yeah, I was dodging. Sadly Real Life (in the form of a new job) is keeping me busy.
My Epic todo list looks like this:
1. Rebuild the trade system to use standard cargo types and support the EoC type of loadout system. The trade system was a working piece of code last summer, but lots of things have changed since then, and it needs some work.
2. Build the Starting point selection GUI. So the player can pick a starting character, place and career. (and more pointedly for me, I can automate some testing tasks for people who - hopefully - will be helping out).
3. Wingman command support and upkeep. Again, this stuff was working last year. But not well tested. And it really needs rework. Plus I need a solution to saving wingman damage. And I don't know how to make that work yet. Plus major changes are needed to the subsystem damage mod because it was coded to work with standard traffic, and not custom ships and missions.
Which brings me to the thing taking up the largest chunk of my time at the moment: Making combat fun. I did a rebalance pass last fall to equalize player and AI ships. But now that I am fighting real fights, I don't care for it. (which is why you are seeing me post about things like counter measures).
Every combat turned into a slugging match - which the outnumbered player always lost. Or I give the player a better ship, and he totally wipes the the NP fleets. So what I am searching for is a balance more like Thief - where the player is only unequal if he uses his brain. But that means building more complex guard AI.
So there I am, adding more features again. But I don't see a way to avoid it. If combat is dull, you might as well play X: The Kharrk Threat because the great strength of the Iwar engine is wasted.
What I am wishing will happen is that I get this first set (very small set) of ships balanced, and guards working. And then find some development testers willing to bash it around (and live with bugs). And smooth out the balance further.
So it goes, but slowly.
-Gtrout
