Galactic News 07/21/2015

I have removed temporarly the surface "away missions" code and isolated so I can focus just on it. Over the next few weeks I plan on a bit of revamp that will improve existing elements and add new ones which together will be enough for me to begin inserting episode components to the away missions.

One thing I was extremely unhappy with was the city enviroments I had up till now procedually generated. as exampled here...

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=485841263

Below is screenshots of the new cityscapes at night. Still needs tuning. But looks a lot better to me. I am hoping this will make visits to alien cities a little more pleasing. I am still working on ways to vary the "Architecture" if you will. Ideas always welcome.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=485839933

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=485840525

Some of the things I am improving or creating for away missions include...

Combat

-Still using the cover method, but I want to add a few things, One will be roll so you can "Shatner" you way from one cover piece to another. Similar in style to Mass Effect 3. -Background and Foreground Cover. So as mentioned above you can roll from background cover to background cover with out being hit. Foreground cover I am thinking of as a obstacle, that provides 100% cover but you have to jump over it, and you fire can pass it either -The idea here is to provide some strategic choices during battle. Still needs a lot ironing out. -I have decreased the cost of using your rifle power wise. And I am going to decrease the hit points you give and take, so we can have more fire frequently. This should provide more chances for those strategic choices I am referring to.

Diplomacy and Communication

• I am going to move a iteration of the ship to ship communication engine to the surface communication to people you speak to on the fly. Scripted "Episode" related conversations will be more binary in choice.