Hey everybody. This will be a quick, screenshot-intensive update, as we’re gearing up for the beta tomorrow and a lot of work remains to be done ! But we’re happy to show you the results of our first textured ship, the cruiser. Keep in mind it’s a work in progress, we’re still tweaking the materials, adding decals and more effects.
The red color map you can see in these screenshots is only the default skin. There are also 8 more that we are experimenting with, and they’ll also be available in the beta patch. Much less work has gone into them yet, so they’re more like proof-of-concept than the default dark red skin, but here’s a picture showing them all:
Neat. I like the red/white best.
Smelling some Homeworld inspired coloring.
Pretty cool.
…that update picture is totally awesome. That shot from the side…and that crisp texture, it looks awesome.
EDIT:
Its the white what seems to give it that large scale feel.
White is the only one that does not obstruct all those tiny details.
White white more white. WHITE FTW
A few thoughts, now I played some of the Beta release!
I don’t mind the blue HUD. The fact it fades into the background a bit allows me to focus better on the brighter enemy icons and lead indicators etc. Perhaps it could be a little brighter, or a bit more shadow behind, but I think it looks less cluttered than the green.
The HUD looks a lot less cluttered in general now. Good stuff!
I still have issues with the spherical radar. Yes, it’s useful in certain situations but it’s quite large and prominent at the bottom of the screen. I would like it to be ever so slightly smaller and maybe off-centre.
Icons generally are good, though it would be nice to keep improving the distinction between different ship classes. In big battles, you’re never quite sure what kind of ship you’re attacking until you get close.
Space-dust is generally okay, not as obtrusive as I thought it might be. It’s a bit OTT during warp though. Either we need an option to tone it down a little, or perhaps increase to a full, on-screen warp effect.
Capital ship controls are said to be incomplete in the patch notes, so I won’t comment on those yet. I do agree holding the W key is awkward though. Pressing once to set a heading would work so much better.
Weapon convergence on interceptor? Would be nice to have it auto-adjust to the distance of the target. Sometimes when the enemy got too close, I struggled to hit it and had to aim slightly to one side, hitting it with just one weapon.
Slower speeds are great! Again, didn’t think it would work, but the sense of scale is much better, without it being a silly hard-cap speed limit.
Small bug - the error message when trying to engage warp from low speed is incorrect. It still states you must be travelling at 500m/s, but the new speed is 250m/s?
I have tested the capital control scheme some more, it’s ok apart from the the W/S issue. In combat it can be difficult to know one’s orientation though, an issue when turrets have limited firing arcs. A model of the ship in a corner could help with that (with an indication of turrets out of firing arc?).
The largest turret placement for the cruiser is awkward combined with the location of the camera: the ship is between the camera and the target on optimal firing arcs.
absolutely brilliant design, reminiscent of something rob cunningham would have done. i always appreciate art design that tries to be unique, original, yet at the same time functional and realistic. not easy to get that perfect balance.
also like that it has a sense of scale and isn’t just an up sized f-18 or something silly looking a lot of sci fi games do to their capital ships
