Hello!
If you are watched development process for a long time you are know that despite the game already 3 years in development, we are still ready to make big and fundamental improvements if it will be necessary for the quality of the game. This happened with 3D graphics and some another core features. And now we are going to make another big change in the gameplay. Some time ago we started to feel that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Celestial Command. And after we analyzed several another space games, we realized a simple fact: Almost every space game have any kind of "global map" or "galaxy map" and possibility to travel from one system to another! (Actually we didn't found any successful, space game without this feature) And this is something which also should be in Celestial Command.

Importance of galaxy map for a space game is completely reasonable

Any open world game should have something which may be called "diversity of environment". For example, if we are talking about not a space game, for example a game about character / car / sail ship / plane etc. - such game may have only single location ("jump gates" is not required) because diversity of environment created by different biomes and landscape (snow, grasslands, mountains, oceans, desert etc.). As result, you may travel between different locations and it will be fun to explore the world. But if we are talking about space game, there is no landscape in the space, because space, you know, quite empty. Diversity of environment should be created by different types of stars, planets, nebula, backgrounds, black holes. Such things can't be put into single planetary system (because one planetary system may have only one background and a star). The single planetary system in space game will feels empty despite its actual size. This is why galaxy map is required and it is essential aspect of most space games.

So, we are going to implement a galaxy map!

On the image in this post you may see a prototype of galaxy map which contains 200 stars. How it will work? There will be galaxy map to travel between stars and also "system map" to travel between star, planets, moons and some locations in asteroid field or deep space. In exchange, size of location will be reduced and each location will have only 1 central object (planet moon star). However, size of planets will be increased in several times. Movement between planets will be possible only using warp drives and jump gates. Despite the fact that size of location will be reduced, entire game world will feels much larger due the possibility to jump between systems. New types of stars will be added. Including binary stars and blackholes. Plus, a lot of new backgrounds will be added. Each planetary system may have its own background, which will significantly increase a visual diversity.

What about orbital mechanics?

Don't worry, it still will be here. Asteroids, debris, space stations and ships will be on orbit of central object (star, planet, moon). By the way. Moons will be added. However you will not be able to travel between planets using only engines and orbital maneuver. It will be possible only using jump drive or jump gate. Someone can be upset about this fact, but make note that currently "interplanetary maneuver" looks very weird due tiny size of the system and do not bring too much fun for the gameplay. So we think that it is acceptable price for a possibility to explore the galaxy. The most fun part of orbital mechanics in CC, it is an objects around planets and this aspect will be intact (or even better) because planets will be a bit bigger. Besides that, it will allows us to fix some critical bugs with physics and improve overall performance. Also it will be possible to rotate planets and moons around their central object. As result, price of jump between planets may depends on distance between them. By the way, we are also started to working on implementation of tech tree and more advanced AI which is also two essential features which should be in the Celestial Command, but firstly we will implement a galaxy map. We will try to implement this new feature as soon as possible, it should take not too much time. We will keep you informed. And Happy New Year!

[ 2017-12-31 22:35:16 CET ] [ Original post ]