The past few updates I've kind of slapped things together and kicked it out the door and didn't really spend much time on patch notes. This time is different.
The entire 1st campaign for the main story is currently in the game and playable.
- The first campaign is a linear story. It is intended to introduce you, the player, to the Frontiers Reach Universe, some of its characters, and get you familiar with concepts in the universe.
There will no doubt be some changes to it before the finalized campaign goes live with official release.
Wingmen will accompany you throughout parts of the campaign.
- Blitz and Izzy will join you at certain points in the story as you progress through the campaign. In the future, Blitz and Izzy will accompany you on story missions while you'll have the option to take wingmen on non-story missions. These wingmen will be available to recruit in the BERTH aboard the Heliosiren when that room is finally made available in game.
Complete overhaul of cockpit artwork for every starfighter.
- Every starfighters cockpit has been completely reworked. The artwork for the individual instrumentation has also been updated.
Changed how the Aim Scope works.
- The aimscope will now track locked targets or when using bombs it will track the bomb sight instead. In the case of the bomb sight, this should make using bombs in cockpit mode easier. I will try to work on visbility of the aimscope visual in a future update.
Radar Improvements.
- Significantly improved the reliability of the feedback from the radar concerning incoming missiles. Now only those missiles that are locked on to you will trigger an incoming alert.
There is now a proper lead marker for use with cannons when locked on to an enemy.
- Frontiers Reach has been without a proper target lead marker since this whole thing began. That has now changed. Though there are some instances where it seems to be off i.e extreme vertical intercepts where you and the enemy are facing each other.
To get the lead marker to show up, you need only to lock onto an enemy. That will let the targeting computer know you want to track lead on a target.
Reworked control schemes.
- Control schemes have been added for Mouse & Keyboard, HOTAS, Gamepad, and Keyboard only. I highly recommend unplugging any device you do not wish to actively use while playing to avoid conflicts. Highly recommend calibrating any joystick/HOTAS setup before going into the game.
Complete rebalance of launched weapons.
- Another pass on weapon balance has been made and should yield a noticeable difference in how each weapon functions. Expect further changes in the future.
Rebalanced all starfighters to include enemy and friendly NPC's.
- Various tweaks and adjustments to the pathfinding/collision avoidance technique have been made to achieve a more consistent and sensible navigational behavior pattern. Randomness is still a thing though.
Adjustments to affect how well the AI performs in the heat of combat.
- Not quite a total rebalance, but various parameters of the AI have been changed with the aim to achieve better behavior in the heat of combat. Let me know what you think.
Craft cost deduction on shootdown has been reimplemented.
- The cost of your starfighter will once again be deducted from your salvage pool when you get shot down. This will require you to manage your salvage input/output and may require you to take on missions or use cheaper loadouts if you run low.
Damage decals and destruction models have been reimplemented.
- Each starfighter has damage decals and fiery particles effects to better indicate damage state in 3rd person. Additionally, all starfighters have simplified destruction models.
Last major add is the games very first 2nd Generation Starfighter
- Where 1st Gen is inspired by the post-war/inter-war period of 1945-54, 2nd Gen fighters are inspired by those fighters from 1955-65. These fighters are intended to be better than 1st Gen fighters in their roles. This should be expressed in the balance.
Many other small changes.
- Added text indicating when to use the ESC key to skip sequences or messages.
- Tweaks to 3rd person camera for something slightly more drifty.
- Small tweaks to UI elements.
- A lot of little things have changed to affect better performance and visuals all over the place.
- Tweaks to how some buttons function on the loadout screen.
- Data for pilot homeworld and prior profession is now stored in json.
I had a good month this past month. I got a lot of artwork done in a crucial area that had desperately been needing an update and some key features added that have been left out of of the game till now. So it begs the question...
What is in the months to come?
Over the next month or two I aim to get the following in to the game :
- Wingman management for non-main story missions.
- Wingman orders i.e. follow, weapons free.
- Reload and Re-arm mechanic for some mission types.
- Additional scenario rules for more mission types.
- Lots more missions.
- More characters in the GALLEY.
- Foundational work for a dynamic campaign.
- TrackIR support.
I'll see you around pilots!