In what is a hopeful return to schedule update 0.15.0 is now out, a little over a month after update 0.14.0.

What’s New?

So as always I’ll start by going over the big headline features you can expect to find in this update before then going through some of the smaller changes and additions.

As I promised in my previous devlog one of the main features I wanted to have implemented for this update was cross battle damage and I’m pleased to confirm that this has indeed now been added. As a result units and buildings which take damage during a battle will now also retain that damage on the campaign map until they are repaired. In an effort to make it more obvious which units and/or buildings have been damaged and which have not, I’ve also added health bars to unit, building, fleet and army buttons. A feature which is also carried over to battles where it is now possible to see your selected units health at a glance.

In addition to the inclusion of persistent damage I also took the time to overhaul how planets work on the campaign map. Previously every point you could travel to on the campaign map was classified as a planet and thus if I wanted to have a point which wasn’t a planet I had no reliable way of doing so. Now however, the system I use for locations on the campaign map can be expanded on much more easily and as an example, I've added a few asteroid fields and a nebula which your fleets and armies can travel to. It should be noted however that unlike planets these locations cannot be captured and that they equally do not belong to any faction.

Finally I should also mention that there has been a long list of UI changes made to the GUI on the campaign map which work not only to improve parity between the battle map UI and the campaign map UI. But also to make many of the buttons and panels more intuitive and clear in what they do or display. Additionally the battle map tutorial has finally been updated and a simple campaign map tutorial has been added which is displayed when loading the campaign map for the first time.

Update 0.16.0

So with my work on the 0.15.0 update completed my attention now turns to the 0.16.0 update and what I hope to have implemented or changed by the time of its release. To start with I think it’s important to state that my plans for the 0.16.0 update are somewhat smaller in scope than 0.15.0 but that they are not any less important.

As it stands now many of the features and systems that I wanted implemented before the 1.0.0  update have now been added and while at a basic level they work as I intended them too. I am under no illusions that they are complete, but rather that they still need a lot of work and refinement before I can say with confidence that I am happy with how they function. To this end 0.16.0 is going to be the start of me going back over features and areas that I previously implemented to see if I can’t further refine and improve them to a state I would be happy with,  were they to be part of the 1.0 update.

Currently I have plans for overhauling three major systems, the save system, the AI system and finally the movement system. For the 0.16.0 update I hope to go back over both the save system and the campaign map AI. The plan is to bring it to a point where it’s possible to do a full playthrough of the campaign map without it turning into a cakewalk as you’re the only one attacking.

But as an update with just tweaks, changes and bug fixes would be somewhat lacklustre I should also say that I have plans to one, actually take a look at making a new debris system like I promised I would do previously and two, see if I can’t improve some of the sound and particle effects to give the battles a bit more impact. At the very least some better sound effects are a must and hopefully by the time that 0.16.0 is ready for release Stelestion Contact: Solar Storm will be a much louder game to play.

Closing Thoughts

As seems to always happen, what started out as an update with a short list of ideas turned into a long list of additions, changes and bug fixes. While I’ve still got a long way to go before reaching the much coveted 1.0.0 mark, the 0.15.0 update helps to bring it one step closer. For now though it is once again time for me to leave as I get to work on the next update and start adding way too many things to a list I’ll never complete.

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 tutorial window which is displayed the first time the campaign map is loaded
• Added a visual effect for when a units shields have been overcharged
• Added a idle animation to the campaign map asteroid node
• Added a health bar to building buttons on the campaign map to more easily see a buildings current health
• Added a health bar to unit buttons on the campaign map to more easily see a units current health
• Added a health bar to unit buttons in space battles to more easily see a units current health
• Added a health bar to the fleet and army buttons on the campaign map
• Added a icon to the fleet and army buttons to indicate when a fleet or armies movement has been locked
• Added a repair unit button for when a damaged unit is selected on the campaign map
• Added a repair building button for when a damaged building is selected on the campaign map
• Added a new campaign node modifier called space field which prevents ground based buildings from being constructed
• Added support for non planet nodes on the campaign map (such as asteroids and nebulas)
• Added support for persistent damage on units between battles on the campaign map
• Added support for persistent damage on buildings between battles on the campaign map
• Added the current building tier to the left side information container
• Added smoke particles to the explosion particle effect
• Updated the tutorial window to use the same theme as the rest of the GUI's
• Updated the tutorial for space battles to match the current graphics and include explanations for new gameplay features which weren't implemented before
• Update the tutorial GUI to darken the rest of the screen when it is displayed
• Updated the scroll wheel to adjust the zoom level on the guide page when the mouse is placed over the currently displayed unit
• Updated the default team colour of units and buildings on the guide page to be darker
• Updated the units and buildings on the guide page to be sorted by internal values instead of by their names
• Updated the game speed buttons to also match the game speed when the speed is not set by the player
• Updated the information container on the left side of the screen to show the current health, armour, shield and subsystem status of fleet and army units on the campaign map when the mouse is placed over them
• Updated the information container on the left side of the screen to show the current health, armour, shield and subsystem status of buildings on the campaign map when the mouse is placed over them
• Updated the information container to be displayed when the mouse is placed over a unit button in the pre battle GUI on the campaign map
• Updated the information container to be displayed when the mouse is placed over a unit button in the reinforcement container
• Updated the information container to show both the total and remaining number of turrets
• Updated the debug menu to toggle the destroy button to off when it is hidden
• Updated the debug menu to hide the reinforcement container when it is shown
• Updated the destroy debug option to disable unit and building selection while it is active
• Updated the campaign node name above the minimap when on the campaign map to clip and scroll the text when needed
• Updated the planet info GUI to work with the new campaign node types
• Updated the campaign search GUI to work with the new campaign node types
• Updated the campaign map faction previews to include the new asteroid fields and nebula
• Updated the unit and building buttons in the recruitment and building GUI on the campaign map to show a tooltip when you can't afford them
• Fixed a bug where fleets and armies moving on the campaign map would stop moving when a save game was loaded
• Fixed a bug where fleets and armies moving on the campaign map would have their path reset when a save game was loaded in cases where the path was more than two planets in length
• Fixed a bug where buildings in campaign map battles wouldn't have the correct health based on their current building tier
• Fixed a bug where the alien starfighter was missing the warp in animation
• Fixed a bug where units that warped in next to an enemy building or unit wouldn't be targeted until they moved
• Fixed a bug where space stations would only spawn into campaign map battles if there was an accompanying fleet
• Fixed a bug where attempting to fight a defensive campaign map battle would result in the game crashing
• Fixed a bug where the building tier button on the guide page was locked even when a valid building was selected
• Fixed a bug where upgrade buttons were not re-added as options when the upgrade was cancelled
• Fixed a bug where buildings which could be captured would reset their team colour to white after being captured
• Fixed a bug where unit buttons in space battles would show the incorrect starting health, armour and shields when the mouse was placed over them
• Fixed a bug where reinforcement container unit buttons in campaign map battles would show the incorrect starting health, armour and shields when the mouse was placed over them
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash when the close button was pressed while on the loading screen
• Fixed a bug where buildings and units would not set a new target for their turrets after the turrets current target had been destroyed
• Fixed a bug where squad based units would not set a new sub target once their current sub target had been destroyed
• Fixed a bug where the battle results screen wouldn't show any units lost