Void Destroyer - Indie 3D space sim

[chaosavy]

got em! hopefuly in a few days they'll be launching fighters, thanks a million

[chaosavy]

thanks for the feedback!Your game looks pretty sweet too, it reminds me of a game back in the 2d days, earth sent colony ships (due to an impending alien attack) and you were in charge of one, you had to settle a solar system and discovered 2 alien presences. One that evolved in a gas giant. It was more sim city than flight sim, but I remmember it fondly. Forget the name of it, may have the cd somewhere laying around still.

[chaosavy]

Bit of news:I put up a new dev-blog on my site [url]http://arrmaytey.com/wordpress/[/url] about the progress to get asteroid bases into the game using SolCommand's models. I'm about 3/4 done with the basics. After the basics are done I'll tackle positioning of space stations (that the asteroid bases can build) using the tactical screen into the game world (the player will move a little place holder to the spot that he/she choses then press build), shouldn't be too difficult.Here are some preliminary images:

[SolCommand]

It's gonna be interesting playing the new build and see what changes you've made.

[chaosavy]

Update: I've put up images into the manual section to try to intorduce the player better than the text only version it was before.[url]http://arrmaytey.com/manual/manual.html[/url]

[BrianRubin]

Ohhhh, this looks awesome, can't wait to give it a whirl!

[BrianRubin]

So I played a bit if this and like it so far. Reminds me of the old Lightspeed/Hyperspeed games in the mixed carrier/figter control. I failed my first game miserably, only then realizing I gotta build stuff, so I'll try that. Hopefully this turns into something more than a complex tower defense game. Could you also make the targeting reticles for enemy ships stand out a bit more, please, maybe make 'em different colors for enemies as well?

[chaosavy]

thanks for the feedback!I'll have to google those games, I haven't played em. How far (in minutes, this reminds me I have to add a "mission timer" or something) along did you get before all of your ships died? The carrier should have lasted a while. Right now the game ends when all your ships are gone, the plan is that eventually the player's avatar is located in a dreadnaught type ship and if that ship is destroyed then the game ends. The backstory will be something like: you are in the dreadnaught hooked up to machinery/network that allows you full control over your fleet and bases, that's why you can jump from ship to ship. What is funny is that I thought I was being real original with this concept until I fired up Homeworld/Homeworld 2 and realized its basically the same thing (except being in direct control).The color coding is definatly on the to do list and so is the art, the target box could stand to be bigger. It used to color code before I swapped to the texture of the target box (before it was a line drawing: eg: start here, go here, start here go here, use color red for enemy) etc. The HUD will probably be completly redesigned once I figure out what to do with the 2D art (if I find an artist etc), which will take a while since there are so many questions and work in process still.The goal is for there to be a storyline and dynamic events, much more so than a tower defense, however who knows, there will be a instant action/sandbox type mode.Here's a video of what I've been working on these past 2 weekends, better station building and asteroid bases: thanks again for the comments

[chaosavy]

Iteration 2 is ready for download: [url]http://arrmaytey.com/downloads.html[/url] overview: you can now position stations where you want, there are 3 new station types (defense, trading, and a shipyard). A new destroyer type ship is added to the player faction featuring 3 heavy guns and 2 missile turrets. You can now colonize an asteroid base.And many other changes you can see here: [url]http://arrmaytey.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16[/url] new youtube video is up: Hope you enjoy.

[chaosavy]

thanks! I'm thinking you are refering to the "building" process as an animation. What's is that the process is basically me feeding triangles from the mesh into a manual object in Ogre per a set amount of time, once the build timer is up then I delete the manual object and show the actual in game object. Basiclaly it was pretty easy to do and it looks really cool for the station or ship to be built instead of it just appearing.the special abilities are something in the backof my mind.Although I think I'd rather go down the special ship rather than special abilities in mind.For example: a ship that does damage and heals itself at the same time (shoots off a bunch of drones, or is sourounded by a cloud of nanites, or simply collides and chomps on the other ship).The reason is that I never really liked the cooldown timers and micromanagement. With special ships the player jumps into a special ship and then uses whatever ability it has, although that may mean it isn't so special anymore.

[chaosavy]

I've re-drawn and modified a bunch of ship models.Here's an example:More info on the Dev Log[url]http://arrmaytey.com/wordpress/[/url] can download an updated installer on the main site.

[chaosavy]

Hey guys! iteration 3 is out, I've updated the first post with the details (screens, videos etc). Hope you enjoy.You can download at: [url]http://www.arrmaytey.com[/url]

[chaosavy]

Iteration 4 is out! The main focus was the addition of 3 tutorials explaning basic ship maneuvering, tactical mode, and combat concepts. Hopefuly the game is easy to get into now and what it has to offer is made clear by the tutorials.I'd appreciate feedback on how good the tutorials are at accomplishing the above goals.The download is here:[url]http://www.arrmaytey.com/downloads.html[/url] there has been the usual bug fixes and polish including tactical mode visual changes and as always I have big plansf or iteration 5 (better physics integration, and first steps towards implementing the player command ship idea I've been planning for a long time).[url]http://arrmaytey.com/images/tactical-before-and-after.jpg[/url]

[chaosavy]

Thanks for the kudos, a few neat things happened lately, I've integrated the physics engine fully into the game (see you tube vid). [url][/url] Also I've begun working on the player's command ship using Solcommand's Anna-V model as a place holderIn a few weeks I'll release iteration 5 which should have more textured models (planning on buying stock art for now, hopefuly custom stuff later on) either way the visuals will improve.I understand about the lack of time, there's a few games I'm avoiding since I don't want to get sucked in.

[sscadmin]

The ships are looking great, did you make the base as well or is that some of SolCommand's work?Really like the engine effects in that 2nd screenshot.

[chaosavy]

The base is SolCommand's work as well. Can't wait till the bases are all textured and more ships as well. I'll throw in some "regular" (non base) asteroids in there as well sooner or later to flesh out the "in an asteroid field" feel.Right now I'm working on adding the ability to "repair/upgrade" the command ship. Putting in the basics, iteration 6 (hopefuly later this week) will feature these basics. At the start these will be just passive (always on) stuff (EG: faster autorepair system, increased ship speed) whose "learn/upgrade" cost is only time. In iteration 7 I hope to put in active abilities (abilities that the player has to activate) (eg: missile barrage, increased repair at the cost of minimal movement and no weapons, launching of a special heavy fighter, thruster boost for a limited time, some sort of a "super awesome super duper" weapon). To first "learn" they will cost resources which the command ship will get from trading stations (you'll see little cargo containers fly towards the command ship). Then the active abilities will go on a timer/cooldown like you see in MMO type games. But still making them plenty avaiable (I don't like it when games make you wait too long to do the cool stuff).Eventually the comand ship will allow the player to customize turrets and will have a one direction at a time (eg: left, rear, front) shield that the player can configure and activate.Lots of plans/hopes/dreams!

[Valar]

This looks awesome!You guys should think more about how Minecraft achieved succes by focusing on gameplay and not graphics. Forget the fancy graphics, focus on deep tactical gameplay!

[chaosavy]

Thougth I'd drop a quick line with a new ship model that will be appearing in iteration 7:

[Risbosix]

farcodev wrote:
great model !
Why there is a rock?

[chaosavy]

The game's setting is in an asteroid field (a bit sparse at the moment, but will have a bunch more rocks in the future). So some of the ships are partially made out of rocks, for defense, for housing other components, for production of ammo, for (insert whatever sci-fi reason you want here)Plus I think its pretty cool