Greetings from LBPS, Inc. We're back with another bi-weekly update on the progress of Rank: Warmaster. We've got more from the rest of the team this week so let's get into it.
From the coders
On the coding side Matt and Art have been busy bringing the cargo system fully online. Art has created a manifest system that allows the total cargo of a ship to be stored as a short list rather than individually tracking boxes of materials in various cargo bays. Meanwhile Matt has been squashing bugs that have impaired the salvage and repair systems, particularly in multiplayer games. Matt has also created the first prototypes of the in-game console as well as the Corporation Selection Screen which will allow players to customize the traits of their corporation (what would be their empire in other 4X games) before entering a game.
From our content writer
Jorden has been hard at work bringing the tutorials closer and closer to completion. The game's first tutorial is nearly fully written and ready to be imported into Articy, where Matt and Art will then work to bring it fully into the game.
From our UI/UX designer
Paul has been updating the graphics of the Building Screen to improve usability and bring it more in line with the standard of our other established screens. He has also begun the first stages of designing graphics for the new Corporation Selection Screen.
From our music and sound designer
Chris has been composing a new song for the Rank: Warmaster soundtrack. We don't yet have a title for the track but Chris is expecting it to be between five and six minutes long. The song features English horn, strings, piano, and pulsing synths. Much of our team takes their inspiration from other work they enjoy, for this track Chris cites Porter Robinson and Marc Rebillet as his current inspiration. We love what we've heard of this song thus far and we can't wait to share it with all of you!
From our QA and Game Content Designer
Rounding out our news for this update we come to Adam. Adam has been redesigning the tech web to make each step of research more rewarding. The goal is to make it so that completing a research usually gives our players something new to play with. He's also been adding more variants to the ship components so now you'll have a choice as to, for example, which style of engine/thrusters you want to invest in as opposed to just getting better versions of those components. He has also been reorganizing the existing modification technologies to make their progression more logical and consistent across the spectrum of all technologies, as well as creating more to provide broader options to customize your strategy.