Celestial Command News

Hello!
Despite the fact that there is no news from us for a really long time, the game actually is not abandoned as it may seems and in a very active development.

This may will be a biggest update in the history of game development, but since it not finished we are really sorry that we are forcing you to wait for so long.

We realized that there is huge amount of issues in the game which makes it unplayable at some point and we want to resolve all of these issues at once in order to provide really good gameplay experience for you.

We realize that such a long update cycle is not good, and we will return back to "update each 1-2 month" cycle after this huge update.
For now we just can't release it because many systems is completely reworked and currently in half disassembled state.
What about planned release date, unfortunately we don't know yet because there is still a lot of work.

Also the reason why there is not too many posts from us, is because there is so many changes in the game so it became hard to describe in words, while also we want to keep most info about most improvements hidden before release in order to achieve better "feeling of new content" for you after it will be released.

Still, we will show something about upcoming improvements:


Main user interface much more clean and no longer cluttered with useless elements which only distracts you, now it will display only information which can be useful right now.


User interface of editor screen is improved the same way. Also overall usability of editor screen is greatly improved because ship constructor is a key feature of the game and players will spent significant amount of time here so it should be intuitive and comfortable.


Inventory window and its usability improved too. Usage of inventory no longer fill the screen with a bunch of icons which is hard to read and use. It should be much more comfortable now.


Currently color dots above asteroids performs its purpose (display contained resource) not very well, so we made a new indicators which visible only when any asteroids selected and does not distracts when you don't need this information.


We like the idea that cargo transfer requires a docking, but docking process itself could be very uncomfortable and overall it much harder than expected, so now all docking ports have convenient and reliable "magnetic docking" feature.


Same thing happens with shipyard. Requirement of shipyard is nice feature but proper positioning of ship inside shipyard can be frustrating, so now the ship will be positioned in the center of shipyard automatically.

Hello! Sorry for no news from us for a long time. The game is not abandoned but in active development, as usual. We just reconsidering a lot of core features, game design elements and going to solve all of these issues which should be solved long time ago.

The biggest changes will be related to base building aspect and attempts to make learning curve much smoother.

We like base building, especially if base is moveable, because mobile base is cool.
So when we started development of Celestial Command we planned that at some point of gameplay, the player will be able to build huge ship which will act like mobile base, but this feature still not implemented and we are going to solve that with the next update.



Previously we had the next plan:

1. You start with simple small ships
   
2. You should build own space station within first hours of the gameplay
   
3. Somewhere after 10 hours of gameplay you will be able to build a capital ship and continue journey using it as a mobile base.
   

But turned out that such approach has a few problems:

1.
Construction of space station it is a complex task, it is not just a bunch of walls and door like in classic survival games. It is a large amount of different modules which should be built in specific combination and even positions.
When player starts the game first time he almost immediately encounter with such a complex task which is extremely unfriendly and should be changed. Also it just does not have sense because initial station always looks almost the same.

2.
Transition from station to moveable base is very unobvious. It is hard to understand when exactly it is possible or necessary and how gameplay will be changed. Also it means that previous station will be leaved behind or reconstructed? That sounds not too pleasant considering that station was a home for a long time.



So in order to solve these issues we decided to do the next thing:

• It will be unnecessary to build starting base manually, you will receive the base almost instantly within first hour of the game, and later you can upgrade or rebuild it as you wish.
  
• This will be not a station, but flagship, huge mobile base with its own role, so "build static space station phase" will be completely skipped and mobile base will be achieved much earlier, so new player will dive immediately into combat and mission tasks instead of complex attempts to build a station.
  

Let's think about, what is a "base" in survival game?

1. This is a place where you can store various items, so flagship will have large and cheap cargo storage
   
2. This is a place where located most "workbenches", so flagship will be the only place where production modules can be placed and used
   
3. This is just a protected place where you can go inside, close the "door" behind and be protected against dangerous environment outside, so we decided that flagship should be large enough to fit smaller ships inside its hangar bays. Another benefit from such approach - if you have several various ships of different design and colors, flagship itself will looks beautiful from outside view, since colorful small ships will be hidden inside its hangars.
   
4. Also the base is not a weapon itself, it should be protected. So it will be impossible to place weapons on the flagship at the beginning. However, at late game flagship can be upgraded and act not only like a carrier, but a battleship.
   

Also, since it will be not just a base, but mobile base, we want to implement another purpose for flagship - it will be the only way to travel on large distance, simply saying, warp drive can be installed only on flagship and it will move only a things which located inside its hangar bays.



Here is a simple analogy, flagship can be considered as large sail ship, locations in space - islands, smaller ships - individual characters. So characters is unable to move between islands without a sail ship.



All of these things should make an interesting difference between large flagship which acts like a mobile base and smaller frigates which purposes to perform combat, gathering and logistic operations.
We want to improve base building aspect long time ago and seems like this is exactly want we want to achieve.






Another aspect which will be heavy redesigned it is a crew system. Currently the system is quite overcomplicated, unobvious and sometimes tedious.

Micromanagement of different types of regular crew between different modules turned out an unnecessary feature, so instead, there will be only 1 type of regular crew, and it will be automatically distributed across entire ship.

The only purpose of crew system is to make ships "alive", and single type of regular crew will be enough to achieve that.



Instead of micromanagement of regular crew we want to focus on improvements in ships to ships combat aspect which is much more interesting and visually enjoyable.

Officers also will be redesigned. Currently there is an option to assign several officers to the same command module, but there is no point to assign "not a full stack of officers", so instead we decided to allow only one officer (captain) per ship, instead its skill tree will be much larger, so different captain may have different skills and specializations.

Each ship will be considered as single character, with its own portrait, name and specialization. Such approach should be especially good for co-op multiplayer.




We noticed an interesting thing - usually it is more fun to fight against enemies who are not similar to you. Who looks different and uses different tactics. That could be especially noticeable in various zombie games or similar games where you need to fight not against humans, but against some kind of creatures.

So, additionally to standard modular enemy ships, you also sometimes will encounter something very unusual.



But more details about that will be revealed later.




Since flagship with its warp drive will become the main method to travel between planets and systems, the role of warp gates will be changed.

Warp gates no longer provides a route trough entire galaxy, instead, it will provide transportation within the same system, it also will be a part of some missions where frigates (smaller ships) should perform some tasks in location where flagship can't arrive (because it can't fit inside a warp gate)





We plan to do that somewhere at January but not sure when exactly. We will keep you informed about progress and try to avoid such a long delays between news.

And also, Happy New Year! : )

[h2]Improvements[/h2]

[h3]Planets[/h3]

• Added two locations on planet surface! At this moment it is available in sandbox and battle game modes
  
• Random weather effects
  
  [h3]Control[/h3]
  
• Improved control keys for engines, now you can use Space \ C buttons to move your ship Up \ Down which is very comfortable. Shift + WASD or arrow keys can be used for pitch \ yaw \ roll if needed, but in most cases it is not necessary and the ship can be controlled only with (WASD \ QE \ Space \ C) buttons, nice and simple like in 2D, but now in 3D!
  
  
  
  
• Auto stabilize center of thrust with center of mass" button is greatly improved and now works properly in 3D, for engines in all 6 directions with any possible configuration! Now the ship can be almost perfectly balanced and it will move exactly in desired direction while it still fully physical and realistic! This feature also perfect for a ships with asymmetrical design.
  
  
  
  
• Now when you activate altitude stabilizer, it will set its current altitude as a target altitude
  
• Added anti gravitational drive which build in command modules and allows to keep ships in air, also it creates dust cloud when hovering above ground at low altitude
  
  
  
  
• If "roll and pitch stabilizer (RPS)" enabled, "torque stabilizer" will stabilize ship only along vertical axis and it no longer interrupts functionality of RPS
  
• Added new lines in control settings, less hotkeys is "hard coded" and now available to change in settings
  
  [h3]Battle mode[/h3]
  
• In battle mode visibility no longer limited by range of radars
  
• Rockets no longer detonate if hit another rocket of the same faction
  
• Explosion of rockets no longer cause damage to ships of the same faction (simple way to avoid friendly fire)
  
  [h3]World[/h3]
  
• Added possibility to create a world with custom planet size, maximum possible size is 20 times bigger than current planets. This feature designed only for sandbox mode, "for fun with physics" and not suitable for stable gameplay
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Size and mass of all planets now is the same which makes orbital physics more consistent and understandable
  
  [h3]Collisions[/h3]
  
• Increased velocity threshold for collision damage from 40 to 100 (earlier even small collisions was too devastating)
  
• Now collision effects will be created even for collisions which does not cause damage
  
• Improved audio effect on collisions
  
  [h3]Miscellaneous[/h3]
  
• Improved localization system which should be much more comfortable for translators
  
  [h3]Modules[/h3]
  
• Starting ship a bit redesigned
  
• New engines now has proper visual effect
  
  
  
  
• New decorative module for starting ship design
  
• Regular engine now available in 3 different sizes
  
  
  
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

[h3]Control[/h3]

• Fixed an issue when engines control keys didn't reacted if clicked quickly
  
• If left shift \ ctrl \ alt is used somewhere - its right variant can be used as well
  
• Removed useless hotkeys options from engines
  
• Grabber no longer has "2" hotkey by default which is not allowed for module hotkeys
  
• Engines now works properly on thrust less than 10% so torque stabilizer now works properly in orbital mode and "reduce thrust to 10%" button now works properly too
  
  [h3]Miscellaneous[/h3]
  
• Flame effect of engines no longer casts shadow
  
• Fixed typo in main menu "Survival"
  
• Preview of solar panels no longer push a ship while moved
  
• Removed sound of engines at low thrust (when stabilizer enabled and activated an engines at 1% thrust)
  
• Custom interface scale no longer cause incorrect scale and position of window with info about modules
  
• Solar panels no longer works in the shadow of planet
  
• Large engines now has proper thrust value
  

Actually idea of that feature was quite unexpected even for us : )

We didn't thought about planet because it was impossible in 2D, but since the game going to be full 3D, we just thought "Hey, we want to add planets now! That is not too hard, but add so many new possibilities and makes visual so much better!"

And indeed, new possibilities is great!



So here is some frequently asked and potential questions about upcoming features and what we are planing to do with planets:



[h3]How landing from space to planet will be implemented? Seamless transition?[/h3]
Not a seamless transition, it will be similar with jump to another system. The ships approach a planet and appears above planet surface in different location.

[h3]Dynamic time of day?[/h3]
Yes, full day \ night cycle

[h3]Dynamic weather?[/h3]
Yes, including rain and snow

[h3]Points of interest on the surface to explore and gather useful resources?[/h3]
Yes

[h3]How large size of ground surface? Possibility of trip around the world?[/h3]
No, it is not possible. Each surface location it is quite small area on the planet with boundaries, similar with such areas in space.

[h3]More locations and biomes?[/h3]
Yes, there will be several more different landscapes and biomes

[h3]Grass and trees on the surface?[/h3]
No, we want to design it as barren landscapes which looks more Sci-Fi place and also good for optimization. Also, it emphasize that planets is not suitable for camping with camp fire and such "Nature" stuff.

[h3]Landscapes is handmade or generated procedurally?[/h3]
Each landscape is handmade but using a tool for procedural generation. It is technically possible to generate it procedurally but this process is too long for real time, but faster methods provides not the best result.



[h3]As there a gravity on planets?[/h3]
Yes, on teaser trailer you can see that ships falls on the ground during combat

[h3]How ships keep its altitude in air?[/h3]
At this moment, anti-gravitation drive which built-in command module. Everything not attached to command module will fall on the ground.
That is not a bad solution, because this is quite common concept in many Sci-Fi movies and games where huge ships keeps itself in the air without any visible engines below it.
However, most likely later we will add AI which will keep ship in air using 4 engines on the sides.

[h3]When atmospheric engines will be added - it will consume huge amount of fuel, isn't it?[/h3]
We will solve it with simple solution, there will be a special engines which consume much less fuel (maybe only energy) but works only on planets.

[h3]Retractable landing gear and landing?[/h3]
Yes, with proper animation.

[h3]Ground vehicles with wheels?[/h3]
We would like to implement wheels but turned out it is technically complex task, so no wheels at this moment, but probably we will implement that as soon as we will figure out how to do that.
However, most likely we will implement hover drive and mech legs, but not sure yet, additional research is required.

[h3]Seas and possibility of naval ships?[/h3]
Requires some additional research but most likely yes. Probably even with submarines.

[h3]Aerodynamic with wings and planes?[/h3]
No, we don't want to implement that in Celestial Command, it is quite hard to implement properly and small size of region will restrict a freedom, also we just want to focus on large spaceships such as frigates cruisers, carriers which supposed to be massive, slow and epic, mostly located horizontally with possibility to change its altitude up and down. Wings for such ships just does not suit its concept.
However downward pointed engines will allow to build VTOL vehicles such as helicopters.
Also, when drones will be implemented, there will be "drones" which actually pre-made planes with wings which will be fast and agile, but its physics will be very simplified so basically no, there will not be aerodynamic flight model based on realistic wings.

[h3]Possibility to exit a ship and directly control a human?[/h3]
No, the game should be only about building and control of vehicles. But layer it will be possible to deploy small ground vehicles from the landed ships in order to explore areas which is not accessible for large spaceship.

[h3]Possibility to build bases on planet surface?[/h3]
Yes, the same constructions as ships or stations can be located on the ground and it can be considered as a ground base. It should be physically stable, if not, we will implement a possibility to "lock" it on the ground.

[h3]Mining of resources from planet surface?[/h3]
Yes, but only limited amount from rare specific points to prevent balance issue and avoid "source of infinite resources"




First version of planets with some features planned to be released in “Preview” build within 1-2 weeks.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]