Massive breakthroughs with new movement code!

Everything seems like it’s finally coming together! The new Force based movement/rotation (Angular velocity) seems to finally be coming together! Some of the biggest additions have been to look into applying counter accelerations when no input is being applied (basically providing your own drag in space). This allows for a very similar smooth curve when trying to turn and accelerate into a turn with your vessel. Some of the reality of these vectors are a bit unrealistic since it would mean that most of your maneuvering thrusters are stronger force related to the massive main thrusters behind your vessel, but IMO Gameplay > Reality.

With this said, I’m finally happy at the fact that this is paying off. Not only is this a better method of moving ships around, it’s also cheaper on the CPU and provides much better access to velocity based numbers to things like Camera lag in third person and also more accurate calculations for lead targeting!

One thing that seems to still kind of elude me is the moment of inertia calculations (which currently I’m bypassing for pure change in acceleration just to get the system to work). I really want to see how I can get these to work so that I can actually have a pseudo realistic change in mass of the vessels to affect how they would fly/rotate. For instance, I was really hoping to have things like mass of weapons to make an impact on the maneuvering of lighter craft like the Icarus, but the more I think about this, the more this seems to be a feature that really isn’t important for the immediate future and will place it on the back burner for the time being.

Reviews of new features since the Demo before opening the Alpha to Backers

So after jumping back to review what was in the Demo for everyone, I had a silly realization that so much has changed since then and I haven’t let anyone get their hands on it except for just showing these things in updates. Things like the new HUD, Tactical View, Angular Velocity Movement code, Fleet grouping, Mega Meteors, Large Vessels, Ship Building etc. etc. all are things I really want to show you guys let you experience it for yourself. I’ve just been holding alot of it back to release to the backers since alot of these things have been just in some weird broken states since I’ve been refactoring alot of core functionality – like the movement code. Going forward, I’m going to be making an effort to split some of these off into little demo levels (so there’s no broken Mag Drive) and let you guys just fight waves of Silicoid in a small space.

Before releasing these early raw features to the backers, I will be cleaning these features up and I will be writing a feature review explaining what all these are again and what you can expect going in.

Summary

I know I’ve dropped the ball when it comes to development updates, especially during COVID times. Personally these times have really taken me away from this project that I love since I needed to shift some personal priorities in my life, but that’s no excuse for needing to fulfill my obligations to all you who have supported this project from the get go. This is why, regardless of the early state of these new features, I want to provide you access to these raw features even if some of it may be a bit broken, but I would rather hear from you what works and what needs to change so we can get the feedback cycle rolling again.

I’m looking forward to pushing these out to an Alpha branch and see what you guys all think.

-Kami