Without even realising it it would appear that once again another month has passed and so it’s time for me to release the next update. Which in this case is update 0.34.0.

What’s New?

As ever I’ll start this devlog by going over some of the new things you can expect to see in this update. To begin with as I mentioned last time, work continues on bringing the ground battles up to a level equal to those battles which are fought in space and to this end this update adds 2 new types of building for you to capture when in a ground battle, those being the mine and the defence point. Working in a similar manner to their space based counterparts the mine once captured will increase the rate at which you earn UC, allowing you to purchase units more quickly. While the defence point can have a number of upgrades applied to it to either repair your units, boost their shields or provide additional firepower by way of a medium sized laser turret.

Beyond just the 2 new buildings for ground battles this update also includes some long needed improvements to the ground battle AI. To begin with the ground battle AI now supports the movement of vehicle class units, something which wasn’t possible in the previous update. Something which resulted in said units remaining stationary after being called into the battle. Additionally the AI now also has support for acknowledging a planetary outpost as its AI manager building. Meaning that it will protect it when it is under attack along with trying to find the same type of building belonging to the enemy. As it does for space stations in space based battles. Last but not least the AI now also has the same restriction as the player when it comes to calling in reinforcement units in that there are only a limited number of areas units can be called into the map. The positions for which are based on the current positions of other faction owned or allied units and buildings.

Continuing on with ground battle updates the previously mentioned planetary outposts also received a couple of new features including new shield generator subsystems to allow them to regenerate their shields once they have been damaged. Support for spawning a starting unit when in a custom battle just as space stations do in custom space battles and last but not least support for garrison units on both the campaign map and when the planetary outpost is used in a battle which has been triggered on the campaign map. A system that I hope to expand further as I look at implementing the same building tier system present for space stations and applying it to planetary outposts.

But as with all my updates this one doesn’t just include new additions or changes to existing systems but also a whole slew of much needed bug fixes. While there are too many to list individually some of the highlights include fixes for loading save files with either fleets or armies currently in transit. Fixes for various errors being thrown when the game was closed while displaying units paths or when the battle map AI tried to interact with vehicle class units. As well as fixes for when the team value of a unit or building was changed mid battle, allowing them to both target themselves and remain selected despite no longer being part of the players team. Not to mention the wide array of fixes I had to implement for campaign battles as at some point over the past couple of updates I managed to break not only individual unit health but also unit persistence between battles and the campaign map.

Update 0.35.0

With all that said and the 0.34.0 update behind me I’ll now briefly go over what you can expect to see in the next one. Unlike the updates before it 0.35.0 will be the start of something new, a more conscious effort by me to refine and polish those features that have already been implemented rather than adding new ones. Truthly I’ve spent a lot of time putting this work off and if I ever want this game to be complete then I think it’s time for me to actually start doing said work. To this end the first area to be improved and perhaps one of the most important will be with regards to some of the unit models, specifically the human starfighter and the human starbomber. It is my hope that by the time of the updates release both sets of units will not only have new models, but also custom made models for their weapons and engine subsystems which will be made in such a way as to blend in with the units primary model.

As it’s a bit more difficult to have a concrete finish point when it comes to something like a 3D model I can’t guarantee how much I’ll be able to get done or even how much of an improvement over the existing models the new ones will be. Nevertheless the new models and their accompanying textures should help to improve the overall visual quality on display while also signalling a start in my drive to improve all current in game models to be of the same standard. I’ve already begun work on the new look for the human starfighter and even though it is early days yet it is already looking both of a much higher quality and of a more distinct style, something I hope to be able to give to each of the factions currently present in the game.

Beyond just model and texture improvements there will also be a number of updates to other systems to make them more intuitive to use. One of these areas of improvement will be with the notification system on the campaign map which is rather simple in its current form and as such will see the addition of a new notification centre. Using the notification centre you will be able to set what notifications you want to have enabled, whether or not you want them to play an audio sound when they are triggered, how long they should remain in the notification queue and if they should have a specific colour of text to help them stand out better or if they should even have a different size of font to be more or less noticeable.

In addition to improvements with notifications the damage system will also see some improvements. To be more specific I’m planning to overhaul the armour part of the damage system to be more impactful in terms of gameplay as well as to better block damage based on something I’m calling armour class. The idea around armour class is to allow me to have more finite control over not only what type and level of weapons do damage but to also limit the rate at which said armour degrades and even if it should fully degrade at all. While the changes to this system may not be obvious unless you have played the game previously, one area in which you will be able to notice the new system is that small arms fire will no longer be able to damage vehicle class units of a certain level. Looking at it from a more realistic stand point a squad of characters shouldn’t be able to take down a heavily armoured vehicle with nothing but their laser rifles, something which the new armour class system should be able to alleviate.

As a result of this despite saying I would not be adding anything new a set of new character class units will have to be added with the express aim of having a squad of units who are able to damage and take down vehicle class units. Something which I had originally planned for the 0.34.0 update, as was mentioned in my previous devlog but something which will now appear in the 0.35.0 update instead. As the core logic for this new set of squad class units will use the existing squad units as a base I may also look into adding a couple of other types of squad units, including a squad unit aimed at attacking from afar and a squad unit aimed at dealing with other groups of squad units.

Closing Thoughts

Well while there wasn’t much in the way of direct feature development for this update it still turned out to be a solid one with how much I was able to fix thanks to my own questionable coding decisions from past updates. Not to mention it is also one which as always brings me one step closer to the goal of a 1.0 release. Something which I hope as I’ve outlined above will become the more direct goal of future updates as I move from a feature adding update cycle to a more feature polish focused one. Not to worry though, I’ll return to adding more things in the future as I still have a long list of things I want to see implemented before I can fully call this game complete. But as mentioned above for the next couple of updates at least I want to focus my attention on polishing the systems and visuals already present in Stellar Odyssey: Galaxy at War to a point where I can really start advertising it to others without feeling like I am misleading them.

So with that out of the way and as I have said everything I want to and realise the amount of work the new 3D models could end up being for me I’ll end this devlog here and get to work on both them and the rest of the features I’ve outlined above. As is always the case and in keeping with my prior schedule, which barring any unforeseen circumstances; you can expect the next update release in around a month's time.

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 prop, bush_002 for use on some ground battle maps
• Added a new mine building to custom battle ground maps which can be captured to increase UC income
• Added a new defence point building to custom battle ground maps which can be captured and upgraded to help defend an area
• Added a new debug option to the debug menu allowing you to set the team of the currently selected unit or building
• Added a new notification to the campaign map for when a fleet or army arrives at its destination
• Added support for buildings without subsystems which have a set amount of health without the need for building it from a list of subsystems
• Added support for units without subsystems which have a set amount of health without the need for building it from a list of subsystems
• Added a new debug option to the debug menu allowing you to disable team restrictions so units and buildings not belonging to the player can be selected
• Updated the capture area sprite to be a decal instead of a sprite so it is not occluded by the terrain in ground battles
• Updated the capture area to handle all the logic for building capture to make capturable building logic more streamlined
• Updated the debug GUI to update in real time when a building is selected
• Updated the reinforcement GUI to display reinforcements from all teams if the disable team restrictions debug option is active
• Updated the pre battle GUI on the campaign map to show the planetary outpost if there is one in a ground battle
• Updated the valid placement area for units to be based on the currently selected unit and not on the manager placing it
• Updated the information for units on the battle map to be stored in a file like it is for buildings so information changes can be made more quickly
• Updated the information for units on the campaign map to be stored in a file like it is for buildings so information changes can be made more quickly
• Updated the planetary outpost of each faction to have a shield generator subsystem
• Updated the planetary outpost of each faction to spawn a starting unit when spawned in a custom battle
• Updated the planetary outpost of each faction to have a set of garrison units which are spawned in during battles triggered on the campaign map
• Updated the rate at which garrison units are spawned in to be uniform rather than based on individual units normal build time
• Updated the buildings and units on the campaign map to regenerate their shields as long as they have a shield generator after a battle
• Updated the camera pan speed on the campaign map to make panning the camera by holding down the middle mouse button easier
• Updated the battle map AI to have the same restrictions as the player with regards to the placement of reinforcement units
• Updated the ground battle map AI to support moving vehicle class units around the battle map
• Updated the ground battle map AI to support setting a planetary outpost as its manager building
• Fixed a bug where the game would throw an error if the close button was pressed while a enemy units path was being displayed
• Fixed a bug where the game would throw an error if the game speed was changed on the campaign map after manually fighting a battle
• Fixed a bug where the game would throw an error when the ground battle AI tried to interact with a vehicle class unit
• Fixed a bug where the game would throw an error when squad based units were removed from the battle map after a campaign map battle
• Fixed a bug where the debug GUI didn't display information on squad based units when they were either under the mouse or selected
• Fixed a bug where the reinforcement GUI no longer displayed the health of units for those units that did not have full health
• Fixed a bug where the capture area outline didn't return to white after the building had been respawned
• Fixed a bug where the health bar for buildings in the pre battle GUI was not displayed correctly
• Fixed a bug where the attack range for all units within a squad was shown when the space bar was held down
• Fixed a bug where the building and unit guide page would not load as a result of trying to get the correct team colour
• Fixed a bug where the Human Heavy Attack Vehicle and the Pirate Heavy Attack Vehicle would drop out of the screen when displayed on the building and unit guide page
• Fixed a bug where squad based units could target themselves if their team value was changed while in a battle
• Fixed a bug where units and buildings would remain selected if their team value was changed while in a battle
• Fixed a bug where starting buildings on the battle map would show the incorrect outline colour based on their teams relation to the player
• Fixed a bug where starting units on the campaign map would show the incorrect shield amount
• Fixed a bug where clicking on a buildings subsystem wouldn't issue the capture command to selected units despite the building being capturable
• Fixed a bug where loading a quick save from before a battle on the campaign map would result in planetary buildings not being displayed
• Fixed a bug where buildings would be auto repaired when triggering a second battle on the campaign map in the same location
• Fixed a bug where both test space stations on the test space battle map would appear to be on the same team
• Fixed a bug where save files could not be loaded if they were created while a fleet or army was moving
• Fixed a bug where fleets or armies would not have the correct intel level after loading a save file
• Fixed a bug where campaign map notifications could get stuck on the screen if a battle was triggered while they were being displayed