Frontiers Reach News

There are still some issues to solve, but we're working on them as the team and our community testers find things. We've had a lot of movement this past month with 3 of our team members making major geographical relocations. But you've all been waiting for something other than a team update, so let's get right into the key points:


- A majority of the past month was spent getting Unity's High Definition Render Pipeline integrated into the project. This has lent us a significant advancement in the visual presentation of the game. From volumetric and true physically based lighting, to deeper control over rendering layers and greater mesh rendering optimization, the HDRP is quite a leap for the project.



- As part of the update to the HDRP, we picked up a plugin that is responsible for rendering the skybox, the atmosphere, clouds, nebulae, gas giant rings, basically anything and everything that you might want in a sky. The cloud technology is of particular note because it is fully volumetric and is based on some of the most advanced techniques for rendering to date. We're working closely with the team developing Expanse, Three M's Creative, to test and expand on this toolset and look forward to the future of our work together.



- We have a new user interface and not just graphically. This new interface is far more streamlined than the previous and should allow for easier flow and understandability on and between menus. All of the configuration settings that are exposed in the configuration menu are working. Additional controls for the new cloud system are set for development in the future.



- A complete rework has been done of the combat interface and how it functions. Players have more control over the targets that they can lock onto. An auto target selection system has been implemented to select next closest target upon current target death. New target info tags have been implemented; to be integrated more fully in the future. New graphics for the 2D interface. This is a rough implementation, to be improved in future releases.



- The camera system has been update to include a new minimalist mode for the combat interface that will show only the 2D gauges and information. The player may also now track targets by holding down the target switch key/button.



- The game is now roughly 90% complete in terms of controller support. Some issues may crop up in rare cases, but the controller is now useable both in the menus and in gameplay. The only menu that has not seen real controller integration is the Configuration Menu. A mouse and keyboard will still be required. This expansion of controller support also extends to using the keyboard for menu navigation.


- The systems computer keeps track of how much health, fuel, energy, and heat your ship has. Run out of fuel and you'll drop like a rock. Run out of energy and you'll eat through fuel. Run too hot and you'll take damage. Take too much damage and, well... you get the idea. This new systems computer gives the player a better idea of how they are performing in their starfighter and challenges them to manage their resources in the heat of combat. Things are pretty relaxed right now, and all the starfighters are mostly the same; but in the weeks to come we'll be tweaking and balancing them all to effect their performance profiles.

- When you go out on mission you will be limited to a specific amount of ammunition. When on mission, if you get too low on ammunition, you can request a reload from the Heliosiren and make a landing. This ammunition system is pretty simple right now, but will be expanded upon in later updates in terms of functionality and it's importance to gameplay.

- All of the environments have been scaled up. The play boundary expanded. And the number and diversity of the models present for towns and frontier capital ships increased. This new scale drastically changes how the game plays and is much more in line with how we want the player to experience the game.

- The starfighter previously known as the SF-38 Vektor has been redesigned, renamed the Vo-38 Vektor, and integrated into the custom paint-job shading pipeline.

- Cockpit interiors have been reworked. New models for the gauges have been made, new lighting has been set, and the glass shading reworked. The throttle and control stick are now animated when in cockpit view.



- Using Unity's new VFX graph, we've put together a brand new engine drive plume effect. We're still working on full integration of the effect into each starfighters system to achieve full visual control with relation to thrust amount and vectoring.

- With the powerful toolset of Expanse Clouds for Unity, we've completely reworked every skybox in the game. We've still got a lot of work to do in the area, especially with regards to how skyboxes will change on the bridge of the Heliosiren, but for now we hope you enjoy the artwork.

We've also implemented a completely brand new sky and atmosphere rendering system that has an impressive set of tools. We'll be working closely with Three M's Creative, the developer of Expanse, to bring it to it's fullest realization.

This past week we recently picked up a brand new piece of Technology for rendering atomsphere's in the game. I has us so excited we can't contain ourselves and have elected to move forward with updating the game to Unity's HDRP render pipeline to take advantage of this new tech. We've attached some images below to show it off.

We'll be back online before the end of the month to have the next update ready for play testing and look forward to seeing what all the players have to say about it.







We also have a more complete version of our galactic map to show off finally.



We hope this has you excited. We're sure excited to finally be making the lead to Unity's HDRP and are looking forward to the release when it is ready which we are hoping will be the end of the month. Till then, fly safe pilots!

In this weeks update we bring more changes to artwork with a number of new asteroid models that will be used in space environments. Additionally a host of fixes have been made to minor things that where affecting gameplay on a wide scale. Behind closed doors our lead programmer did a bunch of development and testing on expanding the core mechanics for the player. These new mechanics include a more robust collision detection system and resource management for fuel and weapons.

- Fixed issue that caused the third person UI to not show up.

- Fixed an issue that caused primary weapons fire from the player to not affect capital ship vital components.

- Fixed an offset of the S-27 Wildboar main cannons.

- Fixed an issue that had the UI elements rendering in the aim scope.

- Fixed an issue that caused the new UI elements to interact with NPC starfighters and capitalships.

- Fixed an issue that caused missiles locks to persist even after the target had been destroyed.

- Fixed cannons artwork not showing up on some starfighters.

- Reimplemented crash collisions.

- Added ability to hit Escape to bring up the configuration menu when on the bridge of the Heliosiren.

- Fixed an issue that would stop the player from being able to rebind keys properly.

- Fixed bug that could cause terrain to fall below acceptable resolutions for visual presentation.

- Fixed a bug that caused the Boost button and the secondary weapons fire button to use the same default button for controller.

- Replaced the Keyboard only configuration with the HOTAS configuration (We will revist the keyboard only configuration as soon as possible).

- Fixed a performance bug that was the result of a keybind not working properly(This resulted in the removal of mouse look for mouse and keyboard functionality, we will revist in the future).

- Added warning tone and markers to missiles.

- Added catapult launch and capture animation. (This may later be used to increase difficulty of landings.)

This month's first update is a big one. We have new artwork, new game mechanics, and are prepping for a host of changes to come in the weeks ahead. Redesigns of existing starfighters are on the board as well as integration of existing starfighters into the new paint job customization pipeline. New starfighters, new worlds, new weapons, and new enemies are also being planned.

To begin the ground work for this, we've stripped out the old primary and secondary weapons system to make way for a completely new weapons systems that includes an array of new types of weapons and an ammo system. Much of this is still in development but in this update we've released a preview version of this new weapon system.

Custom key and axis bindings have been a requested feature for some time and in this update we've finally been able to get them integrated. Currently we support a rudimentary mouse and keyboard scheme, a joystick scheme that should work for generic joysticks, a controller scheme, and keyboard only scheme. We've also integrated a HOTAS scheme but that is still in testing as we've had some trouble with it on some HOTAS configurations so key and axis rebinding is quite ready for that but you are welcome to give it a try if you like.

Over the next few weeks we aim to get back to our regular update schedule with a focus on artwork. At the end of the month we hope to introduce the next phase of major mechanical updates and bump up the version number of the game from 0.3.x to 0.4.x.

We've also updated the demo this week and will be updating that on a monthly schedule.

- Fixed a bug that would cause the resolution setting in the config menu to revert to a very low resolution that would break the UI.

- Added new secondary weapon system that allows for multiple different secondary weapons to used in a mission. Currently supports dual lock, sidewinders, and multi-lock missiles.

- Added new tertiary weapons system that allows for multiple different tertiary weapons systems to be used a once. Currently only supports small and large bombs.

- Added a host of new sound effects to accompany the new weapons systems. These new weapons sound effects are a rudimentary implementation and will be refined in the next update.

- Added new intro music and new music for the mission on Frontiers Reach.

- Completely new HUD system that is part of the new weapons systems. Each type of weapon has it's own reticle for aiming and locking onto enemies where applicable.

- New controls have been added for switching between secondary and tertiary weapons.

- Completely new artwork for human settlements. This artwork has been worked into the Frontiers Reach map and is in the process of being added to several other maps.

This covers just about everything we've gotten done in the past two weeks. We'll post hotfixes over the next couple of days as needed so please do not hesitate to report bugs on the forums. For now, fly safe and we'll see you out on the frontier!