Hello dear Commanders !

Our joint effort to improve the game is starting to give some promising results ! We thank all our testing community and we want to you all to know how helpful your feedback was.

Thanks to it, we did several major modifications in the core gameplay, but as well in the UI/UX system. 

Let us dive into it ...

GAME MECHANICS

Evolutive Spawn Zone

The original design of the game was a lot focused into gaining ground and using it against your oponent. Until then, we unfortunately couldn't find an apropriate system to highlight this feature.

We came with a simple but efficient design, that each ship class has a spawn area usable by the next wave's ships. This approach forces the players to disperse and disrupt ennemy placement.

Moreover, we believe this adds more impact in the ship class (Destroyer, Frigates, Cruisers, Battleships) which was so far only showing up more guns than others.

Replace Ships

The tactical advantage of a clever placing had to be counterbalanced by another mechanic : Replace ships.

You now can win Replace points in the new bonus system, these points are used to replace ships of the current or previous waves. For the moment, we consider 1 point by ship whatever it's class or model, but we are awaiting your feedback on that !

Bonus Rework

You all welcomed the Bonus system with a lot of enthousiasm, and a lot of feedback was on this system, to make it more intricated into the core loop. So we decided to add more feature to elevate it more into a long term Fleet customizing choice.

Bonus Combo

First of all, a bonus is now a combination of 3, with different level of reward. The first bonus will have a higher value than the second or the third.

This approach make it more interesting in the choice, and adds a real complexity to how you want to make your fleet evolve.

Permanent Bonus

In order to add more weight to the previous topic, we successfully tested long term Bonuses. From now on, a Fleet bonus will be permanent troughout the whole game, engaging you in your choices and your fleet composition.

Credits, Replace Points and Deck Points

A last addition to the bonus system is the adding of new type of bonus. Until now, only Fleet Bonuses were available to boost your fleet characteristics. We added 3 new types of Bonus :

• Credit Bonus : a certain amount of credits usable for the next wave.
• Replace point Bonus : Replace points for the replacing ship system discussed above.
• Deck Points Bonus : Yes ... you can now win Deck points ! (with a very small chance compared to other Bonus types but still...)

Targeting System

As a core feature, the interaction between the ships is a primordial aspect to us. As the new ships were developped, we realized that each ship is unique in its behaviour and should be more highlighted in game. As a result, we designed a system of targeting specific to each ship.

AI

Since the game is only singleplayer for the moment (Spoiler), it is very important to us to deliver an AI that could represent a human player. So we worked on 2 different aspects of our AI.

Deck Evolution

The first aspect is focused on how AI would unlock ships and upgrades according to what has been played previously by the player. Basically, the AI records the ships unlocked (placed in game), makes a ponderation to find out which is the most used by the player and tries to fit the corresponding Nemesis. 

Ship selection and placing

The second aspect is how the AI will choose the right ships in its deck and place them against yours. 

We hope you will react positively on this new feature, and help us to improve it to make it really badass to kick !

BALANCE & SHIP

Of course, the balancing of the diffferent values of the game has been one of our main focus (and will remain a major focus point), as a result, many changes have occured...

Credits per wave Revisited

In order to maintain a relatively constant number of ships in game, we had to adjust and test again new credit configurations. In order to have a better planning, the credits per wave are now static per Power Rank level.

This choice has been elaborated with the new bonus system we discussed above to bring a maximum impact in game.

Deck System Rework

Many players expressed the wish to be more free in their Fleet customization, from the earliest stage of the battle. So we removed the Power Rank limitation to leave only the cost in Deck Point as a constraint.

We really hope you will enjoy this new configuration, because we do love it !

Ship Re-Balancing

Many ships have been rebalanced, and the quantity of changes is so that we will talk about it more in detail in a dedicated post (Stay tunned ;)

UI/UX

Well, maybe one of the most important part of any game, the UI and UX has been (and will continue to do so) modified, adapted to ensure the player has a better access to the different features of the game.

We did ad a small campaign for the new players to get into the game easily. By the way, if you think that campaign mode is for you, don't hesitate to feed your expectations about it.

Remember, the more feedback we have, the more we will push in these directions ...

SYSTEM AND PLAYER PROFILE

In order to do a first introduction to the player profile and our vision for the future in terms of Player Deck customizing, we implemented a player profile. It is in a very drafty mode right now, but be assured that our intentions are to bring it forward in the close future.

THE ROADMAP

Now, let's see what's in store for the future ...

Improved AI

We think that our current AI can be perfected, in its existing behaviours, but as well in new ones, like long term recording of a player playstyle, or in the bonus choice (which for the moment is purely random).

3D Shipyard

The dream of any Fleet commander, a beautiful shipyard in 3D, with more detail on each ship.

Obstacles

To add up to the new Spawn Zone system, we believe it could add a very rich gameplay option (as well as bringing a more beautiful environment). We are thinking of Asteroid fields, shipwrecks, ... (if you have any suggestion, we are all ears !)

New Ships

Of course, we think of new ships that we would really like to enter the game, but we will discuss it in another post (Stay tunned ;)

Improved UI and FX

One of our core concern is to deliver an optimal ergonomy to you all, so an important part of our time will be dedicated to that purpose.

Steam Early Access

We believe that our transfer on Steam will help us to reach a wider audience, and a better monetization platform. Additionally, this step will be required when we will engage the next big step ...

PVP

... Which is PVP !

We believe in this aspect since the beginning of this project, but now we start to realize how important it becomes. But to achieve such a goal, we need to have even more support from our community to take this decision because this represents a major risk and energy consuming project. 

If you agree with our vision, Please write ' PVP ' in the comments :)

Thank you all for being so active and supportive, see you in orbit !