Brass Watch Games

Shipyard: Outline for Pre-Alpha 0.8.1

by Jonah on June 7, 2014

Even though version 0.8.0 has just been released, I’m already thinking about content for the next update. Nothing is set in stone as of yet, but my major plans are listed below:

  • Working Items: Items will be usable and provide effects to your ship. Consumables will provide temporary effects and will be used up in the process, while upgrades will provide permanent effects as long as they are equipped. New items will be added, and some old items will be changed or removed to work with the new system.
  • Improved Cargo Hold View: The current cargo hold view is primitive at best, and would not be sufficient to handle large numbers of items. Thus, an upgrade is in order. The new screen will display items as a list (including their name, type, and effects) rather than a grid, and items will be sorted into some meaningful order.
  • Upgrades Tab: The upgrades tab in the ship overview window will be implemented to allow you to view your currently equipped upgrades and their effects.
  • Ship Size Limit: Because having a ship which is a giant blob of class 1 parts is just silly, class-based size limits will be imposed on ships. Class 1 ships can be no larger than 16×16 tiles, 32×32 for class 2, and 48×48 for class 3.
  • Shuttles: Shuttles will be added to the game, available for purchase at the shuttle shop that generates in every sector. Shuttles can be sent on missions independent of your own vessel, but each will have a limited flight range. They will also require free crew to operate them. Crew will be taken with the shuttle and returned to your ship upon its return. However, shuttles might be destroyed by enemy ships or lose crew in the course of their mission.
  • Officers: Officers are hire-able characters that provide bonuses to your ship similar to upgrade items. They will be randomly generated and available for hire at academies. Each officer will require an officer’s quarters system, and may also have special requirements (for example, a pirate may refuse to work with an ex-military police officer and vice versa). To balance out the additional requirements, officers will generally provide better bonuses than upgrade items.

The last two plans are tentative, and may be pushed back to later updates. However, the first four are most likely going to be ready for 0.8.1.

One thought on “Shipyard: Outline for Pre-Alpha 0.8.1

  1. Pingback: Brass Watch Games | Shipyard Dev News 22 Nov. 2014 — “Lesser of Two Evils” Edition

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.