A New Generation of Warfare (Patreon)

Here's to hoping everyone had an enjoyable and safe Christmas as well as likewise going forwards into your preparations to welcome 2021.

To wind down the year we wanted to offer you a small preview from the first battle mission of Sunrider 4 as well offer an early initial explanation of how combat gameplay is now planned to work, this first mission plays out as a conflict against a group of the pirates and primarily serves as a tutorial to mechanics. 

As you can immediately see visually space battles are no longer grid based like previous games and instead now works off a system of turn based free selection where you will need to not just manage your positioning but also your unit's orientation - this in turn affects what actions can be taken as you will be juggle both range and direction of the unit (practically this means you can't fire your main turrets if these are located on the opposite side of your ship to your current direction and/or you're too far away to have a chance at hitting an enemy unit).

In addition move actions as well as certain attack actions will generate momentum which primarily has two effects:

• If the unit didn't move during their turn they will be moved in that (momentum) direction a certain distance before the next faction's turn officially starts.
• If the unit wishes to make a movement action contradictory to their momentum in a later turn then this will be compensated for in terms of the EN required.

If said unit is not careful in its management of momentum it may find itself low in terms of available EN or worse yet either making a tactical retreat through their departure from the battlefield if not becoming a space firework if it comes into contact with anything physical before then.

Our feeling is that the new system framework still retains enough of the previous generation's identity to be familiar while bringing something new to the table that will evolve both the experience and tactics of gameplay within the Sunrider universe.

Unfortunately we're not yet at a point where we can have productive Patreon betas of this system but the goal of doing so is now another step closer with the implementation of this mission. With this we'll now see you all in 2021 where we look forward to bringing you more Sunrider 4 content as well as sharing further updates on the milestones that are being met.