Hello and welcome to our first devlog!
PVKK will be in development for quite some time, so we thought it would be nice to share some insight into the development itself with these little devlogs.
Devlogs will be authored by a variety of people on the team, and they'll be centered around something they are currently working on. Right now we plan on a monthly schedule with the devlogs - this may change sometime as we get closer to launching in the future!
I'm René and in this first devlog, I’ll give you a small overview of the bunker and dive into detail on the cockpit, which is the place where you fulfill your missions. I won't yet talk about each system in detail, but after this, you should have a sense of where you'll spend most of your time in PVKK.
Your Bunker
In PVKK, you are confined to a bunker. It's not very spacious, but over time you can make it your own place. The bunker is both your home and your workplace (home office, eh?).
The facility is quite a bit larger, of course. It features the big cannon - but also some other areas. Your job, however, is to expertly fire a cannon, so there is no need to leave your room.
Well, as far as you are told.
Sleepy time
First off, we have your bed, together with some of your personal items. It is unexpectedly cozy, but other than that it brings no surprises - everybody has to sleep, right?
Before each mission you'll awaken here, and after each mission you'll end your day here, too.
Wait, this is actually much nicer than my real bed!
Your first home computer
On the other side of the room is your desk with one of the most important pieces of technology in the game: the teleradio. It might look like a TV, but it actually is much closer to a PC, running its own operating system and with built-in networking capabilities!
Every time you are tasked with a mission, you'll get a call on the teleradio. You sit down there, carefully listening to your instructions. You can make sure you understand it completely on a summary screen, and off you go, to the cockpit to do a good job!
A marvel of technology: the teleradio.
It's booomin time!
Finally you'll move over to the cockpit, the heart of the bunker. Your first step in fulfilling your mission is to boot up all systems.
Please note that anything I'm sharing in these screenshots is up to change, especially on the cockpit.
We are still heavy in development and we are improving, replacing and adding many things. The whole interior will also change over the span of the campaign you experience as a player, but more on that in a future devlog.
Your workstation, the cockpit, asleep before the mission.
The cockpit itself is made up of several modules. Over time you'll get new modules, improve existing ones, replace some of them or even lose some modules due to unexpected incidents.
The modules belong to one of these categories:
- Energy generation
- Weapon systems
- Information and detection systems
All of these are really big topics that very much deserve their own devlogs in the future. I'll only very briefly touch on each.
Energy generation
To generate energy, you fire up whatever energy generation system you have available. In this case it's a hydroelectric one, providing a quite stable inflow of energy, only being limited by the water level of the reservoir.
Your system also comes with a battery, enabling you to cover surges of energy consumption that go higher than what you can directly produce. You'll want to look out though, to not produce too much energy when the battery is already full! Nothing bad happens directly, but you'll waste a limited resource which can mean your energy supply is low in the last part of the mission.
The ecological way to fire an enormous cannon: renewable energy sources.
Weapon systems
While you start with only one weapon system, over time you'll get more options to attack the invading forces and defend your bunker, and in consequence your planet.
The weapons are all quite distinct, each serving a different purpose. Over time you can expect the enemy to recognise weaknesses in your existing weapons and adapt their attack plan and fleet. In return you will be equipped with new weapon systems that are capable of handling the changed threats.
We'll share more details in a future devlog, for today we'll just do a tour of the bunker.
The centerpiece of the cockpit featuring the weapon selection, some information systems as well as a module for the currently selected kinetic projectile.
Information and detection systems
Lastly we have all the modules that help you find, identify, and track the enemy ships. This task is NOT trivial - especially later in the game, when the enemy will try to trick you or conceal itself from you in various ways.
In PVKK you are not just a grunt shooting a big gun and being happy about it going boom (though that is quite fun). You need to be a smart professional, know your systems, and execute orders with a calm precision - just like an experienced pilot.
The first step towards this is to understand the current situation within the airspace, so you can form a battle plan accordingly. You need to prioritize the right targets, and pick the right tool for the situation. No matter how strong a weapon is, if it is used in the wrong situation it will simply do nothing (except waste materials and time). You know how they say "measure twice, cut once" in woodworking? It's similar for PVKK, where you'd rather spend an extra 10 seconds to verify your plan than spend another 60s on a shot because your first one failed.
You combine several tools to form as complete a picture as you can. If you look carefully, you can see three representations of the incoming ship at once.
This ends the tour for today
These were the basics of our bunker. We did not cover every element of the bunker, nor the activities you can do between missions. As with many things, these are better suited for a future devlog. Some of them are also simply not properly in the game yet, so we could at best show some drawings.
By the way, the funniest comment I heard of someone seeing this bunker for the first time was "hey, this is easily 4000 euros rent without heating, in the city of Munich".
The view is great in any case, and i guess you have no annoying neighbors, which is a plus.
If you want to chat with others about PVKK, ask us questions directily or bring in your feedback and ideas, please join our Discord.
That's it from me!
Best Wishes,
René