So it took a little longer than I would have liked but update 0.13.0 is finally ready for release.

What’s New?

As with all my dev posts I’ll start by going over some of the new updates, changes and additions present in this update. To begin with there’s now a proper way to manage fleets and the units within them. By making use of the new fleet manager GUI you can transfer units between two different fleets, rename an existing fleet and even create a new one from existing units.

In addition to the new fleet manager, planets on the campaign map also got a bit of an overhaul with each one now having its own information panel. Every planet now also has its own population from which its overall income is derived and this along with the population growth can be boosted by building a multitude of different buildings, each one resulting in a different effect on the planet it’s built on.

Finally I also added a rather simple information system to the campaign map meaning that planets with which you don’t have a direct connection to now appear greyed out.

Update 0.14.0

So with that out of the way my thoughts now turn to update 0.14.0 and what features I hope to implement in time for the next release. For starters I plan on adding a rudimentary research system whereby unit and building upgrades can be researched over time. In addition to this I also have plans for some more ground based units and associated buildings from which they can be recruited from. While I have yet to begin work on ground based combat I think it’s time I started implementing such things in preparation for future updates.

Lastly I also have plans for overhauling ship movement to be more fluid, improving load times to reduce the amount of stutter on loading screens and possibly redoing how I break ships apart after they have been destroyed to be a more dynamic system.

Closing Thoughts

I don’t yet know how many of the above features and changes I’ll be able to implement, but at the very least I hope that update 0.14.0 releases a bit quicker than 0.13.0 did. Having said all that, it's once again time for me to say goodbye for another month while I work on everything I have planned for the 0.14.0 update.

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:

• Added a test target to the test space map for testing
• Added a damage per second count to the test space target for seeing how much damage a unit can deal over time
• Added a win and lose condition to the campaign map and a GUI displaying the results
• Added a fleet manager to the campaign GUI where the fleet name can be changed and units can be exchanged
• Added a planet information screen to the campaign GUI where you can see information on the currently selected planet
• Added a population count to each of the planets on the campaign map
• Added a planet search button to the campaign GUI to toggle the planet search panel
• Added a tactical view to the campaign map to show which faction owns a planet and how many planets each faction owns
• Added a freecam view to the campaign map
• Added a set of buttons to cycle through all owned planets on the campaign map
• Added a mesh to the planetary outpost
• Added a mesh to the housing
• Added a mesh to the mine
• Added a mesh to the factory
• Added a mesh to the Human Jeep
• Added a light blue colour and a red colour as team colour options
• Added a new space battle map with a nebula at its centre which slows units who enter it and disables most unit abilities
• Added a map image for each of the factions on the campaign setup screen to show the starting planets
• Added a intelligence system to the campaign map where planets with no direct connection to a player owned planet now appear greyed out
• Added a animated shader which plays when a planets intelligence level changes
• Added a option to save the game when on the campaign map
• Added a option to load a save game from either the campaign map or the campaign setup screen
• Added a GUI for browsing saved games
• Added a option to delete a save game from the save game GUI
• Added support for taking a screenshot using the F12 key
• Added support for building ground units if there is a factory on the selected planet
• Updated the selected reinforcement unit to be cleared if the mouse is moved outside the map bounds
• Updated the settings set in the settings menu to be saved and loaded when the game is closed and reopened
• Updated the planet connections on the campaign map to be represented using a mesh instead of being drawn in 3D space
• Updated the planet labels on the campaign map to hide when they are a set distance from the camera
• Updated the planet labels on the campaign map to show the planet population and whether or not the population is increasing or decreasing
• Updated the planet labels on the campaign map to show the planet income
• Updated the planet labels on the campaign map to show whether a planet is set as a factions capital planet
• Updated the planet income to be a percentage of the total planet wealth (wealth is calculated from the total planet population and built buildings)
• Updated the campaign map income to happen at the end of every month instead of being a constant stream
• Updated the campaign map planet outlines to change their colour based on their factions standing with player or their factions standing with the selected fleet or army
• Updated the campaign map fleet and army movement path to change colour based on the destination
• Updated the campaign map space battles to support spawning the defending teams space station
• Updated the campaign map pre-battle GUI to show participating space stations
• Updated the campaign map minimap to show the owner of a planet by displaying the planet in the owning factions colour
• Updated the campaign map minimap to show the path of the currently selected fleet or army
• Updated the minimap to show the current camera rotation
• Updated the campaign map housing to boost the population growth of the planet it's built on
• Updated the campaign map outpost to boost the tax rate of the planet it's built on
• Updated the campaign map battles to allow units to be bought from participating space stations at an increased price
• Updated the campaign map battles to use the same UC as the campaign map, meaning UC spent in battle is also spend on the campaign map
• Updated the campaign map background image to remove a visible seam
• Updated the campaign map to reimburse a small amount of the cost of a unit when it is removed from a fleet or army
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash if it was closed with a reinforcement unit selected
• Fixed a bug where the world environment was being overriding when loading a space battle from the campaign map
• Fixed a bug where squad based units which were called in as reinforcement units wouldn't move about the map in space battles
• Fixed a bug where squad based units couldn't target or be a target in space battles triggered from the campaign map
• Fixed a bug where the income of a planet wouldn't be transferred to its new owner when it changed ownership
• Fixed a bug where squad based units spawned from a carrier would instantly target a unit if there was one at the centre of the map
• Fixed a bug where not every part of the mesh on a space station would be set to the correct colour when a space station was spawned at a tier greater than one
• Fixed a bug where the camera on the campaign map would always pan in the same direction regardless of the camera rotation
• Fixed a bug where the left side information panel wouldn't be displayed when placing the mouse over the building build options on the campaign map
• Fixed a bug where carrier class ships could no longer spawn units into a battle triggered on the campaign map if they had been called into a battle before
• Fixed a bug where retreating fleets and armies would always move to the furthest away friendly planet instead of the closest one
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to click on and hide the reinforcement panel when you had a reinforcement unit selected, resulting in the panel becoming permanently hidden
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to move the campaign map camera despite the game being paused
• Fixed a bug where it was possible to trigger the tactical view and freecam view despite the pause menu being open