I just release beta version 07 of Idle Space Ship for free on google play for android. Got a decent amount coming to a phone near you. Many UI/UX updates, major bug fixes and compatibility issue. Headaches with Unity and the joy of creation.
Shiny UI Changes
Most the UI changes were made to make things clearer. Funny when designing on my own, I do forget to look at from someone's' else eyes. I have to admit, there was a handful of things that weren't really explained in the UI, but I knew what they were. New Icons to show what number represent what. I've also made some color changes to accommodate the icons. Still sticking to a palette in my color choices. I'll cover this idea another entry.
To better visualize the rate you gain gold, I used some simple popup text and animation. I like it, though I feel I'm gonna rework it later to fit more aesthetically.
Rounding the UI changes off, I added a help panel to explain the basics of the game and a confirmation panel when you prestige.
3 New Upgrades
I reworked the gold gained from asteroids in this update. Before it took in the planets total gold reward and gave a percentage of that. I added in a new upgrade that now increases asteroid gold value. The new formula uses the planets base value without bonuses, take a portion of that and applies the new upgrades bonus.
There's a new upgrade that allows you to start with an amount of speed from the start. the formula for this one starts you with 1 times the bonus percentage. I may add another upgrade or way to increase the base value. I'm still testing high values of this to make sure its not gonna ruin the game if I do add it.
The biggest upgrade of all, an upgrade that increases the amount of token you receive upon prestige.
Oh Unity, Why
From the editor scrambling the screen and refusing to even build to AdMob wanting more info but not informing of this. I fixed some major compatibility issues that was limiting who could download the game to only the newest models of phones. This was extremely foolish on my end and literally just a couple settings done wrong.
What's To Come
Next update I'll be working on offline progress and the unlock portion of prestige upgrades. Offline progress is a bit of a touchy subject. I feel it's a necessary feature, but I prefer it not to be, or not to be better than active play. I'm gonna settle with generating money and not allowing it to progress to new planets. I'm not sure if this will be limited a percentage, but I wont limit the time. I may make this able to be toggled on or off as well.
Prestige unlocks, this is gonna be a rough one. i wasn't originally planning this, but I want to put the prestige upgrade behind an unlock system. They'll all start locked and hidden. I'll be adding a new option at the top of the list to unlock and upgrade at random. The cost will of course go up with each unlock.
I'm gonna keep the next update small, and do some code maintenance. Use the extra time to plan the update after. I'll be going over the combat portion of the game. it's gonna be a decent size update that's gonna need a little more time to get right.
End Step
Try it out, let me know what you like, what you don't like. Idle Space Ship is free on google play. Till next time, happy coding.
