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[Tellemurius]

Well alex you sold me, i bought the game, i hope this will be worth it.

[Lethal Dosage]

So when is the game supposed to have it's first alpha? I know this has been asked a lot, but I need to know whether to pre-order it or not.

Well according to the developer ... "soon" perhaps in a few days/weeks?

[RichardTheWizard]

Hey again Alex, I was also wondering when the alpha will come out. I know you'd rather not give a date so as not to disappoint but it would be nice to have a rough estimate to look forward to.
And thanks for answering Eagle Eyes question they certainly answered some of mine!
Thanks

[alexm]

Thank you for your interest, guys!  It really means a lot.  I'll say this - if the alpha is not out sometime this April, I'll be very sad

The alpha will have a set of "missions" - basically, pre-configured battles that represent encounters from the full game.  The next release after that will let you outfit the flagship for each mission, and then on to the higher-level fleet and outpost management.

... and I'm going to put up a video of a full playthrough of an early mission some time this weekend.  If I can tear myself away from coding long enough to do it.

[RichardTheWizard]

Thanks Alex, I can't wait to go blasting some space baddies!

[Lethal Dosage]

Awesome, can't wait for those new footages.

[inteuniso]

I undulate with anticipation, Alex!

[Haschel]

The combat trailer vaguely reminds me of an expanded, polished Battleships Forever. Am I completely off the mark on that? Regardless of the answer, going to give this a try for sure. I don't usually go for this type of game, but I've liked everything that I've heard so far and I'm sure I'll get more than $10 worth of enjoyment out of it. Looking forward to it, and hope it's a success for you guys as well.

[Shades]

So when is the game supposed to have it's first alpha? I know this has been asked a lot, but I need to know whether to pre-order it or not.

Well according to the developer ... "soon" perhaps in a few days/weeks?

Or years if he subscribes to valve time

[Bien]

I can't wait for the demo to come out. Will we be able to add sections to our ships in the future?

[alexm]

I undulate

t(-_-)t

The combat trailer vaguely reminds me of an expanded, polished Battleships Forever. Am I completely off the mark on that? Regardless of the answer, going to give this a try for sure. I don't usually go for this type of game, but I've liked everything that I've heard so far and I'm sure I'll get more than $10 worth of enjoyment out of it. Looking forward to it, and hope it's a success for you guys as well.

I've checked out the demo a couple of months ago, so I can actually answer that The combat is fairly similar, but there are some key differences. One, you directly control your flagship (WASD to pilot, etc), while the orders you give to the rest of your fleet are much more broad.  Two ... well, I didn't play it long enough to know for sure, but it didn't seem like you could outfit your ships - though it was incredibly modular and you had tons of freedom to do what you wanted when creating new ones.  Starfarer on the other hand has a large variety of weapons (30ish and counting - I mean really counting - the goal is roughly 3x that) that can be used to outfit your ships how you like.

To be fair, you won't be able to outfit stuff in the very first alpha - but that's the number one thing I'm planning to add after it's out.

Will we be able to add sections to our ships in the future?

Some ideas have been kicked around for this type of thing for starbases and the like, but nothing I'd call a concrete plan.

For regular ships, I see being able to add sections etc as a tradeoff - losing personality to add customization. I think it's good when ships have a distinct feel and look about them. To me it's a question of hitting a sweet spot where it's flexible but still has flavor, outfitting an existing ship vs creating an entirely new one. As an example, I think Mech Warrior 4 walked that line well.

[Sergius]

Battleships Forever

I've checked out the demo a couple of months ago, so I can actually answer that The combat is fairly similar, but there are some key differences. One, you directly control your flagship (WASD to pilot, etc), while the orders you give to the rest of your fleet are much more broad.  Two ... well, I didn't play it long enough to know for sure, but it didn't seem like you could outfit your ships - though it was incredibly modular and you had tons of freedom to do what you wanted when creating new ones.

That's a bit of a technicality. "Creating" a ship in BF means taking a standard hull and outfitting it. Since you have a fleet, it's easier to drag and drop from your "toolbar" ships that are the same. There's no point in taking a single ship and retrofitting it since ships aren't personal possessions that you acquire, you just drop it into a battle and the cost is accounted for. You can have two near-identical models with one different gun, for instance.

[alexm]

You can have two near-identical models with one different gun, for instance.

Ah, ok - I didn't realize it let you do that.

What I meant by "creating" a ship, though, was actually creating a new hull using tools external to the game.

[Sergius]

I just realized I'm confusing Battleships Forever with Gratuitous Space Battles.

In BF you just weld everything in place graphically, so yeah I think no outfitting is correct.

[Lethal Dosage]

Nice, I really like the idea of having a vast arsenal of weapons to choose from. Hope it'll be the same for fighters and other equipment!