DevBlog #27 - Space Haven Alpha 2 - The Fleet Update.

Space Haven Alpha 2 - The Fleet Update.

The more the merrier they say! Let's test out this theory. Space Haven now allows you to build multiple ships and form a fleet of spaceships. We've had to redesign and implement some new features to enable this.

The current implementation allows for a max of 2 very large 2x2 ship grid tile sized ships (Seen in scenario 2) or 8 small 1x1 ship grid tile sized ships. You can of course make a combination of these, and create various other sized spaceships such as 1x2 for example.



You can see the user interface to create a new spaceship above. You will be able to select where you want to start building a new spaceship and also the new spaceship grid size. Once the position is chosen you will be able to start building the new spaceship hull.



You can now select the placement of each ship in a sector when jumping out of hyperspace. The same grid system is used to allow you to be able to select where in a sector each spaceship of your fleet goes as you drop out of hyperspace. Setting positions is done with a drag&drop mechanism.



The prepare for hyperspace jump user interface has been redesigned to support multiple ships in form of a list. You'll be able to control preparations from this menu, and give orders to your ships individually. Really happy with the result.



You've given us a lot of feedback and some suggestions. Sketching was mentioned by many of you, so we decided to carry out your wish! Space Haven now features a spaceship sketch mechanism, which you can use to sketch out spaceships right from the start and build up the spaceship little by little. The sketch tools are:

• Sketch: Sketch out your ship - Sketches will not be build until you activate them.
  
• Activate sketch: Activates an area of a sketch into an actual plan for hull to be built.
  
• Erase sketch: Removes sketch plans.
  

We have seen that one of the most beloved features of Space Haven has been the building part of the game. We're super happy about this, because we thought long and hard of where to steer our focus when it came to core features and decided to focus a lot on the actual building part of the game.



Salvage

We have redesigned how salvage works. You can now salvage almost everything from any spaceship, which has been cleared out of it's crew/enemies and is now derelict. The current implementation has three different scrap recources; Metal scrap, advanced metal scrap and electronic scrap. These might change with time as the game develops.

When you send out your crew to salvage, you won't know exactly how much will be received from each facility on the ship. This is slightly random, and could later on be tied to a skill, such as construction skill for example. You will, however, be able to choose what kind of scrap resources you want the crew to try to salvage from the derelict ship.

The scrap resources can be brought to the Scrapper facility, which is able to refine them back to usable resources.


Work-in-progress image of the Scrapper from our graphic artist screen.

Scrapper completed.

The Scrapper

A new facility has been introduced to the game. The scrapper is tightly related to salvaging. Salvaging ships will generate various scrap resources, which can be brought to this scrapper facility. Strip a spaceship clean of almost everything and bring it all here to be transformed to usable resources once again!

One of our Alpha players wrote a story about their journey, you can read it below. We would like to see more of these screenshots/video + story combinations. They are really fun to read! =)



Captain Deacon:

"Thanks for coming everyone, I know you're all very busy doing... stuff; I just wanted to take a moment to thank you for your efforts in getting us here to the end of the galaxy. Your hard work has been very much appreciated and you've done whatever I've asked without any fuss or complaining (except that time you ran around the derelict crying like a little baby, Mariah, not your best moment).

We've built an amazing vessel together, which is a small miracle when you think about it, considering how much you all hate each other and me, in particular. But that's not all that surprising really when you see the kind of things you get up to: watching people in their sleep, following others into toilets, crapping yourselves whenever you like (looking at you Wiley) and generally being bitchy (no names mentioned,  Jessa) - Sometimes I wonder, I really do.

Anyway, we've drained the galaxy of all it's resources, mined everything and bought all the water. What we have now is all that's left. In a few days or weeks the power and the water will run out, which means the plants won't grow and we'll run out of food and then the heating will go off and we'll slowly starve and freeze to death. Don't worry though, long before then we'll run out of oxygen and suffocate. A much nicer way to go I'm told. So, once again, thanks for everything; over the time we've been together I've come to regard you all as... people... I.... met... good luck, I think we're going to need it."

The screenshot and hilarious story above was sent to us by one of our Alpha backers, Hrochnick.



You can hop in on Alpha right now! We have late backing available through our own store, and Alpha Access is sent within 24 hours:

http://bugbyte.fi/store

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