Community: State of the Game #2 - Planetside

Greetings Generals,

 In our second State of the Game we would like to show all of you the Planetary Management and Exploration proof of concept video we shot a few days ago.  Keep in mind that it is still early work in progress for now, but we hope it shows you guys the general idea! A more in-depth look into these features, as well as ground combat and colonization, will  happen in a full Dev Blog when it is nearer to completion.

Planetside Demo Video

 In addition to the work done on ground combat, we have of course been hard at work on all aspect of the game. Below is an outtake of things we have been working on.

 Space scene changes:

  • Formations are in the game now. Ships currently form in a symmetrical formation, from the outside in, with the largest ship behind a curtain of light shields.

    • Work has started on custom formations, that allows players to pre-build the way formations should form, including the way ships face inside that formation.

    Formation Designer demo footage

  • Improved visuals for all space view modes (RTS, Tactical, and Tactical views). It is much easier to see the grid system to orientate yourself on.

  • The box that could be seen while the cursor is over asteroids fields that have dust clouds has been fixed and should no longer show.

  • Planets now correctly face the star closest to the star, making the game look much more realistic and beautiful.

  • All planets now have scripts to allow for city lights, though those on Gas, Lava, and Ocean planets are turned off until I make them mesh better with the specific planets they are on..

  • The Options Menu has been updated with a new layout, new options, and it is now easy to add more new options in the future, such as a brightness slider.

  • Stars, planets and other planetary bodies now have had a really nice visual upgrade when using post effects. These make the stars, planets and other object look even better.

  • While you have ships selected, the selection UI will now show you the state of the ships as well.

 Bridge scene changes:

  • Planets are lifted up while you are on the bridge. This makes it easier to keep an eye on your surroundings while on the Bridge and look much nicer at the same time.

  • The Empire Management UI has been revamped with a new visual style and is being made ready for a upcoming feature.

  • The wide screen TV’s on the bridge now have different custom shaders, making them less opaque and have some nice visuals such as a distortion and refresh rate.

  • Planetary Shields have been improved visually from the Bridge.

 

Planetary Scene (in early WiP):

Terrain Generation

  • Work has started on random terrain generation, which will create a unique map for each planet in the game during exploration. Once a map has generated, it is permanent for that planet, though there are ingame ways to change what a planet is like.

  • The terrain created for planets includes hills, forest, mountains, marshes, oceans, deserts, rivers, more alien landscapes, and more. Each with it’s own effect on unit vision, movement speed, and more.

  • Weather effects that can affect your units much like terrain, but is usually temporary.

  • Light effects: planets have the hue they should have depending on what star they are closest to in RTS view. So a planet orbiting a Blue star will actually have a blue hue.

Construction:

  • Work on construction of buildings such as Sectors (your factories and such), walls and roads is underway, as can be seen in the video. The art for all of the buildings is currently placeholder..

  • Sector management and construction is in, though both still need a lot of work before reaching a finished state.

Turn-based movement and combat systems:

  • The server team is working on setting up turn-based systems for the various planetary features. In short, ground combat will happen simultaneously every cycle (5 minutes) based upon player orders and AI rules of engagement, while Planetary Management and Exploration takes place every 30 seconds.

  • Depending on how you design your ground units, units gain a specific amount of action points to be used on movement and combat. This is also modified by terrain and weather for example.

 Other:

  • New tech trees have been made. At least one new one of each type (such as hulls, weapons, engines, sensors, etc.) for testing and balancing. We are currently working on the formulas and systems that allows us to create large amounts of technologies that are all relevant, but also balanced towards each other.

  • The Intro video has been re-added to the game, though it may need recoding in the future.

 

Hope you guys liked this second State of  the Game blog. If you have any questions, we will try to answer them in the comments!

 Cheers,

The Taitale team!