HEXTERMINATE News

It has been a long time since Hexterminate has had a release, and given the size of the changes I think it justifies a 2.0 release! There is a lot more to come, but I wanted to draw the line somewhere and give players a new version.

If you’d like to join me in Discord, I’ve created a new server where I’ll provide regular updates and discuss any issues you might find.


The game has had a good run on Steam as a paid product when I released it several years ago, but I have decided to make it free for anyone to play. Hexterminate is a hobby project, and I am financially in a better position now from my day job than when the game was originally released. If you are one of the original players, you have my deepest thanks for supporting me.

This lets me put the game out there for anyone who would like to play it, and make the source available.

If you’re a developer, you’ll find the source and instructions on how to compile it in GitHub.


The engine has undergone substantial changes and now supports Linux natively, as well as being a 64 bit executable. This was a considerable undertaking as Hexterminate doesn’t use something like Unity or Unreal, but a custom engine which was developed over the course of the years and which was only targeting Windows.

As Hexterminate never played well with Proton / Wine, this is the first time the game is available to players on Linux.


Previous to Release 2.0, you could purchase fleet ships by using generic “Resource Units”, which were gathered by conquering sectors and completing objectives. These fleet ships were ephemeral: if a fleet ship got destroyed during a battle, you’d have to purchase it again.

This meant that there was little point in purchasing ships, as the more expensive ships required large amounts of RU to purchase and in more demanding fights you were all but guaranteed to lose one or more ships. This meant that most players just ran a single ship (their own).

These systems have been changed significantly, and now Resource Units are known as Influence. Influence represents your character’s weight within the political structure of the Empire, and grows steadily as you keep supporting Imperial objectives. This Influence is still spent to requisition ships, but these ships are now permanent and will be restored to your fleet even if they are destroyed in combat.

If you find that a specific ship is not a good match for your fleet, you can return it and its Influence cost will be fully refunded, giving you more freedom to experiment.


The ship’s Energy stat was used in a few different ways:

To control how many shield modules your ship could have: each reactor would provide a certain amount of Energy Recharge, which would in turn be consumed by the shield generators. Your ship couldn’t undock if the shield generators were consuming more than your Energy Recharge would provide.
To moderate how fast you could fire your weapons and activate your modules. Your ship’s Energy would recharge over time, and that energy would then be consumed when you fired a weapon or activated an addon.
This was quite muddied and not particularly well explained. To avoid overloading the term Energy, the behaviour is now split into two separate stats.

Capacitor: this is the energy which is available at any given time for weapons and addons. It recharges over time (based on the Capacitor Recharge stat) and is depleted when you fire a weapon or activate an addon.
Energy Grid: this is your ship’s underlying power production which is necessary to upkeep all of the ship’s non-combat functions. Shields, engines, etc use your Energy Grid to stay online, and your ship cannot be undocked if you’re attempting to use more of it than it is available.



As a result, the Reactor modules have been changed as well. They now all provide a certain amount of Energy Grid, and now come in three different types depending on what your Capacitor needs are:

Plasma reactor: these provide the most balanced split between Capacitor Storage and Capacitor Recharge and are ideal for fast firing weapons.
Solid-state reactor: with significantly higher Capacitor Storage but lower Capacitor Recharge, this type of reactors benefit slower-firing weapons that need more energy per shot, such as artillery modules.
Anti-matter reactor: sometimes you really want the benefits of both. Ship space is at a premium, after all. Anti-matter can solve all your problems, with the slight issue that you really, really don’t want a containment breach on your anti-matter reactor. These reactors explode violently when destroyed, and can chain with each other, potentially taking out your entire ship.



In general these changes make both ship construction easier, and combat more intense, as some well-placed shots into an exposed anti-matter reactor can all but take a ship out.


The Fleet Management window has been rebuilt using the new user interface system. It’s considerably cleaner than the previous one, and highlights any missing requirements which prevent the player from requisitioning a ship.



The Shipyard Stats section has been rebuilt as well, and considerably expanded to provide the player with more information about their ship. Long-missing stats such as the ship’s top speed and agility are now visible and provide immediate feedback as you change modules.



Perhaps surprisingly, calculating these navigation stats was significantly challenging and part of why they had never been visible before. But now that they’ve been correctly calculated rather than just left at the mercy of the physics engine, it opens the door to improvements to the ships’ AI as well.


There have been a large number of stability fixes (lots of crashes!) as well as various rendering issues. This includes a fix for a very embarrassing issue with the loading system which I hadn’t noticed as I was running a development build.

To assist with tracking further issues, an automated crash reporter has been integrated into the game.

• Join the Hexterminate Discord
• Official forum

• Fixed a crash when accessing the Fleet menu.
  

Hello everyone.

This build contains substantial engine changes ahead of a public Linux build and these changes touch many parts of the game. If you find a bug or a crash, please jump on the forum and let me know!

• Added new Codex to the main menu, with descriptions of the various modules and factions.
  
• Added vignette post-processing effect.

• Upgraded post-processing pipeline, which is more performant and allows for improved effects.
  
• Re-wrote the glow effect, addressing various banding artefacts.
  
• Split audio system into Windows and Linux implementations.
  
• Now using cross-platform implementation for identifying the resolution of the current screen.

• Fixed several rendering issues which could result in the game presenting a black screen.
  
• Fixed various stuttering issues by adding a dedicated loading screen between the intro movie and the main menu.
  
• Fixed several memory leaks.

With holidays and birthday season out of the way, it’s time to let you know what’s been happening in HEXTERMINATE land.



[h2]Linux support & Proton[/h2]

Being stuck on holiday with a laptop that only runs Linux Mint, I thought I’d try to get the game running on it, as the majority of the code was meant to be portable anyway.

That was the theory.

In practice, it required quite a substantial amount of work to get the game compiling, nevermind actually running. Right now it does run and it is playable, although there are some graphical artefacts and sound doesn’t work. However, this led to some interesting discoveries which will affect everyone, leading to better performance and fewer memory issues.

Currently, native Linux support is scheduled for Build 19 (so, not this one but the one after), but the many fixes that have been done to the engine will likely allow the game to be run through Proton in Build 18, rather than just displaying a black screen.

[h2]Post-processing chain[/h2]

While working on Hyperscape, one of the issues I’ve run into is that some of the post-processing needs to be disabled in certain circumstances so the screen remains readable and doesn’t display banding artefacts. It wasn’t actually possible to toggle effects without a restart, so the post-processing system has been re-written. This will also allow players to toggle individual effects from the settings screen, while improving overall performance.



Since I was in the area, I’ve improved the glow effect (used by engines, shields, projectiles, etc) as it had various issues, as well as adding an optional vignette effect.



Depending on the hardware you have, when starting the game the initial movie would stutter and you might see various frame drops when starting to play. This was due to a background thread which was busy loading resources, but might cause stalls for one reason or another.

The loading has been changed, with a loading screen now present between the initial movie (which can now be skipped) and the main menu. This results in a slightly longer time between starting the game and getting to the main menu, but addresses all stuttering issues caused by resource loading.



All the functionality needed for the Codex is in place and I’m just adding articles to it at the moment. It’s quite good to have this in-game, as it has been in my wishlist for a long time.

The Codex will be part of build 18 and will progressively expand as more content is added to the game.



Work on Hyperscape has started, but it’s still a little too early to share screenshots. The current work on that front is focusing on the Hyperscape visualisation itself and we should be able to share more details for the next post!

In the meantime, however, we've received some new artwork for the Hegemon faction:





Build 18 is currently scheduled to come out early next month. Due to the number of engine changes it needs more in-depth testing than usual, to try and ensure no regressions are introduced. Personally I'm quite looking forward to getting the Linux build published and to do more work on Hyperscape. This will likely lead to an experimental branch where Hyperscape will be active, so people can try the new mechanics and provide feedback as the mode is developed.

Hyperscape will be a new game mode and is where the long term development of HEXTERMINATE will take place. In a way, Hyperscape is HEXTERMINATE 2, building on the pre-existing foundations, but freely available to anyone who has purchased the game.

Rather than a structured campaign, it takes a turn towards the roguelike style. The player takes a fleet from Real Space into hyperspace, exploring that realm rather than just using it as a convenient way to travel. This space, called the Hyperscape, is a realm of constant change and inhabited by unshackled AIs.

The player starts in a sector and once the sector is cleared, they can choose one out of a few different sectors to progress towards, taking them deeper and deeper into the Hyperscape.

To assist the player with surviving in this challenging environment, the Empire also sends a jump capable space station. The player's progression is only saved when they dock with the shipyard, so they need to balance how confident they are with the risk of losing their ship.

There is no final sector: the player can always keep going, with the difficulty and the quality of the gear increasing without a hard cap. The loot will be revamped, allowing for a greater diversity and giving the player the ability to create modules with the modifiers they want.



[h2]Modules[/h2]

In Hyperscape, rather than just having a single Shipyard where the player can customise their ship, there will be a much larger Station containing multiple modules which can also be individually placed, providing another progression avenue. Station modules are intended to be very expensive, with each being a significant resource investment.

As you explore the Hyperscape, you'll find quieter areas where you can call the Station to jump to. This will allow you save your progression and modify your ships as you navigate deeper into the Hyperscape.

Let me give you a break down of the modules you will be able to build your station with.

[h3]Tannhauser Station Core[/h3]

The station's large central module, to which all other modules must be directly or indirectly connected. It houses a large jump core, allowing the station to move in hyperspace.

[h3]Shipyard[/h3]

Allows for ships to be built.

The Station starts with three shipyards: one for the player and two for companion ships. These shipyards are limited in the size of ships they're capable of making the amount of Manufactories the player has built.

Unlike the stock version of the game, the player can cycle between multiple shipyards and customise the other ships in their fleet.

[h3]Manufactory[/h3]

Increases the Class of ships which can be built by a shipyard. There are four types of Manufactories:

• Gunship Manufactory
  
• Battlecruiser Manufactory
  
• Battleship Manufactory
  
• Dreadnought Manufactory

The Station starts with the Gunship Manufactory pre-built.

[h3]Fabricator[/h3]

Required to craft new modules. Modules are crafted instantly if there are sufficient resources, but the number of fabricators necessary increase based on the level of the desired module.

Fabricating modules is resource intensive and the main way for players to assemble their ship will still be by looting modules from destroyed ships. However, this provides the opportunity to build ships exactly as desired, filling gaps (e.g. needing one more shield of a particular type) or creating modules with specific modifiers once you're deep in the Hyperscape.

Fabricators can only build modules which have been previously research by Research Labs.

[h3]Research Lab[/h3]

Allows for new modules to be researched. Researching a module destroys it in the process, but makes it available for bulk construction in a Fabricator, as well as any properties it might have.

For example, if the player finds an Armour Piercing 800mm Artillery and researches it, they will be able to build 800mm Artillery modules on demand, as well as adding the Armour Piercing property to other projectile weapons. So if they were capable of fabricating a 200mm Autocannon, they can now also fabricate an Armour Piercing 200mm Autocannon.

Researching a module takes time, and this time increases substantially with the level of the module. Multiple Research Labs reduce the research time.



In the Campaign or Infinite War modes there was a single resource, the generic Resource Units. These were used for everything, from adding ships to your fleet or placing starforts. These basic Resource Units are gone, being split into four different types of resources, which are used for crafting modules, expanding your mobile shipyard and saving progression.

[h2]Common metals[/h2]

Iron, copper, aluminium and similar metals are the essential building blocks for the creation of any module, either for a ship or a space station. These are often combined into various alloys and used in a module's super-structure.

These basic metals can be found anywhere in the Hyperscape, although the amount retrieved increases with how deep you are.

[h2]Rare metals[/h2]

Gold, platinum, tungsten, palladium and other unusual metals are widely used in modular construction, anywhere from armour plating to the delicate, high density field projectors used in shields or scanning arrays.

[h2]Helium-3[/h2]

This light isotope is consumed in vast quantities by the station's fusion reactors to power the staggeringly large Jump Core that allows the Tannhauser Station to jump deeper into the Hyperscape. It is also used to power the station's Extruders, and therefore a requirement for creating custom modules.

[h2]Coherency core[/h2]

A very rare resource which is used in manufacturing high end modules with certain variants. Coherency cores can't be created by the Empire and have to be recovered from the AI ships you destroy.



This article has hopefully given you an idea of what I'll be building into HEXTERMINATE in the long term. The initial design is established, some art work has been commissioned and the programming has started. Although the Hyperscape game mode won't be available for quite a while, general improvements will keep being made to the base game.

The next public update will include the Codex, which has long been on my to-do list. It provides information about the various module types and factions in the game and will in time be extended to contain the Hyperscape specific entries.



Time allowing (there are a lot of entries to write!) there will also be some engine fixes and a few new soundtracks.

Thank you for reading, and if you'd like to chat about HEXTERMINATE and where Hyperscape is taking it, feel free to join my Discord server.