Starfall Tactics | Outfit your spaceship flotilla. Watch it explode

Community Showcase Game Development
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We’ve already shown you two faction planets in previous articles - Earth and Ancora. But there is another one left, belonging to the Eclipse faction - and it’s finally here:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/odysseusres.jpg

Odysseus

Pirates, stations, depots, warpgates, colonized planets, Motherships, black markets, huge enemy fleets - and, most likely, this is not the full list of things you will be able to encounter while furrowing the vast of Starfall Tactics universe.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/supplysoutpostmothershipres.jpg

So, here are new structures you couldn’t see during previous tests - Outpost and Supply Station.

  • Supply Station - This is a basic structure you can build for capturing a system. This Station collects resources from all planets in its’ system and provides it with necessary supplies e.g. food.
  • Outpost - Upgraded Supply Station. Provides better supplies distribution, launches NPC guarding fleets into the system and gives vision in this system for all faction members (doesn’t depend on whether you explored it or not). Outposts have better protection and it’s harder to destroy them.
  • Mothership - Structure of the highest grade, the most protected one. Does all things listed above in a better way and has other important functions: allows warping between Motherships, refueling and repairing all fleets, finishing Discovery session, taking all blueprints and modules to your account inventory and selling loot.

Cluster Missile is another useful thing to help you destroy swarms of smaller ships. As you could understand from its name, it’s a missile which splits into several pieces and can do some area damage with smaller missiles.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/module_clustermissile_blueprintres.jpg

At the moment it is presented in the game as a special module, but there is a huge chance that it eventually will become a weapon.

More

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As we already said in our previous post, you can conquer faction systems by building Supply Stations there. Of course, system which belongs to your faction and where you can freely spend your time is a cool thing, but we definitely need something else to make the game more interesting, right? So, we added and will add many other things - we already have some in our roadmap, and this time we are telling about planet colonization.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/supply_colony_complex_invicon.png

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/mining_colony_complex_invicon.png

At first, let’s say a couple words about Сolonization. In Starfall Tactics you are able to establish a colony on each planet, spending a special item which you can acquire from your Mothership in exchange to reputation. There are two types of colonies:

  • Supply Factory: provides resources like food and other necessary stuff, which spends on maintaining life in colonies. If there are not enough supplies, people on a planet start dying and colonies become less effective. If there are a lot of resources, population increases and colonies work better.
  • Mining Complex: mines valuable resources like ore which can be spent on building Supply Stations and upgrading it to Outposts and Motherships.
  • But since each planet has it’s own parameters like Temperature, Atmosphere, Life probability and resource availability - some of them produce better, some - worse, and some can’t have colonies of certain type at all. It still can be changed if you acquire a special item which terraforms chosen planet, making conditions better within reasonable limits.

Structures like Supply Stations, Outposts and Motherships help you distribute resources from colonies: if there is one on a system, from time to time planets send a certain amount of produced resources to the structure and it distributes to planets which have a need in it or to a building structure. If a planet in need is in other system, structure sends a caravan to it, but it must be connected through other structures, like a chain - otherwise it won’t be able to deliver resources. And these caravans can be attacked and robbed, but take care - while players of other faction benefit from it in all ways, players of the same faction will lose reputation. You also can deliver resources manually, receiving reward in IGC and reputation.

We also continue adding new weapons and modules:

  • Protonic Torpedo Launcher - Launches torpedoes with a great AOE effect.
  • Melted Avalanche - Assault Rocket Launcher, launching a big amount of rockets at once. Deals sufficient damage, but has a relatively long cooldown.
  • CQC Laser - Assault laser with average range, deals maximum damage only in near distances.
  • Neutron mine is a very effective thing against crew. While having a 2000m explosion radius and an average damage, it allows you to destroy more crew on enemy ships then usual damage does.

We keep working on other features and hope to start Faction Wars test soon :wink:

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Wars for territories, planet colonization, faction houses (guilds), intense battles in quick matches and the whole Universe to conquer - all of this and even more is waiting for players in Starfall Tactics! We are running pre-Alpha Faction Wars test from 10th November 18:00 CET to 13th November 23:55 CET and everybody who signs up for the test receives a key.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/prealphascreenshot4_0.jpg

During upcoming Faction Wars pre-Alpha test participants will be able to try the following features in their basic version:

  • Wars for Faction territories - participate in galaxy conquest!
  • Faction Guilds - create your own House and lead it into battle!
  • Station building - build Supply Stations, Outposts and Motherships to protect faction territories.
  • Planet Colonization - colonize planets to help your faction grow and upgrade structures to powerful defensive buildings!*]Freighters - Resource Distribution System, which helps you maintain all colonies and stuctures. Yes, you can rob “caravans” - some Russians will get the joke :slight_smile:

Quick matches are also available to play with all changes we mentioned in previous articles. Full Patch Notes and infromation about Houses will be published later on our website.

Sign up for the test here and you will recive an access to the upcoming event :wink:

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I’m developing a space game as well but combat oriented. Yours looks like a lot of fun I’ll probably buy it if you release gamma.

I have a question; how do you handle the lighting and post-processing? In my game I tried one global skylight but couldn’t get that to work and I set up 6 directional lights that light things properly but it might be too hard for the processor. Everything in my game gets a weird hue/washed out look and I’m thinking it’s a combo between the lighting and post-processing. How do I get the crystal clear look that the UE4 is so good at?

Any tips? I’d give you feedback but your game looks awsome and I’ve got no criticisms.

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Hi Mike,
The reason of “weird hue/washed” objects is unreal postprocess called “Temporal AA”. Try to change in postprocess settings “Misc->AA Method” from Temporal AA to FXAA.

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Faction Wars is a very interesting and complex system and sometimes it takes more time than we expect for our small team to implement features we’d love to present here. That’s why we have to take an extra week - Pre-Alpha Faction Wars test postponed until 17th November 18:00 CET! We apologize for the inconvenience it might casuse to everybody who is looking forward to play Starfall Tactics here.
 
We also published some infirmation about attacking and capturing enemy systems which is available here.

Here are a couple of related screenshots - first one shows station attack, while second one - captured regions:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/attacksupstationres.jpg

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/fw2res.jpg

And Vanguard Supply Station, Outpost and Mothership - important structures for faction wars:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/vanguardstructuresres.jpg

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Just a week past since we finished Starfall Tactics test - all the feedback was received and goals set! At the moment we are working hard on fixing issues and improving some already existing content, to let the game give more surprises :wink:

1. First of all, we started creating Mothership for NPC Pirate faction, which now will take more action in the war for the Galaxy - and that means a lot of new stuff to do in MMO part of Starfall Tactics :slight_smile:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/piratemshipres_0.jpg

2. Slight cosmetic improvements are something to make the whole game look even better, than before - and, from time to time, we get just another one of them. This week we’re changing ship trails to make it a little bit more sci-fi and closer to ones we had in the early demo version - and here is a work in progress shot:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/trail.gif

**3. **During the test we found out that some ships, even though they have tons of armor (up to 10.000 and even more!) still have a very high speed in total, which was not intended according to our plans and definitely was not a good thing for Commanders attacked by ships of this kind. So now, all ships with armor and modules exceeding mass of their hulls are going to have an appropriate maximum ship speed, such as really heavy ships should have.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/heavyshipres.jpg

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This game looks so awesome! Your ship designs and art work are simply stunning and beautiful. I love space games especially ones where you can upgrade your ship. I can’t wait to try this game out.

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Very nice looking Project, congratz! How’s development going?

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Thank you! Everything is ok - at the moment we are preparing the game for the next test phase :slight_smile:

Thanks a lot :slight_smile:

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http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/galaxy2res.jpg

We’ve just started 2nd pre-Alpha Faction Wars test and you can try Starfall Tactics now! During this test player will be able to capture territories, establish Houses (faction guilds), colonize planets, fight against NPC pirate faction, and check new solo PvE Survival - there are a lot of exciting things to do and test. Ther are still an ability to name planets and stars as some left without names :wink:

Don’t forget to join one of existing Houses or create your own and reach the top of the leaderboard by helping your faction conquer the confines of known space! This time you have to fight not only against two other factions - pirates are also going to cause some troubles and establish their bases nearby.

This test lasts only until 18th December inclusive.

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Starfall Tactics is having a PvP tournament next week designed to test certain aspects of the game and make winter holidays more fun!

We invited the most active and experienced players, according to in-game statistics, to participate in it - 16 players will fight for the title of the best Commander in Starfall Tactics Winter Cup 2016! We will also stream it on our official Twitch channel.

Test tournament will be held on 28th December starting 20:00 CET for a Group Stage and on 29th December starting 20:00 CET for Play-offs.

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This week we’re having two events at a time: Starfall Tactics Winter Cup and a one-week pre-Alpha test!

First ever Starfall Tactics’ test tournament is starting tomorrow on 27th January 20:00 CET for a Group Stage and continues on 28th January starting 20:00 CET for Play-offs. You can watch live streams with dev comments on our official Twitch channel - 16 chosen players will fight for the title of the best Commander!

And, to mark this important, event we decided to open servers until 29th January 23:59 CET! Players can try New Ranked Mode which, only during this week, allows to check out for free almost every module in the game, including progression equipment! Discovery (MMO) mode and usual unranked PvP Conquest & PvE Survival quick matches are also available during this test.

To participate in this test simply send an application for the alpha here - and we will grant you an access once we see your request

Oh, and here is a new dreadnought for Deprived faction:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/merlin_0.jpg

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Another stage in Starfall Tactics’ development has just begun - so, it’s time to add some awesome stuff: Carriers, gravity weapons and new stations for discovery. And that’s only the beginning - we are about to implement other great features.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/research_stationres.jpg

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/fightersandetcres.jpg

  • Research Station is an extremely helpful feature for the House (guild): it allows to generate research points which players can spend on some useful stuff, making them protect bases with more diligence.
  • Carriers are giant ships which can carry other small vessels - squads of bombers, fighters and other special ships. Too fast and small to be even targeted by large spaceship weapons, they can be a real problem, and that’s without telling the Carrier itself is a huge well-protected construction.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/gravity.gif

Gravity stuff appeared to be not a very easy thing to add due to our in-game physics: one wrong impulse and it can become an ultimate weapon, crushing enemy ships in a second. So, we started it from one basic module, pushing enemy ships to the center of area of impact.

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Starfall Tactics development is going full speed ahead, and we are another step closer to the “it’s more than awesome” state. This week we were busy with inner parts of the game and really great stuff which deserves a huge separate news post later - so, this time we continue showing Carriers.

Here is Carrier itself in 2D and 3D sketch along with additional important info:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/sketchres.jpg

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/almaceres.jpg

Almace, the mighty red giant, is on it’s way to Starfall Tactics. This ship is really huge: twice wider than, for example, Mjolnir, and 1200m in length, which is 200m more than any dreadnought in the game! Other Carriers will continue this trend, as they need a lot of space to carry a lot of smaller ships inside.

Of course, each Carrier has either platforms or hatchways to be able to launch squads of fighters and other small ships into space - that’s where we would love to add some cool animations, but since it takes some time, we will concentrate on it someday later.

Let’s come back to fighters, one of the smallest ship types you are able to have on-board of your Carrier. Fighters are a common strike squad, designed to perform quick assaults by dealing continuous damage to enemy ships, and we’ve just finished programming the core mechanincs for them - so that’s what they look like in action:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/fighter.gif

Fighters can’t be targeted with normal weapons due to their size and speed, but can be taken away by AOE damage, just like other squads of smaller ships you will be able to see and use later. Make sure you check next WIP post - there might be more info about Carriers & ship squads they use :wink:

Faction portraits - That’s the first thing you see once you enter the game, marking one of the most momentous steps in Starfall Tactics - choosing your first faction and starting fleet. That means that all the info and visuals you can see in the faction menu are really important as many of you stay with this choice, going with it through hell and high water.

So, recently we worked on new representations for faction portraits, which might replace existing ones or become a new acquaintance somewhere on your way through the Starfall Tactics Universe - we are currently on our way to decide where exactly we should place them. So check it out!

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/factionsnewres.jpg

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A small flashback at Snowforged Entertainment trying their hardest to put together a Kickstarter campaign video:

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This week was as great as usual and here are some stuff we’ve recently done - hope you’ll like it :slight_smile:

[sketchfab]c15d47ff112047779eda018e3f813cdd[/sketchfab]

Almace, Vanguard Carrier - the first Carrier to appear in Starfall Tactics - it is the biggest ship in the game so far - 1200 long and twice wider than normal dreadnought.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/boom_1.gif

Active Module Hack - special module, which activates all modules of the target ship simultaneously and chooses random targets and areas for them.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/centenaryres.jpg

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/centrarysketchres.jpg

Centenary, Eclipse Carrier. It still has to pass a long way before at least being added to the gallery of 3D ship models - but you can already see it’s great form on 2D and 3D sketches made by our artists.

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For the past year we held five open tests, and each gave us new important information about different aspects of the game - sometimes disappointing, but more often - surprising. The Team can not wait to launch Starfall Tactics, but we have postponed this moment for a while, understanding that there are not enough content, some technical issues to be solved, some mechanics to be tweaked, and there are many more ideas that we want to check and possibly add to the game. Starfall Tactics was at the Pre-Alpha stage precisely because we were primarily engaged in research and checked various mechanics. And today we are happy to inform that most researches are completed, we see the form in which the game should be launched well and we have already started developing the Alpha version of Starfall Tactics! It’s time to tell about all upcoming changes:

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/menu_previewres.jpg

  • MMO and Ranked Mode - For a long time now our game has been trying to combine two completely different, interesting, but poorly compatible parts: an MMO, where progression and exploring are very important, and a rating session-based game, where players must compete in 100% equal conditions. After the last test and the tournament we have held, we came to the decision to split the game into two general modes.

  • Characters - As in many MMO games, now you will be able to create a character, customize it, give it a name and, of course, choose a faction.

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/characterres.jpg

  • Shipyard - a place, where you can create and store your ships: as we are adding Commanders with a strictly defined faction, there is no need to create several fleets any more - customization menu will change significantly, including visual part (sure, it’s going to be beautiful!)

http://starfalltactics.com/sites/default/files/shipyardres.jpg

Shipyard (sketch)

  • Blueprints - There is a lot of new content incoming for the MMO part of Starfall Tactics: there are some plans for the questing system, new NPC factions, stations, House features, a variety of opportunities for exploring the Galaxy and the already mentioned crafting system, along with resource extraction. And in order to provide you with more familiar MMO experience, especially by getting new equipment from challenging battles against bosses, rare merchants on the borders of the Galaxy, we decided to abandon the blueprint concept. Now, instead of 3 blueprints, each booster pack contains 10-15 pieces of various equipment with a total cost exceeding the IGC cost of the booster. In general, there is a large number of ways to get modules now, and you have even more chances to get the exact module you need for your fleet.

  • Crafting - Due to many innovations in the MMO part of the game, which include crafting system and the ability to extract resources (we will be telling more about it in next articles), most technologies in Starfall Tactics can now be crafted - first of all - ships. For example, to build a ship, you will need to get a ship project (can be found on the vasts of the Galaxy, in shops, loot or in booster packs with ships) and spend certain amount of resources like ore (it used to be available during previous tests). It’s not so difficult if you have a couple of faithful comrades and your own House. Low tech level ships can still be built by simply spending a small amount of IGC (in-game currency). Some ships are available through faction progression, for gaining ranks.

  • Ranked mode - You still can get into Ranked Mode simply by pushing one button - find it in the menu at the top of your screen. By pushing it, you change all the information and menus into Ranked Mode. Push it again, to switch back to MMO mode. Just reminding: the main feature of this mode is that all Ranked players get completely identical module and ship sets.

  • Rating Currency - By winning ranked battles, you climb the ladder and now can get a special rating currency, which you can spend on visual ship customization.

We have planned the following ranked modes:

  • Duels - main mode with 1vs1 battles.
  • CoOp duels - 2x2 battles. It’s always more fun with friends :wink:
  • Brawls - a set of less serious modes, for example:
  • One ship - here you have only one ship.
  • Plasma Web madness - there are no weapons except for Plasma Web Module.
  • Only frigates - only frigate class ships are available.

Eventually we plan to rework the rating system itself - the algorithm for calculating rating points, the type of the rating table itself and other related nuances will completely change. Piece by piece, we are going to introduce seasonal system and special rewards for them.

We also remember about tournaments - a littlle bit later we will start improving its’ functionality, spectator mode and, if possible, will hold new interesting tournaments with live broadcasts, prizes and other attributes for this type of events.

Of course, the changes described here are far from all that we have planned. Here’s a short list of other changes, which we are going to show and describe later:

  • Character Progression
  • Ship Progression
  • Detachment Progression
    • New economy and planet colonization
    • Houses, progression and management
    • Changes in combat mechanics
    • New NPC factions
    • Tutorials and Challanges
    • and more.

More information about all the changes and why we implemented it are available on our website.

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Awesome! :slight_smile:

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the spaceship is very nice and detail, congrats on the great job