It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Yeah, sorry about that.
Turns out it’s a really bad idea to develop multiple games at once when you’re one guy with a dog. But with Tyrannis and the rest of my projects pretty much finished, I can now focus on Infinite Voyager.
So, let’s get started with what’s new in this (very late) update.
Let’s start with some bug fixes:
Loaded saves will show the correct systems for previously-visited systems.
The targeting reticule will no longer rotate for smaller ships with point-defense weapons.
Cursors will show up when they’re supposed to during pause menus.
The game will no longer crash when entering planets in previously-entered systems.
Starship shields will now recharge during combat.
The clock now functions normally instead of going through minutes every second.
The big problem, now that I’ve had a chance to look at it, is that combat was just too hard. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, except it was too hard on Easy.
So, after doing some tweaking and rebalancing shield recharge times and health based on difficulty, the enemies should be a bit easier on Easy and Medium, while Hard is still as difficult as ever. More importantly, you can actually tell the difference now.
Another problem I noticed was that missiles during starship combat were pretty much unavoidable if you didn’t have flares. The main strategy of “Wait for your enemy to run out of flares and then hit them with missiles” might be a pragmatic way to win, but it just isn’t fun when you only have ten flares and about twenty missiles gunning for you.
So starships with flares now have additional flares that won’t run out after a second.
Honestly, I’m looking into removing missiles outright for the starships. They’re pretty much an instant-damage weapon, and outrunning them isn’t too fun. Nothing finalized, but I’m thinking about switching to switching ships out with point defense guns to try and create a more bullet-hell style game that could be more fun.
Plus, it’d probably be the closest I could get to starships realistically broadsiding each other in space, and that sounds cool as hell.
But enough about balancing. Let’s talk about Drones.
Drones are basically the new way to handle planetary exploration and battles in Infinite Voyager. Instead of having a gauntlet of ship battles, you’ll now pilot your drones against squadrons of defense fighters in dogfights around planetary atmospheres.
Drones can be purchased at any planet’s Drone Depot, and you are only limited by the number of hangars in your starship. If you want to add more hangars, you can now upgrade your starship.
Now, there are two different types of drones: Recon Drones and Combat Drones.
Recon Drones are used for planetary exploration. Instead of using your starships, you’ll now use your Drones to explore a planet’s surface. While you will always have a single Recon Drone on you no matter what, it goes without saying that counting planets is a lot faster when you bring more.
Combat Drones are going to be your new way of fighting in-atmosphere. Not just because I honestly have no idea if these ships would even be rated for atmosphere (as in they won’t explode), but because Combat Drones fight differently than starships.
Think of it less like a naval battle and more of a dogfight.
There are two different times you’ll be flying a Combat Drone: Trying to access a hostile planet, or trying to take one over.
Combat Drones have similar controls compared to starships. Press Left Shift for boost, the Left Mouse Button for the autocannon, the Middle Mouse Button for flares, and the Right Mouse Button for missiles.
Assuming you’re locked on, anyways. Otherwise, the missiles will head off to God knows where and keep going.
Drone Combat works in a series of waves, where your Combat Drone fights increasingly-difficult waves of the planet’s Combat Drones. Destroy one wave, and you’ll have a quick break before you fight the next. Get blown up, and you’ll fly back in with another Combat Drone (assuming you have one).
Defeat every wave, and you’ll have your victory in the form of access or an entire planet’s worth of loot.
But if you run out of ships, then you’re back to where you started. Just with fewer Combat Drones.
Anyways, that should conclude this update. Again, sorry for the long delay, but I’ve got a lot more time on my hands right now.
What’s next? Dunno. Probably the starship weapons rework. Because broadsiding a spaceship with an autocannon sounds cool as hell.
Until then, take care.
Chris Providence
cGh ONE’s one employee
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