Hello everyone,
As many people have already asked to see what the future plans are for the development, here is a thread on that.
First of all, as this game is made by a single programmer and a single contracted graphic designer, the plans are not really made all the way to the full version. But, there are things and features that will definitely find their way into the game.
That being said, please keep in mind that many new features and adjustments might be added at any point of time, even if they are not listed below. Their addition to the game might also be sooner or later than specified, depending on the development speed, amount of found bugs to fix and overall functionality - I am always trying to make everything bug-free, but as we all know, players will always find something.
[b]Currently made plans for 2023:[/b]
[u]February:[/u]
- add player to player trade feature -> to allow players to stay in space and trade items and Courons directly with other players near them without the need to land anywhere
- add Property screen in Faction section in the station interior screen. This screen will show all space stations owned by the faction, along with their name, system, coords in that system and the amount of HP
- adjust the space station settings section for the station owner -> improvements for the factory and prices screen to simplify the process of setting up active factory line and setting up shop prices for the items.
[u]March:[/u]
- adjust the StarMap HUD window to provide more information on the selected system -> display if the system has any space stations and what is their name, type and who owns them
- change the station spawning process:
-> get rid of the fixed space station spawner buttons currently present directly on the game map and instead add a new HUD window for station spawner
-> raise station amount limit per system to 5 (currently 3)
-> allow the player to choose where he wants to build his new station, with some limitations:
->> each station has to be at least 1000 pixels away from any other station (all player-made space stations are about 500x500 pixels, so you can think of a 1 space station size empty space between stations)
->> the space station cannot be build less than 1000 pixels away from the system borders
[u]April / May:[/u]
- add space station defence customisation -> station owners will be able to select / upgrade the station armor / shield / repair bot
- add space station patrol drones:
-> maximum of 8 drones orbiting the station
-> small drones orbiting around the space station. Station owner can build them and choose a formation they will orbit the station in
-> these drones, after they are destroyed, will be respawned in 60 seconds
-> defence drones will not have self repair function themselves, instead once the space station they belong to is fully repaired, it will start repairing the drones one-by-one
[u]June:[/u]
- add new in-game emails feature -> players will be able to receive / send items and Courons via in-game emails. This will also be used for receiving an item from a completed mission when both inventory and personal warehouse in the hangar is already full
- add Social screen in station interior:
-> players will be able to add friends and see their online status
-> the in-game emails feature will also be placed in this section
- add weapons control for some medium sized ships (carrier class ships): allow the player to choose to fire the weapons from either front, left side or right side of the ship
[u]July / August:[/u]
[b]Scheduled 3-4 weeks long holidays[/b] to visit my family, so these months will be mainly focused on bug fixing, new missions writing (although new missions are also being written at any time when the update package is finished and awaiting release).
[u]September:[/u]
- debuff 50% for any equipped item with its own item HP equal to 0 -> these debuffs are currently not in the game because..., it would just be too cruel when the economy is not yet fully running.
Regards,
Lukas Tokar
ltokar
13:11:58, 22/01/2023
Post ID: 102
[b]Currently unscheduled, but planned features for the far future:[/b]
- add daily login bonuses
- add more NPC races, NPC ships and NPC stations
- add legendary NPCs (very strong, huge and extremely tough NPC ships which can be damaged only in a certain way)
- add Nations (2+ factions connected together), which are able to colonise planets
- add planet colonisations
- add system conquests - nations to gain points for the whole week for each station in the system. At the end of the week, the nation with the most points and above the minimum limit will be marked as system owner
- add system lock - nation that owns a system which borders with at least 2 other owned systems can be locked -> no other players will be able to build their space station in such a system.
- add new sectors to the game map (each sector has 25 systems)
- add premium features the players could buy with real money (the game will stay free-2-play as I personally hate pay-2-win system, but such features will provide reasonable bonuses for low prices).
[small]to help me pay for the game upkeep and development cost, which is currently around £100-150 / month (server, domain, professional gmail accounts, new textures). Price varies depending on the amount of new textures. I am also thinking of opening up Patreon account to raise funds for the game.[/small]
Regards,
Lukas Tokar