QubeTubers IndieWeekend, Giveaway

I’m happy to announce that we’re going to be the first interview in QubeTubers IndieWeekend!

We’ll be streaming the latest, in-development build of Starfarer, so this is your first chance to see some of the new features in action – in particular, the fleet command mechanics & interface.

The event starts at 8pm today, Friday August 5th, and our interview is from 9-10pm EST. We’ll also be giving away a couple of Starfarer activation codes to viewers that ask particularly thought-provoking questions about the game, so if you’d like  shot at a free copy of the game, do tune in!

New Screenshots

Uploaded a few screenshots from the latest build.  You can see some new ships, improved UI elements, and a poor Apogee-class cruiser get completely hammered by bombs.

Head over to the media section and check ’em out!

Alright then, back to coding. All those TODO items aren’t going to implement themselves. I wish they would, though.

“Turning the Tables” Mission Playthrough Video

Well, I finally beat the combat UI into reasonable shape, and was able to record a full playthrough of one of the earlier (and definitely easier) missions. The fleets are comparatively small, and so is the map, making for faster-paced action.

The mission briefing, to set the mood:

The independent prospector ISS Hamatsu is coming back from a tech mining expedition on a decivilized world. The haul is good, and the Hamatsu’s captain has retained a mercenary ship to provide protection en route to market at the Hegemony worlds.

It turns out the captain’s worries were justified. Coming out of hyperspace for a routine refueling stop in the Corvus system, the ships are attacked by a suspected Cult of Lud task force. The Ludii blame technology for humanty’s ills, and will do anything to prevent the Hamatsu and its high-tech cargo from reaching Hegemony space.

After a brief conference, the captains of the Hamatsu and the mercenary ISS Black Star conclude that a counterattack offers the best chance of success – retreat is not a viable option as the Hamatsu is running low on fuel.

The ISS Black Star is under your command.

This is the first look at a continuous slice of Starfarer gameplay. Enjoy!

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The State Of Affairs

The Now is what the ancients would call “year 3126.” We do not call it that anymore. It is pointless to cite large numbers that remind us how far we had come, and how far we have fallen. Since we do not even know where Old Earth is anymore, and cannot reach it – we use a new way of telling time, the sector cycle. In our sector of space, it is cycle 206.

Not much is known about the ancient past. What we know is what survivors recorded or told us. They described a vast galactic nation – the Domain of Man. Spanning hundreds of thousands of worlds in the Milky Way, ruled by the Ecumenical Benevolent Council, with its seat at Old Earth… It is told that one could travel the stars in the blink of an eye through gates constructed by the men of the Domain. Resources were nearly limitless, growth was not bound. Our sector was relatively new on the scene. Some worlds in it had only been settled for 20 or so cycles before the great calamity. The populations of the planets in our sector were still giddy with the initial excitement that every new venture brings. The sector was truly a heaven that we can now only dream of, hoping we go to a place like it when we die.

No one knows for sure what caused the end of this paradise. The records and stories only tell us bits and pieces. Exactly 206 cycles ago, all gates in our sector went dead at once. All communication links to the Domain were severed. Initially, there was no great disturbance in the daily lives of the colonists, it was assumed the gates would be reopened by the Domain, and communications reestablished. So they waited. But the gates were silent.

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Spotlight: Fighters, pt.2, and More!

I was going to talk about fighters in part 2 of this series, but thought better of it. Oh, you’ll still find out more about fighters – it just won’t be from me talking, but through the magic of video. And Fraps. Which is totally killing my desktop, I might add, forcing Starfarer to run at less than the silky-smooth 60 fps. Using Windows Movie Maker isn’t helping much, either – I had to scrounge up some plugins to export the project in HD – by default, you can’t even do that. Ahem.

This video has me setting up some combat scenarios in a sandbox.  It lets me spawn ships and fighter wings at the touch of a button, and then they fight it out.  In the actual game, you’re controlling a ship – but in this sandbox, we’re just watching the AI fight it out.

As our crack Eastern European video production crew was not involved in the making of this video, please pardon any rough edges.

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