An overview of ship maintenance operations in ASG (parts wear, repairs, replacement, and related best policies). More information at alliancespaceguard.com
Thanks :) The work on the front section is ongoing so I didn't have enough material for a video. However there's a preview post here: alliancespaceguard.com/work-in-progress-crew-module/
Love what you're doing here! When it comes to technology level, though, why are some stations higher tech than others? In a galaxy with FTL communications, shouldn't everybody have access to modern technology? Or is it less a problem of the actual technology available, and more a challenge related to the expertise of the station's staff, the equipment they have on hand, etc.?
It's related to the station's equipment, and supposing that it features "replicating & printing" machines with some limited performance ("Tech Level"). But yes one intended side effect is to help emphasize the difference between capital worlds and remote parts of the galaxy. Incidentally there are no "fast" FTL comms in the game as the data packages are actually physically carried by the traveling ships. The time delay is measured in months.
when you have a mx sequence start, will there be a failure condition such as damaging other systems if you try to start repairs or replacements before you safely shut down or depressurize a line? or will the mx teams simply not operate until you do? Cost for these repairs seem pretty high (455k). is that because the parts are that badly damaged or is that not so bad (dont know what kind of income we will get as players)? know it said not to worry about cost as much since youre under the fleet but still seems like a lot. Do non fleet members get charged that much for similar repairs? I see the time estimates were in the 300-400h range for most of what I could see (and know it isnt necesarily fixed time as stated). Some parts are in use all the time (ie power supply) and will require more frequent repairs. are these parts easily serviced and fairly low cost or are they just as expensive as other systems? really like the "access synergy" wonderful nod to realistic mx that I appreciate
I still have to work on state prerequisites before the maintenance TBH ^^, starting with per-subsystem power-down checklists. That said the simulation is still running while the parts are being "removed". Under the hood the circuit components are still there, but set with parameters modeling the absence of the part instead. I don't think that could lead to damage, but servicing a tank's outlet valve will definitely empty it if it had not been previously purged for instance. High costs are part of the attempt to present these starships as extraordinary machines that only powerful organizations can afford. Similarly, a very limited set of expensive and special items are actually worth carrying across the galaxy instead of "printing" them at the destination. The most precious and least replicable of these being passengers! :) All parts belong to either one of two groups with matched ETTFs at 500 hours and 2500 hours respectively (that's inspired by the commercial aviation industry with light and heavy maintenance events). The tuning is still in progress but the objective is to have these values fit a standard ship usage. Incidentally 1 wear hour roughly corresponds to 1 km/s of ΔV. Currently the base maintenance costs are related to the parts themselves, and trying to reflect their size and complexity. Replacement is about 6 times more expensive than servicing, to be balanced. Just checked that a 2500 hrs maintenance is about 3 times more expensive than a 500 hrs one. Also the necessary data to set a reference for the ship operating costs will be gathered in the coming months of testing (and after the necessary interface elements have been implemented!).
This game looks like it is coming along so well and I'm very excited. I was wondering what the name CSN F9 means? I can't seem to figure out what CSN would stand for. Is it an in universe thing or an in joke of some kind?
"CSN F9" stands for "CSN Type 9 Frigate", in which "CSN" refers to the manufacturer and is not supposed to mean anything really! 🙂 Other names introduced with the NPCs and orbital facilities are either generic or often relate to stellar systems.
Hello David! Recently found ASG from the Rogue System discussion boards on Steam, this game looks exactly like what Michael had envisioned for RS and I'm excited that someone is carrying on the torch, so to speak (I know this game has nothing to do with RS but the similarities are obvious). Is a 2023 release looking possible from where things stand now? I understand if you can't say for sure.
What I can say is that the work on the gamification (missions, career) will start this year following the crew module (~ 2023 Q3). Then that layer will be further developed alongside the ship's military equipment and the related additions to the NPCs' and OTC's behavioral models. So 2023 is very unlikely, but it should see the implementation of the main gameplay loops 👨🔧
@@d.c.elington Thank you for the answer, much appreciated! Good luck with the gamification and remaining systems! One last question and apologies if it's been said elsewhere, I've not seen it. Is this a custom engine or are you using a pre-made game engine (Unity, Godot, etc) for the project?
No problem! It's a custom engine running on .NET Framework with SharpDX as a wrapper for DirectX11. I initially wanted to learn about the basics before switching to Unity (for C#), but for better of for worse I stayed with the toolbox I had come to. It lacks 99% of what is offered by regular game engines but at least it is tailored to my needs.
@@d.c.elington That's very cool! If you ever wanted to talk about the underlying engine in a video, I'd definitely watch. I'm also making a game, (in Unity, looking at porting to Godot actually) and it would be interesting to see how that part of ASG works.
Great! Godot looks very interesting indeed. As for a vid about ASG's framework I'm afraid it would not have many views! 😅 And as the project is in its 10th year of dev I'm afraid I need to focus on the code! 👷♂️🙂
I'm afraid not, there's still a lot of work to do and the best I can do for the project right now is stay 100% focused on the code. I tried to explain the situation here: alliancespaceguard.com/why-no-early-access/
The honest answer is that this is not planned at the moment! In the game's world context flight controls are near fully automated, the rationale being that you don't pilot a 200 ton ship around an orbital facility - both insanely expensive, fragile and inhabited - by hand. Also technically the 6 degrees of freedom would require two sticks with 3-axis each (translation and rotation). So there is a manual mode indeed and that is mapped to 6+6 keys but I doubt anyone will ever use it actually! 🙂
@@d.c.elington I normally fly in 6 degrees of movement in sims like Flight of Nova. The vertical and horizontal strafe being assigned to the index finger lever on the throttle. Also pedals... It's a lot of fun!
Well ASG's frigate handles like a very heavy ship rather than a more agile spacecraft, and for safety reasons the flight around orbital facilities is precisely regulated by OTC*, and at limited relative velocities (* Orbital Traffic Control ruclips.net/video/UHu7D84NWBQ/видео.html). So in effect flight control must be very accurate, able to manage the ship's considerable inertia, and this for sustained minutes of simulation times. In these circumstances manual flight is extremely difficult and slow given that the required precision essentially precludes time acceleration. Add to this that the player will also have to temporarily remove their hands from the controls to manage the other systems, and this explains why although possible, manual flight in ASG is an auxiliary mode!
Ah ah yes 😄 But probably as local NPC traffic! Actually the first instance of a light spacecraft that will perform ship to ship flying and possibly docking will certainly be an investigation drone for customs and police work. And that would occur outside of OTC jurisdiction so manual flight would be much easier.
Right now this is a simulator and the project is about making a game, that is using the ship to achieve operational and career objectives. The current plan is to work on the foundation of the game layer in the first semester of next year (2023). That way all subsequent features (sensors, military payload...) will be integrated both into the simulation and gameplay systems. What I can firmly state is that I won't overstretch that phase and publish the game when there's reasonably enough content. I'm sorry I can't say "when" because the only way I know to code is one line at a time! But I would cautiously say that the major technical difficulties I was initially fearing have been largely dealt with now.
Too bad opponents of early access do not seem to take into account the fact that we live in the real world where death of old age (or due to an illness) can easily happen, not to mention the world *itself* might not make it to the point where the author will consider this project "complete enough". And even if we are all lucky and actually see it get released, there is a huge chance it will still need a ton of bugfixes / feature inclusions or changes anyway. Was there a single project of high enough complexity that needed no fixes at all?
Well I'm not that old and would like to get reasonably good at Korean before returning my atoms to the universe... so that should leave ample time to get that contraption published! 😅 More seriously the objective is firmly to complete the game ASAP and with its intended original scope. Numerous "nice-to-have non-essential" features have been delayed to after the initial release already. About bug fixes a great team of testers from all over the planet has been super helpful in tracking and solving problems for a few years now. Builds featuring new systems are buggy of course but so far it has always been possible to reach a stable state after a few hotfixes 👨🔧🙂
@@d.c.elington Korean is a nightmare when it comes to distinguishing phonemes aurally... Anyway, I mostly meant the other people who might want to give this "contraption" a try themselves, and you surely can't deny that the world as we know it is in a sort of a crisis at the moment :) I'm relieved to hear that there is a great team of testers, but still - as the history shows - it's futile to harbor any hopes of a bug-free release, even if the genre itself is very niche. Hopefully I'm wrong and this will be the first solid product on release, but I'm just skeptical about miracles.
Ah I don't expect a bug free release either! Minimizing the risk of serious problems will certainly require to extend the team and run a proper beta phase before the release indeed. However meanwhile I can focus on coding and bug fixing with minimum community management effort, which is the best I can do in these matters I think! 걱정해 주셔서 감사합니다 ! 😉
@@d.c.elington Fair enough, there is always enough people who don't understand what "early access" entails - just hoped that this is not the genre where you'd expect a lot of them to annoy you (or rather subgenre). You are welcome, although I gave up on Korean ages ago - what's the point if I could only read it, but the spoken language would turn into a complete mess inside my head... Still, Hangul is one of the most fascinating ways or writing for sure.
im so hyped for this game i cant wait
This adds a whole new aspect to traveling the galaxy. Really exciting development :)
This is incredible. Just what the gaming arena needs right now imo. Can't wait to see more!
Thanks :) The work on the front section is ongoing so I didn't have enough material for a video. However there's a preview post here: alliancespaceguard.com/work-in-progress-crew-module/
I'm in love
Love what you're doing here! When it comes to technology level, though, why are some stations higher tech than others? In a galaxy with FTL communications, shouldn't everybody have access to modern technology? Or is it less a problem of the actual technology available, and more a challenge related to the expertise of the station's staff, the equipment they have on hand, etc.?
It's related to the station's equipment, and supposing that it features "replicating & printing" machines with some limited performance ("Tech Level"). But yes one intended side effect is to help emphasize the difference between capital worlds and remote parts of the galaxy.
Incidentally there are no "fast" FTL comms in the game as the data packages are actually physically carried by the traveling ships. The time delay is measured in months.
when you have a mx sequence start, will there be a failure condition such as damaging other systems if you try to start repairs or replacements before you safely shut down or depressurize a line? or will the mx teams simply not operate until you do?
Cost for these repairs seem pretty high (455k). is that because the parts are that badly damaged or is that not so bad (dont know what kind of income we will get as players)? know it said not to worry about cost as much since youre under the fleet but still seems like a lot. Do non fleet members get charged that much for similar repairs?
I see the time estimates were in the 300-400h range for most of what I could see (and know it isnt necesarily fixed time as stated). Some parts are in use all the time (ie power supply) and will require more frequent repairs. are these parts easily serviced and fairly low cost or are they just as expensive as other systems?
really like the "access synergy" wonderful nod to realistic mx that I appreciate
I still have to work on state prerequisites before the maintenance TBH ^^, starting with per-subsystem power-down checklists. That said the simulation is still running while the parts are being "removed". Under the hood the circuit components are still there, but set with parameters modeling the absence of the part instead. I don't think that could lead to damage, but servicing a tank's outlet valve will definitely empty it if it had not been previously purged for instance.
High costs are part of the attempt to present these starships as extraordinary machines that only powerful organizations can afford. Similarly, a very limited set of expensive and special items are actually worth carrying across the galaxy instead of "printing" them at the destination. The most precious and least replicable of these being passengers! :)
All parts belong to either one of two groups with matched ETTFs at 500 hours and 2500 hours respectively (that's inspired by the commercial aviation industry with light and heavy maintenance events). The tuning is still in progress but the objective is to have these values fit a standard ship usage. Incidentally 1 wear hour roughly corresponds to 1 km/s of ΔV.
Currently the base maintenance costs are related to the parts themselves, and trying to reflect their size and complexity. Replacement is about 6 times more expensive than servicing, to be balanced. Just checked that a 2500 hrs maintenance is about 3 times more expensive than a 500 hrs one.
Also the necessary data to set a reference for the ship operating costs will be gathered in the coming months of testing (and after the necessary interface elements have been implemented!).
@@d.c.elington can't wait to get to try it out one day! Sounds like a good setup
This game looks like it is coming along so well and I'm very excited. I was wondering what the name CSN F9 means? I can't seem to figure out what CSN would stand for. Is it an in universe thing or an in joke of some kind?
"CSN F9" stands for "CSN Type 9 Frigate", in which "CSN" refers to the manufacturer and is not supposed to mean anything really! 🙂 Other names introduced with the NPCs and orbital facilities are either generic or often relate to stellar systems.
Hello David! Recently found ASG from the Rogue System discussion boards on Steam, this game looks exactly like what Michael had envisioned for RS and I'm excited that someone is carrying on the torch, so to speak (I know this game has nothing to do with RS but the similarities are obvious). Is a 2023 release looking possible from where things stand now? I understand if you can't say for sure.
What I can say is that the work on the gamification (missions, career) will start this year following the crew module (~ 2023 Q3). Then that layer will be further developed alongside the ship's military equipment and the related additions to the NPCs' and OTC's behavioral models. So 2023 is very unlikely, but it should see the implementation of the main gameplay loops 👨🔧
@@d.c.elington Thank you for the answer, much appreciated! Good luck with the gamification and remaining systems! One last question and apologies if it's been said elsewhere, I've not seen it. Is this a custom engine or are you using a pre-made game engine (Unity, Godot, etc) for the project?
No problem! It's a custom engine running on .NET Framework with SharpDX as a wrapper for DirectX11. I initially wanted to learn about the basics before switching to Unity (for C#), but for better of for worse I stayed with the toolbox I had come to. It lacks 99% of what is offered by regular game engines but at least it is tailored to my needs.
@@d.c.elington That's very cool! If you ever wanted to talk about the underlying engine in a video, I'd definitely watch. I'm also making a game, (in Unity, looking at porting to Godot actually) and it would be interesting to see how that part of ASG works.
Great! Godot looks very interesting indeed. As for a vid about ASG's framework I'm afraid it would not have many views! 😅 And as the project is in its 10th year of dev I'm afraid I need to focus on the code! 👷♂️🙂
How is the progress of the ASG game coming along? Thanks!
Crew module's electrical, thermal and gas supply systems operational, now implementing the atmosphere model! 👨🔧 Thanks for asking! 🙂
Is there an ETA for the ASG release in early access?
I'm afraid not, there's still a lot of work to do and the best I can do for the project right now is stay 100% focused on the code. I tried to explain the situation here: alliancespaceguard.com/why-no-early-access/
Will this have HOTAS support? At least for local manoeuvring e.g. docking, rescue, etc.
The honest answer is that this is not planned at the moment! In the game's world context flight controls are near fully automated, the rationale being that you don't pilot a 200 ton ship around an orbital facility - both insanely expensive, fragile and inhabited - by hand. Also technically the 6 degrees of freedom would require two sticks with 3-axis each (translation and rotation). So there is a manual mode indeed and that is mapped to 6+6 keys but I doubt anyone will ever use it actually! 🙂
@@d.c.elington I normally fly in 6 degrees of movement in sims like Flight of Nova. The vertical and horizontal strafe being assigned to the index finger lever on the throttle. Also pedals... It's a lot of fun!
Well ASG's frigate handles like a very heavy ship rather than a more agile spacecraft, and for safety reasons the flight around orbital facilities is precisely regulated by OTC*, and at limited relative velocities (* Orbital Traffic Control ruclips.net/video/UHu7D84NWBQ/видео.html). So in effect flight control must be very accurate, able to manage the ship's considerable inertia, and this for sustained minutes of simulation times.
In these circumstances manual flight is extremely difficult and slow given that the required precision essentially precludes time acceleration. Add to this that the player will also have to temporarily remove their hands from the controls to manage the other systems, and this explains why although possible, manual flight in ASG is an auxiliary mode!
@@d.c.elington Gotcha! Still... Shuttles?
Ah ah yes 😄 But probably as local NPC traffic! Actually the first instance of a light spacecraft that will perform ship to ship flying and possibly docking will certainly be an investigation drone for customs and police work. And that would occur outside of OTC jurisdiction so manual flight would be much easier.
when
Right now this is a simulator and the project is about making a game, that is using the ship to achieve operational and career objectives. The current plan is to work on the foundation of the game layer in the first semester of next year (2023). That way all subsequent features (sensors, military payload...) will be integrated both into the simulation and gameplay systems.
What I can firmly state is that I won't overstretch that phase and publish the game when there's reasonably enough content.
I'm sorry I can't say "when" because the only way I know to code is one line at a time! But I would cautiously say that the major technical difficulties I was initially fearing have been largely dealt with now.
@@d.c.elington Thank you
Too bad opponents of early access do not seem to take into account the fact that we live in the real world where death of old age (or due to an illness) can easily happen, not to mention the world *itself* might not make it to the point where the author will consider this project "complete enough". And even if we are all lucky and actually see it get released, there is a huge chance it will still need a ton of bugfixes / feature inclusions or changes anyway. Was there a single project of high enough complexity that needed no fixes at all?
I didn't understand that. What and who are you critisizing?
Well I'm not that old and would like to get reasonably good at Korean before returning my atoms to the universe... so that should leave ample time to get that contraption published! 😅
More seriously the objective is firmly to complete the game ASAP and with its intended original scope. Numerous "nice-to-have non-essential" features have been delayed to after the initial release already. About bug fixes a great team of testers from all over the planet has been super helpful in tracking and solving problems for a few years now. Builds featuring new systems are buggy of course but so far it has always been possible to reach a stable state after a few hotfixes 👨🔧🙂
@@d.c.elington Korean is a nightmare when it comes to distinguishing phonemes aurally... Anyway, I mostly meant the other people who might want to give this "contraption" a try themselves, and you surely can't deny that the world as we know it is in a sort of a crisis at the moment :)
I'm relieved to hear that there is a great team of testers, but still - as the history shows - it's futile to harbor any hopes of a bug-free release, even if the genre itself is very niche. Hopefully I'm wrong and this will be the first solid product on release, but I'm just skeptical about miracles.
Ah I don't expect a bug free release either! Minimizing the risk of serious problems will certainly require to extend the team and run a proper beta phase before the release indeed.
However meanwhile I can focus on coding and bug fixing with minimum community management effort, which is the best I can do in these matters I think!
걱정해 주셔서 감사합니다 ! 😉
@@d.c.elington Fair enough, there is always enough people who don't understand what "early access" entails - just hoped that this is not the genre where you'd expect a lot of them to annoy you (or rather subgenre).
You are welcome, although I gave up on Korean ages ago - what's the point if I could only read it, but the spoken language would turn into a complete mess inside my head... Still, Hangul is one of the most fascinating ways or writing for sure.