Greetings Captains and Crew!
It’s time for a Stars of Icarus dev diary update. This week we’re focusing on some of the big behind-the-scenes content we’re working on. Without further ado, let’s dive in!
General Development Updates
Game Tutorial
We’ve been keeping a close eye on the new player experience. One thing we’ve noticed through all our playtests so far, is that many players want a little more hands-on time, and want to explore a few more mechanics in depth, before they jump into game. On the other hand, just jumping in and playing is one of the best and fastest ways to learn the ropes, and some players prefer learning on the fly, so we don’t want to get in the way of playing real matches either. So instead of making our main tutorial any longer, we’re building out optional role tutorials, so players can get a more in depth look at Crewing, Captaining, and Fighter Piloting at their own pace. They’ll dive into a bit more detail and practice on how to succeed in your role. Beyond that, we’re looking at building out deep dive videos on individual topics, so you can review topics and get reminders on how specific mechanics work.
Moderation and Player Voting Support
On other fronts, we’re working on improving moderation tools. We’ve refined our internal tools to be easier and faster for us to review reports and take moderation actions when necessary. But more importantly we’re working on improving the tools both server owners and players themselves have access to. We want server owners to be able to set and enforce their own rules and standards on top of the game’s “one size fits all” community standards. And that includes deciding if player voting is the right choice for their server to help with moderation and match management. From classic votekick and change level votes, to mid match lobby scrambles, you can give players quick fixes to a bad match. But it’s not the right fit for every community, so you can also turn voting off, and take a more hands on approach to moderation, or a more curated approach to map lists and game modes. You can even decide to rebalance the whole game yourself if you want to, but the game will give players a heads up, so they don’t accidentally walk into a custom balance server without realizing it.
Patching & Fixes
If you’re keeping an eye on what’s changed update to update, take a look from our last alpha’s patch notes, or join the Discord and ask us directly. However, the biggest things to note are that we’ve done a lot of fine tuning, gotten rid of a lot of bugs, and have been diving deep into performance issues and quality of life issues.
Introducing our New Game Mode
We’re working on a new game mode called Cargo King. The basic premise is a moving capture point, a cargo ship flying through both tight corridors, and open areas of levels, trying to shake both teams off its tail. Keep control of the point to rack up points, but kills will still give you a boost of points. Fast ships will have the advantage getting to the point and staying on it as it navigates the level, but when a big heavy hitting crewed ship gets on the point, it will take real work to clear them out and reclaim the cargo. You’ll have to decide if it’s worth chasing behind and scrapping to catch up, or setting up ahead of the cargo ship and ambushing the enemy team trying to hold it. Knowing the ins and outs of every corner of the map will give you the edge, and let you take advantage of the defending team just trying to hold their lead.
The past month or so we’ve been fine tuning it internally and it’s feeling really good now. We’re really excited to get you guys to test it out in the coming months and we might even do a livestream to give you a taste of what the game mode looks like.
That’s it from us till next time – see you in the Stars,
Muse Games