Sprint 9 is completed, a steady two weeks after it began. We are proud to report we have eliminated 55 more tasks and work items from our bug tracking database!
The purpose of these posts is to provide some developer notes and updates as we continue to work towards the next stable release on Steam.
Thanks for reading!
Fleet Builder
The Fleet Builder tool is central to our vision for the completed game. We are continuing to advance the feature by implementing faction-specific ships and improving visual clarity in the UI.
There are new icons which show the angled 5x5 grid representing the formation layout. There are eight pre-made formations, consisting of basic shapes like line or wedge.
- [Formation Editor] UI improvements
- [fleet builder] faction per boat
These changes are only the beginning - combined with the soon-to-be-revealed flagship heroes, multiple squadron saves, scenario integration, Fleet Points system, and a Custom formation that will allow the player to position the ships freely, Fleet Builder will be one of the main features of the game.
New Warships
While depiction of every historical detail is far out of reach, we felt there were certain breakpoints we needed at a minimum in terms of the tiers of ships and their arsenals to showcase the arms race that defined the Dreadnought era.
We have done more research, including reading the excellent Castles of Steel, to help formulate the spirit of the age we wanted to recreate. We decided that the addition of four classes of cruiser: Heavy Cruiser, Armored Cruiser (County Class), Auxiliary Cruiser, Protected Cruiser (Town Class) and one battleship: Pre-Dreadnought Battleship.
The additions of these new ships will be available both for custom squadrons in the Fleet Builder and recreating historic battles such as the Battle of Coronel in the South American campaign.
- [New Model] Converted passenger ship (auxiliary cruiser) i.e. Otranto
- [New Model] Scharnhorst (armored cruiser)
- [New Model] HMS Drake/Good Hope (obsolete armored cruiser)
- [New Model] HMS Ocean/Canopus (pre-dreadnought battleship)
- [New Model] Novik (obsolete protected cruiser)
There are so many more ships that we could’ve included, and some more we may still, but at a certain point making variations of ships due to minute differences stops making sense from a gameplay perspective. After all, this is a game and not a simulation.
Furthermore, we have decided to not include the smaller arms on ships. While of course a battleship would be bristling with smaller arms to keep torpedo boats at bay, from a gameplay perspective we decided to just pick the biggest gun. That way, the range, reloading time, and speed of the vessel has more of a rock-paper-scissors dynamic even with a smaller number of units on the field. Indeed, in practice it was large arms fire that predominately sealed many fates at sea.
Unit Production
The first steps in unit production were implemented last sprint, with officer and rating enlistment. We expanded this feature by implementing tech tree enforcement and handling Industry cost. Unlike other resources, Industry is required during production but is not consumed. The macro phase of Ruler of the Waves is therefore unique in comparison to other RTS games, with production capacities that are effectively shared between units and buildings. While officers and ratings are their own resource, rather than units on the map, they are nonetheless produced at the barracks.
- [unit production] enforce tech tree
- [Lifeboat] Lifeboat touches ground - recovery
- [production queue] handle Industry requirement
Ship production will occur at the Dry Dock structure, and will be primarily gated by the tech tree and resource requirements. The production slot in the Dry Dock structure will double as a repair slot, but only one ship may be repaired or produced at a time. There is a great opportunity for unique animations with the ship being placed within the Dry Dock structure, with gates opening, raising/lowering water, etc.
Port Drop-off Feature
Rather than follow the traditional RTS model of having workers harvest resources, there are Trade Routes on the map that will spawn freighters or passengers ships that must be delivered to a friendly port. Harbors unload more quickly and can support a longer queue than Loading Docks.
As mentioned in the Unit Production section, the production slot and docking slot are shared by the building. Therefore, as the player’s empire expands, it will be necessary for increased control or more structures to fulfill the requirements of ships arriving at dock. While the feature was initially framed as for resources only, warships were also given an event to designate that they are in port, which will be used in future developments.
- [Feature] Trade Route / Port dropoff
- [Port Shipment] Selected boat HUD - in port healthbar widget icon
- [Port Shipment] Harbor speedier unload
- [Port Shipment] Consume
- [Port Shipment] Add resources drop-off
- [Port Shipment] Port capacity slots
- [Port Shipment] Option toggle to auto-refund at port (free up supply against ship limit)
- [Port Shipment] Call freighter
- [Port Shipment] Cargo widget
- [Port Shipment] Trade route minimap icon
- [Port Shipment] Return to trade route entrance
- [port shipment] default rally on trade route
- [freighter spawn] look direction at first waypoint
- [Port Shipment] Not considered in port if anchored and has far waypoint
- [Ability] Prevent on in production building
- [Port Shipment] Add in port designation
- [Port Shipment] Progress pie chart widget
- [Port Shipment] selected boat HUD - shipment details
- [Port Shipment] Selected boat HUD - In port icon
- [Port Shipment] Simultaneous unload
- [Port Shipment] Call ocean liner
As the officer and port features began taking shape, we decided to rework the ship menu so that there are four main panels: Turrets, Abilities, Officer, & Cargo.
- [Ship Menu] Toggle ship menu: cargo, officer, turret, abilities
- [Turrets] [Widget] Gun layer toggle
- [Officers] Officer widget
Ships that have an economic focus will display their Cargo menu by default, whereas most warships will show the Turrets menu. The abilities menu contains Torpedo, Prepare Broadside, and the other abilities that were added in a previous update. The main change is that there are now four tabs and the menu displays in the central view area.
We are brainstorming a variety of cargo options beyond passengers and wealth, such as mailbags (which could influence moral), having finite amounts of coal or ammunition, or even wackier items like marmalade, kippers, rats, and bats.
It’s definitely a slog getting through all these menus, then spending time back-tracking and tweaking and polishing, but we think the payoff will be huge. The goal of these changes is to make the UI concise and clear, while giving event hooks to provide feedback (e.g. out of resources, ‘SPAWN MORE OVERLORDS!’), and more informative tooltips throughout.
We fortified the concept of “overseer”, which collects the Fleet Menu, Construct Building menu, and more into a single point of focus in the UI. There is a new button as well that will return the player to the overseer view if they have a ship or building selected.
The layout is a focus as we try to balance the amount of information and menu options with clarity. One technique we use is by resizing the game window to various sizes to test the responsive layout. We are proud to say that, in the year 2025, it is possible to enjoy the game in glorious 1024 x 768 resolution!
Besides the layout, we also focused on polish and small details. For example, there is now an interpolation effect that shows the number rising when resources are gained. Also, we have changed the font to support Euro typeface characters, for example any umlauts or accent marks. This compliments our exciting new feature, which is to rename any ship!
Finally, the command menu for ships has been improved with new indicators for moving/stopped, resolution for default hotkey conflicts, and improved tooltip text.
New Features
- [Ability] Add production timer to tooltip
- [Flavor] [Resources HUD] Refresh tooltip texts
- [HUD] Ship name: new typeface supports that Euro
- [Building] resource errors for building units
- [Building] specific errors for low resource, invalid place, low industry
- [Abilities] Resource errors for abilities
- [Overseer Menu] polish/bigger icons in top level menu
- [Overseer] Fleet menu
- [unit production] cost tooltip
- [Command Menu] return to overseer view from ship/building selected
- [Command Menu] Add indicator for movement queue
- [Command Menu] Add better text to replace placeholder tooltip text
- [Ship Names] Rename ship
- [Small resolution support] Enjoy the game in glorious 1024 x 768 resolution!
Bug Fixes
- [Building] hide ability menu when under construction
- [Fleet Menu] fails working when any ship is sunk’
- [HUD] Fix construct building cost details color/alignment
- [Resources] Interpolate resource gains effect - too slow
- [Command Menu] Resolve default hotkey conflicts
Fog of War
We are in the early stages of implemting this feature, but the basics like vision radius and minimap support are completed.
- [Feature] Fog of war / lighthouse
However, there are still many tricky edge cases like drawing out of bounds, different size maps, enemies out of view, and multiplayer (!!!), that need to be handled as well, so, like always, we find ourselves with 2 steps forward, 1 step back, and a long journey still to go.