PhoenixGames

I have fixed several long standing and intermittent bugs in the project.

One of the fixes is a little messy but it works quite well for the moment.

These bugs were related to the floating origin system, and the checkpoint saving/loading system. The checkpoint system in particular needs to be extensively tested, since it is complex and relatively new.

I hae also uncovered some minor issues with the day/night system. The system generally works, but there can sometimes be noticeable transitions between space and the atmosphere depending on where the player enters the atmosphere. I will have to spend some time improving this later.

I have been doing a lot of debugging, and have finished another complete test run of the third campaign.

I have fixed a large number of bugs and made a lot of improvements to the AI system and persistent object spawning, as well as the campaign system.

The space combat system has also received some minor improvements, but I need to spend more time on this later.

There is still quite a lot of debugging, etc, to do though.

I have added a new filter mode to the shuttle’s guis that allows the player to scan for mission objectives. This is vital in eliminating visual clutter while the player is trying to navigate to the next objective.

I have also fixed some bugs with the filter and nav systems, and made some other improvements.

Some longstanding bugs with the NPC and Creature AI have also been fixed. There were issues with the AI floating in the air in some cases.

Finally, a bug with the SQL server was also fixed.

The next major improvement that I need to make will be the balancing and tweaking of the game. Currently, the difficulty is much too high. I need to balance the projectile speeds, damage values, and the shields and hull strength values, etc. This will not be difficult, but it will be time consuming.

I have also made some improvements to the art for the game. For Early Access, the art is going to be very basic, so I have not spent much time on this. I will be replacing the art later, when I get more time.

This week, I have fixed several more bugs with the third Campaign.

I have also added more comments and interactions from the players allies, and improved the damage system in the game.

I have also made some improvements to the way text messages are displayed in the game.

There are still a few bugs left to fix before I can do a retest, and I want to spend some time working on some new artwork as well.

I have finished another complete retest of the third Campaign.

There were quite a few bugs founds, since it’s been a while since the last complete test, but most of the issues are either minor bugs or optimisation issues.

There are also some difficult balancing issues, which will need to be looked at in the future. I will need to tweak weapon damage, etc.

I have already fixed several of these bugs, and added some improvements.

I have added a scaling damage reduction to the laser weapon in the game, because it was too powerful.

There are also some intermittent issues that I am having difficulty pinning down. I will try to fix these next week.

I aim to spend at least a week or two working on debugging and improvements, and then either retest the Campaign at that point, or work on some artwork first.

I have completed more testing and debugging, mostly related to the campaigns.

I have also added more features to the capital ship interiors, and fixed some bugs that I discovered, as well as improved the story triggers slightly.

Finally, I have made some improvements to the campaign missions themselves.

The next step is to do another complete retest of the story campaigns.

I have also uploaded some short videos to youtube. They are mostly random exploration videos taken during the story campaigns.

I have finished some more testing and debugging, mostly bugs that I discovered during the last test run.

I have also made some improvements to the mission selection UI’s and logic for the third campaign, which makes it a lot easier to use and more reliable.

There were also some new bugs that I discovered while working on the improvements, which were also mostly fixed.

I have spent more time on the checkpoint saving system, and I have added more and better checkpoints, to allow easier restoring of the players state after death or restart.

These are more important for the third campaign, because it is more structured and less procedural than the others.

There is still more more needed on the checkpoint system, and likely quite a few edge cases where the game won’t properly load, but the system seems mostly functional.

I have finished adding checkpoints to all of the campaigns in the game.

There is still some work to be done here, but the now has a mostly functional checkpoint save system for the campaign, which integrates with the existing “free-roaming” save system.

I also did some extensive testing, and fixed some bugs, and made some improvements to the existing campaigns.

The first and second campaigns are quite solid, but the third campaign has a much more complex story/camaign system, so it needs more a little more testing and improvements.

There are still some bugs left to fix, which I discovered during the recent testing. Fixing these is my next priority.

I have spent a lot of time adding in a checkpoint save system for the third campaign.

This allows the player to quit and resume the game at the most recent checkpoint.

The system is quite basic, and needs a lot of testing, but the core methodology is working.

There is one intermittent bug that occurs when the player returns to their capital ship, but I have not yet been able to track this down. This only seems to occur during checkpoint loading.

I also fixed a few minor bugs that I found when working on the checkpoints.

There is still quite a bit to do. The next goal is to add checkpoints to the other campaigns. This should be easier, since they are more procedural and less objective based.