Got some AI in and some recorded lines in the game. Oh also some nebulae! Next up I think I'm going to improve the gun play a bit. Maybe add some enemies to the FPS areas.

Rusty is hard at work on Mission1 as we speak.

Got FPS enemies nicely walking around on patrol. I'm quite happy with it 🙂 Some of these enemies are happy flying around and it looks kind of cool. Going to be working on giving them proper exhaust on their thrusters and proper gatling gun fire now.

-Onion

Just thought I'd fill in on what I've been up to lately. Been adding a bit of hud information so that enemy ships are highlighted on screen.

Also just added in 2 laser types for the fighter, one that damages shields and one that damages hull. There's also laser cooldown now. So you'll need to switch between the two efficiently if you hope to take down an enemy fighter.

Now I'm going to work on displaying information about the next targeted enemy.

Alright got saving and loading into the game, and 2 different difficulty levels. Guess I'll work on missiles next? Then fine tune all that FPS play stuff.

Got missiles into the game! They are fun!

And here is a video of those missiles in action!

That's brilliant “He’s toast -burnt toast” nice one guys. 😀 😀

Hahah, glad you like that 😉

So I'm pretty happy with how the space part of the game is playing, at least for the alpha. I've been playing the first few missions and I'm having a really good time, so I think I'll leave that like it is now.

I'm going to start focusing on the FPS part of the game, is there anything you guys would like to see? Otherwise I'll try to draw inspiration from Halo and Resistance, try and come up with something fun.

The space section looking very smooth although it may be a bit on the green side.

Are you looking for suggestions on weapons or features ❓

Not sure if this possible to do but would there be any way to turn the gravity off in the station/ship. ❓

Oh that's actually a really good idea.

Alright, I think the game is working pretty well! Got a nice menu in, and really cleaned up the FPS part of the game. That's playing much better now. The engine is more or less ready for an alpha release I think. We've got some odds and ends to tie up, but then I'm hoping we can submit to Desura by the end of the week!

Alpha is ready!!! Submitting to Desura now, lets hope it makes it!

Congrats on the milestone Onionman!

Likewise Onionman congratulations 😀

Thanks guys, that happened a lot faster than I thought it would but.

www.desura.com/games/ensign-1/

I thought I'd just post here on things I was planning on working on next, I know a lot of developers do that.

Anyway, I just finished putting occlusion culling in the game, should speed up a lot of things, and make the blooms look better.

So I hear the cries of players asking for mouse controls for the ship fighting. It's going to be done, however my current top priority is in adding normal mapping to the game.

-Brandon

Oh one more thing I'd like to do in the future, is add speech recognition to Ensign-1. Although that will mean more when you actually have a wingman who takes orders 😉

I thought I'd post a little pic of what I've been working on.

I'm trying to add in shaders to add normal maps and improve the lighting! I'm totally lost but it's exciting because everything is so new. Anyway, here's a picture I've managed to scrounge up, showing off a little rock normal maps I applied to everything ;). Next I'm trying to learn just how to recreate the basic lighting that opengl does.

The patch for normal maps is going to take a bit more time than I thought to put up. In testing, it's really slowing down some of the levels, sorry :/

I've got some people asking what my development priority list is.

First thing is I'm working on getting the game running faster, especially on mission 2. All those asteroids with the texture switching is slowing things down.

Then I'll be working on seperating up the interior levels with sliding doors, so that we can make some bigger levels in FPS.

Then after all that I guess I'll work on the mouse and gamepad support.

Then it's moving on to bringing money and new ships into the game, as well as journals to read in FPS. Maybe some animated characters and enemies.

Then way way later, I'm hoping to finally get back into the multiplayer.

Hey,

So I'll be taking some time, maybe a couple weeks or so to work on other things/take a vacation. Working on Ensign has left me a bit low. I'll be working on Helena the 3rd a bit, taking a break, Rustybolts may still be cranking out levels in the meantime, you'd have to ask him.

Just cleaning some things up. Some bugs and optimizations to make the engine run smoother.

Also working on getting co-op in.

Amidst watching various E3 streams, I'm working on adding a flashlight to the game, and I must say it's coming along quite nicely. It's going to add a lot of atmosphere to the game I think.

-Brandon

I got the AI working a might bit better. Hopefully it should shoot straight now instead of flailing about wildly.