#Escape from Zeta Aurigae

1923 messages · Page 2 of 2 (latest)

knotty sky
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and they don't need to be .wav

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hmm, is it possible to decide the length of the effect? i've just opened it and haven't really dug into it, but the sounds are so looong

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i need like 0.5s long at most, not 2

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ohhh i play with teh length and release

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of the amplitude

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ok, this looks like a very nice tool

violet aurora
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i believe only download as wave is possible, no upload/edit feature in that sense.

knotty sky
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right

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it's fine, i can save the parameters with a screenshot or something

violet aurora
knotty sky
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save setup! that helps

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excellent.

frozen flax
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If you're a bit synth savvy there's also Vital, which is a free synth. I quite enjoy using, it's more for tonal sounds, but you could certainly make good sounding noise based sfx with it

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(or in combination with it)

knotty sky
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Thanks. Will look into Vital

knotty sky
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@violet aurora I absolutely love chiptone

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the ability to copy paste settings as text strings helps me keep a list of variations

# 
eNpjYuj_N5mHkSNN7Zbk__r_9QwMDfVJDD2MZkyx7P_rKzRZjYwZGECCZ3xQ6RmR2MXT1CA0wzp2I-OJDAwKLA-l7E6BRGSsIMYz_LeHKIHRmAIMqPwUaVQ7_0Og_H-oSjoBAHMVNvQ.

eNpjYth49BkPI0ea2i3J__X_6xkYGuqTGHoYzZhi2f_XV2iyGhkzMIAEz_ig0jMisYunqUFohnXsRsYTGRgUWB5K2Z0CichYQYxn-G8PUQKjMQUYUPkp0qh2_odA-f9QlXQCALiANzA.

eNpjYkgVm2TFyJGmdkvyf_3_egaGhvokhh5GM6ZY9v_1FZqsRsYMDCDBMz6o9IxI7OJpahCaYR27kfFEBgYFlodSdqdAIjJWEOMZ_ttDlMBoTAEGVH6KNKqd_yFQ_j9UJZ0AAGjUNg8.

Three impact and/or gun firing sounds

violet aurora
knotty sky
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only thing is i can't edit the sound directly in the editor, and it is a wave file afterwards, but i can live with it

knotty sky
knotty sky
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Spent the days leading up to Christmas planning and thinking about the future plans. I now have to figure out how each sector should work

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But there are exciting things in store 🙂

knotty sky
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I've been iterating on the way that the sector map should work. As a note, to possibly clear up confusion: A sector is a single encounter where the player for instance fights off waves of enemies or survives a thick asteroid belt (or both!). The map is a map of the star system that the player is trying to escape. I did some work in excalidraw to come up with some ideas for how the system map can work, and this will be a basis.

The player enters at the Enter point, this is the first sector the player fights through (automatically started). Once acceleration speed is reached, the player can press "warp" and they get this overview.

The goal for the player is to get to the Exit point, which is the win condition (if they can defeat the enemy there, of course). Travel takes time, which also moves the "swarm" indicator (the red box) to cover more and more systems. You do NOT want to fly to a system that is full of the swarm, that's practically suicide (maybe!)

Fluff:

  • Mouse hover on a system on the map will show an approximate threat level
  • Mouse hover on a system within range will show the travel time and an approximation of the placement of the swarm by the time the player gets there
  • more stuff?
image.png
knotty sky
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Starting to shape up

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Will apply some geometry functions to figure out connections

gaunt sparrow
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looking nice

knotty sky
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reworking to use poisson disc sampling now, it's... almost working

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Not poisson yet.

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But some prettification

gaunt sparrow
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like is the gameplay loop going to be "get to the end"?

knotty sky
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Yes. You start at the left marker then work your way to the end

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All the while collecting “warpium” to unlock more stuff and upgrades

gaunt sparrow
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is there a reason you want the points randomly generated instead of having a more controlled experience, IE "every route will take 20 waves"?

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"illusion of choice" is a valid answer here, im just curious

knotty sky
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Each node will be a set of waves. Player gets to choose their own path. If they want 15 encounters they will be able to. If they want 8, that is probably doable too

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There is also a chasing enemy element

gaunt sparrow
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fair and cool

knotty sky
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The more encounters the greater risk, but reward also increases

knotty sky
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rather liking the way the maps are built

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need to clean it up more but all in all it looks quite decent. also, there's a bunch of interesting weirdness going on heh

knotty sky
gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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thank you

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i need to make some form for icon for the player ship.. hrm

gaunt sparrow
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just a tiny triangle tube w/ engine sparks

knotty sky
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i think i need to make it that simple, yes

knotty sky
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@gaunt sparrow super simple 😄 just a triangle made using draw

image.png
gaunt sparrow
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i love it

knotty sky
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Haha yes.

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Concept:

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For when the swarm takes over systems as you go

gaunt sparrow
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dude that looks so good lmao

knotty sky
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Thank you. I just drew using sharex screen doodle

gaunt sparrow
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sometimes the simplest is the best

knotty sky
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Yeah. And while I probably will add some other representation later this will work for now

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Finding the polygon for the taken systems should be easy too

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And will make for an interesting challenge if you have to do battle with the swarm present

gaunt sparrow
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shaping up to be really cool

knotty sky
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@cursive vapor basically just now working on the map of the game as you progress between sectors. depending on how long you played, you might have noticed that you end up at high acceleration and can hit the "warp" button

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my next step is to make the player able to move (that's the little triangle up top left lol, haven't assigned position or anything)

cursive vapor
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It would be good to have a simple legend for controls, so people who test can still figure it out while they go. It's pretty much what all people do.

knotty sky
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yeah, it's very barebones now. you get a screen, then it tells you "nothing here yet" and gives you a button to start a new fight

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yeah, i need to figure out a good way to do that. Kenney will help with the icons 😛

cursive vapor
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I'm really impressed at how smart the turrets are already

knotty sky
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dude, the turrets are crazy precise. all thanks to ```ansi
Math!

cursive vapor
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Like they lead their aim, not sure if they also take distance and projectile velocity into account.

knotty sky
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they do

cursive vapor
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got instant starsector vibes

knotty sky
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starsector has been an inspiration, same with ftl and slay the spire

# 
func predict_target_position(start_pos: Vector2, target_pos: Vector2, target_velocity: Vector2, speed: float) -> Vector2:
    
    #first, assume start position is 0 by subtracting it from target_pos    
    var p = target_pos - start_pos
    var s = speed
    var v = target_velocity
    
    var a = (v.x*v.x + v.y*v.y - s*s)
    var b = (2 * p.x * v.x + 2 * p.y * v.y)
    var c = (p.x * p.x + p.y * p.y)
    
    var disc = b*b - 4 * a * c
    
    if disc < 0:
        return target_pos
    if a == 0:
        return target_pos        
    
    if disc == 0:
        # only one solution:
        var t = (-b + sqrt(disc))/(2*a)
        return target_pos + (t*target_velocity)
    
    var t1 = (-b + sqrt(disc))/(2*a)
    var t2 = (-b - sqrt(disc))/(2*a)
    
    if t1 < 0 and t2 < 0:
        return target_pos
        
    if sign(t1) != sign(t2):
        return target_pos + (max(t1,t2)*target_velocity)    
    else:
        return target_pos + (min(t1,t2)*target_velocity)
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prediction function is just math though

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input parameters:
start_pos is the turret position
target_pos is the current position of the target
target_velocity is, obviously, the target's velocity
speed is the speed of the bullet in pixels per second

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then we "just" solve a math formula. @quasi mist (sorry for the ping, but really appreciate the help getting this done) helped me

cursive vapor
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interesting. I did a simplified aim predict for some enemy in a project, it was easy to trick though, where you walk one way, then it locks its aim and you change direction. On purpose though, so the player doesn't just strafe in one direction constantly.
What do I have for criticism.. hm. I think it would be good to have good visualization for what enemies are resistant/susceptible to? Like, imagine a "healthbar" where the shield health and integrity health are proportional.
I think you replenished construction points too quickly.

knotty sky
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hm. I think it would be good to have good visualization for what enemies are resistant/susceptible to?
Selecting an enemy gives you their health bars with numbers. There is no "weak against" or "strong against". Damage is always 100% the way it looks in the selection "tooltip" of turrets and enemies

I think you replenished construction points too quickly.
Construction points come back too fast now, yes. At least it should take MUCH longer to get point 3, 4 and 5. Note: Later on, it will be possible to get more starting points, and when you progress you get more of them as well (also more energy)

cursive vapor
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Yea, and I think the energy idea is pretty good, that you need to power up and down different kinds of turrets for different enemies. But it may also get tedious to select large numbers of tiles to toggle them, so maybe a grouping feature will be useful.

cursive vapor
knotty sky
cursive vapor
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0.3?

knotty sky
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I scrapped powering up and down

cursive vapor
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ah alright. so will there be deliberate activation of things?

knotty sky
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Nope. Destroy and rebuild as needed.

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Here I explain damage a bit

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The good thing is that if a weapon does 50 shield it always deals that much to shields. When shields are gone it just uses the armor damage if against armor, and when that is gone it uses hull damage vs hull

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So numbers are in the open 🙂

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I didn’t want a complex resistance system where some weapons deal more to shields in some “magic” way

cursive vapor
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Ah, so each projectile has like separate damage values.

knotty sky
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3 damage values yeah

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And this is a direct mapping. Shield damage goes to shields only 🙂

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You can’t do shield damage on hull 😛

cursive vapor
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but armor can only be damaged once shields are depleted, right?

knotty sky
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However in .4 or .5 i might add status attacks

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Correct. Health pools go top down

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I can layer in any way I want too.

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If I want an armor protecting the outer hull, then an armor layer on the inner hull, thats@doable

cursive vapor
knotty sky
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Complex ship: Shield/armor/hull/armor/hull/shield/hull

cursive vapor
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hm, yea there's lots of different ways to go about it. For as long as it encourages mixing different weapon types I think it'll be good.

knotty sky
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Yeah. I’m going to do a statistics pass on it later

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Figure out if some weapon is doing multiple roles that is

cursive vapor
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Personally I am a fan of having a base damage value, and then some multiplier depending on what is hit. I find it easier to remember this does 15% more when it hits shield versus remembering the exact number values.

knotty sky
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Yeah. I started with that style.

cursive vapor
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Doesn't really make a difference, it's just a different way of presenting it.

knotty sky
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It was hard to manage and had a weird feel.

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Yeah

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I do need damage indicators. Also vortex missile needs to pull ships closer.

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But first get the map working

cursive vapor
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When did this project start?

knotty sky
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July

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Approx

cursive vapor
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Dang. Fast

knotty sky
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Gone through a few iterations

cursive vapor
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I think you are on the right track, figuring out the systems first. Interactions between turrets and enemy ships already looks nice.

knotty sky
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Yeah

cursive vapor
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Alright. You let me know when you hit a milestone. Gonna go back to coding myself gdsalute

knotty sky
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Yup! Swarm propagation and jumping between sectors is what I need.

knotty sky
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Movement on map: check.

gaunt sparrow
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Slick as hell

frozen flax
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Oh it could be cool to have a planet backdrop for some sectors

frozen flax
knotty sky
frozen flax
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Sounds cool!

knotty sky
knotty sky
knotty sky
knotty sky
frozen flax
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Niiiice

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That looks really good

knotty sky
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This is the iteration I am on now

frozen flax
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Nice!

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How will you take back sectors?

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Movement is too quick for that

knotty sky
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You will not take back sectors. You’re supposed to be fleeing

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When you finish a battle you get to warp speed and can make a short jump. This screen is that jump. You will have color coding and icons showing extra threats on certain sectors. Goal is to get away from the swarm.

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And as a player you won’t be moving around like I do in the videos. Because when you arrive at a destination you’re going to enter the battle scene again 🙂

violet aurora
frozen flax
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Ahhh

frozen flax
knotty sky
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okay, today i'm going to look into what is needed to connect the battle scene to the map and get that flow going (end of first map resulting in player being placed on map scene, pick a target sector, and once arrived to that sector on the map, resume the fight again

knotty sky
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except that the camera fails lol

violet aurora
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the warp glow is way overdone if i may say so

knotty sky
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Overdone in what way?

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It blooms a bit much right now and I need to fix that

knotty sky
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I’ll see if I can drop the over-glow somehow

violet aurora
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are you using a world envio node ?

knotty sky
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yeah, i am, but i think i need to tune down the glow on the particles

knotty sky
knotty sky
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timing isn't there yet, it starts the next sector a few seconds in (because of signals, i'm relying on the wrong to start the next sector heh), but it's coming along nicely

knotty sky
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did a pass on the vfx this morning, just tweaking with a little bit of color variation

knotty sky
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No big progress or anything today, but I did get some work on the new spawning system done.

The base idea is that each sector will have a set of enemies that can spawn, based on the threat level (from 0-1) of the sector. You start at 0 when you warp in, and over the course of ~300 seconds you will go to threat level 1. Certain enemies are only allowed to spawn in given intervals (so you don't get the big enemies early on), and some might stop appearing.

The swarm will be generating a set of points every second, and this goes on the "assembly line" (split between the ships spawning). Each time a number of points have been reached, the "assembled" ships will be sent out to attack the player and the next wave will start assembly.

Here's a sample series of spawns based on parameters I have set up:

Wave assembly line initialized with 3 entries:
   strafer
   gunship
   crasher
Releasing wave after 33.44s with:
5 crasher
Releasing wave after 66.90s with:
4 strafer, 3 crasher
Releasing wave after 100.05s with:
4 strafer, 4 crasher
Releasing wave after 133.38s with:
5 strafer, 5 crasher
Releasing wave after 166.73s with:
4 strafer, 1 gunship, 3 crasher
Releasing wave after 200.06s with:
4 strafer, 2 gunship, 4 crasher
Releasing wave after 233.39s with:
4 strafer, 4 gunship, 4 crasher
Releasing wave after 266.73s with:
6 strafer, 4 gunship, 5 crasher
Releasing wave after 300.06s with:
7 strafer, 5 gunship, 6 crasher
godot_kYV0Oo4OYe.png
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Now, it's important to note that ships will be coming in rather quickly - every 30 seconds might seem very often, which is why the player has to be on top of building turrets and defenses so they don't get overwhelmed. Waves will continue spawning even if enemies of the previous wave are alive

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In my sample spawn series above you can also see that the gunship only starts showing after wave 4. I can also limit spawns to only happen up until a given threat level

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the threat level also increases the number of points the spawner has to work with. Currently it uses a Curve2D like this to increase the number of ships that spawn. you can see the jump at the end in the numbers spawned too

image.png
gaunt sparrow
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those sure are graphs! 😛

knotty sky
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@gaunt sparrow i'm a huge fan of sampling curves to produce results. no complex maths formulas, just plain and simple graphs

knotty sky
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i can't help going back playing with the warp effect

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i think this is working out the way i want (in a simulated environment now)

knotty sky
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today's mostly been spent on making the map danger score working in a satisfactory way. this one uses a combination of distance to the exit point, shortest path jumps from entry, a dot based directionality of paths from each sector (where sectors with lanes leading mostly left will be more dangerous)

godot_4C3izOLHgr.png
frozen flax
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It looks cool anyway

knotty sky
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i know, i need to look at making the engine fire be more glowy and less square. it's somewhere on my todo list 😛

knotty sky
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bit intense at the end of sector one

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i'm testing the new waves system, and it's actually working

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it gets more difficult over time

violet aurora
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is there any sort of "advanced AI" in the game or do the little ones basicially just strafe you. Do they avoid or go around ?

knotty sky
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there's no avoidance implemented.

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the AI is "dumb" by all intents

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i also think i need to figure out where my bottlenecks are when it comes to perf, because i'm seeing a fair bit of slowdown with larger enemy counts. i think the crazy amount of particle effects might have something to do with it

gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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I haven’t really investigated it deeply yet, but lowered framerate

gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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Especially with many units. I might need to use the servers

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120 -> 20

gaunt sparrow
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that is significant :V

knotty sky
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My laptop is potato.

gaunt sparrow
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could it possibly be the tracking algorithms that are slowing it down

knotty sky
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I will profile

gaunt sparrow
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good luck 🙏

knotty sky
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Yeah. I suspect excessive particle use (multiple systems)

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Tracking is also a thing but that’s throttled.

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Actually the leading might not be throttled.

knotty sky
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well, it's not my scripts... because they are such a small part of process...

image.png
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there is a bit of physics time going up though, not sure why

gaunt sparrow
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What is that 👀

violet aurora
gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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Test Build 0.3.1+77!

It has some bugs, but i'd love some eyes on this. it's not a proper release just a compile of current dev state.

However, it has the progression between sectors. I've lowered the time you have to spend in each sector by a fair bit, but you still have to fight for a while. In particular I'd love to hear how hectic things feel for you, if you get any breathers or such. Map seed is fixed, so you all play the same map. Navigation on the map is just a matter of clicking a connected system. You can't "pause" or abort a move. Swarm does not currently have any effect, nor can you actually win, reaching the last system has no practical effect yet.

A tip to get started is to make sure you get a set of Coilers facing the enemy as soon as you can, they'll help lots. A repair drone system is also recommended.

📎 zeta_aurigae-0.3.177-win.zip 📎 zeta_aurigae-0.3.177-mac.zip 📎 zeta_aurigae-0.3.177-linux.zip
frozen flax
knotty sky
gaunt sparrow
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Slick work dude

knotty sky
gaunt sparrow
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i think it's funny how all of your ships look mostly the same :V

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like you have a meta you've personally developed for yourself

knotty sky
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the enemy ships?

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it's just my lack of skill at artwork, really. i could make that set of ships rather easily heh

gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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oh, that's just because there's a starter ship and i just tack on some guns

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it's a building game after all 🙂

gaunt sparrow
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Oh lol

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I thought you built it from scratch. I gotta get my hands on this 👀

knotty sky
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nah

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i mean

gaunt sparrow
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you have a base platform and expand on it

knotty sky
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Once I manage to set up the tutorial, the player will start with just the core. “Place a hull segment in each of those spots”, “a thruster can help us get away”, “oh no, enemies inbound. Build a coiler cannon here”

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And then the player can have a few platform styles to work with

gaunt sparrow
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well i think you have a great premise and product, and despite your statements about your lack of art, I think it has a specific aesthetic that works for it

knotty sky
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The aesthetic needs work but yes the gist of it is there 🙂

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And the concept of FTL meets base builder is interesting too 🙂

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Just wait until I get the warpium currency in 😉

gaunt sparrow
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i still have to implement gold and what it can be used for smh

knotty sky
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are you going to have any meta progression?

gaunt sparrow
# knotty sky are you going to have any meta progression?

There's effectively going to be 3ish progression tracks

  1. unlocking gear
  2. increasing core stats
  3. increasing the level of gear

unlocking gear gives you more options to choose from - maybe armor that's better for spellcasting

increasing core stats does things like incrasing HP, damage, cooldowns, etc

increasing gear level improves the effectiveness of that gear by some margin. Maybe +2 damage or something

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gold is going to go towards 3

knotty sky
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i don't know the premise of your game but i guess it's going to be a RPG-like? or is it roguelike/light?

gaunt sparrow
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but this has less to do with Escape from Zeta! what kind of meta progression does your game have?

knotty sky
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i have only done some sketching on the meta game

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I am thinking upgrade trees for each of the weapons first of all.

image.png
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there is a currency "Warpium" that you get for completing sectors, killing bosses, and surviving to the end of the game (reaching and defeating the last sector)

gaunt sparrow
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would this apply "just" to the one run, or across all runs going forward?

knotty sky
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all runs, but there's a caveat

gaunt sparrow
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the way Endless Space and other "multirun roguelites" do it is there's 2 progressions

  1. in-run progression where you upgrade your items
  2. meta progression where you unlock more options to start a run with
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they usually set it up in a way where you "can't" finish a full run the first time w/o unlocking a few things, so you build up meta currency and unlock some things until you "can" finish a run

knotty sky
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the way i'm planning:

  1. in run you get ongoing upgrades in the "A but B" style - i.e. "you get 10 more hull points on all buildings BUT enemies spawn more frequently"
  2. in run, you gain warpium on victories
  3. meta progression: spend warpium to buy new techs. These become available to construct in all future runs. This warpium is spent forever.
  4. meta progression: "slot" warpium in upgrades on your techs. This slotting allows for different builds (more damage, or better firing rate, but only one). You can "unslot" the warpium, and use it for other things.
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and yes, i think you probably can't finish a run in the beginning. maybe not even a first sector

gaunt sparrow
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that way warpium stays a currency, and you have a secondary goal for the player

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gotta feed the positive feedback loop and push for endgame

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if all they need is warpium then they can finish progression without finishing a run, no stress or drive to "get better"

knotty sky
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but if you get murdered you can't complete them

gaunt sparrow
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I'm just spitballing at you, you don't have to use my ideas 😛

knotty sky
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the thinking is that you won't get a lot. let's say an early upgrade point costs ~1000 to slot. A new tech costs maybe 2000 if reasonably low tier. Now if you get like 250-500 warpium in a run

gaunt sparrow
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what is your area breakdown

knotty sky
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i played a game called Halls of Torment, they use gold for this. The gold is spent on gear and upgrades, and you can also buy upgrades like this

gaunt sparrow
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like what does the loop progression look like

gaunt sparrow
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that visualization makes it make more sense lol

knotty sky
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yeah

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you can always refund stuff, but you buy "permanent" upgrades with gold there

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in HoT you can also purchase gear, which gives you bonuses on your runs

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but yeah, that's the gist of the idea 🙂

knotty sky
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@gaunt sparrow i doodled a bit more

image.png
gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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it's the general idea at least. it'll need a lot of balancing and work, and actually implementing an upgrade system 😄 because i don't have that now heh

gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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yes true that

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also, i have a tendency to overengineer, so this time i'm thinking with spreadsheets for a while

knotty sky
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Didn't have energy to implement anything big today after work so I did a little quality of life edit:

gaunt sparrow
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nice lol. that was me yesterday and this morning. "i dont really feel like implementing anything....let's fix some bugs"

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that's a great tool tho, being able to see your targeting w/o selecting turrets

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good addition

frozen flax
knotty sky
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A sector is one warp sequence 🙂

knotty sky
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I might even add a base polygon that is red to indicate non-covered areas

gaunt sparrow
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if overlap = green, multiple coverage, if one = yellow, solo coverage. if none = red, blindspot

knotty sky
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that isn't actually trivial

knotty sky
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@gaunt sparrow the problem with overlapping is that it's not a trival thing to do. i can use Geometry2D to get the intersections (or exclusions with XOR) but that only lets me check two polygons

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and it gives me multiple polygons, any of them might be hole polygons too heh

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i will have a think. for now this works passably at least

gaunt sparrow
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Welp 🤷‍♀️ was just an idea lol

knotty sky
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Yeah. I’m considering how it could be done in a fast and simple way.

frozen flax
frozen flax
knotty sky
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In the single digit gains

knotty sky
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Additionally I’m reducing power usage of everything down to lower values. 5 will be the biggest power use by default. That way I can keep numbers small

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You start with like 15 energy now

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Down from 250. Heh

vapid citrus
#

Oh wow just stumbled upon this. I'm doing a very similar project. It's so rare to find anyone doing something similar! I've looked at this for all of 30 seconds but it resonates with me already haha.

I'm making vehicles out of TileMaps. The vehicles will be on land, though, so my project is not space-themed but more post-apocalyptic, kinda Mad Max vibes. Awesome to see this out in the wild 🙂

knotty sky
frozen flax
frozen flax
knotty sky
#

now i can show up to 5 energy use as little circles on the turret. this way you can, at a glance, get an idea of your usages

knotty sky
#

for better or worse lol

vapid citrus
#

Oh wow, gigachad. Guess that gives you freedom to make things work the way you want em!

#

I am having to do some whacky stuff with TIleMaps xD but I think they're working for my purposes

knotty sky
#

when I started back in july, I didn't even know TileMaps, so I never set about learning how to use them

#

i just used a grid system i made, and that seemed to work fine 🙂

vapid citrus
#

Honestly if it works it works

knotty sky
#

😄 yes, agreed

#

i do want to figure out a way to make the hull pieces "connect" better

vapid citrus
#

i started dev in October last year and and um... I don't have much to show yet lol. I've been just laying out base systems.

knotty sky
#

like, if you look now they each look separated

vapid citrus
#

ohh the little lines between em?

knotty sky
vapid citrus
#

If you count Minecraft modpack deving, light modding, Factorio, and other random programming experience as dev experience....

knotty sky
#

this is what i mean with "separated"

image.png
#

the lines are part of the sprite, so i can easily get rid of it, but i need to separate inner and outer edges and build a more fluid looking hull from it

knotty sky
vapid citrus
#

You got a lot more experience than me xD i've got maybe 3 or 4 years

vapid citrus
#

That I think looks cute with pixel art to be honest (and it's more or less what mine looks like rn lol..

knotty sky
#

yeah

vapid citrus
#

I'm using 64x64 tiles

knotty sky
#

let me do a mockup in aseprite

#

i want to figure out a good way to do the left instead of the right

image.png
#

with arbitrary shapes obviously

#

and more detail instead of big grey area, but you get the point

#

and i'm sure i can figure that one out, it's only going to be like 16 cases anyhow

#

although i could probably draw a procedural mesh

vapid citrus
#

That's some fancy stuff

knotty sky
#

i think it would do great for the look of the game

frozen flax
knotty sky
#

yeah, i think that could really add to the looks. and i also need to make variants, because i'm adding armouring

frozen flax
#

Have to say, I do like the current look but that reminds me of Minecraft optifine lol

knotty sky
#

haha

#

it sure does. "hey, connected textures!"

frozen flax
#

Doesn’t seem like a massive stretch? You’ve already got the auto corners, that thin panel

knotty sky
#

i do, so it shouldn't be too bad

vapid citrus
#

Very fascinating stuff

#

I'm just here letting TileMaps handle hard math for me DUM

knotty sky
#

i already have the bitmask stuff, so it's just a matter of making the graphics

#

and this is just normal tileset stuff

#

the only issue will be collision boxes

#

the TileMap is apparently rather smart on this stuff, and you can just apply the collision box on the thing but..

vapid citrus
#

Honestly if you have the skill to code a core feature of your game, I think that's great. A lot more headaches and work, but a lot more granular control. I wanna ask, are you using GDExtension, GDScript, C#, some cursed Java-to-Godot construction?

frozen flax
knotty sky
vapid citrus
#

Nice.

knotty sky
vapid citrus
#

I'm 100% statically typed GDScript so far myself

knotty sky
#

"statically" typed

vapid citrus
frozen flax
vapid citrus
frozen flax
#

Look, there’s nothing wrong with dynamic typing ok… right?

vapid citrus
#

Set my editor to yell at me if anything does not have explicit types

knotty sky
#

i honestly don't mind either way 😛 as long as it's clear what i'm doing. i do tend to type

vapid citrus
#

Maybe it's just a skill issue but dynamic typing makes me spend a lot more time debugging i feel, just personally

knotty sky
#

oh i don't disagree with that

#

"what the heck was this supposed to be again?"

#

"oh, int. no float."

vapid citrus
#

Yeah...

knotty sky
#

i think i'm going to need a grid. hrm.

#

like a visual grid for when you place stuff

vapid citrus
#

Actually maybe i'll need one too...

#

Can I share stuff from my project? Is that okay?

#

Like video

frozen flax
knotty sky
knotty sky
frozen flax
#

I mean there’s no harm in adding one right

knotty sky
#

nope. it's for another day though 🙂

frozen flax
#

And it’s not like you can’t add a toggle to hide it if people really don’t want it to show

knotty sky
#

exactly. all of the overlays will have toggle options btw

#

so if you don't want to see the firing arcs, that's fine with me. if you don't want the energy overlay, that's an option

frozen flax
#

What if I don’t want to see the ship

#

Btw are you going to add visual crack to the grid tiles when they lose HP, on top of the particle effects?

vapid citrus
#

So I've kind of refactored my prototype a couple times over since starting... this is how my latest attempt at getting my TIleMap vehicles to move went 🤣

knotty sky
vapid citrus
#

I'm making my vehicles RigidBody2Ds, so I'm using the physics engine

knotty sky
vapid citrus
#

I'm aware it's center of mass shenanigans causing that xD was just a fun little test run

knotty sky
#

minimap down bottom right too? i like that

#

i need to make a radar of sorts

vapid citrus
frozen flax
frozen flax
vapid citrus
#

Just prior to that test, I made a little algorithm that generates a singular polygon from the CollisionPolygon2Ds read from each TileData of each tile

#

The whole purpose of that algo is to use the Geometry2D class to create that polygon, whose purpose is to be used for physics

frozen flax
knotty sky
vapid citrus
#

It's the way I found to "infuse" TileMaps with physics xD

vapid citrus
knotty sky
knotty sky
# frozen flax There’s your chance to make a new block!

i already have multiple turrets planned. directed shield is one, giving you a small arc of protection. need a way to help protect the thrusters 🙂

radar is another one, or threat scanner. maybe even tie that into the threat monitor so you don't know what will be attacking you unless you also have a threat scanner

frozen flax
#

Perhaps on the first sector/tutorial sector the player will start with a ship that has both of those (for tutorial purposes), then perhaps for the lore the original getaway ship crashes and you lose access to them?

vapid citrus
# knotty sky could you do a BFS algo? like, it seems now you're just looping the polygons rep...

It kind of walks through the tiles, checking neighbors, and if it finds a valid one it merges into the main polyon. Does this until it reaches a dead end, then it chooses to either iterate through already-processed tiles or unprocessed-tiles, whichever one is smallest, to find a valid tile to jump to and keep walking until either it finishes all the tiles, OR it discovers that the vehicle is segmented, and can only fill in the "main" island. I plan to make the vehicles highly destructible, like being able to chop one in half etc. So if it detects something like that happened, then I can do stuff

knotty sky
#

the original getaway will tear the ship apart, it'll be an emergency warp thing

vapid citrus
#

I have not read much about BFS so I wouldn't know much where to begin DUM

knotty sky
knotty sky
# 
func _flood_fill(cell: Vector2) -> Array:
    var array := []
    var stack := [cell]
    while not stack.is_empty():
        var current = stack.pop_back()
        if not grid.is_within_bounds(current):
            continue
        if current in array:
            continue
        
        array.append(current)
        
        for direction in DIRECTIONS:
            var coord: Vector2 = current + direction
            if not has_building_at(coord): continue
            if coord in array: continue
            stack.append(coord)
    return array

this is my flood fill to check building segments connected to another

#

DIRECTIONS is just a const:
const DIRECTIONS = [Vector2.LEFT, Vector2.RIGHT, Vector2.UP, Vector2.DOWN]

#

if you're using tile map you would have to check the tile map for if it has a block at your coordinate, and check it is within the bounds

#

this might be DFS actually, now that I think of it. hmm.

vapid citrus
#

No problem ^^ I was trying to figure out how to get the center of a polygon in the meantime. Not succesfully xD
That looks a little similar to what i got

#

Mine is uh... a lot more lines tho xD

#

there may have been a struggle

knotty sky
#

haha know the feeling

#

also, how's 4.3? i tried upgrading my project to it, but all particle effects died spectacularly for me 😛

#

sheesh, how come i went from 20% complete to 12% complete in just a few ideas? 😄

image.png
vapid citrus
#

4.3 is treating me well, no issues. I'm enjoying some TileMap fixes/features i kinda needed. I haven't done many particles so haven't lost that.

There recently was a GPU particle refactor wasn't tehre?

#

I haven't had any breakign changes so far

#

I've just kept upgrading to the latest version, probably will till something breaks

#

Heading to bed, nice talking with ya ^^

knotty sky
knotty sky
#

warpium will be a resource that is either automatically collected (when leaving the sector) or "dropped" when enemy ships are destroyed. the latter will be manually collected by the player

#

here's me collecting a few of them. still some particle effect tweaks i have to do

vapid citrus
#

That's pretty!

vapid citrus
#

Here's what i cooked today, a Center of Mass calculator. Not much of an algorithm, more just a calculation but still visualized

frozen flax
knotty sky
knotty sky
#

Today the plan is to add some basic technologies to a screen and allow unlocking of said techs

#

temporarily of course

frozen flax
#

oooh

#

sounds interesting

knotty sky
#

up there

frozen flax
#

ah yes

#

yeah I saw that

knotty sky
#

trying to figure out what to allow the player. like, i want to make it so you can only invest 5 points per "level" in the tree, so if you invest 3 points in the first left tech, you can invest 2 points in the one on the right

frozen flax
#

That sounds like an interesting and very infuriating idea

knotty sky
#

hah

frozen flax
#

That'll add a lot of replayability

knotty sky
#

you will be able to refund though

frozen flax
#

although when I go back to playing games like diep.io I do always get a little mad that I can't max out all of my stats

knotty sky
#

the only ones that are "locked" are the base techs. once you buy those, they're yours forever and can't be removed

#

maybe

#

maybe i do it like this

#

until you have unlocked the second tier (which you do by investing 3 points in one side), you can't put more than 2 points in the opposite

frozen flax
#

Perhaps once you 'win' the game, you can use a free play mode to unlock everything else?

knotty sky
#

there's no "winning" the game, but hold on

#

this is permitted

#

two points in left, two points in right.

#

this is permitted. but now the right hand side is locked until

image.png
frozen flax
#

BTD6 vibes

knotty sky
frozen flax
#

😉

knotty sky
#

"BTD6"?

frozen flax
#

Bloons tower defence 6

knotty sky
#

ah, haven't played that one

#

okay so, once you buy the second tier, you allow buying the right hand side up to 3 points. and now same rule follows for the next tier

frozen flax
#

There are 3 paths, but similarly to this, you can only max out one path, and the other can only have 2 upgrades; the last path can't have any

#

aka "5-2-0" or "0-4-1"

knotty sky
#

right.

#

maybe you can only have N - 1 where N is the opposite side

#

so if I have 2 points, i can put 1 in the other side. if i have 5, i can put 4 in the other side

frozen flax
#

if it forces the player to choose instead of maxxing out everything, it's working perfectly

knotty sky
#

yeah

#

my initial idea was that if you pick one side, the other is 100% blocked

#

the thing is, take the Shredder cannon for instance

#

it's a mediocre weapon against anything but missiles

#

going the right hand side will up both hull and armor damage, making it a viable choice against most enemies

#

but going on the left side makes it into a MUCH stronger missile defense, taking out missiles earlier

#

(because of range and fire rate)

frozen flax
#

right

#

wouldn't fire rate help take out enemies too?

knotty sky
#

but! allowing a few points on the opposite side makes for slightly hybrid builds

frozen flax
#

or balancing takes care of that?

knotty sky
#

balancing is scary 😛

frozen flax
#

lol

knotty sky
#

the idea is that the damage increase would be roughly equal to the fire rate increase

#

so if you get +100% damage by maxing the right side, you would get around the same amount of extra damage from the fire rate

frozen flax
#

maybe as you get stronger, you can go back to previous tiers to fill the chosen side to 5?

#

or too op?

knotty sky
#

oh i want the player to be able to max out at some point. maybe after they have purchased the joining tech (like "evolution")

#

okay! so this is an idea. you "lock" yourself into a tree. only 3 points will be available in each tier for starters

image.png
#

here you are able to buy the "Evolution" tier (that's just tentative, and it will add some new feature or alternative building)

image.png
#

once you have bought the evolution tier though, you unlock...

#

the ability to put points anywhere (as long as prereqs are fulfilled, so you still have to have 3 points on the first right tier)

image.png
#

Evolution is sort of a "unlock" feature, and you can now refund all points in these four techs and assign them however you like

frozen flax
#

interesting

#

like a rebirth but you don't lose anything?

#

Oh funny idea would be to have the player create a bunch of bots to help you, then have them retaliate, and story/gameplay loop restarts 💀

knotty sky
#

heh

#

rebirth could be a thing

#

but yeah, i want the refund to be a thing

#

on everything but the "unlock" techs

#

mockup animation

frozen flax
#

oh that's interesting

#

looks clean

knotty sky
#

yeah. this is just a mock up obviously but

#

functionality is there 🙂

frozen flax
#

maybe the core should have a limited repair drone

#

just for starting off

knotty sky
#

I’m going to add a very basic repair system as part of the core. It repairs automatically but slowly.

#

Drones will be unlocked

#

I do have two variants in mind for this though

frozen flax
#

sounds good! Finally found the time to play the new update

frozen flax
#

or high hp slow repair, fast repair low hp?

#

So in the future will you unlock more construction points (allowing you to place better turrets, but also more force fields and repair drones)?

knotty sky
#

Okay sorry, I am struggling with my 3yo atm, heh.

#

So the idea is along the lines of you start with a basic repair system

#

This system has automated slow repairs, as well as a manual repair using construction points (for emergency repairs)

frozen flax
#

no rush no rush

knotty sky
#

Two upgrade paths:

  1. Stronger and faster automatic repairs

  2. Stronger manual, and added AoE repair

frozen flax
#

automatic, thanks

#

lol

#

I guess manual repairs will add back a lot of the pandemonium from the earlier builds lol

#

my goodness this game looks good

#

so many cool turrets

knotty sky
#

Thank you:)

knotty sky
frozen flax
#

went right into the threat wave to test the new turrets

image.png
#

is it a mistake to go to deadends?

image.png
knotty sky
#

Not yet.

#

In the current build it does nothing if a sector is captured

frozen flax
#

right right

knotty sky
#

But in the next you will be pretty harassed

#

Also reaching exit doesn’t actually win the game yet

frozen flax
#

crazy waves if you're in the captured sectors?

knotty sky
frozen flax
#

Ohhh

#

hull segments take energy

#

I wasn't expecting that

frozen flax
#

those are always fun

#

lots of colours

knotty sky
frozen flax
#

one request is to be able to see how much damage is being dealt by each turret

#

I think that would be rather useful

knotty sky
#

select a turret?

frozen flax
#

No as in total damage dealt

knotty sky
#

ah

frozen flax
#

to monitor the effectiveness of turrets

knotty sky
#

it's a non-easy metric to add but i'll try

#

issue is that bullets don't have a concept of owner, since owner might be dead

frozen flax
#

Ah

knotty sky
#

but i actually got an idea for how now

#

ok, have to go for a few hours, back later

#

enjoy playing around with the beta

frozen flax
#

I have no idea how you did all of this so fast and so well

#

See ya

#

threat wave works well lol

image.png
#

Also random idea, it doesn't look like more than 1 drone can work on a block. Would be too OP to have the repair drones all be at work until there is nothing left to repair? (currently if there are less blocks to repair than drones then they idle)

#

Found a bug with the mines

image.png
#

Probably too many ideas at this time, but have you thought about adding a light source to add shading?

#

well I'm letting this run be over

image.png
#

(could have warped but I won't)

knotty sky
knotty sky
knotty sky
frozen flax
#

2 more bugs:

  • you have the option to warp without an engine
  • restarting the run only let me use 4 build points (had to restart game to fix)
frozen flax
knotty sky
#

I forgot to reset point usage, thats why you start with fewer cp

frozen flax
knotty sky
knotty sky
knotty sky
frozen flax
frozen flax
frozen flax
knotty sky
knotty sky
violet aurora
#

(get_idle_frames()) to get the frame count

knotty sky
#

the biggest perf drain is probably target tracking

#

i just wish i had some more deep profiling, because my scripts aren't showing as taking time

knotty sky
#

Okay! So, you can now actually earn Warpium. It doesn't save between runs, and I haven't hooked up the tech screen yet, but.. you can earn warpium 😄

frozen flax
#

You should definitely make a hard-hardcore mode where you don’t keep warpium between runs

knotty sky
#

you can't unlock turrets during the run 😉

#

Well that’s a lie. You can get SOME turrets as rewards

frozen flax
#

You should make it so that if you leave the game, you LOSE (jk)

knotty sky
#

how do you mean?

#

surrendering will let you keep the warpium you have gathered so far, but you don't get the sector warpium of course

knotty sky
#

finally got the profile switching to not corrupt save data. yay

knotty sky
#

phew, been a few days. i rewrote the entire profile system into a much more robust system, and then implemented tech unlocks yay

#

now i'm hard at work making an upgrades system

gaunt sparrow
#

nice

knotty sky
#

it's... a bit of a hassle but should work out. i need to figure out how to do it but i have a prototype that needs refining

gaunt sparrow
#

the messiest part of implementation is between "start" and "finish" lol

knotty sky
#

it is!

#

but when you get it right, that's satisfying

knotty sky
#

@gaunt sparrow for me the messiest part right now is how to request the upgrades and how to apply them, really. I’ve settled for using a Node that is an “upgrader” that can do the hard work of filtering and stuff

#

Once this is in though I should be able to make everything from enemy health to spawn rate, player energy grid level and asteroids density into an upgradable stat without TOO much work

gaunt sparrow
#

yeah the hardest part about upgrading is "how is it stored, and how does it interact w/ everything else" lol

knotty sky
#

So I can maintain any list of upgrades I want 😉

knotty sky
# 
Health initialization complete. Shield: 100
Health initialization complete. Armor: 200

UpgraderHealthShield:<Node#47060092263> applied upgrade All Enemy Armor and Shield+50
UpgraderHealthShield:<Node#47060092263> applied upgrade All Enemy Shield +10%
UpgraderHealthShield:<Node#47060092263> health after upgraded 165

UpgraderHealthArmor:<Node#47093646697> applied upgrade All Enemy Armor and Shield+50
UpgraderHealthArmor:<Node#47093646697> health after upgraded 250
#

proof of concept, my upgrades system works!

#

matching perfectly!

image.png image.png image.png
knotty sky
#

after giving this a test run, i'm now implementing weapon upgrades too. the system feels robust, but it'll be interesting to see how hard it will be designing stuff and then presenting it later on. if done right, this can be both upgrades from the tech tree going to the player turrets and buildings, but also upgrades to enemies as the game makes them more difficult.

knotty sky
#

this may not seem like much, but this is actually two turrets with the same base settings, but the bottom one takes in a range and tracking cone angle modifier

image.png
#

next up is damage modifiers to kinetic weapons, then i work on beams (much is similar, thankfully), and missiles (so many properties...)

knotty sky
# 
UpgraderHealthShield:<Node#61790487906> applied upgrade All Enemy Armor and Shield+50
UpgraderHealthShield:<Node#61790487906> applied upgrade All Enemy Shield +10%
UpgraderHealthShield:<Node#61790487906> health after upgraded 165
UpgraderHealthArmor:<Node#61824042423> applied upgrade All Enemy Armor and Shield+50
UpgraderHealthArmor:<Node#61824042423> health after upgraded 250
KineticWeaponUpgrader:<Node#61857596822> applied upgrade +1 firing rate
KineticWeaponUpgrader:<Node#61857596822> applied upgrade Range +50%
KineticWeaponUpgrader:<Node#61857596822> applied upgrade Tracking angle -50%
EnergyWeaponUpgrader:<Node#61891151159> applied upgrade Scorcher fire time +0.5s
MissileWeaponUpgrader:<Node#61924705678> applied upgrade Blitz -25% tracking angle

there we go. everything can now be upgraded.

#

next is scaling

#

for enemies, the scaling will have to be damage and health values, i think

wind bridge
#

Pretty cool! Been keeping an eye on this. Im a huge fan of games like Cosmoteer.

knotty sky
knotty sky
#

gosh dang it, heh, i rewrote my upgrade system again, and this time it is much more flexible. also more error prone (as in, it can fail silently)

vapid citrus
knotty sky
vapid citrus
knotty sky
#

it doesn't

#

at least i think it doesn't

vapid citrus
#

You could make a setter that retuns an erro code then! Maybe idk

#

Never tried it

knotty sky
#

it's just a simple modulation of color

#

but it should help players see where they just got hit a little bit easier

worthy condor
#

feels like a starsector tower defense game. I would love this fight / travel mechanic as a part of a living world trading game, nice job it has a great vibe

knotty sky
vapid citrus
#

Congrats on all your progress!

violet aurora
#

I like the lasers

knotty sky
#

Today I didn’t really get much done. I did some minor work on things just to touch grass but have to step back to think about how to limit hull spam

# 
1. each hull piece is still free, but the further out it is the weaker it becomes
  * i'd promote people from building tighter builds this way
  * hull at bigger distances from the core would have significantly lower health values
2. make hull pieces use some currency that is separate from energy
  * scrap points? maybe revisit the asteroid mining idea for this
  * all asteroids give you scrap you use for hull - this would be a hard limit
3. make damage bleed through, so if outer hull is hit, then inner takes some of the damage
  * each hull piece would take full damage, then it would send 1/3rd of the damage to adjacent structures or something
4. use a strong hull/weak hull combo where strong hull allows placement of weak hull in a limited radius
  * you would place strong hull, this uses energy to show that it is a "link" for processing or something
  * a generous area around is given to the player
5. when the number of hull gets too high, enemy starts attacking with nanovirus that is a "hull buster" weapon
  * this would be a disease style weapon that jumps to neighbor hull segments and chews through them
  * could be a neat weapon to implement, actually
6. make weight more "visible". that is, make each thruster hold a nominal weight value and actually make all structures have mass.
  * if you go over the max weight, you accelerate at half the speed - enemy threat level increases faster
  * if you go over twice the max weight, you can't accelerate at all - enemy threat level increases rapidly

There are implications for all of those but yeah... appreciate you folks’ views on it. And your vote 🙂

#

You can vote for multiple if you want lol

violet aurora
#

My first thought is that hull pieces add weight to the starship which slows it down which makes levels take longer and that directly influenced the difficulty.

#

The weight to speed ratio should use a very slight pow (1.0x) so more pieces big you down more and more, requiring more thrusters to counter the increased difficulty.

wind bridge
#

Hey Tivec. Is your project sandboxy like Cosmoteer or more like FTL?

vapid arch
#

All this is very cool. It doesn’t run on my computer, but I’ve made peace with that being cursed. I’ve been living vicariously through the screenshots.

I prefer option 6 or maybe 2, because I feel like all the other options would make durability wonky and non-intuitive.

Feel free to ping me if you want art opinions.

knotty sky
knotty sky
knotty sky
#

Also, always appreciate feedback. Art is.. not something I am good at so if I can improve all the better lol

vapid arch
knotty sky
#

integrated will probably not run the game very well, but it should pick it up if you run it from console with the following parameters: --rendering-device opengl3, it should be more supported than vulkan. Do --rendering-device --help for a list of available on your device

#

one thing i am seeing that i have to find a solution to is that the compiled game stutters a bit the first time any effect is played. probably cache related, will have to figure that one out...

frozen flax
# knotty sky ```md 1. each hull piece is still free, but the further out it is the weaker it ...

I think (1.) is unneeded, since each hull piece consumes 1 energy.
(2.) sounds very interesting, but you’d need to be careful to make sure it’s not overly complex.
(3.) is an interesting idea that could help… might be a little triggering but that’s the fun of it + repairing doesn’t consume credits anymore.
(5.) is interesting, specifically the hull buster weapon, could make for an interesting boss fight.
(6.) could help as long as threat level is properly balanced.

knotty sky
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@frozen flax ah, but that's the thing. hull pieces no longer cost energy. i dropped that when i rebalanced the turret costs.

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that's why i'm in this conundrum now 🙂

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i'm definitely adding a hull buster weapon

frozen flax
knotty sky
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intel integrated is much worse lol

frozen flax
frozen flax
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(1.) will work to an extent… but you’ll still be able to spam. (1.) and (3.) sounds like a good combo.

knotty sky
frozen flax
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It’s interesting, but I don’t really like how it’ll change the complexity of the hull system. Also, I think it’d only slow hull spam

knotty sky
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not if the strong hull costs energy

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it basically makes every x hull cost

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i guess

frozen flax
frozen flax
knotty sky
vapid arch
knotty sky
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how's perf with that many coilers pew-pewing?

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next patch coilers are locked behind research

vapid arch
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Fairly okay as long as there are not a lot of enemies.

knotty sky
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right. i need to start looking at some of the performance prior to 0.4 release

vapid arch
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-Using up wrench points with shield gen / drone and then self-destructing the core seems to carry over that penalty to the new game

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And the one after that…

knotty sky
vapid arch
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Oh good.

knotty sky
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it only carries over if you go to the menu and then start a new 😛

vapid arch
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Yeah, game restart fixes it

vapid arch
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I assume this is also a known issue, but shield peeks through on map

image.png image.png
knotty sky
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yep, solved. also, if you use stalker mines, the mine launcher fires on the map 😛 in that particular build, the map was very rudimentary

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it's been refined with some proper state management 🙂

vapid arch
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nice

knotty sky
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my state management is rather overengineered, but i'm proud of it lol

frozen flax
knotty sky
frozen flax
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noo

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I liked the coiler

knotty sky
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Yeah but it’s too powerful

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Don’t worry though. The way it is now is the way it will be at fully upgraded

frozen flax
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Btw are you planning to make bigger turrets? (2x2, 3x3…)

knotty sky
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that isn't planned for early access but maybe for 1.0 release

knotty sky
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once again you're invited to give feedback that will directly influence the game 😄

I am thinking about having a screen like this after each sector you defeat.

The green box at the top is the free upgrade. You always get the stuff in the free tier. This can be energy, construction points, stuff like that.

The orange boxes are mandatory choices, you have to pick ONE of them. You can only pick one. It gives you both an upgrade and a malus, for instance stronger enemies.

Then depending on the choice you make on the mandatory, you get the option to buy a third optional card. This card may or may not be visible to the player until they have chosen the mandatory pick.

I'd love to hear your words on this, and if it feels like too complex and i should just stick to Free + Mandatory

image.png
vapid arch
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The turret specific upgrades are interesting. Is it always going to be a general upgrade vs specific block upgrade?
I’m not a fan of optional being purchased with Warpium because I don’t want to burn the metagame currency on short-term upgrades.

knotty sky
knotty sky
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Also, I am possibly adding a fourth level: Disadvantage. They do not cost you warpium to pick, but they do things that makes enemies stronger or even disable technology (or remove existing upgrades you have gotten so far in the run), while increasing the warpium you gain by percentages.

the idea is that a good player or someone with a decent set of tech already can try to earn some extra warpium (which will be a very important currency later on)

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i don't want to make the game into a card collection game, but there is potential for that here, heh 😄

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this might also be a layout

image.png
knotty sky
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it's been several days since my last commit to the repository. feels like i haven't done any work on the game. However, I've done heaps of thinking and planning. Even a little bit in Godot that isn't ready yet for a commit

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latest iteration has four choices. but i might present them differently, or more like slots

wind bridge
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Im generally horrible at stuff like this, but for some reason Ive been taking a regular dev journal (and when working at a job, a Job Journal) and find it both enlightening and helpful. So for thinking days, iterating through the random ass places my brain went along with conclusions. For meetings noting anything that is useful later (ie, to not have someone spin a meeting (or "misremember")) what was talked about and decided on

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Often 3 days of thought will feel like a week of lazy no-work, but when I look back, it was only 3 days

knotty sky
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yeah

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it's important to actually do take these no-work days

wind bridge
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Yeah, it can also be good to take true no-work days off for sure. I separate out, intense thought but no apparent output days, and just mind wandering doing other things, some thought, days.

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😉

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For the former its good to be able to go back and show a boss, "Hey, it appears I didnt do much, but I was figuring out how to proceed with the 1000 options that have presented themselves". (aside: Sometimes Im 'the boss' here, so its notes to myself)

knotty sky
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iteration

image.png
knotty sky
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so, to give an explanation of this. i'm thinking the player picks one of the given choice "cards" (not sure cards will be the thing but that's what i work with for now), it moves into the center dashed slot. this could be a card like "+10% damage on Coiler BUT Enemies deal 10% more damage".

The player then gets to spend warpium on Advantage cards. Those are 100% positive effects such as increased damage, temporary tech unlocks, etc.

Disadvantage cards will increase the warpium gain for a rather strong negative effect (+10% spawn rate, enemy shields 50% more effective, fire rate of all player weapons down by 10%).

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iteration

frozen flax
knotty sky
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Numbers are up for grabs and balance later

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I need to consider how this will play out but I’ll get some ideas down

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It’s a rather complex system that can become too much.

knotty sky
violet aurora
vapid arch
vapid arch
knotty sky
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Which is why the tail is there and the space is lacking

knotty sky
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i can also move everything up a small amount to give some more space between

knotty sky
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here's with the greek Z pronounced

image.png
knotty sky
knotty sky
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Took some time drawing a few new ships today

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Need a few beam fighters too

violet aurora
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sweet

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all of them could use some minor shading tho. Like just a 1-2 pixels width in outline in brighter or darker color

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at least on the larger ones

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now that i look at it, i guess the top 4 ones are fighters and all the other are larger ?

knotty sky
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also, in regards to the outline, it messes with the looks once you get the sprite in godot, it doesn't quite look good

violet aurora
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but yeah whatever, they gonna go boom after 3 seconds anyway

knotty sky
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indeed that too

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except the bigger ones might need some time with the upcoming changes 😉

violet aurora
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🙂

knotty sky
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some more smaller ones that will make the game more varied. some look quite funky though, will have to figure out how to make those look nice once I have them in game

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knotty sky
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Spent some time yesterday drawing, needed to get some of my creative spark going. These will all go in over time

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Next up for me is finalizing the first draft of upgrade cards. This is taking way longer than I expected because of ui work and the sheer size of the project. The implications for how the game plays is just huge

knotty sky
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just a warning for what you will see in future versions 😄

violet aurora
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Im Not sure I understand the need for so many special enemies if you can't manually target them..it makes sense to have an artillery or jammer unit say an RTS or TBS game but this is essentially an auto battler of sorts. If you can't prioritize certain targets, what's the point ? 🤔

knotty sky
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i want to add a "click to target" functionality

knotty sky
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okay, i'm back at doodling but this time for upgrades

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I am opting for a Dome Keeper upgrade style, but the player can choose the path if they wish

knotty sky
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example draft of an upgrade tree during the run

image.png
knotty sky
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Generated from resource file 🙂

knotty sky
knotty sky
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and it took me less than 10 minutes to set this second tree up. it doesn't actually apply any upgrades yet, i have to do that of course, but the next step now that i have some trees ready for testing is to put them in the game

knotty sky
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when you realize there is a circular dependency coming up...

knotty sky
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@gaunt sparrow i don't want to hijack your thread about my game, so i'll ping you here.

I originally planned on having these "you get X but enemy gets Y" cards in between my fights, as a "tough decisions" step you have to do, but it did not work out in my game. the whole random upgrades thing was feeling weird to me, so... i threw that out and went for a more traditional upgrade tree system instead.

sometimes your original vision isn't what the game turns out to be

gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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yeah, totally agree. i know a few people who're disappoitned by the lack of random upgrades in my game

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but they can make that as a patch later 😛

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i'm stuck in UI hell now though, so... oof

knotty sky
knotty sky
frozen flax
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Looks really good

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Polished is a word I’d use to describe it

knotty sky
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thank you, that's good to hear

knotty sky
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next up is to actually implement the trees

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then get capsule graphics done for the Steam page

knotty sky
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@gentle valve here’s where you can tag along for the ride 🙂

knotty sky
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i'm doing drag and drop work today 😄 prepping for hull and armor hit point increase from substrate upgrades (in battle upgrades)

knotty sky
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Well this is progress. Also spoiler on release date. It miiight not be ready for then 😉

gentle valve
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Hey @knotty sky, what do you think about adding a panel to give information for users about each "Pick Upgrade Path" item? Some users can just not know exactly how it will impact the gameplay just by the icon and the path title

knotty sky
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so many things lol

gentle valve
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That's nice

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Also, do you made it based on Among Us?

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The UI seems very similar, but Among Us has a rounded border

knotty sky
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i haven't actually played Among Us 😛

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this is probably the first time i see their UI

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theirs is also slightly tilted/shifted it seems

frozen flax
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Pretty sus

wise scroll
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this is cool

knotty sky
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Thank you. Game page on steam expected to go live this week. Without trailer because I haven’t had a chance recording it

knotty sky
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Added a full screen toggle to the game, as well as a "loading" screen for first run so that the shader cache is properly generated. However, this is going to need some more testing to see that it actually works out 🙂

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Used to have stutter issues with particle effects on builds when the cache wasn't generated, but I haven't so far been able to reproduce it

gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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Still waiting approval after some edits

gaunt sparrow
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still, what kind of high did you experience when everything finished uploading and the steam page was right there

knotty sky
gaunt sparrow
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lmao

knotty sky
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It’s also not live on steam yet. Soon though 😮

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Submitted changes yesterday so 2-3 days

gaunt sparrow
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is it gonna be free or like $1

knotty sky
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no, pricing is something I haven’t landed at yet.

gaunt sparrow
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based on the scope im probably going to do a demo and then $10 for full for mine, since i'm planning on a decent sized game

knotty sky
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Probably going to be closer to $5 to $8 for EA, and $10-13 for full release

gaunt sparrow
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depending on replayability and depth, you could probably do similar

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like your game is extremely polished compared to some of the stuff people are putting out, including me :V

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and it's an actual game

knotty sky
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You’re feeding my imposter syndrome lol

gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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Will watch later 🙂

knotty sky
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Steam store page is up! No trailer yet, but wishlists are appreciated 🙂 https://store.steampowered.com/app/2774410/Escape_from_Zeta_Aurigae/

Steam
Escape from Zeta Aurigae

You did your job like you were instructed. You terraformed the planet and prepared it for colonization. It's been a millennia since you left Earth, and you finally open the wormhole back to humankind, but instead of greeting you with joy, thousands of ships pour through the wormhole to destroy you.Build your ship defenses and fight your way thro...

Release Date

2024

vapid arch
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Nice!

violet aurora
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Who is kingcoyote gdclap

knotty sky
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i'm working on some indicator to show how overloaded the thrusters are. green tones mean "not overloaded, good acceleration", while the red is "you're overstressing", and the bottom is "no acceleration".

knotty sky
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i think this can work as a placeholder. mouseover will show why you are where you are

knotty sky
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total thrust and mass is not yet implemented 😛 nor is the calculation there yet

knotty sky
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got calculation going finally. been out of order for a few days due to illness

knotty sky
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and working on making the upgrades visible. note: these are dynamically generated from thee modifiers on the battle trees. just have to, you know, hook it up

knotty sky
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what do i do with the open space in the area below the tree? some trees can grow to be a bit taller though, so need to be careful about that

knotty sky
knotty sky
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shaping up to become a real game now. i even have one out of nine upgrade paths down. one per day?

knotty sky
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planning the swarm...

image.png
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i think i need to build some graphs from the actual data in the game

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but for now, this helps me plan the way enemies spawn over the course of the game 🙂

knotty sky
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added a visual alert that waves are spawning. also think i need one for when i am not accelerating, heh... but for now this will do

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also, the threat indicator is going away. it's just for debug, really

knotty sky
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this one's not done yet, it will get a terribly high amount of hitpoints though, it's a little turtle

knotty sky
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tentative release date into early access

I have locked down a date for when I expect to have a playable game that can enter into actual play testing. Save the date and wishlist the game if you haven’t, it’s targeted for March 21!

knotty sky
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phew, steaming along and getting more testing in by myself. i'm 1/3rd of the way on the weapon upgrades, hoping to have two or three more trees done today. If I can get a demo build ready soon, maybe I can get it in the hands of some testers

frozen flax
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🔥

knotty sky
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march 21 is looking unlikely, there are just so many little things left... but, one thing at a time, probably shooting for 28

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it all depends on the closed test coming up.

knotty sky
knotty sky
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Also, it is a very rough and basic trailer. This will be improved, already got some really good points of feedback

knotty sky
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been doing some serious performance work and believe it or not, raching 30fps with this amount of enemies and bullets is actually pretty good based on where i came from

knotty sky
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we're approaching a stable-ish build now i think. most bigger bugs are shaken out, performance is much better

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i've also managed to figure out how to do uploads to steam in a rather quick and clean way, so things are definitely progressing

frozen flax
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Once you add in bigger ships it’ll look really cool

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That video gives me an inkling about that

knotty sky
frozen flax
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No bigger enemy ships

knotty sky
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Later 😉

frozen flax
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Also I had an idea for the starting sequence, you could have the player escape with other similar ships and then enemy ships could destroy it

knotty sky
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Mmm I have some ideas for the narrative

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But narrative and tutorials is in another castle lol

knotty sky
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Ok. Mini tutorial in game ya

knotty sky
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bit more fancification of the map, giving some indication what the player is supposed to do

modern shard
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Oi, sorry for the force-ping

knotty sky
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Swarm is the enemy. It doesn’t have full effect yet but there will be scaling on how fast enemy waves will spawn

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Still working on that. Heh

modern shard
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Oh, so the enemy is haunting you?

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Kind of

knotty sky
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They’re chasing you yes

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That’s the whole story.

modern shard
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Good, thanks!

knotty sky
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I’m adding the narrative in more detail later. Not the focus for early access.

knotty sky
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Testers Wanted

As I am approaching early access, I am looking for a few people who can run a dedicated test of the game. The test will be of the Steam version, Windows only at the moment.

Requirements for the test

  • Since this is a QA and general feel test, testers must be willing to make serious attempts to finish at least one full run of the game. One run of the game takes approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on strategy.
  • Testers must either write a battle report with details of how they experienced the game, or record themselves playing it. This can be an unlisted video on YouTube for instance.
  • I am specifically looking at user experience for this test, but balance is also something that I am looking at (too easy, too hard, is a given weapon overpowered?)
  • After each successful or unsuccessful run, the tester must also send in the log file from the game.

Let me know if you're up for this, and I can send you the steam key in a direct message.

violet aurora
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Im up.

knotty sky
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thank you! I will send you a key later today when I have a build up - the current build had a few issues I want to address first

violet aurora
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thats fine. In all likelyhood you will have to fix the test build a bunch of times anyway 😉

knotty sky
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yes indeed, but these issues i know about 😄

knotty sky
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Build is up, key sent. Any more takers?

modern shard
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I'd like to

knotty sky
knotty sky
violet aurora
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That's good, very slick

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Btw I thought about the build menu and fast keys. But I haven't found a way to improve it as more options get unlocked.
For example right now I tap 2 to bring up kinetic weapons. When. I tap 3, and there is not 3 choices available, I would want the UI to recognize I want to open main option 3 (Energy) instead. This would make sense vit it breaks as soon as you unlock more options within the categories. Ideally I don't want to have you use the mouse to navigate the build menu at all but instead use the mouse only to place (efficiency)

knotty sky
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but what if i replace the build menu completely with this radial menu, and once you have selected a building you're in construction mode until you right click

violet aurora
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Maybe wait for more feedback. I playing RTS somewhat competitively so I'm biased in terms of "less time spend moving the mouse around". Also if the game is a less stressful I might also enjoy using the "slow" mouse more.

knotty sky
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yeah

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i'm not replacing it now, it's an experiment for a quick bar of sorts.

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but i want more info near the mouse

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I also need to find a way to get enemy health info to the player so you don’t have to select them all the time

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Maybe if I build a gradient on an overlay sprite or something. Not sure but I have some ideas

frozen flax
knotty sky
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Sure! I’ll get you a key in an hour or two

vapid arch
knotty sky
lusty mauve
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E

knotty sky
lusty mauve
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Idk

vapid arch
knotty sky
# 
## Changelog for version 0.4.0-beta.1+111 [01.04.2024]

* Features
    * Many turrets now have configuration options!
        * Right click and drag to change their facing
        * Drag toward distance circles to increase range (at the cost of cone width)
    * All ships have revamped behaviors
        * There is now some variation to how ships behave
        * You will need to protect more parts of your ship
        * This is a big change behind the scenes and might have bugs not yet found
    * New enemy: Talon
        * Rapid attack craft with twin beam weapons
        * Weak armor and hull.
        * Can show up early, but more common in high danger sectors

* Balance Changes
    * Blitz turret energy cost changed to 3 (up from 2)
    * Harasser enemy weapon damage and firing rate reduced
    * Strafer firing rate reduced
    * Slowed down construction point recovery speed slightly

* Fixes
    * UI layers should now not get stuck visible after winning the game
    * Construction ghost is now removed if warp is started
    * Visited sectors no longer give warpium or substrate rewards on exit
    * Turrets failed to lead their shots at enemies unless they were inside cone

* UI changes
    * Warp bar now only shows time to warp
    * More help screen text added to explain certain functionality
    * Buttons on the new game screen given hover effects to make them stand out a bit
    * Typos and wording fixed on new game help screen
    * Color changes and style changes here and there
    * Added pause indicator
native prawn
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Woah

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Lots of changes

knotty sky
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now live on steam

knotty sky
vapid arch
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Thanks! Will take a look at it and get back to you.

knotty sky
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appreciate it 🙂 make sure you are on +111

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update should have pushed now though

ancient oar
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How on earth do you find the time to keep working on this project? I swear I get time to work on my stuff like once a week and usually it’s only for a couple hours

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It’s rlly impressive! The game looks amazing

knotty sky
knotty sky
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also, i have hypomanic episodes sooooooo tend to work very efficiently through those

ancient oar
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Perhaps I’ll have to dedicate more time too. Congratz on the game, and goodluck to you 🎉

knotty sky
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Thank you. Games expected on steam in early access end of month

gaunt sparrow
knotty sky
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Due to reasons I might not make that. Life is throwing curve balls right now but playing my best dodgeball

gaunt sparrow
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fair it happens, do you prefer prayers or good vibes

knotty sky
gaunt sparrow
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oof, i'll send what i can then

knotty sky
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added a kill overlay to the alt overlays, so players can see where they are killing stuff.

image.png
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it's currently using draw, so i need to optimize this for later. it clears on each warp

native prawn
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Because I love the simplicity and ease of draw

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But sometimes it tanks the performance when overused

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In my space game I have a couple 100 draw functions running at once to draw circles (planets, atmospheres, asteroids) and it seems to be okay

knotty sky
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the problem with draw is that the sheer number of calls

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looking at the overlay above, that's like a few hundred. but if you only draw once, it's usually safe

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since it remembers even if hidden

knotty sky
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in the midst of all chaos i'm going through in life, i'm getting quite far on the first mini boss out of many. there is a lot of manual work on those since i want each to feel different and behave differently

native prawn
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Wow impressive

native prawn
knotty sky
native prawn
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Ah I see

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That explains why my game was running at 2 FPS :)

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I was trying to draw thousands of dots and queuing a redraw every frame 🙃

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Ended up grabbing a shader instead

knotty sky
knotty sky
inner hollow
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Is this similar to Cosmotear (forgive my spelling, or well lack there of) and/or FTL?

knotty sky
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FTL is more focused on crew management and events, but this is a lighter theme of just destroying anything coming in 😛

knotty sky
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destruction effect on the miniboss enemy, and i'm seeing some weirdness with how my turrets aim actually