As previously promised a little over a month after the release of update 0.10.0, update 0.11.0 is now out.

What’s New?

So then, what new I hear you ask? Well as mentioned in my previous devlog this update brings in a new faction tentatively called the ‘Shin’ (Once again displaying my unparalleled ability to pick outstanding names). Unlike each of the three previous factions the Shin do not make use of laser based weapons but instead use a new type of turret. The kinetic one. Which unlike the humble laser is able to penetrate enemy shields while still dealing up to 50% of its normal damage.

Alongside their new turret type they also have a new ability. One which allows them to cloak their ships and in doing so gain a 50% chance of dodging any incoming attack. Additionally some ships, both of this new faction and of existing ones now support armour. Which can be damaged in the same way shields and health can, but which will also reduce the amount of incoming damage by a percentage of the amount of armour remaining.

Beyond these additions I should also mention that there were a number of changes and updates alongside a few important bug fixes which I feel are worth pointing out. For one, every ship and building now has the correct outline which will in the case of space stations update when the mesh of the aforementioned space station changes. An update that also extends to shields and the meshes they use. Finally for this update I also managed to resolve some issues with how I dealt with you drawing a box to select multiple units at once and the performance problems associated with it.

Update 0.12.0

So as I had said it would be, the 0.11.0 update turned out to be decently sized, even if I wasn’t able to implement everything that I wanted to. The question now though, is what's next? Well much like update 0.10.0 I expect the 0.12.0 update to be on the smaller side. Though not for the reason you may think.

While in its current state Stelestial Contact: Solar Storm has space battles in which you fight against an enemy for victory they alone do not make a compelling game. Not in their current implementation anway. Rather they are but one part of a grander plan. I am of course talking about that button which has been sitting at the top of the main menu for more than a little while and which has remained greyed out the entire time. For some time now I have been working on the aforementioned gamemode hidden behind the button and at this point I think it’s time I transitioned away from a focus on developing the battles to a focus on developing the campaign that will connect them.

To be absolutely clear though this does not mean I am done developing the battle mode nor that it is in any way finished. Rather that I now feel I have enough features and content in place to work on a different part of what will ultimately become the gameplay loop. With this in mind the minimum plan for update 0.12.0 is to get the campaign developed to the point where it is at least  possible to trigger space battles on the campaign map before you then fight them yourself.

To that end I can’t say how much new content if any will be in the next update when it comes to the space battles. I will say however that I will take this opportunity to begin going back over some of the features that I previously implemented and refining them a bit. One area in particular I hope to be able to make some improvements is with both the meshes and the associated textures, both of which could do with some much needed improvements.

Closing Thoughts

And so with another update behind me I will once again ask that if you have any questions or queries then please do not hesitate to ask them. Additionally if you have any suggestion of what you’d like to see added or changed in the future then please also let me know.

With that out of the way I hope you enjoy the additions and changes made in update 0.11.0 and should things go to plan I’ll be back sometime next month with update 0.12.0.

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:

• Added a progress bar to the turret info overlay for seeing when a turret is next going to fire
• Added a target line to turrets when the mouse is placed over them to make it easier to see what a turrets current target is
• Added a faction flag to the battle setup screen for each of the different factions
• Added a new type of ammo called kinetic ammo which can penetrate shields and deal 50% of its normal damage
• Added a new type of turret called the small kinetic turret which makes use of the new kinetic ammo type
• Added a new type of turret called the medium kinetic turret which makes use of the new kinetic ammo type
• Added a new type of turret called the large kinetic turret which makes use of the new kinetic ammo type
• Added a new faction called the Shin which can be selected when setting up a custom battle
• Added a unique space station belonging to the Shin
• Added a squad of starfighters to the Shin
• Added a corvette class ship to the Shin
• Added a frigate class ship to the Shin
• Added a battleship class ship to the Shin
• Added a carrier class ship to the Shin
• Added a unique death animation to the Shin Starfighter
• Added a unique death animation to the Shin Corvette
• Added a unique death animation to the Shin Frigate
• Added a unique death animation to the Shin Battleship
• Added a unique death animation to the Shin Carrier
• Added a unique death animation to the Shin Space Station
• Added a new ability called 'cloaking' which while active will give the unit a 50% chance of dodging incoming damage
• Added a random amount of rotation to units that have been destroyed to help make each death look more unique
• Added a particle trail to the kinetic shell to make it more visible when it's on the battle map
• Added a set of particles which are emitted when the kinetic shell impacts something
• Added the ability for units and buildings to have armour which reduces the amount of incoming damage while it is above 0
• Added a armour count to the debug overlay
• Removed the mesh from the large laser turrets laser barrel
• Updated the changelog buttons to be disabled when in use, preventing them from being pressed more than once
• Updated the guide page to include a entry for the Shin
• Updated the guide page faction buttons to show their corresponding factions flag
• Updated the unit selection box to deselect units when the box is no longer placed over them
• Updated the unit selection box to select units when they enter the box on their own
• Updated the battle setup screen to dynamically load faction data instead of hard coding it
• Updated the different space stations to have a visible shield for every space station tier
• Updated the outline of every space station to match the entire mesh of the current space station tier
• Updated the outline of every unit to match the entire units mesh instead of just the main part of the mesh
• Updated the shield and collision shapes of both the mining outpost and the defence point to match their respective meshes
• Updated the selection sprite for each unit to better match the size of the unit
• Updated the plated material to better scale with 3D objects
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash when trying to set the camera position using the minimap
• Fixed a bug where using the debug menu to destroy a subsystem wouldn't destroy the unit even if it was the last subsystem
• Fixed a bug where pressing the unit button in a space battle of a squad based unit would cause the game to crash
• Fixed a bug where squad based units would move about when being displayed on the guide page
• Fixed a bug where the battle end screen would display the incorrect battle time
• Fixed a bug where the movement marker would remain visible even after the escape key was pressed while holding down the right mouse button
• Fixed a bug where engine particles would spawn in the middle of the map when a reinforcement unit was selected
• Fixed a bug where multiple reinforcement units would sometimes be called in despite the mouse only be clicked once