Once more a month has passed and once more a new update is ready for testing, along with this devlog. Though this devlog is perhaps a little different than my usual ones…

What’s New?

As ever I’ll begin by going over what’s new in this, the 0.27.0 update. For one the save system had a whole bunch of work done to it not only to include support for some of the newer trade and diplomacy systems. But also with regards to the save and load UI as a whole. A set of new buttons have been added to support ordering save files in a particular manner and additional information has been added to the save description panel to also show which faction the save belongs to and what the current in-game date for the save is.

Other than changes to the save system 0.27.0 also had some improvements to the faction information panel found on the campaign map. There is now a set of three new tabs which can be selected to display a list of all the locations owned by your faction, including relevant information. A list of all fleets and armies owned by your faction, including relevant information such as their current location and finally a trade tab which as the name suggests displays a list of all trades agreements your faction currently has as well as any relevant information. Such as the amount of UC made from the trade route, when it was first established and the route said trade agreement travels along.

As promised for the past couple of updates I also took the time to do some work on shaders which in the case of this update meant a slightly tweaked look for units and buildings shields. As is often the case I would have liked to have done more but for now the new shield shader should make it somewhat easier to see what units or buildings still have shields. While also making it play nicer with the in game lighting as previously the shader had all lighting interactions disabled.

Last but not least I should also mention some of the backend changes I made. While changes to how I handle the faction managers on the battle map or newly added support for sending scalable information between scenes probably won’t make much of a difference to you the player, they should make developing in the backend somewhat smoother and allow me to better scale the different systems as I continue to add more content.

Future Plans (2024)

Normally this would be the part of the devlog where I go over my plans for the next update, but before I get to that as this is the last update for the year. I wanted to take a moment to talk about my future plans for Stelestial Contact: Solar Storm. Put simply I have two main goals for the coming year, the first of which is the inclusion of the long awaited ground based combat. I’ve had a placeholder ground unit in the game for sometime now, in the form of the Human jeep which has allowed you to create and field armies and over the course of the next year I’d like to work to have a battle system where they can be used.

In addition to ground combat I’d also like to see a complete overhaul of all of the units currently in the game, including both their 3D models and their balance with regards to the number and types of weapons they field. I expect that both this and the ground combat will be quite the undertaking with a lot of fine tweaking needed throughout the process but it is my hope that by the end of next year (hopefully earlier if I can manage it) both of these tasks will be completed to a satisfactory level. Which will allow me to work on my third goal for the year, that being to begin the process of building something of an audience.

While the pages for both this game and my other game, Rise get a number of sporadic views as and when I upload a new version. I’d like to both see this number increase while also making it more consistent. In particular for when I do release a new update as having a larger number of people download and try out the newer versions will allow me to gain more player feedback. Thereby allowing me to both fix the more outlying bugs and better tweak existing gameplay systems and game balance so it is a more enjoyable experience overall.

Last but not least I think it’s also time for me to start thinking about how I can better support development for Stelestial Contact: Solar Storm, Rise and the myriad of yet to be revealed other  projects I’m currently working on. I have a couple of options in mind, such as setting up a patreon, enabling payment options here on itch.io or releasing my games on other storefronts in early access. Each of them will very much be dependent on the above goal of growing an audience and so depending on how well that goal is achieved I’ll pick one or more of the previously listed options as a given opportunity presents itself. Ultimately for now anyway, I’d like to keep all of my games free to play with continuous updates and as I’m the only person working on them. This shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve.

Update 0.28.0

Now then with my future plans laid out the next order of businesses is to give you an idea as to what the next update; that being the 0.28.0 update will include. As mentioned in the above section one of the major milestones I’m aiming for in 2024 is to get some form of ground combat implemented and so 0.28.0 will be the first update containing work towards this goal. For now I aim to add support for loading custom ground battles with a placeholder map and some simple unit movement. The implementation of ground combat will be a multi-version journey and as such I can’t say how much will be implemented in this first iteration, but you can at least look forward to enjoying this new game mode as it is developed over the next year or so.

In addition to ground combat 0.28.0 will also see the start of implementing what I’m calling version 2 of the unit models. I’m still both new to and inexperienced with 3D modelling, as evidenced by the rather lacklustre models currently in the game. As such 0.28.0 will also aim to rectify this by replacing some of the existing models with newer, more complex ones. Depending on how well I’m able to grasp the 3D workflow they may or may not also include some custom textures instead of using a generic one as is currently the case.

As is a tradition with my devlogs now I’ll also make a note of my plans to work on the shaders which I keep promising but then keep delaying. I really do think they could make a difference and so would like to implement some. At the very least actions taken by units on the battle map could stand to benefit from having some additional flare which would most likely be gained through the use of some well placed shaders.

Finally 0.28.0 will also see the inclusion of a number of new buildings for planets on the campaign map. As work will now be starting on ground based combat I should probably add the buildings where said ground based units will be recruited. Not to mention that additional buildings to help boost a plantes income, its growth or perhaps its research rate would also add more gameplay choices. Possibly leading to a more complex system where you need to pick and choose which buildings to construct to help specialise a planet in a specific direction.

Closing Thoughts

So there you have it, hopefully the plans I’ve laid out above for the year ahead work out but who knows. I guess I’ll just have to work harder to ensure they prove successful. For now I’ll end this devlog here and just like before, I’ll be back in around a month's time with the next update as I continue to work towards the ever present version 1.0 goal.

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 new locations overview tab to the faction information GUI which displays a list of all locations as well as related information
• Added a new fleets overview tab to the faction information GUI which displays a list of all fleets as well as related information
• Added a new armies overview tab to the faction information GUI which displays a list of all armies as well as related information
• Added a new trade overview tab to the faction information GUI which displays a list of all trade agreements as well as related information
• Added a new quick save button to the pre battle GUI which generates a quick save when pressed
• Updated the look of the shield shader
• Updated the scene switching system to support sending information to newly loaded scenes
• Updated the campaign map trade route code to be more centralised, allowing for more information to be tracked and directly displayed
• Updated the campaign map pre battle GUI to display the name of the location where the battle is taking place
• Updated the campaign map location labels to only display the number of fleets, armies and buildings if you have a high enough intel level
• Updated the battle map manager code to be more centralised, allowing for player and AI controlled managers to be used interchangeably
• Updated the battle map manager to be updated on a timer instead of on every frame to help improve performance
• Updated the save system to support the new layout for trade route information
• Updated the save system to support saving the game before a battle
• Updated the save and load screen to display the date and controlling faction for the currently selected save
• Updated the save and load screen to support ordering the save file list by date created, save name or game version
• Fixed a bug where non targetable subsystems wouldn't disable their collision shapes, meaning ammo could still hit them and attempt to register damage
• Fixed a bug where units in the build queue on the campaign map were not correctly cleared from memory
• Fixed a bug where fleets and armies got their owning faction based on their current location instead of their saved information when loading a saved game
• Fixed a bug where the diplomacy option chance label wasn't cleared after a diplomacy option was submitted
• Fixed a bug where the rename fleet and army buttons wouldn't correctly apply the name change
• Fixed a bug where the move army button to move an army up and into space wasn't disabled while said army was recruiting new units
• Fixed a bug where the fleet and/or army buttons on the campaign map didn't immediately update to reflect their locked status when recruiting new units
• Fixed a bug where the save list on the save and load screen could be cut off if the game window was smaller than the length of the save list
• Fixed a bug where the camera could get stuck after opening and closing the pause menu