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[RichardTheWizard]

I'm hyped for this, I can't wait for some shooty shooty 2D space action.

I've always wanted a game like this, I think it'll really be a gem when it's all done.

Keep up the good work, Alex! Maybe you'll work so hard we'll get the alpha early 

[alexm]

Hey, DF players are veterans at obtuse game mechanics and difficult circumstances. I'm sure we'll do fine.

Good point there

On a weekend, too!

Unintentional, I assure you.  But fortuitous - I'd like to be around after the release juuust in case things go horribly wrong.

I'm hyped for this, I can't wait for some shooty shooty 2D space action.

I've always wanted a game like this, I think it'll really be a gem when it's all done.

Keep up the good work, Alex! Maybe you'll work so hard we'll get the alpha early 

Thanks!

There are still a few of things that could potentially derail the April release but I'm optimistic.

[Flare]

My main concern right now is that the missions may be too difficult. There are mechanics that are not as apparent as I'd like ... yet.

So long as the missions are not impossible, I think they're fine. In fact, failure and experimentation can be quite fun as well, in fact, I think it's what makes DF playable even given its impossible winning conditions.

[Fikes]

Well, I know we aren't your only fanbase Alex, but I think you may be worrying too much about our execptations for an Alpha release. I think most of us are fairly realistic.

What is the goal with the alpha? Are you looking for feed back, bumping pre-orders, or quelling the B12 beast?

[alexm]

Well, I know we aren't your only fanbase Alex, but I think you may be worrying too much about our execptations for an Alpha release. I think most of us are fairly realistic.

What is the goal with the alpha? Are you looking for feed back, bumping pre-orders, or quelling the B12 beast?

All of the above, really. Thanks for the reality check - I keep not thinking of this as an alpha release.

So long as the missions are not impossible, I think they're fine. In fact, failure and experimentation can be quite fun as well, in fact, I think it's what makes DF playable even given its impossible winning conditions.

They're definitely not impossible. I did get a little concerned when a first-time tester couldn't do the easy difficulty mission in several tries, though (it has since been slightly tuned).

But overall, the game is on the difficult side - and that is very much intended. Just need to make sure there are enough hand-holds in the learning cliff

[SeaBee]

New order icons!

[alexm]

I'm back! ... not that I was gone very long.

Just wrapped up the first version of the manual for Starfarer - you can find it here! (short blog post here).

The idea is to supplement the game's UI with a comprehensive resource, so that if you're so inclined, you can figure out exactly what's going on in the game and just how to do everything. It also starts off with a quick listing of all the controls, which seemed like it'd be handy.

I'm really looking forward to releasing the alpha, and especially to your feedback. We're in the testing/tweaking stage now, almost all the big items are out of the way, except for some finishing touches on the installers/distribution bundles (plural because of windows/mac/linux).

[ductape]

neat!

[Flare]

So that's what all that gas coming out of the ships in those videos were!

In any case, the manual mentioned fleet points, is the maximum and contributing factors in battle pliable?

[forsaken1111]

So looking at the manual, can you not rotate through weapon groups with the mousewheel?

[Tilla]

I caved. I can't NOT order awesome indie projects when there's money sitting in my paypal.

[mendonca]

Super cool!

[forsaken1111]

Also: It would be interesting if a shield's coverage area reduced as it took damage.

[SeaBee]

Reading the manual now ... loving the flux concept. That definitely adds another cool tactical element to the game.

Finished reading; cannot wait to play it. The shield system is fantastic. I like being able to set weapon groups to auto-fire or not, and the variety of weapons make me happy. The anticipation is weighing me down, man!

[alexm]

In any case, the manual mentioned fleet points, is the maximum and contributing factors in battle pliable?

Yeah, though at this point you'll have to get your hands dirty and edit a config file. There's a "battleSize" setting, and the contributing factors (i.e., objectives) are a percentage of that - though these are also configurable via a script. The game is most likely to be balanced around a battleSize of 100 points or so, but if you want to have huge battles and have the cpu to handle it, who am I to say no?

So looking at the manual, can you not rotate through weapon groups with the mousewheel?

I knew I was forgetting something! The mousewheel is actually used to zoom in/out.

Updated the manual to mention that, and two other things I also forgot to include: "Energy Weapon Bonus" from flux, and "Linked vs Alternating Groups".

I caved. I can't NOT order awesome indie projects when there's money sitting in my paypal.

Thank you for your support!

Also: It would be interesting if a shield's coverage area reduced as it took damage.

I'll add that to the idea bin. Shields are likely to receive some re-working in the future, though I'd like to see how you guys like them in this incarnation first.

I like being able to set weapon groups to auto-fire or not, and the variety of weapons make me happy. The anticipation is weighing me down, man!

It's weighing me down at least twice as much, but it's all good Re: weapons - there are 45 in the game right now (with many more planned), though I don't think they're *all* used in the current mission set. Depending on how determined you are, you could tweak existing ship variants to use any of them though.