Another month, another update and as the aforementioned month of time has now passed I'm back once again with a new devlog. Which in this case is for version 0.49.0 the specific details of which can be seen below.

What’s New?

As is normally the case with my updates by now the first thing of note and something you’ve probably already seen is the new unit model which this time around was for the Kessoni starfighter. Along with a new model for the unit itself I’ve also added a new model for the tiny Kessoni engine as well as a new model for the tiny fixed laser beam turret. The results of which can be seen in the comparison image above. As with all the other models I’ve redone so far I should mention that the materials/textures you see are still placeholders and they will continue to be refined further either as I continue to make more updated models for the Kessoni faction or when I begin my third round of model reworks.

Keeping on the topic of models this update also brings with it a couple of new ones in the form of generic ships. I mentioned previously that I wanted to add some variations to the background traffic system already in the game and with these three new models I’ve done just that. To actually be able to make use of these new models I also made a couple of updates to the traffic system itself, such as allowing it to randomly select one of the three models to use when it’s generating a route. Alongside this I also added a couple of settings to the settings menu where you can change both the number of total routes as well as number of ships on said route. As the system now has the potential to show a lot more ships than before I also made a small performance improvement by ensuring only those ships currently moving along their path are displayed. A minor change but one that seems to help keep performance where I want it to be.

Besides new and updated models this update also includes a long list of smaller changes and additions. To highlight just a small number of these, each of the planetary outposts have now been updated to use medium sized turrets instead of small turrets as the resized turret meshes didn’t match the scale of the buildings they were assigned to. There is now a grid visible just outside of the map bounds in space battles and the campaign map which fades away from the maps edge, there is now a helper function to generate location connections to allow me to more quickly build campaign maps in the future and the building built and unit recruited objectives have now been updated to allow checking for a specific number of said building or unit rather than just checking for one. The current objective UI element has also been updated to support showing your current progress with said objective.

Last but certainly not least there was of course the usual selection of bugfixes which this time around were rather extensive. Again I wouldn't be able to talk about them all individually but some of the highlights include a fix where the Pirate carrier was incorrectly marked as a different unit despite it still being able to be called into the map, a fix for AI units using their abilities before they finished warping into the map which made them unusable, a fix for AI units rotating at a different speed than player controlled units which made them path incorrectly and a fix for units which didn’t have any targetable systems still being targeted by said subsystems instead of on the unit itself.

Update 0.50.0

So once again having given you an idea of what to expect in this update I’ll now quickly go over some of the things you can expect to see in the next one, which in this case will be version 0.50.0. To start off with and as is now customary in all my updates there will of course be a new unit model which in version 0.50.0 will be for the Kessoni corvette. While using the same style of art direction I used for the Kessoni starfighter I’m also hoping to create a new model to represent the small Kessoni laser beam turret, the small Kessoni engine and a Kessoni variant of the shield generator.

In addition to the above new model I’m also hoping to get some more work done with regards to the story campaigns. To be more specific I want to get the ground battles which require you to complete some kind of objective implemented in a manner which isn’t just, you took control of the planet so the objective is complete. Instead I’d like to see if I can’t add a new outcome for battles beyond a win or a loss which sees the battle end once all of your objectives have been completed. Once this third type of battle outcome is added then I can see about adding proper support for the aforementioned ground battle objectives which are already written in the story campaigns but just need to be hooked up to the correct battle maps.

Keeping on the topic of ground battles it’s also probably about time that I made some visual improvements to them. While I’m not sure I’ll be able to redo the trees and bushes to where I can have support for sections of the map being covered in them just yet, there is one area I think I can make a pretty significant improvement. That being the terrain outside of the map bounds. Sometime ago I added a very basic shader for randomly generating some terrain outside of the playable area so it no longer looked as though you were floating in an endless void. While this shader works it’s not all that great for performance nor does the terrain it generates look all that convincing. For this reason in 0.50.0 I’d like to remove this shader generated terrain and instead manually make some terrain to sit outside of each of the maps. While I expect this terrain to be somewhat basic it should still look better than what’s currently visible outside of the map bounds.

Last but not least I’d also like to continue my efforts when it comes to polishing areas of the game which are already implemented but either haven’t been touched in a long time or aren’t up to my current standards. One area I'm looking at with regards to this is with both the nebulae’s and asteroids both on the campaign map and on the battle map. I’ve learnt a lot about both 3D modelling and shaders since I first made them and as a result I would hope I could improve them quite a bit from their current versions. Depending on the amount of extra time I find myself with I’d also like to see if I can’t investigate using fog a bit further to also help with obscuring the edge of the battle maps. Beyond these two self made targets there will of course also be the usual selection of bug fixes, both for the bugs I already know about and for bugs which will no doubt make themselves known as I start to once again work on older parts of the game.

Closing Thoughts

So just as was the case with the previous update this one turned out to be a rather big one and while there were some areas I probably should have focused more on, like the story campaigns. I was still able to get a lot done and as a result both the campaign map and ground battles are feeling a little more polished than they were before. A trend I hope to keep going for not only the next update but all subsequent updates going forward.

Beyond this I can’t think of much else to say other than that I should probably get on with the next update and so I’ll end this devlog here with the promise that I’ll be back in around a month's time with said update. An update which should hopefully make Stellar Odyssey: Galaxy At War feel even more polished than it is today and also put it in a good position for some of the things I have planned for it over the next year. Plans which I’ll detail a little more in the next couple of devlogs.

As always if you have any questions or queries then don’t hesitate to ask and similarly if you have any feedback for existing systems. Or indeed if you have any ideas, features or changes you would like to see implemented then also don’t hesitate to let me know.

As with all of my updates a full list of the changes made can be found in game, with the changes and additions pertaining to this update listed below:

• Updated the planet Earth on the Human story campaign map to be displayed using its unique mesh
• Updated the planet Arven on the Human story campaign map to be displayed using its unique mesh
• Updated the planet Kellos on the Human story campaign map to be displayed using its unique mesh
• Updated the planet Kellos on the Astel story campaign map to be displayed using its unique mesh
• Updated the planet Kellos on the Kessoni story campaign map to be displayed using its unique mesh
• Updated the planet Renn on the Shin story campaign map to be displayed using its unique mesh
• Updated the planets which don't have a unique mesh on the Kessoni and Shin story campaign maps to use the correct generic planet scene
• Added a grid to the space battle scene which can be seen outside of the map bounds
• Added a grid to the campaign map scene which can be seen outside of the map bounds
• Added a new helper function to automatically generate location connections on the campaign map
• Added a new mesh to represent the tiny Kessoni fixed laser beam turret
• Added a new mesh to represent the tiny Kessoni engine subsystem
• Added a new mesh for use with the campaign map background traffic system called generic ship 001
• Added a new mesh for use with the campaign map background traffic system called generic ship 002
• Added a new mesh for use with the campaign map background traffic system called generic ship 003
• Added a new setting to the settings menu to set if the campaign map background traffic system is enabled
• Added a new setting to the settings menu to allow the number of traffic routes on the campaign map to be adjusted
• Added a new setting to the settings menu to allow the density of traffic routes on the campaign map to be adjusted
• Added an objective count to objectives so that objectives which require a certain number of actions can be tracked
• Added support for checking if a specific number of a specific type of building have been removed as a new objective
• Updated the model used by the Kessoni Starfighter
• Updated the image used by the Kessoni Starfighter to match the look of the new unit model
• Updated the mesh used by the defence point in space to better align with the new gun and shield generator meshes
• Updated the mesh used by the defence point in ground battles to better align with the new gun and shield generator meshes
• Updated the settings screen to split the different settings types into their own tabs
• Updated the map boundary line to be the same colour as the grid outside of the map bounds
• Updated the building built objective to support checking if a specific number of the target building have been built
• Updated the unit recruited objective to support checking if a specific number of the target unit have been built
• Updated the current building built events to work with the new building built count requirement
• Updated the current unit recruited events to work with the new unit recruited count requirement
• Updated the positions of defence points in ground battles to prevent part of the model from being hidden
• Updated the turrets used by the Human planetary outpost to be medium sized instead of small
• Updated the turrets used by the Astel planetary outpost to be medium sized instead of small
• Updated the turrets used by the Kessoni planetary outpost to be medium sized instead of small
• Updated the turrets used by the Shin planetary outpost to be medium sized instead of small
• Updated the turrets used by the Pirate planetary outpost to be medium sized instead of small
• Updated the marine type units used by all factions to have 5 health each instead of 20
• Updated the campaign map background traffic system to only show the meshes of ships which are currently moving
• Updated the campaign map background traffic system to support randomly selecting a traffic routes mesh from a list of possible meshes
• Updated the campaign map background traffic system to regenerate all traffic routes if a traffic setting has been changed in the settings GUI
• Updated the campaign map background traffic settings in the settings GUI to display their current value
• Updated the campaign map information for the Human story campaign to include location connections
• Updated the campaign map information for the Astel story campaign to include location connections
• Updated the campaign map information for the Kessoni story campaign to include location connections
• Updated the campaign map information for the Shin story campaign to include location connections
• Updated the shield node generation logic to use the same exported button as the campaign map helper functions
• Updated the space test target to round the damage over time label to 2 decimal places
• Updated the speed of the impact animation for the laser beam ammo type to make it more impactful
• Updated the size of the impact animation for the laser beam ammo type to make it better match the size of the laser beam itself
• Removed the nebulas which were visible and could be highlighted outside of the play area on the 1 v 1 space battle map
• Removed the mesh from the laser beam barrel as it obscured the mesh of the new laser beam turret model
• Fixed a bug where the Pirate Carrier was incorrectly marked as the Kessoni Carrier
• Fixed a bug where the Pirate Carrier could be recruited from a tier 1 Pirate space station
• Fixed a bug where the Pirate space station didn't have a mesh set for some of its guns which prevented them from being used
• Fixed a bug where the mining outpost didn't have a mesh set for some of its guns which prevented them from being used
• Fixed a bug where the defence point didn't have a mesh set for some of its guns which prevented them from being used
• Fixed a bug where the Human planetary outpost didn't have a mesh set for some of its guns which prevented them from being used
• Fixed a bug where the Astel planetary outpost didn't have a mesh set for some of its guns which prevented them from being used
• Fixed a bug where the Pirate planetary outpost didn't have a mesh set for some of its guns which prevented them from being used
• Fixed a bug where the plated material used by some space stations didn't render correctly
• Fixed a bug where the turret reset animation for turrets which use dynamic meshes was still tyring to manually change the visibility of the mesh
• Fixed a bug where the turret respawn animation was shared by all turrets but was only setup to work with a specific one
• Fixed a bug where the turret die animation was shared by all turrets but was only setup to work with a specific one
• Fixed a bug where the space stations for each of the different factions were missing meshes for their turrets which prevented them from being used
• Fixed a bug where the current objective remained on the screen when entering freecam mode while in a battle
• Fixed a bug where the pre fire animation for laser beam turrets didn't work for the tiny laser beam variant
• Fixed a bug where the laser beam ammo type didn't extend all the way to the target when fired from a tiny laser beam turret
• Fixed a bug where AI controlled units in campaign map battles wouldn't rotate correctly towards their destination
• Fixed a bug where AI controlled units would use their unit abilities before they had finished warping into the map
• Fixed a bug where units belonging to the Kessoni faction wouldn't display the correct material after warping into the map
• Fixed a bug where units which didn't have any targetable subsystems were still being targeted by their subsystems