Hey guys!
Exciting times - for the past month I've been working on "properly" implementing carriers.
Here's a YouTube vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDxAiA5r-SM
Direct Link - YouTube
Not just ships that can launch drones/fighters - but "proper" carriers. Ships that share some of the characteristics of bases. You can think of them as mini armed mobile bases or ships that carry a base inside of them.
To sum up - you can dock with a carrier and walk around inside of it (like a base - limited hangar/walking area). Then you can either manage the carrier (in terms of building ships) or switch to the pilot's seat and personally fly like any other ship.
The carrier's hangar functions pretty much like inside of a base's hangar (though limited to ship production and management) - you can build ships (fighters/gunships/corvettes) - in exchange for ore. While in space - you can command these ships to be launched, they will return to the hangar after the battle (on the switch to Overworld mode).
The carrier can either pick up ore from ship mode (so you can buy/steal the ore) or you can buy or take ore when the carrier is docked at a base. Making it pretty self sufficient!
Here's a short list of new features -
What's missing?
Necessary bug fixes and polish and minor details I didn't consider - looking for feedback!
I had also hoped to include missions to obtain "plans" to build these carriers but at the moment I'm short on time - so I hope to be able to work on this prior to release (can't promise it though) - right now the player can build a carrier (provided a faction has this type of ship) as soon as the player captures a base of that faction.
What's next?
My goal is to finish up the "main story" - and thus enter into the "Beta" phase of the project.
Beta?
Beta to me means that the game is major feature complete (though without the necessary bug fixes/polish) and has nearly all of it's story/mission content (though potentially missing some ships).
During Beta I will play the game start to finish, polishing up elements as I go and as I see them. The late game stage - is badly in need of polish and balancing - especially Overworld combat calculations and the new "at war" mechanic. I'm looking forward to working on these elements to give them much needed improvements.
Thanks again for all of your amazing feedback/bug reports and support - I truly appreciate it! You guys are helping me create something I've dreamed of for a long time and I hope you enjoy the final product :)
Paul