Battlefleet Engineer

Note! The game is now available on Steam so it is no longer updated nor available for purchase here at itch.io. This is to avoid wasting effort on maintaining multiple versions. All existing customers can claim a Steam key for free from their purchase page. 
http://store.steampowered.com/app/685910/Battlefleet_Engineer/

Engineer spaceships, compose fleets and command them in real time battles. All ships are completely defined by their module composition. Achieve victory with briliant command on the battlefield and by engineering it into your fleet.

Battlefleet Engineer is a game about smart ship design, fleet composition and tactical control in real-time battles. Fully physics-based movement and a ship resource system make designing ships an engineering puzzle where you need to compromize between maneuverability, defence and firepower. This leads to natural emergence of specialized ship designs that counter others, providing endless combinations and possibilities. In the battles you need to choose and time your engagements carefully, exploiting your fleet's advantages against the enemy and countering theirs.

If you are more casually inclined, the game comes with a library of ready-made ship designs to use in randomized and custom battles. You can be watching ships tear each other apart or flying around shooting at enemies yourself with just a few clicks.

The game is under development with some features and content pending. This page describes already implemented features. Also check out the free demo!

Features

• RTS-style battles with up to dozens of ships per side. Fixed fleets, doesn't include building of units or resource management mechanics.
• Ships are made of and entirely defined by their modules. The modules such as generators, thrusters, weapons, armor etc. form the structure and define the behavior of the ship. Ships can have anywhere between 5 to over 1000 modules.
• Ship and level editor. You can not only create new ship designs and battle challenges but edit all existing ones using in-game editors.
• No-cheating Newtonian physics. All movement is driven by forces from thrusters and other actuators, and there is no friction or dampening. Ships and other objects are simulated as rigid bodies with accurate collision geometries and inertia.
• Per-module damage model. Ships can get partially disabled and split in two. The damage model also includes armor penetration and ricochet calculations.
• Ship resource system. Most modules have a single function such as power generation or heat dissipation. The resource system gathers, stores and distributes resources such as electricity, heat and fuel between modules on every frame.

Gameplay

Designing efficient (or wacky) ships is an important part of the game, but it is not required. Setting up random and custom battles is made easy, and your ships have basic combat AI so the game can also be played very casually. During battle you can also take full or partial control over any one of your ships to fly them manually, fire weapons etc.

You can design and test ships, then use them in premade battle challenges that give a score when completed, or in custom battles where you define the fleets and level parameters. The game is single player only against a combat AI in independent battles. Progression mechanics from battle to battle are not yet implemented.

To defeat your enemy, you will need to keep on top of the rapidly evolving combat situation and select targets for your ships based on weapon ranges, maneuverability and defences of both your own and the enemy ships. Positioning and timing of engagements is important because different weapons have very different effective ranges and ships usually only have heavy armor at the front. Keeping your fleet close together maximizes your concentrated damage output, but risks getting surrounded by the enemy.  Using specialized ships such as "tanks" and "snipers" effectively can often decide the outcome of the battle.

Current content

• Over 40 premade ship designs.
• 10 handmade battle challenges. These include fleet design challenges, "racing" in an asteroid field, and clearing a small labyrinth of enemy stations.
• 13 distinct module types, each with specific purpose.
• 5 distinct weapon types.

System requirements

Battlefleet Engineer is a Windows game designed for desktop PCs with decent screen resolution, keyboard and a mouse with a scroll wheel. The simulation includes some heavy computation, it is only partially multithreaded and not all aspects are optimized at this stage. The GPU is stressed with tens of thousands of textured and dynamically lit sprites.

If you are unsure of compatibility with your system, please try the free demo.

• Windows 7 or newer.
• Display resolution of 1920 x 1080 or higher recommended.
• DirectX 10 compatible GPU with 1GB of VRAM.
• At least dual core CPU with decent single thread performance.
• Keyboard and mouse with a wheel. 5-button mouse recommended.
• Micorosoft XNA 4.0 Refresh and .NET Framework 4.5.2 runtime libraries.

Updates

Battlefleet Engineer has been mostly a single person development effort since 2012 with varying intensity, and will continue to receive updates and new features. However, I can't give a timed roadmap for major features because I can't fully dedicate myself to the project. There are exciting features that I definitely want to implement such as a survival campaign where you collect modules from defeated enemies to sustain and expand you fleet.

I feel that the price is justified with the current features and content. Paying more can support expanding the game's content on areas that require purchase of services, such as graphics and audio design.