Last night I had a server up and none other than Rank Elite ‘ImSorry’ joined for a few dog fights out in the Hills.

After Months of work I’m finally ready to show off the Multiplayer to world. This build is 99.9% complete but I want to put it through some testing before making it official.

The Beta is only available on Steam, to get it Right Click on Lunar Flight in your games list and select Properties. Next click on the Beta tab, then Select Beta – Windows beta Build and it should start to download.

There are 5 new Inputs:

• C – Will toggle the Chat Window on and off in the Spectator View
• Home – Will Display the Scoreboard
• Right Shift (A on XBox Controller) – Fire Missile
• Right Ctrl (X on XBox COntroller) – Fire Flare
• / (forward Slash) – Switch between Nav and Target modes

When running your Server you will need to access the Menu and go to Server Controls to Start the Round once everyone has loaded. I do plan to add an Auto Cycle feature for this so you can start it up and leave it to keep running.

I’m really looking forward to hearing your feedback and I’ll see you ingame!

The above video is a ‘Work In Progress’ demonstration of some of the new features including an explanation of the new Difficulty options which I hope will make the game a lot more accessible to many more people given how challenging Lunar Flight can be.

Not long now…

This is a work in progress demonstration of the current progress made on the Multiplayer update, due late February.

It demonstrates:

• UI Login
• Lobby View with Spawn selection
• Chat Window
• Player Labels
• Player Navpoints,
• OHD Nav mode tracking of Player Navpoints

…and a little bit of formation flying!

Multiplayer (1.7)

I am currently working on version 1.7 which will be a significant update that will finally add Multiplayer. I have already made significant progress on it but still have some amount of work to go before it will be released, I am aiming for a late February release. Due to the fact that Lunar Flight was developed before adding Multiplayer some systems are having to be redesigned to support synchronization of their state between clients and the server.

I also want to look at adding some ‘Multiplayer’ specific game modes but have yet to decide what that will be. There will be a simple Free mode where multiple people can play in the same map and conduct missions independently. One mode I have been thinking about is a race to reach a set XP score within a certain amount of time, additional modes maybe added in future updates.

LAN and Online play will be supported, LAN mode will auto discover any servers on the local network. I am planning to have a Master Server listing to make it easier to find a server to play on. You can select which map to play on, add a password, add a region name, limit the number of players. The region name is an optional setting and if you want to open your game to the public and improve the chances of getting people in your region to play. For example I will added ‘Australia’ and people browsing the server listing can see that my server is in Australia.

When you connect to a server you start off in a ‘Lobby’ view where you can see a list of available bases you can spawn at and chat with other players. (Voice chat is being considered also)
If all 4 bases on a map are occupied, any other players waiting to spawn will have to wait until one is available. Like wise players wanting to land at an occupied base will have to land nearby and wait for the pad to be clear.

I will be contacting some people to offer the chance to test it for a closed Beta stage soon.

Difficulty Settings

I have been wanting to make the game more accessible and plan to introduce a set of Difficulty options.  These settings will affect the rewards you receive when completing a Mission, having the Easy settings enabled will drastically reduce the mission rewards earned.

• Unlimited Fuel
• Indestructible
• Auto Leveling
• Accurate Landing

Miscellaneous Fixes and Polish

1.7 will also contain any bug fixes that have been reported and also a few little polish improvements.

Oculus Rift VR Support – April 

I am a backer of the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality devkit and am expecting my devkit to arrive near the end of March. Unity is adding support for it and I intend to add a mode to support it. This mode will most likely limit the Camera to Full Scren HUD mode when turned on but I will have to wait to see and do some experimenting with it. I plan to take the Rift with me to PAX AU in July to demo it to the press which I hope will help Lunar Flights exposure by being one of the only Oculus products on display. The Oculus mode will be added in a future update after the 1.7 update, this will only really be useful to those who have a devkit, until Oculus release their consumer grade kit to market in 2014.

I recently had a very popular Reddit thread making it to the #2 slot before it was removed by the mods for violating their spam rules of self promotion. Now Gamer noticed the thread and sent me a bunch of interview questions for this article. You can read it here or by click the image below.

Thanks to Headup Games Publishing, Lunar Flight is being released in retail stores in Germany, expect to see it on the shelves mid February.

Steam Community Hubs now offer the ability to submit Guides for each game. We’ve put one together for Lunar Flight and it contains a lot of useful information for new players and perhaps veterans as well. Click on the image below to check it out.

Lunar Flight has made it into the Top 100, thanks for the votes everyone but there is one my stage for the finalists. Please click the link below and select the Realistic Sim category and vote for Lunar Flight!

2012 Indie of the Year Awards via Indie DB

After two submission rejections it finally passed the review process and you can now buy it on the Mac App Store.

Please be sure to leave a review if you can…