2022 Review, and a Look Forward

TL;DR: Lots of accomplishments this year, with many more planned for the future. :)

Progress in 2022

   This year, a number of major milestones were hit, and a lot of technical progress was accomplished "behind the scenes" to enable Orion Skies to live up to my vision of its ideal form.

Full Design

   In 2022 I was able to finish a complete design of Orion Skies’s world & history, and an outline of the major story elements that will unfold in-game.

   I also finished the technical/gameplay design, and even created a specific plan to release Orion Skies in parts (first a small-but-meaningful initial release, and then adding expansions to fill it out).

Tech Generator

   The Tech Generator implements user-guided procedural techniques to produce data for weapons and outfits for an EV scenario, while ensuring they all fit specific balance targets.

   This year, the Tech Generator reached Version 1.0, giving the user control over all of the data fields that go into the outf and weap resources in Nova.

   After achieving Version 1.0, I added capability for its output to be directly imported into a plug-in file using either ResForge or EVNEW. Testing this capability led to a number of ideas for major design improvements to give the user more flexibility and control over the generated output, leading to a number of upgrades that are still in-progress; once they are complete, it will be at Version 1.1.

World Vision Gallery

   I also completed a “world vision gallery”, consisting of dozens of pieces of artwork found online that, when put together, visually convey what Orion Skies’s world looks and feels like.

   I have this gallery set up to automatically display in randomized combinations on my computer as a screen saver, to keep this vision clearly in my mind; I also recorded a video version to share.

Welcome to the twenty-fifth century Orion Nebula.

 

Next Steps

   Orion Skies is a large project (compared to the amount of gaming time I have), and there are a number of steps ahead of me on the road to completion. As much as possible, I have arranged this work around worthwhile standalone projects that can be individually released as they are finished.

Foundational Projects

   Orion Skies is meant to be a plug-in for Cosmic Frontier: Override, which itself has not yet been released. However, there are some major steps that can be accomplished now, without CFO available yet:

• Tech Generator v. 1.1: I’m in the process of making some major updates to the Tech Generator, giving it a lot more power and flexibility. Once these updates are done, I’ll consider it “finalized” at Version 1.1.
• Expanded Outfits Plug-Ins: This is envisioned as a collection of 3 plug-ins– one each for EVC/rEV, EVO/EVOE, and EVN/BNV, all on the Nova engine. They'll be built using the Tech Generator and are meant to enhance the gameplay experience. As their name implies, they will be designed with similar goals and philosophy to EVO: Expanded. They also will attempt to introduce some gameplay concepts from classic RPGs and from Magic: the Gathering.
• Galaxy Generator v. 1.1: I would like at some point to revisit the Galaxy Generator, for two main purposes: 1) introduce the capability for its output to be loaded directly into a plug-in file via ResForge or EVNEW; 2) make a few miscellaneous flexibility improvements based on my experience with the Tech Generator. (As it turns out, procedurally generating an interesting galaxy is far less complex than procedurally generating meaningful weapons and outfits, so my hope is that this upgrade will be relatively straightforward and quick compared to my Tech Generator work.)
• Space Graphics Generator: I am off-and-on in the process of learning to use Blender to create 3D graphics for Orion Skies. When I next return to my 3D studies, my focus will be on landscape art, and on procedural techniques. Ultimately my goal will be to create a procedural Blender tool to create a full graphics set for the Galaxy Generator in one go.

Plug-Ins for Cosmic Frontier

   Once Cosmic Frontier comes out, I’ll be able to get into some hands-on work on the engine itself, creating plug-ins for it– initially to lay a technical foundation for Orion Skies, and then building Orion Skies itself.

• The Expanded Suite: This will be a collection of Lua game feature mods designed to enhance the game experience when playing any scenario — whether that be the default CFO scenario, or Orion Skies, or a different TC, etc…
• Ares Forever: This will be an adaptation of the classic Ambrosia 2D space combat game Ares onto the CFO engine. The bulk of the work will be creating Lua gameplay features to support Ares-like behavior, such as semi-inertial ships, transferring control to an escort ship mid-flight, landing troop transports on planets to capture them, and true dogfighting AI.
• Orion Skies: Once all of the previously mentioned projects are complete, I’ll have everything I need to efficiently build Orion Skies itself. It’ll use the Galaxy Generator to procedurally build its galaxy environment; the Tech Generator to incorporate dozens and dozens of outfits to choose from; and a number of Lua gameplay features from The Expanded Suite and from Ares Forever to enable the sort of gameplay I'm envisioning.
  

Of all the sub-projects building towards Orion Skies, the Ares adaptation is definitely the one I'm most excited about. In my opinion it's a shame how few EVx players have experienced this game.

Overall Status

   Here's a quick listing of where the overall project stands:

🟢 Game Design: Done! :)

🟢 Worldbuilding: Done! :)

🟡 Tech Generator: Version 1.0 is complete. Beyond that, it now auto-imports with ResForge and EVNEW, and a heavily improved version 1.1 is in progress.

🟡 Expanded Outfits: This will be a collection of plug-ins featuring a number of new weapons and outfits, produced by the Tech Generator and meant to enhance EVC/rEV, EVO/EVOE, and EVN/BNV.

🟡 Galaxy Generator: Version 1.0 is complete and released. I plan to develop version 1.1 with improvements such as auto-import compatibility with ResForge and EVNEW.

⚪ 3D Spacescape Generator: When I return to 3D graphics study, I’ll focus on learning to make landscapes and to use procedural techniques, building toward a generator tool in Blender that can make a full graphics set for the Galaxy Generator in one go.

⚪ The Expanded Suite: A set of Lua gameplay features meant to enhance Cosmic Frontier gameplay regardless of what scenario is used; the Lua gameplay features I create here will be used in Orion Skies.

⚪ Ares Forever: An adaptation of Ares on the Cosmic Frontier engine. The bulk of this work will be creating a number of Ares-inspired Lua gameplay features, which will be added to The Expanded Suite and also used in Orion Skies.

⚪ Orion Skies: This TC is the ultimate goal of this entire process. After a small-but-worthwhile initial release, there will be a long-term process of adding incremental updates & expansions, building it over time 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.

 

Thanks as always for reading, and best wishes to all for 2023. :)