Beta testers needed: Endless Sky, a space exploration game

[zahni]

Hello Wesnoth folks! I've been playing Wesnoth since before version 1.0, and have been inspired to see how an open source community can create a game that continues to grow and improve over time. Endless Sky is my own contribution to the world of open source gaming: a space trading and combat game similar to the classic Escape Velocity series. You start out in a tiny space ship and can work your way up to a massive warship or a fleet of freighters by carrying cargo or passengers, completing missions, or plundering pirates. There is a main story line that takes about 8-16 hours to play through, or you can ignore the story and treat it like a sandbox game.

All the game data is plain human-readable text, and the images are in common formats (PNG and JPEG) to make it as easy as possible for others to contribute new ships, equipment, or missions. There is also a "universe editor" for creating new star systems and planets. The program is written in C++11, using OpenGL 3 (i.e. GLSL shaders rather than the legacy OpenGL functions), and it runs on Linux, OS X, and Windows.

I'm nearly ready for a stable release, but first I want to make sure the game has been tested on as many systems as possible. So even if all you do is download the game, run it, and let me know what OS you're on and whether it runs properly, that would be a huge help!

For more information, see the website, downloads page, demo video, player's manual, and bug tracker.

[max_torch]

From what I have seen this reminds of the series of games called Flash Trek http://stexpanded.wikia.com/wiki/Flashtrek

[johndh]

Running on Wine under 64 bit Linux Mint, it ran for a while and then crashed while trying to make a jump (after several successful jumps).

Here's the crash output:
http://pastebin.com/bvAs1Eu4

[Dixie]

Works so far on OS X Yosemite, native build.

It really needs a good tutorial and some gameplay adjustments (like how I never really know where I am going to jump, how to select planets to land, etc.). Also, I really can't stand the drifting, it's a real pain... But that's not what you wanted to know and there's some good potential in there anyhow Keep it up!

[johndh]

Here's another crash that I get consistently with one of my pilots trying to depart from Girtab.
http://pastebin.com/n0QRWnyc

[zahni]

Running on Wine under 64 bit Linux Mint, it ran for a while and then crashed while trying to make a jump (after several successful jumps).

Thanks for testing! I haven't tried running in Wine before, so it's hard to be sure if that's a bug in the game or in one of the libraries. If you're running a Ubuntu-based version of Mint, you can get a native package from this PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~mzahniser/+archi ... ndless-sky

Or, if you're running the Debian Edition, you can try the package from here:

http://mentors.debian.net/package/endless-sky

I haven't seen the program outright crash in any of my recent testing, so I'd be interested to know if the crashes still occur when you are using a native build.

[GunChleoc]

I have given it a spin with Windows 7 and there were no issues.

I had a problem though once I ran out of fuel. I got a hint to use a hotkey to step through the ships in the system, but the key to use was so tiny that I couldn't see if it was supposed to be ', ` or ´. These characters are also combined characters on many keyboards, so it's better to pick a letter from the keyboard for this.

ETA: I had a look at the preferences now, it is the backquote character. In order to type this character, I have to hit Shift+accent and then space. So, I can't generate this character as a single keypress event. I recommend "n" as the standard hotkey for this.

[johndh]

ETA: I had a look at the preferences now, it is the backquote character. In order to type this character, I have to hit Shift+accent and then space. So, I can't generate this character as a single keypress event. I recommend "n" as the standard hotkey for this.

I agree that the placement of this hotkey is a little strange. I kept hitting ESC by mistake, so I remapped it to Z.

Thanks for testing! I haven't tried running in Wine before, so it's hard to be sure if that's a bug in the game or in one of the libraries. If you're running a Ubuntu-based version of Mint, you can get a native package from this PPA:

https://launchpad.net/~mzahniser/+archi ... ndless-sky

When running the native build, I'm able to depart the planet with the same save that used to crash every time on Wine.

[DDR]

Using the windows build, when I hold J for jump on the map it cycles between available jump targets - I can't figure out how to actually jump to my target. That kind of put an end to my exploration, unfortunately.

[zahni]

Using the windows build, when I hold J for jump on the map it cycles between available jump targets - I can't figure out how to actually jump to my target. That kind of put an end to my exploration, unfortunately.

To jump to a different system, select the system in the map, then close the map (that is, click "Done"), and then press "J". If the map is still open, as you said, "J" will just cycle between your options.

[DDR]

Oh. That works like a charm, now.

[DDR]

OK, bit more control confusion here --- how do I 'help' a ship in my fleet which has been disabled? I can request a ship in my fleet to help me, but I can't request a ship in my fleet to help another ship in my fleet, and I can't seem to help the ship myself by just going near it.

Good game so far. I'm abusing a small, profitable route atm, to the tune of 65.3 credits per unit of haulage per day. I'm going to have to upgrade from freighters soon, since they're kind of vulnerable to those green beam-y things.

edit: Oh, also a small bug, but the rifles seem to be getting all put in my flagship when I load a save. I think it's when I load a save -- I'm not sure why, but they keep getting put in my flagship.
edit 2: Oh, also Sol is being reported in the map as having a shipyard that can supply a freighter, but the shipyard button doesn't exist there.

And maybe a small request, but I really wish there was a universal 'exit menu' hotkey. Or that the key that opened the menu closed the menu. It's been hours, and I'm still getting stuck in them.

[zahni]

OK, bit more control confusion here --- how do I 'help' a ship in my fleet which has been disabled?

Select the ship (using shift + target key, or clicking on it), then press "B" to board it.

Oh, also a small bug, but the rifles seem to be getting all put in my flagship when I load a save.

Since only your flagship can capture ships, the idea was to always put all hand to hand weapons in the flagship. But I agree, maybe I should rethink that.

Oh, also Sol is being reported in the map as having a shipyard that can supply a freighter, but the shipyard button doesn't exist there.

It's on Luna (the moon).

And maybe a small request, but I really wish there was a universal 'exit menu' hotkey.

I'll think about a good way to do that. Maybe the "Main menu" key (escape) could be a generic "exit" key instead. But that would mean no way to jump to the menu if you have a dialog open.

[DDR]

Thanks, everything works well now.

I did discover a UI corner-case, which I suppose I should mention. If you park a ship, then make it your fleet leader, when you depart the planet you immediately pay wages and are re-landed without a word of explanation. In addition, you can't un-park your fleet leader until you make it not the leader again.

I'm currently sitting at 7 bulk freighters and a scout ship in the form on an upgraded Argosy. I automated the controls to do bulk cargo runs this morning, to quite impressive effect. (Autopilot, engage! ) Is there any way to see extended logs of what my fleet has been doing? The logs show up in the lower-left corner, by the fleet status hud, but fade out quite quickly.