The system requirements for Fragmented Galaxy, as it exists today, have been posted to the Fragmented Galaxy page. Here they are:
These are the most basic requirements to get the game to launch. I can't provide any recommended specifications but any system from the last few years should suffice, with various levels of play-ability.
I am pleased to announce the release of Fragmented Galaxy version 1.3.0. To see all changes go to the Version History. Download at the Fragmented Galaxy page.
The largest change is that ships may now be organized into fleets using the UI on the right side of the screen.
Existing users: turn down your bloom setting! I changed the color space that is used when rendering so all the lights are re-calibrated. This means that the old default value for bloom is excessive.
Well, hello again.
I just finished moving my code and assets to Bitbucket, an excellent project tracker and remote repository from Atlassian. I am particularly fond of Atlassian products and was previously using Stash to track my changes. Unfortunately I was using Dropbox for my cloud backups and my available size is about to shrink there. I was already eyeing Bitbucket due to the integrated issue tracker and wiki but the Dropbox issue forced me.
Fear not that I have been neglecting the next release of Fragmented Galaxy. Fleets are well on their way! I already have much of the organizational functionality I wanted for the first iteration so I might just push out a build before coordinated movement makes it in. I will be moving the To Do page to the new issue tracker on Bitbucket soon, probably at the next public build.
That segue's nicely into my next topic. I made the issue tracker public so anyone can report issues that I don't find in my testing. Check it out here. Report any issues you find. It will help me create a better game over time.
I home you are all having fun with the latest build!
Fleets are coming along nicely. On my internal build fleet creation and generating a list of the fleets in existence is working very nicely. I am going to add the ability to rename and disband fleets this week. Then work can start on coordinating the fleet's movements with flight control.
This first version of flight control will inform the ships where to place themselves in relation to a reference point or object. It will also inform the ships of the maximum acceleration they are allowed to apply so the fleet doesn't spread out due to differences in propulsion.
Hello again.
I just finished a bit of polish on the latest internal build of Fragmented Galaxy and I want to get it out to everyone as soon as possible. However, not all the features I had hoped for are included. I want rapid releases but I think I bit off more than I could chew with my latest To-Do list. To review, I had 3 major items that I wanted to include:
That is making for too long between releases. So, for that reason, I am postponing fleets until a future version and WILL have a new build available for download this weekend. It won't look like much but believe me when I say a bunch has changed under the hood.
The system for changing graphical settings individually is now in place. The graphics are work-in-progress (read: Unity default) but I wanted to show an update this weekend due to the lack of a new build.
Progress continues!
Like most people in the US, I had a day off today for Christmas. How did I use it? Fragmented Galaxy, of course!
Today I finished upgrading to the newest version of Unity, the new individual-settings system, and ripped out the old UI detection system. I am going to start on the new UI detection system shortly but I thought I'd take break and wish you all happy holidays.
A new release might be arriving this weekend, so stay posted.
Thanks all!
While you wait for the next build of Fragmented Galaxy, I thought I would share some of the art that inspires me to create.
A wonderful place to see myriad visions of the future, near and far, are at concept ships. Sometimes these perspectives are wacky and other-worldly but that just goes to show that science fiction really has no bounds. I hope to explore a bit myself with Fragmented Galaxy.
BURYAT's concept art portrays sleek yet simple ships. To me they look like the ships that a version of humanity that has mastered space-flight might create. Visit his blog for more than is displayed on the linked page.
Simon Stålenhag has a number of excellent series depicting the world if technology had developed differently into the 70's and 80's. His work includes technology with a simple, if weathered look. I highly recommend looking at his galleries!
I usually listen to music while I develop. My Programming playlist on Spotify include all the jams that power me through my late night sessions writing code or tweaking textures. I generally like epic movie and game soundtracks but the odd single does sneak in from time to time.
Recently I watched a short film that has been making its rounds on "the social medias" and I though I would share it here as well. Wanderers is a short film by Erik Wernquist that tugs at your heartstrings and makes you think about where humanity's place in the stars is.
A simple and luxurious version of humanity in space is Star Trek. (movies and TV series) There are plenty of space battles and politics but the Federation is really what makes it one of my inspirations. It is jockeying for position with the major powers around it and managing its expanse rather successfully. It is a masterpiece of 4X game mid-game action. The shows' views on technology make you think about what is possible for us to achieve.
Babylon 5 (sorry for the terrible link, there isn't an official website for the show) depicted relations between various nations (read: alien species) with deals being struck, assassinations, and wars. The intrigue is exhilarating! One refreshing novelty is that the ships were shown with more realistic movements than other shows set in space.
The top of my games list is Homeworld 2. The control scheme was unique to the type of game-play it presented and the story was intriguing. I only wish I had more insight into the technology or some back-story because it seems like that universe would led itself to more fleshing-out. A re-mastered edition is in development now.
My favorite view of the rough-and tumble frontier and intricate politics comes from the first Mass Effect, mostly before the Reapers are introduced. (sorry Reapers) I loved the way the council bickered and the relationships between the major and minor powers. The story was so deep and there was so much to discover. The rich history of the galaxy and especially humanity's first steps into the the galactic social order, were so immersing that I lost myself in the game for many hours reading back-story.
My favorite turn-based strategy game series is Civilization. Seeing the empire you craft with your own hands over the millennia is so satisfying that I often go back for more. Since every game is different it has immense replayability and it embodies many of the properties I want the larger game-play for Fragmented Galaxy.
Sim City 4 lets you manage resources in a similar manner to Civilization in a real-time environment and on a smaller scale.
Kerbal Space Program is the last entry on my giant list. I play a bunch of the sandbox mode. The ability to launch fairly realistic rockets and pilot spacecraft in a world where orbital dynamics exist is amazing. Words can't explain it, just go and try it for yourself!
There will be no new release this week as I have to be in at work on Sunday. (oh, wait, is that today?)
I can report that many of the smaller things I wanted to get gone for the next release are done but fixing clicking on UI elements through each-other is going to take more effort than expected. In fact, I'm going to re-write the entire system so it is more maintainable and easier to use. As usual, you can see my plans on the To-Do page.
Get over to the Fragmented Galaxy page and download the latest release!
This is built from Unity 5 which includes many improvements including physics performance increases and physically based rendering. Also, a new movement system has been added to make ships move more smartly. Visit the Version History for a full list of changes. See the To-Do page for what is coming in the future.
Screenshots and a video are below if you can't download right now.
I got the movement and UI to a working state today. All I need to do is make the new ship a little prettier and a new build will be on the site. All I am promising is a new set of standalone executables. The web version is a different beast. I want to try to get the new HTML web player (yay Unity 5!) working since no plugin will be needed to play it. Unfortunately I don't know how long that will take.
Stat tuned.
The new movement model hs been mostly implemented! Just a few more things to do and I'll have another build on the website. (hopefully tonight)
Stay tuned.
EDIT: Looks like it won't be tonight. The new cargo ship isn't quite where I want it yet. Look forward to next weekend.
Today I decided to upgrade to the newest Unity 5 beta and a few things happened.
The standard (physically-based) shaders were changed so I had to re-engineer my custom decal version. Unfortunately, the sky-sphere also broke so now none of the stars shine through the clouds and I'm still working to fix that. Also, my old specularity maps for the ships no longer function so I need to re-create them for the new metallic workflow.
While disappointing, these are only cosmetic things. My brother and I worked on getting the new movement model implemented for another 4 hours today but still no dice there. He is going to play with the algorithm later today to analyze the output curves and try to make sense of them.
Sorry for the downer post but I didn't want to leave you without an update. I'm still here, making some progress.
I was on-call for work this weekend so I didn't get much done. I did, however work with my genius brother on implementing a new movement model.
That means no more sweeping turns but way more predicatable/rational movement. More details when the next version comes out!
Particles.
A little piece I have been working on...
What do you think of this?
Some games do population growth right. Take Civilization, for example. A single play-through can take over 24 hours. That might be a short time for some games or a long time for others, real-time games for instance.
Civilization can do population growth well because it's scope is so large. It is an entire planet over thousands of years. And, because it is a turn-based game. The turns in Civilization vary in length. In the beginning of the game, the turns are hundreds of years long but layer they can be less than a year long. This is because, as time goes on, it takes less time to accomplish the same amount of work or, in this case, population growth.
That works fine for tun-based games because everything is just an aggregation of things from the real world and time scales can vary.
That doesn't work for real-time games, however, since the game must be played in the lifetime of the player, not over thousands of actual years. One solution to this problem is to keep the population constrained as a part of the story. In Homeworld, the population was put onto the Mothership by the Bishop ships and it was plausible that your entire population for the entire game consists of that initial population.
Other games, like Fragmented Galaxy, can't use that option. I'm trying to make a fun game and a plausible simulation. This means trade-offs, unfortunately. In real life, the world population grows by about 10,000 per hour (0.000000014% growth). If a player invests an hour of time into my game I want them to have accomplished more than that.
In the interest of fun, I am considering a few options. Read about them in part 3.
I haven't posted in a while.
Yes it it is true but I am not without my excuses (read: totally legitimate reasons). Three factors contributed to this.
First, Destiny came out. If anybody is wondering, it is a great game, though, somewhat lacking in the single-player department. I played a ton of it with my brother the week it came out but now my interest is starting to wane. The endless grinding for better equipment is starting to get to me.
Second, work has been kicking my ass. My boss was out and, as one of the more senior folks in my department, I have been saddled with additional responsibility.
Lastly was my own motivation was waning. I don't like to complain but having a real job and doing this on the side is a bit draining. My coding inspiration comes in cycles so I'll always come back.
Now that I finally have a substantial update to show off, I have updated all the downloads and the web player. The main difference you will see is that there are multiple ships now! The full details will be in the version history shortly.
I'll try to post updates more often in the future, not just for Fragmented Galaxy updates.
