Content update #2 - Weapons, Ships, Drone Collective

Next part of content update was delayed by week, because I was unable to sit because of a sprained ankle. Now I was at least able to fix some last time problems, prepared new test build and write down this devlog.

Now to new test build. This second part of content update brings new weapons, player ships and mobs. Old basic weapons were replaced with new scaled set of weapons with proper names and stats. Weapons will now consume variable amount of charges based on their parameters. However there is currently no way to get information about weapons parameters, but this will get updated before demo release. At this point all weapons have same icon, which wont change until last demo update. Also new ships with tweaked parameters were added to game. Not all ships will be available in demo for two reasons. First, it will be demo, so not everything will be there. And second, I don't have models for them right now. Demo will have these ship classes: Light ships, Light Cruisers and Cruisers. Currently all weapons and ships are available to players from the beginning. Level restrictions will be implemented in future content updates. New mobs are members of Drone Collective, their presence is spread from Bowl of Dust to Terminus. However icons for drone loot aren't finished which I will fix in next update.

Esc key is finally working in menu and UI navigation, it was little bit harder than I anticipated, but it is there. However there is small difference between single-player and client mode. Esc in single-player works as it is standard in many different games. But in client there is no game menu that could be displayed by pressing Esc. This shortcoming will be fixed in future with rework to UI to be more consistent and less immersion breaking.

This new build contains these new game updates, history of all project changes is available on my discord server in changelog channel for Wild Wild Space:

• Added server configuration for admin password and maximum number of players, prepared configuration for server password protection
• Added Esc key handling
• Prepared options for audio volume settings
• Fixed some typos in quests and help texts
• Changed default cursor
• Partial mitigation of lag when entering Multiplayer menu by sequencing connection to each prepared server
• Decreased text size of mobs/players names
• Health bar is now not shown by default, only when change to it is applied
• Updated AI to ignore protected characters, protected mobs also cannot be attacked by players
• Added field for nearby station name to HUD
• Added camera shake for incoming damage to player ship
• Fixed some objects leaving colour blurs behind when moving by changing anti-aliasing method
• Added new weapons designs
• All weapons now have variable charge consumption
• Added new KvasiParticles damage class
• Added Drone Collective mobs and their respective loot
• Updated some items prices

Now last mob faction will take more time, because models I have in mind will be for me harder to find or create myself. Icons for loot from drones and new mob faction should be ready in next update. And of course new items. I have prepared design data for repair bots, shield generators, containers and shield regenerators, which only needs transfer to game, parameters tweaking and assigning appropriate icons. I started to design structure enhancers, but it is possible I won't add them before demo launch. Same with propulsion generators, because ships are missing some parameters that I realised I need for proper speed calculations. It looks like it should take another two updates before demo will be ready. I will take another week to rest and fully recover, so new update should be available in the beginning of August and therefore demo release could be ready around 1st of September.