Update 19


-added new enemy faction and boss fight to the campaign

-added 6 additional campaign missions with multiple map and faction combinations

-added new skirmish map

-both corporate faction boss fights are now in the boss rush mode

-new map type: planetary map. These are cloud covered maps with gravity and platforms to catch falling debris

-added new "faction info" button to campaign dialogue screens featuring an enemy faction's portrait

-fixed bug where move orders that had both a regular destination and a rotation destination weren't being removed when both results were reached (this caused an issue with some scripted Command Center movements in the campaign)

-the AI will now upgrade cruisers with weapon modules and the skirmish AI will build cruisers and other T3 units on normal and hard difficulty

-adjusted Wreckers League boss battle to add a slow effect to the boss when ship shredders are active and reduce the production rate on easy and normal difficulty

 

This update adds the 2nd corporate opponent and boss fight to the campaign (the 6th overall.) I still have a few things to change, including the faction portrait, which will be changed in a future update.

 

The new map type which includes the boss fight and a new skirmish map should add some additional variety to the game. These "planetary" maps take place high in the atmosphere of a large planet and unlike the space maps, scrap metal from destroyed ships will simply fall to the surface, rather than floating around where the ship was destroyed. Large buildings with flat platforms will catch any falling debris, so it is good to fight above them if you wish to collect any scrap after the battle. I've had this idea for a cloud map for a while, but this update finally adds them to the public build. It took a while to get the shaders for the clouds and buildings working properly (making the cloud layers appear to have real volume and making the buildings fade into the clouds below) but while I was working on that I managed to find some optimizations to the way regular units are drawn as well.

 

I've gotten feedback that the player's relationships with the other factions is one of the more interesting parts of the game so I've been trying to focus on making that an even bigger part of the campaign. Among the new missions, I've added 3 where the player chooses between 2 enemy fleets that can have any combination of factions. Each faction will have a fleet makeup and reward that is customized to fit with that faction's strengths. I've also edited some of the old missions to have better rewards and add in additional possible factions.

 

Additional Notes:

 

My next step is to complete the last additional corporate faction/boss and then the final Imperial boss fight. I'm close enough to the end that I can say that the final release date should be within a few weeks of the end of the summer sale (I'll also be putting the game on sale to try and get some players before it comes out.) That will give me time to finish the rest of the campaign, make a new trailer, and try to do some marketing.

Files

empyrean-frontier-win.zip 291 MB
Version 27 Jun 18, 2018

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