The Space Combat Update - Regular Update v0.1.1

I'm excited to announce the first-ever update for Fortified Space! This minor update comes courtesy of player feedback. You bought the game, you played it through, and you shared your thoughts through various channels. So far, it sounds like you all really enjoyed the planet missions and exploring your ship, but felt that space combat could use a little more spice. I hear you, and I've added some fun new dynamics as part of this update. Let me know what you think of the changes, and if you have any suggestions, send me a message with those ideas as well. This was a perfect example of why I wanted to release in Early Access, so thank you all for sharing your thoughts and for being part of the game's development. If I think of or hear more improvements to space combat, I will try to keep adding them. I am particularly interested in what you all think of the difficulty of space missions with all of these changes. Let me know using the Feedback button on the in-game main menu.

My primary goal with these changes was to add new, interesting threats in space while trying to avoid ramping up the difficulty too much. With this update, space combat will now require you to maneuver and take evasive action more often. Staying in one spot and railgunning enemies from a distance is no longer a viable move.

Enemy Laser Cannons

The laser cannon is a powerful new primary weapon used by enemy cruisers. You can think of it as their answer to the Unified Earth Forces railgun. When your ship is in range, every once in a while a thin purple detection beam will shoot from the front of the closest enemy ship and paint you continuously as it tries to acquire you as a target. If you stay within the detection beam's path for more than three seconds, they will get a target lock and blast you with the full force of the laser. If your shields are still up, the laser will shut it down immediately. If your shields had already been depleted, then you explode.

What this means is that if you are engaging an enemy ship in combat, you need to keep maneuvering so that the laser cannon doesn't have a chance to get a target lock on you. You'll be painted by the detection beam often, but as long as you move away from it quickly enough, you should be fine. Just don't get so distracted that you let some missiles get close!

Improved Enemy Ship Behavior

With this update, all enemy ships now maneuver, even those in orbit over planets. They start off slower in early missions, but increase in speed during later missions. This introduces some interesting new gameplay considerations. First, since they are moving targets, you cannot just point your ship at a certain angle and keep railgunning the same spot over and over. Second, if they are outside of your view, the missiles and lasers they shoot at you may come from slightly surprising directions. Finally, enemy laser cannons can more easily track you if you happen to be moving in tandem with the enemy ship. Don't worry, they're nowhere close to your speed, but it's just enough movement to add new dynamics to a space fight.

I’ve also made enemy ships faster on the trigger. With this new update, whenever you get close to an enemy ship, they will fire at you. It used to be that they would take turns and stick to their order, so you’d occasionally end up next to enemies that weren’t shooting at you. This will not happen anymore. If you come up alongside an enemy cruiser, get ready to defend yourself.

Improved Allied Ship Behavior

To balance out some of the enemy’s new naval capabilities in fleet battles, I improved the behavior of allied ships as well. Unified Earth Forces frigates now move and maneuver much faster than before, and they’ll fire their railguns more frequently now. They now have the potential to be valuable combatants, so sticking close to them can be a good strategy during those fleet missions. The cruiser Corinth now moves faster as well.

Wider Camera Zoom

I heard some feedback that the camera was not zooming out enough. This was making space combat more difficult, since it was harder to get oriented and to find enemy ships when the camera was so close to your own ship. I've now made it so you can zoom out much wider than before. Hopefully that makes those fights more interesting and manageable.

Railgun Range Limit

In the previous build, the railgun had unlimited range, which allowed players to snipe enemy ships from across the map at no danger to themselves. That has now changed, and there is now a distance after which the railgun shot will automatically miss and have no impact. Your railgun's range is roughly equivalent to the range of the enemy's laser cannon, forcing you to close with the enemy and take risks in order to deal damage. Basically, if you see a purple laser painting you, you’re close enough to railgun the ship it came from. If not, you still might be able to hit them, but you’d be very close to the limit of your railgun’s range.

Progressively Tougher Space Missions

Space battles now have a clearer difficulty ramp. As you progress through the main campaign, you’ll start to face more and more enemy ships who are maneuvering faster over time. Progression overall is an element that I want to focus a lot more on during this Early Access period, so I hope that more updates in the future will improve this feeling of progression.

Other Updates

• Rebalanced fleet missions.

• Added more dialogue to all NPCs aboard your ship and on Earth.

• Clarified that starting a new game will not wipe out your rank. Your rank and career enemy kill count are designed to stay with you as a sign of your experience. In the future, I may have your rank unlock upgrades and other items.

• If your ship shield is damaged, your Engineering Officer will call out the percentage remaining (i.e. 50%, offline, etc).

I hope these updates make space combat a more fun and engaging experience. Stay tuned for more exciting new features coming soon. Did I miss the mark? Let me know using the Feedback button in-game and I will continue adjusting in future updates.

Finally, if you've already bought the game and would like to support it further, consider leaving a review! Steam's algorithm significantly boosts games with 10 reviews or more, so each review makes a huge difference for a small game like mine. No matter what, though, I'll keep building this thing to the best of my ability. Thanks!

Good hunting,