It's been a while since I posted anything here, so here is an update on the status of the project. I'll start with the bad news first: This game is going to spend a bit longer in Early Access as I don't yet have all of the features that I want implemented. In addition, I am temporarily removing the quicksave feature from the game until I can get it working reliably. Now for the good news: I'm working on new game modes (eg: free roam and scenario), better integration with the Steam API, and new and improved game mechanics. These enhancements will come in several stages over the next several updates. Here's an overview of where the project is going.

High Scores Screen

The Top 10 players with the highest score will be shown in-game in the High Scores screen. If you are in the Top 10, your name will be highlighted in green. If you are outside the Top 10, your name will be listed in red at the bottom of the score table alongside your actual position and your highest score.

HUD Changes

The surface finder (brown line with an arrow pointed towards the planet) is going to be a proper roll indicator with roll markings. It will have the same color as the rest of the HUD and will change its rotation based on the HUD mode selected. The velocity vector indicator is also going to be changed to blend seamlessly into the new attitude indicator, showing both the positive and negative directions of the velocity vector. One more thing: A while ago, I changed the Orbit scripts to be able to generate data about the orbital elements based on the current speed and position of the vehicle. An indicator will be added to the altimeter to show when you're near the highest and lowest point of the orbit.

Stranding Mechanic

The stranding mechanic currently just stops the game if you stage before you land or if the command module crashes. That's going to change starting with the fact that I forgot to anticipate the player running out of fuel. If you stage before you land, you will be allowed to advance to the next level, but you won't get any points, nor will you be allowed to upgrade. Other stranding scenarios will let the game continue to run, with the option of restarting the level. You'll still be told that you're stranded though.

Game Modes

Currently, the only game mode is level-progression. But I am working on adding more game modes such as free roam, a tutorial level, and scenarios. Scenarios will use LUA scripts to define objectives. You will eventually be able to post your own Scenarios in the Steam Workshop.

Help Screen

The help screen is going to go away and be replaced with Guides. Some of these guides I'll write myself while other guides can be written by the community. Users should be able to write their own guides for this game now.

Settings Screen

The settings screen is being overhauled in advance of the upcoming features. This means new layouts and features for assigning controls and, once implemented, changing axis assignments in-game as many times as you want without restarting the game! The start-up dialog is going to be removed once this happens.

Save/Load System

I am setting up a seperate project as an experiment as to how I might implement a save/load feature that works reliably and will not work until I publish the update like the last attempt did. Also, with the current system, you can only save during the levels. With the new system, you will be able to save between the levels.

Collision System

The collision meshes are being overhauled to provide more realistic collisions between the vehicles and exhaust. Hopefully this will fix the problem of the engine exhaust clipping through the descent stage. Also, the center landing leg is being removed. As part of this update, subsystem damage will be introduced, resulting in various systems being disabled when they're hit.

Conclusion

That'll be it for now. Over the next few months, I'll be releasing updates that gradually implement the features I've mentioned above, and then some.