[Scourge of Ages]

Ooooooooh, neat.

[Ace]

Some new stuff for today, an article covering how FTL tech works in the game which is a pretty central part for how fleets move and the game overall plays:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/design-series-6-multiple-ftl-tech/

Also, a Dead world. This is what happens when you play with too many WMDS!

[Ace]

So today's article is covering our hardest difficultly mode 1996 mode which is a pretty unforgiving iron made mode we're including:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/feature-series-6-1996-mode/

Also, showing off a new Tharrn wallpaper:

[DarkBasilisk]

First i want to say I'm really excited about this.. since it will preserve some of the MoO features I demand that no one seems to preserve in sequels (here's looking at you Stardrive 2 for not implementing ship boarding/capture >.> ), so all of the best luck in the world.

However, had a more general/academic question, since I've seen this before. How do some games manage to take quite a lot from other games (heck, Stardrive 2 has a tongue in cheek ship "Master of Orion II" amoungst tons of gameplay similarities) and not get the original rights holders knocking on their door? This same question applies for stuff like Freeciv, FreeOrion (i think that's either defunct or moving so slowly it'll never finish) which seem to even have the goal right on the tin "re-implement this established game as closely as possible"

Are there some rules I'm not aware of with the legal aspects here or are most of these things surviving because the original game's owners didn't notice/didn't care?

[Ace]

Well this is our own intellectual property and it is quite distinct from anything Wargaming (current MOO license holders) is making. A similar question could be asked about why didn't LucasArts sue Volition for making a space combat game with similar gameplay since FreeSpace is a lot like TIE Fighter.

[Ace]

As usual for Sundays, here's our weekly update on progress:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/status/status-update-for-830-952015/

Also for those interested in the development process here's a recording of our livestream from yesterday!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFa1LHJ9E0Q

[Luis Dias]

Hey I really like the Tulocks! Great design, seems quite original (at least I can't recollect any direct influence on it!).

[Ace]

Well you might have the opposite opinion of the evil wizard Xantus spy, but they are intentionally trying to give that vibe:


Also our composer, Steve just wrote a new article covering composing special scene music in the game:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/composition-series-7-scene-tracks/

[AdmiralRalwood]

Hey I really like the Tulocks! Great design, seems quite original (at least I can't recollect any direct influence on it!).

I get a bit of a Star Control vibe; visually reminds me of the Mycon, although being silicon-based instead of fungi fits the Taalo more (but we never see what they look like).

[Ace]

The Mycon were a bit of an influence, even the "probably were terraformers" bit.




Today's species article and the above images are tied to our bird-borgs, the Ornithons! They're frail but vicious and have tons of implants and live on nasty polluted worlds!
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/species-series-7-ornithon/

[Lorric]

One of those ships reminds me very much of this:



The Piranha from Wing Commander Prophecy.

Speaking of Wing Commander, I am wondering if you are in any danger with the Katraxi. They look like Kilrathi and even the name rolls off the tongue pretty much just like Kilrathi.

My favourite race when they first came up in the thread are the Selach, the fish race. For me that really stood out, a fish with robotic arms, and I read the backstory and liked that, the idea of a race that couldn't have got where they are today without some outside influence, but now they're fully capable of advancing their species by themselves. There's plenty more for me to look at now though. I really like the look of the Tulocks, they win the "most alien" race by a million miles. Prior to the Selach, the Aranids were my favourite. I think they look great.

I get a real feeling of familiarity with the Yalkai Cruiser, but I can't put my finger on where it is coming from. So far, it is my favourite ship. However, even despite this, I think their race suffers for having all their ships look the same even though it's my favourite ship just to look at. It would be a bad ship in Freespace though since you could just get into the gaps and start blasting. I've no idea how battle works in your universe though. Perhaps these ships would be moving so fast, such cheap tricks would be impossible.

The Yalkai, does their effect work on the other races as well and make them appear in a form pretty to them too?

[Ace]

The Katraxi look a lot like how people remember the Kilrathi, but are pretty different if there's a side by side comparison. Regardless the Kilrathi themselves are a shameless ripoff of the Kzinti from Niven's Known Space series! The Katraxi are actually a bit closer to the Kzin too.

For the Yalkai, yes it would but due to not having unlimited funds we're sticking with how they look like to you, the Human player. But a Tharrn would see a large purple female Tharrn (the big ones).

As for how ships work, they use warp and combat is pretty similar to the distances that would be in Star Trek. Generally relativistic and quick. But it's abstracted in game as turn based but in general Earth-Moon distances would be covered and battles over in a few minutes. Not quite as crazy fast as the nanosecond battles in say Bank's Culture novels.

Today's new stuff:

Xantus fleet scale image.

Also an article by yours truly covering tactical combat AI!
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/mechanics-series-7-tactical-ship-combat-ai/

[karajorma]

The Katraxi look a lot like how people remember the Kilrathi, but are pretty different if there's a side by side comparison. Regardless the Kilrathi themselves are a shameless ripoff of the Kzinti from Niven's Known Space series! The Katraxi are actually a bit closer to the Kzin too.

Funny thing is, a friend of mine once had a race based on the kzin in a role playing game he created also called the Katraxi. It's never been published so I'm sure the name is still available though.

[Gray]

Would it be possible to get orthographic/ perspective renders of the Xantus Cruiser and Destroyer?
I dig the designs...

[Ace]

Gray, I can do one better a p3d of their starbase:
Xantus Starbase (View in 3D)


For today we have an article covering the fleet design of the Ornithons;
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/ship-design-7-ornithon-fleet-design/

Showing off a 3d version, their smaller ships are heavily inspired from the Klingons, Romulans, and Cardassians:
Ornithon frigate (View in 3D)


Also hot off the presses is the Xantus diplomat, a little closer to their "natural" form since they're shapeshifters:

[Cyborg17]

Race/ship design is really coming together!  I'm pretty excited now.

[Ace]

Thanks Cyborg!

Today's a bit of a big day on updates, Explorminate has posted part 1 of a three part series showing the pre-alpha build of the game:

Part 3 is the best, IMO since it shows off skirmish mode and that will be posted in a few days.

We also have an article covering the ground combat mechanics which we're currently implementing:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/design-series-7-ground-combat/

Last but not least is a species wallpaper showing the various Yalkai characters:

[Ace]

Today's update is a little bit on the diplomacy mechanics in the game. The above image is showing off the current diplomacy screen and the Tharrn diplomat who will soon have original dialog all about eating people.
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/feature-series-7-diplomacy/

[Ace]

Well it's Monday so we have a new "music Monday" covering how the tracks for the Ornithon and Tulock species were composed:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/composition-series-8-species-tracks-ornithon-and-tulock/

Explorminate also released part 2 of their pre-alpha gameplay series. This time showing off the ship designer, fleet movement, and colonization:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ADiXQsZelg

We've also released a new ambient track on Soundcloud for listening!
https://soundcloud.com/rhombustudios/ambient-track-32

Since people like the pretties, here's a new wallpaper showing off the Tulocks:

[jr2]

Rockman - Mantis hybrid?