The Seven month (Eleven lunar cycle) wait is over! We have been working diligently in our dingy work-capsule improving everything in Star Command Galaxies. Literally. Every single element in the game has received some love and attention. So, Let’s take you through some of the biggest improvements!
As you explore the sector in your newly-purchased Starship, new Encounters and Mission events will occur. Some are wonderful, while many more are exceedingly dangerous. Some may need ask for your assistance, while others require your crew's unique expertise. Completing these adventures will earn your crew Experience Points for new jobs, credits to buy new items or ship systems, or stranded castaways to add as your latest crewmembers.
Your crew can now be promoted to different job types, giving them the ability to unique kits and weapons. Melee weapons like brass-knuckles enable your crew to dish out the punishment, East-Jersey, Earth, a.d. 1978- style. Bada-boom!
Your new Station Manager Android D3RP is here to help! Assuming your request falls within his pre-defined working hours. Yes, we have literally added smelly, cold, dark and dank vessel that is your NEW Space Station! On this deluxe "home-base" you can build Stores and Modules to unlock new items, vendors, and ship systems.
The all new scenario in Alpha 10 begins with the discovery an evil Pirate Scout ship. With the location of your Space Station in peril you must find the enemy pirate station and destroy it! Engage multiple enemy ships with our completely redone ship combat and targeting system.
We have completely reimagined the UI based on feedback from all of our previous Early Access releases. Everything should be much clearer, more concise and compartmentalized, but most importantly functioning! Your overall ship-status is now displayed in real-time. Ship Functions like Shields and Weapons have been streamlined to show which crew are assigned and if it is the optimal match-up.
Star Command Galaxies has a steep learning curve. There are a lot of new concepts, connections and responsibilities for the player and we felt that we were throwing far too much at the player too early. The new tutorial should gradually cover all the basics of the game while still leaving a lot of room for discovery by advanced players. We didn’t want to hold your hand but we did want to arm you with everything you would need to not die and feel like you had clear purpose.
The primary enemy of the Galaxy is now in the game - the Grol. In future release we will give you the ability to complete missions for other races and slowly build up resources to combat the invincible enemy that is the Grol. With future updates will we introduce other races like the Cortex, Avarians, Vocar and others.
We have fixed so many bugs that we literally can’t list them. Everything has received attention: crew behavior, pathfinding, targeting, mesh merging, animation routines, gameplay loops, mode switching, asset loading - you name it. We have done our best to optimize and cleanup so that we can take on a bend not break mentality. The game is far from bug free but we think that there are far more quirks than there are “what the hell is going on” type elements.
We will be back to a semi-regular release schedule now that Alpha 10 is out, shooting for a release every 30-45 days. Alpha 11 will be focused on crew missions, crew desires, crew personalities, crew leveling up and making things much clearer on what your crew is doing and why they are doing it. This will include much better mouseovers that will reveal whether a crew member should be using a station, equipping a kit, attacking an enemy or talking to that strange blob monster. After that we will expand into the unknown areas of space introducing the ability to build allies, visit alien ships and stations and begin to fight back against the Grol.
Cheers,
Warballoon
If you are on BETA branch we would highly recommend you switch back to the main branch for the new release, until "Alpha 11: Adventures in Midorian Babysitting" [working title] is ready for testing.