Hi
This diary is to talk about what I'm doing right now but also to present a couple of ideas for future development and to see players opinions about them (we are talking long term ideas of features that I could add once all Early Access content and promised features are already done).
Let's start with what is being done right now:
High Ground
Currently all combat scenarios work in only 2 dimensions, there's no high ground to take advantage so I wanted to change that. I'm adding new environment assets like Guard Towers with ladders that soldiers can climb and also modifying the terrain in planetary scenarios so it's not completely flat (I'm also revisiting the layout of some scenarios to make them more "practical-looking"but that's another topic). Of course, this is not just an animation and aesthetic change, having the high ground increases aim chance, critical chance and ranged defense (around 3% per "meter" of difference).
I hope to add more skills (and maybe some traits) that take advantage of this new feature in the future.
Space Combat:
I'm currently working in a space combat system that will work a bit like this:
- Enemy Ship or Armed Cargo ship is encountered.
- The player gives orders to the crew depending of their roles (for example: pilot can be ordered to close distance with the target or maybe retreat, weapons specialist can be ordered to open fire or target something specific, etc).
- Both the player ship and the enemy ship execute their orders simultaneously while a cinematic camera follows the action.
- If both ships are still standing after executing their orders, it goes back to the Orders phase.
Basically I wanted to keep a turn based system but I didn't want to just have a copy of the existing combat system with ships instead of soldiers, I wanted to try something new. I also wanted these encounters to be shorter so having a simultaneous turn system should help.
This system also opens the way to give roles in the ship to soldiers, I'm thinking only soldiers with the right traits should be assigned to systems of the ship, give a bonus during space combat and maybe even get injured if their corresponding ship section is damaged.
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And now let's talk about ideas for the future:
Idea #1: Sandbox Campaign replaces Linear Campaign
This is something that has been mentioned by more than one player in the forum and to be honest at first I was avoiding it because it would be a LOT of work (seriously, it would the biggest change of all, bigger than all the features I've promised so far) but the more I think about it the more it makes sense and it could be the perfect finishing touch to add after I get all other features and content done.
And in that spirit I decided to make a mockup of what an overworld/galactic map could look in the game:
This wouldn't change the way the game is played at star system or squad level but it would replace the linear campaign that the game has right now, making it more "open world" in a sense.
The general idea would be to have a map like this one where you can pick which system you would like to visit, the colors would show if the system is owned by a faction and the map could have some minor changes with time and maybe some effect the player might have.
Factions would be something new too in the sense that systems owned by them should be different, for example: an Hegemony system would be richer but also more protected than Independent systems, stations wouldn't let you access and probably hyper gates would be defended too.
This could also make the game more "free", maybe instead of having a fixed path in capturing "The Omen" you could pick other path or keep playing in an Endless Mode (more on these ideas in a future dev diary).
As I said before, this idea is BIG so I would only start working seriously on it after I add way more features and content to the game.
Idea #2: Survival Features And/Or Mode
Right now the game has an Ironman Mode that does the minimum required which is to block saves but I was thinking I could add a Survival Mode instead where soldiers need to be fed with supplies (looted or bought), space for recruits is limited and things like negative traits (scars, diseases, trauma, etc) are not only added to the game but become more common in this mode (and of course, you only have autosaves).
Now there's always the possibility of just adding these features (all or some of them) to the normal campaign instead of creating a special mode, I want to hear opinions about it.
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This is just a sample of what I have planned for the game, there's still lots of secondary features, content and improvements that I want to add. The downside is that Early Access will certainly be longer than what I expected at the beginning but I think it will be worthy and I hope you agree once you see the new patches I'm preparing.
Like last time, I only ask for patience, these new changes are harder to make than new items or weapons so that's why they take longer.
In the meantime, please share your opinion about these new ideas and features. Getting feedback is the main purpose of these dev diaries.
Regards,
Jorge