Are we going to have such a thread every week until the alpha is released?
No delay. Just working.
I'm been traveling a lot so I haven't been around to do journals.
ETA for the alpha build is still this Winter.
+ Multiplayer
+ Fully playable
I've been out of the office a lot the last couple weeks but what I can tell you based on where it was when I last played:
1. Multiplayer works.
2. The AI colonizes planets, builds up planets, invades (poorly).
What's rough:
a. Lots of missing UI elements.
b. Lots of missing features (previously mentioned as they won't be in until the beta)
c. Tech tree is very rough (this should be ready by alpha)
d. The visuals -- lighting and materials -- still need a lot of work. It's eye candy but we don't want ugly screenshots going out there.
e. Mini map is flaky.
A couple surprises that I'm liking that I didn't realize I missed.
1. The range of ships is represented by a nice dotted line which is actually quite nice. Just a nice touch.
2. The way your ZOC is represented is very nice.
3. There aren't sectors anymore and it looks better as a result (less on screen noise).
4. The performance is way better than I would have expected.
5. The economy system is working nicer than I would have expected this early.
6. It is nice having help on the AI. I was able to do a high level AI design where I took the best from GalCiv II and Legendary Heroes and put them together and having the engine lead being the one implementing has resulted in some promising results.
Now, that said, I would guess that the alpha won't come out until early March.
