Luke MillerAlways a good sign when I find myself stopping work to enjoy the ambience of the game.
Anyway, I'm pretty active on mastodon, follow for updates on a bunch of stuff if you like indie games, old scifi and the occasional gay angst.
Mastodon has already seen bits and pieces of it but Low Earth Orbit Adventures is a small game I'm excited about!
#LEOAdventures #NasaPunk #gaming
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3984420/Low_Earth_Orbit_Adventures/
Steam：Low Earth Orbit Adventures
Low Earth Orbit Adventures is a relaxing space sim set in the near future where the space around Earth has become a frontier of science, commerce and diplomacy. Retrieve the Hubble, rescue astronauts, assemble space stations and many other missions in this realistic but friendly adventure.
First pass at an astronaut catching net tool attachment
Going to the source (the 1976 NASA Graphics Standard Manual) for the UI colour palette of Low Earth Orbit Adventures
In Low Earth Orbit Adventures you pilot a little space tug that's the Swiss Army Knife of spaceships... and now you can graffiti it 😁 🚀 🖌️
There's a point in game development where a game tips over from being this perfect vision in one's mind to being its own real thing and I've hit that with LEO Adventures this week. A lot of people love that moment but I really struggle with it.
It's not even that the real project has flaws but more like it has its own form now. My challenge is to stop fighting to make it fit "the vision" and switch over to letting it be the shape it wants to be.
Introducing Canadarm Air, our thinnest canadarm ever. Just 1 atom thick at its thinnest point.
Me (being dragged away by the AFP based on my search history): "And what is the charge?!? Designing a nuclear demolition device? A succulent atomic explosive? Get your hands off me! Ah, I see you know your asteroid deflection techniques well."
When the visual debug settings give an impeccable vibe that makes me want to make an entirely different game...
I need a name for this asteroid. Like, a serious one.
Its background in Low Earth Orbit Adventures is that a company brought it closer to Earth to mine it but its orbit needs constant maintenance.
It needs a proper scientific name (I'm thinking 2039-MF1?) but also a colloquial, poetic name if anyone has suggestions (no guarantees I'll use it though!)
Was writing some standard sci-fi newspaper articles for The Lunar Times and accidentally started feeling good about humanity's future
Ophelix (a character from Escape from Pleasure Planet) guest starring as MediWeapon Customer Service (from Cell Sword) in Low Earth Orbit Adventures... three games in one
This high-g human centrifuge has no purpose in the game other than to make players feel nauseous.
It's the one feature in Low Earth Orbit Adventures that is completely out of scope but I absolutely refused to cut it at any point. I needed this for my own sanity.
Based on progress this month I think I'm going to push for a demo to be ready for the next NextFest 🎉
Getting into the meat of the game now... will soon know what I've actually got after 18 months!
My early impressions are that it is too punishing. I'm OK with a Newtonian game being really hard but there's a line between challenging and frustrating.
For example if you miss the docking and knock the target it goes spinning away and that's basically mission over. Thinking of having the target fire its RCS thrusters to stabilise so you can try again a few times. Stuff like that
Favourite paint job - "flames" - so far (and got surprised as I was wondering why it was so dark in game and then the asteroid shadow passed)
What's a good name for a space plane that has a penchant for getting stricken?
Really need a name for this craft. Currently calling it the Regularly Scheduled Nusantara to Moon City Space Plane but that isn't very pithy.
Spent the last few days polishing the overall game but finally got to play the first mission from start to finish in LEO Adventures today.
It feels a tad too difficult with the RCS stabilisers off and a tad too easy with the RCS on but pretty happy with how the controls work in general.
For a 3D Newtonian game it's quite pick up and play which I think is pretty unique!
Cheeseness@upmultimedia Hyper μ-SK?
@Cheeseness I'm unfamiliar with the reference!
@upmultimedia Didn't he have some dumb thing that'd never work called Hyperloop?
neoluddite@upmultimedia Wrongcorde?
@upmultimedia or a docking mode so that you can brake relative to a given object and/or thrusters are damped?
@neoluddite It's got something like that and it was a big improvement.
The problem is that when the other object is tumbling, being at a relative zero velocity is not much use!
@upmultimedia sounds like a skill issue to me... 😉
unit327@upmultimedia in ksp I usually cheat by switching to the other vessel and turning on reaction control autopilot to point the docking port at the target (the other ship I am docking). You could do something similar automatically,
Or when I feel that is too cheaty, I have it autopilot to point normal / anti-normal as that way it is pointing the same orientation throughout the whole orbit at least.
@copper_tunic I think I will do something similar. What about you can request the target object to use RCS to stop rotating? (Similar to taking control). Is it too arbitrary to limit it to three corrections per object (eg it only has limited propellant)?
@upmultimedia Not sure what audience you are going for but docking is hard even for super nerds like me, so I would be more forgiving and give them infinite RCS. If they mess up the approach they already get "punished" by having the whole process take longer. Playtest I guess 🤷
Stephen Ward"Please give a subjective indication of the level of your nausea"
"Most of it is in my lap"
@aukondk Wow you really know your StarCops!
@upmultimedia Yeah, although I am overdue a rewatch.
Seeing the centrifuge got me wondering if you were going to have an EVA tutorial earth-side in a water tank.
@upmultimedia Rocky McRockface
GLYNMOOG@upmultimedia What about Alva-40? :) Alva was a silver mine in Scotland "Operated in secret in the early 18th century, it is historically significant for producing around 40 tons of silver."
@GLYNMOOG What an amazing story. This detail really leaped out at me. Having a secret silver mine when you need a pardon turns out to be handy!
Obviously, Dragons@upmultimedia Sisyphus perhaps, from Greek mythology?
Since, like the huge boulder in the myth, it will always tend to "roll" down and must be lifted back into place.
@obviouslydragons wow, that really suits
kauer@upmultimedia Damocles.
@kauer that's excellent
jabolotai@upmultimedia Damocles
@jabolotai two votes for Damocles, it's a good one
Clockwork ☃️✒️How big is it? I'm thinking Leviathan 🤔