Sunrider [Out of date]

[Samu-kun]

News Flash!

Sunrider now has it's own permanent home at: http://sunrider-vn.com

Ooo... we have a .com now!

Please stand by as we complete the rest of the website and fill in all of the holes.

[jghibiki]

So I'm sorry, I know I've asked this before but I (for the life of me) cannot find where, but what software do you use for your 3d art?
Also, how did you learn 3d modeling because you are quite good? Taking classes, tutorials, playing around?

[Samu-kun]

I model in Sketchup and render in Kerkythea, which you can get for free. Post processing in photoshop.

Pretty much everything I do, I just picked up from doing it myself. Sometimes, I look up tutorials for the tricky stuff. =w=

[Sayashiro]

I love the website design. Everything is looking great. =)

[Jason]

Very decent web design, loved the characters page and font selection!

[sendo]

Quick question, will you be featuring species other than humans? I can't help but notice 'Tydaria' which seems to me like a very hazardous and potentially hostile planet for the human species. On that note, will there be a "planet exploration" feature? Basically something where the player can explore the planets to sight-see? I can already imagine the beautiful sceneries to be discovered in 'Cera'.

Nice website, by the way.

[Samu-kun]

Quick question, will you be featuring species other than humans? I can't help but notice 'Tydaria' which seems to me like a very hazardous and potentially hostile planet for the human species. On that note, will there be a "planet exploration" feature? Basically something where the player can explore the planets to sight-see? I can already imagine the beautiful sceneries to be discovered in 'Cera'.

Nice website, by the way.

As to the first question, the first line of the prologue in the demo kinda answers it. "Humanity has spread to the four corners of the galaxy.{p}Subjugating all life, we have become the dominant species throughout the stars."

To clarify, there are alien life forms out there in the galaxy, but they've either evolved along a completely different evolutionary tract that any kind of meaningful interaction with humans is impossible (aliens have a vastly different conception of life), or humans have subjugated the alien life and either destroyed them to make room for human development, worked them into the human diet, or domesticated the aliens for human use. Generally, humans in the world of Sunrider treat alien races as either flora or fauna, so aliens are generally viewed the same as animals. That's mostly because aliens are not really the kind of bipedal, human-like beings you see in Star Trek or Mass Effect in Sunrider - they've pretty much evolved along a completely different tract, so humans just don't view them as sentient.

So you'll see references to the characters eating a lot of alien critters, but no human-alien alliances.

Human colonization of hazardous planets like Tydaria is possible on a limited scale through sealed buildings and small scale terraforming. There's no question life on Tydaria is hard, and most ordinary humans would not live on Tydaria. However, where there is money to be made from resources, there are people willing to endure living in a small, self contained colonies on a Mars-like planet to make a living.

There will be no "sight seeing" feature on the planets though. Most of the action happens in orbit, since Sunrider is still all about space. That is not to say there will never be scenes that happen on planets though.

[sendo]

Gahhh, I should have paid more attention to the prologue. I'm kind of reminded with Starcraft with the Sunrider so I inadvertently assumed some things. And, wow humans are bastards. It's a shame we don't get to sight-see the planets though. I'm loving the lore by the way. Keep it up man

[Samu-kun]

News:

A large chunk of lore has been released for Sunrider.

We also have geopolitical maps, because, well, I was a political science major in college after all.

Look at it in the shiny new website.
http://sunrider-vn.com/category/lore-2/

[Samu-kun]

News Flash!

I have reprogrammed a huge chunk of the battle engine. Ya see? Don't say that I never listen to feedback!

Changes:

1. New weapon accuracy calculation system.
-Your lasers can now miss (But are still a lot more accurate than kinetics)
-Enemy missiles can now miss
2. New flak system
-All units equipped with flak guns can now gun down missiles which travel through their grid.
3. New UI design. Things are shiny, easy to use, and intuitive.
4. New reward system. Earn money and command points after destroying every unit.

AND MUCH MORE!

[ShojiAmasawa]

It looks like a remarkable amount of work and planning is going into this. The character designs very good, and I can already tell you who's route I would love to try for.

Ava!

Pardon my geekiness, but naming the project Sunrider, after the lead ship, reminds me of Gerry Anderson works such Fireball XL5, Stingray, and Thunderbirds. Sunrider itself looks like Battlehawk from his lesser known show, Terrahawks. I am not a big mechs fan, but I do love big impressive vehicles!

[Samu-kun]

NEWS!

The second Sunrider preview is now available.

A 100% revamped battle engine is now on full display. Join Captain Shields and Commander Ava Crescentia as they continue their adventure from Cera, to the dusty mining world of Tydaria.

This is a reminder to everyone the battle engine is largely a work in progress. What you are about to see is only 20% of the battle system's full potential. Also, it's worth mentioning the battle engine was built using entirely renpy code. Absolutely no Python or Pygame. I don't know whether to think that's an accomplishment or not, but this proves just about any one can use renpy to make a battle engine.

Please leave all bug reports, and game balance suggestions here.

Without further ado, please enjoy the second preview of Sunrider.

[PyTom]

897 Command Points in normal mode. I don't know if that's good or not.

Suggestions:

During the initial big slow pan over the Sunrider, I'd suggest giving the transform subpixel True. That option makes slow pans look better, at the cost of very slightly blurring the image.

In the battle scenes, the damage updates before the attack occurs - so you see a ships HP drop, and then watch the attack play out.

Some of the text in the battle scenes is really obviously generated - would anyone report that 0 percent of the attack is blocked by enemy flak? In general, there's a lot of repetition in the battle scenes, and so they take a while. To improve replay battle, it might make sense to have a way to turn most of the battle dialogue and animations off.

I really like the command point system - that actually makes the battles interesting, since it gives me something to shoot for. (Pardon the pun.)

[Samu-kun]

In the battle scenes, the damage updates before the attack occurs - so you see a ships HP drop, and then watch the attack play out.

I... should probably fix that. I've known about that for awhile, but I've forgot to fix it. Takes a bit of the suspense out of finding out if you miss or hit, huh.

I've played the second battle about 200 times. And yes, I pretty much click through all the battle animations now. Kinda nullifies the ton of work that went into them. =_=

I'll tell you how many command points I manage to rack up. Since I always am bug testing, I don't think I know how many I'm able to get fairly.

[Graph]

The Ryders look good in battle! Well done.

I tried Hard mode this time. I barely got past the first fight, since there wasn't much I could do about those missiles. I guess I could see someone losing that one if they miss twice, but if you close in while firing the Sunrider's missile it doesn't require that much luck to avoid such a fate.

Second fight, Asaga is quite good. She dodged like a mofo even when I accidentally found out about blind side attacks. I got 570-something CP total the first time, I think.

Speaking of those, it's a good mechanic to reduce the effectiveness of rushdown, seeing how Ryders are able to move and attack on the same turn. Also missile interception by multiple units, which is an excellent way to keep each battle plan from going toward "unload missiles, pick off stragglers".

All in all I like how balanced it feels so far. Of course, the real fun starts when we get to upgrade our stuff!

One time, I fired the Sunrider's kinetic weapons at pirate destroyer "Revenge" but the picture was of a green Ryder. Not sure exactly what causes it yet... I know I didn't misclick because I already destroyed both green Ryders.

On a side note, I can't believe I missed this the first time, but Kayto's hand in his "move out" pose is huge! I'd guess that the artist attempted some foreshortening, but with the angle of the cuff and length of that arm it seems a little too exaggerated.

EDIT: With a bit of AI abuse, I managed to shoot down all the enemies in the second Hard mode battle!

The trick is with the destroyers, who are after the Sunrider's ass. If 4 spaces away, they use lasers. If 2 spaces away, they use kinetics. If 3 spaces away, they move closer so they can use their kinetics, wasting their turns.

1. Move the Sunrider forward twice, it takes some damage so Black Jack gets there faster

2. Shoot down 1 green Ryder with lasers, (I missed once and I was still fine killing it the next turn) and move Black Jack forward

3. Move the Sunrider back twice, this makes the destroyers use lasers. Havoc moves forward alone, and I hit it with the Sunrider's missiles and two melee attacks, nearly destroying it (2 HP left in my case!) This makes her keep distance, so she doesn't use melee on Black Jack anymore.

4. Move the Sunrider one space forward to lure the destroyers in. Place Black Jack one space in front of the closest enemy to whittle them down with blind side fire while they waste turns moving in.

From there, cleaning up shouldn't be too bad. I won with close to half HP remaining on both Sunrider and Black Jack.