[Mark]

Hey all,

An issue in Noesis, our GUI library, has required some alterations to the Xenko engine renderer. The issue caused some graphical artifacting on some of our more complex UIs. The changes have been made though, with help from the Noesis and Xenko developers, and the issue is resolved.

Other than that I have been working on the mod scripting system. All mod scripts will be written in C#, using the latest version of the language and .NET libraries. It may seem early to be working on this feature, but we will be using mod scripting to create almost all of the game content functionality (weapons, ship systems, etc.). This will give modders the best possible access and feature-set. It's a rather complicated piece of work, but worth it.

We have been having some good weather here so I spent the weekend kayaking on Lough Corrib with a friend. We camped on Inchagoill, the largest island on the lake. A good work life balance is important.


Pádraig and I have also been working on the marketing direction for UNION, in preparation for an upcoming press release (which will be our first). Although the best expression of the UNION game will be in multiplayer/cooperative, we feel it is important to emphasise that the game is singleplayer too. You won't have to find/engage friends in order to play UNION, and we feel it's best to focus on that in the marketing of the game.


Thanks for reading!

Mark

[Blaze]

A good work life balance really is important. The place looks nice.

Can you tell us more about the singleplayer mode? Will it be a campaign with a story or just random missions? Will the player be forced to play the captain, or will the player be able to play an officer and follow the orders?
I think that creating a campaing and an AI that can order a person is a significant undertaking, and is not something that time should be devoted to. I do believe the market for UNION will be the players seeking multiplayer experience.

[Mark]

The lines between singleplayer and multiplayer are quite blurred, because they are effectively the same thing.

On any crew, which isn't filled with players, AI crew members can be "recruited" to fill empty roles. The Captain can issue orders to the AI crew and they will do their best to fulfil them. The Captain can jump into any of these AI controlled roles to take over, and when he/she leaves the role the AI will take over again.

In "singleplayer" the player is the Captain, and all roles are (by default) filled with AI crew members. He/she can issue orders to them, or jump into positions as necessary.

At any time while playing singleplayer the player can open up the server to other players. He/she can remove AI crew members to make room for these players, or they can create their own crew/ship (if the host player has allowed multiple player ships).

The Captain must always be a player, we won't have an AI which issues orders.

In singleplayer you play the same missions/campaign as you would in multiplayer. Missions and the campaign will have narrative.

The AI crew members are a large undertaking, I already have an experienced developer lined up to work almost solely on it. That development won't start until after an alpha release.


Thanks! I hope that answers your questions.

[Blaze]

On any crew, which isn't filled with players, AI crew members can be "recruited" to fill empty roles. The Captain can issue orders to the AI crew and they will do their best to fulfil them. The Captain can jump into any of these AI controlled roles to take over, and when he/she leaves the role the AI will take over again.

In "singleplayer" the player is the Captain, and all roles are (by default) filled with AI crew members. He/she can issue orders to them, or jump into positions as necessary.

At any time while playing singleplayer the player can open up the server to other players. He/she can remove AI crew members to make room for these players, or they can create their own crew/ship (if the host player has allowed multiple player ships).

Bloody hell, this is amazing! A role-playing community won't have to worry too much if there's not enough players to fully fill several ships, since we'll have AI.

Will the AI crew members be named? Will we be able to bind them to a ship via mod? For example, a mod with the ship "A Game of Chance" could have AI crew from the stories, and a mod with a ship "TSN Hydra" could have other AI crew. So, when you have players aboard one of those ships, but not enough to fill all roles, AI crew members predetermined with the mod would take the rest of the roles, and it would always be the same personnel, for example Kalt as the Science Officer. If this was possible, it would be so great for RP!

[Mark]

We will have personalisation of the crew members by the Captain.

I hadn't considered default named crew, but I think it's a great idea.

[Mark]

I hope my last response didn't come across as disinterested, I was running out the door.

I agree that it's bloody amazing. As you've pointed out it's a big endeavour, but I think that it's vital to the health of the community (where people can play together on a whim without organising large groups), which is absolutely vital to the success of the game.

The ideal experience is of course to have full player crews, but offering flexibility is important.

[Blaze]

I hope my last response didn't come across as disinterested, I was running out the door.

No, it did not. I just forgot to respond, because I was talking to my girlfriend about how awesome that will be.

[Mark]