The space battle keeps going overhead while the troops fight on the ground, with the carrier holding position above them and its radio reaching the ground.
Done16
The desert planet has air: a glow around its edge seen from space, and a warm haze on the way down.
Worked out what a landing involves and what makes a world worth landing on.
Fly from the fleet down to the planet's surface in about 90 seconds, fight there and fly back up, all without a loading screen.
The fleet spreads out or tightens up as ordered, sends scouts ahead, and sends ships off on missions and calls them back.
A sky built from real star positions: the stars, the band of the galaxy, and a sun that lights the ships.
The fleet spots the enemy by radar, its early-warning ships and listening, and half loses sight if those ships are shot down. The enemy now has a commander that plans its own attacks.
All 29 ships of the fleet, each with its real name, number, guns and armour, and able to fight from any angle.
+ 8 earlier
Now2
Sending troops down to a planet: choosing the landing spot and the escorts, readying the landing craft in the carrier's bays, and following the whole descent from the ship's bridge.
- landing costs checked
- the plan
- the bridge view
- the launch bays
- the carrier's aircraft
- landing craft and escorts fly down together
- the camera shots of the descent
- the pickup
- calling off a landing
- air support over the fight
NextThe landing craft flying home after the touchdown, and coming back down to pick the troops up when the fight is done.
Reorganising the game's on-screen panels so nothing overlaps or runs off the edge on any screen, wide ones included, with panels that fold away and a key that hides them all.
- what was on screen, measured
- the plan
- a check at four screen sizes
- clutter removed
- one size for everything
- panels that fold
- the aircraft get their own panel
- the ship panel's sections
- settings and key help
- a full play-through look
NextOrganising the flagship's own panel into sections that fold, and a panel for any other selected ship.
Later — to look forward to6
A believable desert: wind-built dunes, mesas, canyons, dry riverbeds, salt flats and the odd stretch of water.
Marines take cover behind rocks, ridges and hollows on any planet, not just the test ground.
Small planets visible from the fleet as it travels.
Rare worlds the fleet can settle: a base on the ground with the fleet overhead, each world with its own gravity, air, weather and day.
Real asteroids, ore that shows before it's mined, wrecked ships, and an enemy fleet with a look of its own.
The heavy tank joins the ground fight, its main gun firing shells.
Next6
Marines move as a real fire team: one pair covers while the other dashes forward to the flank, and nobody fires with a friend in the line of fire.
More faces and realistic heights for the thousands of crew gathered on the carrier.
Each aircraft gets its own number painted on, plus a squadron badge.
Refining the inside of the 600-metre carrier: its thousands of rooms, walk-in crew cabins, and the spaces where the crew live and raise families.
A first test of recording real body movement and putting it onto a Marine, starting with leaning out from cover.
Sound for the whole game: weapons, music, radio chatter, and the mix that ties them together.