State Of The Galaxy
Hello everyone!
Since we are finishing up the Alpha we figured it was about time to do another one of these write-ups! With this we hope to explain what we’ve been up to, as well as what our goals are moving forward into Beta!
Moving into Beta doesn’t mean we are done adding, tweaking and polishing features, just that we will now be spending much more time working on scenarios and content! There were a few features we were hoping to get in during the Alpha, but we explain below why they were delayed.
List of Some Non-Content Features (Early / Mid Beta)
-Research / sample collection. The Scientist will be able to create useful consumables / unlock new talents.
-Captain order system. A more in-depth order system with the potential for contextual orders based on the current sector and such.
-More fleshed out chaos system with randomized galaxy events
-More depth and refinement to each class
-Refined ship components and shop interface
-Ship-to-Ship hailing
-UI / Menu overhaul
-VR
-LAN
-Leaderboards and high scores
-And more!
Plans for Early Beta
-Content, content, content (more ships, planets, space scenarios, missions, factions, items, components, etc)
-Work on features listed above
-Improve UI
-Improve AI
-Work on balance / combat
Plans for Mid Beta
-Networking solution overhaul (adding LAN support in the process)
-More content, polish
-Finish up features listed above
-Continue to improve AI
-Continue to work on balance / combat
Plans for Late Beta
-End game
-The Lost Colony and related content
-Content, polish
-Continue to improve AI
-Continue to work on balance / combat
Other Features
Virtual Reality Support
VR / Oculus Rift was part of our original plans for Alpha phase. We have been working on internal implementations but aren’t currently satisfied with the experience yet. This is partly due to the Unity implementation missing some advanced control options that are required to use our unique camera system. It is very close, but without these options it won’t be a workable experience. We will also need to do some major overhaul of our UI / menus which is something we were already planning. These will take some time but we are hopeful that it will come together in the first half of the Beta process. The VR community and movement has changed a lot since we first ran our Kickstarter and promised VR support, but we are still dedicated to supporting these awesome devices. We will also be investigating other VR headsets to see if they would be compatible with PULSAR.
Offline LAN Support
Our current networking solution is the Photon Cloud. It provides some huge advantages that are sometimes not obvious, including a hassle-free way to play with friends over the internet without messing with ports or routers.
That being said, there are a few downsides of the Photon Cloud including a lack of LAN support. For this reason we will likely be moving to another networking solution during Beta. We are investigating a few possibilities, but these still need some time to mature and stabilize. We don’t want to lose the ease-of-use functionality for connecting players but need some more control to allow for an offline LAN mode.
Mod Support
There have been some hopeful developments related to Unity 5 that might allow for this in the future. However, it is not a small task to add mod support to a game like PULSAR, especially after years of development without the feature.
We are not promising that mod support will be part of the release of PULSAR. There is a chance that we will add it post-release, but it would be a large and time-consuming undertaking.
How much content is planned?
The amount of content is somewhat flexible. We want many hours of play, unique scenarios and bits of content throughout. We have a hefty behind-the-scenes list of planned content that we will implement over the course of Beta.
Will the price of PULSAR be changed?
We plan on maintaining our current price: $25. When we enter Beta the soundtrack will not be included in this price and will be sold separately when it is available. We are also working on a 5-pack deal that should be available during Beta (possibly closer to Release).
How much longer do you plan to work on PULSAR?
Our current estimate is 12 - 18 months. This is mostly based on how long it will take us to create a satisfactory amount of content.
Multi-Crew Support?
We are completely focused on the single crew experience. We have no plans for any multi-crew modes and/or MMO features. We have our work cut out for us already with the announced feature set and amount of content, so we want to make sure we have the time and resources to make it sufficiently polished.
Dedicated Servers?
Dedicated server functionality might be in the works. No definite promises at this time. A lot depends on our final networking solution.
We’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our community. Your feedback and suggestions have been amazing, and many areas of the game have been improved due to them. The encouraging support you’ve given has been really motivating to our team; we’re quite humbled by the messages we’ve received from you all. For those of you who’ve been submitting bug reports and output logs, we honestly can’t thank you enough for taking the time out of your day to send us that information. It helps a lot, and the game would certainly be worse off without your contributions.
Thanks again for your time and support. It’s a real pleasure to work with you all on this project.
Best,
The Leafy Games Team
