Dev Log #5 - Shields

Since our last update

Hey everyone! Been a quiet (but busy) couple of months here at Shrimp Fried Games. First of all, if you haven't seen our new trailer yet:

Those who have been following us for a little while might have noticed two new interesting additions. Ships now have shields, and there is officially a fourth faction 👀

We'll spotlight our mysterious new faction at a later date, though know that they are a core part of The Last Captain story and feature heavily in the campaign. In the meantime...

Shields!

Yes, shields are officially in the game! A core staple of many Sci-Fi franchises, shields provide a visually distinct protective layer around ships and drastically increase their longevity. When approaching shields for Last Captain, I wanted to make sure that they:

1. Had a unique look

2. Were not just a second healthbar

3. Generally made the game more interesting

In progress shields

Steam post imageNote how the first shield wraps around the ship very closely, versus the bubble-like effects of the other shields.

Steam post imageThis shield is close to the final effect, though I had to make some rendering pipeline changes to remove the dithering side-effect.

So how do they work?

Most ships have a bubble shield that extends protectively around them. It has a certain threshold of damage it can take before it collapses, leaving the ship vulnerable to hull damage.

Until the shield is taken down, ships generally won't be damaged by regular weapons. However, ion storms will rapidly damage the shields of any ship entering them, leaving them much more vulnerable than they usually would be. Radiation clouds can also damage ships directly, bypassing their shields.

Shields recharge slowly while out of combat or all at once after a delay if they are fully collapsed. This means shields can be slowly whittled down, but there is only a brief window to strike a ship once its shields go down entirely.

Steam post imageThis is what shields currently look like in-game. An image doesn't quite capture the rippling animation, so keep an eye out for videos showcasing them on our social channels.

Shield Effectiveness

Barring a few exceptions, shields absorb the entirety of any instance of damage. Put another way, there is no damage spillover. So launching a Big Papa missile at an enemy whose shield is almost down will take out the shield but leave the underlying ship untouched!

Because of this (especially with missiles), it's important to take out shields first so your powerful missiles can finish the job. I'm particularly interested in how this will effect the multiplayer balance and meta going forward.

Collision

Another big change is that ships now take collision damage from each other and environmental obstacles. Small impacts don't do any damage, but the faster you travel and the more mass you have, the more damage you'll do! Ships also take far less collision damage from the front, which can be further optimized by installing the ramming prow module.

Shields help mitigate collision damage, especially against environmental obstacles, so you don't have to worry about a rogue asteroid ending your interstellar career (unless your shields are down). Though because shields extend beyond the ship itself, its hitbox is correspondingly higher as well!

Steam post imageDifferent factions and their shield impacts.

Thanks to the art provided by SoftTofuVFX , the shields come to life when hit, physically recoiling as the impact washes over them. Not only that, but shields also represent the faction that uses them and the different technology that powers them.

You might notice that pirates aren't included in the comparisons. Why? Well, their scrappy ships aren't well-suited to carry shields, and even for those that could, pirate culture views them as cowardly and as getting in the way of a good fight.

Next Up

There's still a ton of work going on behind the scenes, especially on the single-player campaign and the upcoming playtests. Even though these are playtests, I want to hit a minimum quality threshold that leaves players feeling great about the game. With that in mind, they'll be publicly available real soon so keep an eye out on all Shrimp Fried Games / Last Captain socials.

Thanks for reading!