Update 0.19.0

In keeping with tradition another month has passed and thus I’m back with yet another update, this time in the form of version 0.19.0.

What’s New?

As always I’ll start by going over some of the big new features and changes you can expect to find in this version. In a previous devlog I’d mentioned that I wanted to make some changes to the intel system and I’m happy to say the first of these changes has now been implemented. In prior versions a campaign map location's intel level was either marked as full intel or no intel. Now there are four intel levels. These being no intel, low intel, high intel and full intel. Which as you may have guessed result in more and more of the locations building slots being revealed as the intel level increases.

To go along with this change fleets and armies are now able to provide a boost to the intel level of the location they are stationed over while also providing a higher level of intel for locations next to the one they are currently at. A change which is only possible thanks to the new military access diplomacy option which as the name suggests allows you to send your fleets and armies to locations owned by other factions without having to declare war on them.

In addition to the changes to the intel system I also took the time to make some updates to both the diplomacy system and the faction opinion system. In addition to the previously mentioned military access diplomacy option each option now has a threshold for success partially based on the target faction's opinion of you. As this makes faction opinions far more important than before, timed faction opinion modifiers are now also supported. Unlike normal modifiers these are removed after a set amount of time has elapsed, removing their positive or negative influence as a result. Currently there are four different timed modifiers. These range from previously being at war, previously breaking an alliance, previously removing military access and previously being at war with a faction's ally or enemy.

The final big feature I’ll bring your attention to is support for what I’m calling building modules. Modules allow you to add new functions and features to buildings separate from their normal upgrade path. As is normally the case with new features the current implementation consists of a small number of options, namely a sensor station which boosts the intel level of nearby locations from high to full and a trade port which boosts the wealth of the planet it is built over. As ever the plan is to add more options in future updates alongside some faction specific ones.

Update 0.20.0

Now with that out of the way the next question is what can you expect to see in update 0.20.0? 

For starters there are all the features I wanted to implement in this update but didn’t get around to finishing in time. Namely expanding the intel system further to hide location specific information at different levels as well as hiding fleet and army units based on their own intel level. Additionally there’s also the overhaul for the research system consisting of more options and a cleaner interface as the current one can be a bit cumbersome to use.

Alongside this I also want to spend a bit of time going back over space battles. In particular I’m thinking of making some changes to the overall scale of both the battlemaps and the units themselves. Needless to say, such a change would be quite daunting on its own, as I’d have to make tweaks to all the models. But I can’t say I have ever really been all that happy with either the scale of the maps or the scale of the units so hopefully this’ll be the update where I finally fix that.

Having said all that there is also one last thing I hope to achieve with the 0.20.0 update, that being porting the game from Godot 3.5 to Godot 4.0. I’ve talked about 4.0 in my devlogs a few times before and though at the time of writing it has yet to reach a full stable release I believe it’s at least stable enough for me to begin the porting process and start gaining the benefits of all the new features and performance improvements. Though I’d like to keep up with my once a month release schedule I don’t realistically think that will be possible and so, though I don’t like it. You can probably expect to see 0.20.0 sometime in mid to late March.

Closing Thoughts

So now that you have a good idea for what’s in this update as well as an idea of when and what you can expect to see in the next one I guess it’s time for me to leave and actually get to work on the aforementioned update. As I said before I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to port the game over. With that in mind I’m planning on releasing a smaller patch, 0.19.1 next week, with another one to follow the week after depending on how many outstanding issues there are in the current version.

I’ll also just make a quick mention that depending on my time constraints and how much work I’m able to get done. I may or may not release a small demo version for one of the other games I mentioned in my previous devlog next month as a way to keep monthly content releases happening while I tackle the porting process.

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 low intel and high intel option to the campaign map intel system
• Added a new section to the information container to show the current intel level
• Added a new label to the campaign map GUI and the battle map GUI to show when the game is in dev mode
• Added a new diplomacy option allowing you to request and revoke military access
• Added a new icon for use with the new military access diplomacy option
• Added a new faction opinion modifier for when two factions are allied with each other
• Added a new faction opinion modifier for when you are allied with a faction who is also allied with the same faction
• Added a new faction opinion modifier for when you are allied with a faction who is also at war with the same faction
• Added a new faction opinion modifier for when you are at war with a faction who is also at war with the same faction
• Added a new faction opinion modifier for when you are at war with a faction who is allied with the same faction
• Added support for timed faction opinion modifiers
• Added a new timed faction opinion modifier for when you were previously at war with a faction
• Added a new timed faction opinion modifier for when you were previously allied with a faction
• Added a new campaign map notification for when a timed faction opinion modifier relating to the player expires
• Added support for building modules to campaign map buildings
• Added a new campaign map building module called a sensor station which increases the intel level of nearby planets by one level
• Added a new campaign map building module called a trade port which increases the wealth of the planet it is built over
• Updated the look of the campaign setup screen
• Updated the campaign map building slots to support hiding their building
• Updated the campaign map fleets and armies to support hiding their units
• Updated the campaign map diplomacy screen to take the faction opinion into account when proposing a diplomacy action
• Updated the campaign map diplomacy screen to display how long timed opinion modifiers have remaining
• Updated the campaign map to prompt a war declaration when moving a fleet or army to a location owned by a neutral faction
• Updated the campaign map location label power count to only include fleets and armies which are allied to the locations owner
• Updated the campaign map alliance diplomacy option to also result in military access being given
• Updated the campaign map building build options to show in the fleet info GUI instead of as a popup
• Updated the campaign map repair, remove and upgrade building buttons to show in the fleet info GUI instead of as a popup
• Updated the campaign map fleet info GUI to show a label when a building with no module build options is selected
• Updated the campaign map fleet info GUI to show what modules the selected building currently has built
• Updated the campaign map fleet info GUI to support building and removing modules from the currently selected building
• Updated the campaign map info container to support displaying information about building modules
• Updated the campaign map building slots to be disabled when the building contained within the slot is building a building module
• Updated the campaign map tutorials to work with the changes made to the fleet info GUI
• Updated the battle map fire and smoke particle effects to no longer have fixed positions
• Updated fleets and armies to boost the intel level of their current location
• Updated fleets and armies to retreat to a nearby friendly location when military access is revoked
• Updated save files to support campaign map building modules
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash when trying to draw a fleet or armies movement path to a destination without a connection
• Fixed a bug where the diplomacy GUI displayed the players opinion of the selected faction instead of the selected factions opinion of the player
• Fixed a bug where armies on the surface of a planet could not retreat
• Fixed a bug where more than one building slot could be pressed at a time
• Fixed a bug where building slots weren't locked while their building was being upgraded