Frontiers Reach News

This is a massive update, and while the game is still very much the same, a LOT has changed. With this the core of development and production has been wrapped up. But bug fixes will continue to roll out as they are made and as new bugs are found and squashed. Though I should note that there is a DLC being planned for later down the line, but that is still a LONG way off.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

For these patch notes I won’t detail everything, partly because some of the patch notes I have are only relevant to issues that cropped up on the experimental branch, and partly because a number of the changes can be consolidated into a single item. That said, let’s get into it.


[h2]OVERHAULS[/h2]
- Overhauled planetary maps, expanded from 30km to 60km radius with a 22km flight cieling. Dogfights can now happen at high altitude.
- Overhauled space maps, expanded from 30km to 90km radius and 60km height. Planets now spin on space maps.
- Overhauled all planetary maps with a new terrain tool to allow for high levels of fidelity, better scaling, and larger more detailed levels.
- Overhauled all scenario by re-plotting and re-timing them to the new maps.


[h2]ADDITIONS[/h2]
- Added support for floating origin to make the larger maps possible.
- Added new Overdrive mode to the fighters so players can travel quickly across the map at the expense of lots of fuel and heat build up. Currently bound to the O key.
- Added a new RCS toggle so players can toggle the RCS system on for drifting over long distances in space, currently bound to the R key.
- Added the ability to invert the camera for look behind, currently bound to the X key.
- Added a camera zoom when in cockpit mode, currently bound to L-CTRL.
- Added new lockboxes for bonus salvage and an assault on Earth as an endgame mechanic with tweaks to how the Warmap will behave after destroying Blackstone.
- Added a new fighter, the RX-01 Garuda.
- Added the ability to add custom logos to the fighters.
- Added 2 new weapons, Beam Lasers and Flak Cannons.
- Added the first and only piece of starfighter equipment, Scanning Probe Launcher.
- Added an Easy Mode to character creation.
- Added wildlife spawns back to the Frontiers Reach map.
- Added 2 new Warmap scenarios : MBR Rig and Invasion.


[h2]TOUCH UPS & REPLACEMENTS[/h2]
- Touched up several smoke and fire VFX.
- Touched up several destruction models.
- Touched up and simplified the edges of planetary maps and how they blend with the skybox for a more seamless experience and better overall performance.
- Replaced all water with a new custom water shader for faster performance and better blending in the environment.
- Replaced the world boundary shader with a new custom version that will fade in as you get closer to the boundary.
- Replaced the entire warp sequence on the bridge for better animations and audio as you travel between planets.
- Replaced all asteroid artwork.
- Replaced all tunnels and caves artwork.


[h2]OPTIMIZATIONS[/h2]
- Optimized sky and cloud rendering by updating to the latest version of the Expanse plugin to address some transparency bugs and increase performance on all maps.
- Optimized artwork for a number of fighters.
- Optimized artwork for the Siren.
- Optimized several miscellaneous art assets for better performance across the breadth of the entire game.
- Optimized lighting and shadows for better performance across the entire game.
- Optimized code under the hood for radar and IFF tags.
- Optimizations for loading and unloading the main menu.
- Optimizations for loading and unloading levels by adding key elements to a preloading phase on game start.


[h2]CHANGES[/h2]
- Changed targeting computer so it is now possible to lock on to a target even if the currently equipped weapon is not guided.
- Changed respawning to a checkpoint so player will no longer spawn all the way back in the hangar.
- Changed travel speed of friendly transports.
- Changed the warmap so that battles can be won even when players have only contributed salvage to the node and not run any missions on them.
- Changed how missile/incoming alerts are trigger, this is a minor change and still being worked on.


[h2]FIXES[/h2]
- Fixed a bug in the AI for NPCs that made them behave unexpectedly.
- Fixed a bug that kept the player fighter from yawing, pitching, and rolling, when the throttle and the velocity was at zero.
- Fixed keybindings for pitch and yaw axis.
- Fixed Track IR not working at all and changed how the toggle works.
- Fixed Warmap not recording some victories.
- Fixed an error with the mission token for mission 41.

We're locked in for the Jan 1 2025 update and that update is going to be off the chain!

With that said, if you haven't noticed, Frontiers Reach is now on sale! And now is a great time to get prepped for launch on January 1st.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


This new, MASSIVE, update includes a major expansion of ALL playable levels. But this isn't just an expansion of these levels, the terrain has been completely overhauled. Several plugins have been updated for vastly improved performance. New weapon systems have been added. And last but not least an all new fighter has been added to the line up.

You can get an early look at all these changes by checking out the experimental branch with the password below.

TestBranchDoode



With that, I wish all of you the very best this holiday season and will see you all next in the new year when we finally launch the All These Worlds update to the main branch.


Happy hooning pilots!

I don't want to sell you a big dream that would take decades to make, but I do want to share with you a vision. A vision I've had since 2015.


I've already gone over some of the particulars of this vision, but in this blog I want to use some concepts I've worked up with Midjourney to give you a breakdown of the user experience in a more granular approach.


Before I start I should note that some time within the next 12 to 24 hours the last experimental build for Frontiers Reach 1 will be going out. After this, there will be no further updates until the official build goes live on Jan 1.




Frontiers Reach 2 was always intended to be a small scale and very intimate multiplayer experience. I had some of the best times of life playing games that I could share with my closest friends, and I believe pretty strongly that this kind of multiplayer experience is the bread and butter of games.

So when you load into Frontiers Reach 2, you'll always start out on your carrier.



Your carrier is your mobile base of operations. It's how you get from one star system to another, it's where you customize your vehicles and build loadout presets, and if you're part of a larger organization, it's where you'll manage that organization and how you interact with it. Your friends will also have carriers of their own, but if they join your game they will leave their carrier and board yours. All of their presets and equipment loadouts will still be accessible.

One day you and your friends decide to go help a local town deal with some raiders who have been particularly bothersome. These cats have even gone so far as to conduct large scale aerial raids and today they're planning another one. So the locals call up to your carrier and ask for assistance.

Having agreed to help in the fight you depart and join a larger force of fighters to intercept the raiders in atmosphere, high above their base.



Once you're in atmosphere some time goes by as you're traveling to your destination until you finally catch the raiders on radar and engage them in a fierce battle in the air.



However in the heat of the battle, you and one of your friends get shot down. Your friend does not survive and is forced to respawn on the carrier. You on the other hand survive and manage to bail out.



Though you were really high up your suit and equipment protect you all the way to the ground. Which is a dense jungle with many hazardous flora and fauna. However you are confident and undeterred. And so you decide to do something about the air defenses that the raiders set up in anticipation that someone might try to attack their base. You proceed on foot until you find the air defense system and blow it up.



With the air defense system destroyed, the battle is quickly turned in favor of you and the local defenders and your friend who was forced to respawn on the carrier has a clear path to come and pick you up.



After retrieving you, you and your team agree to meet up in the town belonging to the locals who hired you for the job you just completed.



After landing at the local airfield you head for a pub where you can link up, talk shop, speak to contract holders, and discuss your next move.



According to some of the rumors going around the room, there is talk of a cavern of alien origin not far from the town, that is said to behold riches of extraordinary design and purpose. So you and your friends decide to take the plunge into the depths to see for yourselves.



What you will find there is foreign, alien, and not in any way shape or form friendly to humans.


That's it for now pilots! Keep an eye out for the next experimental build and happy hooning!

If I told you that Frontiers Reach and Blind Alien Productions are a completely self funded venture?

Because it is.





Save for the past year, I was able to maintain a day job throughout most of the development of Frontiers Reach. Mostly remote contract work that required I keep licensing for all of the same software that I use to develop FR anyways. And while it has certainly been a struggle, it has been worth it.


Because I’m self funded, development on FR and subsequent titles is not in danger of stopping unless my heart stops beating. There are no investors to tell me that I have to close up shop because THEY didn’t make enough money off of my hard work and that of the people I work with. And because I do about 80-90% of the work myself from architecting backend systems to 3D modeling vehicles and environments and building the levels and even optimizing everything from top to bottom, there is very little need for a massive budget.


The worst case scenario is that I have to put development on hold, or just slow down, because I have to go focus on making money to keep the lights on. Even if my publisher dropped me tomorrow, which I don’t see happening at all right now, I could still continue to work on the game.


This was extremely important for me to setup operations like this because I’ve long been a story teller with a love of writing and visual arts and games are just the medium I prefer to work in. If games did not exist it would probably be animation or comic books.


Another really great advantage to this is that when you buy a Blind Alien Productions game, much of your purchase goes directly to supporting the studio. Steam of course gets their 30% cut, the publisher gets a cut smaller than what Steam takes, then of course taxes, but what ever is left goes into the studio, the studio technology, and the games BAP makes.


In the past I’ve looked at crowdfunding as a means of bringing in more revenue to fund development and even ran a Kickstarter that failed get funded and have a Ko-Fi I haven’t updated in a while, but at a certain point, the crowdfunding effort becomes a job on its own and then development slows down the same as if I was working a regular day job. And crowdfunding just means I have more investors with smaller contributions and as seen with other projects, micro-investors can get in the way of development and production progress the same as any traditional investor.


All things considered I think the best way forward is to continue working as a self-funded effort because while it can be slower, there are fewer hazards that directly affect the future and progress of the studio and the games it creates.


But most importantly of all, you get an actual product that you can play and participate in the creation of without empty promises, moving goal posts, and the constant nagging that “if you just gave more money” it could all be so much grander and more immersive than the last time you crowdfunded a game.


Besides, as a life long gamer myself, I can’t stand being nickel and dimmed every step along the way.


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With that out of the way, there is a new experimental build up, available for those willing to play test or anyone who just wants to get a glimpse of what is coming on Jan 1.

The build includes numerous changes as well as tweaks to timing of missions and fixes to some particularly complex missions that were incompletable.

For Linux users I should note that there is a new performance tweak that will completely toggle off ALL clouds on maps that have them. This is a tweak I made to test whether or not clouds are the primary culprit in poor performance on some Linux distros.


Till next time pilots, happy hooning!

Today is a bit of an odd day.

If you’ve been following along in the discord server then you’ll know that I’ve been releasing updated versions of Frontiers Reach onto the experimental branch. Today that branch got an update, and today I would like to invite you to join me and the rest of the community in testing the experimental branch in preparation for the official release on January 1st.


As you probably know, the Jan 1 update is intended to be a face lift for the game. But as you can see in the trailer below, this isn’t just about planets. The trailer below contains updated artwork for the Siren exterior and interior. It is also part of an internal effort to update the storefront with new content.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you would like to join in on the testing for the Jan 1 release, those of you who already own the game can do so by selecting the experimental branch in the beta section of the steam interface and entering the password below

TestBranchDoode


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But today I have more than just Frontiers Reach 1 content to release and talk about. In continuing from my previous post, I have more to cover in regards to Frontiers Reach 2.


FR1 covers the end of Golden Age of Exploration by exploring the Frontier War and the beginning of the Age of Tarnish, a dark age of chaos and lawlessness for pretty much all of humanity. With yet more waves of colonists leaving the core worlds to seek new lives on new worlds on the frontier. The Age of Tarnish begins with the end of the Frontier War, and ends with the conclusion of the Human-Vir Interstellar War. It is through the conflict with the Vir, that humanity begins to find unity again. But keep in mind this is no apocalyptic end times story. This is just the beginning of humanities story among the stars.


In Frontiers Reach 2 we will be getting a more intimate look at things planet side. As covered in my previous post, there will be new vehicles to interact with. But what I did not cover was the locations on planet and in space that you’ll get to visit.


As in FR1, in FR2, you’ll start out on the moon Frontiers Reach. This time you’ll start in a new sector. One dotted with the catacomb structures left built by the Vir. It is in these catacombs that your adventure will start. But you will not stay there.


On the ice bound world of Jotunn, you will find the Mercenary King. A self made royal whose legacy among the stars is one of fortune and blood. While rumors say he comes from a royal house long dead, no one truly knows where he came from. Only that when he arrived on Jotunn he and his band of mercenaries quickly set about making a name for themselves setting up their own fortress.
Early concept for the Mercenary Kings fortress on a mountain on Jotunn.

The Mercenary King seated upon his throne

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On Quixote’s Dream you will find an alien race known as the Thulians. Once their world was an aquatic paradise with a diverse biosphere. Their people were organized into distinct houses, each with a responsibility to uphold the balance of their natural world. But then division was sown by some unknown force and a 100 year war ravaged their planet. A war that only came to an end after a large meteor struck the planet permanently altering its ecology, magnetic field, and the way of life of all of its inhabitants.
Early concepts of the desert world of Quixote's Dream.

Now the planet is ruled by the relic war machines that wander the wastes, and the Thulians are left to scavenge what they can from the sands of the Great Wastes of He’istha. She whose wrath is absolute. These relic war machines are what is left of the great war that tore the planet apart and they no longer recognize the Thulians as friend. And the Thulians now believe them to be angry gods who will only cease their ravaging when every last one of the Thulians has atoned.
Early sketches of the Thulian peoples.

Early sketches of the Thulian mounts which they ride into the desert.

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In the Mar de Sangre Nebula, you’ll find a clan of pirates who have been hiding and preying upon passersby. This clan of ne’er do wells, is known as the Devils Best, and they are in the midst of a dispute of leadership. If you can win them over, they will become powerful allies in the fight against the Vir.
Screenshot from FR1 of the Mar de Sangre nebula with a pirate in ancient salvaged gear from the golden age of exploration.

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In orbit around the planet Doluu, there is an all female group of Mercenaries known as the Daughters of Minerva. They are currently in dispute with another mercenary group called Executive Opportunities. The DoM specialize in starfighter combat, and EO specializes in ground warfare. EO was hired to put down a farmers rebellion on Doluu and contracted DoM for air support. But EO has not paid DoM. Getting both to join your cause will be a challenge.
Private Military Corporations are the defacto means of military defense and offense in the frontier worlds. Especially during the Age of Tarnish when the Sol Confederacy and Frontier Republic no longer exist.

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That’s it for now pilots. Until next time, happy hooning and I look forward to seeing you on the experimental branch and the Discord server!