Author Topic: Update on The Zenith Remnant Progress  (Read 2452 times)

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Update on The Zenith Remnant Progress
« on: October 28, 2009, 10:17:28 am »
Here are the totals so far, so that I can see how the expansion is shaping up.  These are not necessarily indicative of how the final product will be, because new ideas are still being added (and actively sought), etc.

----------

New Ship classes: 14
New ship classes with core ship: 10

Total new ships from ship classes: 66
Analysis:  This expansion is now full up on ship classes.

----------

New Golems: 7
New Capturables: 16

Total new ships from capturables of all sorts: 23
Analysis: This expansion is now full up on Golems, but particularly full up with other capturables.

----------

New starships: 4
New mines: 1
New DEF ships: 4

Total misc other new ships: 9
Analysis: This section is complete.

----------

New AI special ships: 6
Analysis:  With all of the new capturables already slated for the expansion, this is pretty much handled now.  A lot of those will also double as AI special ships.

----------

New Experimental Ships: 7
Analysis:  Plenty of these for now.

----------

New Zenith Aliens special ships: 4
Analysis:  Plenty of these.

----------

Total new ships planned so far: 115
Current target: Reached, and more.  The original target was 80-100 ships, which has obviously been far exceeded.
« Last Edit: November 23, 2009, 06:05:42 pm by x4000 »
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Velox

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 327
Re: Running ship tallies, etc.
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2009, 10:30:16 am »

     This is so exciting!  I can hardly wait, I haven't seen a single item in the lists of things that are going into the expansion that I'm not just dying to play with. 

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Running ship tallies, etc.
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2009, 10:32:41 am »
I'm excited about these, too!  Hopefully I will have something available very soon (possibly today) for play, and for preorder.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Alex2290

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 58
Re: Running ship tallies, etc.
« Reply #3 on: November 10, 2009, 02:26:31 pm »
I'm excited about these, too!  Hopefully I will have something available very soon (possibly today) for play, and for preorder.

Is there a list of current features in the prerelease?

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Running ship tallies, etc.
« Reply #4 on: November 10, 2009, 02:45:19 pm »
I'm excited about these, too!  Hopefully I will have something available very soon (possibly today) for play, and for preorder.

Is there a list of current features in the prerelease?

There is the release notes, at the end of the prerelease, but it is fairly unstructured -- all the info is there, though.  After the E or F release, I'm planning on updating the "about the expansion" page again.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Alex2290

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Posts: 58
Re: Running ship tallies, etc.
« Reply #5 on: November 10, 2009, 03:20:04 pm »
I'm excited about these, too!  Hopefully I will have something available very soon (possibly today) for play, and for preorder.

Is there a list of current features in the prerelease?

There is the release notes, at the end of the prerelease, but it is fairly unstructured -- all the info is there, though.  After the E or F release, I'm planning on updating the "about the expansion" page again.

Yeah I've skimmed through the release notes but I'm not sure if that's all. I meant like a detailed list with all new ships, ai types, settings, etc that are exclusive to the expansion and that are currently added to the prerelease. Maybe just a page that says Completed: and Working On: or something.

I can wait 'till the expansion web page is updated, though. I just wanted to see if I should buy the expansion now or wait a while.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Running ship tallies, etc.
« Reply #6 on: November 10, 2009, 03:21:54 pm »
I'm excited about these, too!  Hopefully I will have something available very soon (possibly today) for play, and for preorder.

Is there a list of current features in the prerelease?

There is the release notes, at the end of the prerelease, but it is fairly unstructured -- all the info is there, though.  After the E or F release, I'm planning on updating the "about the expansion" page again.

Yeah I've skimmed through the release notes but I'm not sure if that's all. I meant like a detailed list with all new ships, ai types, settings, etc that are exclusive to the expansion and that are currently added to the prerelease. Maybe just a page that says Completed: and Working On: or something.

I can wait 'till the expansion web page is updated, though. I just wanted to see if I should buy the expansion now or wait a while.

If it's not in the release notes, it is not yet implemented.  Everything in this forum is TBD, as well, so that's a good indicator.  Generally I'm going to try to keep the expansion page fairly up to date, but things change fast and so I'm only updating it every few prereleases.  A lot of new expansion ships are coming in the E/F releases, so I'm waiting until those are out to just implement it all in one go.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Running ship tallies, etc.
« Reply #7 on: January 07, 2010, 03:53:02 pm »
Okay -- The Zenith Remnant is now feature-complete for ship content as of the upcoming version ZM that will be out later tonight.  In total, there are now 122 expansion-exclusive ships in The Zenith Remnant (all the way up through the Dyson Gatling, the last to be added).

Still todo for the expansion before our release next week:
- Integration of all the new music (which won't be revealed until the official day of release).
- Several more galaxy map styles (these don't exactly require a lot of user testing, not like new ships, so they fell to the very end).
- Expansion-specific achievements.
- Bugfixes and yet more balance tweaks, although overall the balance is pretty solid now.  As with anything, I'm sure that will continue to evolve over time, though, as more and more players rack up more experience with all of the new stuff.

It's certainly a relief to have hit this point, though it's a few days later than I would have liked.  But, conversely, there is a lot more content than I'd planned on -- the three minor factions for the base game, control nodes, and a number of other improvements were late additions that were, I think, well worth the slight delay.

The next official DLC release will be the same day as the full expansion release -- the 12th.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline HellishFiend

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 758
Re: Update on The Zenith Remnant Progress
« Reply #8 on: January 07, 2010, 04:40:23 pm »
Thanks for the update! You have no idea how cool it is, as a consumer, to be kept so "in the loop" with whats going on. We appreciate it!
Time to roll out another ball of death.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Update on The Zenith Remnant Progress
« Reply #9 on: January 07, 2010, 04:42:39 pm »
My pleasure!  I can understand that -- that's why I do it! :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline quickstix

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 297
  • Buy Now
Re: Update on The Zenith Remnant Progress
« Reply #10 on: January 07, 2010, 04:57:25 pm »
That's an extremely impressive list. Just those numbers themselves will sell the game.

Look forward to seeing the new map styles. Spokes and trees prove to be very interesting challenges.

Offline RCIX

  • Core Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,808
  • Avatar credit goes to Spookypatrol on League forum
Re: Running ship tallies, etc.
« Reply #11 on: January 07, 2010, 05:11:09 pm »
Okay -- The Zenith Remnant is now feature-complete for ship content as of the upcoming version ZM that will be out later tonight.  In total, there are now 122 expansion-exclusive ships in The Zenith Remnant (all the way up through the Dyson Gatling, the last to be added).

Still todo for the expansion before our release next week:
- Integration of all the new music (which won't be revealed until the official day of release).
- Several more galaxy map styles (these don't exactly require a lot of user testing, not like new ships, so they fell to the very end).
- Expansion-specific achievements.
- Bugfixes and yet more balance tweaks, although overall the balance is pretty solid now.  As with anything, I'm sure that will continue to evolve over time, though, as more and more players rack up more experience with all of the new stuff.

It's certainly a relief to have hit this point, though it's a few days later than I would have liked.  But, conversely, there is a lot more content than I'd planned on -- the three minor factions for the base game, control nodes, and a number of other improvements were late additions that were, I think, well worth the slight delay.

The next official DLC release will be the same day as the full expansion release -- the 12th.

Sounds cool! i'll be reading the official release notes to see the collected changes since 2.0 :)
better make a note to get a cup of coffee and a snack :D
Avid League player and apparently back from the dead!

If we weren't going for your money, you wouldn't have gotten as much value for it!

Oh, wait... *causation loop detonates*

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Update on The Zenith Remnant Progress
« Reply #12 on: January 07, 2010, 06:34:31 pm »
Yeah, no kidding, those collected changes are really huge. :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Shawn

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 8
Re: Update on The Zenith Remnant Progress
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2010, 07:52:06 pm »
Awesome!

...and, I got my dual monitor hooked up.  Game on one screen, notes/wiki/forum on the other...  Better lay in a stock of Mt.Dew....  :)
Thanks
Shawn

Offline RCIX

  • Core Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,808
  • Avatar credit goes to Spookypatrol on League forum
Re: Update on The Zenith Remnant Progress
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2010, 08:00:37 pm »
Awesome!

...and, I got my dual monitor hooked up.  Game on one screen, notes/wiki/forum on the other...  Better lay in a stock of Mt.Dew....  :)

I personally keep my chat windows on the side. That way i don't have to do half the tabbingwindow switches i usually do...
Avid League player and apparently back from the dead!

If we weren't going for your money, you wouldn't have gotten as much value for it!

Oh, wait... *causation loop detonates*