Frontiers Reach News

[h2]Hello! It's been a while.[/h2]

If you've been following along with the changes to the experimental branch or have peaked in on the Playtest that went live last week then you may already know some of this stuff. By the way, if you haven't already I'd like to invite you all to join the Discord server where you can get access to the experimental branch if you already own the game.



All of the story content is currently in Frontiers Reach. The most recent build went out to the experimental branch this morning. This includes a bunch of new cutscenes that will play upon completion of certain missions. With that, Frontiers Reach is now story complete and the game will go into service mode where the story content additions to the core game will stop, but bug fixes, performance tweaks, and balance changes will be made as they are needed. Any additional content and features will be added on an "as demand for them increases" basis.

Below is a list of all the changes coming in the very near future.


[h2]Story Additions[/h2]

The last act of Frontiers Reach adds 4 new missions. 3 of which you must choose from as the final ending for your journey through the Frontiers Reach universe. Each of these endings is unique and has a different set of consequences for your crew and your character. Assuming there is enough demand I could see adding stand alone DLC that continues the story along each branch of FR1's ending.





[h2]New Player Experience[/h2]

The new player experience is done and functioning as expected. However I expect there may be tweaks or additions as more people get their hands on it. Frontiers Reach is a pretty complex game and there are some things I've deliberately left for the player to explore on their own so they can develop their own skill set with those mechanics, like the RCS system.





[h2]New Engine Version[/h2]

The version of Unity that Frontiers Reach is built on has been update to Unity 2023. I was going to wait a bit longer to do this but in the pursuit of trying to get as much performance out of the physics engine as possible I discovered that Unity 2023 increased support for multi-threaded physics. Additionally the previously highlighted issue of Unity 2022 not supporting Wayland on Linux should now be fixed. Wayland support was added in a much earlier version of Unity 2023 but was still experimental at that time. The version I chose for this update is a more recent version of Unity and should have all the issues hammered out. If you experiencing something on Linux that seems like it may be Wayland related, please don't hesitate to let me know as soon as possible.



[h2]Bug Fixes & Tweaks[/h2]

- Joysticks of all types should now work with Frontiers Reach.

- Increased the number of options for setting up throttles to the players liking.

- Added inverse options for look controls.

- It is now possible to change the time of day through the scenario script.

- Hooked up city lights to day time controller.

- Altitude warning has been lowered again.

- Ladder and compass UI when in first person mode has been trimmed back to be less obtrusive.

- Added sound effects for lock on.

- Added sound effects for weapon switching.

- Added new Radar Warning sound effects.

- Adjusted fog on Frontiers Reach to be less intense.

- Moved cave waypoint in Mission 1.

- Added fighter spawns to mission 3.

- Adjust spawn time for mission 5.

- Modified AI on Mission 11 set piece to ensure it works properly on initialization.

- Updated waypointer positions on Mission 13.

- Tweaks to fighter AI to keep them from getting stuck underground.

- Fixed ground vehicles going off trail on the New Karachi map.

- Increased lift factor for all fighters to make flying at lower speeds easier.

- Fix for missile lock angle allowing missiles to do 180 degree turns to hit targets.

- Fixed AI losing track on player when assigned through script at long ranges.

- Fix damage VFX on mercenary carriers.

- Added hit SFX on some destructibles on the Utsukushi Ringu map that did not have them.

- Fixed character interactions in the galley (improvements coming)

- Fixed the cursor not working when gamepad was used on the warmap.

- Fighters should no longer get stuck under the terrain on planetary missions.

- Modified cooldowns on some tertiary weapons to keep some fighters from deploying their entire payload.

- Modified tutorial message UI elements to keep them from overlapping other UI elements

- Toggled off idle thrusters in Bleakers Folly Station.

- Fixed Ajagar ace fighters SFX.

- Fixed some vehicles moving around maps during warmap scenarios when they should have been immobile.

- Fixed some destructibles in warmap scenarios not registering hits.

- Fixed some destructibles in warmap scenarios not registering damage.

- Tweaks to the warmap to change how is updates the visuals as the warmap data updates.

- Fixed an instance where the warmap would not properly display the defcon level of a node, or would go into "Stand Down" status before it was intended to do so.

- Fixed a bug that could cause the end of the game to not load properly.

- Fixed a bug that could cause dialogue for characters in the galley to not load properly.

- Fixed several instances of destructibles on some warmap scenarios not registering hits and/or damage.

- Fixed an instance of double loading of dialogue for the main story elements in the CIC.

- Fixed Land to Reload not working when using Mouse and Keyboard.

Act 3 of Frontiers Reach along with the reworked new player experience is now live on the experimental/test branch.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


If you would like to contribute to the testing phase, please join the community Discord to get access.

https://discord.gg/J3T9YH75XD

It's been a while since the last update so I thought it appropriate to do a blog.

First and foremost I would like to say that the third and final act of the main story for Frontiers Reach is now in production. Voice actors are recording their lines, and once those lines are in I will proceed to begin scripting the missions into the game. If all goes well, Act 3 should launch some time in June. But getting voice actors recorded is just the tip of the iceberg for what's coming in Act 3.

Since signing the publishing agreement for Frontiers Reach, work has admittedly slowed down on the third act, however this is not because there was no work to do. Quite the contrary. The past few months have actually been very productive as the publisher has facilitated access to a small group of testers who have provided critical feedback for Frontiers Reach that has influenced the games accessibility and quality.

If you've kept up with playing the game since February then you likely have experienced some of these changes, but know that more are coming and in this blog I will detail some of those changes.



[h2]New Player Experience[/h2]

One of the most important changes coming to Frontiers Reach is a revamped new player experience. It took quite a bit of time and multiple play sessions to gather the feedback that went into this and there may be more tweaks that need to be made but this new intro to the Frontiers Reach universe is designed to get you better acquainted with the game mechanics and universe.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

While the original tutorial mission will remain, 3 additional tutorial missions are being added and Instant Action is has been split into Planet and Space modes.

The two of the three new missions are hyper focused on a set of mechanics.

Basic Flight Training is for introduction to flight and the starfighter instrument panel.

Basic Combat Training is for familiarizing the player with the concepts of aerial combat.

Combat Scenario #1 is a new scenario focused on fighter combat.

Combat Scenario #2 is the original tutorial mission on Tom Uul with some tweaks to streamline things a bit.

In each of these missions you will fly a different starfighter in a different environment with different weapon loadouts. The goal here is get players acquainted with the idea of flying different starfighters for different missions.



[h2]New Capital Ship Damage Models[/h2]

Damage models for capital ships have always been either bare minimum or non-existent. When Act 3 launches those days are over. Every capital ship in the game will have a new damage model all new effects.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h2]Major Performance Changes[/h2]

Numerous fixes and tweaks to performance have yielded a significant increase in performance across the entire game. Getting this increase took a lot of trial and error and analysis of the game as it was running. One of the biggest problems was the sheer amount of particle effects being used in the game in ways that were supposed to be performant but proved otherwise. The biggest performance hit of which was engine plumes, especially for large capital ships with lots of engines. By changing out the old engine plumes which were run by Unity's Shadergraph for VFX with a simpler customized solution using some old school tricks I was able to get back about 40 FPS and finally achieve something in Frontiers Reach I have wanted since the start.

Flying a starfighter in large fleet battles.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h2]Branched Ending[/h2]

While Act 3 is set to be significantly shorter than the previous 2 Acts of the game, Act 3 differs in more ways than just length. In this third and final act, players will be presented with 3 choices for how to end the story in Frontiers Reach.

[h3]Option #1 - Survival :[/h3] Rally the fleet of survivors for one last battle to break through a blockade to reach the designated departure point to begin your journey outbound and start a new colony elsewhere in the galaxy.





[h3]Option #2 - Victory :[/h3] Give the order to the fleet to prepare for combat and assault an asteroid base where the Sol Confederacy has setup a base to continuously pump out warships.





[h3]Option #3 - Revenge :[/h3] Lead the fleet in a desperate bid bring down officer responsible for killing one of your crewmates and exact revenge.





That's it for now. Till next time pilots!

- Fix for pause menu breaking.
- Fix for cinematic screen rendering behind some UI elements.

- Fixed issue with mouse not being entirely accurate when clicking.
- Added a quit button to the main menu tutorial.
- Lowered altitude threshold for the Altitude warning.
- HUD colors now save on a per mission basis, resetting when you load into a different mission.
- Added support for multiple different types of color blindness filters.
- Modified how third person target indicators work for better accuracy.
- Fixed an issue with the camera not resetting after an ejection.