Torn Stars: Unstable Space mod for Independence War 2: Edge of Chaos

Well, it has been many years since an update here. And in most of that time there hadn't been anything to report, other than the all but complete abandonment of any progress on development of Unstable Space. Yes, there were a few attempts to kick start things again, but ultimately nothing surfaced. Until now.

Unstable Space Beta

How did the Beta finally get made, despite the fact that the entire team, the lead and secondary coders, and everyone else gave up and packed it in years ago? Well, I never quite gave up. Sure, I had no skills in coding, whatsoever, but that didn't stop me hoping that some day a real coder might show up who wanted to finish the game. Granted, the chances were slim, but that didn't stop me from hoping. I mean, the game was really close to being finished...with just a last push..maybe a few hundred hours of coding by a real pro. That was all it would take! It turns out that the chances were a little less than slim. Eventually I came to realise that no one was interested in the game, or Unstable Space. Heck, maybe the whole space sim genre... Nevertheless, I thought...maybe I could...somehow...in some, remote...fashion...maybe I could teach myself how to program...then...finish the game?

So I did. I dove right into it, thinking maybe I could cut and paste and hack together something that was somewhat playable. 3 months and several hundreds of hours later I discovered that I could code, had to code, and had coded thousands of lines of...code. And the game was...complete.

Now, let's be honest here. I have hacked together an awful frankenstein of what it was originally supposed to be. And I have no idea if it will really work. Or whether it is really playable. Nonetheless, I have completed it to a point I think, or hope, it will actually work. No guarantees though. None. Zero. Here's some screenies to break up this wall of text:

Ooohh...check out those late 90's graphics! Well, the graphics are decent enough to let you imagine you are in space. But of course, that is not where Unstable Space shines...its the features man! Unstable Space has so many features, that I can't list them all! Seriously. I cannot list them all, because I don't know what they are any more. I have forgotten about more features than I know are in the game. 10 years of developing this thing okay? 99% of that time I was the texture guy...then the sound guy...then the writing guy...then the spreaksheet guy...then the tester guy...then they everything except coding guy...then finally...the coder. Basically I took on all the extra jobs as one by one, over the years, team members faded away, dropped out, and dissappeared. Let's break up THIS wall of text with a big fancy features list...of text:

• Buy and Sell goods for transport between stations and star systems
• Explore and discover new star systems, lpoints and routes between stars
• Mine and prospect for ores throughout known and unknown space
• Smuggle legal and illegal goods past police or through unstable space routes
• Pirate goods from legitimate traders and resell them to fences or black market stations
• Collect scrap metals and components from battlefields to resell at refining stations
• Accept and collect bounties on notorious criminals, do-gooders or military units
• Hire and command wingmen to help you trade, explore, mine, smuggle or pirate
• Build alliances with factions and make enemies of others
• Purchase or trade in spaceships
• Outfit your own ship, or the ships of any of your wingmen
• Discover secret bases and sources for military or experimental weaponry

In addition, Unstable Space simulates life in the Middle States to a degree not seen previously in Independence War 2, or many other space sims:

• Cargo is real and individually and physically represented and manipulated in game
• Capsule Jumps between systems are pilotable simulations rather than cut scenes
• All ships are fully simulated and live in the Middle States much like the player
• Factions are involved in an on going cluster-wide struggle, with no pre-determined outcome
• Players can own mining stations
• NPCs pilot the same ships and weapons as the player
• Missiles are mostly nuclear and extremely deadly
• And much more

NOT BAD huh?! Okay, those of you who are real sharp will notice I just cut and pasted that list from my own mod description. Of course that list does not include the features I have forgotten about, or that are not completed. It also doesn't include the dozens of feature enhancements, graphical upgrades, and improvements from Torn Stars, and from the vanilla I-war2. And those enhancements, graphical upgrades and improvements were considerable. As this is a 'Beta', it is feature 'complete' but certainly lacking polish in some of those features, and is also likely very buggy. It is hard to test a game of this size by ones' self.

Okay, those are just videos released a long time ago. However, they are relevant because now, you can actually go do and see that stuff! Besides...I can't really bring myself to spend too much time on promotion for a mod that no one cares about anymore. I would be better off spending that time fine-tuning it further. The handful of people who will actually play the game will forgive me for not preparing a fancy promo-video.

Where from here? Well, I am going to try and give as much bug fixing support as I can, over at the Torn-stars.com forums. I will try my best, but I can only give limited support. This project has already sucked my lifeforce down to the bare minimum. However, if a few people got into it, or even wanted to keep tweaking US and i-war2, I might make a few post release addons. New ships, cockpits, new types of NPC ships, more career paths, Bounty hunting missions etc. However, more likely than not I will just put on my shades, and walk away in slow motion as everything explodes behind me.

Last, but not least, credits. This mod was made only partly by me. The bulk of the effort was lead by GrandpaTrout, whose coding and vision most of this rests firmly upon. After him come a huge list of people, not limited to Joco, Hot4Darmat, Shane Maness, MDvalley, Jasper, Flamineo, EricMan64, Burja2, Zazicle, Qlippoth, Stephen Robertson and many others. This is not everyone, and those who I have missed I apologize to.