Worklist for the coming weeks.

So, characters are textured and integrated fully (no proofs or shots, they are all in-engine now, but they still need rigging) and major aspects of our FPS to RTS system are being worked on now through January - yay.

By the end of December my hope is to have all our ships and ship flight mechanics started and past the initial integration phase.

We have ships of all shapes and sizes, clearly demonstrating the tech of each race:






We have HUDS started:



So now the trick is to figure out which ones will be playable in space combat.  The smaller ships are already being integrated, but the question of the big ships remains:

How do we make larger ships playable and balanced, while still letting the smaller fighters not feel overwhelmed when a cruiser enters the battlefield?

This will be my challenge in the coming weeks as all 7 Space Combat levels are brought into Unity 2017 (from Unity 5 where they were built) and I start to balance out the ship to ship combat.

My biggest heuristic roadblocks will be:

1)  Weapon configuration and choices
I can borrow a lot from the books, but getting the right sound and feel of the weapons will be tricky.

2)  Armor
Again, I can borrow from my books and source material, but I won't know for sure how the vehicles will play and how tough they should be until they are playing and getting blasted on by AI.

3)  Handling
Each vehicle should have their own speed, handling, turn radii, etc.  There will be a lot of zooming around and tweaking until I get it right, but it's important to note that this is where I will cling hard to my source material to make sure the fastest in the books stay the fastest in the game.

We already have done some testing and systems work, but this month will be really fleshing it out past the three vehicles we've already tested:




I only have a little help, so I still feel sometimes like no one is ever going to see any of this past the 30 people who believe in me (and I am so grateful for them every day, so I won't give up), but I often wonder if the world could see what I'm doing if I'd be considered another Blomkamp or Whedon; or just some schmuck with too much spare time that should be doing something else with it.

Either way, it's time I get back to work.