Hi Next Fest is almost over so it's time to plan my next moves. One thing I would like to know is if people want the demo to stay up and that I keep updating it or I just focus in the Early Access version. I rushed this demo to participate in Next Fest but is not really a complete snapshot of the final gameplay since it lacks many features and polish, that's why it needs to be updated or removed in my opinion. Of course, updating the demo will still be an investment of time so that's why I want to know if people are really gonna try an updated demo in the future or I shouldn't bother with it.

ROADMAP

This is just a preliminary version, all of this is subject to change depending on feedback and my own breakthroughs or challenges. I'm dividing the development on major phases and these on subitems but that doesn't mean there's a 1:1 relation between phases or items and patches, a single item could consider several patches and that's not even considering patches with bug fixes that will be made on demand and take priority over new content. This roadmap doesn't consider fixed dates and deadlines but I can anticipate that the Early Access Launch should be during Q3 of 2021.

PHASE ZERO: Next Fest

1.Alpha Demo in Next Fest. 2.Minor fixes and receive feedback.

PHASE ONE: Preparing for Early Access

1.Increase Combat Depth.

• Fog of War.
• Additional AI behaviours for enemies.
• Basic soldier levels and perks.
• More mission variety (extra objectives).
• Basic Dynamic Rival, Loyalty and Infamy mechanics.

2.First Iteration of Pirate Campaign

• Basic procedural campaign.
• Saving and Loading.
• More text events.
• More combat encounters.
• Special scenario: Mutiny (ship defense).
• New enemy type: ???
• Final scenario: The Omen.

3.Basic soldier content

• Very basic customization.
• Extra weapons and items.
• Additional attacks and actions.

PHASE TWO: Open Beta and Early Access Launch

1.Feedback and last minute fixes. 2.Decide to remove or update demo.

PHASE THREE: Early Access

1.More content

• New class: Combat Engineer.
• New recruitable species: KrellSha.
• More enemy types: ???
• More customization (bodies, heads and material combinations).
• More weapons and items.

2.Increase combat depth even more

• Armor and shield items.
• Optional objectives (disable engines, take bridge, etc.).
• Add more options and behaviours for AI.
• Changes based on players feedback.

3.Star Map

• Enemy and Neutral ships.
• New enemy: pirate hunters.

4.General Improvements

• Improve features: Dynamic Rivals, Loyalty and Infamy.
• Improve special scenarios (The Omen and Mutiny).
• Improve User Interface.
• Polishing and Fixes.

PHASE FOUR: Shore Leave

1.New land based scenarios

• Colonies (guarded, abandoned, overrun, etc).
• Landed and crashed ships.
• Military outposts.

2.Stations Overhaul

• Improve station simple UI with 3D environments.
• Additional services.
• Some stations can trigger events and even combat encounters.
• Heist mission.

3.Content, content, CONTENT

• New class: Assassin.
• New recruitable species: Automata.
• More enemy types.
• More events and encounters.

PHASE FIVE: Hegemony

1.New campaign: Hegemony captain.

• New recruitable species: Posthuman.
• New class: Pirate Hunter.
• New enemy type: ??
• New campaign specific events and encounters.
• New campaign specific mechanic: Honor.
• New ship.

2.Research modding.

PHASE SIX: Nomad Fleet

1.New campaign: Nomad Fleet captain.

• New recruitable species: ???
• New class: Peacekeeper.
• New enemy type: ???
• New campaign specific events and encounters.
• New campaign specific mechanic: ???
• New ship.

2.???

PHASE SEVEN: Finishing Early Access

1.??? Note: Many items marked as "???" are a secret or undecided yet and I'm reserving the last phase for any feature that 's demanded by the players during Early Access. Thanks for reading and please check my demo if you haven't already, I read all feedback. Regards, Jorge

[ 2021-06-21 22:30:16 CET ] [ Original post ]