Void Destroyer 2

[Galdred]

https://www.strategygamer.com/articles/early-access-games/

Void Destroyer 2 (Steam Page)
Publisher/Developer: Iteration 11
The original Void Destroyer was a fine little blend of Homeworld meets Freespace, gently spritzed with light Independence War-style newtonian physics and a twist of Borderlands comic shading. But now is Void Destroyer 2's time. Bigger and bolder.

The game deployed in Early Access in 2016, and having enjoyed active and indefatigable updates until now, is set to go gold sometime before the end of the year. A one-man vision, the premise of the original Void Destroyer is ratcheted up to 11 in this sequel. An open-world action-strategy, where players start small and aim big, the aim is to command and control an ever-growing fleet to capture and expand territory in a sprawling galaxy.

Play it like an RTS, delegating positions and targets, then switch to direct-control to tear it up across any of the classes and vessels in the player fleet. There's a lot to learn, and it is very much a PC gamer's game, with all sorts of systems and subsystems at the player's disposal. With an even more striking, almost Model 2 arcade board aesthetic and palette, Void Destroyer 2 is deep, dense and delicious.

Steam Reviews are also very positive.
That seems too good to be true. Has anyone tried it?
It looks cartoony, but it sounds like 3D Starpoint Gemini Warlords(or X3 with less grind and more combat?), with some added control over your fleet.

 

[Norfleet]

Do people even post REAL, ACTUAL games anymore, or is it only just announcements of vaporware?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Developer has Youtube channel where he posts infrequently.


I've given the tutorial a spin, but I'm still waiting for full release before diving in.

 

[Galdred]

Do people even post REAL, ACTUAL games anymore, or is it only just announcements of vaporware?

Wait, the game is out already, only in beta (so feature complete).

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/369530/announcements/detail/1607147089557968748

Dev Video - Customization, Empire management and Missions
Recent updates summary.
Hey guys!

I've uploaded another "Dev Update" video to talk and show some of the recent changes and additions to the game.

Here it is:

Here's a short summary of the recent changes/additions:

• Much easier method to customizing fleet/defense ships.
  
• Method to create a fleet out of hangar ships with few clicks.
  
• New ship commands in Overworld mode (guard, patrol, etc).
  
• Repair ships can also be given these commands and will seek out ships to be repaired.
  
• Easily toggle primary/secondary burns for multiple ships.
  
• UI text to see what your ships' current orders are,
  
• Sensor and detection ranges overhaul (larger ships can scan further but are more easily detected).
  
• Upgrades to increase sensor range and/or decrease detection range (useful for combat ships to find targets, and transport ships to avoid being detected).
  
• Owned assets (bases, platforms) create a sensor net in Overworld mode, giving you a view of what's going on in your empire.
  
• Trade ship interface now includes way to create "platform traders" ships that will buy/take resources from platforms.
  
• Bunch of new auto generated missions added, tweaks, changes, re-balance to missions.
  
• Many auto generated missions are now "fleet missions" - where you get compensated for ship loss.

Full Patch Notes - Here

Changes overview:
My time recently has been spent working on end game empire management and early game auto generated missions. My goal has been to make late game empire management a lot smoother with less mouse clicks, more automation and giving the player more control and insight as to what is going on.

I've also did a pass on auto generated missions, with the goal of make the early game to middle game smoother. Filling in some gaps to reduce doing the same missions over and over. Changing mission payouts (increasing in most cases). Rebalancing some missions and adding a bunch of new ones.

What's next?
Work towards release continues with shifting focus on finalizing elements and then preparing for release, in the form of working on more external elements like a new trailer and store/marketing elements.


As always - I hope you enjoy these changes, give them a good run through in the game and give me feedback.

Thank you for supporting the project!

Paul

 

[Galdred]

I have given it another shot. I find the game much more intuitive than the last time I played it.
I really like the pacing of combat in the game. I am not very far into it(just got a few wingmen, so no RTS mode yet), but the small and larger ships play very differently.
The directional shields make your own positioning very important, but it is a shame the opponents don't have one (granted, it would make 1v1 last forever, but Starshatter was great thanks to that, as it made flanking extremely important).
The economy is much simpler than in X3, and autotrading seems more dangerous than how I recall it was in X3, but also much easier to set up.

 

[Galdred]

A quote of the dev, regarding his intents, from Steam forum:

Similar to X games - but with better combat (more weapon and ship variety, better combat AI, larger battles, instant ship switching, different methods of control for fighters/cap ships), flight (newtonian physics) and fleet systems (RTS control over fleet). Less detailed economy, but easier setup (select transport ship, right click on base, select fighter, right click on transport for escort).

Cons are - indie budget/skill/polish.

EDIT: X games are great games and I've learned a lot from them. So its a bit unfair to say better combat - when I specifically made combat in Void Destroyer better thinking of how in X2/X3 the fighter ship AI was - turn towards player, fly towards player - shoot, fly away from player, turn towards player, fly towards player - shoot.

He definitely made the combat better than in X: more weapon variety that really play very differently (non turreted super guns, slow flying projectiles, rail guns, turrets, anti capital ship missiles, and anti fighter missiles. The game also has some cloaking/target jamming items).

Another set of quotes:

chaosavy [developer] 22 Dec, 2016 @ 2:54pm

The best way to mine is to have your ships mine for you, the game is Void Destroyer 2 - not Void Miner - heh heh

So while the goal is that "everything that the AI can you do you can do" - including fly any ship and mine/etc - and that's more or less in place - somethings you might not want to do more than once, like mining.

So:

Hired mining ship - fly to a asteroid field, hired ship will stat mining, return to base, sell the ore.

Fleet/Owned ship - giving them commands

Fly to an area - hit space to enter tactical mode, find your mining ship(s) - select it (left click) find a nice sized rock - right click it, ships will begin mining
#1

Percopius

22 Dec, 2016 @ 11:06pm

Yeah, I just fly to the edge of a mining area, let my minier mine, protect him,when he is full i tell him to efect his pods, my transport automatically picks them up, then I tell mininer to get back to it, etc,... it great, works like a chram and feel real (like I am working with people)

It seems that now, both pod ejection and the miner going back to work are automated.
Miners also serve as pirate magnets, which provides you some bounties while you protect them (and make the operation more interesting...).

 

[Galdred]

I had a neutral-friendly relation with a pirate faction after I helped wipe out a sizable squadron of their competitor during a mission, so I started a small mining operation in one of their asteroid fields.
Things went smoothly until one of the ships I had set to escort the miner(or my own ship maybe?) was involved in a friendly fire incident with a friendly pirate ship.
Then things escalated quickly and I lost half of my escort ships, and a few mining ships, making the operation not profitable anymore. The surviving ships have been assigned to a quieter (low yield) mining spot until I can afford to replace the escort ships (given that all of the profits went into my own ship...).

I really like the fact that mining and trades are about protecting your supply lines/trade routes, and not actually doing it yourself.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/369530/announcements/detail/1619534614709812276

Heads up - Thinking of a price increase.
Hey guys!

EDIT - Thanks for the feedback guys! - price has been increased from 14.99 to 19.99


This post is more for potential customers and for existing customers to offer feedback/etc.

For potential customers - if you are sensitive to price increases, consider buying now (though I do tend to discounts quite a lot, after the increase it might not dip below the current standard price for a bit of time).

I'm thinking of increasing the game's price in anticipation to the 1.0 (out of Early Access) release. For various reasons - the game is much bigger than I anticipated when I first started it - in terms of play time, content, how long it took me to make it. Plus having a higher base price allows you to discount the game more aggressively - to compete with bigger aggressive discounts on the market (so basically - marketing). Steam has become much harder to sell games on for smaller indies like me - and I feel that my audience dried up a bit - and those looking for a game like Void Destroyer 2 and somehow find it - wouldn't mind paying a bigger price. Basically - the people who buy games at full price would spend a few bucks more for it either way.

Because of how pricing increases work on Steam I have to plan this ahead a bit - especially considering that the Holiday season is approaching with it's seasonal sales. So I'd probably have to skip the Thanksgiving/Autumn sale due to the price increase - but still be able to participate in the Winter/Christmas sale.

Anyway - what do you think? Do you think that the game is undervalued at 14.99? Overvalued? It should be free and I should work from under a bridge somehow - hunting and scavenging for food like in the olden days?

Let me know if you have an opinion.

Thanks!

Paul

 

[Galdred]

I went further in the game, and captured my first ships:
Ship capture is rather nicely done:
You order your capture ships to launch their boarding pods, and try to cover them while they make way to their targets.
The capture itself is simplisitc (basically crew attrition vs pod attrition), but boarding pods can be destroyed even after they attach, so you need to make sure that there are not too many escorting ships out when launching the pods.
However, if you wait too long to launch, your boarding pod launchers could get destroyed (the boarding pods are ejected on death, but they will probably get destroyed piecemal if their launchers explode one after the other).

Base capture is somewhat similar:
You need to destroy the defending fleet to do it, then launch single use boarding ships that will inflict attrition damage on the base.
However, you can lower the morale and effectiveness of the defenders by besieging them long enough and cutting their food and weapon supply to the point that you can win with 1:1 odds.

The UI to control a lot of ships could be improved (my main issue is grouping ships in fleets the way I want).
After you take a base from someone, they really hate you and will go out of their way to destroy your mining and refueling platforms (which also grants you a lot of capture opportunity).

The main difference between large and small ships is that you can order your fleet from a large ship without too much risk of it being blown up while you don't pilot it yourseilf (you can also control it RTS style, but it is not the same).

 

[Chaosdwarft]

I was wondering can you design your ships from the hull to the weapons?

 

[Galdred]

I was wondering can you design your ships from the hull to the weapons?

No. You can only purchase active(tractor beam, missiles, directional barrier, emergency repair system...) and passive (enhanced weapon reload, accelerated projectives, extra shield and armor, improved sensor ) upgrades, but you cannot design your own ships.

Each ship also has fixed weapons. Some let you swap one set of weapon for another as an upgrade. Some ships are variants of each other with a different weapon loadout, but you cannot choose weapons apart from these cases.

Note that only you can make use of the active upgrades, so your AI wingmen won't use them unless you order them to from the tactical UI. Given that you cannot do so for a group of ships, but only for a single ship at a time, it makes active upgrades only useful for larger ships.

Edit:
Each base is affiliated to a faction, and can build the ships of that faction only, even after you take it over.
The strongest ships belong to the military faction, and are not on sale anywhere, so you need to go after them to use them.

The strategic UI and the crashes that happen when there are too many ships in battle are the main issues for me now. But I got somewhat used to the UI (you basically have to zoom in very close to select the target you want when there are other point of interest nearby on the strategic map. Creating fleets is painful, but you can send all reserve ships from a station in a new fleet, so it is workable, even if not ideal). Regarding large battles, the game autosaves often, and most battles are between autobattling fleets far away from your ship once you get a sizeable territory anyway.

 

[normie]

it's out and on sale

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/369530/announcements/detail/1719747967618948135

Void Destroyer 2 - now released! (No more Early Access)
After 3 years today is the day!

Hey guys!


Void Destroyer 2's release day is here!

Void Destroyer 2 is a "Start with nothing... End with everything!" game. A space sandbox simulation where you start with a small fighter, work your way up to bigger and better ships. Start building up a fleet, take territory, use captured bases to build fleets and end up conquering all that you see. A game which constantly expands along with your ambitions. Where other space sandbox games end - Void Destroyer 2 kicks into a higher gear.

For release - I've made 2 new trailers -

First is the "Gameplay Trailer" -



Link - YouTube

Second is the "Cinematic Trailer" -


Link - YouTube

If you are a new player or someone interested in the game -

Welcome aboard! Glad to have you here. If you have any questions, criticism, feedback or issues with the game please be sure to let me know. You can contact me via the forums or by emailing me - paul @ void destroyer . com

If you watched the trailers, checked out the store page, but still want more info check out this video explainer I made - YouTube - it's fairly long... So in case you find it boring - watch it at bed time and it will help you fall asleep... You're welcome!


If you are a existing player and/or someone interested in helping the game -

Here is how -

• Help spread the word!
  
• Post about Void Destroyer2 on forums - where ever gamers are. Especially space sim gamers.
  
• See a space sim mentioned anywhere? Mention Void Destroyer 2.
  
• Play the game - this will boost it's rankings and notify your friends via Steam
  
• Post a review - this will notify your friends as well.
  
• Participate in the game's forums - answer a new player's question and share your thoughts.
  
• Send me good vibes - I need em!

If you are a YouTuber/Streamer/Etc interested in showing the game -

Email me at - paul @ void destroyer . com (please include a link to your channel/etc) - if mention I mentioned this it will make my life easier filtering out the key scammers.

--- Incoming Wall of text ---

Well today's the day.

After 1232 days (now that I see this - I realize that I should have waited 2 more days...) - 3 years and 4 months - in Early Access Void Destroyer 2 is officially released.

I honestly thought that completing the game would take about a year or so after the Early Access release. In addition when my wife told me she was pregnant - I thought I could finish in 9 months (that was over 2 years ago!). Clearly I shouldn't be trusted in terms of time lines.

Void Destroyer 2 is actually the game that I set out to make initially, but decided to divert and make Void Destroyer 1. So in a way I've been working on the same game for over 10 years! Looking back - I'm thrilled how close to my vision Void Destroyer 2 is.

I intended to make a game where you start with a single fighter, work your way up, build up a fleet, capture bases and eventually own the entire map - and I'm proud to say that this is what I made.

I hope that those who supported me in Early Access and even before that (Kickstarter and Void Destroyer 1) feel at least a bit of that same pride, because I couldn't have done it without you guys. Without Kickstarter backers I wouldn't have been able to fund art and music for Void Destroyer 1. Without Void Destroyer 1's players I wouldn't have been able to fund Void Destroyer 2's long development time and with Void Destroyer 2's Early Access players I fixed countless of bugs, added countless features, changed countless things based on your feedback.

I still need your help - I have a $0 marketing budget. My marketing plan is to send some emails and keys to YouTubers - that's it. Nowadays (that there are so many amazing indie gmaes out there) having this plan is as insane as making a game in the first place - I guess I'm consistent. So please if you have a moment - help me spread the word. You can do this by playing the game (your friends might notice!), leaving a review (again your friends might notice!), post the trailers, talk about the game, tweet, whatever you can. I appreciate any and all help.

I've truly been lucky to have you guys and the behind the scenes artists, musicians and contractors. I get called a "one man dev" and I always say that's quite far from the reality.

thank you all!


So what's next?


Right now? Hopefully there is going to be a big influx of new and returning players - with whom come bug reports, criticism and feedback. So right now I'll likely be focusing on that - bug fixes.

Short term? My goal is to upgrade the game's engine to 64 bit. Which should boost it's stability (64 bit apps have access to more memory) and hopefully performance (via using updated game engine components). That's going to be a challenge for me, but it only costs my time and it is going to help with the long term goal.

Long term? I would love to continue working onto Void Destroyer 3 - but how that actually works will depend on how this release goes.

Paul
PS: As always - thank you very much!

 

[Hobo Elf]

This one looks pretty cool. I'll wait a bit and see if any 'dexers will post impressions, but I might get it later today. It's pretty cheap anyway and I've been wanting to get into a new space sim without the steep learning curve.

 

[Galdred]

This one looks pretty cool. I'll wait a bit and see if any 'dexers will post impressions, but I might get it later today. It's pretty cheap anyway and I've been wanting to get into a new space sim without the steep learning curve.

I didn't play the latest build.
My impressions were that the early game had very satisfying pewpew, the middle game had cool fleet control mechanisms (much better than in Starpoint Gemini Warlords), and the mittle late game had interesting Empire management.
The coolest things for me were taking over my first Destroyer, securing my first asteroid field, and taking over my first non-storyline base.
The game was really great except for two major caveats:
- The strategic map UI is torture to use (merging and creating fleets was a pain), but you get somewhat used to it (it only becomes a problem after you control a sizeable force obviously)
- end game fleet battles will crash the game a lot (but it is mitigated by the fact that it mostly happen after your final victory is certain, so it wasn't that big of a deal for me).
In my case, the game became very "crashy" after I took over the main competing AI faction.

So I would recommend it if you can live with these two major flaws. Note that the developer has addressed several late game crashing bugs since then, so it may be much better than in my experience now.
I had much more fun with it than the similar pewpew-conquer the world/galaxy hybrids (Starpoint Gemini Warlords, Carrier Command: Gaea Mission, as both have much severe flaws).

If you played King Arthur: The roleplaying wargame, it is a bit similar when it comes to opponent behaviour: opponents get more aggressive against you as you advance the story, but they will mostly leave you build up alone (unless you attack them yourself) if you take your time.

 

[Naraya]

Playing this at the moment, so far so good. By the way - the game looks WAY better with NO outlines (a la Borderlands) and I have no idea why it isn't the default setting.

 

[Galdred]

Playing this at the moment, so far so good. By the way - the game looks WAY better with NO outlines (a la Borderlands) and I have no idea why it isn't the default setting.

Did you get to the endgame? Does the game handle large fleet battles around stations well now? It was quite unstable late game when I played.

 

[Galdred]

DLC incoming that lets you play an alternate campaign if I got it right:

ABOUT THIS CONTENT
The Diggers were the original inhabitants of this region of space, pushed after their discovery of ore rich fields. Forced to be outcasts, their aged mining ships were converted for war. Designed to withstand the dangerous conditions of asteroid fields, armed with short range scatter guns, rock crushers and drills.

Their sense of identity always revolved around their big drill ships, one of the last being the "Big Red" - a dread carrier. A mini dreadnought armed with three drills, originally intended to carve out titanic asteroids for base building, equally capable of carving up capital ships.

The Big Red DLC expands the Void Destroyer 2 ship line up with additional ships -

• Big Red - a light dreadnought that can build ships and pulverise anything in it's path.
  
• Tytus - a frigate armed with a drill weapon
  
• Condor - a heavy corvette armed with torpedo launchers (a modified Crane).
  
• Crane - a transport ship.
  
• Crusher - a light corvette mining ship, modified for combat.
  
• Buzzard - a heavy gunship armed with two turreted scatter guns.
  
• Vulture - a heavy fighter armed with two scatter guns.
  
• Welder - a repair ship.
  
• Loader - a modified Welder, that can disable ship's engines on contact, giving the Big Red the edge it needs to use it's close range weapons.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I will probably give this a go rather than another Gemini game. Seems to have a good "X-Lite" vibe, which I appreciate.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://store.steampowered.com/newshub/app/369530/view/2900836612649233345

Ashes DLC released!
Hey guys!

The Ashes DLC is now released!
The Ashes DLC is intended for veteran players of the game as it features two alternate starts. Both give you ownership over a base right at the start of the game. In this play through of Void Destroyer 2 your goals will likely be to raise money and supply the base with ore to start building your fleet.

In the story mode additional ships (destroyer and above) will be unlocked as you progress and in sandbox mode all ships are unlocked right from the start. Either way you'll have access to unique ships with powerful weapon systems, including a dreadnought!

Hope you check out the Ashes DLC and have fun!

As always thank you for your support and feedback.


Paul
PS: When I started working on my portion the Ashes DLC I paused work on VD2 polish/enhancements, that work will now resume.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

So I actually got around to playing this and was quite impressed. The interface and controls can be quite obtuse, but the basic game loop is sound and it progresses nicely from first person action, to fleet RTS to 4X in what I would describe as a more focused version of X. I also appreciate the cell-shaded aesthetic the developer went with. Currently on sale for a ridiculously low price, its definitely worth a look. I haven't tried out the DLC however, since they are both effectively an alternate start to the game and are recommended for seasoned players.

 

[ArchAngel]

I have seen someone describe this as space Mount and Blade, would that be correct?

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I have never actually played M&B, but conceptually it seems the same.