Hello fellow Space Person!
What happened this week?
Reworked weapon system
Previously, weapons used a script to get all their info. It contained 2 things: the damage the weapon does and the time between the shots.
This system worked for the 2 weapons that were available in game: A cannon and a grenade launcher in various sizes.
The problem with this was that anything else than a one shot weapon would feel wrong.
I mean, it would not be a problem to add a mashine gun like weapon and just reduce the cooldown between shots… but what about a weapon that needs some state between shooting and waiting?
An example for this would be the new 'Gattling Tower' and the minigun on the new 'Gunship' (also the laser weapons that will be integrated later… because what's a space game without lazors?!).
A minigun type weapon needs a certain time to spin up, spits out more than a single shot and then has to cool down for a while.
So I have decided to take all the time I need to integrate a different system for this and also completely rewrite the AI weapon handling. I am now able to add as many stages for a shooting sequence as I want.. and attach different sounds and animations to this stages.
While this sounds boring for the player, it makes the work needed to create different weapons way easier… and that might be something that makes it a good thing for players too!
Additionally to this, I am (finally!) working on a concept to make weapons more or less effective in different situations. It feels wrong to shoot a big cruiser with a mashine gun and do more damage than with a cannon. So I will add damage types and resistances to weapons and ships.
The cool thing: I can add shields that do more than just reduce the damage a ship/station takes (because that is pointless, since I could just add a few percent to the ship hull and have the same effect).
Additions:
- Added the gunship for enemy faction
- Added the gunship for player faction (including research tree implementation)
- Added the minigun tower (including research tree implementation)
Changes:
- The effect for the gates was made more "portaly"
- The research UI has been reworked
- It now shows the project in different colors, depending if it is researchable or already researched
- Also added a small disclaimer what is needed to research a project
Fixes:
- The changes on the weapon system got rid of most of the bugs that prevented ships/towers from shooting
- A pivot problem with the debris of a destroyed cruiser has been fixed.