My pride and joy of the game is its physics! I spent a shit load of time learning all about vectors and refreshing my calculus and trigonometry skills (very important!) to be able to properly test and implement the mathematics necessary to create an awesome game.
A lot of people don’t realize this, but the video games that do really well actually FEEL different than other games and that is because of their physics and also their user interface in some instances, but it usually has to do with the mechanics/physical calculations that happen on the actual motherboard of whatever computer/platform you are using. In other words, some code is just written better. So it feels superior, more responsive, realistic, predictable, and fun!
Thrust Mechanics in Explore the Universe
I used an accumulator for the thruster and there are many tiers of thrust in the game, so as the player levels, more advanced maneuverability becomes available, which is the most important part of staying alive in the galaxy.
There are 6 tiers of Thruster which also will affect your abilities in the game. As you level up the energy generator, the thruster upgrades becomes available, and then you can use your hard earned skill points to level up the thruster and purchase new abilities, like boosting.
The Six tiers of Energy Generation and Thrust:
1. Combustion – This is the most basic tier and creates heat quickly. You won’t be cold! But you won’t be able to boost as hard either.
2. Ion – here are are starting to get faster, its possible to do transfer orbits around objects with weaker gravity
3. Plasma – Now we’re cooking, the boost will get you around pretty much anything in the game, you just have to time it correctly and yeah, aim.
4. Fusion – Transfer orbits are a bit easier, escaping the black hole is possible near the accretion edge, though its still going to wreck you if you get cute with it.
5. Anti-Matter – Now you are the fastest ship in the galaxy… before the speed of light.
6. Quantum- Jump teleport small distances, move through objects… you know, quantum stuff…
The Ship’s Laser – Your Primary Weapon in Explore the Universe 2175
The Weapon and Projectile Systems in the game are my pride and joy. These are custom systems build with Rust/ECSified Python and they are fast and efficient, with lots of bells and whistles.
The Seven different laser modes:
1. Single-Shot – the beginning of the game, still pretty f-ing cool imho.
2. Dual-Shot – Self-explanatory, but tough to code….
3. Charge-Shot – Think Spirit Bomb, big boom
4. Burst-shot – many projectiles fire together this one is fun
5. Multi-shot – fires multiple lasers at set angles, depending on your level
6. Spread – Fires in a circle, you can adjust the degree jump at the higher levels, and it speeds up
7. Beam laser – this is the most powerful ability to use, but it takes a lot of energy. You need some find of fusion or plasma at the least to get it going… its kind of an end-game ability for bosses, so I need to work on the mechanics some more.
Missile and Mines
These are the explosive, highly advanced weapons in the game. They get smarter as you level up, with targeting systems, guideance, AOE and a bunch of other really cool and fun mechanics. My favorite one is the cluster missile ability, where the missile splits into like 4-16 different mini-missiles that launch like a carpet. Should be pretty fun to use against the larger bosses with lots of health.
Missile have their own acceleration. I realize that in space, this is unlikely to be a combustion system, but that is where we are starting.
Mines float. They explode. They have AoE, just like missile do, so its possible to lay traps, and play defensively, strategically. Players are going to help me build out the upper levels, some cool ideas are chain explosions, multi-mine degradation, and magnetic targeting.
Leveling and Experience in Explore the Universe 2175
The Leveling Systems – A true Roguelike. I have definitely made it fun to level 100 so far, but I am aiming to make it really fun up to level 1000. There are many leveling systems, all of which affect gameplay in Real-Time and require skill points, of which the player gets 2 every level. You can start by increasing your laser and missile damage! My goal is to make leveling kinda quicky and fun and to make questing a part of it, but to focus on resources getting, defense system expansion and automated resource acquisition.
That’s it for today. Check back tomorrow for more updates, and make sure you visit exploretheuniverse2175.com and sign-up for updates, there is a lot of new content coming out soon here.
-Elliot
Today I am writing quest content for the ‘Rise of the Machines’ which is the main campaign of the first game. There are lots of units to introduce, but I am specifically super excited to write the Quests. Expect some heavy weapons and gameplay trailer updates here soon.
The Rise of the Machines Campaign #1
Send me some quest ideas for the main quest-line for Explore the Universe 2175