Capital Command News

[h3] JOIN NOW [/h3]

Enough said. Come on over!
The dev

The major focus is currently on the UI and ship control. Turns out that handling space ships and situational awareness in space is hard, who knew.

Still, there's progress.

I've removed the little radar display and it feels like the right call. It wasn't really useable in its previous form, there were just too many things crammed on top of each other.

The two indicators that replaced the radar are far more useable. The nav indicator now also has a lateral/antilateral velocity marker that indicate the direction 90 degrees off the current velocity. This is the most effective direction of thrust in order to turn, so I thought it's worth displaying. Feels useful in-game, and by definition it never overlaps with the velocity markers, so I think I'll leave it in, see how it goes.

I'm liking the warning indicator even more, and have been adding a few bells and whistles to it recently (an alarm sound when you've got incoming, some animations when new stuff appears etc). No more getting hit by surprise because you were looking at something else!

And, while I was at it, I redid the point-defense targeting logic. Had to be done anyway for the warning display to work correctly. It's not immediately visible in-game, but the new architecture is better optimized and works better too, so that's cool.

Tuned the ships a bit to make engine burns occur more often. It feels kind of bad to want to change course only to realize you've got to wait a couple minutes for the engines to recharge.

For the future, I've got a big gameplay addition planned and I'm pretty excited about it, to be honest. EMP pulses scramble ordnance in a wide area, and may even knock out enemy ships! Stay tuned for more.

Thanks for reading, fly safe
The dev

Capital Command was announced to be published by Hooded Horse and a new trailer was shown in the Hooded Horse Publisher Showcase at PAX East 2022. The publisher showcase revealed new content and announcements across Hooded Horse’s strategy games.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Capital Command can be wishlisted below:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1490930/

The trailers for Capital Command and the other games featured in the showcase can be found at the Hooded Horse Publisher Page on Steam:

https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/HoodedHorse

[h3]Here's why and for how long.[/h3]

Capital Command is still a work in progress. After last year's Next Fest, I've been able to use player feedback to make significant improvements, and it's not done yet.

Over the last few months, I've started an even bigger round of changes to the game's combat simulation gameplay. These design changes were based both on player feedback, and on my own experience playing and testing the game. They are mostly to do with the controls and UI, as well as making gameplay deeper and more satisfying for advanced players. I want a game that's as easy as possible to pick up and play, but that stays just as interesting after 100 hours, as it is when you're just starting. Sounds doable.

It's actually coming along nicely. Definitely not done yet, might still take a while, but I feel good about what I've changed. So why am I taking down the demo?

Mostly, because it's no longer a good indicator of what the actual game is like. Capital Command isn't a different game, but the experience of playing is, I hope, much improved. I don't want people to play the demo and come away thinking that it's a nice idea, but too difficult to actually play.

I do intend to make the demo available again, when I'm happy with the state of the combat simulation and UX. Not when I think it's perfect (it never is) but when I think it's fun to play and doesn't make the complicated task of flying a space battleship even harder than it has to be.

I'll provide more updates when I have more definite info. Until then, thank you very much for your continuing patience and interest in the game.

The dev

[h3] Bug fixes and tuning, preparing for the first closed beta. [/h3]

It's been a while since the last update, and this one brings a number of fixes and small improvements but no major additions.

Most of the time has been spent working on the campaign, and progress has been slower than anticipated. The basic campaign design has gone through a few drastic changes, but I'm glad to say it's mostly stabilized and should be going smoother from now on. Or so I hope.

I'll be running a closed beta soon, where you'll get a taste for some real battles that you might encounter during the campaign. Won't be long now.

Thank you for your patience
The dev