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[More_Badass]

http://jmpdrv.com/games/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jumpdrive/xo-a-retro-sci-fi-strategy-game-for-pc-mac-linux/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyCMKyxE8O0

Inspired by sci-fi works such as Battlestar Galactica, The Lost Fleet series, and games like FTL, our strategy game will test your skills as a leader in times of great need.

You are the captain of the last remaining battleship in the fleet. A relentless, overwhelming enemy has emerged to abduct your people. There’s no time to colonize planets, negotiate with alien races, or build an empire. You’re outnumbered, out-gunned, and low on resources. Knowing when it’s time to fight or flee will be the key to saving the human race.

• Emerge from jumpspace near a planet where you will begin rescuing ships, gathering resources, and defending against ever-stronger waves of enemies until you judge it is time to evacuate the fleet.
• Navigate a complex political system as the war brings out the best and worst in people. Promote the finest in your fleet to your council. Heed their advice or face the consequences.
• Choose the next planet to jump to based on limited intel, taking into account the resources you need, reported enemy strength, and refugees at each possible destination. Spin up the fleet's jump drives and lead your able ships to the temporary safety of jumpspace.
• In jumpspace, use your resources to upgrade ships, manufacture weapons, and make critical repairs.
• Continue this cycle until you amass enough firepower to defeat the enemy mothership and escape with as many people as possible.

At the heart of the game are procedural events – the things that happen to you every time you jump in to an area. You'll encounter ships under distress, desperate refugees, greedy merchants, wreckage and caches to loot, shipyards and stations, enemy traps... and much more. We have about a hundred different basic event types that we hope to have in the game, each of which will have variations. Most of our event system is already finished.

To initiate combat, your ships need only move within range of an enemy ship. There are several types of weapons at your disposal, including flak cannons, point-defense cannons, lasers, missiles, and a unique defensive tool called the sandcaster - which forms a cloud of particles that blocks laser fire and damages ships that blunder into it.

Under the strain of battle, some will crack under pressure while others will rise to greatness. Each situation will require thoughtful leadership. Demands, urgent calls for help, and interesting opportunities will present themselves, often at your most trying moments. You must decide what is best: do you reassign that annoying complainer to damage control, throw them in the brig, or abandon them to their own fate? Do you risk the safety of the fleet to pursue a sudden opportunity?

Your exodus will take you to many worlds. As in the real universe, you'll come across gas giants, airless rocks, frozen wastelands, hellish molten planets and rarest of all, habitable worlds.

 

[Fragamemnon]

The aesthetic they have going, both in their music and visuals, is insane. It's honestly more resonant with me than Enemy Starfighter was, and that's saying something.

Backed at the cheapo tier.

 

[More_Badass]

Yeah, really like the look. Very colorful and vibrant. The concept is great too; always being on the back foot against a powerful enemy makes for some tense asymmetrical gameplay

 

[More_Badass]

Almost at 50% funded

 

[Lord of Castamere]

For some reason this is giving me strong Enders Game vibes.

 

[More_Badass]

Some informative info from the dev blog on planets and enemies
http://jmpdrv.com/2015/05/15/procedural-planets/

As the commander in XO, you’re responsible for making sure your fleet has enough resources. You’ll need fuel, oxygen, water, and food – and if you want to make repairs or build anything new, you need raw materials too. Part of the game is this never-ending hunt for resources.

While there are space stations, cargo ships, depots and caches that you can get resources from, by far the biggest source of what you’ll need to survive are the planets themselves. Each planet is different; they’re not just window dressing. The planets you choose to visit play a huge role in resupply and resource management.

Many elements in XO are procedurally generated, meaning things like the star systems and planets are automatically created by the computer according to mathematically-defined rules. The universe is vast; and procedural generation allows us to give the player the chance to see a lot of that variety and keep each star system unique and interesting. There’s enough variation that no two planets will ever be alike. Visually you’ll see a wide range of colors, different shaped continents, and unique cloud layers on every planet you visit.

In XO, as in the real universe, a planet’s temperature is determined by how hot their sun is and how far away it orbits. So you might see an Earth-like planet that’s frozen if it’s too far from the sun, or molten if it’s too close. If the planet is too small, it won’t be able to hold an atmosphere and be a rocky Mars-like world.

http://jmpdrv.com/2015/06/05/the-faceless-enemy/
http://jmpdrv.com/2015/06/12/enemy-ship-design/

We’ve been pitching the game with this line for months: “Command a fleet of starships against an unbeatable enemy.” The most common question we hear after that is, “So how do you win?” Our game isn’t about destroying every last trace of your adversaries, it’s about leadership and survival as you fight your way to escape. Lead your people well and yes, there will be an epic, final battle. Make it through that and you have saved humanity. Along the way you’ll be making hard decisions, and not everyone is going to make it.

In XO, you’re up against overwhelming odds. You’re out-numbered, out-gunned, and low on resources. But the enemy isn’t trying to blow you up. Your ships are being disabled, and the people onboard are being taken away, one-by-one. To what end? We’re not telling. Maybe a fate worse than death. Imagine your loved ones are taken away, and you don’t know if they’re dead or alive, what their living conditions are, what they may be forced to do… that’s truly terrifying.

The carrier is essentially an enormous fuel tank and a big interstellar drive with attachment points for other ships. Oh yeah, and a big cage for captured humans. The carrier itself is weak, though it holds hundreds of small swarm fighters and the powerful harvester.

The swarm fighters are much more maneuverable that any other ship in the game; they use an engine that allows them to vector thrust in any direction without turning. I always had this idea of them being insect like, and we succeeded in making them feel like real pests in the game. They are sometimes hundreds of fighter in a swarm, and fending them off can be pretty irritating.

 

[More_Badass]

Devs are going for a hard sci fi approach and the amount of thought that's going into the designs and ships is really cool

http://jmpdrv.com/2015/02/20/building-a-better-battleship/

We wanted a utilitarian look for all the human ships, with nothing wasted on aesthetics, and where function drove design. Because of the cost and weight involved in maintaining pressurized crew areas, the majority of every ship is in hard vacuum. The heavy armor plating our military ships have is angled to help defect or reduce damage from laser and kinetic-based weapons. These hard angles naturally give the ship a threatening form. All of the crew areas are surrounded with water storage to help protect them from radiation and provide an insulating layer. Also, the bridge isn’t visible – it’s located in the center of the craft where it is least likely to be hit. Protecting the battleship from an obvious weakness like an exposed bridge should be a top priority.

 

[More_Badass]

New update on your fleet's ships
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-strategy-game-for-pc-mac-linux/posts/1302201

Battleship (BHV) – The heaviest ship of the line, configurable with a wide array of offensive and defensive ordinance, including a powerful spinal mount weapon.

Destroyer (DDC) – The DDC is a tough, flexible ship about a third of the size of the battleship.

Farmship (F) – Having one of these around is useful if you want your people to eat.

More at the link

 

[More_Badass]

Game was Greenlit

And here's 17 minutes of gameplay

 

[More_Badass]

Final 27 hours

Here's a video showing off a timelapse of the game's development

 

[Elandyll]

There was an end of the year update.

https://jmpdrv.com/2015/12/31/end-of-the-year-update/

Basically they missed their goal (Alpha end of 2015, Beta early 2016, and release around March), but are now aiming for Alpha in Q1 and Beta in Q2 2016.

Keeping an eye on this, as I am a sucker for space RTS and the design/ music for this title look pretty amazing imo.

 

[Aztechnology]

I'm interested but a game like FTL had just the right amount of micromanagement. This looks a lot heavier in that area. I'll definitely keep an eye out though.