This update modernizes all menus and UI-elements within them (buttons, text-boxes, drop-downs, etc.). The UI in Astrokill has largely remained unchanged for years, since gameplay has received the most attention. Previously, the UI was mostly implemented in Blueprints. I've nativized the UI (converted to C++) and added the ability to customize colors globally. Now, when you choose a different color-theme, the entire UI changes colors to match the in-game HUD!

HUD

• Minimap now has double-lined border and a transparent inner region
• Reduced saturation of blue-tinted cockpit/HUD-elements
• Reverse "x" icon is now a "friendly" color instead of red

UI

• Modernized menus by "ironing out" buttons and other widgets
• Increased transparency on all UI-elements to improved readability
• Buttons now support 3 different behaviors internally (normal, toggle, or slider)
• Redesigned sliders to be more readable and easier to click-and-drag
• Nativized key-selectors (found in controls-menu)
• Nativized text-fields (found in joystick-menu)
• Colors on drop-downs now match rest of UI (previously white and difficult to read)
• FPS-display in graphics-menu now fades to red when low and always shows 1 fractional digit
• Renamed color-themes to Classic, Fabulous, and Mono

Audio

• Reduced default music-volume by ~30%
• Added UI-sounds for combo-box-selections, slider-releases, and text-field-commits

Core

• Changed capture-mode to 'Capture Permanently Including Initial Mouse Down'
• Changed lock-mode to 'Lock on Capture'
• Mouse is now always captured on launch (bCaptureMouseOnLaunch in DefaultInput.ini)
• Eliminated the need for several UI-related interfaces to reduce architectural complexity
• UI-elements now leverage delegates (instead of interfaces) to share information related to theme-changes, press-events, key-down events, etc.
• Upgraded font-assets to eliminate all font-related warnings from build

Controls

• Mouse-cursor can now click via the Space Bar (allows one-handed operation from the keyboard)

Bugs

• Fixed issue with default camera-perspective not being saved if selected from main-menu

[ 2022-05-15 03:36:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update brings ASTROKILL into the modern age with the latest UE4 version (upgraded 4 versions from 4.23 to 4.27). An upgrade to UE5 will happen in the next major update! In the meantime, this update leverages the latest atmospheric lighting features from UE4 to add planetary atmospheres and improved stellar (literally) effects. I've replaced all asteroids and fragments in the game with higher resolution geometry and textures suitable for 4k gaming rigs. There's also a new heavy fighter that's playable in the Snare level. This fighter comes equipped with 3 turrets of a new variety. It has more of a Star Wars-y visual style compared to the other fighters. More fighters and frigates matching this style are coming (unless it's not well received). The next update will take full advantage of the Chaos physics system, Lumen, and Nanite in UE5. With Nanite, I'll be able to eliminate most LODs. And, with Chaos, dynamic destruction of asteroids and ships will finally be possible. That means you'll be able to turn ships into a hundred bits of hot metal or carve out holes in asteroids with continuous gunfire. Cool stuff. Anyways, happy Easter!

Environments

• Nearby stars are now rendered using Unreal's atmospheric lighting system
• Added planetary atmospheres to nearby planets and moons (realistic, dynamic atmospheric lighting not seen before in AK)
• Planets now have more spherical geometry (higher resolution)
• Performed a lighting pass on all levels resulting in a generally brighter environment more suitable for space
• Replaced all asteroids and fragments with higher resolution geometry and textures
• Color-balanced all skyboxes to achieve a more space-y look (blacks are black and whites are white)

Gameplay

• Added a new Beltor fighter (called the Goliath) that comes equipped with 3 new turrets
• Created a new double-barreled, fighter-mounted turret (internally named the Weasel)
• Changed the playable fighter in the Snare level to the Goliath
• Adjusted the placement of static asteroids in all levels

Graphics & UI

• Brightened and adjusted HUD-colors to appear more emissive
• Shading-quality can now be adjusted from the graphics-menu
• Added a thin circle to the center of the reticle to assist with aiming
• Prograde and retrograde reticles are now smaller and no longer look like targeting reticles
• Reticles and billboards will now blend additively when they overlap and no longer fade in/out
• Missile-reticles are now thinner and smaller
• Motion-blur is now auto-disabled when the in-game menu is shown (prevents menu from smearing)

Controls

• Created a special actor to visually preview and debug joystick-mappings - features a crosshair mapped to pitch/yaw (should be centered in the circle), a 'thrust' bar mapped to forward/backward movement, a 'strafe' bar mapped to left/right movement, a 'lift' bar mapped to up/down movement, and finally a 'roll' bar mapped to the roll-axis
• Reduced adjustable deadzone-range to an overly large deadzone

Core

• Upgraded the Unreal engine from 4.23 to 4.27 (4 versions!)
• Reduced size of Windows build from 2.6GB to 1.8GB (almost a gig smaller for both Windows and Linux builds)
• Global post-processing is now easier to adjust on a per-level basis
• Cockpits are now auto-spawned without needing to be manually placed
• Improved and expanded upon the random-number library
• Eliminated many unnecessary BP-interfaces

[ 2022-04-18 22:49:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update improves reticle-recognition and fixes a long-standing issue with Steam stats and achievements not being updated properly. In addition to various stats, like kills and deaths, I'm now recording spawns as well. With regards to reticles, a solid line is now drawn from the target to the leading reticle. I've thickened the outline and scaled down most reticles to make aiming more intuitive and reduce visual clutter. The next update will have an upgraded engine and a live preview in the joystick-menu to make calibration much easier.

UI

• Added a solid line drawn from target to leading reticle
• Doubled line-thickness on most reticles
• Leading reticle is now smaller and bolder (makes aiming more accurate)
• Re-animated leading reticle to make visually distinguishing it easier
• Fixed a scaling-issue causing reticles to be oversized when camera is zoomed in
• Fixed an issue with reticles not facing the camera exactly when near edge of screen
• Reduced size of missile-reticles and narrowed visibility-range

Progression

• Fixed an issue causing stats to not update on Steam, thereby making most achievements impossible
• Added a '9 Lives' achievement that is earned after spawning 9 times
• Added Steam-stat to record number of spawns

Audio

• Added a slider to control dialog-volume
• Fixed an issue causing some door-sounds to continue playing after ship was destroyed

Core

• Added support for additional teams (previously only OBA and DOM were allowed)
• Alliances between teams can now be changed on the fly from the level-script (OBA and DOM are hostile by default)
• Added option to scale billboards along the YZ plane only (makes the solid 'line' to the leading reticle possible)
• Billboards and reticles (which are billboards) are now fully implemented in C++

[ 2022-01-27 04:17:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

This update marks a fundamental shift in how the game works under the hood. There are a slew of improvements that increase performance, improve joystick & controller support, optimize HUD space, and future-proof the game. Besides a beefed up architecture, the HUD has been redesigned to improve the 3rd person experience and minimize on-screen clutter. I did a visual polish on all the environments to depict a harsher, brighter atmosphere. A new fixed turret-system is now present in several missions. I'm very happy with the visual style of this new asset and want it to carry over into a new, playable faction.

HUD

• Thinned out many reticles and gauges to reduce visual clutter & obstructions
• Rearranged gauges so that no gauge is obscured in 3rd person
• Implemented an animated leading crosshair to emphasize the location to aim at
• Added a flashing dot that is placed on the origin of the selected target
• Fixed the orientation of holograms displayed for the selected target
• Fixed an issue with target-reticles becoming gimbal-locked

Graphics

• Increased the brightness of star-light in all levels to better match a real space-environment
• Added a post-processing effect to over-expose highlights
• Optimized how skyboxes are drawn
• Fixed an issue with tracers being far too oversized at long distances
• Modeled and textured the new Phalanx turret-system
• Overhauled the "3D asset studio" accessible from the Graphics menu (assets are now only loaded one at a time and camera-controls are more intuitive)

Gameplay

• Replaced many static turrets with a new "Phalanx" turret that is mounted on a floating platform (older turrets were mounted on broken debris)
• Moved the 3rd person camera back significantly on all fighters to reduce the screen space taken by the player's ship
• Reduced the difficulty of some particularly hard levels
• Overhauled the objective-system to make level-scripting much more streamlined

Joysticks

• Overhauled the entire system that feeds joystick-input to the player's ship
• Mapping-presets are now read-only, while the "custom" mapping is always writable
• Replaced the "bypass" option with a "none" option in the mapping-dropdown
• Added a mapping for the Thrustermaster Airbus Sidestick
• Fixed an issue with some fields not being writable
• Offsets are now zero in most cases and multipliers are usually 1 or -1 (inverted)

IO

• Added a mouse-sensitivity slider to control the speed of the menu-cursor without affecting gameplay
• Wrote a new axis-input system to manage simultaneous input from multiple controllers (may have PTSD from this one)
• Eliminated a slight lag from all controllers (keyboard, mice, joysticks, gamepads)
• Rewrote/simplified internal timers responsible for mouse-movement and processing input in general (game should "feel" the same even at 500 fps!)
• Tested VR with the Oculus Rift S (rather glorious)
• Tested the Logitech F310 gamepad and the Thrustmaster Hotas X joystick

Core

• Upgraded to UE4.22 (still behind, but I can get it caught up to 4.27 quickly)
• Replaced many, many Blueprints with C++
• Faster overall load-times (both running the game and opening levels)
• Internal objects are now initialized in the correct order and destroyed when no longer needed
• Level-bounds can now be defined as any combination of spheres, boxes, and cylinders
• Added support for altering level-bounds as gameplay-conditions change
• Added support for prohibited zones within valid level-bounds (a restricted area)

UI

• Menus are now placed in front of the camera in a much more reliable & accurate way
• Improved accuracy of cursor-alignment with buttons & dropdowns

[ 2022-01-05 06:06:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

General

- Ultrawide resolutions are now supported - Numerous display-issues have been fixed (vsync, windowed mode, etc.) - Gamepad support is greatly improved - Upgraded to UE 4.21.2 (from 4.21.1)

Graphics

- All graphics-settings are now saved using UE4's game-user-settings - Anti-aliasing is now off by default (on first-run) - Anti-aliasing setting is now saved properly between runs - Graphics-settings are no longer applied when opening the graphics-menu - Most scalability-settings (low, medium, high, epic) now use engine-defaults (cleaned up years of clutter in DefaultScalability.ini)

UI

- Menus now auto-adjust to ultrawide resolutions - Cursor is now activated and centered when menus are opened - "Apply Display Settings" button is now larger and grayed out when not display-settings match current settings - Moved resolution-scale slider under Display in the Graphics-menu

Display

- Vertical sync now works appropriately (framerate no longer smoothed) - Framerates are now uncapped when vertical sync is off (can result in >500 fps in some cases) - Fixed issue with game not starting in windowed mode - Resolution, v-sync, windowed mode, and resolution-scale are now applied only when the "Apply Display Settings" button is pressed

Core

- Cursor, ship-controls, and spectator-cameras no longer slow down when the fps increases - Created a new flight-control-input system that applies input more efficiently and compensates for large fps fluctuations, including exceedingly high fps

Controls

- Gamepad-sticks are now mapped using the axis instead of the stick-state - Removed all hard-coded gamepad-mappings to allow full customization - Removed "left-handed roll" option from Controls menu (no longer applicable) - Modifier keys can no longer be mapped with gamepad-buttons - Gamepad now works correctly in the 3D-asset-studio - Inverted controls now work correctly in the 3D-asset-studio

Gameplay

- Gunships now rotate slightly slower

VR

- FOV-readout on HUD no longer changes when FOV-changes are attempted (FOV is fixed in VR) - HMD is no longer locked to the camera in the 3D-asset-studio

Bugs

- Fixed lockup that occurred when lowering effects-quality to low or medium - Fixed issue with yaw and roll-input not adjusting with camera-zoom - Fixed issue with yaw-input being less sensitive in 1st-person - Fine movement (SHIFT key) works again (applicable to spectators) - Player-input is now correctly disabled when menus are open in the 3D-asset-studio

[ 2019-03-03 06:37:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

General

- Upgraded to Unreal 4.21.1 - Redesigned entire HUD with customizable colors - Replaced all existing asteroids and debris with new meshes and textures (more varied and realistic) - Mission load-times reduced significantly - Added color-themes that affect the entire HUD and some menus - 4K displays are now properly supported (HUD-resolution scales up/down accordingly) - Desktop resolution is now used by default on first startup

Gameplay

- Created a new objective-system that displays major and minor objectives (and their progress) on the HUD - Relative movement is now shown in the center of the HUD with a colorized moving reticle - Added several more objectives to each mission - Rebalanced all missions and updated difficulty levels - Damaged frigates now display accurate hull-damage - Players are now warned as they near the edge of the playable area - Health-icons are now shown near hangar-bays - Squad-members now arrange in a dynamically adjusted formation behind the squad-leader - Increased squad-member spacing to greatly reduce the chance of ship-collisions

HUD

- Redesigned entire HUD for a more realistic look and greater practicality - Reticles now fade and change size to reduce on-screen clutter - Dotted lines are now drawn to leading reticles - Reticles are now shown for missiles and mines - Created a new radar-ball that shows the relative location of targets more clearly (can be zoomed in/out via CTRL+mouse wheel) - Reticles are now rendered using the custom depth buffer - Replaced existing 2D-billboards with a new 3D-billboard system (works better with VR) - Radio-icons are now colorized based on friendly/hostile origin - Opponents of different types are now displayed with different reticle-shapes - Created a new instrument-system that allows for each instrument to operate independently (significantly increases overall cockpit performance) - On-screen status messages are now more user-friendly (cryptic opponent codes no longer used) - Distance and relative motion to target are now displayed on the target-panel in a single readout

Graphics

- Tracers are now rendered using a new technique that takes into account both absolute and relative movement (much more realistic appearance) - Projectile-impact flashes and light-beacons are now rendered using a sphere instead of a 2D-billboard (improves impact visibility) - Lasers are now rendered using a 3D-mesh instead of a particle-system

Scenery

- Rearranged asteroids and debris in all missions (very tedious) - Created a new debris-system that allows for larger moveable fragments and raining debris (seen in some missions like Firefight) - Created icy asteroids and debris for "cold" levels - Created destructible, glowing embers for "fiery" levels

UI

- Added live scenery behind main-menu (dropships and fighters attack each other) - Cursor is now controllable in VR and non-VR modes by all controllers - Hardware cursor is no longer used (blue/flashy cursor now used in all modes) - Stats in various menus are now colorized to indicate "good" or "bad" numbers - Stylized AK and Doomsday logos - Mission-buttons are now disabled on locked missions (lock-icons are no longer shown) - Last played mission (or next campaign mission) is now displayed by default in the Missions menu - Updated all mission splashes and descriptions

AI

- AI is now capable of targeting frigates (if they have any weapons that can damage them) - AI now detect missiles and mines (and share the information to teammates)

Input

- Modifier keys can now be used when creating key-mappings (ctrl, alt, shift, etc.)

Audio

- Increased radius of debris-explosion sounds - Master volume is now limited to a minimum of 5% - Added new "super laser" muzzle-sound (more intimidating)

Bugs

- Fixed issue with game-over menu not displaying in rare cases (spectator-camera would become misaligned if target was destroyed) - Current resolution is now correctly shown in the Graphics menu - Fixed null-spawn warning that occurred when missiles were fired - Fixed some preset resolution-strings with incorrect characters - Eliminated invalid-object-type warning - Fixed issue with laser-beams becoming misaligned with ship

[ 2019-02-20 01:08:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Visuals

- Re-textured Holliman frigate and turrets (as seen in Snare mission) - Re-modeled lateral thrusters on Holliman engine (increased detail)

VR

- Added resolution-selection to VR-menu (sets proper resolution-scale for selected headset)

UI

- Increased resolution-scale range to 140% in graphics-menu - Resolution-scale slider no longer updates while sliding (only after sliding) - Restart-button is now selectable after beating a campaign-mission - Updated Snare mission splash-image

Steam

- Added a "Colonizer" achievement for beating the Colonists mission - Added a "Firefighter" achievement for beating the Firefight mission

[ 2018-02-27 22:19:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Visuals

- Re-textured Holliman frigate and turrets (as seen in Snare mission) - Re-modeled lateral thrusters on Holliman engine (increased detail)

VR

- Added resolution-selection to VR-menu (sets proper resolution-scale for selected headset)

UI

- Increased resolution-scale range to 140% in graphics-menu - Resolution-scale slider no longer updates while sliding (only after sliding) - Restart-button is now selectable after beating a campaign-mission - Updated Snare mission splash-image

Steam

- Added a "Colonizer" achievement for beating the Colonists mission - Added a "Firefighter" achievement for beating the Firefight mission

[ 2018-02-27 22:19:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added a new fighter variant (Sabre Quad) - Added a unique Sabre Medic skin (as shown below) - Decreased all level load-times and initial game load-time - Fundamentally changed VR support to improve playability and decrease motion sickness

Visuals

- Created a new Sabre model with 4 machine guns - Added "cinematic" quality to all quality-options - Added "low" option to shadow-qualities - Texture-quality now defaults to cinematic - Framerate now maxes out at 90 to reduce issues with excessively high framerates

Core

- Now using PAK files instead of loose files to reduce file count - Debug-files no longer included

VR

- Motion controllers are no longer used/required - Added "experimental" warning to VR-menu - VR-cursor now resets to center when menu is shown - VR-cursor can now be controlled with the mouse, keyboard (WASD), or gamepad

Steam

- Fixed issue with "flawless" Steam-stat not registering in Maki Pursuit, Guardians, Colonists, and Firefight - Added new "victory" Steam-stat that increments with each mission-victory

[ 2018-02-18 17:49:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added a new fighter variant (Sabre Quad) - Added a unique Sabre Medic skin (as shown below) - Decreased all level load-times and initial game load-time - Fundamentally changed VR support to improve playability and decrease motion sickness

Visuals

- Created a new Sabre model with 4 machine guns - Added "cinematic" quality to all quality-options - Added "low" option to shadow-qualities - Texture-quality now defaults to cinematic - Framerate now maxes out at 90 to reduce issues with excessively high framerates

Core

- Now using PAK files instead of loose files to reduce file count - Debug-files no longer included

VR

- Motion controllers are no longer used/required - Added "experimental" warning to VR-menu - VR-cursor now resets to center when menu is shown - VR-cursor can now be controlled with the mouse, keyboard (WASD), or gamepad

Steam

- Fixed issue with "flawless" Steam-stat not registering in Maki Pursuit, Guardians, Colonists, and Firefight - Added new "victory" Steam-stat that increments with each mission-victory

[ 2018-02-18 17:49:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Increased size of fighters and interceptors by 50% - Decreased objective-capture time to 20s - Reduced difficulty of Menace mission and improved its level-scripting - Smoothed out automatic speed-limit braking - Lowered thruster-acceleration on interceptors - Raised thruster-acceleration on gunships - Equalized camera-orbit distance amongst all fighters (to give accurate sense of scale when selecting ships)

Visuals

- Removed visible black-seams from all fighters and waystations (regenerated ambient occlusion textures) - Ragdolls now collide with other ragdolls - Increased max draw-distance for fighters and small DOM-turrets - Added additional, small rear-thrusters to Scythe interceptor

AI

- Pre-determined line-traces now used in path-finding instead of random vectors (often improves chosen paths)

UI

- Added a dedicated joystick menu accessible from the controls menu - Added configurable offsets and multiplies for each joystick-mapping - Added a live numerical readout for each joystick-mapping (actual value used in-game) - All menus can now be escaped using keyboard-shortcuts (Esc key)

Bugs

- Multiple controllers can no longer be used simultaneously to increase thruster-acceleration - Added missing hitboxes to the base of 120mm flak-turrets and slug-turrets - Objectives no longer "beep" when a player enters an overwhelmingly hostile territory

Core

- Upgraded Linux build from UE 4.18.2 to 4.18.3

[ 2018-02-05 20:00:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Increased size of fighters and interceptors by 50% - Decreased objective-capture time to 20s - Reduced difficulty of Menace mission and improved its level-scripting - Smoothed out automatic speed-limit braking - Lowered thruster-acceleration on interceptors - Raised thruster-acceleration on gunships - Equalized camera-orbit distance amongst all fighters (to give accurate sense of scale when selecting ships)

Visuals

- Removed visible black-seams from all fighters and waystations (regenerated ambient occlusion textures) - Ragdolls now collide with other ragdolls - Increased max draw-distance for fighters and small DOM-turrets - Added additional, small rear-thrusters to Scythe interceptor

AI

- Pre-determined line-traces now used in path-finding instead of random vectors (often improves chosen paths)

UI

- Added a dedicated joystick menu accessible from the controls menu - Added configurable offsets and multiplies for each joystick-mapping - Added a live numerical readout for each joystick-mapping (actual value used in-game) - All menus can now be escaped using keyboard-shortcuts (Esc key)

Bugs

- Multiple controllers can no longer be used simultaneously to increase thruster-acceleration - Added missing hitboxes to the base of 120mm flak-turrets and slug-turrets - Objectives no longer "beep" when a player enters an overwhelmingly hostile territory

Core

- Upgraded Linux build from UE 4.18.2 to 4.18.3

[ 2018-02-05 20:00:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added new mission Fury to end of Dominion campaign - Added new mission Guardians to beginning of Outer Belt campaign (replaces mission Maki Transit) - Added "rearm" squad-command (squad-members can be directed to rearm) - Added a laser super weapon (available in the Fury mission) - Most missions now have clearly marked objectives - Homing missiles will now change targets in mid-flight (if a better target presents itself) - Dead pilots can now be shot multiple times before being vaporized - Less damage is taken from collisions with ships, asteroids, etc. - Increased muzzle-velocity of flak-projectiles - Increased homing-velocity of missiles - Decreased laser-ammo capacity in all interceptors - Rebalanced all missions to reflect their difficulty level - Improved placement and variety of initial ship-selection in all missions - Enemies are smarter in many different ways (see AI section)

AI

- Added "hunting" behavior to AI (will seek and destroy in direction of enemy fire if source is unknown) - Laser-fire now contributes to AI-suppression - Pathfinding-obstacles are now navigated more closely by AI (size of obstacles taken into account) - AI skill-levels are now more pronounced (especially with regards to weapon usage) - Rearming in hangar-bays is now performed much faster - Speed-limits are now properly adhered to by AI - AI now moves on an intercept-path when chasing targets (less likely to orbit a target) - Squad-leader now handles waypoint-movement exclusively while squad-members follow (squad-formations maintained more often) - Squad-members will no longer follow a rearming squad-leader - AI will no longer flee in the middle of a fight (unless it is entirely out of ammo) - AI will now attack eachother even while out-of-bounds - Turrets without LOS are no longer be targeted by fighters - Fighters engaged in a dogfight are now much less likely to collectively accelerate off-map - AI will lead targets a bit more to compensate for their brain-wave interval

Visuals

- Tracer fire is now visible from much longer distances - Damage and kills to dead pilots are now shown on the cockpit-crosshair - Added blood-spray effect for non-lethal damage to dead pilots - Smoothed out movement of leading crosshair

Audio

- Added sound-effects for capturing and losing objectives - Improved playlists to increase musical variety

UI

- Added "stats" button and menu that displays global stats - Added joystick-dropdown that loads presets for specific joysticks (very limited list right now) - Added an arrow that visually correlates the joystick-axis fields with the joystick-axis readouts - Gameover-menu can now be closed by pressing Esc

Bugs

- Fixed issue with hangar-waypoints that caused AI to stop in the middle of hangar-bays - Friendly-fire no longer contributes to accuracy-stat - Fixed targeting issue in turrets that caused turrets to rarely attack other turrets - Fixed issue with Boreas frigate not detecting hostiles (improperly sized proximity-sphere) - Corrected erroneous distance to hostile-targets (caused illogical AI decisions) - Fixed issue that allowed rejected sound-effects to linger without being destroyed

Core

- Upgraded engine from 4.18.2 to 4.18.3

[ 2018-01-25 20:50:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added new mission Fury to end of Dominion campaign - Added new mission Guardians to beginning of Outer Belt campaign (replaces mission Maki Transit) - Added "rearm" squad-command (squad-members can be directed to rearm) - Added a laser super weapon (available in the Fury mission) - Most missions now have clearly marked objectives - Homing missiles will now change targets in mid-flight (if a better target presents itself) - Dead pilots can now be shot multiple times before being vaporized - Less damage is taken from collisions with ships, asteroids, etc. - Increased muzzle-velocity of flak-projectiles - Increased homing-velocity of missiles - Decreased laser-ammo capacity in all interceptors - Rebalanced all missions to reflect their difficulty level - Improved placement and variety of initial ship-selection in all missions - Enemies are smarter in many different ways (see AI section)

AI

- Added "hunting" behavior to AI (will seek and destroy in direction of enemy fire if source is unknown) - Laser-fire now contributes to AI-suppression - Pathfinding-obstacles are now navigated more closely by AI (size of obstacles taken into account) - AI skill-levels are now more pronounced (especially with regards to weapon usage) - Rearming in hangar-bays is now performed much faster - Speed-limits are now properly adhered to by AI - AI now moves on an intercept-path when chasing targets (less likely to orbit a target) - Squad-leader now handles waypoint-movement exclusively while squad-members follow (squad-formations maintained more often) - Squad-members will no longer follow a rearming squad-leader - AI will no longer flee in the middle of a fight (unless it is entirely out of ammo) - AI will now attack eachother even while out-of-bounds - Turrets without LOS are no longer be targeted by fighters - Fighters engaged in a dogfight are now much less likely to collectively accelerate off-map - AI will lead targets a bit more to compensate for their brain-wave interval

Visuals

- Tracer fire is now visible from much longer distances - Damage and kills to dead pilots are now shown on the cockpit-crosshair - Added blood-spray effect for non-lethal damage to dead pilots - Smoothed out movement of leading crosshair

Audio

- Added sound-effects for capturing and losing objectives - Improved playlists to increase musical variety

UI

- Added "stats" button and menu that displays global stats - Added joystick-dropdown that loads presets for specific joysticks (very limited list right now) - Added an arrow that visually correlates the joystick-axis fields with the joystick-axis readouts - Gameover-menu can now be closed by pressing Esc

Bugs

- Fixed issue with hangar-waypoints that caused AI to stop in the middle of hangar-bays - Friendly-fire no longer contributes to accuracy-stat - Fixed targeting issue in turrets that caused turrets to rarely attack other turrets - Fixed issue with Boreas frigate not detecting hostiles (improperly sized proximity-sphere) - Corrected erroneous distance to hostile-targets (caused illogical AI decisions) - Fixed issue that allowed rejected sound-effects to linger without being destroyed

Core

- Upgraded engine from 4.18.2 to 4.18.3

[ 2018-01-25 20:50:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Core

- Upgraded UE4 engine from 4.18.1 to 4.18.2 - Game-progress, key-bindings, and other saved data is now synced to the Steam-cloud

Input

- Joystick-axis values are now shown in real-time from the controls-menu (helps with mapping axes to the correct controls) - Modifier keys (shift, alt, ctrl) are now allowed in key-bindings

Bugs

- Fixed issue with idle joystick-axis values reverting to -1 (causing uncontrollable spinning and other undesired behavior)

UI

- HUD is now automatically hidden when in-game menu is displayed (reduces visual clutter and increases menu readability)

Audio

- Reduced memory-footprint of larger audio-files (music, vocals)

[ 2017-12-15 19:13:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Core

- Upgraded UE4 engine from 4.18.1 to 4.18.2 - Game-progress, key-bindings, and other saved data is now synced to the Steam-cloud

Input

- Joystick-axis values are now shown in real-time from the controls-menu (helps with mapping axes to the correct controls) - Modifier keys (shift, alt, ctrl) are now allowed in key-bindings

Bugs

- Fixed issue with idle joystick-axis values reverting to -1 (causing uncontrollable spinning and other undesired behavior)

UI

- HUD is now automatically hidden when in-game menu is displayed (reduces visual clutter and increases menu readability)

Audio

- Reduced memory-footprint of larger audio-files (music, vocals)

[ 2017-12-15 19:13:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Core

- Disabled unused plugins (specifically Android plugins) to help resolve a Linux crash - Recompiled Linux UE4 with this fix for AMD drivers: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/commit/8bd35912ed384750ca8b3474f3ab806c6ddcf

Gameplay

- Tutorials no longer require all rings to be cleared (destroying large enemy vessel is enough)

Bugs

- Checking the joystick-bypass checkbox will now zero-out all internal joystick-axis values

[ 2017-12-11 08:11:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Core

- Disabled unused plugins (specifically Android plugins) to help resolve a Linux crash - Recompiled Linux UE4 with this fix for AMD drivers: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealEngine/commit/8bd35912ed384750ca8b3474f3ab806c6ddcf

Gameplay

- Tutorials no longer require all rings to be cleared (destroying large enemy vessel is enough)

Bugs

- Checking the joystick-bypass checkbox will now zero-out all internal joystick-axis values

[ 2017-12-11 08:11:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Core

- Upgraded engine from UE 4.17 to 4.18 - Drastically reduced texture-memory usage by optimizing mip-maps - HTC Vive should now work via the OSVR plugin (needs testing) - Eliminated many unused materials and textures to lower required disk-space - Joystick-input is now fed through the UE4 raw-input plugin - Reduced all texture-pool sizes (varies with texture-quality setting) - Lowered overall game-size by nearly 2GB (~50%)

Controls

- Angular drag is now customizable (very useful for joysticks and VR) - Joystick-buttons are now customizable from any control-mapping field (shown as GenericUSBController Button) - Up to 8 joystick-axes can now be mapped (must be manually set for now) - Steam Controller plugin is now enabled

UI

- Improved visibility of menu-text - Changed off-screen target-reticle to a simpler arrow-design - Added angular-drag slider and joystick-axes fields to the controls-menu

Visuals

- Increased resolution of some skyboxes - Reduced debris in frigate-explosions

Bugs

- Fixed issue with loading-screen hanging occassionally due to a race-condition - Eliminated NULL-spawning attempts by injecting class-validity guards - Removed excessive debug-logging from motion-controllers

[ 2017-12-09 09:24:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Core

- Upgraded engine from UE 4.17 to 4.18 - Drastically reduced texture-memory usage by optimizing mip-maps - HTC Vive should now work via the OSVR plugin (needs testing) - Eliminated many unused materials and textures to lower required disk-space - Joystick-input is now fed through the UE4 raw-input plugin - Reduced all texture-pool sizes (varies with texture-quality setting) - Lowered overall game-size by nearly 2GB (~50%)

Controls

- Angular drag is now customizable (very useful for joysticks and VR) - Joystick-buttons are now customizable from any control-mapping field (shown as GenericUSBController Button) - Up to 8 joystick-axes can now be mapped (must be manually set for now) - Steam Controller plugin is now enabled

UI

- Improved visibility of menu-text - Changed off-screen target-reticle to a simpler arrow-design - Added angular-drag slider and joystick-axes fields to the controls-menu

Visuals

- Increased resolution of some skyboxes - Reduced debris in frigate-explosions

Bugs

- Fixed issue with loading-screen hanging occassionally due to a race-condition - Eliminated NULL-spawning attempts by injecting class-validity guards - Removed excessive debug-logging from motion-controllers

[ 2017-12-09 09:24:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- All levels now playable in VR (tested with Oculus) - Increased auto-thrust aggression to allow tighter turns - Radio-messages can now be heard/seen as a spectator - Spectator max-time increased from 10s to 20s - Re-balanced several missions - Missile-boats are now present in more OBA-missions - Added a planet and more asteroids to Maki Transit mission - Added territory-objectives to Menace mission - Smoothed out auto-movement throttle (thrusters now operate more smoothly when braking)

AI

- AI will now abort rearming if an enemy-target is in range (and they are capable of attacking it) - AI is now generally more accurate with their shots (especially interceptors) - Smoothed out AI-targeting (less erratic movements)

UI

- Simplified mission-selection by placing all missions (including tutorials) into missions-menu - Added VR-menu - All menus are now 3D menus (for VR compatibility) - Controls-menu is now accessible from the main-menu - Gamepad and keyboard now control a mouse-cursor to navigate menus - Developer console is now available for debugging

Graphics

- Optimized internal graphics-settings for VR - Screen no longer darkens when using a lower post-process quality - Reticles are now thinner and brighter - Turret-reticles now scale with distance to reduce visual clutter - Radio-beacons now have a pulsating-effect - Health-bars in cockpit are now comprised of thinner bars - Increased the size/readability of some cockpit-text

Bugs

- Fixed issue with control-mappings not being saved between game-sessions - Fixed rare random freeze that occured while browsing menus - Turret-hitboxes are now properly destroyed (were previously left floating in space) - Fixed issue with Ishtar not detecting opponents in some missions

Core

- Reticles and objectives are now rendered in 3D-space instead of being drawn directly to the screen - Optimized cockpit-rendering by reducing re-draws of several text-elements - Moved cockpit-room out of level-bounds in all missions - Projectiles no longer collide with the fighter or turret they were fired from - Now using an up-to-date basescalability.ini

[ 2017-12-02 04:52:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- All levels now playable in VR (tested with Oculus) - Increased auto-thrust aggression to allow tighter turns - Radio-messages can now be heard/seen as a spectator - Spectator max-time increased from 10s to 20s - Re-balanced several missions - Missile-boats are now present in more OBA-missions - Added a planet and more asteroids to Maki Transit mission - Added territory-objectives to Menace mission - Smoothed out auto-movement throttle (thrusters now operate more smoothly when braking)

AI

- AI will now abort rearming if an enemy-target is in range (and they are capable of attacking it) - AI is now generally more accurate with their shots (especially interceptors) - Smoothed out AI-targeting (less erratic movements)

UI

- Simplified mission-selection by placing all missions (including tutorials) into missions-menu - Added VR-menu - All menus are now 3D menus (for VR compatibility) - Controls-menu is now accessible from the main-menu - Gamepad and keyboard now control a mouse-cursor to navigate menus - Developer console is now available for debugging

Graphics

- Optimized internal graphics-settings for VR - Screen no longer darkens when using a lower post-process quality - Reticles are now thinner and brighter - Turret-reticles now scale with distance to reduce visual clutter - Radio-beacons now have a pulsating-effect - Health-bars in cockpit are now comprised of thinner bars - Increased the size/readability of some cockpit-text

Bugs

- Fixed issue with control-mappings not being saved between game-sessions - Fixed rare random freeze that occured while browsing menus - Turret-hitboxes are now properly destroyed (were previously left floating in space) - Fixed issue with Ishtar not detecting opponents in some missions

Core

- Reticles and objectives are now rendered in 3D-space instead of being drawn directly to the screen - Optimized cockpit-rendering by reducing re-draws of several text-elements - Moved cockpit-room out of level-bounds in all missions - Projectiles no longer collide with the fighter or turret they were fired from - Now using an up-to-date basescalability.ini

[ 2017-12-02 04:52:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Graphics

- Created all new planets and moons - Re-textured and created new materials for all asteroids - Removed fog from all missions (much clearer skybox) - Shadows are no longer entirely black - Created all new explosion-debris with more visual variety - Expanded skybox size by 625% (by volume) in all levels

Gameplay

- Added new conquest-style gameplay mode - Expanded the boundaries of most levels - Replaced "Boreas Recon" level with new conquest-style mission "Overreach" - Changed format of mission "Dante Guerrillas" entirely - Overhauled "Hammurabi Encounter" mission - Raised topspeed for most fighters by 50% - Rebalanced all projectile-damage - Selecting nearest enemy now only selects damageable enemies - Frigate doors now block debris, gibs, and LOS-checks - Created new freighter and added to "Dante Guerrillas" - Created new machine-gun turrets for new freighter

AI

- AI is now capable of prioritizing and taking territories - AI now chooses weapons based on damage-threshold of target - Turrets now have even targeting-priority (compared to fighters) - AI is now more likely to gang up on targets - Fixed issue with AI not obeying level-bounds - Fixed issue with AI accelerating faster than its engine-limits (in some cases)

Audio

- Music now changes dynamically in most levels - Playlists are now supported and used in most levels - Lowered missile-turret muzzle-volume

UI

- Updated all mission-splashes to reflect major visual changes (in mission-menu) - Implemented territory-markers with radial progress-bar - Added territory-objectives to navball (lower left)

Bugs

- Turned off debris-shadows in some levels - Fixed issue with lasers not registering kills/damage on turrets - Windowed-setting is now properly saved - Projectile-impacts are no longer attached to debris

Core

- Vehicles can now be invulnerable to some weapons and not to others - Game-state is now kept in a proper game-state object - Implemented beam super-weapons (not currently used) - Asteroids now inherit static-props

[ 2017-10-23 04:19:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Graphics

- Created all new planets and moons - Re-textured and created new materials for all asteroids - Removed fog from all missions (much clearer skybox) - Shadows are no longer entirely black - Created all new explosion-debris with more visual variety - Expanded skybox size by 625% (by volume) in all levels

Gameplay

- Added new conquest-style gameplay mode - Expanded the boundaries of most levels - Replaced "Boreas Recon" level with new conquest-style mission "Overreach" - Changed format of mission "Dante Guerrillas" entirely - Overhauled "Hammurabi Encounter" mission - Raised topspeed for most fighters by 50% - Rebalanced all projectile-damage - Selecting nearest enemy now only selects damageable enemies - Frigate doors now block debris, gibs, and LOS-checks - Created new freighter and added to "Dante Guerrillas" - Created new machine-gun turrets for new freighter

AI

- AI is now capable of prioritizing and taking territories - AI now chooses weapons based on damage-threshold of target - Turrets now have even targeting-priority (compared to fighters) - AI is now more likely to gang up on targets - Fixed issue with AI not obeying level-bounds - Fixed issue with AI accelerating faster than its engine-limits (in some cases)

Audio

- Music now changes dynamically in most levels - Playlists are now supported and used in most levels - Lowered missile-turret muzzle-volume

UI

- Updated all mission-splashes to reflect major visual changes (in mission-menu) - Implemented territory-markers with radial progress-bar - Added territory-objectives to navball (lower left)

Bugs

- Turned off debris-shadows in some levels - Fixed issue with lasers not registering kills/damage on turrets - Windowed-setting is now properly saved - Projectile-impacts are no longer attached to debris

Core

- Vehicles can now be invulnerable to some weapons and not to others - Game-state is now kept in a proper game-state object - Implemented beam super-weapons (not currently used) - Asteroids now inherit static-props

[ 2017-10-23 04:19:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- OpenGL support for Linux and SteamOS - Turrets can now be healed by medics - Fighter-explosions now move in the direction of the destroyed fighter - Colonists mission has fewer enemy EMPs - EMPs can now be deflected with shields - Reduced duration of EMP-effect - Added playable laser-equipped fighters to oba-okada-minefield and oba-firefight missions

Visuals

- Brightened world-environment in all levels - Fixed distorted cockpit-rendering in OpenGL - Rendering in DirectX and OpenGL are now almost identical - Target-icons are now thinner and rendered additively - Cockpit-rendering should no longer be cropped on ultra widescreens - Asteroid-fragment explosions are now attached to frigates that collide with them - Removed black smoke-particles from fighter-explosions - Reduced opacity of smoke-fingers in fighter-explosions - Dead pilots are now visually culled at greater distances

Input

- Duplicate key-mappings for the same action are no longer allowed - Added 3440x1440 resolution to graphics-menu

UI

- Resolution is now properly saved and loaded from graphics-menu - Fixed menu-placement for ultra widescreens - Mouse-input in menus are no longer captured outside of menu-buttons

Core

- Improved overall performance by turning off unnecessary cockpit scene-capture rendering - Reduced number of concurrent post-process elements - Created new menu-handling interface - Decoupled impacts from vehicles - Turned off framerate-capping and smoothing - Decoupled GShields from spaceships - Decoupled turrets from spaceships - Decoupled thrusters from spaceships - Created thruster-controller to handle thruster-collections - Decoupled turret-wrecks from turrets - Most actors are now spawned anonymously within a BP-component - Actor-classes are now checked before actor-spawning - Decoupled hangars from spaceships

Bugs

- Team-exclusion in GShield is now changed when spacecraft-team is changed - Fixed duplicate key-mapping error - Fixed missing 120mm-bullet impact - Fixed 0-index access of level-time and level-victories from mission-menu - Fixed divide-by-zero warning in oba-practice-level - Fixed skills-warning in spaceship-spawner - Fixed debris-padding warning in debris-field - Fixed rank-warning in vehicle - Fixed ping-warning produced from debris-culling

[ 2017-09-08 02:30:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added new EMP missile that temporarily shuts down fighters and turrets - Created new Dominion-freighter variations - Added Dominion-freighter activity to applicable levels - Converted Menace mission to a campaign-mission - Added some radio-dialog to Menace mission (sets up future mission) - Converted Banshee Inspection mission to a standalone mission - Increased pacing of Maki Transit mission - Added Lancer-EMP and Lancer-Medic-EMP gunship variations - Added Phantom-EMP fighter variation - Fixed initial trajectories for playable fighters in most missions

Core

- Upgraded Unreal engine to 4.17.0 (from 4.8.3) - Builds are no longer packaged in PAK files - All objects are now visually culled at long-ranges - Added concept of electrical-power to all ships (for EMP) - Moved save-game logic to a game-instance object - Decoupled many ojects from one another and removed some circular dependencies - Increased use of interfaces to facilitate polymorphic object-interactions

Visuals

- Improved lighting and colors overall (due to engine upgrade) - Rebalanced lighting in all levels - Shadows are now softer - Fixed some misplaced textures on OBA-outpost - Regenerated and optimized all LODs for every mesh (help me) - Added scanline-effect to HUD - Created new hologram-material (more visual clarity) - Added a space-particle effect to the player-view (helps with gauging speed and direction) - Simplified atmospheric effect on planets - Health-icons no longer shown over hangar-bays - Regenerated the Ishtar dome-mesh to fix geometry-artifacts] - Reduced frigate-explosion particles for optimization

UI

- Added gamma and brightness sliders to the Graphics menu - Created a separate Audio menu - Added a master-volume slider - Moved camera-preference to Controls menu - Redesigned Missions menu background - Updated all mission-preview images - Added a mission-loading screen - First campaign-mission from each faction are no longer locked initially

Audio

- Lowered rail-impact volume - Lowered volume of missile-swoosh sound (when homing-missile activates) - Added SFX for electrical shutdowns and reboots - Added SFX for EMP-explosions

Bugs

- Fixed intermittent background-flickering in some levels - Fixed exaggerated streaks of light in some levels - Fixed issue with AI sometimes following their dropship - Fixed stats for Minesweeper mission being saved incorrectly - Fixed issue with squad-level-waypoints not clearing when player takes control

[ 2017-08-15 20:13:30 CET ] [ Original post ]

I recently put out a new trailer with the latest gameplay footage. I may create another trailer that highlights the major features with on-screen text and include some video of the HUD. Thoughts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn7iUPN458E

[ 2017-07-28 21:44:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added outpost, more asteroids, and freighters to Boreas Recon mission - Added several freighters and increased pacing in Hammurabi Encounter mission - Changed dropship-pathways and increased pacing in Juno Waystation mission - Missiles, flak, and mines now deal significantly more damage on direct hits (apparent when shooting turrets)

Input

- Gamepad-bypass now bypasses sticks in addition to buttons

UI

- Added grit to ASTROKILL logo - Redesigned Doomsday Games logo

Audio

- Reduced radio-chatter in some missions

Core

- Converted "trackers" and "spotters" from Actors to Actor-Components (reduces overall Actor-count)

[ 2017-07-22 20:53:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Missiles do more damage on direct-hits and less splash damage - Projectile damage more balanced overall - Colonists mission is more difficult - Turret-explosions do more splash damage - Tarkana is now destructible in Firefight mission - Added new Beltor outposts to various missions

Input

- Gamepad is now fully customizable from the Controls menu - Camera-view now toggles between 3 views

Visuals

- Improved some materials on the Hammurabi

AI

- Medics now favor healing friendlies over chasing out-of-range hostiles

Core

- Programmed customizable gamepad-support via XInput - Redesigned light-beacon system to improve efficiency and randomness

[ 2017-07-16 19:15:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added new standalone mission Menace - Frigates are now fully destructible in many missions - Increased muzzle-velocity on most projectiles - Homing missiles are more damaging to fighters - Slowed acceleration on all frigates - Increased turret-count on OBA-freighters - Loosened up fighter and gunship controls - Created new OBA-outpost (currently visible in OBA-tutorial)

Visuals

- Improved materials on the Ishtar - Improved materials on all OBA frigates - Ishtar now more visible in Deliverance mission - Added small/medium asteroids to most missions

Audio

- Muzzle sfx (and others) now properly vary slightly in volume and pitch - Added gyro sound-effect to cockpit (heard when rotation rate changes)

Core

- Removed duplicated code among all spaceships - Optimized joystick-polling

Bugs

- Fixed bug causing faster projectile-movement to cause less damage (not more) - Fixed problem with AI refusing to form on spawned frigates - Fixed problem with AI occasionally attacking targets with no LOS - Fixed issue that caused erroneous detections in some rare cases - Fixed issue with being unable to roll fighter with oribiting-camera locked

[ 2017-07-10 09:22:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added a new standalone mission Colonists - Added a new Outer Belt frigate that comes in civilian and military variations - Increased rail-gun ammo-capacity - Reduced collision-damage significantly - Spectator-cam now defaults to a random top-view when selecting ships - Removed thrust-mode rings in both tutorials - Tutorial dialog now dynamically shows current key-bindings

UI

- Rearranged the Controls menu to make room for new key-bindings

Input

- All keyboard-bindings (with a few exceptions) are now customizable from the Controls menu - Added ability to choose from 3 different joystick-sliders - Joystick-throttle now handles forward and backwards movement - Added joystick-slider option for lateral-movement - Default joystick-button-mapping changed to Thrustmaster Hotas X

Visuals

- New asteroids added to most missions - Rearranged components on Korado freighter - Created a habitable planet with rings - Re-textured large Boreas-asteroid

Audio

- Gun and thruster sounds are now muffled (somewhat) when in 1st person view

Bugs

- Fixed several bugs causing campaign-progress to be lost - Corrected issue with some frigates using the wrong thruster-sounds - Fixed issue with muzzle-sounds not being attached to guns

Core

- Implemented DirectInput keyboard support - Improved overall performance by minimizing controller-polling

[ 2017-06-25 09:56:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added standalone mission Firefight with semi-molten asteroids - Increased attack-distance on both 120mm flak and missile turrets - Halved missile capacity in Phantoms - Turret-placement on OBA freighters have changed - Added broken statues as visual clues to Dante Guerrillas mission - Re-balancing on most missions

Visuals

- Planet and moon appearance greatly improved - Added blood splatter to dead pilots - Asteroid-fragments now vary more in scale - Glowing metal fragments are now scaled properly - Reduced some select 4k textures to 2k

Physics

- Dead pilots now move with more mass

Audio

- Added new track "Rust and Concrete" to Minesweeper mission - Added new track "Into the Jungle" for Firefight mission

Input

- Joystick-throttle no longer reverses ship - Added option in Controls menu to bypass joystick-button mappings

UI

- Medic rearm-charge is now shown on the HUD as a greenish circle - Added several more resolution-options

Bugs

- Initial comms can now be heard no matter how long the player waits to select a ship - Selecting nearest enemy no longer selects frigates and outposts - Fixed issue with Intercepors sometimes shooting themselves with their 20mm gun - Fixed win-condition that allowed the Deliverance mission to be passed by just destroying the frigate

[ 2017-06-08 00:50:17 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- All campaign levels are back online - Added a new standalone mission (minesweeper) - Added medic-variations for the Ripper, Sabre, and Lancer fighters - Implemented behavioral AI for medics - Drastically increased the muzzle-velocity on several turrets - Ranks within a squad are now properly ordered and handled so that 8 fighters can makeup a squad - Kills are now credited for all turrets except small 30mm turrets - Missions have been split into 2 types: standalone and campaign

UI

- Created 9 new in-game character portraits - All missions are selectable from a new mission-screen - Victories, flawless victories, and best-times are now shown for each mission - Added input-key for medic-heals to the controls-menu - Simplified in-game codes for fighters (F02, G05+1, etc.)

Visuals

- Added more asteroids, debris, and props to every level - Replaced 4 large asteroid-fragments with new geometry - Improved materials on all vehicles, asteroids, debris, and props - Added a new solar-array prop to some levels - Adjusted lighting in every mission to be more even - Added new solar-array arm to OBA waystations

Performance

- Reduced many 4k textures to 2k to save on texture-memory and overall game-size - Turned off shadow-casting on out-of-bounds asteroids

Bugs

- Fixed issue with turrets not receiving splash damage - Fixed issue that caused turrets to accidentally shoot friendlies - Fixed bug that caused spawned squads to spawn on the same point when a waypoint was set - VR has been disabled to prevent auto-launching VR - Guns can no longer be fired faster than normal by rapidly pressing buttons

[ 2017-05-27 20:35:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

The following is a tentative ASTROKILL development schedule. This will be updated and reposted over the next few months as progress is made. Key: Minus sign (-) = unfinished item Plus sign (+) = finished item Letter "o" = obsolete item

PHASE 1 (December 2016) - COMPLETE

Asteroids + replace all asteroid-fragments with more realistic models + add/replace all other asteroids Turrets + introduce more complex, realistic turrets (based on the Phalanx system) + allow destruction of turret-components to reduce functionality (destroy pitch-motors) Radar + create functional and destructible radar-dishes that broadcast enemy-locations at long ranges + allow player to see what friendlies see (share detections across team) + create separate visual-detection and instrument-detection systems to give radar strategic importance HUD + simplify and rearrange HUD to give a military glass-cockpit feel Radio-dialog - make existing dialog less distracting (blend vocals with existing SFX) SFX - add in-vehicle reverb to muzzle-sounds Campaign lock-down + temporarily lock campaign during overhaul + reduce price by 50% during overhaul to reflect fewer playable levels

PHASE 2 (February 2017)

Destructible Props - create military containers, industrial equipment, etc. for senseless destruction Customizable Fighters - replace existing fighters with component-based fighters - create fighters by combining engines, cockpits, fuel-tanks, gun-systems, and body-panels - implement a variety of selectable body-panels and guns - allow player to customize loadouts and specs of each ship Dropships - replace existing dropships using new ship-components Supply Ships - replace existing fly-through-hangars with simpler/easier system - create supply-ships to provide new rearming capabilities Space Stations - replace existing depots with component-based space-stations - create destructible windows that expel equipment and personnel when broken - create centrifuges for artificial gravity - allow capturing of space-stations and its affect on victory-conditions

PHASE 3 (April 2017)

Freighters - replace existing freighters with industrial freighters influenced by real-world cargo-ships Shuttles - create civilian shuttles for assassination and escort-missions Capital Ships - replace Hammurabi with new component-based version - create an OBA-styled capital ship Campaign re-release - re-purpose existing campaign-levels to accommodate new game assets - add more strategic levels that make use of radar and other new features

PHASE 4 (June 2017)

Unreal Engine - upgrade to the latest and greatest Unreal Engine Gold Release - publish full release on Steam - buy bottle of brandy

[ 2016-12-30 19:00:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added a new Phalanx turret system with destructible components (like pitch-motors) - Added destructible and functional radar dishes (spots enemies at great distances) - Added both a free-floating and anchored mount for turrets, radar, etc. - All friendlies are now visible to the player at any distance - Enemies spotted by friendlies are now visible to the player (shared information) - Detections now require line-of-sight (hiding behind objects is now possible) - All debris is now shootable and collidable - New turrets have destructible components (like pitch-motors)

Visuals

- All asteroids and asteroid-fragments have been replaced by more realistic models (some directly based off actual asteroids or comets)

UI

- HUD has been rearranged to maximize readability and give a glass-cockpit feel - Ship visibility is now shown on HUD (how many foes are currently detecting the player) - Small components (like fighter-turrets) are now marked on the HUD

Input

- Fixed issue with pressed joystick-buttons not being displayed in the controls menu

[ 2016-12-30 18:50:01 CET ] [ Original post ]

I just posted a new gameplay trailer to the Store page, YouTube, Twitter, etc. Let me know what you guys think! Also, I have some new features in mind. I'd like to implement a customization system that allows you to swap out different kinds of guns, ammo, and armor. Each item will affect the overall weight of the ship, thereby affecting the flight characteristics. Such a large feature will require newly designed ships with swappable body panels and weapons. I think this will add some variety and replayability to the game.

[ 2016-10-16 04:44:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Bugs

- Fixed major issue with some levels not being playable if cinematic shots were not skipped

Visuals

- Increased count and visibility of secondary explosions within fighter-explosions

Gameplay

- Explosive projectiles now explode when impacting dead pilots

Core

- Decoupled projectiles from other objects via a new projectile-interface

[ 2016-10-11 07:21:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Auto-thrust now allows player to drift backwards or laterally (especially at low speeds) without switching to manual-thrust - Fixed issue with auto-thrust pushing player back into an obstacle after colliding with it - Increased spacing between wingmen to minimize collisions

UI

- Direction-reticles on navball (lower left) now flash to indicate backwards movement or manual movement in auto-thrust mode

Audio

- Added metal-scraping sound for cases when player scrapes against an object - Added several metal-collision sounds for bumps and collisions - Thud can now be heard when colliding with dead pilots

Bugs

- Corrected initial player-orientation in a few levels

[ 2016-10-06 18:51:20 CET ] [ Original post ]

Visuals

- Overhauled appearance of all muzzle-flashes (more volumetric and firey in general) - Large particle-effects, like explosions, no longer disappear or appear when slightly off screen - Fixed UV-mapping on most thruster-flares - Fixed issue with thruster-flares not being animated in certain cases - Added proper LODs to all thruster-flares - Damaged thrusters are now much brighter and noticeable

GShield

- GShield spherical effect is now much more subtle and smooth - Spherical effect is now the same size as the actual gravity field - GShield is now more powerful and concentrated to prevent projectiles from slipping through - Gravity-wells now update much faster if they are populated

Audio

- Door sounds on dropships can now be heard from greater distances - GShield deflection-sound is now higher pitched and more noticeable

Core

- Spawners can now spawn any combination of ship-types - Spawners now use wingman-sockets to spawn squads in formation - Opponent skill is now numerical instead of enumerated

Input

- Added secret key-combos to spawn dead pilots in front of your ship

[ 2016-09-28 21:52:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- All projectiles have a longer effective range - Projectile damage is now calculated off relative velocity at moment of impact - Changed capital ship behavior in Deliverance level to allow more breathing room between frigates - GShield now affects a smaller area with more aggressive anti-gravity - Balanced hp for DOM and OBA turrets - Added helpful radio-dialog to levels Boreas Recon and Dante Guerrillas - Changed radio-dialog in most levels to help players with mission-objectives

Audio

- Added recorded vocals for almost all radio-dialog

Performance

- Optimized proximity-spheres to reduce number of overlap-events

Visuals

- Added secondary explosions to all fighter-explosions - Added light-beacons to all frigates (flashing anti-collision lights) - Projectiles are now visible from any distance - Adjusted lighting on all particle-effects

HUD

- Primary and secondary ammo is now displayed numerically for targeted opponents - Numerous cockpit-elements now flash when they need attention - Cockpit-hints are no longer displayed for new players (tutorial recommended) - Compass movement smoothed out

UI

- Practice button renamed to Tutorials - Tutorial descriptions updated

Bugs

- Fixed issue with GShield letting projectiles through occasionally - Fixed issue with Start Campaign button not showing for new players - Fixed array-index-out-of-bounds issues with squad-members and muzzle-locations

[ 2016-09-19 05:18:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Dropships added to all levels for the purpose of deploying fighters - Added complexity and additional radio-dialog to most levels - Dominion missiles do more damage over a greater radius with greater accuracy - Turrets are more accurate in general and less wasteful with ammo - Reduced the size of initial squad at level-start (rest of squad is dropped in shortly after level-start)

UI

- Added credits menu - Added player-code to top-left of HUD (shows squad-rank and skill-level) - Added absolute velocity to target-panel - Added status to target-panel - Added opponent-codes to target-panel - Added squad-commands to squad-display - Added more detailed status-messages for turrets - Improved accuracy of status-messages for all vehicles

Visuals

- The Maki freighter has a new distinct design with a rotating hab-ring - Explosions are now brighter, more detailed, and more "cinematic" - Dominion explosions now have a distinct blue/green tint - Changed the Dominion cockpit-layout to look more futuristic - Health-bars are now "fatter"

Audio

- Changed OBA thruster-sound to a traditional jet-like sound - Reduced the whine of thruster-sounds in general - Removed idling-sounds on freighters to reduce audio-distortion

AI

- Implemented hold and guard behavior - Vehicles now have more priority over turrets during AI-target-selection - Lancer now rearms in a horizontal position to avoid collisions with hangar-bays

Bugs

- Fixed issue with turrets being indecisive when tracking targets - Countdown-timer no longer resets after reaching zero - Projectiles impacting turrets no longer produce a pink light - Fixed issue with leading-crosshair being "twitchy" - Fixed issue with turrets rotating too slowly when idling

Core

- Firing-timers for guns are now independent and more efficient - Implemented full-featured doors for dropship-use - Implemented configurable light-beacons to light up dropship-doors

[ 2016-08-28 06:09:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Projectile-speeds (except for rail) increased to 900m/sec - Turrets are now repaired in hangar bays

UI

- Redesigned faction-selection menu (much prettier) - Replaced all menu buttons with simpler, more readable buttons

Visuals

- Decreased emissive-brightness on outposts and freighters

Audio

- Added new music to Dante Guerrillas map

Bugs

- Turret-explosions now remain attached to their parent

Core

- Increased overall performance by changing the timing-mechanism on guns, vehicles, thrusters, and AI

[ 2016-06-25 04:23:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

UI

- Added option to either roll or yaw on the joystick X-axis - Added display to controls-menu that shows which joystick buttons are being pressed - Joystick button-mappings can now be set directly by pressing buttons on the joystick - Added option to choose a slider for thrust: slider 0, slider 1, or 2 (Z-axis) - Added option to invert the joystick-slider - Changed behavior of joystick-sliders: the middle position idles, pulling back reverses, and pushing forward moves forwards

Visuals

- Lowered brightness of emissives on OBA freighters and outposts

[ 2016-06-13 00:51:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Added joystick support with custom button-mappings - Adjusted placement of 1st-person camera on Sabre to reduce screen-space taken from muzzle-flashes

UI

- Added customizable joystick button-mappings to the controls-menu - Added a joystick deadzone-slider to the controls-menu - Increased range of rotation-sensitivity slider - Added 2560x1080 resolution-option

Visuals

- Added suble smoke-effect to 60mm flak muzzle-flashes

Audio

- Replaced 30mm muzzle-sound with a punchier sfx - Tweaked most muzzle-sounds to achieve a more realistic effect - Lowered overall pitch on fighter-thrusters

Core

- Implemented ability to detect DirectInput devices and ignore XInput devices (allows for simultaneous usage of joysticks and gamepads)

[ 2016-06-08 19:06:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gameplay

- Game controllers are now supported (tested on Logitech F310)

UI

- Menus can now be navigated with a gamepad - Added game-controller button-mappings to the controls-menu - Added the following resolutions to the graphics-menu: 1366x768, 2560x1440, and 3840x2160

[ 2016-05-31 18:27:57 CET ] [ Original post ]