Preview...

This is a preview of the screen that I'm working on.  Guess which one it is :)  Yes, everything related to technologies has been implemented for ship design purposes (power, space, cost, etc, along with miniaturization based on tech level, and you can research new technologies, as well as using the "secondary item" of a technology, like Ion vs Heavy Ion Cannons).  So only things left for technologies are space combat handling, colony improvement functionality, and "advanced tech" that just raises the tech level of that field.  Technologies affecting colonies (more factories, stargates, missile bases, etc) will wait until I do the planet list screen.

I got a question for MoO 1 pros:

Does miniaturization affects a ship's maintenance?  I mean, if I research something that makes something cheaper on a ship, does the ship update its cost which affects its maintenance?  I'm assuming no due to the Scout/Colony Ship cost bug (you design Scout 2 or Colony 2 with the same design as Scout 1 or Colony 1, but it's cheaper because the original was created with tech level set at 0).  Right now, Beyond Beyaan handles maintenance with miniaturization implemented, so maintenance gets lower over time with the same ships, but I can change that to match MoO 1 if this is not the case.  Or do you guys think I should keep the miniaturization updating of maintenance?

Preview of Morions!

The artist said Morions artwork is almost done, and gave me some preview art.  You can see the portrait and one of their ships below.  When Morions are done, that leaves only one more race artwork before I have 10 races, enough for Master of Orion 1 gameplay :)  Things are looking good for a beta this winter!

Preview of research screen

A friendly reminder, for those who want to buy five sci-fi games in a bundle for $7, which includes Beyond Beyaan, there's only two days left to buy the bundle!

I'm working on the research screen where you set the percentage of research points going into each field, and to view researched technologies.  I've finished adding the UI components, soon I'll hook up the mouse event handling.  There's some bugs/formatting to fix as well (it don't have the correct research cost displayed for example)  But in the meanwhile, I welcome your feedback!

(Note, when researching an item that has the research cost met or exceeded, it will display the percent chance of discovering the item on right of the research invested display)

Font, Color, and Size Vote

First, thanks to XenoBrain for the blank main menu button artwork!  I decided to experiment with font, color, and sizing with this.  I just learned that the 2D engine that I'm using supports font shadowing!  So with this, it's a lot more readable.  However, I'm undecided on the color, which of the three do you like the best?  I'm leaning towards Gold as it's most readable.  If you have any other color combination suggestion (font and shadow colors), let me know!

The MoO 1-esque font that I bought also came bundled with three other fonts.  Basically narrow and wide versions of two different fonts.  I didn't realize this, since the font that I tried only came with one ttf file, and when I purchased it, I set the font data to that font.  But looking at the other fonts, I realized that they're more readable than the one that I was using.  I'm thinking of changing to the wide version of the font I was using (JLSSpaceGothicC), but if you guys prefer the other font, let me know (also, narrow or wide version that you like better).  Changing this will require some re-sizing of some UI controls as the font will extend past them in some places.  I'd like to change once and fix some UI sizes, then forget about fonts until I implement the UI layout code.

Edit: Thanks for your responses!  I've decided on Wide Space Gothic font, and discovered that at size 11, it's about the same length as the narrow one at 12, but is more readable (i.e. the exclamation mark don't look like a bar).  Here's what it looks like:

v0.5 is now live on Desura!

That was quick, approved hours after I uploaded it last night.  You all can now grab it and try it out!

Ships and v0.5

I've added the ship production as well as corrected a few bugs related to it.  You can now build more scouts or colony ships.  To change the ship that you want to build, just click on the construction box in the planet UI and it'll change to the next design in the list.  In the future, I plan on adding UI for selecting a ship from list, instead of looping through each ship design.

With this, I was able to colonize more planets, send population to them, and basically start feeling like a 4X game :)  Tonight I'm uploading the new version, 0.5, so hopefully you all will have the new version from Desura within a few days.

Loading and Roadmap

Whew!  The loading of saved games are now done!  In the course of working on this, I've discovered a few bugs and crashes unrelated to loading, and fixed them as well.  So the game is now better as a result.  I've also finally gotten rid of the DrawingManagement and its clunky drawing (the new SpriteManager is noticeably faster, so I've been changing over to it).  Also I got rid of unused and old graphics, leaving only the actual sprites that I will use in the game.

I've also bumped the game's version up to 0.5 due to the Save/Load being implemented.  But I'd like to do one more thing before I update the Desura's version, and that is the construction of new ships.  There's still no design screen, but the ship designs are there, so for now, the idea is that you'll be able to build more scouts or colony ships.

After the Desura version is updated, I will work on version 0.6.  The version 0.6's roadmap, or the "Empire Management" that I hope to have done within a month or less:

Implement Planets screen (list of planets that you've explored or colonized, as well as ability to boost production by transferring credits to a planet, and setting tax revenues, mostly UI stuff, with some features that needs to be added)

Implement Fleets screen (List of fleets that you have, with the option of scrapping a group of ships inside a fleet, or scrapping a ship design entirely, mostly UI stuff, with some minor feature additions)

Implement Research screen (Ability to set percentage of research in each field, as well as displaying researched technologies, purely UI stuff)

Implement Ship Design screen (The ship design code is already there, just need UI to create new ship designs, with a few features that needs to be implemented, such as normal or heavy version of weapons, single or double hulled armor, etc)

Implement the "Map" screen equivalent (instead of a separate map screen, you can zoom out/in and press appropriate keys to toggle displays of information, Fuel Ranges is one example already implemented.  Need to add "Environment" and "Territory" displays)

Loading and MoO 2 races

I'm still working on the loading part, it's not as easy as saving out data :)  I haven't had much time lately due to stress from work (got some critical issues to resolve) and holiday weekend.  But it's getting there, I promise!

As for the post's title, let's talk about MoO 2's new races.  Since the kickstarter campaign raised sufficient funds to fund 3 additional races, these will obviously be equivalent of MoO 2's new races when I implement MoO 2's features.  However, the question is, what if I want to play MoO 1's ruleset instead of MoO 2?  How will the 3 new races fit in?

I've posed the question over at realmsbeyond.net's forums and after a brief discussion there with Refsteel there, I think I may have a good idea for the new races:

Triliarians - Their racial perk is that they have +25% max population on planets that they inhabit.  Coupled with good planetology field perk, this gives them two advantages: More troops to defend/attack, and more production, slightly out-edging klackons and meklars in end-game.  However, longer time to build factories and to grow population offsets this advantage.

Gnolams (Pudelhunds is the equivalent race) - This one is a bit more challenging because economics work very differently from MoO 2 than in MoO 1.  So here's my proposition:  Have their racial perk be that they invest 25% less into doubling a planet's production (75 BC for 100 extra PP on a 100 PP planet), and they only suffer 25% corruption when investing into industry/taxing.  So you better ensure that they never colonize a rich/ultra rich planet.  The obvious benefit is easier overdriving of production, but there's also the ability to raise funds to give as tribute to other races to improve relations.

Elerians - Again, a bit of challenge.  Telepathy as it works in MoO 2 would be too overpowered for MoO 1.  Imagine being able to take over a 300-pop Orion just by having ships in orbit?  So we need a different approach that is keeping the theme.  So for Elerians, I'd say their perks are having the whole map visible to them from the start (removing the need for space scanner technologies), and having a +2 fuel range bonus (maybe +1 if 2 prove to be too powerful) due to their knowledge of obstacles and such.  This would be very advantageous in beginning, but towards the end-game, their bonuses are not as powerful.  Or perhaps +1 fuel range bonus, with an increased chance of capturing technologies when invading a planet (mind reading and all that)?  Coupled with "Good" in Propulsion technology field.

As for the MoO 1's "weak" races, here's what I'm proposing to help them balance against other races, especially with new races:

Mrrshans - The worst race: Their main issue is blood feuds with other races, which makes them waste production on fleets and invasions, this is aggravated by the AI's default warlike personality. What if we reduce their relationship penalties, and boost their computer field by one level (for targeting computer technologies that couple with their racial advantage)? Maybe reduce the chance of having the warlike personality for AI?

Darloks - Their computers are Good, why not Excellent? They should be the master spies after all. This should be enough to give them a boost

Bulrathis - Since AI send massive fleets of transports in hopes that some will make it, maybe just adding this one feature will make them more balanced? Add 25% chance of successfully landing troops, and when the troop landing tech is researched, increases to 75%? So less troops are wasted, and they have a chance of taking over planets?

What are your thoughts on those ideas?  Overpowered or underpowered?  Don't forget that we can tweak the races' technology fields' affinity to help balance things out.