Wednesday Night Bash

Just a quick FYI - next skirmish is on schedule for Wednesday night, @9pm EST.

http://www.solarisgame.com/

Kill The Kittens: Solaris 2009

Times are tough. Good people are getting laid off. The economy is nose-diving faster than a Turkish Jet falling out the sky.

Yet both government and people seem determined to ignore the underlying cause, hiding behind economic reform and wasting time with corporate bailouts. We ALL know who the real culprit is, but FEAR is keeping us from speaking out. Well I say, ENOUGH SILENCE. The truth must be spoken. The Kittens must die!

Disguised as the fuzzy and loveable companions of man, these sinister agents of chaos have been quietly gathering numbers, and undermining our society from within. Too many a good man hath succumbed to their cuddly charms. And too few are the voices of opposition, to stand against the suffocating tide of fur and claw.

Today, I tell you, there is hope. We at Solaris have pledged to fight the beast. But we need your support. For every hour you spend playing Solaris, we will donate $1.00 USD to the Smite-a-Cat foundation. How much can a single dollar do, you ask? Oodles, I answer, oh ye of little faith. When it comes to annihilating the feline scourge, the Smite-a-Cat foundation has a proven record of financial efficiency, and is a beacon of light in todays economic darkness. One dollar translates into 732.5 Kittens slayed. Consider THAT your Kitty Bailout.

As a bonus, each play-hour will accrue an additional $0.50 USD, automatically donated on your behalf to the Hell-Hound Dog Breeders of Long Island, to help raise the next generation of freedom fighters.

Fight the Kittens. Download Solaris and Play tonight at 9pm EST.

http://www.solarisgame.com/

Many new features added. See below for details...

Solaris 1.1.73

It has been a long time coming, but the new version of Solaris is finally here. A skirmish is scheduled for tonight (Monday) at 9pm EST.

As always, you can fetch the latest and greatest from:

http://www.solarisgame.com/

Click the Download link and install the latest version in order to play.

This is a major release. Many new features and gameplay elements have been added. The info below describes the changes in some detail. Enjoy and see you at 9pm!

SHIPYARD & SAFETY

The ship now spawns in a designated Safety Zone in proximity of a space station. While in the safety zone you cannot be hurt by other players, and you cannot fire your own weapons in return. This forces a relative peace while inside the safety area.

If you fly towards the station your ship will attempt to dock with it automatically. Depending on how long it has been since you last docked, this process can take anywhere between 1 and 15 seconds. Docking more frequently, increases this delay to prevent abuse of the station facilities and discourage campers.

Upon docking, the station will automatically repair and recharge your ship if you have incurred any damage.

At the station you can browse a number of devices to install on your ship. Hover your mouse over items to get useful tooltips that explain how to operate the station controls.

Each device has an associate power "cost". Your ship can install as many devices as you want as long as you dont exceed 6 units of power total. Devices range from 1 unit of power to 4. This encourages you to select combinations of devices that go well together, and to develop your own strategy and fighting style. You can install more than one instance of some devices (for example engine thrusters). Each additional module increases the device effect (each additional engine thruster makes your ship faster). Other devices can only be installed as a single instance - for instance the cloaking field - you cannot install more than one. Devices that can be installed in multitude are marked with a "x1" caption on the device icon. Experiment with different combinations. Many devices complement each other, creating a certain "synergy" of purpose.

Once you've selected your devices go try them out. Remember that you cannot use any devices in the safety area. Fly beyond the safety area to operate them. You can use your mouse even when you are not docked at the station, as a means of getting information about the ship controls and devices. Point your mouse at the device icons you installed (aligned along the right side of the screen) to get useful tooltips explaining their usage.

If your ship is destroyed in combat, you will respawn again in the safety area. The devices you had on your ship when you were destroyed will be pre-installed on your ship automatically, so that you don't have to visit the space station each time you respawn. However, if you wish to change your device selection you can do so at any time by docking at the station. Remember though, that frequent docking at the station will increase your docking delay time.

GRAPHICS & SOUND

The map has been redesigned with all new obstacles and eye-candy.

Weapons have been redesigned with new animations and sound effects.

The HUD has had several improvements and the overall GUI has been tuned and refined.

A computer voice now chimes in, whenever she feels its appropriate.

GAMEPLAY

The ships start out slower than in earlier versions. This helps new players get going, but also leaves room for the Engine Thrust device(s) to be installed. These devices greatly augment your speed, making this a vital part of your outfit.

The plasma bombs (space bar), are now fired "disarmed", and "arm" themselves shortly after being fired. While disarmed the weapons fly right through ships (and obstacles!). This makes them difficult to use at short range because the weapons need flight time to arm. The intention was to make the bombs strategically a medium range weapon. One side-effect of this is that you can now (with practice) shoot bombs from behind obstacles!

Many new devices have been added. Experiment with different combinations and see which fit your style and tactics.

MISCALENEOUS

You can now Alt+Tab out of the game if you need to change any windows settings or simply check on something, and then return to the game without crashing :)

The installation will attempt to detect previous versions of Solaris installed on your machine and uninstall them before proceeding with the installation.

A notorious mouse tracking bug that came up on some high-end mouse hardware has been fixed. Your mouse should track nice and smooth now. Also note that the mouse is now also available not just in the menu system but also during general gameplay. While you cannot use it to control your ship or activate devices, you CAN use it as a means of getting help. Point the mouse at various display elements to see what they are and how they work.

The game prints periodic helpful tips to the main chat area, which will overtime teach you the basic controls and dynamics of gameplay. You can turn the tips off at any time from the main menu. You can also rewind and forward the tips with the F2 and F3 function keys.

If you are still reading this far down, you have some serious issues. That is not a bad thing - consider that I had get this far as well :) I think this is enough for one post though. Download Solaris at 9pm and join up. See you there.

http://www.solarisgame.com/

Server is down, but not out!

I know it's been a long time since a new release, but I'd just like to confirm that Solaris development is still ongoing. And when its finished its gonna be huge... HUGE, I tell you! That's right it will even warrant the "ginormous" adjective, usually reserved for... well I diverge.

There will be a separate post with details soon.

Also, the game server went down today due to some issues with the ISP. It might take a few days to get it back up, while this is resolved.

More details to come...

Solaris Hosts Iran President

For Immediate Release:

To divert attention from the fact that no new version of Solaris has been released in 2 weeks, we at Solaris have decided to hold an open political debate with a very special guest. Joining us for tonight's skirmish is President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has agreed to make an exclusive appearance in the Solaris universe.

The president has not yet indicated which topics are on the table, however, a reliable source close to the president has informed us that he wishes to "settle a few scores".

Please support this historic event by downloading version 1.0.49 of Solaris and logging in at 9pm.

PS The game server is currently down in preparation for this exciting skirmish. Rest assured all will be operational by 9pm EST.


http://www.solarisgame.com

Skirmish Successful!

Thanks to everyone for joining the fight last night. I found the chaos and disorder most satisfying. Overall I think the ranking system was pretty successful and brings some purpose to the game. Till next week!

Solaris Skirmish 20080226 @9:00pm

Tonight's skirmish is on schedule for 9pm. New in this release:

Score
It's time to make winning and losing more serious :) When you connect to the game, you will start with a 0-score. Each kill you make will increase your personal score by one, and each loss will decrease your score by one. Your score will be shown to you in the top right corner of your screen. Negative scores are a perfectly acceptable laughing matter. Your score will reset when you leave the game (score is not permanent for now).

Rank
Rank is a function of your score. Your rank will be indicated by an insignia icon in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. When you start with a 0-score there will be no icon, because you don't have any rank:) As your score increases (hopefully), your rank will increase as well. There are a total of 5 ranks, each more difficult to achieve than the last. Your first rank insignia will show up when (or if) you reach a score of 2. See how far you can get!

You can see other people's rank as a small insignia icon next to their ship. Word of caution - don't piss off the people with the fancy rank insignias, cause that rank correlates directly to their skills, and they will probably end up owning you the entire game for it:)

Rank will eventually be used as part of the upgrades system, where some upgrades and devices will only be available to people with high rank (think atomic bombs and death rays:). But for now its just a status symbol.

Kills and TOP DOG
Also new in this release are notifications from the server that let everyone know whenever a player gets shot own. Additionally, the top player in the game will be named TOP DOG so that everyone can formally worship his awe-inspiring keyboard-tapping powers.

Additional changes/fixes:
-Game installation will now (optionally) configure your windows firewall for you
-Fixed the ship jitter bug (ship looks like its turning left-right rapidly)
-Minor cosmetic changes to the interface

See you at 9!