People wanted a more substantial preview of R2, here it is. Copied from ModDB (the update over there hasn't been authed yet, but it's in the pipe).
this is an update guys, get ready to read it
are you comfortable okay good let's go
Blue Planet isn't FreeSpace 3. It's a fan production, and that has its own advantages. We can do things that Volition likely never would have - experiment with the gameplay and push the narrative envelope in surprising ways.
Custos patrol combatants support the UED Eris in a fleet action during the events of Delenda Est.War in Heaven's first release drew praise for its storytelling and immersion. But we worried that the player had only a limited role in the battle. While it's interesting to have to work as part of a team, fighting alongside competent wingmen and powerful warships, player agency is a key part of a fun game.
Our goal for Release 2 is to put the player in charge without losing our narrative or our tactical rules. Warships will remain tough, smart opponents. Hostile fighters will use loadouts and tactics rather than numerical advantage. But the player will have new tools.
One of those tools is our new HUD. Widescreen-compatible, high-resolution, and loaded with new gauges, the HUD allows us to deliver key story and gameplay information right to the player.
The new HUD in action. See if you can spot all the new gauges!The above screenshot gives you an idea of the tricks we can pull. Right there you can see a stealth meter, a tactical monitor below the stealth meter that helps the player track a key signal, a visibility meter just above the radar to help players maintain their stealth, and a tactical uplink in the upper right that links the player to key mission assets. We've got a few more gauges not displayed here.
Better yet, these gauges can be customized per-mission. In another mission, the tactical gauge can be used to display an urgent priority objective. The tactical uplink could be used to control artillery spotting, or select items from a menu. The visibility meter could instead track the progress of a character's cerebral edema.
If you're worried about information overload, well, so are we. We're working with our beta testers to make sure all this information doesn't overwhelm the player. Right now our idea is to include a series of optional tutorials.
Elements of Serkr Team engaging the UED Eris during the events of Delenda Est.That brings us to the hub world. The name of this world is, itself, something of a spoiler, so I'll leave it be. Suffice to say that between each mission in Act 3 the player will return to a hub where they can speak to characters, hunt for easter eggs, discuss their last mission, plan for the next, and get to know their wingmen and commanders. This hub is a single mission, but it changes in response to the campaign's progress.
The hub is also, of course, totally skippable. Players who prefer action can simply exit it every time. We hope players will be able to choose the kind of experience they want to have with War in Heaven R2's narrative.
At one point in design we were hoping to use the hub as the menu interface for a persistent squadron management feature. We're probably going to cut that, but the persistent squadron will likely remain.
A mission deep in Jupiter's atmosphere. We can't take full credit for that skybox.Another one of our big focuses is mission variety. Although Release 1 missions were quite diverse, a lot of the action focused on working closely with capital ships, flying intercept. Release 2 missions are a bit more adventurous - enough to please Spoon, creator of the brilliant Wings of Dawn.
Speaking of Spoon, Wings of Dawn and Blue Planet have been collaborating to build a system of mounted equipment for use on certain ships. You can choose to sacrifice weapons to carry extra ammo, enhanced reactive armor, a modular self-repair coagulant system, and more. We hope these equipment items will open up new options for players and provide interesting choices.
Speaking of interesting choices, you'll also be tangling with and flying alongside some new hardware.
The Federation's Custos patrol combatant can't stand on its own in line combat, but it's a useful torpedo attacker and it shines as a screening element and convoy raider. Of course, the GTVA has its own answer. Credit goes to our partner Cadius, an X3 modder.If you liked flying the Karuna frigate in The Blade Itself, you'll probably like the Custos too. It comes in two breeds: a mass produced torpedo attacker, and a more advanced special operations combatant. A nimble sub-cruiser gunboat, the advanced variant of the Custos mounts a spinal mass driver, select-fire torpedoes and heatseeking antifighter missiles, and adequate point defenses. Its real advantages lie in its electronic warfare and tactical systems.
One of the Custos' abilities plays into something beautiful we've implemented in R2: capship mounted countermeasures. Fighters have been able to deploy decoys ever since FreeSpace 2, but now warships will fire volleys of flares to decoy incoming torpedoes and bombs, in a manner inspired by (but not quite as cool as)
this.We'll keep you informed as we move forward. In the meantime, check out our amazing sister projects - Earth Defense, Inferno Release 1 Upgrade, Vassago's Dirge, Wings of Dawn, Luyten Civil War, and more.
The FreeSpace Upgrade Project continues to make everything more awesome, forever.There are a lot of other things I could get excited about, including numerous new mission editor features and bugfixes to the engine itself triggered by BP development. But I think it's time to sign off. I'll close with some hard numbers: we have eight missions done, tested, and polished to nearly release state. Progress continues.
Oh! I was just reminded of an amazing community project. As we developed War in Heaven we daydreamed of a multiplayer mode. The community came up with this idea itself, and a number of intrepid Hard Light Productions members have put together a Blue Planet multiplayer package! Games happen quite regularly, and the package is constantly updated with new missions and balance tweaks.
Perhaps the most impressive thing I've seen from this project is a true hybridization of space sim and RTS gameplay. Imagine that Left 4 Dead's AI director could be played by a person, and you have an idea of what the multiplayer crowd has achieved.
What you see here is a game's host playing dungeon master, ordering warships about and controlling the flow of the battle. The rest of the players are down in the thick of the fight. They've also done co-op conversions of a lot of the biggest BP missions.
k crosspost over, peace out HLPlites
ED: special note for HLP, most of these screenshots include a degree of grain from postprocessing; we're not exactly sure how we'll handle this during release but there may be a set of optional packages.
