Just wanted to let you all know how development is going. If you want to be surprised by all the cool features in the game, read no further as I'm going to give some hints about them. These are features that are working in the game right now. First off, this is an open universe game, so exploration is part of the fun. You gain experience whenever you enter a new system. Each system you discover is another route you can send your corporate pilots and miners, so discovery has many benefits. Your map is dynamically updated with each system you discover. Also, we have implemented a Scan Probe feature that lets you seek out derelict ships and other anomalies in each solar system. This tool lets you scan successive regions of space using a 2D map of the solar system, and then zooming in further and further when your scanner detects something within the scan area. Once you've localized the event, you can warp to it. I don't want to give away more, but the rewards for successful scans make them very worthwhile. You can recruit many wingmen. You'll have to find out where they are, and then complete a mission before they'll join your crew. The best part is, you can have up to two of them travel with you as you fly around the galaxy completing missions or trading. And you'll definitely need them in null security space where the pirates are numerous and deadly. The wingmen have advanced AI and are smart about helping allies and attacking enemies. However, you can also order wingmen to attack or aid anybody. They have special ships and abilities such as remote ship repair, energy weapons, electronic warfare, and ship tackling (slowing them down and preventing warp away). Pick the ones that complement your current ship and mission. The freelance missions you can take are many, from combat against varied enemies, to transporting cargo and passengers, to escort missions. In escort missions, you have to protect a ship as it departs a station, travels to a stargate, and warps to another station. Another fun mission is stopping a hijacked vessel from getting to its final destination. The problem is, you can't destroy it even though it is hostile to you and your fleet. Corporate pilots and miners: As you become more skillful, you can recruit corporate pilots who will make trade runs and mining runs for your corporation. The cool thing is you can undock and follow them as they do their thing. In fact, you can follow any ship and watch it as it mines, patrols, transports, etc. So finding and capturing derelict ships is useful since you can equip them for your corporate pilots/miners. On the topic of corporations, they all have their own self-interest at heart. Each has a headquarter space station, and quests and spying will be possible at each. Finally, we are trying to see if it makes sense to include at least one example of the third-person on-foot shooter on a planet rather than release it all in a later update. No promises, but we're trying very hard to give a small taste of this. We've run some tests and the load times are decent. Of course, we'll add ship boarding, station walking, and more in later updates. There's lots more like dynamic quests, the epic storyline quests, dialogue engine, etc. Maybe more on those later... p.s. If any moderators are reading this, I'm trying to figure out why my swiftest account can't post or reply. I've sent some PMs to arn and hodapp, but they've been busy. Please contact me if you have info or can help.
This is seriously nice, it every space gamer fans dream come true, do you have any ideas on release date yet? Are we going to see this awsome game in October? I really hope so!
I am PUMPED!Reading all those features and possibilities makes me excited to the point of losing control .Corporate missions,derelict ships,Electronic warfare,wingmen,persistent universe-are we really going to witness the best space sim for ios and arguably one of the best on ALL platforms (yeah I know I'm exagerating a bit but I cant help myself).I've played x2 and x3,and none of the games on ios came close to THAT level of complexity and appeal.Until now.AND on top of all that,you promise third-person action like ship boarding and PLANET-SIDE missions?This is THE GAME i'll be counting the hours to.No,really.Anyway,good luck guys and hope you release this technical marvel as soon as possible
Those are some astounding features! If they're implemented right, Null Space just might steal Freelancer's spot as my all-time favorite space sim.
Whats up?How's the development going.Devs,please keep this thread alive,otherwise its quickly going to fade away into the double-digit oblivion that the backpages of the forum are .Really excited about this,but its no surprize by now.Looking forward to playing it.And dont want to be a trolling menace,but what are your plans for a release window-a guesstimate would do .Anyway,good luck guys.
I'm looking in every day to, the wait is the hardest I allmost can't wait to try this on my iPad.... I want it on my iPhone to....wich reminds me.....is this game going to have cloud save? THAT would be awesome. Imagin Playing on the iPhone While commuting, on the bus or train or subway, and then continue the game on the iPad whene you come home.
Sorry we can't be more definite on a release date, but we're just making sure that there is proper balance and fun to be had. A game of this complexity makes that quite a challenge, but the end is in sight. We do have a cloud save feature working, but there's a certain amount of server infrastructure needed to support this, so it may have to come after release.
I can't wait for the day when I can launch this game instead of Galaxy on Fire 2 to satisfy my X3 desires on the iphone!
I'd rather wait for a proper polished game, then owning a to early released one, so I'm not complaining at all This game doesn't seem miss anything at all, sounds to me like you though of everything! How ever I must ask a simple question, on the alpha gameplay video on the first page of this thread the craft you are traveling in seems not to bank left nor right whene you turn, is that on perpes or is it just not intergratede yet? I mean, banking spacecrafts would be a great detail in my opinion.
Ok... I heard bits and pieces of the soundtrack album and I want to give some opinions... It's a very mixed album. Most of the songs are correct to the game's atmosphere HOWEVER, there are some undeniably bad songs that are either unfit for the theme of the game (and album) or downright boring. The first song Wretched Darkness is borderlining on 'acceptable' standards. The song does capture the general atmosphere of space and sounds like something from the intro of an epic sci-fi movie, but where it achieves the most success is in capturing the boredom of a vast empty space. The orchestral performance sound like random spasms of melodical interludes that puts a carrot in front of the listener but never quite delivers the epic 'oomph' that you're expecting. The second song Palladium Hammers and Tongs is by far the worst song of the whole album. You cannot possibly do worse than using electronic sound mixers in space themed music. One thing I would not figure out is the existence of the carnival track Cantina Neo Tango in a space themed game. ARE YOU SERIOUS!? It sounds weird and downright crap in such an album. Ok, I lied... Electric Singularity is the worst song of the album, not to mention it also sounds like crap. Dreaded in the Mists and Mystery Dust are the very definition of stretched melodic boredom. Of course, by that I mean both songs are good remedies of insomnia. The only reason that The Beckoning Stars don't fall into the same category as DitM and Mystery Dust is the capricious audio spikes at ~1:04 and 2:18. Otherwise, it's probably the most boring track out of the whole album. Of course, there are some very good songs as well. The third song Leviathan Cometh is quite surprisingly (after the first two tracks), a very decent track. It does actually utilize the orchestral instruments to deliver the epic atmospheric sound that the first track fails to do. Into the Unknown is quite simply, the best track imo of the album. It's grand, majestic, and has the epic orchestral sound that every sci-fi fan would salivate under the choruses of the song. Dance of the Pirate Queen sits just below Into the Unknown in terms of richness in sound. However, it's predictable song structure and sound kinda makes it an high quality cliche of sorts. Sombre Passage is perhaps the example of how a slow and melodically sparse song structure can also sound good without being boring (Wretched Darkness). ------------------------------------------- Well, there you go! An unintended album review! I hope the weaker and junk songs. Oh and a iTune release would be nice
Kbom, we are planning on adding the spacecraft banking feature in one of the first updates. We had to prioritize and that feature was about a medium priority compared to the other simulation aspects. Wow, thanks for such honest opinions. Music plays a huge role in the game. A few things to consider: we have regions of space with different security levels: Core Systems (highest security), Hi-sec, Low-sec, and Null-sec (very dangerous place). Each of these areas have background ambient music like Wretched Darkness, Dread in the Mists, and Beckoning Stars. When you're flying in space, you want music that sets tone and mood, but doesn't distract you. Hence, the ambient pieces typically are subdued most of the time with an occasional dramatic moment. When you're in low- or null-sec, you'll definitely know and feel it through the ambient tracks. So ironically, the fact that that the Wretched Darkness piece evokes in you the "boring" solitude of space is the exact feeling we were going for. We want the calm before the storm for maximum impact. Music infuses the experience through-out: the Palladium Hammers & Tongs piece is used for the Hangar scene and is meant to evoke maintenance crews fixing up their ships, etc. Inside the station, we have unique pieces for the Market, Cantina, Hangar, and Captain's Quarters. Even during dialogue and death, we have special music. Not to mention the first undock plays a highly stirring piece. And there is special music for another portion that I will leave as a surprise. Where the music is the most powerful is during combat where Electric Singularity and the hardest hitting pieces get your heart rate going. Unlike most typical space sims which have a single combat score, we have a large assortment of battle music, so you won't likely tire of the music. But if you do, just start your music before the game and the game won't override your playlist. Ask and ye shall receive: itunes.apple.com/us/album/dangerous-original-game-soundtrack/id461036179 Thanks for the feedback!
OBJECTION! In space sims (yes SIMS like X series) the music sets THE tone and mood in an otherwise vast and empty space, so the music is SUPPOSED to distract (more like entertain) the player to the fullest extent. Right... I accept Wretched Darkness as an effective foreboding track should it be used in the most dangerous sectors of the game. Dreaded in the Mists in this case would be the perfect (sarcasm) music for friendly sectors it's downright boring, sparse and uninteresting music that induces the question "how long till I get there?" Problem is, this track will most likely make the game feel longer than necessary due to the amount of tedium and boredom that accumulates throughout traveling. Palladium Hammers & Tongs - NO! NO!! NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KILL THE ELECTRIC SOUND EFFECTS!!! The track sound plausible enough without the electronic sound but it just utterly fails to evoke any sort of vigor or enthusiasm that might be expected for a 'maintenance crew' music. Now, if this Cantina place is a circus/carnival then I will accept Cantina Neo Tango as an appropriate bgm. Otherwise, no. It sounds awful for any other possible environment. OH MY @!%$! worst combat themed music in video game's history. This music alone makes combat sound like a dance party than a firefight. There's simply no riffs or blasting drum beats that invoke any adrenaline. Not to mention that the lead guitar melody also sounds like crap even judged solely on musical standards (I listen mainly to melodic death metal so I know what works and what sounds like crap). One possible remedy for this failure is perhaps to: Leave out the lead guitar, increase the volume for everything else - the rhythm guitar is actually playing some suitable riffs for combat purposes but is currently drowned in the more than awful lead guitar melody; the bass could also come a long way to induce adrenalin into the bloodstream and the drums could use some heavier beats that currently sound like a pop song. One album wide issue that I've found is that the songs are too soft in volume. I would need to unnecessarily increase the volume of whatever I'm using as sound output just to hear the 'hidden' 70% of the music. Increasing and balancing loudness of the songs is a must, for album and game purposes. Now back to individual songs: Mystery Dust is repetitive. The song repeats itself and the same melody too often to be ineffective. This will be one of the songs that begs the listener to ask "is this song over yet!?". The Beckoning Stars - upon replaying this track with vastly increased volume output, I find this to be an effective track to be quite sinister and suspenseful. But, it's WAY TOO SOFT!!! The audio spikes require some finesse with the volume control or else I'll receive damages to the ears.
Can't wait for this game, but I'll be honest, the UI looks really, really bad. Not only it's way too cluttered, but the icons don't really match the style of the game. You're using way too much red, and they look far too simple. If I may, I suggest spending some time on the icons. Give them a colder color (like blue) and give some transparency. A gradient filter would help too. It needs some flavour, right now it looks like it was quickly made using Paint. An interface must be seamless. Something you almost forget it's there. If you must keep the UI this busy, it should at least be cohesive, right? The icons should't be distracting, but blend well with the visuals, you know? Anyway, maybe they are just placeholders. If that's the case, forget what I said. Also, it would be awesome if you could add some shaders in a future update. Well, keep up the good work. We need more space sims on the Appstore!
I'm going to have to disagree with you here. It's very hard to distract/entertain the player in game that you play for tens of hours. No matter how good the music, it will get old especially if it is "in your face" type of music. That's why we chose to have more subdued "mood" music in space punctuated by 10 pieces of battle music. Dangerous is a type of game that lends itself well to experimentation, so even if you've completed the epic quest line, you can still roam the galaxy and tinker with different ships. Or play it again using a wholly different strategy with a new mix of wingmen. Not to mention that we'll be updating the game continuously after release. So the music has to accommodate a potentially infinite play through. Out of curiosity, so I know where you're coming from, what did you think of the Mass Effect 1 soundtrack? Have you played EVE Online and listened to that music? I personally think the music in Dangerous compares very favorably to Mass Effect 1's music--Sean Beeson is a god among composers if you ask me! Also, EVE has quite a few electric guitars in their mix. In any event, we spent a large amount of our budget on the music, and as we are fairly close to submitting the game, there's realistically no time to change it. I would like to hear your reaction after you've had a chance to play the game though! I like your suggestions and will see if we can improve the UI before release. It's definitely been a challenge to balance ease-of-use and simple elegance; and since the two of us on the team are coders, we've had to outsource art and music. No doubt we'll continue to make improvements to the interface even after release as well.
Never played EVE (not after X2 & X3) or any Mass Effect games (I somehow managed to avoid them... thanks to the more action centric Borderlands & Bulletstorm I guess) so I really can't compare. Anyway, where the X series' music succeeds in is the CONSTANT use of orchestral music and sporadic melodies so individuals tracks would actually sound good for an album. Last question anyway: DID YOU RAMP THE VOLUME UP??? Because Mysteries Dust can actually sound pretty good when I can hear the subtle noises (which I would love to do). The reason I'm raving on about music is because, I actually want to buy the album . However, as it stands, there are a few pretty bad tracks (even for musical purposes) and the uneven volume for songs would induce constant volume changing (unless... sound check/normalizer can work...).
I think he is right, the UI does't match the style of the game. It looks unfinished. Maybe give them a metallic look and make them rectangular, not circular. And a red circular button should be reserved for some kind of emergency button in my opinion Anyway, I am looking forward to this game and hope it will be great fun, immersive and with a lot of suspense!
Come on guys.....we are talking music here, ket the devs decide what to put in....I'm sure there will bee a "no music" button in the options anyway, so if you dont like the music, hit that button and don't listen to it!
