Broken Bonds

[Gaz83]

Today's update: Accretion

Cap's been working on a little something fancy for one of the Frontier systems: a black hole with accretion disk. It's still early in development, but we're fairly pleased with how it's turning out so far.

Looks good.

[Kazinsal]

Today's update: SCDF Frigate

Ladies and gentlemen, here she is, in-game and working: The Southern Cross Defence Force Anzac-class Frigate.

Okay, maybe not completely working, but it's in-game, its hitbox works, and it doesn't crash. I haven't added a shield or weapons for it to the game yet so it's kind of barren, but there's our first capital ship. I spent the past couple days working the 3ds Max CMP exporter, and then figured out how to get the thing hardpointed... and here she is. Soon,^* you too will be able to fly one of these wonderful frigates into battle, victoriously emerging with mere flesh wounds, returning safely home to your loving families and a glorious medal ceremony for the valiant efforts of you and your crew.

Unless you get blown up, of course. But that won't happen in the state-of-the-art Anzac-class, no sir!

Hopefully soon we'll have a video of this thing's weapons in action. Until then, take care folks, and thanks for tuning in for another Broken Bonds development update!


^{*"Soon" may be any time between now and October. We make no guarantees as to whether or not you will survive a battle in the Anzac-class frigate, though we hope that you at least do your best.}

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Retired, permanently.

[Toaster]

Customizable ships, model variation, and literal space highways?

This is going to be absolutely amazing.

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Olivia Sable

[Kazinsal]

Glad you think so! I just got a couple test weapons and a shield thrown in for the frigate, including a point-defense turret version of the primary SCDF fighter chaingun, and everyone's favourite, big mother-truckin' railguns.

Video will be up tomorrow, maybe Thursday, depending on how long it takes me to get the cruiser hardpointed and in-game. The toolchain I use is a bit finicky -- full model from 3ds Max to CMP, detail-less model from 3ds Max to OBJ, OBJ into MilkShape, MilkShape exports a second CMP, hardpoints added via HardCMP using the detail-less CMP, hardpoints copied to final CMP via UTF Editor. It takes a bit longer to get set up, but this way I don't have to use the godawful excuse for a hardpoint editor in UTF Editor.

If you haven't signed up on our forums and for the closed beta, do so right away! The sooner you sign up, the earlier you'll get into the beta. Link is in my signature.


EDIT: I noticed someone on the staff edited my signature to point to the Discovery download page. That was rude. I would like to remind that member of the staff that Discovery forum rule 1.3 only prohibits advertising if it is not for your own gaming website/server/community.

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Retired, permanently.

[Toaster]

How was that with the closed beta again? Just sign up and you're good to go once it's available?

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Olivia Sable

[Kazinsal]

Yep, exactly that. We'll be sending out e-mails to first round testers in a few months sooner with some advance info on the beta.

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Retired, permanently.

[Toaster]

Aaaaalrighty, looking forward to it.

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Olivia Sable

[SnakeLancerHaven]

Yep, exactly that. We'll be sending out e-mails to first round testers in a few months sooner with some advance info on the beta.

Will I be one of the testers? 8)

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R.I.P Tabris...
Youtube - Twitch - My old Account

[Kazinsal]

Depends. Did you sign up on the forums and for the beta on the home page?

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Retired, permanently.

[Capt. Henry Morgan]

Today's update: Fleets, Part 1

EVE has corporations. Discovery has factions. Broken Bonds will have fleets.

The above is some starter work on the fleets system. Being in a fleet gives you access to the the Fleet Channel, a newly-added chat channel that can be selected or arrowed to like the Group, System, and Private Channels. The Fleet Channel broadcasts messages in a delightful shade of orange to all other ships in your fleet -- at a minimum, this consists of ships with the same tag as you -- that are online. The Fleet Channel also informs you and your other fleet members when someone in your fleet logs in or out of Broken Bonds.

Fleets can be registered much like Discovery's unofficial factions, by typing the following command into the chat box:

Code:

/fleetcreate <tag> <master password> <fleet name>

ex: /fleetcreate [SCDF] dropbearsarecool Southern Cross Defence Force

Fleet tags must be unique and must be contained within [brackets]. Fleet names can be up to 63 characters long. Once your fleet is created, you can (and should) set a Discovery-style rename password for your fleet using the following command:

Code:

/fleetpass <tag> <master password> <rename password>

ex: /fleetpass [SCDF] dropbearsarecool oioioi

The fleet system in Broken Bonds will allow greater control of communication between divisions and groups of fleet ships in large engagements and will provide more MMO-like "guild" services to groups that wish them. We are definitely looking forward to seeing how the services like the Fleet Channel are utilized by fleets. Thanks for tuning into another Broken Bonds development update!

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Natio Octavarium
Faction Information and Status • Recruitment
Faction Feedback • Internal Affairs