Frontiers Reach News

This week’s update sees a major overhaul of the combat interface and a number of bugs fixed to facilitate a more seamless experience with how waypoint markers are handled between objectives and key locations. The new interface cuts out several of the previously used bracket graphics around key targets that can be shot at, and instead uses an outline that changes color based on whether or not the object is in line of sight of the camera. Additionally, a number of bugs have been fixed and various optimizations have been made. A number of backend changes have also been implemented in preparation of future expansion and streamlining of the mission manager in the effort to continue laying the ground work for future customization.

- Integrated new outliner UI for enemies and targets that can be shot by the player.

- All new graphics for the 3rd person interface, more in line with the retro look that the art team is trying to achieve.

- Fixed a bug that caused multiple waypoint markers to appear on the 3rd person UI.

- Waypoint markers are now colored based on the intended target: locations are in yellow, enemies are in red, and friendlies are in blue.

- Multiple tweaks to the AI to affect minor improvements.

- Adjusted weapons heat for longer trigger squeezes.

- Small fixes to Mission Manager to address how waypoint markers are handled when changing from one objective to another.

- Complete redesign of the Kruger Interstellar S-27 Wildboar.

- Tweaked thrust speed for secondary weapons munitions.

- Updated main story and mission info files for spell checking.

- Minor adjustments to how the main dialogue box works in the CIC when aboard the Heliosiren between missions.


- Minor adjustment to graphics API availability on linux deployment of the game.

- Players will no longer relaunch after receiving a mission failure.

- Cockpit post effects will now activate on spawn and respawn.

- Changed starfighter collisions from impact-rated to angle-rated collisions that accounts for velocity. Anything less than 90 degrees from direction of velocity will result in total destruction, anything over 90 will result in minor damage.

- Backend changes to how player-controlled starfighters are loaded during missions.

- Backend changes to how enemy starships and scripted munitions are loaded during missions.

- Minor adjustments to background terrain to improve performance and visuals.

- Minor change to map boundaries for better visibility when flying too high.

- Updated holomap with more consistent graphics.

- New loading screens made with latest visuals.

- Loading screens now have lore and info on them.

- New lore entry on the Steam Discussions.

We're in the middle of a big shake up in the User Interface and how it works. This is taking more time than expected. Additionally, the lead developer spent quite a bit of time working with our writer, getting our website up and running, and talking with a 2D character artist to get them onboard for work on characters. We also have more relocations going on within the team.

We apologize for the inconvenience and look forward to getting this into your hands next week.

WE ARE BACK ONLINE!

This weeks update is a bit small compared to past updates. We've gotten a new member on board and are getting them up to speed. We've had a bit of a shake up in team responsibilities to better spread work out around the team. And we had a bunch of artwork upgrades for skyboxes. Small tweaks have been made to enemies to decrease some of the difficulty and make the game more playable.

We're looking to get back to our regular schedule soon, but most of the team is still working day jobs so progress is slow across the board.

This weeks Friday Update will be canceled. We're trying to wrap up a few major pieces before getting them out to the team, one being a massive shake up in the artwork. Time was also spent getting a new team member onboarded and a team member is currently relocating and so much of the time the past week has spent on people and not the game. However we have a number of things to share story wise that were create in the heat of conversations and artwork updates. That being said, I won't keep you waiting and I'll just photos from everything that happened this week.



[h2]This slice of the Galactic Map is a 100 lightyear radius from Sol and it shows what we have so far. We'll be getting it filled out as we get the story written now that we have a dedicated writer.[/h2]







[h2]These planet shots are from the new skyboxes we are implementing. They will be present in the sky when you take missions in high or low orbit depending upon where the mission is.[/h2]



This image was generated using some conceptual models that were put together to help envision the Privateer fleet of the Republic. these models likely won't show up in the final game as we want some with better quality and more time spent on the design, but the idea is the same. A ragtag fleet of starships thrown together and heavily modded at the last minute in a desperate attempt to rally a defensive force in the name of the frontier.

We're really looking forward to coming months. We're still trying to get custom key and axis bindings made into a reality so that is on the horizon, just difficult to say when since everyone is still working day jobs. That aside, AI and flight mechanics are due for a rework. Again, difficult to say when this will happen but it is on the board and sitting at a high priority.

Stay warm and stay safe out there. Till next time!

This weeks patch notes a pretty small. I as the studio and company lead have had a number of meetings with the team and outside clients this week so not much has gotten done that can be put into this weeks update. Additionally, I am looking at relocating in the next month and have to start preparing for that.

However I have good news that custom key and axis bindings are coming along and should be ready for deployment very soon. Aside from that, a number of art additions and level improvements/changes have been made to the Frontiers Reach map which can be accessed in the Patrols menu.

We're holding off from making too many additions or changes to the levels just yet as we're looking to acquire some new tech for terrain rendering and if it does what we think it will do we will need to make some vast changes to the levels with the new tech in consideration.

- Possible fix for issues with resolution not being applied accurately from the settings menu and on startup.

- Addition of new artwork to Frontiers Reach map. This artwork will eventually be used to fill out frontier towns across a number of different world maps.

- Rebuild of under ground barnstorming area with some things to blow up inside of it.

- Fixed audio bug that excluded some turrets from audio filters.

- Fixed bug that caused multiple cameras to be spawned when they weren't needed.

- Adjusted particle effects for damage states.