Greetings!

Many of you may remember a little while back that I asked you to complete a survey about what features make an excellent RTS game, and also to add some comments about what features you’d like to see in Infinite Fleet.

Well, the results are in, and I thought it was high time to give you a little analysis about what we found.

The good news is, it seems like most of you like hard sci-fi! We feel that’s a good start considering the game is centered entirely around this setting.

Core Features

We also received a lot of positive responses around the core features that we are building in INF. In order of awesomeness, your feedback goes as follows:

1. Full Customization: 85.8% positive responses (60.8% saying this is totally awesome!)
   
2. Environmental Combat: 84.3% positive responses
   
3. Directed Narrative: 83.4% positive responses
   
4. Explore the Galaxy: 70.8% positive responses (plus a further 17% saying they were on the fence.)
   
5. Intense Coop Battles: 67.5% positive responses
   
6. Expand your Territory: 67% positive responses

I was quite surprised that the feedback was a little less exciting for expanding territory. However, it seems that most of the responses suggested that there needed to be a bit more detail on what this means, and many people also seemed concerned that their territory could be lost.

This is some useful insight. It allows us to make sure this feature is balanced. I also felt that territory should be handled very sensitively. For example, in GTA San Andreas, the gang warfare feature was great, I loved it, but it was annoying that I had to keep coming back to defend my gang's territory. This is something we will take into consideration and make sure we handle appropriately so that it’s fun, challenging, and not annoying or repetitive.

The great news is that you guys love the customization aspect! This is something I’m excited about too, and we will make sure you have a lot of choices when building your fleet.

General RTS Questions

We were happy with these responses as we are aiming for battles to last between 20-30 minutes. It looks like we’re on track.

What we were trying to nail down is the number of choices that players feel comfortable with. There are an enormous amount of features and options that we can give players, but as with any RTS, we need to balance this tightly. The response here is not as telling as we would’ve liked. It seems like some players want to have control, some not so much. At this stage of development, we are working on the balance of features, considering what players should, and should not control, and how many choices players should have. As per this feedback, we can see that we should have options for players who prefer less intense control, and scalable challenge for those that do.

The final decisions here will naturally come from playtesting and making sure the game seems challenging, but the controls are smooth and not overly demanding. This is probably one of the most challenging elements of design for INF, and indeed, one that we will spend a lot of time getting right.

Most of you are social folk! This is good news for MMO fans. For you lone wolves, you can find your little pocket of the galaxy and build yourself up in the shadows.

Kind of a split here! But it seems that it’s mostly about balance. We are going to give you options in INF, but we also want you to have an idea of what’s coming. We all know that if you have hundreds of ships to choose from, it’s going to be a nightmare to decide how you build your fleet, and how you’re going to coop with other players because you’ll have no idea what their ships do. So the general idea at this stage is to give some classes of ships that fulfill general roles (tanks, support, etc.) and have ship models within those classes, giving you wide variety within some simple constraints. And as you know, each of your ships will get stronger as you kit them out and customize them as well.

RTS Features

This was interesting! We asked what modern RTS features you do and don’t like. Here are of the most common responses:

And some of the more interesting/wacky responses:

Most of the responses seem to align with what we are aiming to build. This has been great for our confidence in Infinite Fleet. We are all huge RTS fans here, so we’re glad that you guys mostly agree with us. The main issue we can see here is micromanagement. There is a split between players who love it and hate it. Of course, we can’t please everybody, but it is clear we need to focus on balancing this just right. To give players who live micro all the challenge they need to enjoy the game, but without compromising players who enjoy a slower, more strategic approach.

What Features Do You Hope to See in Infinite Fleet?

We got loads of cool responses here! Here are some of the more interesting ones that didn’t come up in the “what RTS features do you like” section:

• A living world (right with you here buddy!)
  
• Awesome soundtrack (just you wait.)
  
• Flexible use of ships, not only warships but able to build, resource, etc. (yup)
  
• I want my friends to be able to join during a battle (yup)
  
• Side-occupations such as mining, being a merchant, etc. (maybe, you can buy and sell things for sure, and also mine, but the main game currently is about combat)
  
• Occasionally obtain massive fleets (there will be gigantic NPC fleets that you will support, the reputation system will allow you to position the NPC fleets, but you cannot directly control them)
  
• Competitive multiplayer (later, but yes)
  
• Does not require microtransactions (we will have a player-driven marketplace, and we will sell skins and suchlike, but nothing pay to win)
  
• Pretty battles (sure!)
  
• Use for all units types (absolutely)
  
• Excellent A.I. (this is one of our core features, we are very focused on this)
  
• Planet customization after colonization (will likely come under the reputation system.)
  
• *Baumi as a ship (if you mean a ship called Baumi, sure why not. If you mean a ship textured with Baumi’s face, probably not.)

*For those of you who don’t know, Baumi is one of our game designers and a popular DOTA 2 streamer. Many of our followers are fans and enjoy trolling.

Thanks!

Thank you, everybody, for taking part in the survey. We gained a lot of really useful insight and we’re confident now that we are on the right track to making a game that you guys will absolutely love!

Stay tuned for more updates.

P.S. the survey is still up right here, so if you haven’t completed it, feel free to do so! The more results we get, the better. Thank you!

In Infinite Fleet, you take command of a fleet of gigantic space ships. Each of these ships has a general purpose, but you can modify them them to suit particular roles in your overall strategy. Within those ships, are the squads. Squads are much more suited to a particular goal, but you may also upgrade and strengthen them over time.

So let us introduce you to a couple of ships, and an Atrox fighter!

The Polaris Versa Mark I

The Versa, as the name suggests, is a total all round war machine. This will be the first ship provided to you when you join the fleet. It is loaded with a wide arsenal of weaponry including substitutable heavy and light weapons hardpoints and also an array of AA guns to mow down enemies at close proximity. The Versa also comes with a repertoire of squad bays giving it the versatility for many different types of engagement. Its shielding is mid-strength, as is its hull. Therefore, it cannot hold its own against aggressive punishment but it is fast enough to dip in and out of engagements with enemy while other ships take the brunt of incoming fire.

The Polaris Cannon Mark I

The Cannon substitutes speed and endurance with a spectacularly powerful pair of Kinetic Impulse Cannons. This is an artillery ship that has long range cannons, heavy and light weapons hardpoints and AA guns for its last line of defence. The Cannon can wreak havoc from afar, but it is slow and vulnerable and thus must be protected at all costs. If the enemy breaks through the line and hits the Cannon ship, it will easily be destroyed. This ship does not have any squad bays and focuses entirely on attack. Its Kinetic Impulse Cannons fire in a predetermined line of fire, which means the commander must consider the flight path of the enemy, but they can also be used to stop enemies in their tracks and them to take a particular path.

The Atrox Sagitta

The Sagitta is a pest. On its own, this nimble little strike fighter doesn’t cause much of a threat, but in a swarm they can be devastating, like locusts picking off our ships one by one. The Sagitta is excellent at disabling a ships shields if it can get close enough. Ships AA guns are not fast enough to engage them, though they can suppress them somewhat. However, they are vulnerable in dogfights so the key to their defeat is in containing them away from our ships. It is always wise to keep a squad or two back to defend ships against these maleficent fighters.

Infinite Fleet is still in the early stages of production and we thank you all for your support! Please check the links below to help us spread the word about this epic MMORTS saga and join our community on Discord: discord.gg/NVr3vhj

Welcome to our new website!

We’ve been working on getting this website up and running with the help of Daniel, our amazing Senior Artist. He’s been working tirelessly on the design and we think it really looks great!

We are currently working on a bunch of resources to show you guys

Kian How, our Audio Director, is composing an immersive and powerful soundtrack to throw you right into the Infinite Fleet universe. He’s worked on AAA titles such as Dishonored and EVE, so you can rest easy knowing that the music in Infinite Fleet is going to be amazing.

We are also finalizing our trailer. We’ve been using Cinemachine on Unity and we feel the effect is jaw-dropping! This is almost complete and will be on the website very soon.

Our team has come together from all corners of the world and it’s time to take INF to the next stage. We’ll be sharing content with you as it’s being created so that you’re right on the front lines of development. You’re welcome to join our Discord server and chat with us directly: https://discord.gg/NVr3vhj. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook. (check the links below) Help us to spread the word so we can achieve our goal and launch this amazing anime strategy game!

Infinite Fleet is still in the early stages of production and there’s still a lot we have to do. We’re an ambitious team though, and we working hard to make this epic game happen! Thank you all so much for your ongoing support!