Dev Video - Ship capturing

Hey guys!

Been working hard to add in ship capturing and the initial steps are ready for you to check out.

I've put together a dev video showcasing and summarizing ship capturing as it stands now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoa_7nBE294

Direct link

Here's a brief summary:

Ship capturing

• Initial steps - more work needs to be done!
• Be sure to test and post feedback/issues - thanks!
• You can now capture ships - via "ship capture" ships
• Right now - only corvette class ships and above can be captured (not gunships or fighters)
• Ship capture ships - can be purchased at your friendly pirate base
• Ship capture ships have a "capture" rating
• Every ship has a "capture resistance" rating (the bigger the ship, the higher the rating)
• The ratings are visible in the ship stats areas while docked and in Overworld "object info" screen
• Capture rating decreases capture resistance rating
• When the capture resistance rating reaches 0 the ship is captured
• Ship capture ships are "one use only" - plan carefully

Other/misc:

• 4 Ships added
• -- 1 variant of an existing ship, 2 new ships, and 1 variant of a new ship.
• Auto dock
• -- You can request auto dock via comms (SHIFT + C by default - target a base first)
• -- Auto dock is permitted if you have a large ship or if you have a decent mission rank
• -- This can significantly reduce the "time till dock"
• Entering Overworld
• -- Leaving a "gravity field" is changed - SHIFT + ENTER (Overworld toggle) while in gravity field will engage gravity drive to make leaving gravity fields quicker
• -- When outside the "gravity field" Overworld mode will automatically engage
• -- This can significantly reduce the "time till overworld"

More on ship capture:

Ship capture is a pretty big deal and could have pretty big balance issues. Many of these types of issues haven't been much looked at, so like I've said these are the initial steps and things will change. With your feedback I'll be able to make better decisions to balance and improve the new mechanic.

Starting out on ship capture:

Since this is a new feature - try capturing smaller ships first (corvettes) then move on to larger targets. Versus trying to go for a giant ship first that might be very hard to capture.

What's next?

I'm going to begin looking at base capture and ownership. This is a big big deal and could cause a huge shift in how the game plays, due to it changing the layout of the map.

For example - if you capture all the pirate bases of a particular pirate faction, does that faction even exist any more? These questions will need to be looked at and thought over.

After that?

After the initial steps in base captures - most likely I'll work on the economy. Making it a bit more dynamic, making pirate attacks more likely (making it a bit more dangerous than it is now), and related items.

And after that?

Bit hard to say - potentially working on the story? This will depend on how ship capturing is going, how base ownership works out and how the expanded economy shapes the game.

Very excited to bring you guys ship capture - hope that you guys check it out, post commends, issues and feedback on the forums, and keep letting other's know about Void Destroyer 2.

Thank you for supporting the project, the great feedback and reviews (which - now increase the project's front page visibility)!

thanks guys

Paul