Hard Light Productions Forums
Hosted Projects - Standalone => Diaspora => Developer Blog => Topic started by: newman on December 25, 2012, 04:29:50 am
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(http://i827.photobucket.com/albums/zz196/newman1702/Diaspora/end_of_line_logo_zpsffbd53aa.jpg)
After a bit of an extended silence following the release of Shattered Armistice in September, we thought it was time to reveal a bit of what's next to come. Our next release is going to be called End of Line, it will introduce an additional Battlestar type (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=83202.new#new), as well as many other ship types we'll be covering over time in their own dev blog entries. The general storyline for this campaign has been written, and right now we're in the process of building additional art assets needed to tell the story.
So, how long is it going to be? Shattered Armistice was short...
We're still fairly early in the development cycle so the exact number of missions may well change over time. For now, we can say this campaign will be almost twice as long as Shattered Armistice.
When is it coming out?
Since we're still early in R2 development, it's difficult to say. With Shattered Armistice, we've done a lot of the ground work future releases won't have to deal with, so it should take much less time than it took us to get R1 out. How long exactly is impossible to predict at this juncture, so I'm afraid "when it's done" will have to be our answer to this, at least for now. We'll strive keep you updated via dev blogs, though.
What new ships will you introduce this time? Will we see the Theseus again?
There will be at least one new playable craft, possibly more. This release will introduce the battlestar Callisto, a Valkyrie-type vessel. Both the Colonial and Cylon sides will be getting additional support ships designed by StarSlayer, we plan to introduce several new space installation types, and the civilian fleet will be getting new ships added to it as well. We will cover this in more detail in future dev blog posts. You won't be seeing the Theseus in this campaign again - it's story was concluded in Shattered Armistice. It is possible we might do a campaign that features the Theseus (or a different Sobek class) during the first Cylon war, but this isn't planned for End of Line. Of course, the Theseus and any other R1 ships will remain available for use in the mission builder.
What can you tell us about the plot?
Not much, really - we'd like to avoid spoilers so the plot is fresh to the player when it comes out. Once again, the bulk of the plot happens during the fall of the Colonies.
But isn't introducing another battlestar that survived the fall stretching it a bit? How will you explain it?
You'll have to wait and see :) Technically, though, we never introduced a battlestar that survived the fall. As for Callisto's ultimate fate or how she came to avoid being destroyed immediately when the attack began, you'll just have to play it when it comes out. We've put a lot of thought into integrating this plot line with the continuity of the show, and we hope you'll find the story fits the universe naturally.
Will we see the Galactica or Pegasus this time?
Not in this release, sorry. The whole point of episodic releases was to not have to do everything in one huge release that takes too long to finish, risking project death before we get to release anything. This way we set more smaller, realistic goals, and get a lot of useful feedback along the way allowing us to fine-tune and improve the game as we go along. The Galactica and Pegasus are planned to show up after R2, though.
So much for now, on behalf of the Diaspora development team I'd like to wish happy holidays and a Merry Christmas to everyone!
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:shaking: with excitement. Go for it guys, nothing short of fantastic was Shattered Armistice. End of Line can only go up and up :)
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Best gift ever! No, seriously, really looking forward to this. Thank you, Diaspora team, for your hard work and Happy Holidays!
(http://cdn3.hark.com/images/000/008/749/8749/original.0)
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Looks promising! One question though... End of (the) line?
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It's obvious! You'll play a Cylon spy that End(s) of(f)Line! :p
Also, great news! :nod:
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End of Line is a reference to a line from the show and is thus correct in this context. You people really need to watch BSG :)
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End of Line is a reference to a line from the show and is thus correct in this context. You people really need to watch BSG :)
Perhaps, but it's also a reference to Tron, thus making this...unfortunately hilarious, I suppose?
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Ah! This, plus the cylon looking logo tell me you'll play a sleeper, confirmed! :p
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A sleeper on a lightcycle.
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Woohoo! This is very exciting, and I hadn't even tired of R1 yet ;)
...and I apologise for the delayed enthusiasm - I knew I'd miss the dev blog posts when the sub-forum was moved.
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A sleeper on a lightcycle.
Father, The Sleeper has awakened!
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Hold on a second... is that a Guardian or some sort of non-canon basestar in the title image?
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Neither. It's something we'll show in more detail later :)
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Loving it many thanks for keeping us up to date on this project
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Neither. It's something we'll show in more detail later :)
Oh you tease!
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cant wait for this to come out. Shattered Armistice is tied for first on my favorite campaigns of all time list. I have never seen BSG, so this was an amazing experiance in that everything was new to me and unexpected. I loved Shattered Armistice because of the tight spots I always managed to wriggle out of and the epic story. This is my favorite flying game period and I wish more people knew about Diaspora because they don't know how much fun they are missing out on.
is the campaign definitly coming out this year? I will mark my calender as soon as it is announced and will eagerly await another amazing story!
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We can't say when it will come out because we simply don't know ourselves. We're working on it but the best we can do is give updates about what we've actually achieved so far.
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Ok! I can definitly wait for something this awesome. I almost had a heart attack when I saw the words "twice as long"
Keep up the amazing work!
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I just found out about Diaspora yesterday and I can't believe I was missing out on this. Amazing stuff, cant wait for more ships and missions!
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How did you hear about us?
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wait, I know what that is... what the hell is that? oh I know... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RV7Qz640OeM
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How did you hear about us?
Stumble Upon
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any updates about when this will be released?
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Nope. We don't know yet so we can't tell you. We covered the reasons for this in the FAQ (http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=56783.0).
When will it be done?
Future releases will add more ships, weapons, and storylines.
The team basically consists of volunteers who are giving up our spare time in order to produce a game. Since we can't work on it full time it's very hard to make estimates. If someone important to the team gets busy with real life commitments things can slow down. They always pick up again eventually, but we can't give any predictions for when the game will be completely done.
However since we are planning on having episodic releases, as as we get close to completion on each one we will be able to give rough estimates for how long it might take us to get the next release out. Any estimate would be a best guess and would be subject to refinements and revisions depending on how much work is getting done and if we've hit any snags.
Currently we're in the model building stage. FREDding for R2 hasn't started yet. So we're still a while from release.
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any updates about when this will be released?
If there were, we would have published them. R2 isn't going to be out soon, though.
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I'm curious to know if End of Line might include, or perhaps future updates for it, co-op campaign missions?
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Important question: what is 'End of Line' meant to mean? Without an article before 'Line' I can only think of really bizarre interpretations of that phrase.
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I googled it, and I think this is likely:
http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/End_of_Line
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It's one of the things the hybrid cylons in the base ships say from time to time during their streams of ship status/metaphysical pondering jibber jabber.
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Important question: what is 'End of Line' meant to mean? Without an article before 'Line' I can only think of really bizarre interpretations of that phrase.
It refers to what the Hybrid says after she is done "rambling." Such as... "The excited state decays by vibrational relaxation into the first excited singlet state. Yes, yes and merrily we go. Reduce atmospheric nitrogen by 0.03%. It is not much consolation that society will pick up the bits, leaving us at eight modern where punishment, rather than interdiction, is paramount. Please, cut the fuse. They will not harm their own. End of line. Limiting diffusions to two dimensions increases the number of evolutionary jumps within the species. Rise and measure the temple of the five. Transformation is the goal. They will not harm their own. Data-font synchronization complete."
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news?
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It's been kinda quiet on this board for awhile, @Vidmaster maybe R2 is gonna be out for Christmas!..... How's that for a bit of wildly (Insanely) optimistic and totaly factless bit of speculation lol. I am really looking forward to flying my viper along side the Valkyrie when the time comes... the anticipation of R2 coming out will almost be as as good as playing it.
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I don't think that is the case, but I'm willing to bet they will give us some exciting news in that date to both mark the anniversary of the announcement and christmas.
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It definitely won't be out of Christmas (at least not this one!) :) There's been a rather long hiatus, with certain members - me included - being prevented from doing much for the last few months due to rl issues and such. It will pick up again, but R2 won't be out any time soon I'm afraid.
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Indeed. Most of the work that has been done recently is aimed at R1.5 rather than R2. R1.5 won't have that much new stuff in it, it's basically the (hopefully) final version of R1. What new stuff we do manage to do will be geared towards multiplayer.
Work will pick up though. Especially if we do manage to get some more recruits for the art department. Pretty pictures always get everyone motivated. :)
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Guys... I've been waiting for Diaspora for 3 years since I heard about it. And it was worth it. Take your time, do your job, and make the R2 at least as good as first :D. I can wait for it even next 3 years xD No need to rush.
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When you say multiplayer, do you mean adding more assets to the game, like more flyable ships (Mk.2 w/ cockpit), the Valkyrie, and some civvies? Also, will there be engine updates to include things like shadows? Should we expect any GUI changes?
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New assets will come with R2 most likely. Engine updates are very likely though.
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Cool! So, other than shadows, which are a non-Diaspora specific thing, what sort of engine updates are possible or needed?
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Nothing in Diaspora is Diaspora specific, you're looking at it the wrong way.
I know Karaj and others have been looking at multiplayer code. They can probably tell you more than I can.
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nice to hear.. while Shattered Armistice was short is was very tight and detailed! I much prefer such detailed and dense missions :)
keep up the good work!
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any news?
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With Lords of Rigel in development and no dev posts I suspect the project's in hibernation for now. This is just going off my own experience with projects, no inside knowledge!
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Actually it's not. Fortunately the art department gave us enough ships to start FREDding before they got busy. It's just that I've been ridiculously busy these past couple of weeks and I haven't been able to write a proper post on what's going on.
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I might also put together a post on the behind the scenes coding work that is going on regarding the engine. Not all Diaspora-specific, but there's a few interesting things I'm working on that would benefit the next release.
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That wouldn't be a bad idea. If you only follow Diaspora and not FS2_Open you'll have no idea of the kind of stuff that has been added to the engine over the last year which will make R2 so much better than R1.
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That'd be pretty cool.