Greetings Star Commanders! We are full steam ahead (excuse the pun) on Alpha 9 and wanted to reach out and update you on our status and what we are working on.
So far we have added quite a few new and fun things. First we have made lots of different ships for you to choose when you start the game, each with their own strengths and weakenesses. We will continue to add new equipment into the game that will make these differences more profound and allow you to really customize your own ship The next thing we have done is reworked our mouse cursor interface. We have had a lot of complaints about things not feel quite "solid" and a little bit muddy. We have added outlines and much more feedback for each item that you can interact with and things should feel much more solid.
We are also reworking our entire mission system from the ground up. We have added what we call "encounters" - these are ships and other surprises that appear on empty nodes. These mini adventures can range from strange dereliect vessels, ships in need of repairs and ships that have contracted a disease for you to cure with your doctors. And speaking of disease - we have contracted a bunch! Crew can now get sick with Midorian Mumps, get a case of space flu or watch that zombie bite slowly grow and not have any idea what the outcome will be. Your doctors will have the ability to cure these diseases with some diseases requiring higher crew levels to treat. We also have added crew missions. These are small missions you can complete in order to earn more loyalty with your crew. Each crew member will want things around the galaxy based on their race, class and personality type. Got an Antorian cadet? He's probably gonna want an Antorian bed.
We have also added in new cargo bays for each ship that spawn the correct cargo so that you don't always know what is going to be on each ship you run into based on the template. Scanners have also been added and will reveal fog of war of other ships, allowing you to plan your strategies accordingly.
The other big thing we are focused on is the AI of your crew, civilians, shop owners and enemies. We are completely overhauling our system and here is why:
This is our current AI and, as you can see, it's a bit of a mess. This is the product of a lot of ideas that were abandoned, things that didn't work as originally concieved and over-engineering simple things like crew desires. The bottom line is our current AI is totally unmanageable - and we are fixing it. This will be the biggest delay as to releasing Alpha 9. It's one of those features that just takes as long as it takes and really can't be done half way. We anticpate having everything ready to go around mid-April and there should be a ton of new stuff for you to try out with your crew on your adventures across the galaxy! Can't wait to show more! Cheers, Warballoon