2021 Review, and a Look Forward
Progress in 2021
Orion Skies, and its affiliate projects, have come a long way in 2021. The design and planning work has made great progress, a new weapons-and-outfits generator is functional enough to be useful, and I also learned how to create 3D graphics in Blender.
Looking back, the year started as I was working my way through 3D tutorials, trying to learn Blender from scratch. I already had a number of aspects of Orion Skies planned out, and wanted to develop some of my own technical skills so that I'd be ready to build a TC when Cosmic Frontier was ready.
For the first half of the year, 3D remained my focus. I learned how to make 3D jet aircraft, oceans, and skies, and learned many foundational technical skills. Other, non-3D work happened on the side – planning a structure for releasing Orion Skies in parts, and building smaller releases that will build up to the final TC.
In the second half the year, my focus shifted to planning & design work, aided by my work on the Tech Generator, which amongst other things has allowed me to explore balance concepts for the weapons in EVx games, and to work on a possible paradigm to relate concepts from Magic: the Gathering "cubes" to EVx scenario design. During this time, work continued in other areas, such as more worldbuilding and planning of small releases.
Three Plug-Ins
In trying to develop a plan to start with smaller plug-in releases and build up to Orion Skies itself, I've settled on 3 related plug-in projects to build once Cosmic Frontier is out:
- The Expanded Suite, which will bring elements from EVO: Expanded into the new Cosmic Frontier era.
- An adaptation of Ares, bringing this classic Ambrosia space game to Windows and Linux for the first time, and bringing a number of its fantastic gameplay features to Cosmic Frontier via the exciting new Lua-modding system.
- Orion Skies, a Total Conversion plug-in that aims to make use of the Lua game features developed for The Expanded Suite and the Ares adaptation.
Looking ahead to 2022, I wanted to write a bit about each of these plug-ins, their current status, and next steps.
1. The Expanded Suite
This will be the Cosmic Frontier-focused successor to an older plug-in of mine, EVO: Expanded. EVOE was a wide-ranging update to EVO-on-Nova, aiming to expand on the game's strengths. Likewise, The Expanded Suite will attempt to expand on Cosmic Frontier's strengths.
Unlike EVOE, The Expanded Suite will be focused on the Lua game-feature modding system. This means that it should be directly applicable to any game scenario on the Cosmic Frontier engine – whether that be Cosmic Frontier itself, or Orion Skies, or another Total Conversion plug-in, or even a port of one of the other Escape Velocity games.
It will start small, as a package of just a few Lua-based features. Over time, it will grow and develop, as I add more content specifically designed for it, as well as eventually adding the new Lua features I'll build for the Ares adaptation and for Orion Skies itself.
At this point, I have an outline / brainstorm of features to include, with some notes regarding which ones may be best to start off with and which may be best to add over time. Once Cosmic Frontier is available, I will begin construction. :)
2. Ares Adaptation
For those unfamiliar, Ares is a 2D space game that was released by Ambrosia during the same era as the Escape Velocity series. I personally played EVx and Ares coequally, as their flight and combat physics were nearly identical, and each brought a different gameplay focus, with different elements to explore and challenge oneself with. Later versions of Ares also shipped with an incredibly powerful plug-in editor, with which I created several scenario plug-ins during its heydey.
Ares had a number of amazing features that never cross-pollinated to the EV series – an AI that will "dogfight" and try to circle around behind you; a dynamic zoom feature that lets you easily see enemies up close and far away; large systems with multiple key locations to battle over; and complex missions with multiple objectives and scripted events.
With Cosmic Frontier's new Lua-based game-feature modding capability, I hope to re-build many of these features as part of a plug-in meant to adapt the original Ares scenario to the Cosmic Frontier engine. Due to technical limitations, it likely won't be a 1-for-1 exact match of the original Ares game, but it will attempt to capture the essence and core gameplay of it. It'll bring some form of Ares to Windows and Linux for the first time, as well as making a number of exciting features available to players and modders of Cosmic Frontier (including myself, for Orion Skies).
Two additional quick notes:
- All of the new Lua game features I develop for Ares will also be added to The Expanded Suite.
- For Mac users, there is already a fantastic free port of Ares to modern Mac operating systems. The port is called Antares, and if you've never played this game, I highly recommend you go give it a try: https://arescentral.org/
I've done outlining and brainstorming work for this project, thinking about what Lua-based game features will need to be developed and trying to establish a general sense of what might be involved in each one. I also have saved and organized the graphics and other media from the original game, and have given some thought to build & release targets for this project, aiming to release it in 3 stages:
- Moons for Goons: The original training level from early versions of Ares. This was actually what really got me interested in Ares, as I thought the combat practice in this level would help my EVO piloting skills (I think it worked?). Although this is only a single level with limited content, a number of foundational Lua features will need to be developed to make it work correctly. It's a good small, structured target to focus on as I get started, and would make for a good small-scale independent release.
- Changeling Demo: Before Ares was associated with Ambrosia, a demo version was released by another company called Changeling. This demo included the "Moons for Goons" training level along with 3 actual combat missions. For myself and many others, this demo, distributed on a MacAddict CD, was our first introduction to the game. Building this would be a good extension-test of the features developed for Moons for Goons, and would also be a structured opportunity to add to them, particularly in terms of implementing Ares's asteroid physics & interactions.
- Ares: The full mission campaign from the Ambrosia release. In theory, by the time I get to this stage I should have most of the required Lua features already in place, and will be able to focus primarily on using those features to build the actual levels. I'll see if I'm right about that when I get there!
3. Orion Skies
Orion Skies is a Total Conversion plug-in concept that I've been thinking about for several years. At one point I was developing it for the EV Nova engine, but as that became less and less supported I decided to look at other potential platforms – and that's when Peter Cartwright announced the development of Cosmic Frontier!
Orion Skies's basic gameplay concept is that it takes place entirely within a nebula. Every system will make use of the nebula fog mechanics that were introduced in EV Nova; combat tactics will involve submarine-like ambushes and hunting; and stormy nebula weather will be a common hazard. Gameplay will include (but not be limited to) a significant focus on exploration and navigation.
Not only will Orion Skies be making use of the Lua game features from The Expanded Suite and the Ares adaptation, but I'll likely end up building some additional Lua for it as well– and these new Lua features will also be added to The Expanded Suite.
I've made a lot of progress on this TC: designing the essence of what it will be like in all aspects; establishing the basics of its worldbuilding; learning many of the technical skills required; and outlining the steps that will be needed to complete it. I also built the EV Galaxy Generator as a tool to help me rapidly produce the types of systems I'll be using in Orion Skies, and am well underway on the Tech Generator, which will similarly aid in the process of making weapons and outfits.
Overall, here is a rough estimate of my progress in developing Orion Skies:
🟢 Concept Design: Mostly complete; new insights from the Tech Generator will help me make the final push on designing the weapons and outfits.
🟢 Galaxy Generator: Version 1.0 is complete and released. I may improve a few things about it down the road.
🟡 3D Skill Development: I've made good progress developing ocean scenes, but I need to learn a good & robust way to include clouds. I made a decent jet aircraft, but need to get better at some technical aspects of vehicle construction. I also need to learn how to do landscapes, stellar objects, and effects like rocket engine exhaust, explosions, etc.
🟡 Tech Generator: Partially complete. It's able to take user-provided definitions to procedurally create balanced weapons in the style of EVO(E), Frozen Heart/EVC, and Ares. With the definitions it currently has, it can generate hundreds of weapons at the click of a button. However, for it to be truly complete I need to add more features to support Nova-style weapons, as well as some features inspired by Magic: the Gathering and by classic RPGs. I also need to add outfit-generation capabilities, but they should be much easier than weapons.
🟡 Worldbuilding: Partially complete. I don't want to give too much away here, as A) many details change regularly; and B) I want this part of the TC to be discovered and explored by the player, rather than known in advance. I have a rough concept in place, but need to develop my ideas in greater depth and detail.
🟠 The Expanded Suite: I have a plan for this, and will start building it once Cosmic Frontier is released. The Lua gameplay features I create here will be used in Orion Skies.
⚪ Ares Adaptation: This is mapped out. After The Expanded Suite v. 1.0 is done, I'll start building this. The focus of my work will be on new Lua gameplay features, which will be used in Orion Skies and also will be added to The Expanded Suite.
⚪ Build Orion Skies: The first release will most likely be fairly small-scale– for many reasons I'd rather build and release something smaller early, and then add to it over time; as opposed to taking longer to release something bigger. After the small initial release will come a long-term process of adding incremental updates & expansions, developing it from a small TC into a large TC. As this work progresses, any new Lua gameplay features I build for Orion Skies will also be added to The Expanded Suite.
Closing Thoughts
What will 2022 hold? Will this be the year Cosmic Frontier releases and I start building The Expanded Suite? Will I finish the Tech Generator, and will it be as beneficial to my development process as I'm hoping? Maybe I'll have time to get back into 3D learning, and finish that Blender curriculum; or maybe I'll get a procedural landscape-graphics system up and running?
While I can't say which specific things I'll accomplish in this coming year, I do have a strong roadmap of the projects I'll be working on, and I'm excited to get some more tangible steps accomplished on the road to Orion Skies.
Thanks as always for reading; I'm looking forward to sharing more in future updates!
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