Missiles

Debug Mode: Enemy SNR
Debug Mode: Enemy SNR
We’ve had missiles in the game before, but for 1.0 we went back to the basics of what missile gameplay could mean and created a unique mechanic that creates a variety of other potential uses outside of simply blowing a target up, such as the ability to lock multiple missiles onto a target (or multiple targets, if your ship can handle it).

Adding these sorts of changes into missiles meant touching a whole host of other systems. The radar needed revamping to read all the signatures properly, the HUD had to be revisited to communicate any number of missiles, the controller/keybound input had to be modified to accommodate missile management while also keeping the system available and useful in the heat of battle, and the targeting computer needed to be linked to each missile individually (rather than just the rack that fires them) to accommodate the wide range of missile types and behaviors that became available.

Then we built the Rattler missile, the first example of many of our new missile behaviors to come, which carries its own salvo of Venom rockets to hunt down your enemies. It’s a very satisfying weapon to use, try not to get so distracted watching it that you forget to stay in the fight! There’s also the new rocket pods strapped to the Mustang Delta, presenting the first opportunity to use dumbfire ordnance. I look forward to seeing the videos of skillshots that come out of those things.

The final piece of the puzzle was a new look at countermeasures. In most games, the use of countermeasures would be effectively the same as using an accuracy debuff – thing enters the field, thing has trouble hitting the target, simple as that. Here, we actually have the countermeasures affecting the signal system directly, which means that you aren’t playing against arbitrary data – you can just as easily escape an enemy radar as a missile as they are all part of a single data-driven system.