After more than 2 years of development, and nearly one year of pre-alpha testing with the community, the release of Deep Space Battle Simulator is only one month away. This post is meant as an overview for all interested players of what to expect from the game at launch, what will happen while being in Early Access and how the final release will look like.
Currently, there is a tutorial and the main game mode, where 2 teams of players fight as the crew of their capital ship to defeat the opponents' ship. From the bridge of their capital ships, players can control said ship, manage the energy distribution to the shield and weapon systems or the engines. The interiors of the capital ships are completely accessible, for example after taking lots of damage the crew might be required to locate their engines or main generator to fulfill repairs. You might also try to board the enemy ship to sabotage it and fight their crew. Each ship also features 4 hangars with 3-4 smaller fighters inside each, which can be customized at the start of the round. Currently, there are 6 different fighters to choose from, as well as 5 different turret types to place at over 20 turrets slots on your capital ship, and dozens of upgrades you can purchase at the start of the round to complement your strategy and secure victory.
Each round currently takes 5-15 minutes, depending on the strategies of the teams and their chosen ship loadouts. You can either choose to host your own server from the main menu with optional password protection or join one of the dedicated servers we or other players host for you. Since the main game mode is multiplayer-only right now, if you are the sole player on a server, there will be a tactical droid placed in the enemy team, that is able to control their ship, make tactical decisions and challenge you in different ways to ensure you will have fun while waiting for other players to join!
The early access version is already completely functional, the only thing left to do are Steam achievements and cosmetic rewards for players that will have no effect on gameplay and will be unlockable through gameplay, not microtransactions. The game is in a very playable state, but there will always be bugs unaccounted for that will be fixed as soon as possible.
In the last 10 months, I have been developing the game under the constant feedback of our discord community that currently includes around 300 players, and I am looking forward to further improve the game and add singleplayer and coop-missions as well as even more features to the main game mode.