Empyrean Frontier: Update 1 news

Update 1: New Units

I've added 4 new frigate class ship groups, in addition to the 2 fighter groups previously shown. At this point, I've decided to keep these medium sized ships in small selection groups, rather than being selected individually. This is partly because of performance concerns with very large fleets, but at the moment I'm content with the amount of individual unit control the user has. The video below shows some matchups between equal-cost fleets of different units, past the video there are some more in-depth explanations of unit types and discussion of the overall game design.

Balance and Design Philosophy: In this game, I've tried to simplify the balance mechanics as much as possible. My goal was to completely eliminate hard coded damage and armor types, (like "armored" "light" "infantry" etc.) instead relying on accuracy, unit size, and rate of fire. In general, weapons that are good against fighters are very accurate and have a high rate of fire, or they have large area of effect damage. Weapons designed to counter frigates on the other hand can afford to have less accuracy because their target is physically much larger, they also tend to have high damage low rate of fire projectiles, which are efficient against high hitpoint targets but tend to overkill low hitpoint targets.

Flying Saucer: anti-fighter role. With it's high rate of fire and 100% accuracy, the flying saucer's heavy laser beam weapon is designed to reach it's maximum DPS on even the smallest targets, quickly shredding through fighter squadrons. While it is highly efficient against fighter-sized targets, the flying saucer has much lower damage output than other weapons against larger craft.

Destroyer: tank role. The destroyer is armed with a heavy laser bolt cannon, which fires a single high-damage projectile during each attack, with a significant reloading time. Because of lower accuracy and long reloading times, the Destroyer is ineffective against small fighters, however it makes up for this by dealing massive damage to frigates and cruisers.

Ramming Frigate: cavalry role. The ramming frigate is its own weapon, designed to ram enemy ships at great speed. Equipped with a Charge ability for a short sudden burst of speed, the ramming frigate is strong against all tightly packed fleets, provided it can get close enough.

Tractor Beam Frigate: anti-cavalry and support role. The tractor beam frigate is the counter to ramming frigates, its tractor beam is able to repel enemy ships, keeping them at a safe distance. By setting the tractor beam to attract ships, the frigate is also able to assist in focus-firing enemy ships one at a time.