Somehow another month has managed to pass me by and so it’s time once again for the next update of stellar odyssey to release, which in this case is update 0.37.0

What’s New?

Well to start off with there weren't any big events to distract me this time around and so I was able to get a decent amount of stuff done for once. At least when compared to the past couple of updates that is. The first of which you have probably already seen thanks to the comparison image above which showcases the new and improved look for the Human Corvette class ship. Along with new looks from the small non fixed laser turret, the shield generator subsystem and the small variant of the human engine subsystem. One which was adapted from the tiny human engine system I made for the human starfighter and starbomber units.

Other than the new unit model which has now become the norm for updates 0.37.0 also includes a new trade route visual system. This new system means that once a trade agreement has been reached between two factions, a number of trade ships can now be seen travelling along said trade route, from one faction's capital planet to another. In addition to travelling from either faction's capital planets the trade ships will also change their colours based on the faction they belong to allowing you to see at a glance who is trading with who. For now the trade ships are evenly distributed along the entire length of the trade route but for future versions I hope to change the amount of trade ships based on the amount of UC being earnt from the trade agreement.

Keeping with visual improvements the space background for both the campaign map and space battles has also been updated. Making use of my new found interest in shaders from the previous couple of updates, the new background shaders are much more complex than the previous version and have support for individual stars, which can change in both size and colour. As well as nebula which unlike the previous version are now animated and have a certain amount of depth to them as a result.

Besides what I’d consider the big ticket items for this update there were also a number of quality of life improvements aimed at making both space battles and the campaign map more enjoyable to navigate and interact with. For one the unit icon for squad units now has a white outline to make it easier to differentiate from the units themselves, squad based units will now draw a line towards their primary target when selected and they will also take into account the closest point when told to capture a building meaning they will begin their circling manoeuvre without doubling back on themselves to always start in the same position. Additionally the notification centre GUI on the campaign map now displays a description of the notification when hovering over its name, some diplomacy options have now been rebalanced to allow them to always be accepted where applicable and finally the way trade routes are stored has been updated to allow them to be more dynamic for further gameplay improvements in the future.

But as always this update didn’t just include tweaks to features and visual updates but also the regular collection of bug fixes which thanks to a small amount of play testing is a decently sized list this time round. Which in hindsight probably isn’t a good thing… Regardless some of the bugs now fixed include the pathfinding for the starbomber unit not allowing it to correctly circle the target nor allowing it to correctly aim at the target, the battle GUI being rebuilt each time a build option was selected leading to it appearing to flash whenever one was selected and finally the gift amount on the faction diplomacy screen allowing an amount which wouldn’t boost the factions opinion to be entered or allowing an amount greater than what the player faction currently owned to be entered. These are just a couple of the highlights and a full list of bug fixes can be found at the bottom of this devlog.

Update 0.38.0

Now then with an idea of what to expect in this update I’ll instead turn my attention to what you can expect to see in the next one. That being update 0.38.0. As always the first thing planned for this update is one new unit model, which in this case will be the human missile ship. As I’ve now got a base to work from thanks to the new human corvette model added in the 0.37.0 update I should be able to make the new unit model relatively quickly and so while I don’t plan to add an additional new unit model in 0.38.0 I will atleast get to work on the next new unit model. That being the human frigate which will probably be a lot more involved as it will require a set of new subsystem models to be made alongside it.

My next order of business will probably be something I’ve been putting off for some time now, that being a rewrite of the save system. While making use of the built in resource types in the engine I’m using has made it easier to make a save system I think it would probably be better to have a system that is a bit more file agnostic. While stellar odyssey is the only game I’m currently putting updates out for, I have a number of other projects which I also work on from time to time and each one of them has managed to implement a different kind of save system. As you can imagine this is quite a bit of extra development time and as such I’d instead like to create a save system which I can plug into a project without having to custom build one each time. I have the basis for such a system already built in another project and so I’d like to also implement it in my main one, preferably before Stellar Odyssey gets too big that a save system rewrite becomes a lot more work than it already is.

Of course while a change to the save system won’t directly affect you the player it will allow me to implement something else I have been putting off for a long time. That being a proper load screen between the campaign map and battles triggered on said campaign map. Currently when you choose to fight a battle on the campaign map the campaign map is technically just hidden but kept in memory while the battle map is loaded, after the battle the campaign map is re-added from memory while the battle map is removed. As you can imagine this isn’t really the correct way to do things and while keeping the campaign map in memory allows there to be basically no load screen when leaving a battle, not to mention allowing me to more easily send the battle results back to the campaign map without having to hold them somewhere else first. It is still taking up system memory which should battles or the campaign map get larger or more complex in the future could become a problem. So for the next update I’m planning to use the remade save system to finally force myself to fully unload the campaign map when entering a battle. Hopefully future proofing that part of the game as I continue to add more features and content.

With all that said there are also two other areas I want to try and improve on for the next update, that being some gameplay improvements and a new shield shader. For the gameplay improvements I’m hoping to make the tracking of targets by turrets more accurate so they score hits more often, making the movement of squad based units smoother by allowing them to make sharper turns and rebalancing some of the ammo types so they deal more damage and thus can be seen to be making more of an impact in smaller battles. With regards to the new shield shader I’m looking to not only make it look better through my new found shader knowledge but to also have it work in a more dynamic way. Currently to add a shield to a unit I need to make a custom mesh or model and then tell the shield to use that in game. Instead of this method I’d prefer if the shield could calculate some kind of mesh at runtime without the need for me to make a new one each time I want to add a new unit or building.

Closing Thoughts

A decent if somewhat unfocused update this time around, a trend that I’ve no doubt will continue for sometime in the future as I continue to focus on polishing what is already there instead of looking to add new features. Something which as you could probably tell from what I’ve outlined above is also the focus of the next update as well. Speaking of which, I should probably mention that the next update will be the last one of the year, kind of…

While I normally release an update on the last Friday of every month, December is different in that it’s the month which marks the anniversary of the 0.1 release. As such I don’t normally get a lot of time to work on stuff for the December update before the release date is upon me and so in a way the next update will be the last normal one for this year. Fear not though as I already have plans for what to include in the update to somewhat make up for this, plans which I’ll go over next time.

So as a result of what’s becoming a rather tight schedule I’ll end this devlog here and get to working not only on the next update but also a small amount of content for the one after that. Traditional as it is now I’ll bid you all farewell and return in around a month's time with the 0.38.0 update, one which I hope is able to live up to the expectations I’ve set out for it above.

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 set of area names to the free play campaign map which can be seen when looking at the campaign map
• Added a new building icon for use by the test space target
• Added a new building icon for use by the test ground target
• Added a new space traffic system to the campaign map trade route manager so trade ships can be seen traveling along trade routes
• Added a new model for the small Human engine subsystem
• Updated the model used by the Human Corvette
• Updated the model used by the small non fixed laser turret
• Updated the model used by the shield generator subsystem
• Updated the image used by the Human Corvette to match the look of the new unit model
• Updated the look of the sky shader used in space battles
• Updated the look of the sky shader used on the campaign map
• Updated the way background loading is calculated to ensure the loading bar always displays the current loading progress
• Updated the way trade routes are stored on the campaign map so they are handled by a dedicated manager instead of faction managers
• Updated the faction info GUI to work with the new trade route manager
• Updated the squad based units to display who their current primary target is if they have one when selected
• Updated the squad unit movement for when they are circling a target to take into account which point is closest to the unit when starting the circle
• Updated the space squad unit icon to have a white outline so it is easier to see when it is next to the units it represents
• Updated the ground squad unit icon to have a white outline so it is easier to see when it is next to the units it represents
• Updated the unit movement paths to only be displayed for those units which are currently selected or when the space button is held down
• Updated the way the unit description is displayed when a unit is selected on the battle map
• Updated the way the unit description is displayed when a unit is selected on the guide page
• Updated the description for the Human Starfighter
• Updated the description for the Human Starbomber
• Updated the notification centre GUI to display a description of the notification when hovering over the notification name with the mouse
• Updated the debug GUI to allow UC to be added or removed by entering a specified amount rather than just the default amount of 100 UC
• Updated the add unit and add building icon to have a black outline so it is still visible when the button is highlighted
• Updated the diplomacy requirements for some diplomacy options so they are always accepted
• Fixed a bug where the game would throw an error when trying to load some space battle maps as a result of the incorrect light setup
• Fixed a bug where the animated button would throw an error if it was removed from the screen before it had finished being animated
• Fixed a bug where the battle GUI build option buttons would be rebuilt each time a build option was selected
• Fixed a bug where the human starbomber wouldn't circle the target after making an attack run
• Fixed a bug where the human starbomber circle generated after an attack run wasn't centred on the target but on the unit
• Fixed a bug where the unit descriptions had additional formatting applied when being set
• Fixed a bug where the faction name and faction description was not updated when selecting a new faction on the campaign map setup screen
• Fixed a bug where the campaign map camera could still be moved when entering a gift amount in the diplomacy screen
• Fixed a bug where the gift amount entered in the diplomacy screen could be set to 0
• Fixed a bug where the gift amount entered in the diplomacy screen could be greater than the amount of UC owned by the player faction
• Fixed a bug where attempting to scroll in the selected units panel while the mouse was over a unit button would result in that unit being selected
• Fixed a bug where non targetable subsystems could still be hovered over with the mouse
• Fixed a bug where some squad based units didn't have an outline mesh set