Dev Log #7: More planets and shield effects
Galactic Crew Patch Notes — August 29, 2020
Aggregated from Steam, cross-tracked with Battle.net coverage on GamePatchNote.
Dear players,
As I wrote in the last update, I was mainly working on three different tasks in the past weeks.
Planets
First of all, I continued working on the new environment system I developed for planetary missions in Galactic Crew II. The terrain is now smoother and the water looks more natural.
The new environment system does not only look better than in Galactic Crew I, but is also faster, more efficient in terms of CPU and memory usage and it enables features that simply were not possible in Galactic Crew 1. One of which I will announce later with great enthusiasm. ːsteamhappyː
Spaceship shields
After finalizing the terrain shaders, I invested time in a new shield effect for spaceships. As you know, in Galactic Crew 1 you could equip your spaceship with shield generators, boost their efficiency with shield boosters and you were able to regenerate them with drones and engineers. However, they were not visualized. As I wrote in the very first announcement, I not only want to extend the content for Galactic Crew 2, but improve any existing content. Therefore, I wanted to make proper shield effects to increase the immersion when playing Galactic Crew 2.
I also updated all other shaders to create a more natural look of lighting and shadows.
More enemies (and decorations)
Finally, I invested money to buy a large variety of 3D models and characters for Galactic Crew 2 to offer a greater variety of enemies. Most of them are already implemented in the game. But for some of them, I face issues with the animations. But I will figure it out, eventually. Most of the models I bought are to improve the atmosphere on planets and to widen the range of available planet types. I will show you screenshots of new planets or dungeons with the next dev log updates. So, stay tuned for that.
Colonization!
When I announced Galactic Crew 2, I said I wanted to add more content and features. I already announced the option to salvage ship wrecks, more asteroid types to mine, deeper dungeons and much more, but there is one feature that I am most excited about: Colonization of planets! You will be able to build your own base with its own features and game mechanics on any planet you have visited. Are you in the middle of a mutant-infested jungle and like the atmosphere? Build a base! Did you become friends with the local stone age civilization? Build a base! Do you enjoy the company of the miners in their outpost? Build a base!
Over the course of the next weeks, I will start developing this feature. I am currently comissioning jobs to 3D artists to make the necessary 3D assets for me. Since I re-wrote most of the game code, there are currently a lot of bugs in it. I will also spend a lot of time polishing everything I have done so far and do a lot of playtesting. The plan is to create a proper Steam page within the next months and add a development branch to it so you can start playing the game in its current state. This way, you can playtest everything I announce long before the game's actual release. However, I want ensure the game's quality first. I have also started working with other artists like writers to write events, quests and missions and I am looking to further expand my team.
Social media
I write updates here every couple of weeks. If you are interested in daily updates, you can follow me on Twitter (see button below).