We've started adding ambient noises — but not just at random; we wanted them to reflect the current state and contents of your city.

So, each city part generates its own noises, positioned correctly in 3D space relative to the camera.  So, if your colony is empty, you won't hear anything (though we're hoping to get some crickets chirping now and then in this case).  But as you add buildings, farms, trees, etc., you'll start to hear all sorts of things — birds, chickens, dogs barking, industrial hum of the air regulator, etc.  And as you move the camera around, different sounds come in and out depending on what's in view and how far away it is.

Sadly, a text post doesn't really give the flavor of it, and a screen shot would be even more useless!  So I guess you'll have to wait for 0.16, which we'll get out as soon as we can... probably in a couple more weeks.

Best,
- Joe

As some of you will know, version 0.16 of HighFrontier will be adding achievements and a basic economic system. Here is a quick sneak peek at what you will get to play with.



Interesting factoid, this version will be the first update to the build scene in MONTHS!

As promised, we've tweaked our roadmap a bit to make room for some more fun features in the next release.

We've now done that, and have come up with a list of tasks for version 0.16, which we're working on now.  These include:

• a simple economic model (#136, #137, #138)
• an achievement system (#139)
• music and sounds (#132, #140)
• a visual effect when the CO2 is too low (#134)
  

We've been using Unity 4.3 to make High Frontier for a long time.  I didn't want to upgrade to Unity 5 (which came out in March) because, in an unrelated project, I've been helping some middle schoolers build a spacecraft simulator for their aerospace club, and the school computers only have Unity 4.3.  Since you can't easily go back and forth between Unity 5 and Unity 4, I decided to just stick with Unity 4 until the aerospace project was done.

But it wrapped up this week!  (And the software worked perfectly, though the pilot had a little trouble landing under pressure.)  So, we finally updated to Unity 5.

For the most part, the transition went very smoothly.  The footpaths aren't shading properly in Unity 5, instead coming out very dark.  But, once we fix that, we should be all set, and it's full speed ahead for version 0.16!

I'm curious about the internal simulation. What is driving the growth right now and how detailed do you plan on making it?

Some folks have been suggesting that the game will be a lot more fun once we have a basic career mode in place, where you have to worry about budgets and bootstrapping.

Right now, that isn't scheduled to appear until 0.25, when the game is getting close to done.  There's a bunch more simulation type stuff ahead of it.

But we could rearrange things to introduce career mode a lot sooner... what do you all think?

Hello, my name is Kevin Strout, and I am the junior developer helping my dad to make HighFrontier a reality. I am quite excited for this game, and there are many cool features that will be added in later versions. My task in the HighFrontier team is co-coder and tester, just a few days ago I found several new issues, all of which will be solved by the next version. I don't have much time to work on it, but in a few months I should be able to dedicate more time to the game. I hope to be active in these forums, and I am excited to be a part of HighFrontier.

I finally got around to joining the forum. My name is Peter Fargo (Pops). I've been aware of Joe's work for years through RealBasic/RealStudio/Xojo, etc. and jumped on the Kickstarter wagon when I found out about this project. I know a vibrant community really makes a difference so I'm jumping in here hoping to help get the ball rolling.

The game is coming along nicely and love the occasional surprise email announcing the latest version. I'm slowly wrapping my head around what needs doing to get a station up and running. I don't have a ton of time for gaming but High Frontier is easy to get in and get out - or leave running for a few hours to see what happens.

Anyone else out there got a name? ?

Read all about it over at the blog: http://highfrontierblog.com/2015/04/24/high-frontier-version-0-15/.



For version 0.16, we're planning to add lighting... though there has been some discussion around here about maybe reshuffling our priorities a bit to get more gamification in sooner.  Watch the forums for more on that idea this weekend!

Check this out:

Quote:The Space Exploration, Development and Settlement (SEDS) Act is about to be introduced in Congress. The purpose of the SEDS Act is to authorize and instruct NASA to pursue permanent human settlements in outer space.