Hello everybody, in this update I will write about formations and waypoints.
In Stellar Insurgency, a selection of ships can have three types of formations:
Shape formation
Free – Bound formation
Free formation
In the first type of formation the selected ships have a predefined shape (e.g. an arrow) of formation. In this type of formation usually the fighters and bombers go first and then the largest vessels follow (e.g. battleships and cruisers) and last come the weakest ships like freighters and other non-combatant vessels.
In Free – Bound formation the ships don’t form any specific shape, however they all move with the speed of the slowest ship in the selection.
These two types of formations help to keep the fleet together without scattering and therefore the fleet has additional protection against enemy ships.
And finally in free formation every ship goes on its own, moving with its maximum speed which depends on the quality of the equipped engine and the type of the hull.
The player can also set a waypoint queue for the selected points by pressing the LCTRL button and pointing with the mouse one or more points in the action scene.
The selected ships are moving in 3d space with the arrow formationAnother type of formationAnother type of formation, first come the fighters/bombers and other military ships and last are the ftreighters.Free – Bound formation. In Free – Bound formation the ships don’t form any specific shape, however they all move with the speed of the slowest ship in the selection.A waypoint queue for the selected points can be set by pressing the LCTRL button and pointing with the mouse one or more points in the action scene.
In this post I write about military intelligence (that is according to Wikipedia, information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions) and I will provide additional information on the map screen.
Military Intelligence
Each player or AI spacecraft has a Sensor component (presumably). Every Sensor component has an inner and an outer range which are defined by a sphere with center the position of the Sensor on the spacecraft and radius the length of the range. If a hostile, neutral or friendly ship is outside the sphere that is defined by the outer range it is invisible, if it is within the outer range but outside of the inner range it shows as a blurred square and if it is within the inner range, its hull type is visible along with additional information.
The length of each range depends on the Sensor type. More advanced Sensors are capable of scanning larger areas. The Sensor component can be upgraded from the fleet retrofit screen if a suitable upgrade is present in one of the fleet’s cargo bays (see previous devDiary), or it can be removed completely (empty slot) and the ship will remain without sensors (not a good idea). In addition each sensor component has a level (with higher levels corresponding to more advanced Sensors). More advanced sensors will show additional info in the fleet retrofit screen. Obviously the amount and quality of information that is shown depends on the maximum level of the Sensor that scans the selected spacecraft.
Each spacecraft has a Sensor component (presumably). Each Sensor has two ranges, the inner and outer range. If a hostile, neutral or friendly ship is outside the outer range it is invisible, if it is within the outer range but outside of the inner range is shows as a blurred square and if it is within the inner range its hull type is visible along with other information. On the upper left part of the screen there is a group of toggles. One of the toggles sets whether the sensors ranges will be visible if the player selects or hovers over one of the visible spacecrafts.The fleet screen where information about player’s fleet and (left side) non-player fleets (right side) is shown. At the right side a non player spaceship is selected. This spaceship is scanned from one of payer’s sensors with level 1 (in the parenthesis). The number in the parenthesis shows the maximum level of the player’s Sensor that scans the selected spacecraft.One of our spaceships has a sensor of level 2 and it is scanning the selected non-player spacecraft. More advanced sensors will show additional info in the fleet screen. Obviously the amount of available information depends on the max level of the Sensor that scans the selected spacecraft. The number in the parenthesis shows the maximum level of the Sensor that scans the selected spacecraft.
The Map
The map shows every discovered solar system in the galaxy and it is accessible from the action screen or the missions screen (more on that in a future post) or pressing the Tab key. The navigation on the map screen is similar to that of the action screen (i.e. the map screen is 3d). Traveling between solar systems takes place through star lanes following the shortest path (for more information and video see previous post).
If the player’s fleet has visited a specific solar system, its contents are also shown (i.e. planets asteroids etc. but not spaceships) otherwise a question mark appears within its limits to indicate that this solar system has not been visited yet. Each time there is only one active solar system, the one that the player’s fleet is in. Every visible spaceship and its position on the active solar system appears also on the map and within the confines of the active solar system. If the player’s fleet moves to another solar system, any foreign fleets become invisible because of lack of intel but the previous position of planetoids (i.e. planets, asteroids) remains.
On the upper left part of the screen there is a group of toggles. Each toggle shows useful information about the state of the galaxy, specifically:
Show reachable solar systems
Show faction borders
Show names
Show enemies
Show player fleet
Show fleet destination
The map shows every discovered solar system and the positions and types of the visible spacecrafts. he navigation on the map screen is similar to that of the action screen (i.e. the map screen is 3d). Traveling between solar systems takes place through star lanes following the shortest path (for more information and video see previous post).On the upper left part of the screen there is a group of toggles. In the image above, the toggle which shows faction borders is on. On the upper left part of the screen there is a group of toggles. In the image above the toggle which shows the names of the solar systems is on.On the upper left part of the screen there is a group of toggles. In the image above the toggle which shows the player’s fleet is on.When the player hovers on a solar system the shortest lane path is shown on the map and additional information like the time it will take to traverse the lanes appears on a panel on the lower right part of the screen.
