Ensign-1 has had a few updates lately: a few sound engine and cosmetic upgrades, and a few minor gameplay changes.
New HUD
On the cosmetic side, the HUD has been improved to provide players with information on their speed, pitch and heading. It's made of of scroll wheels that adjust in real time. In the future, I might add information on markers to nearby friendly and enemy capital ships.
New Sounds
Let me know what you guys think of this one. I've changed the sounds used for homing lock on slightly. Let me know if you prefer the change or would like it to be reverted. Here, give this a listen and be the judge...
I've also added a drone sound as ships are nearby, and you may also hear the occasional laser whiz by as well.
Gameplay Changes
Now to the good stuff. You'll now have a limited afterburner, or turbo, that you can use in game. This will give you a temporary speed advantage over your enemies making it much easier to catch them and shoot them down with your lasers. It also helps greatly when dodging missiles, which brings me to my next point....
If you sit around too long, you may find yourself the target of enemy missiles. That's right! It's not just you that are the predator now. Both allied wingmen and enemies alike have added homing missiles to their repertoire. Enjoy!
New Mission
There's also a new mission in the game involving the player stealing an alien ship to acquire some intel.
And another where you attack the pirate base.
I like the lock-on better, but maybe an other tone? At the moment, the lock-on sounds more like a tinnitus. Don't know, if that is healthy. :-)
What's a tinnitus?
Tinnitus is a high pitched constant ring in the ear. Typically caused by exposure to loud sounds for an extended period of time, like years..
Are we talking about the beep before the lock on, or the actual tone of the lockon?
Either way I think I might be going back to the old lockon sound. I just have such a love for the original Air Combat game, and part of this is just a throwback to that. If I ever do another space combat I might go with a more modern lockon sound.
I meant the actual tone of the lockon. And it's good for your ear, if you didn't know what a tinnitus is. :-)
The new lockon sound is pretty good, and I think the afterburner thing is a great idea. Hey, do you mind taking a suggestion? I have an idea I think you'll like. So, in the latest mission, the intro thing says that you have no weapons capable of destryoing the enemy's cruisers, yet, if you used about two fourths of your missiles, and maybe four to six full charges of red lasers, they should blow up(talking both of them). Maybe you should give the cruisers good shields, or beef up the armor a ton, unless you can't at this point.
If someone wants to blow all their missiles on the frigate or spend that much time with lasers, I'm okay with that. I don't want to tell the player how to play that much.
So, is this project just done? What happened? I hope if it was given up on you guys release it into the public domain or something similar - I'm sure there are a few people who would love to continue development in their free time.