OOK Reborn news - [ook] Once I Owned a Kestrel

OOK, Once I Owned a Kestrel, is now being revamped. Previously, it was to be released solely on iPhone and iPad. Now, iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices are dropped and it will be primarily a desktop project. Welcome to the new OOK.

It's not hard to guess why I have decided to change directions with this game. Sure, it would have been a cool iPhone game - but let's face it, there's so much more opportunity in creating a desktop game. I'd like to expand OOK to as big an audience as possible. On top of that, I have some great ideas to make OOK bigger and better.

1.) New engine! OOK will now be created using the Ambition Engine. It is a WIP engine that a buddy of mine is creating, and not only is it being designed specifically for a game like mine, but it also has some great features in the works. It is a work in progress, which means that OOK won't be kicking back off until it's near done. However I will be creating content here and there so that it is progressing.

2.) Vast, open universe. Yes, that's right. OOK will now be featuring a vast and open universe. How am I doing this without giving myself a ridiculous amount of work? Easy, Between each system is vast, open space. You can travel the distance without using the SARs (Subspace Accelerator Rings), but it will take time. I have done some calculations and at the speed of an average ship it will take about 11 days to traverse the universe without the use of the SAR, or the (very expensive) SAD (Subspace Accelerator Drive). Due to the fact that there is, for the most part, nothing between systems I have devised a way of dividing the map up into smaller maps. Each map is a system like previously. However, how the engine will load all the maps and place them at a given point in the map. I will specify these points using a small web app that I created. Shift+click to add a tag, click the tag, type in the associated map file's name and click enter/return. Option/Alt+click to delete a tag. Spiralnebuladev.com

3.) AI will always come from somewhere. There will be no spawning of AI just outside of a system, or randomly in the void. They will always come from a station or planet. This means that some missions - specifically intercepting a ship en-route to another system - will be timed. If you should fail to intercept the ship timely then you will fail the mission.

4.) AI is always active. No-matter where you are in the universe, all other AI ships flying around the universe will be active and performing missions. Or in the case of pirates or enemy races, raiding and fighting. Depending on how stressful all those calculations are I may have to limit the active AI count to a few systems around your ship. The time it takes to go from one place to another gives them plenty of time to spawn and do their thing without seeming unnatural by the time you get to their location. We will see.

Stick around, more to come.
Ryan