations you can assign crew members to - piloting, weaponry, electronics and targeting. Each of these core skills gain experience from space combat, scanning, mining, salvaging and travel improving the efficiency of your ship systems and space combat. You will also select various perk bonuses in those skills as you progress that provide powerful bonuses to the space exploration portion of the game. The space skills work exactly like the ground skill system and provide classless progression that allow you to develop your crew any way you like. You will not be limited to 4 team members. You can recruit up to 20 team members that you can fully customize (appearance, voice, stats and skills) and develop which can be swapped in and out of your selected crew/team slots. However, you can only bring 4 team members with you when exploring ground based locations (think away team) - stations, caves, ground based facilities etc. You will also be able choose to have fewer than 4 team members in your party at any time if you want a challenge, though the game already provides difficulty settings.

 

[Iznaliu]

though the game already provides difficulty settings

How many are there and what effects do they have?

 

[StellarTactics]

Hi Iznaliu - there are three tiers for now - Easy - Normal - Hard. I'll be adding an additional level of difficulty during BETA. I'm also planning to add a game start type that includes permanent death.

Difficulty scales the following for enemies:
-Base Stats - this affects a number of things like weapon skill, base hit points and pretty much everything else calculated in combat.
-Damage output
-Chance to hit
-Chance for critical hits

 

[YES!]

Hi Iznaliu - there are three tiers for now - Easy - Normal - Hard. I'll be adding an additional level of difficulty during BETA. I'm also planning to add a game start type that includes permanent death.

Difficulty scales the following for enemies:
-Base Stats - this affects a number of things like weapon skill, base hit points and pretty much everything else calculated in combat.
-Damage output
-Chance to hit
-Chance for critical hits

May I suggest some tweaks.

Change the lowest tier to Pussy or Retard. Change the name of the tier the game was balanced for and developed around to Base. Ensure that level is geared at adults with brains that think. So your current three tiers could be - Pussy - Console Kid - Base. When you add the forth it could be considered Master Race. On Pussy level the player has to play as a transsexual of unknown gender wearing a pink leotard. On Console Kid have the main character look like that fucking Witcher metrosexual with his long flowing white locks. On Base is wear you allow character generation. On Master Race allow much better and tougher looking portraits.

Now everyone has a challenge level geared towards their grouping and there is no ambiguity as to what level should be picked.

 

[Infinitron]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1483232961035079432/

Progress update 10/13/17
Hi everyone - another progress update this Friday. First, a video that covers ship skills and how they change the space exploration portion of the game.

Update on space combat progress this week related to space specific skill lines and how the affect ship performance. Please excuse the bands at the top and bottom of the screen.

Please excuse the bands at the top and bottom of the screen. This video was captured in the debugger and is running at 1/2 FPS and a non standard resolution.

Stellar Tactics takes a bit of a different approach from most other games. Your crew contributes to the performance of the ship over time based on their experience in four key skill categories - Piloting, Weaponry, Electronics and Targeting. Each of these categories is represented by a dedicated station on your ship.

Piloting affects:
--Ship speed - your base ship speed is calculated based on the mass of your ship. Piloting increases your base speed, afterburner speed and micro-warp speed.
--Ship turn rate - massive ships turn slower than small interceptors. Piloting skill adjusts this.
--Evasion - the ability to evade incoming fire as a bonus

Weaponry affects:
--Weapon damage bonuses - as you gain experience, your skill with weapons increases the weapons base damage
--Turret reload speed - How fast your turrets recharge and reload
--Weaponry capacitor drain (Efficiency) - the amount of charge taken from the capacitor each time the turret fires

Electronics affects:
--Scanning range and the quality of scanning data. Higher quality scanning data will sell for more credits to various factions
--Security - the stability of your ships systems against hacking - this is for the boarding module - you may be boarded if the enemy ship is trying to capture your cargo/ship or if they have a mission to capture you.
--Shield bonuses to your shields maximum durability and recharge rate

Targeting affects:
--Sub-system targeting (The UI in the video needs to be updated) - for the boarding module
--Overall chance to hit scaled by range for turret projectiles
--Shield bypass - your ability to bypass shields by attuning your weapons - this bonus applies damage directly to the enemy ships hull armor.

As you gain skill your bonuses are applied to each of the above. At various tiers you will also get perk selections similar to ground combat that allow you to fine tune your ships systems to adjust for different scenarios - Larger or smaller ships, the number of ships you are attacking/being attacked by and their weapon types based on scans. You can pause combat and scan ships and make perk adjustments at any time in addition to adjusting your power, turrets and targeting.

So, space combat, experience and skill bonuses are code complete - that's the majority of the work. I'll be moving on to the loot system next. Following that ship and ship equipment merchants, some faction work, simple space combat mission systems and testing. I'll be sure to post another update for you next Friday.

Have a great weekend and thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1483232961035079432/

Stellar Tactics [developer] 9 hours ago

Hi Nevertheless - Level scaling is used throughout the game for enemies/NPC's. The scaling keeps the game challenging regardless of your level. The scaling is tiered and takes into account the distance of the system you are located in from the center of the universe. Lets say you fly on the star map and your team is level 10 and you travel to sector 50, 100 - if you enter a system in that sector, enemies will have a base level of between 90-100 depending on your current level. The idea is that the farther from the center of the universe you travel, the more difficult the enemies and the higher the challenge.

I'll need to see how well that works. I think it will give players an challenge and something to work towards. There will be tons of procedural content to go up against as you work your way out towards the boundaries of the game universe gaining skill and earning credits, tokens, better ships and equipment so you can survive in deep space far from the core worlds.

 

[Iznaliu]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1483232961035079432/

I think it would probably be good to have a system where set areas/factions/etc. can have a set level range.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

More info about level scaling:
http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1483232961035079432/

Stellar Tactics [developer] 15 Oct @ 5:31pm

Yes, I followed the conversations about Obilivion and scaling closely because I played the game quite a bit. Those conversations carried over into Fallout 3-4 and Skyrim. There really is no perfect solution that will make everyone happy - it's the nature of game design and progression.

The problem comes in when you want a universe that doesn't make content trivial as you gain power and yet want to retain a sense of progression. I have a diagram I put together years ago. I'll dig it up and post it. The game universe is partitioned into various areas. The farther you get from the center of the universe, the more challenging the game gets:

UPDATED - Here is the diagram.

Universe scaling
Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork
By: Stellar Tactics
This is an old diagram I put together around 3 years ago. Each square represents 10 sectors and shows the minimum/maximum level ranges of that group of sectors for a total of 10,000 sectors.


Core Systems
Borderworlds
Outlands
Fringes
Deep Space

Ships may launch from the Fringes and travel back and forth to the Core Systems. Those ships are generated with skills and equipment at level 80-100 - scanning ships will be important and the higher your scanning skill the more information you will retrieve giving you a good idea of their level of challenge. You can always escape hostile ships by spooling up your Micro-Warp drive assuming you identify their difficulty in time.

Story content will always be scaled.

To answer your question "Could it then be a "solution" to slow down progression of enemies in "inner" sectors based on the number of completed missions in or outwards that sector tier? So you'd fight your way to 50,50, then return to the start and see and feel your progression?"

Yes - the tiered scaling system works to scale enemies several levels above and below your teams average levels to the areas minimum/maximum level cap. So, if you are above a regions maximum cap, enemies will always be generated at a lower level and you will feel the progression of your team. However, those enemies will not be trivial. That goes for any area where you are above the sectors maximum level. If you travel to the fringes at level 10 you will encounter enemies that are around level 80 and you will be crushed.

I'll be coding in some other scaling algorithms that let me tweak this based on feedback once we get to Alpha. It could very well be that setting it up so players come back to a lower level area to plow through trivial enemies is more fun - though in that case I'd likely cap loot quality to the maximum level for that region. Low risk = low reward

One other thing to consider - traveling back to the core worlds is how you would train new crew members/teams that you recruited. Lets say you recruited several mercs at level 10 and never used them in your team. You would travel back to the core worlds and level them up.

I realize my TLDR post may fan the flames of larger discussions around game design, procedural universes, level scaling and trivial content. That's fine - I'm happy to talk about it further.

Stellar Tactics [developer] 15 Oct @ 7:12pm

An example is if your team is level 100 and they go back to a level 10 planet and take a mission, the enemies will be scaled to your level to the minimum level possible. As it is now that would be around 5 levels less than your teams average. So, still not trivial and scaled to your teams average using minimum scaling making them easier overall. And you are correct - rare enemies do not follow the same rules - they use a different kind of scaling.

Stellar Tactics [developer] 15 Oct @ 7:57pm

Space leveling works a little different. Ships can come from higher level regions so scanning them will be important. I'll likely remove the faction hit from scanning ships just for this reason. So, you may be attacked by higher level ships, though you will get a warning well in advance so you can get out of their sphere if influence. They will then ignore you. Stations and the areas around them will likely be safe areas. Most ships are not hostile if the systems faction is aligned with your current factions. Of course, if you enter a system that is controlled by Raiders you are going to need to defend yourself - unless you are aligned with them.

As far as space combat, you will be able to pause combat. It won't be overly twitchy and you will be able able to make decisions at a reasonable pace I'll tune things once I get enough feedback from everyone. I'll make sure difficulty settings are in. Not sure of these will be tied to the global difficulty settings or independent. Will see as I move forward.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/3182216552769790152/

Progress update 10/20/17
The ship loot system is nearly finished - just need a few days to clean things up and get the rest of the rollover information data coded and this task will be finished. There is a lot of code tied to the system including vendors, rollover information, ship attributes and more. I won't go into all the details and will just say this was a productive week with lots of coding, spreadsheet work and many cups of coffee...

A few things about ship equipment and loot. Let's take a look at a ship shield and turret. This is the same equipment at level 10 and again at level 40. Your skills in weaponry and electronics modify the effectiveness of these components as you gain skill. You can see in the screenshots below how bonuses from your skills scale the attributes of the equipment. Green attributes are modified by your skill while yellow attributes are unaffected. Turrets display minimum and maximum DPS scaled to your skill level and the adjustments to their base damage values.


Ship Turrets
Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork
By: Stellar Tactics
Turrets gain additional damage, reload speed and more efficiency in their use of the capacitors as the team member at the weaponry station becomes more skilled in combat.


Turrets gain additional damage, reload speed and more efficiency in their use of the capacitors as the team member at the weaponry station becomes more skilled in combat.


Ship Shields
Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork
By: Stellar Tactics
Shields gain additional HP from your skill level - this is based on the premise that someone assigned to the Electronics station gains bonuses to shield efficiency from their skill level.


Shields gain additional HP from your skill level - this is based on the premise that someone assigned to the Electronics station gains bonuses to shield efficiency from their skill level. Shield resistances are static and scale with the quality of your equipment. Resistances directly remove a fixed percentage of damage from incoming weapon damage before that damage is applied to your shields.

Ship equipment comes in various tiers of quality from Basic to Epic. Legendary equipment can only be looted from vessels/enemies that are high risk or rewarded from missions - it cannot be purchased. Epic ship equipment can only be purchased using faction tokens or looted from bosses.

All equipment is generated by ship type. So, turrets, shields etc are clearly called out for fitting and will only work on that specific ship type. This is because equipment is scaled based on ship attributes like mass, number of hard points and available energy. All equipment has a minimum skill requirement which is also called out in the equipment information UI.

As always your charisma stat will adjust the value of equipment when buying or selling.

The available equipment for ships include turrets, shields, electronics systems, targeting computers, hull armor plating, cargo expansions, warp and FTL drives.

In other news a fourth procedural mission set has been started, the third is being lit as I write this.

That's all I have for this week. I'll be focusing on ship merchants and the ship merchant UI next week.

Thanks again for supporting Stellar Tactics!

 

[Iznaliu]

I wonder if all shields have the same base HP, or whether that can vary.

 

[StellarTactics]

Iznaliu - Shields base HP is based on the ships mass and then modified by the shields quality (basic, exceptional, rare, legendary and epic) so yes, shields base HP varies by ship and quality and is then modified by your skill.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1479856439031452620/

Progress update - 10/27/17
Hi everyone - nothing terribly exciting to report this week though lots of progress was made. The focus was primarily on ship equipment vendors, equipping ship equipment, the ship information UI and tying all equipment stats into the combat and ship systems. This was a ton of work and I'm glad it's behind me.


Ship Equipment Vendors
Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork
By: Stellar Tactics
Equipment vendors are now code complete.


What I have now is a fully functional ship equipment system that allows for the purchase and sale of all ship equipment types. This includes changes to the NPC AI systems, the ship vendor UI, managing the moving data around between the vendors, cargo and the ship itself and displaying that information in the UI. When ship equipment is looted or purchased, it's placed in your cargo hold. From there you can drag and drop the equipment to the equipment slots on the right or the ship UI assuming you are docked at a station.

One item of interest is what I'm calling the "Power Bias". This is rainbow colored bar in the ship UI that displays the combat power state based on your currently equipped engines, shields and turrets. The display calculates the amount of power required to sustain all firing turrets in combat assuming default power settings. A reading to the left of center means that your power balance based on equipped hardware will be effective. Anything to the right of center means that the power draw from your equipment will lead to mis-fires and you will not be able to maintain your maximum fire-power. I'm still doing a bit of work in the screenshot below, tying the correct numbers into several of the fields and moving things around.


Ship UI and "Power Bias"
Community Created Artwork for Steam Artwork
By: Stellar Tactics
Work on progress on the ship UI - shows power bias.


I mentioned this before - shields and turrets have a base power cost which reduces your capacitor charge rate. Turrets draw from your capacitor. Your warp engines provide your overall power rating. All equipment displays this information, however, I needed a way to display this so you won't need to break out a calculator every time you are equipping items. The power bias gauge will help by displaying the current power sustain based on the equipment currently slotted to your ship. I may actually add this to equipment rollover info so you can easily see the effect a shield, turret or engine might have on your power bias. There will be lot's of equipment variants to choose from and you will always be looking for the best performance at the lowest power cost.

I can say that I am now weeks away from the space combat update, so that should be good news to everyone. No specific date yet as I have quite a bit of coding and testing to do yet.

Have a great weekend and thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1479857071258097220/

Stellar Tactics [developer] 12 hours ago
Progress update - 11/3/17
This week was all about ship vendors. Still have a little work to do on swapping ships and a bit of cleanup work on the UI. See the video below for details. Please excuse my monotone - I need to catch up on some sleep - coffee and Red Bull's aren't doing it anymore...

YouTube™ Video: PROGRESSUPDATE 11/3/17
Views: 6
Ship vendors.


Ship vendors can be found throughout the universe and they all carry fixed sets of ships that they sell. Purchasing a new ship requires that you either store your current ship or trade in your current ship for a cash credit towards the price of your new ship.

One issue is that your equipment, because it is ship specific, cannot be swapped between different ships. To make things easier, the merchant gives you credit for each item currently equipped on your ship during the trade in. The value generated is the current market value of your equipment + the current trade in value of your ship which is credited towards your purchase. Your charisma affects the trade in value of all items.

If you choose to store your current ship, it will remain on the station until with all of it's current equipment until you come back for it. I'll make sure there is an easy way to see where all your current ships are stored. The ship storage menu in the video is still a work in progress. There will be more information available that is visible anywhere, anytime. For example, the ship list will provide two lists - the first is a list of all ships and their locations in the universe and a second list displaying the ships currently on the station you are visiting.

Regarding cargo - if you have more cargo in your cargo hold than the new ship will fit, you will need to sell your cargo before purchasing the new ship. The hamsters in the cargo bays will go on strike and the ship vendor will reject the purchase. The rule is that the cargo in the cargo bay of your current ship needs to be less than or equal to the maximum available cargo on your new ship.

As you explore, you will loot ship specific equipment. If you plan in advance, you can horde items for that future ship upgrade and after purchasing your new ship, slot those items into your ship.

One last note: On the ship info screen you can see an area for "MISSILE MANAGEMENT". This will eventually bring up a menu that lets you fit various payloads on your missiles and tweak their subsystems for range, avoidance and a few other things. Missiles come in one main variant and you can adjust them for various purposes and damage types.

That's it for this week. Thanks everyone!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/465490/discussions/0/1482109512310189142/

Stellar Tactics [developer] 48 minutes ago
Progress update - 11/10/17
Hi all! -

This week was primarily focused on finalizing the ship storage management code, ship repair systems on stations and the space combat loot system. That wraps up most of the work. Here's where I am right now:

Done:
--Turret systems for missiles, projectiles and mining,
--Space combat fully functional - turret based combat as shown below in a previous update.
--All 40 ships playable - Light, medium and heavy variants of fighters, merchant ships, explorers, interceptors and massive cargo vessels.
--Skills are all tied into the ship combat system in the game. Team members at stations gain skill and apply bonuses from their skills to your ships systems.
--Ship equipment system and all loot tables tied into the combat system.
--Ship merchants - trade in or purchase a new ship.
--Ship equipment merchants offer millions (really!) of ship specific variants for components like warp drives, turrets, missile launchers, ship armor, electronics systems, ammunition, targeting computers and shields.
--Cargo management.
--Simple ship repair. When I add the final skill based repair system, you will be able to repair ships in space. For now you can simply purchase repairs on the station.
--Ship storage so you can have multiple ships stored around the universe.
--First pass enemy ship AI system.
--Space exploration HUD update.
--Ship scanning.
--Combat loot system - destroyed ships drop ammunition, ship equipment and ore.

To do:
--Chaff and missile avoidance system.
--An update to the mission system to allow for space combat specific mission types.
--Some additional AI work.
--A few quality of life features.
--A few testing, bug fixing and tuning passes.
--Additional polish.

Things are coming along nicely and I should have everything wrapped up soon. I'll continue to post weekly updates and give you a release date for the space combat patch when I get a bit closer to completion. I should mention that this is not all the work being done, another mission set is nearly completed and be implemented along with two other new mission sets after the space combat patch is released.

Thanks for your patience everyone!