Systems Operational (5PM Hosting of Alpha Test)

Alright, alright, alright, it has been a long day of coding for the past six hours of my life. That makes a total of  eleven hours of coding in the past sixteen. So I have a few new features to show off, some screen shots, and later in the day, some videos.

First off, let us take a look at some of the new features. These new features are:

• Weapon Configuration in Multiplayer
• In-match HUD Display
• Weapon Cooldown
• Current Ammunition
• Damage Effects
• Server Side Configurations

The weapon configuration goes hand in hand with the server side configurations I just listed. Now a player can choose between two weapons at the moment, Cannon (More damage, straight shot) or Seeker Missile Launcher (Less Damage, Longer Range, Follows target). When the player chooses one of these options pre-match the GameManager takes a note of this and when the player spawns, tells the server to get all of the data needed to implement the weapons. Visually, they are the same at the moment and we want to add one more - a laser beam.

Secondly, we now have some information in the game during a match in regards to combat. This information is minimal. The first is a cross-hair, that when within a certain distance of an object - tells you the distance to that object. Two other key components of the HUD are in the lower right hand corner - weapon cooldown and total ammunition in relation to clip size. Pressing escape will bring up a menu that lists all players in the game as well as the ability to logout / leave the match.

In game screenshot of a match

Finally, I added some visual fidelity to the combat by add damage effects. The damage effects of ships takes place when a player reaches 30% or less health and then again at 10% or less health. Right now it is some simple particle effects of fire and smoke.

I will also be hosting Alpha testing at 5 PM (Central Time) today, so if you want to join in please leave a comment on this blog and I will get you the required information.