Hurray! Another multiplayer clone project. :)

[kcd.Spektor]

Version a0.8.18 is out.
Download link (zip)

TUTORIALS:
Ship models
Gen Ships
Sfx, Projectiles, Systems
Events

Discord: Here

Trailer:
Tachyon

Some vids:
a0.4.6 RAI boss fight(Cruiser view) NO SOUND
a0.4.6 RAI boss fight(Battleship view) NO SOUND
a0.5.1 RAI boss fight(Battleship view)
A let's play by Biohazard063
Another let's play by Biohazard063

How you can help:
1. Join the Discord channel and help grow the community
2. Play the game and give some feed back(What you liked, what you didn't)
3. Throw in any ideas and suggestions (Brainstorming)
4. Tell anyone and everyone about the game. Spread the word.
5. Donate some coins($) on itch.io

[kcd.Spektor]

Hello everyone!
My name is Alex(aka Spektor)
I'm a big fan of the FTL game, I'm a programmer and I love making games.
I grew tired of seeing other FTL multiplayer projects start and then some time later die(because of lots of different reasons).
So I decided to make my own FTL like game that would be multiplayer based.
I have a full time job, and making this game for me is like a hobbie.
But I'm not going to drop it, until it's finished.


So here is some info about my game:
1. It is called Tachyon(See what I did there )
2. It's made on Java using LIBGDX framework
3. In my game each player controlls only 1 unit(character)
He can take any role on the ship: Weapons, Pilot/Captain, Shields, etc...
4. Using systems(like Piloting, or Weapons, etc) is more interactive.
For example if you are the Pilot, then you go to the Piloting system open it's interface, and there you can: charge your engines/hyper drive, make a hyper jump to another system, make a local jump within the current system(for maneuvering).
Or if you are the weapons guy you can open the wepaons control system interface and there see on the radar all the ships(and space stations) in the current system, select a target for each of your weapons, change the charge levels of each of your weapons, FIRE them, etc...
And so on.
5. In my game there will be several new types of systems added, like: Engines, Reactor, Capacitor.(This list might change in the future.)
This is to make it a bit more versatile and multiplayer balanced.
6. The space battle mechanic is very similar to the original FTL,
7. When you hyper jump your ship first get's in to the warp space, where you spend some time before arriving to the destiantion system.
While in warp space you can move around the ship and do some stuff, but some things are not functional or work differently(limited).
8. You can actually leave the ship(through an open door) and fly out in to the cosmos, in your space suit.
This is used for visiting space stations, other ships, etc...
9. In my game you can customize your ship by installing/uninstalling all systems how you like it.
For example you can fill all rooms with weapons and be a deadly one shot cannon, that takes ages to recharge but shoots tons of projectiles at the same time.
Or you can replace all of your weapons with a bunch of extra shields, and be a peaceful explorer.
And so on.
10. As of right now the universe map is a grid 1000x1000 sectors(systems), and each sector is also a map area which can have multiple active entities inside(ships, mobs, players, projectiles, etc...)

This is a standalone game, not a mod or a remake.
It has it's own resources, and mechanics.
It doesn't/can't use FTL resource files.

I need help from other FTL fans that can draw nice stuff and who are willing to donate their art to making this game.
Mostly I need:
1. Ship, drones, weapons, projectiles images
2. Backgrounds
3. Mob sprites
4. Music
5. Sounds
6. Stories, quests, events ideas are welcome.

Basically all suggestions are welcome.

For now I will be posting my dev updates in this thread(hopefully that doesn't break any rules).

P.S. Also if anyone might get angry that I'm using your stuff without asking - Sorry, it's just for the time being.
You can PM me and I'll remove your content.

[kcd.Spektor]

Let's go on a small tour:

We start of at a small space station


Lets zoom out, oh look there are some ships parked near by


Now lets go to the dev only shipyard system and make our selves a new ship!


After we press the Create button, we are kindly teleported to our new ship.


Lets zoom out a bit


Now lets check out our piloting system interface.
Here we see the sector map, and the star map.
Lets select a new destination in the current sector and move there.


Once the engines are charged, we press the Local jump button and BAM we have moved
Having both engines and hyper drives consuming energy drains our capacitor way faster then our crappy old reactor can fill it.


Now let's charge our hyper drive and go to a different sector
The gray dots show us the sectors that we can reach with our current hyper drives.
The blue ones show us the sectors that we can jump to right now, because our hyper drive has enough energy to reach them.
The more energy we have stored in our Hyper drive the further we can jump.


Now that our hyper drive is full, we can reach the desired sector.


Hello Hyper Space!


It looks so nice when we zoom out.
Did you notice that if we zoom out a lot, we no longer see the rooms and the player?


But why do we always zoom out? Lets zoom IN!


BTW if we open our pilot interface while in hyper space - we can't see the sector map, instead we can see the info about our current destination and ETA.


We have arrived to new Sector


The star map shows that we are indeed in a new sector.
Lets check out if there's anything in this sector.


Hello. Looks like there are some other ships here!


Oh it's just our shooting test dummies.
Lets shoot them!
To do that we will go to our Plasma Cannon mk1 system room, and open it's interface.
As you have most probably noticed already - In this game every weapon is a separate system, and thus it requires a separate room.


But now we have only one of our 2 cannons shooting
We can see that the cannon is turned towards it's target.


Lets man the second cannon.


Thats more like it, now both cannons are shooting the test dummy.


You might say that it's not practical to man each cannon one by one, and run between them, all the time.
You are absolutely right! That's why we have the weapons control system.
In it's interface you can manipulate all the weapons on the ship.
But the system's interface is currently being a Work In Progress.
So I can only show you the Photoshopped design model:


BTW, do you see those red dots on the radar?
That's our plasma projectiles flying towards our targets.
Neat huh?
Imagine if you are shot by, lets say 12, missile launchers from 3 different ships(4 on each) at the same time,
and on the radar you see how those 12 missiles slowly(not too slow though) approaching your ship.
I bet you will be very angry at your pilot if he has no energy, stored in the engines, to do a local jump for an urgent evasive maneuver.


Now lets leave the dummies alone, and go outside the ship!
Right to the open space.
Good thing we have some oxygen in our space suit.


Too bad there's quite few of it in our suit, so it runs out really fast.
Only 42% left, better go back in to the ship.
Also did you notice that once we got outside of the ship - we no longer see the ship data?
Like ship's HP, shields, stored oxygen...
And we have lost the site of the ships rooms too.
This is because we got disconnected from the ships network.


Now once we are back onboard, we are again connected to the ship's network.


Lets go to our med bay and see what info we have there about the ship's crew.
Oh, only one person there, well what a surprise!
And looks like we have indeed used up a lot of our space suit's oxygen supply.


Lets visit the O2 room to replenish our oxygen supply.
Just a couple of seconds, and our oxygen is up to 74%


BTW did you know that in the Engines system interface you can browse the sector map?


The same way you can browse the star map from the hyper drive system interface.


Well it's time to go back to our space station, and end out little tour.


But before we go, lets quickly visit that old broken ship on the right.
First of all we will try to fix the oxygen system there.


Now that the oxygen system is fixed, lets fix the sensors, so we can see all of the ship's rooms from anywhere on the ship.


Well, now that the sensors are fixed we can see all the rooms again.


And on the last note: If you try to use a broken system, you are in for a disappointment


Thank you for your time on our tour. We wish you best of luck!
And if you have any questions - Feel free to ask

[Epsilon Carinae]

OHGODSOMEONEACTUALLYDIDIT (again)
OURYEARSOFBOREDOMAREGOINGAWAY (again)
ETC (again)
>>end excitement.bat
Now.
I have several questions.

1. With the strange new sector map, is this game linear?
2. Is this in the same universe as the original FTL?
3. Singleplayer mode?
4. Are we being chased by an unstoppable fleet of xenocidal humans?
5. Mods?

The list goes on, but I'm too lazy to add any more.

[kcd.Spektor]

1. With the strange new sector map, is this game linear?
   On the contrary - the game will be more open worldy like.
   Somthing simmilar to FTL endless game mode
   
   
2. Is this in the same universe as the original FTL?
   I sure do hope it to be that way.
   I was thinking on making it either (Before the original game story) times, OR (After the original game story) times.
   But I'm not sure if the devs of the original game will be ok with me riding along with their storyline.
   
   
3. Singleplayer mode?
   Well, here's how it works right now:
   You have a separate Server and client aplications.
   You run the server to start up the game universe.
   And then you can either play alone, or with someone else.
   The quests, and storylines are not yet made, only some ideas are in that area.
   But once I reach actual Alpha release then I'll probably will get to the point of working on them.
   
   
4. Are we being chased by an unstoppable fleet of xenocidal humans?
   We sure can be, but not like in the original game.
   Again more of a open worldy stile like.
   
   
5. Mods?
   Possible, but a lot later.
   Probably after the final release.
   The thing I've noticed over the years: Good guys start up an FTL clone project with tons of great ideas in mind.
   And then drop it. Because they got in, way over their heads.
   And making a game, that is modding friendly, adds at least 50% difficulty to it's development.
   Then again I do have a ship editor(although it's quiet outdated now)
   An come to think of it, once I get to the point of making the quests and storylines,
   I will probably make some sort of editor for that, or at lease make it user friendly, to add new stuff without doing any coding.
   And on that note, at that time(Alpha, Beta) I hope I will find people who will be interested in my project, and willing to make some new ships or quests for the game.
   Using the same editors or other tools.

The list goes on, but I'm too lazy to add any more.

Oh please do post any questions.
Interacting with people that are interested in your project - helps out quite a lot.

[fdagpigj]

This is pretty cool. It seems like you're going quite far from the original game in terms of gameplay. How do you control your character, mouse or keyboard? Would several players man a single ship or would everyone have their own ships, or both? Would it be an MMO with one official server that everyone plays on or would everyone host their own server for them to play with their friends? Is there AI, and how much? If you can leave your ship, does that mean you can do boarding without teleporting? What about crew fights in space?

[kcd.Spektor]

How do you control your character, mouse or keyboard?

The controls right now are:
WASD - movement.
E - open doors
Q - open system interface
Mouse is used in system interfaces(scrolling maps, selecting targets, buttons, etc).

Once I add the ability to shoot your blaster I think this will be added to the controls:
Space - shoot blaster.
Mouse 1 - select taret for the blaster(so that your projectile would not hit your allies).
Mouse 2 - clear blaster target(if ther's no target for the blaster specified - the projectile will hit the first player/mob it come in contact with)

Would several players man a single ship or would everyone have their own ships, or both?

Both.

Would it be an MMO with one official server that everyone plays on or would everyone host their own server for them to play with their friends?

Everyone could host their own.

Is there AI, and how much?

Not yet, but it will be added.
But I don't really understand the "how much" question
How much of AI? - 158477 I think

If you can leave your ship, does that mean you can do boarding without teleporting?

True If you can break in through the doors before your oxygen runs out.
Or you can board a dead ship for salvage.

What about crew fights in space?

Possible, although can't do a lot of fighting in space with few oxygen.
More probably - crew fighting on space stations.
(I was always curious how hard is it to fight with huge alien spiders )

[HarkintheMantis]

this is promising
I would try to help but i cant make ships or code or do any (good) artwork
I really think this shows promise

[kcd.Spektor]

this is promising
I would try to help but i cant make ships or code or do any (good) artwork
I really think this shows promise

The artwork isn't supposed to be GOOD, it has to be good ENOUGH
You can try and do something, post it, and then I can say if it's good enough or not.

In any case you can be a test player once alpha is out(or whenever).

[kcd.Spektor]

Latest progress:

1. Now when you are repairing a system, there is a progress bar showing the system's health.



2. In every weapon system interface in the targeting section you now can see the stats of the ship that is on the screen.



3. Lots of small bugs fixed.
There was one really funny bug: If some ship was shooting at you, and you would shoot back and hit his weapon,
that weapon, instead of stopping, would start shooting like 40 times a second(like a freaking chaingun), and would disintegrate you in mere seconds