M.A.V.A.N - Modular Aerial Vehicle Assault Network

Thank you so much for the kind words! I am absolutely thrilled that you liked what you saw. I hope to make many improvements in the near future to make those things even more awesome.

Most definitely there will be a progression path that will allow players to unlock/upgrade parts. In fact let me go into a little bit of depth as to how this will play out.

Each part that can be equipped will first have to be unlocked by finding that part's blueprint in the game. Blueprints will be awarded for things done in the game ( more on that in a bit ). Once a blueprint has been obtained, that part is available to be built. Each part, has a "resources" requirement as well as a tech level that is needed. The "Resources" are the equivalent to currency in my game. In the game's backstory, 3d printers are advanced enough to efficiently produce anything as long has you have enough resources and a blueprint of how to print it. The tech level comes into play in the story as the parts with higher tech levels are more complicated to print, and so need more research to be able to print it. Once all three criteria have been met, the player will be able to build that part (Please keep in mind that I am morally opposed to the gross free-to-play model so what seems like dual currency is really just a way to gate the progression to make the game more fun, not a way for me to charge money to buy parts).

A secondary system will be energy. Each fuselage will have a certain amount of energy that is available to it. Each part will have a certain amount of energy required to function. Equipping parts to a fuselage will use up a certain amount of energy that fuselage has, effectively limiting how many parts can be added to a ship. The primary goal here is to limit the player from being able to build super insane death machines that will just steam roll through a level. However, each fuselage will be able to be upgraded to have more energy and I am contemplating creating parts that can act as "generators" that can increase energy.

Absolutely. In fact the machine guns where one of the first weapons that I implemented (just haven't been shown on video). The machine guns still have a small lock on them, but have a very limited degree of rotation. The lock on the machine guns is almost immediate, however there damage is quite weak. However, if you are a good pilot, you could equip several of machine guns and actually do a lot of damage.

My goal is to create scenarios, that will force the player to think about how they build their ship and how to equip it best for different encounters.

I have not built lasers yet, but they sound interesting and could add yet another layer to the combat.

I am actually thinking of having both. My primary focus at this point is the campaign, but I plan to have an arena mode, for the player to gain extra resources. As far as the campaign, my plan is to have levels similar to borderlands. In Borderlands, you have large areas that you can roam around and do stuff in, but then move from area to area to accomplish other goals. This is the my initial thoughts on how to structure the campaign, but I am always open to other solutions and ideas.

As soon as I get things tightened up a bit, I will be posting here for beta testers. Keep an eye here for further updates, and thanks for your support and ideas!

 

Well I haven't decided how to handle the multiple fuselages. There will either be 3-5 unlocked at the beginning with better/stronger fuselages that can be unlocked later in the game, or all will be unlocked and just be radically different in what they can do. I haven't decided at this point.

I didn't really get into how the user will progress in the last post, mostly b/c it was getting too long! Basically there will be 4 main types of buildings that will need to be re-captured by the player. Capturing these different buildings from the enemy is how the player will unlock different things.

The first will be a factory/hangar. This will be where the player will be able to make adjustments to their ship and upgrade the components.

The next will be communication towers. Capturing these will unlock different blueprints (I haven't decided if this will be randomized or pre-set).

Then there will be research centers. Capturing these will up the tech level needed to build more complex parts. These centers will require resources in order to do the research to raise the tech level.

Finally there will be mining bases. Capturing these will cause the base to start generating resources for the player.

Now finally to answer your question Capturing any of these buildings will open them up to be a spawn point. And there will several of these per area.

 

Thanks! I really appreciate the support and kind words. I will be posting back here often with updates. Also please let me know if there are any killer features that you would love to see. If they are within my capabilities I will do my best to see them added.

 

I completely agree, and have had this mentioned before from other ppl. I have already worked in a solution where the player can set the camera distance/angle in settings menu. This should help let anyone pick there perfect level of detail

This is a great idea! I have a similar option, already implemented where the player can call down support "pods" that can give back health and provide shielding. However, the idea of drones flying around and fighting with is very cool. I will for sure be adding this. Thanks!!!

 

Well at the moment, the idea has been that all of the aircraft are more helicopter like than airplane. This was so that the player could stop and hover to assess the situation or take on more stationary enemies. There will also be situations where the player can find themselves in very tight, close quarters where a standard aircraft would not be able to go ( think flying through a subway tunnel ).

I am not opposed to giving the player more options on what type of vehicle can be built but I honestly just hadn't considered it at this point. I will take a look at adding that this week and see if the result is fun.

Thank you for the input!

 

Yeah, I will def look into it. Hopefully it will work out. I want the player to be creative and build cool things, with as much freedom as possible. I had even thought about adding wheels as unlockable parts. My fear was that it was going to be too difficult to implement well. I would rather have one main type that works really well vs a bunch of options that feel janky. Once again I may revisit those ideas, here soon and see if I can get anything cool built.

 

Haha yeah I thought it would be cool too. The problem was trying to turn when doing ~300 mph! It was pretty crazy to have multiple jet engines attached to a car and that would essentially just make the car un-drivable. I decided to focus on what was making the game fun. I have some ideas though that may help address these issues.

 

Will do! thanks it is always good to get another view. Like I said before, I will have an early beta ready soon. When I do, I will hit you up!

 

Hey guys, sorry for the long delay in updates. I have been heads down rewriting a ton of core underlying systems to help make the game more portable between platforms. I won't bore you all with the tech details but it does open some doors for better item/ship management in the game. I wanted to share with you guys some updated artwork as well for inside the hangar. This is the place where you assemble/modify your ship so I added some cool animations to help dress up this scene. Check them out below and let me know what you think!

 

Also, here are a few screens of some of the in game environments that have had some major tweaking since my last post. The last image is of some very new additions that will be getting some more polish in the coming weeks. Once again let me know what you think!

 

Awesome, thanks! I am definitely working on getting a beta version ready to send out to testers. Keep an eye on this thread as I will be posting a link to the beta signup as soon as it is ready.