general questions

 

• Genre:

  «Sol-Ark» - is an indie-project focusing on 2D space faring real-time strategy/sim (RTS) with some Rogue-like and Sandbox elements. It’s an old-school hand-made flash project

• Approximate release date:

  middle of 2016

• Technology:

  ActionScript 3.0, API - FlashDevelop

• Platform:

  Multisystem

• Language:

  English

• Inspirations for developers:

  “Faster than Light” (FTL), “Dwarf Fortress” (DF), “Ancient Domains Of Mystery” (ADOM) and “Laser Squad” (LS) projects.

• Project's beginning:

  May, 2014

• Status of project:

  pre-alpha version, preparation for Steam Greenlight campaign

• Music:

  The game has its own OST-kit (examples are used in the demo video). Composer - Eugene Guliugin.

• Team:

  Alex Sayenko (Ukraine) - game-designer, producer
  Justin Hellstrom (USA) - second game-designer, writer/scenarist
  Dmitrii Demenkov (Ukraine) - lead programmer
  Eugene Guliugin (Russia) - composer, sound-designer
  Eugene Usmanov (Russia) - lead 2D artist, concept-artist
  Olga Petrovskaya (Ukraine) - web-designer, web-developer

 

questions about gameplay

 

• Can we control a character with keyboard?

  No, you can't take a direct control of NPC (except a few specific situations). This is a feature of genre. You need to select NPC's specialization and to set a task (like a build of constructions or repairing). Everything else NPCs will perform by themselves. Thus this allows the player to free his/her hands to control whole ship. Also, there is more accurate control during the battle.

• What happens to the asteroid afterwards?

  Everything that you want. You can use it like additional compartment of your ship-station or dis-assembly fully into resources or destroy it from distance

• Does it remain attached to the platform and servers as an 'armoured' section of the ship where I could hide my most important rooms?

  You are able to do that. Moreover, you can have as many connecting bays as you want. So, you may connect one asteroid, dig a tunnel for its another side and there build a new connecting bay and after that - connect with second asteroid etc. You are free to improvise.

• Do you sever it from the ship and let it float in space?

  Yes, you can do that. Also, for example inside the asteroid belt there are a lot of meteoroids which can hit not only your ship but any interactive object including asteroids.

• Can you build asteroid engines on it and then launch that AWESOME MISSLE OF INTERSTELLAR DESTRUCTION to wreck havoc on an unsuspecting pirate platform stupid enough to cross paths with your ship?

  Right now you can use the asteroid as an additional section of your ship, so yes you can build here a few engines. In near future we will add a calculation of collision to give ability to use a tactics of ramming.

• Will there be devices that simulate gravity of various configurations? Could I for instance build and artificial 'gravity generator' or some such crazy contraption to push away incoming debris or missiles?

  Yes, gravity shields reflect any shell or beam in random direction. Also, there will be a gravity cannons which will create local gravity fields near or inside enemy ship and will lead to collapse of few sections.

• Will there be shields? If yes what are your plans for their operation? Will they be impregnable to all kinds of weapons so the only way to counter them would be to board the ship and disrupt shield generators or would they be more like shields in FTL for instance?

  There are much more amount of defensive systems in the game. We divide all shields in two different groups - shields and barriers. Shields are specific fields which change speed, direction or energy of incoming shells and beams. So, they can reflect enemy laser or decrease damage of kinetic shell. Barriers - are specific blocks on the way of shells and beams. To penetrate through barrier you need decrease it energy to zero. And yes, you can land on the enemy ship or use EMR weapons to switch off enemy barrier. Also, it consumes a lot of power and has limited period of action before recharging. Plus, there are anti-missile machine guns which shoot down enemy's rockets and torpedoes; thermal decoys which lead away any missiles; dusty veils which reflect beam weapons; drones which protect your ship or attack an enemy; anti-shell lasers etc.

• Also can there be point defence? Like even if there are thermal decoys but if one deploys them too late, the missiles hit. Can there be some rapid fire gatling turret that would shoot at missiles? With an option that you can choose if it shoots at missiles or at enemy ship.

  Right now, you must to press the "thermal decoys" button to deploy them. So if you do that too late or too early, then missiles will hit the ship.
  The Gatling turrets have already shot in coming missiles but they require some time between each shots. Also, they have a limited angle inside which they can hit on missiles effectively. But the good news - yes, if they shoot on an enemy ship, all bullets will cause some damage.

• Is there an event where engine breaks in some way?

  Yes, a lot of such events. Because the game has the rogue-like elements, almost all random events, crew activity, space battles etc can break down your engines.
  Also each engine consumes fuel and requires power supply. Without them it will not operate. So, for example, far away from the Sun, efficiency of solar panel is decreasing heavily and your technics, including engines, are starting to switch off. So you'll need to choose what can you cut from power supply to prevent the ship's death from lack of energy.

• So that would limit our ability to explore nebulas and stuff i suppose. Are there any emergency fuel sources other than solar power?

  Small engines, like on screenshots, provide ability to fly in the usual space. To perform interstellar journey you need to create and recharge a FTL drive. It consumes only energy and requires some time to recharge until new jump.
  Solar panels - only one type from a class of inexhaustible energy sources. But their output of energy is not big. Exhaustible sources of energy (like nuclear reactor) consumes fuel (i.e., they don't depend on distance from Sun) - mix of deuterium and helium-3. You can replenish stocks of fuel in clouds of molecular gas and some other locations.