The Days and Weeks Ahead
We regret to inform you that this weeks update is cancelled. But not without good reason.
We're doing this to restructure our schedule a bit so we can get through some major integrations and prep the final demo before going live with the Kickstarter. This will also allow us to really focus in on development and artwork production without worrying if the game will be ready by the weekend.
While our release schedule is going to change you should still expect to see screenshots, video, and artwork hitting our social media accounts as we continue to work.
To accompany this announcement we want to layout a list of things that we're working on.
- More damage models for starfighter NPCs.
- Unity DOTS integration (we're looking at this to solve some performance issues and to increase capabilities. still speculative).
- Original music (Our composer is working on preparing small sampling of the music he is composing for the title as a whole)
- New sound effects for starfighter engines and weapons.
- New enemy AI (there is a lot going on with this new AI and it is capable of a lot of things the current AI is not it's a big integration though and will need to be handled very carefully over a period of days).
- New module system with completely new artwork to accompany it.
- New countermeasures as a part of the new module system. These new CM's come in three forms. Flares, Chaff, and an EM Field.
Flares - Launches a series of flares in a pattern across the sky that disrupt missiles that get too close.
Chaff - Launchers a cloud of disrupting debris behind the player as they travel. Any guided munitions that enter the cloud will be disrupted and veer drastically off course.
EM Field - Deploys a large disruptive field affects missile tracking causing them to veer off target drastically. In some cases missiles have been known to self destruct from short circuits.
- Q-Field visual effect and module.
In the Frontiers Reach Universe, faster than light travel is not achieved by warping space around the ship like most other sci-fi universes. No, in Frontiers Reach we get around with what is known as Quantum Field Manipulation technology, sometimes called quantum flux fields, Q-fields, or Quantum Bubbles. Regardless of the name, Quantum Field Manipulation technology operates on the same principles across the board.
To understand QFM tech we must first understand space in the Frontiers Reach Universe. In the FRU space time is a kin to a liquid, so thin and viscous and all encompassing that it takes enormous amounts of energy, or mass, to affect it in any meaningful way. But what if you could create a spacetime void? A space so empty that not even spacetime itself could exist? Well that's what QFM tech does. In much the same way that a torpedo uses a bubble of air to push water out of the way as it travels at high speed through water, a starship in the FRU uses a spacetime void bubble to push spacetime out of the way as it travels.
In the FRU traveling this way you can reach speeds of up to 1 to 2 lightyears a day depending upon your size and mass. Most starfighters can hop around the interior of a star system quite comfortably if they don't have to engage in any serious fighting. Capital ships like long haul freighters, ferries for small vessels, and other large ships can travel roughly 15-20 lightyears before needing to refuel. The hulking megaships known as Interstellar Carriers can travel up to 100 lightyears before having to refuel.
One of the things we want to do with this is visualize the Q-field affect in some way. Right now we're playing with distortions in the Unity HDRP and have had some really cool effects. But we've had some difficulty getting them to work exactly as we need them so we're exploring a few different options.
- New Mouse flight model. The model we've chosen may seem familiar to some of you.
- Major overhaul of the hangar and mid mission reloading mechanic with a UI that will allow player to swap some equipment/weapons when they've landed aboard the Heliosiren during a mission. This also includes some visual changes.
- New ambient noise backgrounds for Heliosiren interior.
- New Helm menu interface for selecting planetary locations that also gives additional information on the chosen planet.
- Loadout system that will allow players to setup, save, and load different loadouts.
- New character art and dialogue system changes (this will likely take affect later as we're still working out our full list of characters and only have portraits right now).
- Support for more languages.
It's difficult to say when exactly all of these things will be available in the game. Some are already in. Others haven't even been started on. Assuming we can actually get all of them in on the new schedule, which is partly why we reworked it, Frontiers Reach should be a fairly more refined and deeper game to experience.
We're doing this to restructure our schedule a bit so we can get through some major integrations and prep the final demo before going live with the Kickstarter. This will also allow us to really focus in on development and artwork production without worrying if the game will be ready by the weekend.
While our release schedule is going to change you should still expect to see screenshots, video, and artwork hitting our social media accounts as we continue to work.
To accompany this announcement we want to layout a list of things that we're working on.
- More damage models for starfighter NPCs.
- Unity DOTS integration (we're looking at this to solve some performance issues and to increase capabilities. still speculative).
- Original music (Our composer is working on preparing small sampling of the music he is composing for the title as a whole)
- New sound effects for starfighter engines and weapons.
- New enemy AI (there is a lot going on with this new AI and it is capable of a lot of things the current AI is not it's a big integration though and will need to be handled very carefully over a period of days).
- New module system with completely new artwork to accompany it.
- New countermeasures as a part of the new module system. These new CM's come in three forms. Flares, Chaff, and an EM Field.
Flares - Launches a series of flares in a pattern across the sky that disrupt missiles that get too close.
Chaff - Launchers a cloud of disrupting debris behind the player as they travel. Any guided munitions that enter the cloud will be disrupted and veer drastically off course.
EM Field - Deploys a large disruptive field affects missile tracking causing them to veer off target drastically. In some cases missiles have been known to self destruct from short circuits.
- Q-Field visual effect and module.
In the Frontiers Reach Universe, faster than light travel is not achieved by warping space around the ship like most other sci-fi universes. No, in Frontiers Reach we get around with what is known as Quantum Field Manipulation technology, sometimes called quantum flux fields, Q-fields, or Quantum Bubbles. Regardless of the name, Quantum Field Manipulation technology operates on the same principles across the board.
To understand QFM tech we must first understand space in the Frontiers Reach Universe. In the FRU space time is a kin to a liquid, so thin and viscous and all encompassing that it takes enormous amounts of energy, or mass, to affect it in any meaningful way. But what if you could create a spacetime void? A space so empty that not even spacetime itself could exist? Well that's what QFM tech does. In much the same way that a torpedo uses a bubble of air to push water out of the way as it travels at high speed through water, a starship in the FRU uses a spacetime void bubble to push spacetime out of the way as it travels.
In the FRU traveling this way you can reach speeds of up to 1 to 2 lightyears a day depending upon your size and mass. Most starfighters can hop around the interior of a star system quite comfortably if they don't have to engage in any serious fighting. Capital ships like long haul freighters, ferries for small vessels, and other large ships can travel roughly 15-20 lightyears before needing to refuel. The hulking megaships known as Interstellar Carriers can travel up to 100 lightyears before having to refuel.
One of the things we want to do with this is visualize the Q-field affect in some way. Right now we're playing with distortions in the Unity HDRP and have had some really cool effects. But we've had some difficulty getting them to work exactly as we need them so we're exploring a few different options.
- New Mouse flight model. The model we've chosen may seem familiar to some of you.
- Major overhaul of the hangar and mid mission reloading mechanic with a UI that will allow player to swap some equipment/weapons when they've landed aboard the Heliosiren during a mission. This also includes some visual changes.
- New ambient noise backgrounds for Heliosiren interior.
- New Helm menu interface for selecting planetary locations that also gives additional information on the chosen planet.
- Loadout system that will allow players to setup, save, and load different loadouts.
- New character art and dialogue system changes (this will likely take affect later as we're still working out our full list of characters and only have portraits right now).
- Support for more languages.
It's difficult to say when exactly all of these things will be available in the game. Some are already in. Others haven't even been started on. Assuming we can actually get all of them in on the new schedule, which is partly why we reworked it, Frontiers Reach should be a fairly more refined and deeper game to experience.