Members ꜱᴘᴀʀᴋ Posted June 5, 2020 Posted June 5, 2020 GAME INFORMATION Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, SteamOS, Macintosh operating systems Developer: Wx3 Labs Publisher: Wx3 Labs Release Date: 12 Dec, 2019 Price: CURRENTLY OFF (20%) $6.55 USD GENERAL You’ve finally made it out of the academy and have been given your first ship to command. Sure it’s just a light shuttle, but you’ve got to start somewhere, right? Suddenly “somewhere” is stranded in an unknown galaxy surrounded by hostile aliens and no way home. Explore the beautiful and mysterious open-world of Starcom: Nexus. It’s a universe where you’ll battle or befriend strange alien races, discover ancient artifacts, research powerful technologies and build your ultimate starship. FEATURES - Fully open-world universe with numerous quests and storylines - Hundreds of unique planet anomalies, space discoveries, artifacts and more! - Fast-paced, exciting combat with numerous hostile factions - Over 150 technologies to research - Design your own ship using a modular construction system - Talk and trade with multiple alien factions, each with their own agendas and dynamic AI - Lots of hidden secrets and side quests - Quick save anywhere DEVELOPMENT SHIP CONFIGURATION In Starcom: Nexus, every ship consists of a hull that has a number of hard points where modules can be placed. Everything a ship can do comes from its modules: Converting fuel into energy your modules can use comes from reactors. Detection and long range radar comes from scanners. Plasma bolts come from your plasma cannons. Shield generation comes from your shield generator. And so forth. All modules are stackable. If you have 5 plasma cannons, that's five times the fire power. If you have 2 scanners, you'll have twice the detection capability. Technologies unlock and improve the capabilities of the modules you already have. Your 5 plasma cannons may only fire once a second at a range of 50, for 30 points of damage, but with Plasma Coherence and Helium Cooling, you get improvements to all of them. As mentioned in a previous post, technology comes from Research Points which are a non-grindable resource-- you have to discover and do new things to get them. Exploration: Dyson Sphere One of the main goals for this game, besides exciting spaceship combat, is a sense of exploration and discovery. Our real universe is full of amazing, bizarre and mind-blowing stuff. A science fiction universe should be double so. Besides encountering bizarre celestial phenomena like black holes, pulsars and strange planets, there's the possibility of stuff that we've only dreamed of, like ancient derelict craft, wormholes, and artifacts terrible and wondrous. In this latest concept art piece for a player ship design, I asked the artist to show it in the context of a Dyson Sphere. The player, having discovered the signal necessary to unlock its portal, prepares to descend into its interior. DIALOG SYSTEM Both products work well and are certainly have more features than anything I would have come up with in a reasonable time frame. I encountered several quirks that slowed me down and their documentation could be better organized, but Pixel Crusher's support has been very responsive-- I reported a bug and a question and a patch was posted within 12 hours. This is not the final UI, but I now have a working in-game dialog. In my current prototype, when the player approaches the Saurid station a dialog appears and the player can converse with the commander. The next step is to add hooks into the dialog system's variables and logic, so that I can tie the interaction with the game-- e.g., the if the player discovers something that the Saurid might know about, this would appear as an option in the response menu. Or in the other direction, an interaction in the dialog might trigger some game change, such as starting a mission or adding information to the player's map. CELESTIALS: NEBULAE Research Points will come from the player doing and finding new things. Science and Science Fiction have both shown us that there's a lot of really cool things out in space. In Starcom: Nexus, celestial phenomena will not merely be cosmetic, but potentially offer research points as well as game play effects. For example this week I added nebulae to the game, a staple of science fiction space. All nebulae will reduce player (and enemy) detection abilities, which may be used to a tactical advantage. Some nebulae may have additional effects, like energy discharges. GAMEPLAY Starcom:Nexus is an action-adventure game of exploration, discovery and blowing stuff up. Pulled into an unknown galaxy by a mysterious phenomenon, you’ll: - Meet weird alien races. Maybe some will trade with you. Maybe some will be your allies. Maybe some will help you find your way home. - Blow stuff up. Maybe some of those aliens will want to kill you. - Explore a galaxy full of new worlds. - Research new technologies. - Transform your ship from a small shuttle to an awesome battlecruiser. The game is fully playable with content being added regularly. As of the time of writing this update (12/14/18) the game’s features were: - Ship building - 100+ research technologies - 40+ star systems - 6 alien races with different dispositions and abilities - Lots of secrets, easter eggs and side quests ALIEN ENCOUNTERS It’s a big galaxy full of aliens to meet. Maybe some will trade with you. Maybe some will be your allies. Maybe some will tell you something that will help you find the way home. BLOWING STUFF UP Some of those aliens may not be friendly. Some may want to kill you up no matter how friendly and charming you are. There’s going to be quite a bit of blowing stuff up with an increasingly powerful starship. EXPLORING NEW WORLDS The planets of this universe aren’t just pretty backdrops. Many have anomalies—unusual features that require sending a landing team down to investigate. Some offer rewards, others will just eat your crew. Some will do both. RESEARCHING NEW TECHNOLOGIES Exploring the galaxy will yield interesting scientific discoveries which in turn give you Research Points. These will let you research new technologies, all of which improve your ship in some important way: faster engines, jump drives, shields, longer turret range, etc. SHIP CONSTRUCTION Your ship has a modular layout which can be configured with whatever design your technologies and resources allow. You can go with a fast corvette by loading it up with engines, or with a heavy cruiser decked out in armor and guns. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ( MINIMUM ) OS: Windows Vista/7/8/10 Processor: Intel Core i5 2.2 GHz+ Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: 2 GB Direct3D 11 Capable video card or better DirectX: Version 10 Storage: 2 GB available space OFFICIAL YT TRAILER
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