Month 1 - Start

A quick devlog to start things off, and understand where the project is currently. I'm hoping devlogs are an extra source of motivation, and something to call back on in the future. These will be very off-the-cuff written!

A month into development of EDL, I'm using Unity to develop this project. The first prototype of this game was using unity cameras and render textures to display a static image from the 'probe' onto the UI, every x seconds, with a basic terrain to view. It worked well and looked pretty cool!

Next, the infrastructure for 'probe' to 'ground control' communications. This is to simulate the probe communicating with its home planet. I wanted a full separation between the simulated probe and this 'ground control', which eventually displays data to the player. All probe -> ground communication is stripped down into byte arrays, and sent to a virtual channel, for the ground control to decode and understand. This gives a nice separation, and things like realistic data transfer quantities, which is useful for limiting a probes communications speed based on antenna power and tech, and emergent behaviour such as an image being only partially sent before cutting out - the ground control only displays part of an image in this case. We could also add realistic time delays to these communications in the future (maybe a 'realistic' difficulty setting?) or interference causing random data loss or bit flips occasionally.

Another part of the game that saw significant dev is the probe creation. Although not quite user-friendly, it is functional. Below is some of the first design documentation I did, to plan out how probes are constructed.

Building a probe consists of selecting a chassis, then adding parts to the available hardpoints. In the future, the part properties will be customizable here, before the mission begins, but for now, they are configurable during the mission. Not yet implemented at all is building a physical 3D probe from these parts - it's just an invisible object at the moment, with all the parts running.

Planning a mission is a tricky business - it's going to involve a lot of calculations, and some careful UI choices to make it understandable to the player. I want to make it accessible, but also somewhat realistic. Currently, there is a celestial system display, that renders planets and orbit lines based on the dynamic properties of the bodies given. The mission plan will start with launching into orbit from the home planet - based on the weight of the probe and the performance of the rocket used for launch will determine what you can plan next. Transfer to another celestial body, change your orbit, or descend to the currently orbiting planet. Add each step to build your desired mission. During the mission, each step will execute, and there will be 'phases' of flight, for example when transferring between planets, your probe will go into a timed sleep mode, and you can skip to a few minutes before capture to the new planet, where you can configure your probe for orbit.

Currently, you can just select Derwent for orbit, and when you run the mission, it'll put you in a orbit scene around a planet.

Controlling your probe during a mission is done on a part-by-part basis. Select the part you want to control, and a list of available commands will show. Build your desired command, and send it to the probe.