New Video and Details

I've just finished adding effects and support for it. Effects now can spawn particles as well as modify ship's attributes or remove the ship. I've made a video showcasing this. After a ship is removed from the combat field, its equipment no longer collide with the particles.

The video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kX0N-oIZYOM

I'm exhausted from working on Space Combat. In it, I basically had to do everything twice. First, I need to implement scripting system for something, then I had to write scripts for it. There's two major features that I haven't implemented yet (movement and shaders) as well as a bunch of small stuff like victory/defeat screen, information display for HUD that shows a ship's power/hit points, etc.

I'm taking a break from space combat, it's very intensive and time consuming. I want to work on smaller features and make the non-combat parts of the game more feature complete, which results in the game feeling more polished and playable. I will return to space combat when I feel up to it.

With that said, I'm beginning to doubt that I can make the May 31st release. There's just simply too much that needs to be done before the game's fully playable, even with just the basic features. So here's my plan: Since the game have missing features, it's currently in "Alpha" stage. I hope to have all basic features done before May 31st, this includes the space combat features I mentioned above. When the basic features are added, in that the game is fully playable, but no AI, and not much content (technologies, scripts, races, etc), it will become "Beta". Beta basically means that the game is feature-complete, but not polished or balanced. At that point, I will need your help in testing the AI and balance, since I'm only one man. I'm not sure how long the Beta phase will last, I guess I'll say "when it's done" :)

However, the main difference to you end users is that in "Alpha" stage, the price will be 30% off. In "Beta" stage, it will be 15% off, and the full release will have no discount. I'm not sure how Desura does sales, so I'm letting you all know the release plan and pricing.

Sounds good?