Regular updates also mean (more than usual) somewhat boring updates from time to time too. But, fear not ! There’s two screenshots, with one featuring a few ships of the third main race. Next article should be more interesting as it will be a design document about how the navigation across the universe will work. Things will be fairly different from the gate / jumpdrive system of the X games.
Enjoy ! 🙂
Anyway, I added a bunch of functions to the Faction AI so it can track its military ships and handle those who are free for a mission. Also added a bunch of other functions so it can track threat levels (if you used ADS for X3, you know what I am talking about) across its sectors, decide which adjacent sector is free for picking, which other faction or sector may pose a threat.
Stations and factories can now equip weapons and shields, they have a hull and an energy generator too, so in principle they can shoot and be destroyed, which was necessary for the whole war thing that will be going on between factions. I also improved the Ship combat AI, they don’t stack anymore and move around their target instead of sort of standing still when they are in shooting range, making them harder to hit. I also added a “protect” order that will later lead to wings and fleets of ships.
So apart from the very visible changes regarding ship AI, most of the rest is laying (hopefully good) foundations for the inter-faction warfare, which mean that I can’t really show anything or even test it until most of the picture is complete. That’s one of the frustrating part of development, but you get used to it. Also, bug-fixes and optimizations, lot of them, but nothing really worth talking about.
Also, added the Drath faction, it has its own ship style and theme, stock stations, though, because i don’t have the art assets to do otherwise. Here’s a screenshot:
