https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnnXzMyeXW4 (easter egg spoiler)
It.. lives.. again!
Last year was a slow one, with work and real life keeping me busy! Around October though, development picked up again - with this version notably being the first to receive significant feedback, from friends and colleagues alike. To everyone helping shape this game - thank you!
This version finally explores some new concepts like Shields and Squads - which allow ships to survive slightly longer, and also somewhat organize. There are some new controls to back these - but fret not, they're in the... handy in-game reference card! (Rebinding is still pending. 😅 )
Also, there is a new (configurable) auto-aim mechanic that finally makes the game somewhat playable on controllers - which still aren't supported, but can be hacked in via Steam Input or similar. The game performs surprisingly well on Steam Deck, maintaining 7-9W power draw even in intense scenarios. I'm very pleased by this!
I would like to fully support controllers sooner than later, and started adopting the Enemy Starfighter mindset of "if it can't fit on a controller, it's probably too many buttons" - I think this is a great guidepost for control complexity.
(Also, if you're somehow reading this, like space combat games, and haven't played that yet - please check it out. It's awesome!)
General:
- Add capturable Bases to Sandbox, with some supporting changes:
- Ships etc. can now swap factions at runtime, adjusting engine / weapon colors, etc. appropriately.
- This also affects "factories" (ship spawners), causing them to begin spawning ships for their new faction instead.
- Bases can, for now, be captured by... blowing them up! After which they will swap allegiances and heal.
- Improve projectile visuals and collision - now always visible, even at point-blank ranges or extreme speeds.
- Improve Sandbox spawning, limiting max "ambient" ships to ~100. Though Base spawners can exceed this limit a bit!
- Add initial cruise mode! Allows travel in larger scenes like Sandbox, but locks out weapons - kinda like Freelancer.
- "Shift+W" to engage cruise. Currently no windup, so can be used as a bit of an evasion tool ATM too.
- Add "death cam," freezing camera in place for a second to admire your exploding ship.
- Allow rotating camera directly when aiming too far to the sides. Mouse flicks should feel much more responsive!
- Improve input response, and draw aiming-related UI elements right after consuming input, instead of next frame.
- Add Shields!
- All ships now have shields (even cruisers!), making them slightly easier to hit.
- These recharge slowly over time, allowing some damage recovery.
- HP values are now mainly concentrated here; the smaller hulls now only need a few hits to splash.
- Improve various visual effects:
- Resize some existing ones for comfort / clarity.
- Add a cute "pop" effect for spawning ships.
- Add faction-colored aiming lines.
- Add subtle "fizzle debris" effect to exploded ships.
- Fogify Sandbox a bit, toning down all that color!
- Add WIP "space dust" for some motion reference in empty space.
- Improve targeting:
- RMB now just a "click once" control, targeting whatever is radially closest to your crosshair.
- Mouse Wheel now consistently cycles targets left-to-right, by world angle (for consistency).
- Now much more responsive - see Networking!
- Improve UI legibility - clean up sizing, add HP / Shield bar for own ship, etc.
- Add Squads! Players and AI can now group up, with some simple target sharing:
- "I" key invites to squad (or joins existing), "Shift+I" leaves.
- "Q" key assigns current target to the nearest appropriate squad member.
- Can be repeatedly pressed to assign multiple ships.
- Prioritizes ship type (fighter, capital) first, then squad members' distance to target.
- If no target is selected, simply recalls ships to follow instead.
- New Squad HUD shows members, ship type, health, and whether or not they have the same target.
- "F1"-"F8" keys target current squad members, in the order they're shown on the HUD.
- Add "key ship" HUD info to top of screen - important ships w/ factories, bases, etc.
- Add weapon lock / auto-aim for hostile targets - lead indicator will slowly turn red as auto-aim kicks in.
- Add initial "overcharge" mechanic - ships out of energy now kick out a heat sink, and begin to rapidly recharge.
- Add new persistent sensitivity and auto-aim options to pause menu, with a quick reset button.
- Cleanup (and a lot of it!)
- General performance pass - more events, less polling.
- Fix various issues, exceptions, etc.
- Probably add some new issues too.
- Update Unity / Mirage to latest LTS versions.
- Addresses Unity CVE-2025-59489.
- Add some silly easter eggs...
- Try hitting P in the main menu!
- Alternatively, try looking behind an unassuming planet in Sandbox...
AI / Bots:
- Tweak general movement / aiming habits. Easier to fight now!
- Add support for new behaviors - cruise, squads, etc.
- Use cruise to chase far-away targets, sometimes engaging it for evasion too.
- Passively form or join squads, leading to some interesting self-organization over a match.
- Prefer closer targets (or squad targets) when searching for new ones.
- General cleanup, adding small reaction times to aiming, target switching, etc.
- Fix surprisingly old spinning bug! Where AI would sometimes just spin wildly, while appearing to fly straight.
- AI actually use the same controllers players do, but previously had camera smoothing speed set to 0 - so they were effectively contending with infinite camera rotation speed. Oops!
- Allow AI to persist in player squads, swapping ships on death the same way players do.
Networking:
- Generally improve experience, fixing issues with edge cases, consistency, bandwidth, etc.
- While still not ideal, playing under high ping or (some) packet loss should feel much better!
- Write a new position sync system, to better support some of the previous client prediction work.
- Handle targeting client -> server (like input), improving responsiveness.
- Allow network HUD to display issues encountered connecting, etc.
- Add in-game bandwidth profiling via "Shift-0" key.