This week I implemented three features that bring me significantly closer to being able to release a build of the game for playtesting. Namely, enemy patrol routes, resource harvesting, and tactical jumps.
Enemy patrol routes are fairly straightforward: the enemy pods can be given a list of transforms within the map, and ships that aren’t engaged in combat will patrol from one transform to another. This makes it possible for enemy pods to stumble across the player’s fleet, or vice versa, which encourages cautious play, keeping a watchful eye on ships’ vision ranges, and using reconnaissance ships to scout out enemy patrol routes.
I’ve also added resource harvesting to the game: the Fleet Tender ship can harvest asteroids around the map to add resources to the fleet’s resource manager. Right now the only resource that can be harvested is “Hull,” but I plan on adding “Ammo” or “Torpedoes” to the list of harvestable resources before releasing a playtest build.
Tactical jumps are also possible now. Ships can be told to jump whenever ready, which instantly warps them to their destination. I plan on making this a more refined system – for instance, I think the button should be a single-use button press instead of a toggle.
Over the next little while, I plan on adding some additional features to make the game ready for early playtesting. Specifically, I want to refine the jump system, add jump points (places in the map where if a ship jumps, they jump out of the map), add more UI elements for things like jump cooldowns and ship firing modes, add more resource types, add a pause menu, and potentially add more enemy types to the mix.
Evan Parry 