Universal Combat CE 
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Dev Update 2024Jan 4, 2024 - Community AnnouncementsMy fellow commanders! From the dev changelog, it has been five years since the last version release of 3.00.20.04 back on 01-02-2019. Yes - time flies. A lot has happened in those five years, both personally and professionally. But, as you all expect, I am still here. We did lose some of our friends and family along the way, but one day we will see them again. Back in 2015 when I decided to refresh the UC game via a DLC instead of doing a new Battlecruiser/Universal Combat game, it was supposed to be a relatively easy 12-14 month affair. As these things go, the more that I peeled back the layers of legacy code in a bid to upgrade them for one last dance, the more I discovered dependencies that either couldn't be left untouched or which stifled the implementation of other improvements. The challenges were further compounded by the fact that I was not only porting updated versions of various code and assets from the All Aspects Engine (in-house game engine used in AAW/AOA) to the legacy engine used in UCCE20, but I was also merging newer 2D/3D game assets as well. You can look through the changelog to see the progress that has been made in that regard. Lots and lots of things broke. At that point, I decided that it wasn't a good use of my time to keep releasing dev updates (the last one was in 2019) which broke more things. Last year, I came up with a new and improved plan so that I could get UCCE30 completed inside of 12-14 months. Aside from some crash bugs and anomalies, most of what's left to do is related to various odd anomalies as well as some miscellaneous content creation. Refer to the recently updated Trello dev board for more on this. My current plan is as follows: Address any/all FATAL crash bugs Integrate the completed exported game model assets (from AAW to UCCE30) Move the more problematic engine improvements (see Dev Plan in Trello board) to the wish list card Final testing of the completed Lyrius Conflict campaign due to the planetary scene revisions in the major 3.00.20 update Release a 3.01 build as a point release From that point onward, I can then tackle the deferred and maybe some wish list items as part of the improvement process. I have absolutely no idea how long that would take, nor if I will ever be able to complete it all - but I will continue to work on it.Something Awesome This Way Comes!Aug 18, 2022 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/7812978/86bb0326dec96f612b6aadac02eebecbf344f6cf.png Hello Fans! Some people have been asking for multiplayer in the Universal Combat suite of games released here on Steam. Here's an explainer. As I mentioned in the forums, multiplayer was implemented in the original Universal Combat (2004) and up to the first Collectors Edition (2007). Maintenance and server backend issues, coupled with new features and updates made the multiplayer version lag behind the single-player version with each new point release. Unlike the All Aspects series, the Universal Combat series - which use different core engines - were never developed with multiplayer in mind because they were derived off the original Battlecruiser series. Thus, having to add multiplayer to a single-player game was fraught with all the usual challenges that such an endeavor entails. So, in the long run, having to sync the multiplayer with single-player features, bug fixes etc. was an on-going time-wasting challenge that eventually became insurmountable. And with that, multiplayer was disabled in the 2.0 release back in 2009. Thereafter, my plan was to spend some time fully developing an updated multiplayer component as a DLC to the on-going expansion and improvement of the Universal Combat 3.0 series; similar to The Lyrius Conflict DLC which expands and improves on various parts of the core engine. Though I haven't been able to spend as much time on 3.0 as I would like to, due to other projects and the fact that I ripped out a large swath of legacy UC code that I had always planned to re-write, I still plan to develop a multiplayer component. And the quickest way forward in this regard is to integrate the more advanced multiplayer engine from the All Aspects series to the UCCE 3.0 core as a separate DLC once I have completed and released the final version of the single-player The Lyrius Conflict DLC. Until then, I have now added the original 2007 version of UCCE as a free game to the base game here on Steam. As it's not a separate game on Steam nor a DLC, you will have to manually install it - then add it to your Steam library manually. You can view the changelog here. Once you have this update, look in the Steam install folder for the UniversalCombatCE_10104_STM.exe file and run it. That's it! Enjoy! DISCLAIMER As a legacy title that no longer has updates, this release is unsupported. The backend master server used for multiplayer server browsing has been off-line for many years now. So, you can only setup and join a multiplayer game using the command-line options and the console server build. See Section 13 of the included PDF manual for more info on this.Maintenance UpdateAug 17, 2022 - Community AnnouncementsMinor cleanupMaintenance BuildAug 17, 2022 - Community AnnouncementsMinor revision/cleanup. No data or code changes.Battlecruiser Millennium GoldAug 30, 2021 - Community Announcements{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/7812978/10e9c1f1b03746ca44bd8463ff331d50bc54d7d3.png So there's a restoration project for BCM Gold underway. More details are in this forum threadDEV STATUS UPDATE Q3/20Sep 10, 2020 - Community AnnouncementsOK - I don't even know where to begin with this without writing a massive blog. So I'm just going to try to keep it short and simple. As you all know, the Battlecruiser and Universal Combat games spawned from them are a labor of love and which I have worked on for almost three decades now. With various games in the series being derived from a previous game version while using engines and features, over the years code bloat (if it ain't broke, don't touch it!) accumulated to an unmanageable degree. Over the years, I replaced or upgraded most of the legacy code - to the extent that as of this writing, very little of the original Battlecruiser game code exists. In fact, all of the original legacy code written in TASM and MASM have since been replaced with C/C++ versions. This has been an on-going process each time I dare look at this code base with more than a passing glance. Here comes the fun part. So few years back when I decided to do another game in the BC/UC series, I knew that starting from scratch simply wasn't in the cards because, financials aside, it would be an insurmountable task for the most part. That aside from the fact that I was overseeing the development of Alganon (which my team had taken over) as well as my next big - and what I believe to be my final - game Line Of Defense. The decision to branch UCCE 2.0 to create a 3.0 derivative was so that I didn't have to start from scratch. I felt that the best path forward was to use the underlying suite of game engines, while updating those with improvements, adding new content etc. And so with that plan I released that first 3.0 version in June 2015. Since that time, while cleaning up and removing legacy code, I was also improving on the engines which would later complete this version. As this effort continued, the act of removing deprecated code - while breaking most everything that worked before - forced me to not only branch (see Public Test Builds) the code, but I also had to freeze certain updates in order to complete other critical work. For one thing, the graphics engine was still based on DirectX9 (which Microsoft deprecated years ago in tool builds). So in order to continue working on 3.0 in a WIN 10 world, I had to not only maintain a separate set of DX9 dev tools (DLLs etc), but I also had to fight back the urge to upgrade from Visual Studio 2010 on which the most recent versions were based. Trust me, developing a videogame in a VM environment isn't fun. Like at all. One fateful morning last year after a particularly nightmarish debugging session, I made the decision to not only migrate to DX10, but also to move my platform dev for the game to VS 2017 (I recently moved to VS 2019). And just like that, the planned branch of 3.00.20.05 (which was to be released in March 2019) came to a grinding halt. While all that was going on, a different dev fiasco which was playing out over at the LoD dev cabal, came to a head and created a massive distraction. As time went on and my focus...DEV STATUS UPDATE Q4/19Dec 14, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsSo another year goes by - just like that. Remember my lengthy Summer 2018 update? Sure you do. For the past year, in between working to re-launch and bring Alganon back online, working on the UE4 port for Line Of Defense, dealing with some RL issues etc, I have also been working on the next MAJOR UCTLC build. Since the last build release, so much has changed between the official (3.00.19) and PTB (3.00.20) versions that merging the two and releasing a single build, will be a version with a LOT of broken things in it. And I don't want to keep having to maintain two branches. So I decided to hold off until I had completed some critical code which I've been working on, while also replacing old content with new (some of which you have seen in the PTB versions). Once that's fully completed, I can then deprecate both the current public and test builds in favor of a new unified build, then continue with smaller updates going forward. I know that it has been awhile since the last version, but it's for good reason. Development isn't always glorious and there's so much legacy code that I'm removing and/or replacing that I broke so many things it's not even funny. But the end result is that not only is it for the better, but it also provides a pathway to a future multiplayer DLC which (if you have been reading my posts) I am hoping to make once this DLC is released. The development of this 3.0x engine kernel used in UCTLC is the last game of its kind that I will be developing. In fact, it's why I opted to use the DLC route to not only improve on key aspects of the Universal Combat IP, but also - hopefully - add multiplayer via another DLC at some point down the road. It's going to be awhile before it's completed, but I think that you the fans will agree that it will be worth the wait. Thanks for being patient.BUILD 3.00.20.04 RELEASEDJan 2, 2019 - Community AnnouncementsAnother build has been released via the Public Test Branch. Please refer to the complete changelog for more info. The known issues log has also been updated. Once updated, Steam client should show BuildID 3439098. BUILD 3.00.20.03 RELEASEDDec 30, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsAnother build has been released via the Public Test Branch. No new content. I just decided to release my current DEV build so that it matches the PTB version at year end. Please refer to the complete changelog for more info. The known issues log has also been updated. Once updated, Steam client should show BuildID 3434897. BUILD 3.00.20.02 RELEASEDDec 28, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsThis MINOR build has been released via the Public Test Branch. Please refer to the complete changelog for more info. The known issues log has also been updated. Once updated, Steam client should show BuildID 3432677DEV STATUS UPDATEDec 28, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsThis is just a quick end of year status update. I had planned to push the latest 3.00.20.xx PTB ver to the main branch by year end; but I simply couldn't make it. This was primarily due to the massive amount of legacy planetary scene content that still needs to be replaced or the scenarios simply won't work. If you're already using the 3.00.20.01 PTB ver, then you already know that ALL the legacy planetary scenes have been removed, and awaiting replacement (each one is MANUALLY BUILT) with the newer ones as seen in the new scenes already released with that build. The main issue is that any IA or ACM scenario that requires those scenes, currently has problems. e.g. a unit that needs to be a specific location, will likely be in a completely different location due to the size and scale of the new scenes. So EACH scenario has to be scanned for planetary locations, then those locations have to be updated in the script, which then needs to be tested. So year, it's a massive amount of work. But once completed, it won't need to be messed with again. If you've seen the new scenes in the game, they you will agree that this update is well worth it. In fact, this build is the biggest one that I will do for this project. Good news is that it's really close, so I hope to release the final build at some point in Q1/2019. MORE INFO: changelog Trello RoadmapBATTLECRUISER 3000AD - 22 YEARS LATEROct 2, 2018 - Community Announcements22 years ago on Oct 1st, 1996, the one that started it all, BATTLECRUISER 3000AD (aka BC3K) was commercially released. Eight years later, after the series evolved beyond a single capital ship, I added more advanced features such as allowing the player to control any and all of the game's assets, fps mode in space and on planets etc, the series spiritual successor, Universal Combat, was released. A short story. http://dereksmart.com/2018/10/bc3k-is-22/BUILD 3.00.20.01 RELEASEDSep 26, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsThis build has been released via the Public Test Branch. Please refer to the complete changelog for more info. The known issues log has also been updated. Once updated, Steam client should show BuildID 3160131.BUILD 3.00.20 RELEASEDSep 16, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsFINALLY!! This is a MAJOR release! It requires a mandatory re-install of the game even if you don't own the DLC. To avoid confusion, I am not putting any notes in this bulletin. Please refer to the complete changelog for more info. Due to some missing content and random instability (not very frequent), this build is released via Steam's Beta test branch. It took a while to get it to work for a DLC, but I finally got it working. So there are now THREE builds to choose from depending on whether or not you have the DLC. AVAILABLE BUILDS Base 2.00.05 game The Lyrius Conflict DLC 3.00.19 The Lyrius Conflict DLC 3.00.20 (via Beta tab) INSTALLATION UPDATE 09-18-2018 Please follow this procedure to uninstall and re-install the game, even if you don't have the DLC installed. Backup your saved games (.19 games are compatible with .20) Uninstall the base game. This will also uninstall the DLC Install the base game Install the DLC Run UCCE30_steam_shortcuts.exe* (installs shortcuts to docs) Switch to the PUBLIC TEST BRANCH if you want Run cleanup.bat* Restore your saved games (located in .\SAVE folder) * Located in Steam game install folder DA PLAN! For now, I am going to keep .19 and .20 as separate branches. Once .20 gets to a point where it's stable enough, it will become the new main DLC branch, and .21 will take its place as the bleeding edge public test branch. Enjoy!BUILD 3.00.20 STATUS UPDATESep 2, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsHey guys, Just a quick update to let you guys know that I am still working through some breaking issues which I have recently fixed. The issue that I am faced with is that, from this point on, future builds can and will break certain functionality (99% of which are graphics related) as legacy things are removed, replaced etc. That major work has started with this upcoming .20 update which, as you can see from the changelog, is pretty massive. So I have been looking into setting up a BETA tab so that .19 and .20 can be run independently. Going forward, this will allow me to have a stable and unstable build for people who want to switch while still checking out the new things. However, as TLC is actually DLC and not a full title, the Steam backend isn't being co-operative. But I am still trying to figure a workaround. If that fails, then I will have no choice but to roll out .20 and just work through critical breaking issues as you guys find and report them. I will know more next week. In the meantime, I made a 1hr video showing the differences between .19 and .20 visuals related to the new content. I think you're gonna like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UV8jd3FKbU BUILD 3.00.20 STATUS UPDATEAug 10, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsYes, it has been awhile but this was a major update and quite a few things were either flat-out broken, or didn't work as expected. In the end, I decided to move some items into a later build in the interest of getting this one out sooner. I have now updated the changelog to reflect the final revision. I am planning to release this update SOON. Yesterday I also released an update to the base 2.0 build due to some legacy issues which were worth fixing there. Stay tuned! BUILD 2.00.05 RELEASEDAug 9, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsThis is a minor maintenance release to the base UCCE 2.0 game. If you are already on the 3.0 (The Lyrius Conflict) Early Access build, then you can only play this by uninstalling 3.0 within the Steam client. The upcoming UCCE 3.00.20 build will pick up these base line updates as well where applicable. See the full changelog for more details. DEV STATUS UPDATEMay 3, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsAs it has been over a month since I teased the release of a MAJOR build, I wanted to post a quick word on the latest status. It's a combination of things; but without getting too technical, here is briefly what's been happening. GAME DEV IS HARD - EVEN FOR A VET OK, that one was obvious. But it's a lot more complicated than that. As you know, my plan with this 3.x generation was to improve on the game in a variety of areas including not only in terms of visual improvements, but also in improvements to the AI, gameplay elements, world assets etc. But putting on a coat of paint, can only go so far - especially since I really don't plan on doing another complex game like this. Ever. That's why I created the ACM scenario first, and tested it using the previous engine iteration etc. Part of the visual improvements involves porting UCCE to use the slightly more advanced engine used in AAW/AOA. This means that I also had to port things like shaders, physics/dynamics, numerous more advanced gameplay elements etc. And of course the more improved world assets from that engine. As these things go - everything broke. Like, completely. Recently I went through four builds in which the main visual shader (for the entire game world) was just flat-out broken - and I have been tweaking it continuously in order to get it working just right. And it's still not quite there yet. For example - at certain times of the day, certain objects are darker on one side than they should be. Some of the new assets have compressed normal maps, while others don't - at all. Which means that I have to update the shader to support that so it works for both types of models. Stuff like that. Another example is that the planetary site textures (with the roads and such) seen in AAW/AOA were designed specifically to work with that version of the PTE (Planetary Terrain Engine Spec 5 - which does not use a procedural terrain generation method like its predecessor). Which means that using them in PTE Spec 4 used by UCCE 3.x isn't trivial. In fact, I tried to hack it in and ran into all sorts of issues whereby they would flicker off|on at some viewing distances, the reported height above ground was incorrect etc. Part of the problem is that porting the graphics engine over isn't a 1:1 thing because there are features in both which aren't common. e.g. AAW/AOA don't have any space combat; which means that FX like hyperspace, rendering/culling of the larger game world aren't supported etc. So basically I've simply been picking and choosing what changes I can port over, without breaking everything completely. If you've been following my updates on the Trello board and the changelog, you should have a pretty good idea of what's going on. ASSET MANAGEMENT WOES Improving a graphics engine while not improving on the assets is a pointless exercise. That's why I have also been replacing legacy UCCE assets with newer ones from AAW/AOA. This includes assets like terrain buildings, characters, weapons, veh...3.00.20 INBOUND. AND IT'S MAJOR!Mar 23, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsThis is a very extensive update which wasn't scheduled to be released until later this year due to the sheer scope. On the content side, as there will be new scenes mixed in with the legacy ones yet to be removed, it means that any/all scenarios which take place on the planet, will likely not work as expected due to referenced units not being present where they were scripted to be. Particularly since the new scenes are very large. They are 8km x 8km compared to the approx 1.5km x 1.5km sizes of the legacy ones. The All Aspects engine (used in AAW/AOA games) suite being ported over, also has a vast number of built-in features which have to be ported over or things will either break, or just cause more work to be done. e.g. the character animation system is completely different in AAW as it is skeleton based. Which means that all the characters in UCCE have to support it. Which means that the animation engine can't be ported over until the character models are ready. Similarly, due to the advanced lighting and visuals in AAW not only do the UCCE shaders have to be upgraded or completed deprecated in favor of improved versions of the AAW ones, but the better models being ported over from AAW won't look the same or as good in UCCE until those tweaks are completed. The AAW engine also has lots of built in features, most of which aren't going to be ported over as that's a different type of game. However, I plan to pick and chose the ones I believe would benefit UCCE. e.g. weapon fire deviation, ability for characters to lean, disabled craft falling to the ground under gravity and being destroyed on ground impact etc. These will be documented in the changelog as always. Remember, these are just features already in the AAW game engine and just being ported over as-needed. This update - which is due out hopefully within the next 7 -10 days - also has a vast number of AAW assets (the Trello dev board has been extensively updated today) which have been ported over, implemented and tested. Those assets, in combination with on-going improvements to the terrain engine itself, are going to add a whole new visual dimension to the planetary portion of the game. If you already own AAW or AOA, then you should already know what to expect. This is going to be awesome!3.00.20 INBOUND. AND IT'S MAJOR!Mar 23, 2018 - Community AnnouncementsThis is a very extensive update which wasn't scheduled to be released until later this year due to the sheer scope. On the content side, as there will be new scenes mixed in with the legacy ones yet to be removed, it means that any/all scenarios which take place on the planet, will likely not work as expected due to referenced units not being present where they were scripted to be. Particularly since the new scenes are very large. They are 8km x 8km compared to the approx 1.5km x 1.5km sizes of the legacy ones. The All Aspects engine (used in AAW/AOA games) suite being ported over, also has a vast number of built-in features which have to be ported over or things will either break, or just cause more work to be done. e.g. the character animation system is completely different in AAW as it is skeleton based. Which means that all the characters in UCCE have to support it. Which means that the animation engine can't be ported over until the character models are ready. Similarly, due to the advanced lighting and visuals in AAW not only do the UCCE shaders have to be upgraded or completed deprecated in favor of improved versions of the AAW ones, but the better models being ported over from AAW won't look the same or as good in UCCE until those tweaks are completed. The AAW engine also has lots of built in features, most of which aren't going to be ported over as that's a different type of game. However, I plan to pick and chose the ones I believe would benefit UCCE. e.g. weapon fire deviation, ability for characters to lean, disabled craft falling to the ground under gravity and being destroyed on ground impact etc. These will be documented in the changelog as always. Remember, these are just features already in the AAW game engine and just being ported over as-needed. This update - which is due out hopefully within the next 7 -10 days - also has a vast number of AAW assets (the Trello dev board has been extensively updated today) which have been ported over, implemented and tested. Those assets, in combination with on-going improvements to the terrain engine itself, are going to add a whole new visual dimension to the planetary portion of the game. If you already own AAW or AOA, then you should already know what to expect. This is going to be awesome!
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