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Stellar Fleet Command

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

A turn-based strategy prototype. Command your ship, run missions to earn Prestige (currency) and increase in rank to earn additional ship slots. Increase the size of your fleet, deploy defense outposts to protect your factions borders and mining outpost to earn a passive income. Eliminate the enemies Homeworld before they eliminate ours!

Playable in your web browser. Check it out on Itch.io

https://digitumsoftware.itch.io/sfc

A strategic game interface showing a highlighted sector with details on ownership, resistance, and event messages including a battle report and player status.
Screenshot of a strategic space game interface showing a hexagonal map, player status, sector details, and event messages.
A digital strategy game interface displaying a map of hexagonal sectors in space, with information on the current turn, player status, sector details, and event messages regarding battles and agents.
Graphic featuring the title 'Stellar Fleet Command' over a hexagonal space-themed background with various colored hexagons and star-like shapes.

A-SPEC First Assault: 1.0.1 Patch Notes

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

Patch Notes 1.0.1

Overview

  • Fixed a critical issue with renaming a profile causing all profile save data to be lost
  • Minor changes and bug fixes

Changed

  • Match Speed Close distance setting reduced to 2500 (from 3,333 metres)
  • Fitting Screen Ship Stats: Display names for the Burst Autocannon is now abbreviated to “Bu.AC” to avoid possible overlap with the next column across

Fixed

  • Renaming a user profile will delete the profile save data (effectively creating it a new)
  • Improved Damage Repair II was using the incorrect name (Displaying as Improved Damage Repair I in name alone, all other stats unaffected)
  • Fitting Screen: Load Fitting Panel: Navigating upwards with controller/keyboard controls from the Close button will skip slots 6-8 and land on Slot 5
  • Fitting Screen: Panel Switcher element: The SFX for clicking the prev and next button is very loud in comparison to the button clicks

A-SPEC First Assault has gone gold

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

A-SPEC First Assault 1.0 is now available to buy on Steam. A tactical space dogfighting combat simulation, flying a wing of corvettes and going up against increasingly more difficult opposition through a single player campaign of 6 chapters, 3 main missions per chapter, and a variety of side missions to keep the feeling fresh in-between.

A space battle simulation scene featuring a detailed cockpit view of a battlecruiser navigating near a large gas planet. Various HUD elements display ship status, weapon options, and directives such as 'Retreat.'
Cruiser going toe-to-toe-with-hostile-battlecruiser

A-SPEC First Assault game features:

  • Single player campaign containing the prologue and the main story across an additional 6 chapters.
  • Fly fast corvette ships and engage opponents from nimble fighters to large lumbering battle cruisers.
  • Assign your wingmen ships and define their loadouts of guns, missiles, turrets, and enhancement modules.
  • Choose your loadouts carefully to handle the various types of opponents you may encounter in the space.
  • Give individual orders to your wingmen to divide and conquer your opponents.
  • Take advantage of segment armor to engage your opponent at their weakest side, whilst protecting your own.
  • Choose your controller: Keyboard & Mouse, Gamepad (Xbox, PlayStation, etc.), HOTAS and HOSAS devices with multiple (with any combination).
A digital representation of a Storm Crusader frigate navigating through space, surrounded by stars, with various visual indicators and statistics displayed on the screen.
Interceptor external camera rear view with a turret firing at the hostile contact and it’s RCS thrusters engaged to cancel momentum.
A space battle scene from a video game featuring a ship firing weapons at enemy targets, with explosions and colorful graphics in a starry background.
Explosion shockwave from dying opponent

A-SPEC First Assault Demo update

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

Hey pilots,

As the release date for A-Spec First Assault draws closer (this Friday!), I have updated the demo to bring it in line with the full release.

The demo is limited to the prologue and serves as a light-story based tutorial series.

Some important changes from the original Prologue:

  • Players have the choice of skipping the first three missions which introduce basic flight, targeting mechanics.
  • Redesigned aspects of the first three prologue missions to keep the pacing up and reduced the distances as players move to each additional objective area.

Player will be able to transfer their save game profile from the Demo to the Full version. Owners of the full version will be asked about this on the first load of the full version. If you have played on an older version, then progress will not be transferred due to save game changes.

When it comes to the full version, if you have already played through the prologue and you want to jump straight into the main campaign you can skip the entire prologue: From within the Campaign screen, select Options and then select the option to reset the campaign to Chapter 1. You can also reset to the start of the Prologue if you desire. Note: This will overwrite any past progress and irreversible.

You can also export your bindings, then import them into the full version. More details will be provided on Friday when I will have the game manual ready (yes, an actual manual for reading) .

See you Friday!

P.S. If you have not purchased the Early Access version of A-SPEC First Assault, buy now for the current price. The price will be increasing on release day.

Significant performance improvements with A-Spec First Assault Update 0.22.0

Posted on by Dan Woods in Video Games

Welcome, pilot! With this latest update it is no exaggeration to say there are have some huge performance improvements with less frame rate drops, and more increases. This has been a huge undertaking and took precedence over the Chapter 6 update, which not a decision taken lightly. While there is no new content, I believe these performance gains and other general improvements, make the game experience much better.

With how much of the backend was changed to eke out improved performance there may be bugs. If you notice anything out of place and behaving different, bizarrely or just plain acting outright annoying, let me know and I will investigate it. I have been through the campaign several times and caught some soft-locks, broken AI behaviour, etc, etc. But alas, I am just the one dev. While I catch many bugs, there’s always more lurking in the shadows, seemingly hidden, until someone brings it to my attention. So if you find one please report it, and big thanks to all the players who have!

With all that being said and done. Thanks for the continuing support and patience. This was meant to be a 1-year project, extended into a 2 year project, and became a unintended 5 year (and ongoing) project. All being well, A-Spec First Assault the release goal line is now firmly in sight. The focus is on completing the campaign, adding more content, improving existing features along with balancing. I’m aiming to be a full release this year. There, I said it, just don’t try and pin me down with an exact date. It will be in the fullness of time.

And without further ado, here are the patch notes for A-Spec First Assault Update 0.22.0

Patch Notes 0.22.0
Overview

  • This update provides significant performance improvements, along with general bug fixes and improvements and fixed the accuracy of the players primary guns when enabling the “Homing Projectiles” option

Added

  • AI manager to handle management of AI Actor logic updates for improved performance
  • Combat AI Actors now perform a threat assessment against nearby hostiles to determine the best target to engage (closest comparable to itself)
  • Combat AI Actors are capable of making attempts at reducing the likeliness of getting stuck against other ships/structures in the world

Changed

  • Gimball Gun tracking and movement logic updates are now processed with ECS Jobs for improved performance
  • Turret tracking and movement logic updates are now processed with ECS Jobs for improved performance
  • Ship exhaust lens flare logic updates are now processed with ECS Jobs for improved performance
  • Ship exhaust lens flare quad texture visuals are now rendered more efficiently for improved performance
  • Projectile logic updates are now processed with ECS Jobs for improved performance
  • Projectile quad texture visuals are now rendered more efficiently for improved performance
  • Stellar dust logic updates are now processed with ECS Jobs for improved performance
  • Gun Muzzle Flare quad texture visuals are now rendered more efficiently for improved performance
  • Radar contacts logic updates are now processed with ECS Jobs for improved performance
  • Improved the logic used for stretching projectile tails for better visual appearance
  • Removed the in-game FPS montor and associated key binding

Fixed

  • The players main gun projectiles are now 100% accurate against targets when “Homing Projectiles” have been enabled in the game options
  • Campaign soft lock in Chapter 5 Mission 3 as no random side missions are generated preventing progression towards unlocking this main mission
  • Refactored hazard field processes (asteroid and nebula fields) for performance improvements
  • Projectile Stats from installed modules are not applied to the guns when in a mission (Muzzle Speed, Max Range, Rate of Fire, Explosive Radius)
  • Ship Fitting: Launcher Subsystem Damage display values are being calculated incorrectly
  • AI Actors now correctly calculate stopping times, preventing the fast overshoot/fly-bys when using the afterburner

A-Spec First Assault: Patch 0.20.1 is live

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

There is no significant evidence of spontaneously combusting turrets which may or may not be linked to…

Patch Notes 0.20.1

Note: This update will reset all existing bindings to default values to avoid conflicts with new generic HOTAS and generic flight pedal default bindings

Overview

  • Added an overview screen as a place to easily reference control bindings
  • Artillery and Autocannon weaponry adjusted to provide more distinct differences and use
  • Improvements to Torpedo Launchers (installation costs, flight specs, damage)
  • Kherson turrets significantly less likely to spontaneously combust when firing a launcher salvo

Added

  • Default bindings for generic HOTAS controllers
  • Default bindings for generic flight pedal controllers
  • Controller Bindings Overview screen (For a quick glance reminder of controller bindings accessible from the pause menu during mission flights)

Changed

  • Adjustments to all Artillery and Autocannon variants towards defining distinct useage of these weapons and to Artillery:
    • Artillery are long range weapons (range increases, while muzzle velocities decrease, as slot sizes go up)
    • Burst and Standard Autocannons are medium range weapons (range increases, while muzzle velocities decrease, as slot sizes go up)
    • All Autocannons have a slightly faster muzzle velocity than the equivalent it’s Burst Autocannons
    • Adjusted maximum projectile range and muzzle velocities to move autocannon use from long range to medium ranged
  • Torpedo Launcher (Medium):
    • Fitting Points cost changed to 61 (from 169)
    • Prestige Points cost changed to 1464 (from 1624)
    • Adjusted lock range and flight time and flight velocities
  • Torpedo Launcher (Large):
    • Fitting Points cost changed to 243 (from 675)
    • Prestige Points cost changed to 5832 (from 5400)
    • Adjusted lock range and flight time and flight velocities
    • Adjusted Explosive damage values
  • Torpedo Launcher (Extra Large):
    • Fitting Points cost changed to 648 (from 2250)
    • Prestige Points cost changed to 15552 (from 18000)
    • Adjusted lock range and flight time and flight velocities
    • Adjusted Explosive damage values
  • The launcher status bar in the flight HUD weapons panel will no longer play out the reloading UI animation when the launcher ammo is 0, instead it will remain as an empty bar
  • The Save/Load window in the Equipment Loadout Screen:
    • Window real-a-state has been increased and equipped items are listed with consolidated totals to ensure specification text is fully displayed
    • Players can now select Save/Load Slots 6-8 when using controller navigation
  • Controller axis binding for roll is now inverted by default

Fixed

  • Hard at work Akkadian Technicians have corrected a minor fault with the Kherson’s new forward positioned keel turret mounts. In completely unrelated news, the Kherson’s launchers have been repositioned further forward allowing missiles to reach their intended target that little bit quicker, oh, and-any-keel-mounted-turrets-will-no-longer-spontaneously-combust-when-firing-said-launchers
  • Several side missions were not using overrides to spawn vessels and instead used the data in the mission file (therefore no random spawns!)
  • Firing a secondary launcher with multiple salvo’s and then immediately switching to another secondary launcher will pause the firing of the previous launcher
  • Projectiles were applying the shooters velocity to position offsetting the spawn location from the muzzle (which is no longer needed due to a script execution order change in a 0.19.x change)
  • Explosive Damage Enhancer Passive Module is not being applied to equipped launcher missile explosion damage
  • Equipment Loadout Screen now highlights locations (Primary, Secondary, Turrets) and equipped weaponry (primary guns and Turret models) on the vessel when hovering or selecting the relevant equipment slot
  • Vessel Selection Screen: Vessel loadout specification text for assigned wignmen is not updated when navigating the UI with the directional keys/buttons
  • Adjusted Turret Hierarchy Order so that turrets listed in the fitting screen in a standard convention
  • Muzzle Velocity and Max Range stats for projectiles do not display correct adjusted values with the Frictionless Coils Passive Module equipped
  • Rate of Fire stat for projectiles do not display correct adjusted values with the Magnetic Callibration Passive Module equipped
  • Using a Controller with a Throttle Axis binding assigned will set the throttle value to 0 while a Flight Group (1,2,3) button binding is held
  • Help Glyphs are not using a fallback for generic controllers without glyphs, which would instead use the element descriptive name of the controller for the bound action

A-Spec First Assault: Chapter 4 Arrives! Patch 0.20.0 Delivers New Content, Revamped Corvettes & Smoother Gameplay

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

Greetings, Commander.

There is a lot to digest in the patch notes below, so I’ll cover some of the more noteworthy inclusions for update 0.20.0:

Chapter 4
3 new main story missions brings the player to the front lines of the war. Encounter tougher and bigger enemies than before. Chapter 4 side missions up the ante as well, if you want a real challenge then test your mettle with the ‘Ambushed’ side missions.

Corvette Ship Improvements
The Akkadian corvettes (Player faction) have been given additional equipment slots, varying by ship across primary, secondary, turrets and passive modules. The Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson have significant increases in Max Fitting Points to make the most of these.

  • Akkadian cruiser group flies through the great expanse towards the front lines
  • A major threat to the cruiser eliminated before it could do any harm
  • Getting up close and personal with the Auxiliary craft
  • The fleet emerges from the dark side of a moon
  • A Sumer Battlecruiser looms over the debris of its latest victim

Optional Player Assists
Near-Miss
Do you love flying into the enemy head on guns blazing, but hate how the enemy chews you up as much as you do them? Then hate no more, and increase the chances of enemies missing your entirely with the Near-Miss assist.

Find it from the main menu under Options > Game > Near-Miss Spread Angle
Increase the slider to make the enemies aim worse or reduce to 0 to turn it off entirely. Velocity changes, and relative speeds are factored into calculation, so you’ll still need to make a few flight adjustments.

Homing Projectiles
You position the target in centre, your gimbal guns swivel to line up the perfect shot, squeeze the trigger and… Damn, the target fired its thrusters and adjusted its velocity enough for the projectile barrage to harmlessly pass by!

Feel more like a crack shot pilot at the extremes of your guns max ranges with the Homing Projectiles assist. When enabled any targeted vessel with the guns lined up for the kill will have their projectiles home in on the target. A bit like a heat seeking missile, but for projectiles!

This doesn’t guarantee a 100% chance hit rate, if the projectile travel time is long enough the target has a chance to evade if they put enough thrust into it.

Find it from the main menu under Options ? Game > Homing Projectiles
A simple toggle on or off.

Patch Notes 0.20.0 (Merged with 0.19.x Release Candidate Builds)
Overview

  • Chapter 4 added to the story campaign
  • Increased Prestige rewards for completing main missions
  • FPS performance improvements
  • Various additions, gameplay improvements and bug fixes


Added

  • Chapter 4:
    • 3 Main Missions
    • New (tougher) Side Mission spawn pools for: Ambush, Ambushed, Seek and Destroy, Convoy Escort/Destroy, Distress Call
  • Added weighting system to reduce the possibility of the same mission name types being overly repeated in side mission offers.
  • Allowed Akkadian Combat Pilot Actors to use afterburners (does not apply to other factions as adding this feature dramatically changed the difficulty and timings of a variety of missions)
  • Collision Avoidance conditions to stop AI Actor Pilots of larger ships evading much smaller ships
  • Targeted Substructures now have subsystem health and substructure health bars and values displayed in relevant flight HUD sections
  • Radar detection range can be adjusted on a per structure type basis (used to reduce detection range for specific structures in a Chapter 4 mission)
  • Improved FPS during explosions (Object Pooling relevant)
  • A couple of Particle Explosions missing from Object Pooling have now been included
  • Burst Autogun XXSmall (as a replacement for Sumer fighter craft using the Prologue Autogun XXSmall within the main campaign)
  • Projectiles being fired against the player (when the player is) will now calculate the chance that the projectile should be a near-miss based on local velocity and distance (All Blaster gun variations are excluded from this check)
  • Gameplay Assists (Options > Game > Gameplay Assists) for reducing enemy accuracy against the player and improving player accuracy with homing projectile weapons (excluding Blasters)


Changed

  • Luhansk Corvette:
    • Max fitting points increased to 404 (from 273)
    • Additional (+1) Primary Port group (x2 guns)
    • Additional (+1) forward launcher slot (Small fitting)
    • Additional (+1) Small Turret slot (rear keel)
    • Additional (+1) Small Passive Module slot
  • Donetsk Corvette:
    • Max fitting points increased to 1200 (from 566)
    • Additional (+3) turret slots on the keel
    • Additional (+2) forward launcher slots (Small/Medium fitting)
    • All small only turret slots on the deck can now fit Medium fittings (in addition to small fittings)
    • Additional (+1) Small Passive Module slot
  • Kherson Corvette:
    • Max fitting points increased to 1542 (from 960)
    • Secondary weapon slot has been re-positioned to a forward launcher towards making it more useful and in keeping with every other secondary weapon slot on other ships
    • Additional (+1) forward launcher slot (Small/Medium fitting)
    • Additional (+5) turret ports on the keel
    • Additional (+2) Small Passive Module slots
  • Adjusted Prestige rewards for completing main missions. Players will now have more Prestige to spend on ships and loadouts. This has been retroactively applied to existing campaigns
  • Thruster Optimizer Module description has been improved for better clarity
  • Thruster Tuning Modules description was using the original Thruster Optimizer Module description and has now been corrected to better summarise the modules’ effect
  • Collision Avoidance checks for AI Actors now exclude distinct debris in the world
  • Improved FPS performance (linked to Radar system updates)
  • Sumer Fighters and Gunships have reduced armour and hull points to make them feel much less spongy
  • Reworked Subsystem damage through projectile penetration of armour layer:
    • Previously subsystem damage scaled down linearly based on the max armour hitpoints (HP) and current armour HP. If we have two armour quadrants, one with max 500 HP and the other max 1000 HP, they would offer the same level of subsystem protection based on their HP percentage. To make subsystem penetration more consistent a weapon has a defined threshold for how much HP it can ‘pass’ through to achive penetration. The subsystem damage is scaled based on the threshold (passing through more armour HP will reduce the projectile subsystem damage down to 0 when it reaches the penetration threshold). This make positioning and angle of attack more important when wielding penetrating weapons (with the railgun, and lesser the autocannons) for damaging deeply housed subsystems on armoured targets.
  • Adjusted the main campaign mission progression unlocks due to C01M03 being made available immediately available after C01M02.
  • Prologue Mission 6 (Based on feedback about objectives around destroying enemy turrets proved too difficult to manage for a tutorial mission – thanks StoneofTriumph):
    • Swapped out the Choke Blaster for Autogun player primary weapon (due to Choke Blaster limited range)
    • Disabled the offline repair ability for enemy turrets
    • Changed Xenia comms dialogue around turret repair
    • Added Medium Autocannon 8 to the frigates
  • Chapter 2 Mission 3 (C02M03):
    • Reinforcing friendly cruiser now spawns as an Akaddian Cruiser (instead of Sumer Cruiser) and given some speed mods to get it into the action quicker
    • Reduced the reinforcing Akaddian Donetsk corvettes to 3 (from 4) allowing the Akaddian Cruiser more opportunity to get in on the action
    • Sumer Gunship loadouts’ have been adjusted giving 2 (from 4) gunships bombs to drop (bringing mission balancing back in line with pre 0.19.0 changes)
  • Chapter 3 Mission 2 (C02M02):
    • Fixed vessel names for several rebel frigate spawns
    • Admiral ship cannot be destroyed
  • Chapter 3 Mission 3 (C03M03):
    • Adjustments to rebel frigate and tug loadouts to improve their threat
    • Renamed the station
    • Civilian frigates now use correct prefab for ship data
  • Chapter 4 Mission 3 (C04M03):
    • Moved the starting spawn location of Sumer transports 15000 meters further away from the warp out point to provide the player more breathing room when engaging them (for a whopping extra 60 seconds)
  • Adjustments to rebel frigate and tug loadouts to improve their threat and challenge during chapter 3 side mission encounters
  • Combat Pilot AI: Adjusted calculation values for pilots deciding if they should change target to a bigger threat (should stick with designated targets for longer while under fire)
  • Combat Pilot AI: Logic on afterburn useage has been tuned towards reducing the overshooting targets and inappropriate usage overall
  • Removed peneration ability from Autogun and it can longer apply damage to covered subsystems
  • Mini Gun (used by the Sumer Gunship) renamed to Cannon and increased direct damage by 5DPS (30DPS total) and increased subsystem damage by 10DPS (60DPS total)
  • Player HUD Weapon Panel now counts down number of rounds remaining to be fired from a trigger pull (i.e. Burst Autocannons) on the weapons reload status bar
  • Updated the equipment text stats format and layout in the fitting screen
  • Sorting order improvements for inventory items listed in the fitting screen
  • Reinforced Armor Plating (Small) changes
    • Type I = Fitting points increase to 18 (from 6)
    • Type II = Armor HP increase to 3000 (from 2000), Fitting points increase to 84 (from n) and Prestige cost increase to 1120 (from n)
    • Type III = Armor HP increase to 7000 (from 3000), Fitting points increase to 270 (from n) and Prestige cost increase to 4992 (from n)
    • Percentage values are now penalized (reduced with multiple modules affecting the same stats) instead of just being a additive flat value
  • Progression with Equipment Unlock time changes
    • Artillery Medium X1 TURRET unlocks after completing C02M03
    • Autocannon/4 X1 (61) unlocks after completing C02M01
    • Autocannon/4 X2 (62) unlocks after completing C02M01
    • Autocannon/4 X3 (63) unlocks after completing C02M02
    • Burst Autocannon/2 X3 (59) unlocks after completing C01M01
    • Burst Autocannon/2 X3 (60) unlocks after completing C01M01
    • Explosive Damage Enhancer I unlocks after completing C01M03
    • Explosive Damage Enhancer II unlocks after completing C02M03
    • Explosive Damage Enhancer III unlocks after completing C03M03


Fixed

  • Replaced ship loadout secondary weapon references to old MLRS Launcher to new MLMS Launcher(s).
  • Skirmish Menu: Players will no longer be able to see or select factions not intended for use by the player
  • Sumer Light Frigate was incorrectly used as friendly unit in Ambush mission, and has now been replaced with Donetsk Corvette
  • Burst Autocannon/04 X1-X3 Turret Gun DPS has been increased to expected output values (due to wrong reload time being applied)
  • Gunship now uses its own unique XS turret
  • Corrected typos in various mission texts
  • Explosive Armor Protection III (S) module had a vastly inflated price
  • Null Reference Exception when a turrets target warps out
  • Sumer Gunships’ secondary launcher slot size was forgotten and has been restored back to Extra Small
  • AI Actor will no longer use full throttle when in a sweet spot behind a target
  • Disabling AI Actor causing Invalid Operation Exception error
  • Resolved an issue with mission scripting logic for checks on subsystem health when the subsystem is attached to a damageable (and destructible) substructure which would return incorrect values when the substructure is destroyed
  • Null reference exception when an engine substructures(s) health reaches 0 on the Sumer Cruiser
  • A wingman with their own wing will not spawn their wing in formation when playing a Skirmish match
  • Vessel Loadout Screen: Equipped ship weaponry DPS overview list are significantly over inflated for primary weapons
  • Explosions hitting a dying substructures will continue to feed additional damage through to the main structure
  • Projectile guns which fire off multiple rounds on a single trigger pull start the reload timer as soon as it starts firing instead of after the last round being shot off (affecting Burst Autocannons and Blasters)
  • Blaster/4 Primary Gun was using a Medium slot size when it should be Small slot size and has been corrected
  • Ship overview panel in the fitting screen now shows individual applied stat values and correctly shows applied weapon damage stat values
  • Stopped the filter being re-applied when equipping an inventory item into a slot in the fitting screen (which would reset the scroll view back to the top each time)
  • Corrected known typos across several main mission briefings, debriefings, and communication dialogue

A-Spec First Assault fitting screen improvements

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

Check out this screen snap of the fitting screen layout improvements along with more exposed stats

Screenshot displaying a detailed screen layout of a game interface showing performance stats, base stat adjustments, and artillery specifications for a gaming vehicle.

Info text has been expanded on for weaponry and stat adjustments are now properly displayed for secondary and turret weapons when equipping passive modules (something overlooked but was still being applied in gameplay!). You can also get an overview of all individual applied stat adjustments in the ship overview panel (top left), along with the adjusted stat values displayed for the ships equipment.

A lot more has been done for the next A-Spec First Assault update, but I shall leave that for a future update (and the lengthy patch notes) to be released in just over a couple of weeks.