Progress update - 10/27/17

[Stellar Tactics]

Hi everyone - nothing terribly exciting to report this week though lots of progress was made. The focus was primarily on ship equipment vendors, equipping ship equipment, the ship information UI and tying all equipment stats into the combat and ship systems. This was a ton of work and I'm glad it's behind me.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1182538737

What I have now is a fully functional ship equipment system that allows for the purchase and sale of all ship equipment types. This includes changes to the NPC AI systems, the ship vendor UI, managing the moving data around between the vendors, cargo and the ship itself and displaying that information in the UI. When ship equipment is looted or purchased, it's placed in your cargo hold. From there you can drag and drop the equipment to the equipment slots on the right or the ship UI assuming you are docked at a station.

One item of interest is what I'm calling the "Power Bias". This is rainbow colored bar in the ship UI that displays the combat power state based on your currently equipped engines, shields and turrets. The display calculates the amount of power required to sustain all firing turrets in combat assuming default power settings. A reading to the left of center means that your power balance based on equipped hardware will be effective. Anything to the right of center means that the power draw from your equipment will lead to mis-fires and you will not be able to maintain your maximum fire-power. I'm still doing a bit of work in the screenshot below, tying the correct numbers into several of the fields and moving things around.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1182540036

I mentioned this before - shields and turrets have a base power cost which reduces your capacitor charge rate. Turrets draw from your capacitor. Your warp engines provide your overall power rating. All equipment displays this information, however, I needed a way to display this so you won't need to break out a calculator every time you are equipping items. The power bias gauge will help by displaying the current power sustain based on the equipment currently slotted to your ship. I may actually add this to equipment rollover info so you can easily see the effect a shield, turret or engine might have on your power bias. There will be lot's of equipment variants to choose from and you will always be looking for the best performance at the lowest power cost.

I can say that I am now weeks away from the space combat update, so that should be good news to everyone. No specific date yet as I have quite a bit of coding and testing to do yet.

Have a great weekend and thanks for supporting Stellar Tactics!

[chookahead]

The ship power bias gauge seems like a great idea, can't wait to try everything out. Nearing completion is good news, keep up the good work!

[mm.324]

Keep up the great work.

[Holzinternet]

Hope to see progress soon :-) this all looks very promising and i will take my first round now. Just bought your game !

[Stellar Tactics]

Thanks Gorgut, enjoy! Please do post feedback and questions if you have any. I check here all the time. Press the "H" key while in the game for an explanation of the combat queue - makes combat much more fluid. Oh, and when you get to space, do the same for an explanation of space travel. The micro-warp drive is critical or it will take you a long time to get between planets in the Achmedius system.

[Holzinternet]

Thanks a lot... at this moment i am struggeling a bit with the battle system. I am on the bridge and the Doc and his 4 friends always knock me out. Any advice at this point ?

So far Stellar Tactics makes a lot of fun. I like the concept of RPG and exploration. Makes me remember of the old Fallout series.

Please keep on working. Your hole concept is one of the best i crossed in years.

[Stellar Tactics]

Hi Gorgutz - Glad to hear you are enjoying the game. A few strategies below for the bridge:

When you go into the bridge, go to the right or left and attack the phage first.

Keep most of your team out in the corridor and then run one team member in - your toughest - then run back to your team and attack anything that comes out of the bridge into the corridor with a cross-fire.

If you still have stun grenades, let the phage bunch up and then stun them - will buy you some time.

[vitowns]

Originally posted by Stellar Tactics:

Hi Gorgutz - Glad to hear you are enjoying the game. A few strategies below for the bridge:

When you go into the bridge, go to the right or left and attack the phage first.

Keep most of your team out in the corridor and then run one team member in - your toughest - then run back to your team and attack anything that comes out of the bridge into the corridor with a cross-fire.

If you still have stun grenades, let the phage bunch up and then stun them - will buy you some time.

Hello is update soon? Just curious i didn't buy the game yet!

[Holzinternet]

Hope so :-) Stellar Tactics is a good and promising game. I like it and hope to see it grow !

[mr-lockie]

Ooh , will Santa be bringing us an update ? :)

[Stellar Tactics]

chookahead - yes, the gauge is in and very helpful when equipping items.

Thanks mm.324!

vitowns - Weeks away - whether or not that's several or more I can't say yet. Certainly not months. I post progress updates here weekly talking about the progress I'm making.

Gorgutz - Thank you.

mr-lockie - Sooner than that I believe ;) And then on to other (easier) features and bug fixes.

Thanks for being patient everyone.

[vitowns]

Originally posted by Stellar Tactics:

chookahead - yes, the gauge is in and very helpful when equipping items.

Thanks mm.324!

vitowns - Weeks away - whether or not that's several or more I can't say yet. Certainly not months. I post progress updates here weekly talking about the progress I'm making.

Gorgutz - Thank you.

mr-lockie - Sooner than that I believe ;) And then on to other (easier) features and bug fixes.

Thanks for being patient everyone.

Ooooh sweet, thanks ! I spy daily xD

[Goddess Ilias]

Originally posted by vitowns:

Originally posted by Stellar Tactics:

Hi Gorgutz - Glad to hear you are enjoying the game. A few strategies below for the bridge:

When you go into the bridge, go to the right or left and attack the phage first.

Keep most of your team out in the corridor and then run one team member in - your toughest - then run back to your team and attack anything that comes out of the bridge into the corridor with a cross-fire.

If you still have stun grenades, let the phage bunch up and then stun them - will buy you some time.

Hello is update soon? Just curious i didn't buy the game yet!

Or head first where the phage would be then the battle with 6 of them starts so finish the 3 first and wait for the 3 others to come to you after that you can talk to the doctor for the boss battle. well you could talk to him before but then you have 7 enemies to fight with :§

[Lex]

A very good game whit a very solid and deep combat sistem. The combat experience in space will surely be magnificent. I can't wait

[Stellar Tactics]

Thanks Lex! I'll have another progress update out by the end of the day.