A-Spec First Assault. It's Wing Commander with warships instead of fighters.

[centaurianmudpig]

Hey wingnuts,

It's been a while since I last posted about my last big update for Absolute Territory, with space fighters and hostile aliens, on here.

Since then I started working on my next game, in keeping with sci-fi space combat, with large warships (corvette sized and bigger). I've been running a public playtest for A-Spec First Assault on Steam for the last year, and now preparing for Steam Next Fest: June 2023 Edition.

The playtest allows you to choose from 6 warships, customizable weaponry, and support modules, with a Team Vs. Team skirmish against bots. A-Spec is a single-player game. The playtest is focused on flight and combat, suited to Skirmish mode. Full Controller Support is included with default bindings for gamepads. HOTAS and flight pedals are supported with the same robust controller mapper screen from Absolute Territory.

I plan to have an entire campaign available in the final release, scripted missions following a main story, and random mission types to engage with.

Download the playtest on Steam, I need your help in making this the best experience for as many gamers as possible.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1652646668586696707

 

[centaurianmudpig]

Play the first public demo release for A-Spec Assault on Steam for Windows PC.

Choose from 6 different warships across Corvette and Frigate classes. Outfit with guns, missiles, multi-barreled turrets, and modules to enhance ship performance. Assemble a formidable fleet, take command of your fleet, and issue orders to orders strategically, coordinating attacks for maximum effectiveness.

Customize the skirmish to play with and against AI teams. Go long-range, or up close and personal with the best weapons, add wingmen with the best ships, and have the opposing team outnumber you in Prestige and ship counts for the fight of your life. Play it your way.

Selectively target subsystems and turret weaponry to weak or cripple your opponent with a range of weaponry at your disposal.

Projectile weapons are the most used weapons; Railguns punch past armor to cause havoc on multiple internal subsystems affecting performance. Artillery cause splash damage, Autocannons focus damage on individual targets, and Blasters are short-range damage dealers with large spread patterns. Use fire-and-forget missiles to soften targets on approach or finish them off at the end of an engagement.

An enhanced flight model gives full freedom across the six degrees. Use thrust overrides to go beyond recommended flight limits in any direction, keep the flight assists enabled to help maintain forward momentum or disable them for full unrestricted control over velocity. The options are there for newcomers and experienced.

Feeling the struggle of not being able to check all the demos during the week-long festival? Don't worry, we've got your back. Add the demo to your list and come back to it when you're ready.

The A-Spec First Assault demo will remain up past the end of Steam Next Fest. Play as much as you want for as long as you like with no time limits or time restrictions.

Play the demo on Steam

 

[Vidmaster]

Aha, I am following a fellow WCNews-Member on Twitter it seems 😅

 

[Vidmaster]

How successful (or unsuccessful 😟 ?) was the festival? Tomas Sala rightfully posted something along the lines of Steam Next Fest is like the real-life Hunger Games for indie devs and I think that has some merit.

 

[centaurianmudpig]

Tomas Sala rightfully posted something along the lines of Steam Next Fest is like the real-life Hunger Games for indie devs and I think that has some merit.

Why rightful? It's an overly dramatic comparison without any explanation put behind it.

How successful (or unsuccessful 😟 ?) was the festival?

On the first day of the Next Fest, A-Spec accrued more wishlists in the first 24hrs than Absolute Territory did in the entire week for Next Fest June 2020. AT wishlist total for its Next Fest was 128.

In the full week of the Next Fest, 648 wishlists for A-Spec. The week before the Fest was 24 wishlists, and that was boosted with consistent social media posting with CTA several times a day on Twitter. The A-Spec store page has been up since March 2021 and to date has 1,413 wishlists.

Next Fest is worth participating in. If I was to participate in another Next Fest with another title I'd want to have some story missions with integrated tutorials (especially if the complexity is on par with A-Spec).

 

[centaurianmudpig]

A new single-player campaign has been added to the A-Spec First Assault demo. Play through 3 main missions and 5 side missions in a fight for survival against a relentless hostile oppressor.

Patch Notes 0.11.0

Overview

• Added a single-player campaign as a limited preview

Known Issues

• Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected
• Carrier and Large Transport do not have death animations and blink out of existence on death
• Colliders for Fighter, Gunship, Carrier, and Large Transport are not optimized for best fitting
• Jump-out animations are not scaled correctly for ships bigger than a gunship

Added

• Campaign: Single-player campaign as a limited preview
• Campaign: 3 main missions for the campaign
• Campaign: 5 side missions for the campaign
• Campaign: Player Item rewards for completing a main mission in the campaign
• Campaign: Player Prestige rewards for completing main and side missions in the campaign
• Campaign: Player Experience rewards for completing main and side missions in the campaign (used to unlock following main missions)
• Campaign: Player Prestige and experience rewards for kills
• Skirmish: Wingmen will now spawn in formation with their wing leader
• New Ship: Fighter (only available to AI actors in the campaign)
• New ship: Gunship (only available to AI actors in the campaign)
• New ship: Carrier (only available to AI actors in the campaign)
• New ship: Large Transport (only available to AI actors in the campaign)
• New primary weapon: Hydracannon as XXS size (only available to AI actors in the campaign using the Fighter)
• New secondary weapon: Guided bomb (only available to AI actors in the campaign using the Gunship)
• New turret weapon: Autocannon as XS size (only available to AI actors in the campaign using the Gunship)

Changed

• Limited frame rate to 30FPS when in menus
• Luhansk corvette mass was too low (raised from 200,000 to 2,000,000) and will no longer be spun around as much by weapon hits

Fixed

• Faction Active/Dying unit tracking was left in an erroneous state when starting a mission, preventing further missions from completing correctly
• Explosive damage was not being applied correctly against moving structures
• AI actors would get stuck attempting to complete a priority objective that was impossible to complete
• Selecting a target from cleared selection selects 2nd contact in the list rather than first
• NullReference when firing missiles
• Fixed an issue with lateral thruster burn time calculations for AI actors

 

[centaurianmudpig]

A-Spec First Assault is out now on Steam in Early Access.

A-Spec First Assault is available to buy now on Steam. Releasing into Early Access, A-Spec First Assault adds a mini prologue campaign designed to introduce new players to concepts and features over 7 missions.

Completing the prologue opens the campaign preview with 3 main and 5 side missions. These are the same missions made available in the demo.

The skirmish gameplay mode provides quick access into combat with abilities to change the loadout and number of ships on a 1 v 1 team singleplayer with AI teammates.

A-Spec First Assault offers a wide range of customization options for each ship. Equip your vessel with an array of primary projectile guns and secondary missile launchers, bolstering your frontal assault. Alternatively, opt for turreted guns that provide wider firing arcs, or adopt a balanced approach with a combination of both. Remember, bigger ships deliver greater firepower.

Augment your ship's performance with support modules, bolstering its core systems. Enhance agility, top speed, armor, hull strength, fire rate, firepower, and more, tailoring your vessel to your play style.

Buy A-Spec First Assault now on Steam.

 

[centaurianmudpig]

A new update for A-Spec First Assault, named Drums of War, with big improvements to sound effects!

Check out this latest gameplay trailer

Patch Notes 0.12.3

Overview

• Big improvements to all sound effects!
• Lots of other miscellaneous improvements!
• Bug fixes!

Known Issues

• Autospeed match 'close' setting does not work as expected
• Colliders for Fighter, Gunship, Carrier, and Large Transport are not optimized for best-fitting
• Jump-out animations are not scaled correctly for ships bigger than a gunship
• Guard My Target command is not implemented

Added

• Vessel names can now be randomly generated
• AI Actor will now change targets if another hostile is more of a threat
• AI Actor uses a fuzzy target selection of the nearest hostile (rather than using the 'Select closest hostile' command)
• Ship wings will now jump in formation to their leader
• Flash Radar Quadrant On Hit effect attached to a toggle option in Options > Game
• Added Autogun (XXS) as a replacement primary weapon for hostile fighters in the prologue (due to fixing AI firing weapons slowly)
• Added UI Volume slider
• Audio priorities adjustments for sound effects during gameplay to better manage many simultaneous playing sounds

Changed

• Controller Glyphs now display the control element descriptor for controllers without a defined glyph icon
• Prologue mission 1: Added Throttle Axis to help glyphs
• Prologue mission 1: Removed diagonal help glyphs as the vertical and horizontal glyphs communicate this
• Prologue mission 2: Updated directives text regarding waypoint references in line with Prologue mission 1
• Prologue mission 3: Removed the distress call waypoint when in range
• Prologue mission 7: Fixed typo during friendly spawn message near end of mission
• Corrected spelling and grammar throughout all prologue mission briefings and debriefings
• Navigation tutorial 2: Can now use throttle axis during throttle acceleration and deceleration section
• Navigation tutorial 2: Allowed 8-way hat to work during diagonal thrust sections
• Navigation tutorial 3: Disabled autopilot
• Mining beam SFX replacement
• Increased size of flare and muzzle VFX for mining beam
• Removed hull Hit Effect for mineable asteroids and normal asteroids due to excessive calls from using the mining beam
• Updated main missions and side missions to use directives and monitoring panels as needed
• Dying throes explosions VFX/SFX improved
• Death explosions VFX/SFX improved
• Gun sound effects improved
• Round robins used for repetitive sound effects (i.e. gunshots, impacts, explosions, etc)
• Replaced most Heads Up Display sound effects
• Directives Panel: When directive status changes the text now flashes with an audible bleep
• Player Received Transmission: Play audio bleep at the start of a transmission
• Main menu: Increased vertical button spacing for easier mouse highlighting on mouse over

Fixed

• Prevented mineable asteroids and Mining Station from being pushed around easily
• Particle explosions from weapon damage on the player seem to jitter/skitter during player movement
• Attempt to set pitch to infinite value from script ignored!
• Prevented autopiloting out of Skirmish when all enemies were destroyed
• Explosion lighting source only lights up for 1 second, where it should be limited for the particle animation time
• Turret Railgun shell mass not scaled correctly (decreased accordingly)
• Burst Autocannon 2/4/8 shell mass not set correctly (increased accordingly)
• Impact Hull/Armour SFX now calculated for pooled items
• Audio Asset pooling counts are under-calculated for guns and launchers
• Skirmish: Player not spawning in the correct position
• Projectile spawn location offsets more as the shooter's velocity increases
• Primary weapons fire faster the more the gun control subsystem is damaged
• AI Actor would trigger pull-release for each primary weapon shot, unintentionally slowing down the fire rate of fast-firing weapons
• Button UI audio interactions are not affected by the audio volume sliders
• Fixed duplicate audio sources from being created for parent objects not added to the pooling system
• Fixed issue of audio popping where played audio was stopped too early for explosions
• AI Actor severely under-calculated the effective firing range (effectively preventing the AI Actor from using primary weapons)
• Prologue mission 2: After mining 1st asteroid, engines should not be activated until 2nd asteroid is targeted
• Prologue mission 4: Enemies at Navpoint 2 can no longer be goaded in to attacking the player instead of transports

 

[centaurianmudpig]

A-Spec First Assault has had a couple of major updates have been released since I last posted:

The Escalation Update adds Chapter 2 of the campaign with 3 new story missions, new side missions, and a new 'Autogun' weapon​

The Interception Update adds a new Interceptor Corvette to fly and a fistful of ship upgrades to choose from​

The demo was recently updated offering the prologue to the campaign and a skirmish mode to try out the various ships, weapons, and upgrades.

External rear view of the Avdiivka Interceptor Corvette​

Cockpit view of the Avdiivka Interceptor Corvette​

External forward view of the Avdiivka Interceptor Corvette​

Try the demo and buy the Early Access version on Steam.