Hello everyone!!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but I promise there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes. Here’s where I get everyone up to speed.
First of all, our team continues to grow! Besides Pavlos, our talented artist whose work you will be about to see, we have added a scienc guy!! Thiosk hails from California and is a research assistant at Stanford, and has offered some amazing thoughts on population ideas and is working on the science system, which I will talk about both in a later post.
The upcoming .410 update will be massive both in terms of content and what’s changed. From a UI standpoint, one word will describe it: everything. Here are some example shots – actual in-game screens, not mocks:
There are a lot of changes; I will add the post with the changelog tomorrow. But the two biggest by far are the UI and the military system starting to be added. That system is actually very complex and the roots are already in the game.
When a new game is created, your empire is ‘rolled up’ a value n numerous science fields, including missiles, railguns, kinetics, lasers, defense systems, engine tech, warp tech, armor tech, etc. and from those values components are created dynamically. Once your empire has a starting component list, fleet designs are generated based on your military rating and the size of your empire.
For example, home fleet might have 3 capital ships, 5 cruiser ships, and 8-9 picket ships (destroyers, escorts). At the same time, designs for each ship size in the Empire are created based on a type of role (raider, scout, combatant, missile boat, EW ship, etc). Not all roles are created – this is somewhat random, but important roles such as ships of the wall, escort ships, picket ships, etc. are always generated.
Hull designs are created based on role, and from that a ship template is created. The difference between a hull design and a ship template is that hull designs only specify hard points, base defense/HP/crew ratings, and size, while the ship template actually plugs components into those hard points, creating a template that multiple ships can be generated (and built) from.
Finally, ships are generated off the template based on the number and roles needed for the fleets, and they are personalized with names, designations, crew ratings, and commanders, and stationed at your capital planets.
Ground troops will also be in the .410 build. They will be able to be used as garrison troops and peacekeepers, all the way to shock troops and stormtroopers to keep the public in line. They will have a loyalty rating both to you (known) and to your viceroy (known with intel). Be careful that you do not lose the loyalty of your troops! You can send troops that are loyal to you to your planets, but your viceroy can be given the authority to raise troops if they deem it necessary – but beware, troops raised locally are loyal to their viceroy first, then you!
In the next update, I will talk more about the military system and how it ties into both the character system and the science system.
-Steve