Tag: space sim

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 Progress Update (January 2024)

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

Read on for the latest development news for A-Spec First Assault and what will be appearing in the next patch.

Storyline

I have planned how I would like A-Spec to finish by the end of the final mission in the campaign. As of writing this update, I have ideas for several chapters leading up to that endpoint. Currently, it’s looking like each chapter will be comprised of 3 story missions for a beginning, middle, and end for each chapter.

Chapter 2 Story Missions

3 additional story missions will be added for Chapter 2. They have already been scripted, the briefing and debriefing texts are 90% written, and all require extensive testing to ensure the scripting does not break during play.

One of these missions required additional improvements to the AI, to assist the player in completing their objectives. These improvements are 75% completed.

As the player leaves the asteroid field a battle erupts in the distance with weapons fire visible from both sides of the conflict.

Side Missions

Chapter 1 included side missions, randomly presenting a new selection after each mission, for the player to choose from between main missions.

Chapter 2 will expand the number of side missions. I have about 2 dozen side mission themes to choose from which will also be used in the main story missions. I have yet to start on the side missions for Chapter 2, but will do so once the 3 main story missions are completed.

I’d like to know your feedback on how you feel about them so far. Like, are they fun for you, what would you like to see, would you rather just go through the main story missions, etc. Post them in the comments below!

Chapter 1 Briefings/Debriefings

The briefing and debriefing text for the Chapter 1 missions were written back before the prologue existed. Since the prologue is now starting to expose some of the game’s lore, they needed updating to fit in. They were also a bit bland. This is already completed.

Expect text and dialogue to continue evolving through development as I learn and improve on creative writing.

Wingmen

Players will be able to have wingmen join them as they progress through the campaign. Chapter 2 will open up a wingman slot, for ship selection and configuration of wingmen. This is optional, the player can choose to go alone and use that extra Prestige to fit better weapons and equipment to their ship.

Audio ImprovementsSome repetitive audio effects are cascading and these will be significantly reduced (if not eliminated).

Also, explosions were cutting off too soon, this is fixed.

Streaks of missiles fly off into the distance striking their targets.

Explosion Damage Bug

TL;DR: Explosions would sometimes not damage the target. This is now fixed.

There was an interesting (read annoying) bug where exploding missiles would not damage the target. I believed I had solved this in the previous patch, but by a stroke of luck, I was able to reliably replicate the problem and on investigating found the actual cause. This was most notable on missiles striking the Gunship, but applied to any weapon with explosion damage.

When a missile explodes it creates a collider sphere and checks for objects overlapping it. The sphere can be configured to expand each frame (like a shockwave). I added some code to keep the test performant and avoid re-checking past collisions. This is a bit difficult to explain, a ship can have multiple damageable parts (i.e. the main ship and child objects including attached turrets and additional substructures). These are made up of separate collider objects. If a child collider is checked before the main ship collider the ship will not take any damage. I removed the relevant check, ran some additional tests, and determined the poor attempt at making it performant didn’t make a difference. That single line of code is gone, the problem is gone, and no performance loss either.

Weapon Adjustments

Since explosion damage now works 100% of the time every time, I needed to reduce the MLRS explosion damage caused as became overpowered as a result.

Railgun damage has been scaled properly as they were overlooked the last time I re-scaled weapon damages. They are still very powerful and their Prestige and Fitting costs reflect that power.

A new, larger, enemy ship makes its appearance

The next patch will reveal a new much larger type of enemy ship whilst introducing a new game mechanic. I won’t explain more as it’s something the players can discover for themselves (or maybe they won’t notice?). If you follow me on Twitter, this is a feature that I was working on around 14 months ago, for this very same ship. Now that the ship will make its appearance, I am now able to include the mechanic. It’s functional and in the game, requiring some minor adjustments and additional configuration.

The player zooms past the large enemy ships to tackle some easier foes further ahead.

Bug fixes

I have found a lot of bugs since the last update. All that I have found has been squashed.

If you find a bug yourself, please let me know on either the Discord or the A-Spec Steam forum, explain the problem, and if you can repeat the problem or not.

If you can repeat the problem, provide the steps on how to do it, like a list of actions to perform to make the bug happen. Using that I can investigate and follow your steps to replicate the problem, and if I can replicate the problem I can then start working on a fix.

If it’s a bug that appears often, but also seemingly random, if you are willing to provide a video recording of that moment, it may help.

Ultimately I want to keep A-Spec free of jank and bugs. Most of the bugs I found myself, which should be the case as I am on the front line. Though I am only one guy, and bugs do fall through, I work quickly to resolve them.

Game Bundles

A-Spec First Assault and Absolute Territory are part of the fantastic Independent Space Alliance Bundle 2024 containing an amazing collection of space games from other independent game developers.

This bundle is a refresh of the original Independent Space Alliance Bundle containing even more space games.

Both bundles have 60% off. Buy to complete your collection and Steam adjust the bundle costs based on any games you already have in your library.

A large enemy ships looms just ahead. As the player approaches the enemy ships heavy turrets slowly turn to face the threat.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading. I’m truly looking forward to the future of A-Spec First Assault. Given this is an Early Access game the first week sales were on par with Absolute Territory which was released as a full title.

Though putting it in perspective, Absolute Territory is still a failure sales-wise. I have learned a lot since then and hope to put that experience into making A-Spec a better success when the full release day arrives (which is still a while off).

Absolute territory updated to 2.2.0

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

2.2.0 Release (20210912)
Overview – Early enemy fighter weapons feel less overwhelming due to the fast firing rate

Gameplay

  • Amend – Track IR anchor point made same as VR
  • Amend – There are now two versions of the laser bolt cannon (Rapid Firing and Standard)
  • Amend – Vomitoria and Drosophilia now use slower firing laser bolt cannon
  • Amend – Updated weapon lore entries for the laser bolt cannon variants
  • Amend – Updated the 21 Absolute Territory missions to include the new standard laser bolt cannon. Added briefing text highlighting when new ships are made available. Added briefing text to make known about experimental laser weapon being available in mission 20

Simulator Modes

  • Amend – Wave and Gauntlet to include the new standard laser bolt cannon

Campaign Menu

  • Amend – Removed Tutorials as a campaign item selection (they are still available under Simulator menu). They no longer have skip dialogue, since all tutorials are available and there was no need to skip


2.0.1 Release (20210820)
Overview – Tunnelling can be disabled in options and an unsupported TrackIR implementation.

Visual

  • Added – Auto Exposure and Ambient Occlusion Postprocessing Effects
  • Amend – Gameplay scene lighting adjusted to use the Skybox instead of constant color.

Gameplay

  • Added – Toggle Tunnel Vision when using VR (Options > Game > VR Tunnelling
  • Added – An experimental and there not officially supported (I reserve the right to pull this feature at any time) Track IR implementation

VR

  • Amend – Press CTRL-F12 to recenter the VR headset in the main menu and in flight

An important developed note on the current Track IR implementation
As I don’t own any Track IR hardware I cannot reasonably test this myself and has been classed as experimental and officially unsupported. If you enable Track IR the experience may be sub-par or entirely broken. I will do my best to work with any Track IR users willing to be guinea pigs and provide relevant feedback towards improving the implementation. That is no guarantee that Track IR will become an official feature in the game and I reserve the right to abandon any further development on it.

Enabling Track IR
The command-line argument “-trackir” will be needed, I recommend you create a shortcut to the Standard game exe on your desktop and add the argument in the target box as exampled below.

Learn more about Absolute Territory’s development in this interview

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

Skyward Flight FM interviews Dan about Absolute Territory

This month I was fortunate enough to be asked to take part in an interview covering Absolute Territory, and a bit about Digitum Software (that’s me!).

Check it out, over on Skyward Flight Media.

Add to Wishlist on Steam
Absolute Territory: The Space Combat Simulator Steam Store Page

Absolute Territory Demo Released

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

Absolute Territory takes inspiration from classic space combat simulation games from the ’90s and ’00s and adds features for modern gameplay and offers expanded replayability with Steam Workshop support.

The thrill of space combat with infinite replayability. Play the demo.

Absolute Territory takes inspiration from classic space combat simulation games from the ’90s and ’00s and adds features for modern gameplay and offers expanded replayability with Steam Workshop support.

The demo is only available during the Steam Summer Game Festival, don’t miss out, head on over to the Absolute Territory Steam store page and download the demo.

Singleplayer Campaign

Download and play to enjoy the first 3 missions from the Absolute Territory campaign (all 100% created with the in-game mission editor). Before jumping in, be sure to familiarise yourself with the basic controls of your ship by trying out the two tutorials and/or reviewing the reconfigurable keybindings.

In the campaign demo, you will fly patrol, raid an enemy depot, and strike down enemy transport.

Space flight simulation a step above others

As there is no drag in space your fighter wouldn’t normally fly where you pointed it after a turn. The on-board Reaction Control System (RCS) will attempt to compensate for your direction changes and maintain manageable speeds using the ships’ thrusters and main engines. Each ship in Absolute Territory has it’s own mass and thrust power and won’t handle the same.

Rotational thrusters will rotate your ship and attempt to compensate for any outside forces (collisions) which would turn you off course, and be mindful of oversteer as these fighters can turn fast.

Hit the afterburners and perform huge drifts while keeping your guns on your nimble opponent, or disable RCS and slide past large and slow targets while you pummel them into scrap metal.

Instant Action

Squadron

Fly against waves of enemy opponents. Can you win this simulation by going up against two types of Endophora fighter?

Mission Editor

Try the mission editor to create and play your own custom missions.

The mission editor in Absolute Territory provides a limited experience from the paid version. This demo offers restricted ship and weapons selection, and will not be able to create any conditions to drive events/storyline nor publish your missions to the Steam Workshop.

Wishlist the retail version

Absolute Territory is in development with a planned release for later this year. Wishlist and follow to show your interest and be notified of progress updates and its release.

Add to Wishlist on Steam
Absolute Territory: The Space Combat Simulator Steam Store Page

Campaign and demo coming very soon – Absolute Territory Dev Diary #23

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

The last several months have been difficult for people all around the world. I pray this announcement finds you in good health and in improving circumstances.

I have been very fortunate to be still employed and also working (not at home) throughout this crisis. I had several weeks off before the lockdown came into effect and by the end of that time, I was relieved to get back into work (even though I spent the whole of that time working on Absolute Territory). I think that must come down to not managing my time better and neglecting other areas in my life while I single-mindedly continued to work on Absolute Territory (and still do on my downtime ːlunar2019crylaughingpigː).

Release date expectations
The good news, I am aiming for a release date for Absolute Territory towards the end of 2020!

Campaign
Over the last few months, I have been working on the Absolute Territory campaign missions. Everyone one of these missions has been handcrafted within the in-game level editor which you can also use to create your own personalized missions and upload to share with the rest of the Absolute Territory community on Steam. The process is quick, taking a couple of clicks to upload and share.

The campaign story is around a faction of the Endophora (your opponent during this campaign), named The Order of Linnaeus, who has invaded Imperial space and laid claim to Bold Peace. You will find yourself going against Order forces, driving them back out of the sector. Each campaign mission in Absolute Territory brings unique experiences.

Absolute Territory has a full flight roster of eleven fighters across Imperial and Endophora . Five of which have a full 3D cockpit.

Options on the go
Graphical and audio options have been made available during the missions. Simply press Escape (or start button on your controller), drop into the options menu, configure to your liking, then exit out and test your changes reflected in the game instantly.

Warships
No space combat game is complete without having huge warships to either protect or destroy. Absolute Territory brings three huge warships into the conflict. Two destroyers (one for Imperial and Endophoria) and an Endophoria Cruiser, that’s in addition to the transport ship already available.

Situational awareness improvements
To enhance your situational awareness a small but very useful change is to include the name and distance to your target on the offscreen arrow indicator. Cycle through all your targets and know exactly what you’re targeting, even when they are not directly in front of you.

Tutorial Controller Glyphs
The tutorial missions in Absolute Territory introduce fundamental concepts of flying and fighting. Controller Glyph’s already cover keyboard & mouse and Xbox controllers to ease learning controls. This has now been expanded to include glyphs for PlayStation 4 controllers.

Performance Improvements
Minefields were costing twice as much CPU usage as Asteroid fields, after some investigation I was able to reduce this cost and it’s now on a similar level of performance.

Absolute Territory AI gains more improvements to help reduce the number of incidents where they find themselves stuck against Warships. It does happen much less, but I’ll admit it can still happen. I’ll be looking at ways to ensure that they can recover themselves.

been many other performance improvements in scripting, mostly to due with displaying text on the screen, towards reducing CPU cost and garbage generation for a smoother experience.

Demo & Wishlist
A demo for Absolute Territory will be made available during the Steam Game Festival. It’s already packaged, uploaded and ready to be downloaded when the festival goes lives at 10am Pacific time on June 9th, 2020.

Finally, head on over to the Steam store page, scroll down and hit that wishlist button! Every wishlist helps towards showing Steam that this is a game worthy of the algorithm’s attention.

Add to Wishlist on Steam
Absolute Territory: The Space Combat Simulator Steam Store Page

Steam Workshop Support – Absolute Territory Dev Diary #22 (11 Mar 2020)

Posted on by Dan Woods in Uncategorized

Welcome pilot!

It has been another busy month where I had the unique opportunity to work on Absolute Territory for the past month on a full-time basis. During that time I ran a closed beta, squatted many reported bugs, added beta tester feedback, making many more improvements.

Some of the new features covered in this month’s dev diary include:

  • Tutorials
  • Transmissions (creating dialogue from NPC’s)
  • Steam Workshop support

Watch the video or read on below:

Watch this dev diary video
Add to Wishlist on Steam
Absolute Territory: The Space Combat Simulator Steam Store Page

Tutorials

Work has begun to include tutorials covering the different aspects of piloting your space combat fighter. They make use of a couple of new features added towards helping the player learn the controls. These tutorials are entirely scripted using the in-game level editor, and something the player could re-create themselves.

Transmissions

There was no way to convey the complex information needed to best instruct the player to pilot their ship. Transmissions have been added to solve this problem. Transmission sources can come from disembodied or embodied NPC’s. If the source is from an embodied NPC you will be able to see who is talking to you via the white bracket around the transmission source.

Help Glyphs

To further guide the player, help glyphs can be displayed to show relevant and appropriate controls on the HUD. These are context-sensitive and show help glyph for the currently used controller (if supported) with the correct keybinding (including user-defined). Currently, Help Glyph’s support keyboard, mouse and the Xbox 360 gamepad. Do you have a favorite controller not mentioned, post it in the comments below, as I look to expand on controller support.

https://media.indiedb.com/images/members/3/2913/2912252/profile/202003_Tutorial.png
The tutorial using help glyphs and NPC transmissions

Steam Workshop

From the conception of the level editor, one of the development goals was to have the ability to share missions with other players. With the majority of the features locked down and implemented, I was able to redirect development time into this area. From within the level editor, you can now submit your custom missions to the Steam Workshop using the publish form.

Fill in the title and description form your workshop item and hit submit. The level editor will then publish your workshop item with all the relevant files needed for other players to subscribe and play. You can make any last-minute alterations from within the Steam Community Workshop page itself.

Do you want to update your mission? Just load up the relevant mission, enter its Workshop ID and submit, your changes will automatically update your Workshop Item.

202003 Publish Mission

Have any feedback or suggestions or questions regarding this month’s dev update? Post them below.