Long Time, No Update.

Hello everybody, this is Ping from the Far Reaches development team.

Lately things may have seemed slow around here. We can assure you though, we have not forgotten about all of our players!

Here at Far Reaches, we've been undergoing some staff changes, which is one of the lead causes of our delay. All is back in order now, and we are ready to move forward!

Speaking of moving forward, we've been brainstorming some major improvements for the game that we plan to be adding in the coming months that will make the gameplay easier, more fun, and, in some cases, just plain cool!

As a repercussion to these new features, we are planning a universal reset. Current imbalances in the game have set certain players too high in the rungs to make things even. This reset will also allow us to add the improvements. Players from the previous universe will have loyalty bonuses at first login. The date of the reset is TBA, projected sometime in the next couple of months. We will do our best to keep you posted on this event.

One of the many features to be added to the next update is an entirely new interface. This will enhance the look and feel of the game as well as provide a more slick, easy, and informative display!

Keep on playing!
-PingPirate

INVASION!

update 1.4.3 Brings about the culmination of many features we've been working on for quite some time!

Even though the changes from the Dev Team have few and far between, they are substantial!

The Short List of Changes:

Military units are in. your Planets can now train troops

Custom Ship Designs. Have changed. You can now pick the appearance of your custom design, from designs available for that size of ship.

A Big Bang is coming.

There’s plenty of small changes, bug fixes, and improvements in this version, and it’s all possible because of you, the players of Far Reaches. Thanks for all your input, and keep the reports coming!

Now. For The Details:

In the last update, we enabled the construction of military units for a planet, we now enabled you to load them up and cargo, and drop them off on a planet.

What if the planet is not yours?

Invasion. Combat.. somebody wins, somebody looses.

Key Points to remember?

Strength of an invading force is calculated by the following means:
Attacking:
Number of Troops * Tech Level of Troops X* 10;

Defending:
Number of Troops * Tech Level of Troops X* 15;

Defending troops receive a bonus for the home field advantage.

A percentage of a planets population will fight to defend the planet as a militia. They are scored basically the same as troops, without the 15 multiplier.

You can attack with population as an ad hoc militia. If the population comes from a planet you own, they act as militia as their native planet’s tech level. If you pick them up from a planet you do not own, they fight as tech level 4.
To attack a planet, load up troops, and go the planet. With the troop transport selected, right click the planet. One of the choices is “Invade”

Planetary Combat is not instantaneous! Although the effects of launching an invasion are immediate, the battle may rage for minutes, hours. .or even a day.

You (and your opponents) can land more troops on the planet at any time, provided of course the ship is not attacked and destroyed by opposing ships

More then one Faction may be present, and combating on a planet simultaneously.

In communications, you will receive regular updates on the progress of the battle. When it ends, you will be informed.. win or loose.

IN OTHER NEWS

The planetary appearance bug has been fixed. One of the planet textures was corrupted on the server

Ship and system Generated messages are back in the comms menu

Ship Movement, has been adjusted to reflect some important changes in combat, along with missle flight times.

Missile flight time has been significantly shortened.

Ships. Now accelerate at a much slower rate, and then jump to light speed. Jump times vary dependent upon the tech level of the engine.

Besides having an effect on some other fundamentals of the game, this combat scheme moves the ships up close and personal when they duke it out.

Select your own skin for custom ships!
Once your planet has a shipyard, you can design your own ships, within the tech limit of the planet. Each size/class of ship has multiple appearances.. you can pick the one that best suits your tastes!


THE BIG BANG IS COMING

In July we will Reset the Universe. The Current layout has been used to test and refine game play, ship types, and new features . With most of that work complete, we will be adding new features such as missions, trade zones, factions, and most importantly location specific bonuses. To accomplish this, its will be necessary to reset the universe, and player assets.

Tired of the same old ship?

It's been a long time coming: in game custom ship designs!
Although this feature has been sitting around a while, we waited until we had planets, and facility creatioin in, and working..
So, think that Deocron Harvester is a bit sluggish? design a new one with ramped up engines! Want more scanner range out of a corvette? put in the best scanner your planet can build!
How it works:
if you own a planet, you can access the custom ship design window from the ship construction tab of planet management.
From there, start with one of the designs your planet can build, what your planet can build, is limited by the tech level of it's ship yard.
Swap out components as you see fit, then save the design
if you save it to the default folder, it will automatically appear in the ship construction window, when you close the editor.
if you save it elsewhere (or, trade files with someone) you can always open the file, in the editor, or in construction.
Plenty more features coming soon!

Introducing... Fleet Command!

This is an update that many of our more serious players have been asking about for some time: Control of Fleets.

Fleet control is dovetailed into the existing intercept command in instructions. Although intercepting/following is a great way to go for having a bunch of ships moving around, following the leader, it's limiting, especially if you dont want your command ship (freigher or harvester going first)

How Does it work?
A fleet designation occurs any time your instructions are set for on ship to follow/intercept the other in instructions. the interceptor is a fleet member, the intercepted, the commander.
you can access fleet controls from the hotkey "G" or in ship instruction, or the ship list windows.
For the fleet as a whole, you can preset items like how they move to the location, their stance, and what they do under special circumstances. Although many items are in and working, you'll notice some blanks we left for ideas in the works.

For each fleet member you can tell them to follow along (as they've always done) or set their position, relative to the commnader, and their commanders heading. these are express in the good old pilot terms relaticve to a clock dial, with each tick on the clock equaling roughly 30 degrees.

if you set the a fleet member to 12 oclock in the horizontal and vertical.. they will be in FRONT of the command ship. 6 and 6 oclock, trail behind.
there's also a few new icons, to represent all of thes ships.. check out the help section/icons for a complete description

Now for the real fun. you can break your fleet into chunks. by adding commanders to an existing fleet! It's the easiest way. sub divide large fleets. your ships will even have seperate icons.

Fleet comander

Fleet Member

Fleet commander, and member of another fleet




IN OTHER NEWS
the occasional sideways flying ship has been corrected! thanks for your help in debugging this one, and the others coming along.

YOUR INPUT
is what keeps FRS ,moving along. and moving forward growing into the game you want.. How can you contribute?Ship ModelsShip DesignsVideos, great screen caps, and how to's.
We offering rewards for any and all that contribute these items.. so send an email if you're interested.
thanks, for all your help!
Dan aka Sideovs

Own your own Planet!

After many, many long testing and debug sessions, planet ownership is in!

The help files will be updated shortly with full tutorial on planet ownership, but for now, here is a summary of what, and how.

First, and foremost: colonizing a planet is not CHEAP! And them pesky little colonists require a lot of support before they are able to get off the ground. Not enough food, water, and medical support? They rebel, leave the planet or die from starvation!

In the planet list, locate an uninhabited planet, capable of supporting life. The more natural resources it has, the better, the full sweep is a planet that has Water, Agriculture, Organics, and Metals.

The planet cannot be in the central cluster, you must find one out on the fringes.
Using the planet list again, set the search to planets capable of trade, and the farthest right columns will tell you the status of it’s population: how many wish to leave (refugees) and how many a populated planet can/will accept. Not enough of the basics to sustain life? They look for a new home. Booming economy on a planet? It needs more people to man its economic engine, and sends out a call for more.

You are not paid, nor do you have to pay for loading up refugees, colonists. Same goes for dropping them off.

So, now that you’ve loaded up on colonists, take them to the uninhabited planet. With the ship containing colonists selected, and in orbit, right click on the planet, and choose “drop off colonists”. Your cargo holds of crammed in, in stasis, colonists are now to free to roam the planet, make it on their own, and most likely die of starvation, that is unless you help out…..

After you drop off colonists, the planet management window appears. You can always access this window by right clicking on the planet, or from the manage planet button in the planets list. Your planets will appear green in the list.

Your colony is tech level 4, barely capable of trade, incapable of building ships, and can only build the most basic facilities.

Until the colony is self-supporting, you must drop off supplies for them, if the planet has water available, they can use the supply with no problems. Food, and medical supplies must be imported.

For them to buy things from traders that visit them, and build facilities, the planet must have credits. The planet keeps a separate account from yours. For them to build anything, or buy anything, they must have credits. On the first tab of the window, is the transfer credits tab. be sure to give them plenty of operating capital!
In order to build facilities on the planet, the colonists must have organic compounds and metals. You’ll need to drop these off in large quantities, to meet the demands of the population, and build new facilities.'

Under planet management, there is a facilities tab. This is where you build facilities. Select one to build, and build away, notice that these take time!
You’ll also notice a few other tabs, ship construction and Population Management. When you planet reaches tech level 5, one of the things you can build is a shipyard, capable of building your own ships.. Eventually, you may also have to assign populations to tasks, if there is not enough to go around.

Basic thumbnails rules:

You cannot colonize a central cluster planet

The planet must have a habitable atmosphere (for now)

Planets cannot attack ships, and ships, cannot attack planets. You will (eventually) be able to land military units on the planet, and take over a planet.

Until the population can build facilities to produce food, and medical supplies, they will die off, unless you supply them.

Planets need credits to build things. Unless you give them credits, they cannot build anything.

Transfer credits from you to the planet from the planet management window.

When your ships drop off goods from you, your ship is not paid. Likewise, when your planet starts producing, and you wish to sell off the surplus, it’s free for the pickup!

Other Changes for this update:

Many minor issues and bugs have been addressed. Thanks for all your help and input!

Planets can no longer repair ships of any tech level. The ship must be at or below the tech level of the planet in order to make repairs.

Future changes
Building and repairing ships: Owned planets building ships, still needs just a touch of work, if you progress to this point (a few days at least!) Before the ship is complete, you may have to repair it. Repairs, for all but a Deocron 50 will take time, ship construction still needs a bit of a change, and should be out in a few days.

Stations are going to get an overhaul they will not be able to build ships, but repair them. Along with that, you can order them to claim/repair ships they find abandoned. Other ships, when damaged, will have an additional setting: “go somewhere (a planet or a station) for repair.

Colonizing ships

Colony in a box, suitable for planets of a given class, without atmosphere. Bio dome, and basic facilities will be included in the ship. They’re one shot, that is, you deploy them on a planet, and they convert to the facilities.

Military units.

This, was omitted from this update to give everyone a feel for planet ownership before attacking each other, but the gist is this: planets will be able to train and convert the general population into troops, with military training facilities. These Military units defend the planet, retain law and order, and more importantly can be loaded up on troop transports to do a number on someone else’s planet! In time of needs, colonists will form militia units capable of assisting in a planet’s defense.

Law, Order, Rebellion, and overthrow.

If you’re planet’s population is starving, and, the military is not present. . They will rebel, production will suffer, and credits belonging to the planet will disappear as corruption takes over. Eventually, you may loose control of the planet.

There’s more, much more in the works, but that’s the features that will be showing up next in The Far Reaches of Space….

Dan

aka Sideovs

The real world gets smoked by a beam weapon!

Here in the Midwest of the US, we had some rather torrential storms move thru, and they also seemed to hit the Northeast pretty Hard too.

on April 11th, at about 10:30 EDT (-5GMT) , The utility company supplying power to the farm where our server is housed, was hit repeatedly by lightning. although this did not knock their grid out, it has caused a series of brownouts from malfunctioning equipment. Bownouts, even with backup and alternate powersystems, are much worse on these systems then going completely black!

I've been in constant contact with the server farm, and the situation is this:

The data and internet servers are back up, but, while the utititly company gets the rest of their stuff back to 100%, we may have more brownouts, reduced bandwidth, etc.

So, you're patience is appreciated!

Chat is Back!

When we swapped servers a while back, we found that we had some compatibility issues with the chat we were using, and the new server. Chat had to be moved (quickly!) to a less then fast method.
It’s back! For now, it’s public channel, with private, and team chat to follow shortly!
In other news.. tons of more enhancements, in speed of display, server connections, and of course, a few bug fixes along the way.
Last, and not least.. Planets have gotten a whole new look, or at least a few new ones. Log in, and take a look for yourself!

What class of player are YOU? Also, makeovers!

As you may have already noticed, The Far Reaches of Space's central website has been updated with a new, fresh look. We expect the new layout to improve functionality while looking good at the same time. The Stats, Ship List, Ship Editor, and News page have been placed under the "Features" page.

The forums have also received a similar deal, with graphical improvements throughout the boards. Custom avatars are available now, as well! Make sure to drop by and tell us your thoughts on any aspect of the development of The Far Reaches of Space!

Lastly, what kind of player are you? Subscribing players - now dubbed "Equites" - get the exclusive benefit of access to the Ship Editor, a feature which allows you to customize your very own ship design according to your specifications!

The central website and forums will continue to be constantly improved - stick around for major updates!

The Update Couldn't wait!

We've been working on many major game enhancements, and have them close to rolling out...

except for a couple of "what ifs" we had them in last week!

but the "what ifs" are proving problematic, and we won't have them in for another day or so..

so. .in the meantime, we're launching the update, with minor feature enhancements AND MAJOR PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS!

We've cut memory usage to 1/5th, and in some cases, frame rates are 10 times what they were before.

Want even faster framerates? go to options, and put ships in icon mode only.

To get your update, just start the game on your desktop, and it will automatically start the process. .If you want to download the latest manually, or retrive your user name and password, go here
http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/index.aspx


Oh, and for those of you still tooling around in a Deocron 50, take a good look, it got a face lift.

questions or problems? as always you can drop me a line at this email address.


Dan S
aka Sideovs

Citizens! The Triarii Gaurd does not Love you anymore! and other news (FRS update 50)

While working towards the planet Economics, The Development team here at the Far Reaches of
space decided to toss in some small improvements, and also change some major aspects of game play, and of course, some bugs. mostly in combat, docking, and repairing

THE UNIVERSE HAS CHANGED

Setting up the map of the stars and planets is tricky business. you need the right balance between commodities, and more importantly distances

When people start FRS, their ship is relatively slow. Speed comes at a price. .Our concern was that Starting players needed to be able to get around, and Advanced players needed to spread out a bit. If you've logged on in the last couple of weeks, you'll notice that some of the star clusters were a bit bigger then others, the stars, more spread out. We have modified all but the center cluster to fit this formula

MOST CLUSTERS, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE STARTING CLUSTER, HAVE BEEN MOVED, OR
CHANGED. YOUR SHIPS.. MAY NOT BE TRADING BETWEEN PLANETS

So.. log in, and see if your ships were effected. if the instructions window for a ship says "go to planet" without naming a planet, then. they need to be reset. You may also find your fleet way out in the middle of nowhere.. and again, you'll have to move your ships.. hey. it' s Beta!

THE VIEW ANGLE CAMERA WORKS CORRECTLY!!!!
A Big Round of applause for Jaguar! (another words, give him a break, and don't take out his frigate) Making a camera that looks at a 3rd person point of view, in the wide scope and range required for FRS, is no easy task. Jaguar got the bottom of the gimbling issues. you can now use the arrow keys to rotate in any axis, without goofy angle flips! And if your camera angle gets ugly, the END key will snap you right back.

THE MENUS ARE IN TECHNICOLOR
We've actually added a few features to the menu. If you right click on a point, and more then one ship is present under your mouse, all ships will appear in the list. More importantly, the text is color coded, just like your ship icons. Green for yours, Red for Hostile, Blue for Friendly and the ever favorite off-white for unknown

ABANDONED SHIPS: THEIR OWN ICON
Ever blow up a ship, and wonder which one of the grey icons it is? Well, they're still grey, but a different shape.

LAST AND NOT LEAST.. .THE GAURD MAY NOT SAVE YOU
Another issue that effects Game play in a big, big way. The Triarii Gaurd were introduced to protect the defenseless, to give the Noobs, a place to learn, and not get blown up every time they logon. There were a few players, that found
"guard space" had a couple of other distinct advantage. Go buy a battle ship, venture out, wreak some havoc, and then head back to the safety of the land protected by the guard.

Not anymore.

The guard Now only protects the little guy, any ship tech level 10 or above.. are on their own.ANYWHERE If you're in a ship above tech 10, and getting attacked, the guard won't do a thing to intervene. you're on your own.

Well, back to
making planets own able. Pictured here is the Xaki Dreadnaught. coming soon to a base near you

Dan S

aka Sideovs

Xakian Ship Plans Stolen

GNN News Flash!!

Xakian Ship Plans Stolen Buy Hacks!!

Xakian high command executed 6 Xervian spies today who the Xakians claimed were responsible for stealing the ship design plans for all their major vessels and placing the plans on a xtranet web site.

Xakian high command did not respond to our request for an interview.

Several major ship building companies have already announced plans to produce the ships.

Many planetary leaders are concerned that the materials need to produce these ships might cause major shortages in building supplies thoughout the Universe.

GNN will continue to keep you up to date on these issues!!!

Space Just Got a whole lot bigger

That's right. we've expanded the universe!

http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/index.aspx

To see how, start the game on your desktop, get an update and play!

This is a feature, we've always had ready to go: the ability to add more clusters of stars on demand. What's demand? Well, the clusters we have so far, are meant to be a training ground, close enough together that beginning players can explore, get around and trade with slower ships. from here on out, the stars will be further apart, allowing players room to stake out territory, without bumping into each other.

In other news.. combat improvements.. If you look at news on the site from today, you'll see there was more then one set of battles going on. A couple, appear to be instigated, with the looser having found a bug.. It's been corrected, and when correct a few people that had ships sent to some form of aggression, well that aggression kicked in big time. .and a few more people lost ships..

We've also add a number of small improvements to the user controls, and continue to ramp up to the big ownership of planets..

Last, and not least, we've gotten the shipeditor online, and are currently working out a few hiccups.. in a short time, you'll be able to design ships (and use them after approval), and ship models.. Look for new warships, and freighters in the near future.

Pictured here, is the new Xakian Repair Station, design Courtesy of monofuel

enjoy.

Dan

aka Sideovs

beta update 30

Well, it’s been a hectic week around here, plenty of things keeping us busy, and not all of them related to Far Reaches!

However, on the enhancement and debug front we’ve been quite busy!

Thanks again for all of your input. If it wasn’t for the reports, we would not have been able to correct and improve the game.

WebSite:
The website now has a login page, allowing you to change your password, and view other basic details of your account

BUGS
Many of the items we’ve corrected in the last week have to do with docking and repairing ships: the ease of use, and glitches. We believe we’ve corrected most of them. You find one.. Let Us Know!

Improvements to Instructions.
Many new players have had issues making instructions work correctly. Who buys and sells what. We’ve added a check to instructions, showing you if the planet will buy your last load of cargo, or your load of mined commodities.

Stations, and Ship Repair:
Stations have had their cargo areas increased dramatically. They need them to spend materials, repairing and building ships. Although new ship construction was held out of this update, it’s testing out quite well, and should be in soon.

When repairing a ship at a station, the station will consume Metals and organics in the repair of the ship. You run out of either, and construction stops. You will receive a note that the station needs to be re-supplied, and you can either move a station into orbit, buy supplies or transfer supplies from another ship.

Well, back to new ship construction.. if you lost the link to the game.. go here

http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/


Dan S
aka Sideovs

Forums!

After a bit of a delay, we now have forums open for players!

http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/forums/

No need to register, just sign in! your user name and password is the same as your user name and password for the game login.

So post away. questions.. ideas. .models and graphics..

and just like anything else, you have any I ideas, then post away!

Udate 1.0.22.. Stations

Stations are in!

Stations are capable of repair of any ship, of a lower technology level AND if they fit in their bay..

A station will repair a ship items in order:
1)hull
2) engines
3) shields
4) scanners
5)weapons
6) misc items.

how fast they repair a ship is dependent upon their technology level. there's currently two in the data base, with more to follow soon!

this update also adresses the command of multiple selected ships. .when they can dock, visit planets, and they can now even claim derelict ships..

More to follow shortly!

Enter Triarii Guard.

One of the challenges in developing a free form game like this is creating a challenge for all level of players. The Noobs need somewhere they can learn.. The more advanced players need somewhere they can shoot it out.. Conquer and rule.

We always knew how we would do it, but didn’t know when
In our first pass at noob protection, we made law abiding planets aggressive. .that is now removed, and replaced with the Triarian Guard..

Basically, in the starting, center sector, if you try shooting someone else, the guard won’t like you.. tell you so, and give you a warning.. If you decide (foolishly) to proceed with your attack.. the Guard will do a number on your ship. Not pod you, but cripple it, and render it harmless..

Of course, there’s plenty of space where the guard don’t show up.. to see where the guard are known to operate, open options, show space controlled by Governments.. anywhere in green, is a no shooting zone!

And who are the guard?
One of the last Functioning remnants of the great empire, the Triarian Vexil was the preferred ship of the Triarian Guard. These ships keep the peace and protect the space that was once known as empire. Not a ship worth crossing
The Vexil is pictured here

New Features, and New Menus

On Friday we snuck in an update that addresses a few issues that have been bugging the development team..

The right click menu was becoming messy, and did not cleanly address many of the new features.. So, we reworked it! Give it a try, and let us know what you think.

As part of the changes.. Towing, was removed as a menu item.. Now you can tow any ship, by simply docking with it.

NOW FOR THE REAL FUN: Names are now shown on the map

F2 Shows ship names, their owners, and other details
F3 Shows Sun Names
F4 Planet Names
Enjoy and please keep the comments coming

Your DirectX is current, but what about Direct Sound?

Your DirectX is current, but what about Direct Sound?
We’ve heard from a few users having issues installing the last build or two, and a re-occuring theme comes up.. their directX is current, but, after some investigation we figured out their Direct Sound drivers were out of date..
Update them by clicking here

Far Reaches Updates! (1.0.3.10)

First the News..

Yes. you can get the news.. who bought what. .who collected a bounty.. Who had there ship smoked or even ended up in a pod!

go to the news tab and see what happened in the last 24 hours.
or you can go here...

http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/smreg/newspage.aspx

Don't mind Nothus smoking his own ships.. he was helping with the big update!


YOU CAN NOW CONTROL MULTIPLE SHIPS SIMULTANEOUSLY!

All you have to do is highlight them.. how?
left mouse button click, hold it down, and drag across screen.. let the mouse up, and all ships circled (that you own) are now selected..

the selected ships will appear on screen on the left. the total count selected, their names, and their registry numbers.. Green Means the hull is at 100%, yellow, some damge. Red. means the hull is almost ready to fall apart.

Most Right Click Mouse Commands are now wired to effect all ships.. To test, Nothus zoomed all the way out, grabbed 22 ships, and told them all to head to the same planet.. and they did.
with a single command, they all targeted the same abandoned frigate.


Instruction window is also Connected to selected ships. if you have multiple ships selected, open the instructions dialog. .it will tell you at the top if you are instructing one ship, or a bunch.. Ok, or apply effects all selected ships.


to unselect ships.. just left click once anywhere on the screen.

To get your update. .Close Down Far Reaches if open, and then Restart the game.. you will be automatically be connected to the update.

or you can always go to the site.

http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/index.htm

Last, and not least. Weve improved some icon images.. if you would like to make sure you have the latest, be sure to click the "replace graphics" checkbox on the login.

Pictured Above is the Polarian 500 Freigher

Version 1.0.3 is connected to the new server!

Starting last Sunday, we've been transitioning the game servers to a larger, more robust server.

and. .the new (delayed!) domain http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/

During the transition, we may have had lost a player or two.. registered on one server, and then tried playing on the other. .if. you Ended up in an escape pod unexpectedly. OR could not log in in the last couple of days.. please try again, and report any problems back to me..

you can obtain the latest install here http://www.thefarreachesofspace.com/pub/FarReachesSetup.msi

or, you can fire up what you have, wait until it tells you there is an update. and follow the steps.

So, Whats Changed?

AI improvements!
The occasional Rogue Ship Bug has been fixed. If your Stance is set to aggressive, tha'ts not a bug, it's a feature. yes your ship will go on the offensive.. and attack per your settings!

also, some other AI improvements are currently in, mostly tweaks, and ships stuck in "override"..

Undock, is now available on the status menu.. Expect to see the menus cleaned up and redone, based upon YOUR Feedback.. .

Speaking of feedback.. KEEP IT COMING!

It's only with your help, with bug reports ,and feature requests that we'll get this game to it's potential.

thanks.. and enjoy..


Dan S
aka Sideovs

Recovering the Satellites!

New build of the game.. and the server is going to go down (briefly!) around 6pm EST (-5GMT) This will be version 1.0.2.72

what's in this update? A few fixes related to Missles, and the AI, and.. a new Class of Ships.

Satellites
What are those? well think of them as a ship, without an engine, or an extra cheap and small ship. Like ships, they have similar characteristics, but are often tasked for a specific purpose. The current crop in Data are nothing more then scanners in a thin shell. So. .want to spy on someone but not dedicate a whole ship? buy a satellite, and drop it off on the edge of their space. .

Yes, you can drop them off. as in you can load them in your cargo hold!
After you buy a satellite, right click on it, and dock. (on the more info button) after docking, right click again/and hit more.. your have the option of loading it in your cargo bay.

The Satellite will then appear in the status window, under other ship items.. want to release into space? highlight the item in the status window, and you'll have a launch button. .hit it, and you'll drop it off.

this of course opens the door to many possibilities in design.. Mines, armed defensive units, and the ability to launch smaller ships from cargo/storage..

The framework in place also allows for other non-ejectable ship items. including: repair modules, cloaking devices, and self destruct modules!

Any other ideas.. please.. pass them along.

Also, some of the ship models have been updated.. If you care to contribute, and are experienced at 3D meshes, please, give me a shout.

Well, off for a bit, but I'll be back later tonight. .and probably playing..

until then.. enjoy..

aka Sideovs

Let There Be Light!

Now for today's big improvments.. light, and shadows. The lighting routine had some issues on some machines, and really slowed down the Frames per second. .this has been correct, and now runs 95% as fast as flat lighting. For those of you not in the know.. when working in a graphics/directx type format, you can specify how things are lit. Ambient, basically means everything has an even glow. you can also specify light locations (like a sun). When you do, everything not in the direct path of the sun (like the dark side of a planet) is shaded accordingly.

you will of course have to obtain the latest copy (build 1.0.2.70) and be sure to check on download all graphics. some older meshes and models have models that will not reflect light properly.

The best way to obtain the latest is thru the home page.. http://specwareinc.amplex.net/sm/

if you have any of the old one click installs (from the site http://76.12.51.171/sm/publish.htm) UNINSTALL THEM! they are missing many features, and we've discontinued using this install utility.. Too many issues with different flavors of Windows, and browsers..

In other news, Missles had a little hiccup in them that limited their effectiveness when used against an AI or a ship who's player is offline. .that's been corrected. Thanks Squeak.. for putting your ships on auto attack.. it gave me an opportunity to "defend" my self.. and test out the code!

Pictured here.. is the a Gret-Tek Freighter, picking up a load of cargo

And here we go

It's published, and set to go. The Beta has gone live, and we're ready to add more players.

Intersted in giving it a shot? Follow the link to the right for all the info on registering, downloading and playing.

We have a couple of new exciting feautures planned: ship types, ship components, and more details for the planets.. until then, I'd Like to leave you with a screen shot of my current favorite ship, the Brechtol Destroyer: