Stellar Warfare News

This week I've completed campaign mission 2 and 3! There is also a bunch of things related to the project that are not relevant to this list so I've left them out. Oh yeah and I worked on expanding the lore this week as well!

To do that I've done the following things:

• Made script for campaign mission 2
  
• Wrote out the events of campaign mission 2
  
• Made a comms station
  
• Added comms dead lose condition
  
• Changed comms station selection circle
  
• Set up system for proper info text coloring
  
• Hidden wave timer in mission 2
  
• Made text color white
  
• Tweaked objective texts
  
• Increased the amount of objectives for mission 2 for more smooth storytelling
  
• Fixed object rotation speed
  
• Added comms sound
  
• Wrote mission 2 script
  
• Added objectives mission 3
  
• Completed mission 3
  
• Reworked the victory conditions a little bit so we need to test those in each game mode again
  

Support
This projected is funded by myself and I'm losing money on it every month. Sometimes I'm struggling to pay rent as well because of it. Therefore I've set up a patreon called TenseGames and I'm fortunate that a lot of people already decided to help me out. To do something back I'm giving them the following:

• Their name on transport ships
  
• Access to all work in progress versions of the game
  
• Depending on the tier they get to name a ship, weapon or module
  
• Every week I play a game of Battle Royale and regular Multiplayer with them
  

So if you can spare it, and only if you can miss it, please consider supporting the project that way as well.

Future plans
Next week I hope to complete campaign mission 4 and 5. And perhaps implement some new ships as well!

This week I worked mostly on the campaign. We needed to get some systems in place to display the objectives, show the relevant information and refine the planned story a bit more. With most of these systems in place the road is paved for the other campaign missions. This week I've managed to implement the first campaign mission, with the exception of the planned voice overs.

In addition to that I've also created and tested a build to be used for an upcoming event. More on that later.



I've put all I've done this week in the list below:

Balancing

• Slightly buffed the ion cannon
  
• Nerfed gauss cannon a bit
  
• Added new weapon: Weldcannon (super short range high intensity beam weapon)
  
• Added 3 balistic weapon variants
  
• Cant confirm devastators supposed reduced cooldown (in the weapon tester it works fine). Have reduced its damage by 30% though
  

General & campaign

• Made cinematic camera slower
  
• Tested Skirmish AI
  
• Tweaked harvester income
  
• Made cinematic camera slower
  
• Reduced music volume
  
• Added player name input to the main menu
  
• Redesigned blueprint visuals
  
• Did tests with shield buildings (planning to make an overshield building)
  
• Worked out which campaign missions there will be
  
• Disabled drops
  
• Set default difficulty for skirmish to 1
  
• Tested skirmish difficulty 1 and 5
  
• Compressed all soundtracks for more stable output volume
  
• Set screen edge camera pan default to false
  
• Fixed new weapon tooltip typo
  
• Updated demo disclaimer
  
• Fixed loot always being bugged for new players if the json didnt exist
  
• Fixed loot bug not unlocknig stuff
  
• Double checked new g.round build
  
• Did new testgame
  
• Wrote campaign mission 1
  
• Implemented campaign mission 1 objective 1, 2 and 3
  
• Campaign mission 1 is now fully scripted! All the events are in and have been tested. All we need now is a voiceover ^^
  
• Re-enabled the skismish buttons from the fleet editor
  
• Fixed new player name positioning in lobby and multiplayer screen
  

I might take the next week off. So next week the updates might be a bit shorter/non existent. Although knowing myself I will probably do more work than I now intend to anyway. See you guys next time!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

This week I worked on adding a Tutorial for new players and getting a build ready for an upcoming event. Since most changes apply to the skirmish, tutorial or visual improvements I've put them all in one list for this week.

• Playtested Battle Royale
  
• Added tutorial scene
  
• Combined power and metal storage
  
• Added 22 objectives to the tutorial.
  
• Fixed players sometimes playing inside eachother
  
• Made a new icon for the game
  
• Rerganised discord
  
• Upgraded discord to community server
  
• Reduced polygon count on Taibe
  
• Reduced polygon count on Aurora
  
• Reduced polygon count on Lunaria
  
• Reduced polygon count on Type-C
  
• Reverted ship align change
  
• Uploaded a new build to steam
  
• Give resources for ships only in BR (upon killing them)
  
• Adjusted default audio volumes
  
• Did several rounds of bugtesting
  
• Added tutorial button
  
• Added tutorial objectives
  
• Added objective check system
  

Tutorial test with feedback:
[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnAR-moj6OA[/previewyoutube]

• Changed power icon
  
• Fixed GUI alignment top right text
  
• Moved formation buttons
  
• Restyled toggle buttons
  
• Implemented tutoral metal storage objective
  
• Implemented tutoral power storage objective
  
• Implemented tutoral population objective
  
• Added build surveyor objective completion trigger
  
• Added move to zabu objective completion trigger
  
• Added move to enemy shipyard objective completion trigger
  
• Added unlock medium objective completion trigger
  
• Added kill enemy shipyard objective completion trigger
  
• Added tutorial voice over
  
• Showing extra information when objectives are completed.
  
• Disabled selected units information in tutorial.
  
• Added objective sounds
  
• Alt+left click no longer deselects units
  
• Skirmish tweaks
  
• Fixed 2 tutorial bugs
  
• Fixed height indicator bug
  
• Fixed right click minimap bug
  
• Renamed habitat station in editor
  
• Cinematic camera had a text box in it in the editor. Removed it.
  
• Modified some default capped volume settings
  
• Recorded tutorial video
  
• Changed 'wave setup' text for Skirmish
  
• Skirmish AI ships build slightly slower
  
• Skirmish AI buildings build slightly
  
• Skirmish AI target harvester count reduced from 5 to 4
  
• Fixed unit attack distance in skirmish and tutorial
  
• Fixed incorrect unit under attack sound
  
• Fixed move height for right clicking ships
  
• Fixed harvester icons for Allies and Enemies
  
• Rounded max health display
  

6 player Battle Royale with CoreyLoses:
[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y347DaKrOrI[/previewyoutube]

Thats it for this week!

Last week I wanted to add some more content for players. Some more game modes. Co-op was a bit difficult to achieve within the time reserved for it and the campaign game mode takes priority over that. Instead I experimented a little bit with a Battle Royale game mode.

That cost me 3 days to work on, which is an acceptable 'delay' for the amount of extra gameplay potential and fun it provides. After that I celebrated easter with family. Below is a list of everything I've done regarding the game last week:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Multiplayer & Battle Royale

• Added a Battle Royale game mode
  
• Added a team Battle Royale game mode
  
• Added dropdown to menu in multiplayer room
  
• Styled dropdown in multiplayer room
  
• Host can now set gametype in multiplayer
  
• Set game type to Regular by default
  
• Added that room name must be unique
  
• Made it so that the game mode shows up in the lobby
  
• Increased max teams from 2 to 8
  
• Set default teams on room enter based on player actor number ID
  
• The game now hides the "Select start ship" from the battle royale mode in the room for other players
  
• Improved alignment of elements in the lobby
  
• BR ship selection now works
  
• Increased ship selection dropdown height
  
• Fixed team auto set
  
• Removed underscore from team display
  
• Tested if the right ships spawned
  
• Neutral zabu generators now heal correctly
  
• You can now jump in Battle Royale
  
• Fixed menu button alignment
  
• Added transports to Battle Royale
  
• Medium and heavy ships are now unlocked by default in Battle Royale
  
• transports now spawn every 2 minutes in BR
  
• Added a power plant above the battlefield in BR
  
• Added a zabu mine below the battlefield in BR
  
• changed reinforcement spawn position
  
• Changed the Zabu Repair station model in BR to make it more visible
  
• Changed transport spawn rate for multiplayer
  
• Fixed harvester bug
  
• Ships in battle royale now spawn below enemies
  
• Transports now dont spawn right away in a multiplayer match
  
• Improved network stability
  

General & optimizations

• Fixed jump timer
  
• Prevented ships from going outside of the map
  
• Fixed transport loot
  
• improved harvester poly count
  
• Removed film grain in editor
  
• Lowered Surveyor poly count
  
• Reduced polygon count on the Ant
  
• Leaving the game is now harder (asks for confirmation)
  
• Its been almost a year I think but the Selection Box dissapearing bug is now fixed
  
• Building upgrades now have icons for power and metal instead of the letters P and M
  
• The Fish now has 12000 less polygons
  
• Fixed heavy/medium unlock bug
  
• Building upgrade icons are now aligned better. It now also shows metal first, then power
  
• Development discussion with programmer
  
• Made minimap lines less thick/look better
  
• Changed neutral building icon on minimap
  

That's it for this week. See you next week!

I'm excited to announce that this week we have managed to add team games to Stellar Warfare. I've personally done 3 test matches with that new functionality and I can tell you that its a lot of fun to work together to defeat your opponent!

Here's what we have done this week:

General

• Increased metal and power supply increase for storages from 350 to 400
  
• Uploaded a new build for backers
  
• ASWD mouse camera pan is now off by default
  
• Added 'press C for cinematic cam' in the options
  
• Uploaded new build for backers
  
• Set default ASWD, QE and other settings
  
• Rebalanced audio volumes
  
• Fixed escape menu navigation button width
  
• Control groups are now shown next to the healthbar
  
• Aligned ship data more accurately
  
• Selected units are now displayed
  
• Fixed control group bug
  
• You can now delete all your settings from the Options menu
  
• Added screen pan camera controls to the options screen since it wasnt there yet
  
• Added not enough metal/power sounds to unlock buttons
  
• Added not enough metal/power sounds to building upgrade buttons
  
• Added sound effect to building upgrades
  
• Replaced 'canceled' building sound for not enough resources with not enough power or metal sounds instead
  
• Fixed faulty module reading on tooltip
  
• Tested ship jumping after noticing a bug. Works fine it seems though.
  
• Changed naming of Voice Over volume to avoid confusion
  

Visual
You can now spawn extra projectiles for each fired. Should you have a very good computer you can do this to make the experience even more cinematic. This does not actually increase the damage of weapons though, its just for visual purposes.

• Added a setting in the escape menu to create more flak
  
• Added a setting in the escape menu to create more projectiles
  
• Improved positioning selected units text
  
• Shieldbar now overlaps the healthbar
  
• Tweaked healthbar positioning for units and buildings
  
• Fixed ship editor module & ship frame icon positioning
  
• Made asteroids on the minimap sharper
  

Team games

• You can now change teams in the lobby
  
• Allied ships will no longer be attacked automatically
  
• You can now repair allied ships
  
• You can now repair allied buildings
  
• You can now jump to allied jump beacons
  
• You can now follow allied ships
  
• Allied ships and buildings are now blue on the minimap instead of green
  
• Your team now changes on enterting lobby
  
• You should now only win in co-op games if there are no enemy shipyards left. Before this change if your opponents died but you sitll had an ally ingame it would not go to the victory screen
  
• Losing a game in team-mode now works as intended
  
• Allied unit in minimap now has the right icon
  

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

I want to thank the people supporting this project through patreon. Without you this project could not exist. So thank you!