Frontiers Reach News

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!

The past two weeks have been pretty crazy on this end of the internet. Our lead programmer has found themselves with a sudden and fortunate and sizeable block of time that they were able to allocate to the development of the game and the result has been a boat load of progress being made on the game mechanically as well as the implementation of custom key and axis bindings (FINALLY!!). This has left us with a lot of testing to do. We're also preparing to begin our pre-launch campaign on Kickstarter. As such we've decided to cancel this weeks Friday update so that we can allocate time to test all the new integrations and to prep a new version of the demo.

We've also got a bunch of new artwork being created. This new artwork is being put together as a massive kitbash set that will be used to construct human colonial/industrial settlements across the entirety of the game. One of the key points of creating this new artwork is a massive optimization play to increase the performance consistency across the entire game as well as to allow us to expand level and environment designs in a way that would not have been possible. This new artwork will also allow other members of the team to contribute to the pool of art assets in a way that will keep uniformity of the aesthetic regardless of who is making it.

On the A.I. front progress is coming along amazingly. I can't say too much just yet, but the tool set our lead programmer is working on in an isolated testing and development environment is quite impressive and it is lightyears ahead of what is currently in the game. I personally cannot wait to get it in to the game.

One last thing I would like to bring up is about custom missions/scenarios. Our lead programmer is a long time fan of the ARMA series of games and is using the Zeus toolset as inspiration for our scenario toolset. Currently we're primarily focused on getting everything working for the single player experience first and foremost. We will begin looking at expanding this toolset to multiplayer if and when we can get to implementing multiplayer into the game. We've had a few discussions about how to approach multiplayer and have some ideas about the kind of multiplayer experiences we'd like to have both in terms of Player versus Player and Players versus Environment.

May 1st is the date. The date we intend to launch the latest version of the game and the date we plan to start the Kickstarter pre-launch campaign. There you can get a detailed breakdown of what the future of Frontiers Reach is intended to look like, and join the discussion around that future. While reaching our funding goal is priority, it will not be the end of the games development if we do not reach that goal. While it would be nice to be able to to focus on the game and pay the team for their time and hard work, we all went into this knowing we may never make any money at all and that our primary goal is the creation of an awesome experience that can share with people across various boundaries.

We'll see you in the skies pilots, and fly safe out there!

Fixed issues with weapon systems not working at all.

Tweaked flight physics slightly.

Tweaked AI turn rates slightly.

Decreased missile lock on for player's seeker missiles.

Fixed an issue with the wildboar shader that caused it to render improperly.

This weeks update builds more upon last weeks update and adds some new features. The biggest feature add is the new paint job customization of the S-27 Wildboar, and the F-42 Mermidon. Along with this feature is the ability to save and load paint jobs that can be applied to any of the starfighters. With that said, we've currently disabled all other starfighters from being able to be flown until we've gotten the new updates to the flight system and the camera system propogated throughout the game and each starfighter integrated with the new custom paint job shading system.

- Added new custom paint job system with support for the Kruger Interstellar S-27 Wildboar and Lochland & Masters F-42 Mermidon starfighters.

- Paint jobs can be saved and load onto any starfighter that is currently hooked up to the new shading system.

- More updates to the flight mechanic to give it more of a dynamic feel and to add in additional flight features.

- Flight mechanic will now compensate for having variance in atmopshere to include no atomsphere.

- Updates to camera system. It is smoother and supports additional features we will be enabling in the near future.

- Major updates to the input system that now supports generic controllers and joysticks and will switch on the fly during gameplay. Much of this work is foundational work for custom key and axis bindings.