It has been awhile since my last dev update, so this is just a quick heads up on where things are, and what the short and long term plans are.
As I mentioned in this forum topic, we have a LOT of things going on at the moment, all with various moving parts.
The problem with doing massive games like this, is that it requires a LOT of resources. And when you're an indie, you have to juggle things around due to finances, teams etc. It's one of the reasons that I had segued to doing Line Of Defense Tactics, which not only paid for itself, but raised quite a bit of money which funded other on-going efforts.
Also, as I have been writing in my dev blogs, the larger Line Of Defense game hit a snag that we're working through in order to refocus and be able to release the multi-platform game we intended. Not unlike the Battlecruiser/Universal Combat games, it's a massive undertaking which, as per the unanticipated delays, has ended up costing more than was previously anticipated.
The massive scope of these games, and the costs involved, are why I decided not to do a sequel to Universal Combat without having an idea of how much interest there was. So The Lyrius Conflict update is just a test of that, to see if it's worth adding additional features (e.g. full-blown FPS inside stations, cap ships, session-based multiplayer etc) after this DLC update.
Since TLC is early access, that revenue isn't going to pay the $1M+ that it's going to cost to do; of which over 80% (last time I checked) is all in the new asset creation. So I still have to fund it on an on-going basis until it's finished and released - hopefully next year.
I already finished the TLC scenario script (which btw uses the same modding tools which I released to you guys a few months ago) for it, tested it etc. But I don't want to release it until at least after M3 (see below) is stable.
Currently, my release plan from the planned features (locked down, not subject to change) is as follows:
- On going bug fixes and improvements as per the current known issues log
- Milestone 1. Contains the complete port (from the version used in the All Aspect Warfare/Angle Of Attack games) replacement of the graphics kernel used in both STE (Star Traversal Engine) and PTE (Planetary Traversal Engine) components. Because these are core components of the game engine, it also includes the more advanced character animation engine from AAW, as well as minor tweaks to the AI and audio kernels in the engine.
- Milestone 2. Contains updates for M1, as well as the new fps interface when exiting the ship and playing in fps mode as crew.
- Milestone 3. Updates to M1/M2 as-needed. This is also when we started replacing pre-existing low quality game assets with new more improved versions. This will depend on which ones are done. e.g. if the new GALCOMHQ 3D model pass is complete, then it will be included.
- Milestone 4. Updates to M1/M2/M3 as-needed. Official release update. Include The Lyrius Conflict campaign scenario.
Also, NONE of the new assets can be integrated without getting M1 done first because it requires different handling of shaders, materials etc, than the current 3.0 game engine. So just replacing an old game asset with a new one, isn't going to work. And that's basically where that part of the delays come from.
As there are NO new features in TLC update, above is pretty much all there is to it. With 5000+ content assets (the game asset appendix only lists the ones players interact with) in the game, as you can imagine, it's a MASSIVE amount of work.
Where do we go from here with the series after TLC release? Well, I can safely say that I have NO intentions of spending the $5M+ that it would cost to do a full blown next gen Universal Combat game using a more modern engine. So depending on how the sales go with the final official release of UCCE 3.0 (aka TLC), then my future DLC plans for UCCE would include the following:
- Support for 64-client session based multiplayer. This will be the same method used in the AAW/AOA games with peer-to-peer (host & play) via a server browser, as well as dedicated console server support.
- Full FPS mode inside all space stations and planetary starbases. See Line Of Defense.
- Full FPS mode inside capital (carrier, cruiser, transport) ships. See Line Of Defense.
I envision all of the above spread out across three specific paid DLC releases.
In case you were wondering why the multiplayer requires a separate DLC release: It's a LOT of work. And there are so many issues that have to be addressed, that's why I removed it from UCCE 2.0 as I simply couldn't justify the time and costs involved in doing it for that release.
There is also a LOT of work involved in adding an indoor rendering kernel to the game engine, since it currently has NO support for it. So in order to allow you to sit in your bridge, or walk through your capital ship as it flies through space, while your AI crew continue going about their business (as you can currently see in PERSCAN), not only does it require an indoor rendering kernel, but also new AI pathfinding routines for indoor (the current version only supports planet surface pathfinding and navigation) spaces.
Being the ONLY capital ship space/planetary combat simulation in existence, it would be great to have all these features implemented at some point. But it's a LOT of work and a LOT of money.
That's all for now.