Frontiers Reach News

Phase one of the WARMAP updates has been completed.

With this a new game mode is now available on the WARMAP. This game mode is called Skirmish and is available on Republic held nodes that are in Stand Down. Additionally control inputs have been touched up with new keybindings being made available on the rebinding menus and several small artwork fixes have also been made.


So what is Skirmish?

Skirmish is a new game mode that is built as a long form play mode for Frontiers Reach. It allows a player to choose a Republic held node on the WARMAP that is currently in Stand Down and to roam the sector on that node freely. As the player roams the sector, the Scenario Manager (a core piece of code that runs the game when you're flying) will randomly select from a list of events to initiate. Once the event goes live enemies will spawn into the map and begin an assault. Where the enemies spawn and the targets they engage will vary depending on that event triggered, and the map that you are playing on as each map is rigged differently. Skirmish is available for play on both space and planet nodes.

Skirmish mode can be ended at any time by requesting to exfiltrate from the sector that you currently in. Be sure to check the rebindings menu to determine what the exfiltration key is for each control scheme.


Reworked Control Schemes.

Control schemes have been touched up with a focus on Gamepad controls. By default the Select button on the gamepad is now used as a modified to allow the A, B, X, Y, buttons to be used for other function. Additionally Hold, and Multi-tap functionality now exists for some bindings that previously did not have them. And last but not least, the control schemes have been adjusted to hopefully reduce the likelihood of different pieces of hardware fighting each other priority.


Artwork and Bug Fixes.

- The HF-22 cockpit texture has been fixed and should no longer have rain showing up inside of it.
- Tunnels and caves should now show reduced ambient lighting.
- Tunnels and caves should now disable ejecting from the cockpit.
- Collision checking has been adjusted to make it more likely that if you run into something you will actually blow up. This was done to reduce the likelihood that you will get stuck in a cave or tunnel and be unable to eject.

Phase one of the WARMAP updates continues with further tweaks and scenario additions.

First of all is the tweaks to the menu for the WARMAP. This update finally realizes the intended functionality of the WARMAP by randomly selecting 3 scenarios for each Defcon level; which actually have more than 3 scenarios but this will help reduce the likelihood that players will try to grind one specific scenario and hopefully reduce the likelihood that players will get bored with the number of available scenarios.



The scenarios on the WARMAP are intended to feel more like sorties in a much larger operation where in you, the player, are being tasked with a single objective, or a small set of objectives to complete that push the war effort on that node as opposed to pushing forward a story narrative.

More story missions are indeed coming and I'm currently working with some folks to get the voice acting done up so that I can move into scripting those missions as soon as possible.

This weeks update also includes 2 new scenarios :

- Mining Rig Defense : Defend a vessel in space as it conducts asteroid capture operations. This scenario is only available on space nodes, but is playable on all of those space nodes for each faction, with availability of the scenario changing from one DefCon level to another depending upon who owns the node.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


- Armored Column : Assist a small team of Republic Special Forces who have managed to pin down an armored column moving mobile SAMs through a chokepoint. Then exfiltrate the SpecFor team from the sector. This scenario is only available on Independent or Confederacy held nodes.


This update also saw some tweaks to terrain textures and the additional of large flora, or trees, on some maps. None of these new tree additions have colliders on them so you don't have to worry about crashing into them but you may find that they provide an extra layer of challenge with regards to positively identifying targets outside of your radar range and obscuring your vision when those targets are closer.




Last but not least, the debacle with Unity's pricing model seems to be more or less over not completely undone. As such the pricing for Frontiers Reach and future Unity based games will be coming back down although not to the original 20 USD price tag. I will try to enact this as soon as possible.

This weekends update is the first of a series of updates that are being made to touch up the WARMAP. As such various tweaks and fixes have been made to it.



First and foremost is that the WARMAP refresh rate has been slowed down. It will now refresh every 6 seconds instead of every 3 seconds. To balance this out the Sol Confederacy AI has been modified to be a bit more aggressive on the WARMAP.

In addition each node now has a Strategic Value. These values will be changed in the future but what this means is that you will receive a small amount of salvage relative to total number of nodes held and the value that each node is worth. Right now Strategic value is only applicable to the player. This will eventually be propagated to the AI bots rolling dice over each node that if one side takes a node of strategic importance it will get a significant bump in its resource pool for fighting across the entire map.



Also, the WARMAP has been updated to refresh the mission selection menu when the defcon level changes.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

There are now 2 new scenarios available on the WARMAP.

TRAIN ASSAULT - Both independent and Confederacy held planetary nodes have a train track that supports a scenario where a train will enter the sector enroute to a location to delivery supplies or sensitive equipment. Your objective is intercept and destroy the train.

PROPAGANDA SATS - Both Independent and Republic held space nodes have propaganda satellites that are heavily armed and armored that play an audible message on loop. You're objective to search for and destroy them.

Last but not least this update brings a couple of small fixes.
- fixed a bug where some particle effects were blown out.
- fixed a bug that could stop the player from respawning.

If you haven't heard the news, Unity Software has recently announced that they will be implementing a per-installation fee to either developers or distributors after January 1st, 2024. This change in licensing prices was also executed with a changed to their Terms of Service which aims to enforce their pricing changes on Unity games launched in the past, and those that are currently in-dev.

While I have no issue with Unity Software wanting to generate more revenue in their streams, I do have an issue with the manner in which they have aimed to achieve this.

With a per-installation fee of the Unity Runtime, this means that I, or possibly Steam, will be charged every time a Unity game is installed on a new machine. And there has been some discussion that it will be every re-installation as well.

Unity has not exactly walked this back, and any attempt to get them to elaborate on this has yielded more questions.

Additionally, in order for Unity Software to determine the number of installations on a per-user/per-device instance, they will have to make tracking software of some kind an embedded part of the Unity Engine. They have also stated that developers will have no visibility into exactly how many installs Unity is tracking on their end. Meaning no website where developers can login to monitor the number of installs that are currently live.

In order to offset the coming changes and to encourage users to genuinely consider if they went to spend the money on the game I have gone ahead and raised the prices on all Blind Alien Productions end products to around 60 USD.

While it was my hope for BAP to keep it's titles in the 10 - 20 USD range, the coming changes to Unity's pricing plans have forced me to anticipate 2 possible scenarios :

1 ) Users installing one of our games on multiple devices means we will charged for each install on each device.

2 ) Unity miscalculating the number of tracked installs and sending a bill that is too high and not refunding the studio till a month or two later.

While I and other developers have enjoyed years of working with Unity, this move specifically and the manner in which it was executed has burned up a lot of trust. And if Unity Software actually moves forward with this pricing model these changes will be required to ensure that enough revenue is generated to cover the cost of multiple installs per user and miscalculations of fees.

It should be noted that future BAP games will be launched on a different engine in order to return to lower priced titles for our players.

- Added sound effects to the main menu UI.
- Added the ability to compare starfighters in the hangar.
- Added "Role" as descriptor in the starfighter information.
- Tweaks to numerous VFX.
- Reset the scroll boxes to their appropriate positions...again.
- Added an angle check and vocal warning to the the landing system.