Alpha 0.2

This patch adds a lot of the core systems required to accommodate the games core gameplay loops, as well as a bunch of quality of life improvements to make testing far easier.

Light Fighter - New Ship Type

The light fighter is an agile & incredibly maneuverable winged craft. While much faster than the airship it packs only 2 cannons & a single shield charge. Capable of vertical take-off & landing. 

Factions, Quests & Reputation

All ships in the game now belong to a faction. Factions can be friendly or hostile to each other, depending on their relationship. The player can improve their reputation with a given faction by performing quests for them or destroying their enemies. Conversely, attacking the ships of a faction will rapidly deteriorate your relationship with them & quickly turn them hostile.

Settlements

The player now starts in Al'Mirel, a major trade settlement built on old ruins. Additional smaller settlements/outposts are scattered throughout the world. Each settlement is conquerable by the player or other AI factions, but they are heavily defended. Turrets dots the high-ground, ships patrol their borders & a small fleet stands ready to defend. Attack at your own risk. 

Characters

The world is now populated with characters. The intent here is to give the world a little more life & make it more interesting to explore. Characters will talk to you with on-screen prompts eg. A character will now walk you through the tutorial, or radio you to ask for help if their settlement comes under attack. 

While characters do belong to a faction, they have their own opinion of you. Doing favors for them will increase your standing with them & potentially unlock new quests / opportunities. 

Docking

The player & AI can now dock to landing pads or ports. Simply fly up to a pad or port & hit the dock button, the ship will auto-dock for you. AI ships out of combat & not on patrol will also request a landing pad/port & auto-dock to their settlements.

For now this is just a means to accept quests or initiate conversations with characters around the settlement. Later on this will be the means by which you trade as well repair, refuel or modify your ship.

Racing

The player can now enter races to earn a bit of extra coin. Talk to Auris, the local quartermaster, to enter. Once accepted beacon-rings will pop up around the city. Fly through them before time runs out to complete the race. Completing races will unlock progressively harder races, that pay out even more.

Controller Support

The game now supports Gamepad! If you prefer playing with a PlayStation or Xbox controller simply plug one in &  start using it. The tutorial & any input prompts will automatically adjust to the relevant controls.

Options Menu & Key-Rebinding

The game now has a proper options menu with graphics & audio options & complete key re-binding. If your running on a potato you should now be able to tune down the settings & have it run at an acceptable frame-rate. Not happy with the controls? Change them to whatever you desire. 

Persistence

Any options you select in the options menu, as well as any progress you make, now saves to disk. For now this is really just quest, currency & reputation values, but this will be expanded to settlement ownership, settlement state & eventually to a complete world state as I expand out world generation.

Music

The game now plays ambient & quest-specific music using a system of cut up loops & transitions. This allows us to change the music & the intensity of the track based on the circumstances in game. 

Thankyou!

For everyone who has played so far, thank you so much! I cannot stress how helpful your feedback has been so far. The game has shifted dramatically & is so much better than what it was already. 

If you decide to give this build a go & you have a moment after playing I have a quick survey up here -  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/J28PZWB. 

It's completely anonymous, multiple choice & should only take 2 minutes or so. You can also leave comments or contact me at twobears.dev@gmail.com. Thanks for your time!