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Civilians and Cars One of the key goals in any game is immersion in the story.  One facet of immersion in an MMO is allowing significant numbers of players to be one the screen at the same time.  But the players are not the only people in the universe – we also need to populate the FHS Justice with civilian NPCs and cars to make a believable city of the future aboard a generation ship on the outskirts of the Human Federation.  This newsletter [...]

Hero Profile: Meltdown Art-Photo Close-up of Meltdown Meltdown is a half-human hero who was born on the planet Karschk to a human mother and a Vais father; the planet's population is a 20-80 mix of humans and Vais.  Like humans, Vais only gain superpowers through Unobtanium exposure – and neither of Meltdown's parents had powers.  The Vais are mostly friendly to humans, but their domestic culture is hostile to commerce, and suspicious of businesses; despite that, Meltdown succeeded as a small [...]

The Limits of Nanites "I never worry about nanites; they have an innate weakness to massive fireballs. Then again, so do most things..." -Meltdown Nanites are tiny robots, too small to see, that are programmed to work together and complete various tasks.  Nanotechnology is a well-established field in the 25th century, and is used for many purposes.  However, Nanites do have weaknesses.  They are slow-moving on a human scale, and very energy-inefficient; it is almost always cheaper to build objects like lampposts and [...]

Design Studio for the Female Soldier Costume. Female Soldier Costume. In this newsletter we’re showing a female soldier costume, using the Ship of Heroes Design Studio.  This costume has been created for our female model, and will be available for players to use in creating and customizing their characters.  It takes quite a bit of work to refit a costume to a new model, so this is important progress.  We have not yet settled on the standard color palette for the ship’s military in-game, [...]

What Makes an Alpha? What Makes an Alpha? For over a year we’ve been asked variations on the question of what counts as an Alpha or a Beta, and we’d like to share our thinking. In all projects, there has to be a beginning.  One day in the past there was no game, and no commitment to produce a game.  The next day there was a commitment.  At that point the project had begun.  That was the start of pre-Alpha.  For us, that was [...]

Mission Map Upgrades Video Hello, Ship of Heroes community!  This video shows the very first mission map we ever published, both as it was about a year ago and as it is now.  We want to show off the changes and improvements to the art style we’re using in the design of mission maps, and as always, we're eager to hear your thoughts.  Keep an eye on the upper-left corner of the video to see when we're showing the old [...]