Star Nomad is in the final stages of development. Coming soon to Android & iOS.

Here's a few screenshots of combat running on my tablet:

Pirate trade-run, hauling to the Pirate Base to load up on lucrative goods and contraband!

Just enjoying sight seeing, always nice to have faction fleet fights outside your cockpit! Don’t stray too close or you’ll be blown to bits!

Players will be able to equip their ship of choice with various modules, shown here is the Shield Booster in effect.

Thanks for viewing this post, I hope to be able to deliver a nice nostalgic game inspired by WC: Privateer and other classic space sims of old to mobiles and that it won't lose too much in the translation to a RTS game.

Looking good Silverforce.

Oh and thanks for bringing this to android 🙂

Couple questions and thoughts....

How do you find your way in the game? Never saw a radar or minimap in the screens or videos.

I take it that there is auto-targeting? Do you have a manual targeting system?

One thing I noticed was ship collisions, how are you handling this? Is there damage assessed to ships.

In that first video I saw lots of asteroids/rocks will those be mineable?

And you also mentioned that the game is not paused while docked, so if you are getting attacked you will still be getting attacked if you dock?

So far what I have seen it looks to be a game that has a lot going for it especially if you make the module system (both passive and active) in-depth so that it pleases some of the hard core scifi gamers. I have noticed most space game offerings on mobile devices have lacked a little in the depth. They think that combat is everything (which it is a big part) but customization and a reason to play the game to get that module/ship/addon is what keeps people engaged and playing. I know most mobile games are not deep in scope just because they say your lucky to capture someones attention for more that 10-20mins on a mobile game.

One thing that will be interesting since you are bringing the game to PC/Mobile devices is it possible to link your account so progress you make on either PC or Android could be seen no matter which platform your playing?

Keep up the hard work and if you need forum space on SSC you just have to ask.

1. How do you find your way in the game? Never saw a radar or minimap in the screens or videos.

There are nav icons on the edge of your screen for important in-system waypoints, such as jump points and stations. They point to the direction you have to fly to reach it. There's sector wide map you can bring up anytime, which shows your current system among many to help you plot a route. 

2. I take it that there is auto-targeting? Do you have a manual targeting system?

It's a mix! Turrets you equip will auto-target enemies (based on your current standing with each faction). Missiles work with manual guidance. You touch a missile to launch it, then you have a 1 second window to touch a point in space to direct it to that location. I did it on purpose to give some element of skill and interactivity. The big beam cannon will only fire towards your touch point so you manual aim it.

3. One thing I noticed was ship collisions, how are you handling this? Is there damage assessed to ships.

Currently I just have collision push out. I can add shield damage based on ship size/class, a bigger ship ramming a smaller ship is going to inflict a lot of damage. Likewise, small ship ramming big ship = suicide. But because the AI can't fly away to avoid the ram, I don't think it will be good for gameplay which is why I have not enabled it.

4. In that first video I saw lots of asteroids/rocks will those be mineable?

A lot of people have shown interest in mining asteroids! Something simple like firing at it (with a mining laser etc) will harvest Ores and Isotopes into your cargo...  but will it be just for selling to trade stations? I originally planned a crafting system (making your own missiles etc) but it wont make it for now, it's something on my list of features for an update post launch.

5. And you also mentioned that the game is not paused while docked, so if you are getting attacked you will still be getting attacked if you dock?

You can get attack and die while docking, so becareful and do smuggling runs fast. 😀

I'm not aiming for an X3 type of experience, but rather a Escape Velocity and Privateer experience, whereby you can trade, mission run, but ultimately its about completing the main storyline and pick your side. I will work hard to put in a fun PvP mode for some online skirmishes (8 players peer to peer, via an online server that allocates/match make), it may take the form of a tournament, players will have to spend some credits to enter. After the battle is over, the winner or winning team takes the prize. So there's a little bit of competition and because you take in your ship and setup from Singleplayer, it adds an incentive to do missions/trading to earn credits.

As for the different version, it's separate. Unfortunately being a new indie dev, there's plenty of things I'd like to do but lack the talent to accomplish for now. 

Oh, here's that Star Map I was talking about. 

It's not a massive universe, I was aiming for around the same content as in Privateer. There's a ton of random missions and a lengthy storyline that splits into two choices for different endings.

I've tried to balance each system so its useful for trading and missions, with particular focus on a trade-route of sorts. Generally few systems have multiple stations, and those that do, the trading is not as lucrative. Some regions have a shortage of a particular type of stations and thus will pay much higher for those tradegoods.

Animated talking head: Random in-flight chatter from various faction NPCs.

It looks like I will be able to complete it end of May and it will be released in early June. Fingers crossed. 

Oh, space pirates in the future do respect your rights...

Sound effects are great, I may have missed it but that help that came in sure saved you 🙂 Was that part of the mission or did you call for help?

What will be some of the differences between the PC and Android release?

That was part of the mission, you need to help the small fleet survive for awhile until the big guns jump into system near the end. There is an element of randomness in it, because if the red fleet point defense miss too much, they will die very early due to the missile frigates so the player will need to do more to help etc.

The major difference will be higher resolution textures, more particles and effects. Shown in the vids are Android/iOS versions.

Its currently in beta testing, I think it will be ready in 2-3 weeks for release. 

It's launched!

Gameplay Trailer:

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsV9JTYDHQE[/media]

Get it on Android on the Google Store

A higher resolution & more fancy effects PC/MAC version optimized for both mouse & touch input (plays beautiful on a Windows 8 ultrabook/tablet!) is available here: IndieGameStand

Working to get it into iOS ASAP!

Hope you all enjoyed it as much as I have making it. Also hope I've managed to do the oldschool classic spacesims proud with this tribute.

Just updated the PC/MAC version with all new character art (commissioned by a professional artist) and extra content.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn2ASP4wtgc[/media]

PC/MAC is on sale on Desura:  http://www.desura.com/games/star-nomad-rpg-rts-sandbox

Android will be updated soon, and iOS is nearly ready!

Well Hot damn! This looked like alot of fun, so I looked it up and found it on desura for a measly 1.98!!!

I feel like a filthy pirate getting it that cheap! Game definately reminds me of Ev Nova. The inertia is a nice touch!

I need to playtest this some more before I give some feedback, but before I do Im curious about the tutorial button on the main menu.

I click the question mark and all I see is a white box. Do I need the internet? I download and browse on my phone. My desktop has no internet.

Well Hot damn! This looked like alot of fun, so I looked it up and found it on desura for a measly 1.98!!!

I feel like a filthy pirate getting it that cheap! Game definately reminds me of Ev Nova. The inertia is a nice touch!

I need to playtest this some more before I give some feedback, but before I do Im curious about the tutorial button on the main menu.

I click the question mark and all I see is a white box. Do I need the internet? I download and browse on my phone. My desktop has no internet.

G'day! Thanks for grabbing it from Desura. 🙂

The manual/tutorial requires internet because it loads a page from my devblog with pretty much everything (and more) players need to know to really get into the game. I should have done an interactive in-game tutorial but at the time I didn't think it's overly complex as to require one (a mistake!)..  I've now learnt no matter the game, an optional tutorial is ALWAYS required and is just good practice. 

Ah thanks! Found the page and it answered most of my questions.

However in an earlier blog post you mention prices going down as more units are sold. I can buy a good and the price goes up as I buy more, but the profit doesnt go down as I sell quantity. Is this intentional?

Im having a rediculous amount of fun in this game. It really hits that space trading itch after work.

I love the little nods to popular sci fi. Melfina, Arrakis, Galaxy, Stiletto. Etc.

Definately looking forward to the sequel!

Ah thanks! Found the page and it answered most of my questions.

However in an earlier blog post you mention prices going down as more units are sold. I can buy a good and the price goes up as I buy more, but the profit doesnt go down as I sell quantity. Is this intentional?

Im having a rediculous amount of fun in this game. It really hits that space trading itch after work.

I love the little nods to popular sci fi. Melfina, Arrakis, Galaxy, Stiletto. Etc.

Definately looking forward to the sequel!

I originally had dynamic prices both ways, buy/sell but felt it overly punishes the trader to have his profits reduced both ways, so now prices only go up a bit as you purchase but the sale price is constant.

When I started Star Nomad, my coding skills are just developing so a lot of features that I wanted I had to discard because I HAD NO IDEA how to implement them. 🙂

But lately things just started to click, anything I want to implement I figure out really quick so definitely Star Nomad 2 is going to be great. I just got fighter/drone combat AI to work with just a few elegant lines of codes, and they swarm a ship, go on attack run and break off to get distance then return for another attack run etc, it just looks so much more alive to have that behavior in combat for small ships & drones.

Star Nomad 2 is going to be a mix of XCOM, X3 and Squad Controls with a full production system. It'll be the spacesim that I've always wanted to make but due to my lack of talent in the beginning, was not able. 

In the future, I'll revisit Star Nomad and add features or graphics tweaks to enhance it further too, I recently added an asteroid mining system and I have more things planned for it. 

[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6UPWb-Xe6Y[/media]

In the next update, some graphics improvements!

Star Nomad Elite released for iOS! It's identical to the PC/MAC version, widescreen HD resolution.

Runs beautifully on iPhone 6/Plus and iPads with Retina Displays.

https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=943377727&mt=8