I'm putting this up top so everyone can see. Space Odyssey was shelved a while back and I'll explain why. A few months back a sprite artist expressed interest in essentially redoing the game's art assets. However subsequently he vanished as RL pressures prevented him from delivering on this promise. The thing is though faced with the opportunities such a game art asset redo presents (not horrible graphics, characters made as a composite of multiple images, a chance to revamp battle mode and make it less simplistic) I can't muster motivation for the idea of continueing the game without an art revamp and I lack the skills to do sprite art and not have it suck. Therefore we are at an impasse, we need a sprite artist and the one we first had is not available. If anyone wants to see me return to the code for this game, if anyone wants to see Space Odyssey rise from the ashes, then you need to find me a sprite artist willing to help.
Short pitch:
Do you want a vore game that isn't a fantasy RPG or platformer?
Do you want to engage in realtime spacebattles and turn based tactical battles inside ships and on alien planets?
Do you want a sci fi game where you command your own spaceship and crew of distressingly edible humans?
Do you want to explore a dangerous and hungry galaxy?
Are you a predator annoyed by the appearance of yet another prey centered game implied by the last two questions?
Then take heart voracious comrade for Space Odyssey unlike other games was designed to be modded and changed by those with no programming experience to appeal to anyone's tastes.
Pictures:
Voyage the stars!
Meet interesting people!
Visit their digestive tracts!
Do battle with diabolical reptiles and other ne'er do wells!
Repulse the alien menace from your starships!
Space Odyssey is a vore game hybrid of tactical turn based strategy, real time arcade space combat and interplanetary exploration.
Features:
The only tactical turn based strategy game
Predator and prey support
X-com style combat
animated original artwork
Procedurally generated galaxy
Multi genre gameplay
RPG style stat progression for ship crew
Mod and custom content friendly!
Manual:
Spoiler: show
The story of the stock campaign:
Black Nova Industries has developed FTL travel and seeks to profit from the galaxy before relinquishing their monopoly on use of the drive. For this reason they have begun launching Nova Venture class corvettes to seek out strange alien lifeforms, alien artifacts, alien technology and precious minerals for the profit of the company.
Getting started and welcome to the galaxy:
When you start a new game you will begin at BNI's Jupiter station on the galaxy screen. Your ship is visible orbiting the symbol for the station. It would be advise-able to acquire additional crew. You start with a default crew of five but the Nova Venture is capable of carrying sixteen crew in total.
Interacting with planets from the galaxy screen:
You may only interact with planets that your ship is currently orbiting (Jupiter station is considered a planet) you do this by clicking on the planet your ship is orbiting. This will bring up a small menu of what is available on the planet. If you click the spacestation it will bring up Home Shop and Home Recruitment. Home shop is where you will sell the loot of alien stars or purchase additional equipment for your crew such as laser rifles, for now though ignore the shop and focus on recruitment to get those new crew. Clicking recruitment will bring up a new window. This is the recruitment window.
Recruiting crew from the recruitment window:
The left of this window shows information on the currently highlighted individual on the list on the right. The list on the right shows your current crew first and then beneath that possible recruits. Click on Girl (or boy, stats are identical but art is different) to lock the list on that name. All lists have locks toggleable by clicking them. Then click recruit.
(The flip button flips over to the view of your ship's lifeform containment capable of storing eight alien lifeforms which you can sell from the flipped view.)
Another window will come up showing the training and finishing screen. On the left are possible but optional training programs the crew can start with, on the right is the effects. In the center is a space for their name, typing while on the training screen will change their name. Pressing Apply will give the crew the selected training program. Pressing Exit will exit and give you an untrained crewman. The crewman has been recruited either way. Recruit say four people with security training here.
Equipping personnel from the cargo screen (0.071 or later):
Your new recruits do not start off equipped with anything so it is best to equip them before undertaking any missions. To do this exit the recruitment window by clicking outside of it then click Cargo in the bottom left. This will show the ship's cargowindow. On the right is a listing of stats for the crewman currently highlighted on the left. In the center is the currently highlighted crewman's inventory and beneath that the ship's cargobay. In the ship's cargobay will be four laser rifles. To arm your new crew lock the list's highlight on each of them in turn and click and drag a laser rifle from the list to their left hand slot (the large slots are hand slots) for each crewman.
Boldly going to another star from the galaxy screen:
Travelling to another star is as simple as clicking a star you are not currently orbiting, the ship will immediately travel to the star and several days will pass in transit. Time is indicated in the bottom right.
Starting a mission:
The newly discovered planet will likely have a mission on it. To undertake this mission open the planet's interaction menu by clicking it then click the mission. The mission embarkation window will appear. On the right is a list of your crew, on the left a preview of the equipment and stats of whoever you currently have highlighted using the blue overlay. Only crew with yellow names will go on the mission, clicking a name toggles between yellow and white. At least one crew must go for a mission to be undertaken, crew with 0 hp cannot go on missions. Select a team of crew and click commit when ready.
In the far future of the 22nd millenium there is only vore.
(Welcome to the battle screen):
After committing to a mission you be transferred to the battle game mode. In the battle mode your objective is to eliminate all hostiles in the area while not losing all your people.
Camera controls:
Arrowkeys or moving mouse to edge of screen: This scrolls the camera.
Page up and page down: This rotates the camera in 90 degree increments.
Spacebar: This instantly focuses the camera on the currently selected crewman.
[ and ]: These keys cycle through your personnel in the area, snapping the camera to them and selecting them.
The Minimap: Clicking anywhere on the minimap instantly moves the camera (indicated by a blue diamond) to that spot.
The eye: This is located on the bottom right of the viewing window just above the vore, crouch and inventory controls(the vore control will not be visible unless your currently selected person is capable). When the eye is red clicking it will snap the view to an enemy the currently selected person can see.
Selecting and moving personnel:
Crew can be selected by left clicking them or by using the aforementioned [ and ]. By left clicking on empty floor tiles will make your currently selected person attempt to move towards that tile.
Turning to face and shooting enemies:
Right clicking empty floor will turn your currently selected character to face that tile while right clicking on an enemy will make your currently selected character attempt to shoot the enemy.
Selection box suppression: 0.072 or later.
The game now includes selection boxes extending from personnel to make them easier to select. By holding down left control this feature can be suppressed allowing tiles immediately behind said personnel to be clicked.
The selected info:
This box rests above whoever is currently selected and has 3 rows.
The first row is the name of the selected.
The second row contains their healthbar. Low health reduces accuracy and increases chance of being eaten alive.
The third row contains their current and maximum action points. Action points are expended when turning, moving and shooting.
The device info box:
This is in the bottom left of the screen and allows you to select between the multiple firing modes of your currently selected character's weapon. It also shows the remaining ammunition as a bar on the left. Clicking other hand will swap to the weapon if any in the other hand.
Endturn button:
This allows the enemy to have their turn at the end of which your action points will be refreshed and your new turn will begin.
Inventory window:
This is accessed by the inventory button and allows your currently selected character to pick up objects from the ground, reload weapons and equip new weapons.
To pick things up from the ground: The ground is the lower box of the inventory window, to pick something up into the backpack simply click them.
To equip a new weapon: Click a weapon in the inventory of the character then on the options menu as to what to do with the weapon click either left or right to move it to the relevant hand. To unequip a weapon click the relevant hand where it resides.
To reload: Click the ammunition in the inventory and on the options menu as to what to do with it indicate the hand where the weapon you wish to reload resides. If the ammunition is the right type the weapon will be reloaded.
Aftermath of mission victory:
If all enemies are eliminated you will have all items dropped on the field of battle and the mission reward. Otherwise you will get nothing. Any crew digested are gone for good while those incapacitated by weapons fire will recover slowly given time.
What's that ominous radar blip?
(Welcome to space combat)
And so it's happened. You've run into an alien ship and they seem either opportunistic or territorial enough to pick a fight. This will bring you to the space combat screen. On this screen both ships will do battle until either you escape or one ship is disabled.
Ship status:
The ship's status is displayed by a pair of bars on the lower right. The blue energy bar represents your accumulated energy reserve and is used to power the laser cannon or the engines if reactor output is being diverted. The red bar is the health bar and if reduced to zero will result in you losing this space battle.
Special controls:
Pressing Q will pause the game and even allow access to the crew window by clicking the ship layout on the right.
Pressing F will toggle drawing your ships firing arcs.
Crew window:
The crew window allows you to move crew between modules of the ship. Your laser cannon are manned by the person with the best gunnery skill in the module they're in, the ship is piloted by whoever has the highest piloting score on the bridge. To move crew use a click and click method. Click their name then click the module to send them to. Those crew not piloting the ship or firing its guns will attempt to repair module damage as it occurs in the module they're in.
'Ohcrap they're firing'
(How to fly)
Your ship uses a simple flight mechanism reliant on three buttons. These are A and D to turn the ship and W to apply thrust. Applying thrust means that the ship's engines cannot produce energy which they do by diverting atomic energy into dynamos while idling.
'Eat laser death'
(How to shoot)
By left clicking you fire your lasercannon. This will inflict the pain on whoever is hit provided you're clicking on the enemy and your gunners are good enough. Lasercannons however require energy so be mindful of that. You can also set your laser gunners to automatic by rightclicking the listing of the weapon in the weaponry panel and set them back to manual by left clicking the listing.
'Run away!'
(How to retreat)
The ship's FTL drives can be charged during combat if you believe yourself over your head by holding down R. Please note this diverts reactor output to the FTL system and ship energy reserves will not replenish while this charging is occuring. The Orange bar top center will display the current charge level, this level will reduce steadily whenever there is charge but the system is not charging due to uncorrectable limitations in the drive system. Once fully charged the ship will escape into FTL automatically.
Aftermath of space combat:
If you fail your ship will be boarded by the aliens. You must win this battle as losing it will mean all your crew have been eaten and digested and there is no one to continue your mission.
If you succeed in defeating the alien ship however you will be presented by the mission window. You now have the choice whether to board the alien ship, if you select commit from the mission window the selected people will form a boarding party. If you select cancel however you elect to annihilate the helpless alien vessel with sustained laser cannon fire.
If you escape you will retreat to a nearby star.
A strange and expansive galaxy
(Anything else)
Crew interaction with prisoners:
Alien lifeforms may be interacted with by crew in the crew window on the galaxy window(There is no time for such shennanigans during battle) To do this follow the click and click approach of clicking the crew you want to conduct the interaction then clicking the prisoner whose name is in yellow at the bottom of the crew list.
Repairs: The ship's hull damage can be repaired by clicking the 'repair' button at the top of the status window brought up by clicking status in the bottom left. Each attempt takes one day, having more and better engineers improves the rate of repairs.
Black Nova Industries has developed FTL travel and seeks to profit from the galaxy before relinquishing their monopoly on use of the drive. For this reason they have begun launching Nova Venture class corvettes to seek out strange alien lifeforms, alien artifacts, alien technology and precious minerals for the profit of the company.
Getting started and welcome to the galaxy:
When you start a new game you will begin at BNI's Jupiter station on the galaxy screen. Your ship is visible orbiting the symbol for the station. It would be advise-able to acquire additional crew. You start with a default crew of five but the Nova Venture is capable of carrying sixteen crew in total.
Interacting with planets from the galaxy screen:
You may only interact with planets that your ship is currently orbiting (Jupiter station is considered a planet) you do this by clicking on the planet your ship is orbiting. This will bring up a small menu of what is available on the planet. If you click the spacestation it will bring up Home Shop and Home Recruitment. Home shop is where you will sell the loot of alien stars or purchase additional equipment for your crew such as laser rifles, for now though ignore the shop and focus on recruitment to get those new crew. Clicking recruitment will bring up a new window. This is the recruitment window.
Recruiting crew from the recruitment window:
The left of this window shows information on the currently highlighted individual on the list on the right. The list on the right shows your current crew first and then beneath that possible recruits. Click on Girl (or boy, stats are identical but art is different) to lock the list on that name. All lists have locks toggleable by clicking them. Then click recruit.
(The flip button flips over to the view of your ship's lifeform containment capable of storing eight alien lifeforms which you can sell from the flipped view.)
Another window will come up showing the training and finishing screen. On the left are possible but optional training programs the crew can start with, on the right is the effects. In the center is a space for their name, typing while on the training screen will change their name. Pressing Apply will give the crew the selected training program. Pressing Exit will exit and give you an untrained crewman. The crewman has been recruited either way. Recruit say four people with security training here.
Equipping personnel from the cargo screen (0.071 or later):
Your new recruits do not start off equipped with anything so it is best to equip them before undertaking any missions. To do this exit the recruitment window by clicking outside of it then click Cargo in the bottom left. This will show the ship's cargowindow. On the right is a listing of stats for the crewman currently highlighted on the left. In the center is the currently highlighted crewman's inventory and beneath that the ship's cargobay. In the ship's cargobay will be four laser rifles. To arm your new crew lock the list's highlight on each of them in turn and click and drag a laser rifle from the list to their left hand slot (the large slots are hand slots) for each crewman.
Boldly going to another star from the galaxy screen:
Travelling to another star is as simple as clicking a star you are not currently orbiting, the ship will immediately travel to the star and several days will pass in transit. Time is indicated in the bottom right.
Starting a mission:
The newly discovered planet will likely have a mission on it. To undertake this mission open the planet's interaction menu by clicking it then click the mission. The mission embarkation window will appear. On the right is a list of your crew, on the left a preview of the equipment and stats of whoever you currently have highlighted using the blue overlay. Only crew with yellow names will go on the mission, clicking a name toggles between yellow and white. At least one crew must go for a mission to be undertaken, crew with 0 hp cannot go on missions. Select a team of crew and click commit when ready.
In the far future of the 22nd millenium there is only vore.
(Welcome to the battle screen):
After committing to a mission you be transferred to the battle game mode. In the battle mode your objective is to eliminate all hostiles in the area while not losing all your people.
Camera controls:
Arrowkeys or moving mouse to edge of screen: This scrolls the camera.
Page up and page down: This rotates the camera in 90 degree increments.
Spacebar: This instantly focuses the camera on the currently selected crewman.
[ and ]: These keys cycle through your personnel in the area, snapping the camera to them and selecting them.
The Minimap: Clicking anywhere on the minimap instantly moves the camera (indicated by a blue diamond) to that spot.
The eye: This is located on the bottom right of the viewing window just above the vore, crouch and inventory controls(the vore control will not be visible unless your currently selected person is capable). When the eye is red clicking it will snap the view to an enemy the currently selected person can see.
Selecting and moving personnel:
Crew can be selected by left clicking them or by using the aforementioned [ and ]. By left clicking on empty floor tiles will make your currently selected person attempt to move towards that tile.
Turning to face and shooting enemies:
Right clicking empty floor will turn your currently selected character to face that tile while right clicking on an enemy will make your currently selected character attempt to shoot the enemy.
Selection box suppression: 0.072 or later.
The game now includes selection boxes extending from personnel to make them easier to select. By holding down left control this feature can be suppressed allowing tiles immediately behind said personnel to be clicked.
The selected info:
This box rests above whoever is currently selected and has 3 rows.
The first row is the name of the selected.
The second row contains their healthbar. Low health reduces accuracy and increases chance of being eaten alive.
The third row contains their current and maximum action points. Action points are expended when turning, moving and shooting.
The device info box:
This is in the bottom left of the screen and allows you to select between the multiple firing modes of your currently selected character's weapon. It also shows the remaining ammunition as a bar on the left. Clicking other hand will swap to the weapon if any in the other hand.
Endturn button:
This allows the enemy to have their turn at the end of which your action points will be refreshed and your new turn will begin.
Inventory window:
This is accessed by the inventory button and allows your currently selected character to pick up objects from the ground, reload weapons and equip new weapons.
To pick things up from the ground: The ground is the lower box of the inventory window, to pick something up into the backpack simply click them.
To equip a new weapon: Click a weapon in the inventory of the character then on the options menu as to what to do with the weapon click either left or right to move it to the relevant hand. To unequip a weapon click the relevant hand where it resides.
To reload: Click the ammunition in the inventory and on the options menu as to what to do with it indicate the hand where the weapon you wish to reload resides. If the ammunition is the right type the weapon will be reloaded.
Aftermath of mission victory:
If all enemies are eliminated you will have all items dropped on the field of battle and the mission reward. Otherwise you will get nothing. Any crew digested are gone for good while those incapacitated by weapons fire will recover slowly given time.
What's that ominous radar blip?
(Welcome to space combat)
And so it's happened. You've run into an alien ship and they seem either opportunistic or territorial enough to pick a fight. This will bring you to the space combat screen. On this screen both ships will do battle until either you escape or one ship is disabled.
Ship status:
The ship's status is displayed by a pair of bars on the lower right. The blue energy bar represents your accumulated energy reserve and is used to power the laser cannon or the engines if reactor output is being diverted. The red bar is the health bar and if reduced to zero will result in you losing this space battle.
Special controls:
Pressing Q will pause the game and even allow access to the crew window by clicking the ship layout on the right.
Pressing F will toggle drawing your ships firing arcs.
Crew window:
The crew window allows you to move crew between modules of the ship. Your laser cannon are manned by the person with the best gunnery skill in the module they're in, the ship is piloted by whoever has the highest piloting score on the bridge. To move crew use a click and click method. Click their name then click the module to send them to. Those crew not piloting the ship or firing its guns will attempt to repair module damage as it occurs in the module they're in.
'Ohcrap they're firing'
(How to fly)
Your ship uses a simple flight mechanism reliant on three buttons. These are A and D to turn the ship and W to apply thrust. Applying thrust means that the ship's engines cannot produce energy which they do by diverting atomic energy into dynamos while idling.
'Eat laser death'
(How to shoot)
By left clicking you fire your lasercannon. This will inflict the pain on whoever is hit provided you're clicking on the enemy and your gunners are good enough. Lasercannons however require energy so be mindful of that. You can also set your laser gunners to automatic by rightclicking the listing of the weapon in the weaponry panel and set them back to manual by left clicking the listing.
'Run away!'
(How to retreat)
The ship's FTL drives can be charged during combat if you believe yourself over your head by holding down R. Please note this diverts reactor output to the FTL system and ship energy reserves will not replenish while this charging is occuring. The Orange bar top center will display the current charge level, this level will reduce steadily whenever there is charge but the system is not charging due to uncorrectable limitations in the drive system. Once fully charged the ship will escape into FTL automatically.
Aftermath of space combat:
If you fail your ship will be boarded by the aliens. You must win this battle as losing it will mean all your crew have been eaten and digested and there is no one to continue your mission.
If you succeed in defeating the alien ship however you will be presented by the mission window. You now have the choice whether to board the alien ship, if you select commit from the mission window the selected people will form a boarding party. If you select cancel however you elect to annihilate the helpless alien vessel with sustained laser cannon fire.
If you escape you will retreat to a nearby star.
A strange and expansive galaxy
(Anything else)
Crew interaction with prisoners:
Alien lifeforms may be interacted with by crew in the crew window on the galaxy window(There is no time for such shennanigans during battle) To do this follow the click and click approach of clicking the crew you want to conduct the interaction then clicking the prisoner whose name is in yellow at the bottom of the crew list.
Repairs: The ship's hull damage can be repaired by clicking the 'repair' button at the top of the status window brought up by clicking status in the bottom left. Each attempt takes one day, having more and better engineers improves the rate of repairs.
Changelog:
Spoiler: show
Update .02:
I killed some bugs and fiddled with some things, the occasional crash post mission bug is still at large however.
Also attached stuff for load game for main menu, stuff doesn't work and is wrongly sized for its use, please do not push that button.
Update .03:
Improved crew window with suggestion from Lol, made a single change to the AI algorithm to try and make the gron smarter(haven't tested it yet), finished work on load game button from main menu(haven't tested it yet).
Alas post mission crash bug is to my knowledge still present, I hesitantly conjecture that it's in some way related to picking up items in the field. will focus my testing on that today.
Update .04:
Made AI more shooty.
Fixed crash if you actually beat and capture a Gron ship.
Update .05:
Tons of bugfixes and new stuff. Have fun.
Update .05C:
Finally and hopefully Killed the crash which occurs when people get digested in battle.
Update 0.05D:
Made it so that non device objects are looted from mission battlefields.
Update 0.06:
You lot didn't ask for any content, so there's none in this update. This is a feature release where I added a bunch of improvements to the battle game mode.
Update 0.07:
Space combat mode is now in real time, it's still WAD to fly and clicking the enemy to shoot though.
Other keys are Q to pause, F to toggle firing arcs.
Prisoner and recruits arc completed. Interact with prisoners in the crew window by clicking your chosen interactor and then clicking the prisoner name.
Two vore mode support.
Space pirates.
Better cursor ghost in battle game mode, now recolours itself contextually.
Minimap no longer expands automatically.
List locks are now everywhere they should be.
update 0.07B:
Various small fixes, some of which fix things i screwed up in the data files by rushing the game out so quick.
Mini updates 0.071-0.072:
These updates only update the main executable and add no new content. (Use a full version of the game to get the data assets, copy and past the new exe into it).
0.071: Fix bug where having a crewmember with empty hands but items in their backback while saving would produce unloadable saves. Cargowindow now has much needed drag and drop functionality.
0.072: Battle screen now has selection boxes, no longer will you have to aim at people's feet to select them, now invisible squares extend upwards to encompass them.
Mini update fixes 0.072b-0.072CA:
Fixing AI issues caused by tweaks made in 0.071-0.072 and in general repairing all the horrible things we did. 0.071-0.072 were improperly tested. Thankfully these are less major releases than second digit releases but still I feel a lil bad for inflicting them on people. With any luck a few versions after 0.072CA we'll get everything back the way it should be.
Update 0.073: Includes full game data files.
AI change, feedback wanted.
Various fixes for problems reported since 0.072.
Hopefully somewhat more fixed calculation for shooting enemies near walls.
Update 0.073B:
Main fix makes infested cave mission possible again.
Also fixes for eating people with 'no vore anim' and shooting enemies near walls works a little better.
0.074: This release is partly to apologize for the HORRIBLY BROKEN 0.071-0.073. No guarantees it's stable tho'
-Merged inventory and armoury systems so that starship weaponry derives from item_base. This is an arc fragment of the ship systems arc that will allow starship weaponry to be treated as cargo and looted from alien vessels. Also cleaned up enumerators for item types(No external change, neater code).
-Added Jump attribute. Allows great leaps in battlemode. These leaps cost a large amount of AP but do not provoke reaction fire and can cross obstacles. This feature is currently for enemies only till interface improvements occur.
-Made vision code take height into account.
-Added new enemy and new planet.
0.074B fix: Turns out broken is gonna be a theme for things. Eh, we'll put fix in the label of any release that's just the EXE from now on and call it good.
-Fix the broken shops.
-Tried to kill the 'emptying containers on ground then winning mission causes crash' bug that has arisen like some unholy zombie from back when this game was barely in pre alpha. Killing zombies is hard though and this bug cannot be reliably reproduced.
0.074D: Fixed the containers error at long long last, may have broken other things as a result however. If we HAVE fixed the error though without breaking anything then we have killed the last major bug I know about. Which is good as it means that any further errors are probably a result of new features messing stuff up.
0.075: This is an experimental proof of concept release! It is intended to demonstrate the new conversation and script engine which are both currently rudimentary. No new content has been added with this release.
-Added conversation engine, talk to planetary conversation assets and to alien ships.
-Added script engine, interfaced it with ship encounters so they now run a script to see if they should attack, talk to or run away from you. Script engine also runs inside conversation engine.
-Learned how to make both conversation and scripts formatted in XML.
0.075A: Fixed the shop again.
0.076: Status window repaired.
Shipyard window added.
Armour added.
0.076B: Fixed starship encounter code.
Possibly fixed retreat bug in space combat.
0.077: Introduced the Nova Intrepid.
Added caret to textboxes.
Laid groundwork for upgradeable spacecraft.
Made outline for friendly personnel on battle mode change colour based on hp.
Various minor fixes.
0.077a fix: (exe only)
Fixed crew window in galaxy mode.
0.077B:
Removed code to check for salvaged equipment from enemy ships.
Compacted firing mode data for weaponry. (Minor step towards grenades arc)
0.08: Warning, no stability guarantees. Not tested fully.
-Added new contextual vore rendering system.
-Redid female crew sprites but lost worm and male crew sprites.
-Redid vision code, vision code currently does not handle sprite based obstructions. This is temporary.
0.08B: Still no stability guarantees. I tried to fix it. It might be fixed. I don't know and at the moment I'm not sure I care. All I know is if It's not fixed then at least i wont be suffering alone.
0.080C: Equal part error fixing and me doing whatever the hell i wanted. Should be slightly less crash prone now.
0.080D: (Exe only) Patch to attempt to fix active objects handler crash bug.
0.080E: (exe only) Fix moment of stupidity conducted in last patch.
0.080G: (exe only) fixed double frees, improper array deallocation and a few other heap related crashes.
0.080H: (exe only) fixed AI to accomodate new vore rules, removed infinite loop.
0.081: The refactored release, AI changed, shooting mechanics changed, vision calculations now work correctly. This update was mainly to make the game infrastructure not constrain future changes though so little exterior change has occured. As always, no promises are given regarding stability of the game.
0.081: Patch to fix AI and vore rendering.
0.082: More weapons variety update.
0.082A: Fixed saving
I killed some bugs and fiddled with some things, the occasional crash post mission bug is still at large however.
Also attached stuff for load game for main menu, stuff doesn't work and is wrongly sized for its use, please do not push that button.
Update .03:
Improved crew window with suggestion from Lol, made a single change to the AI algorithm to try and make the gron smarter(haven't tested it yet), finished work on load game button from main menu(haven't tested it yet).
Alas post mission crash bug is to my knowledge still present, I hesitantly conjecture that it's in some way related to picking up items in the field. will focus my testing on that today.
Update .04:
Made AI more shooty.
Fixed crash if you actually beat and capture a Gron ship.
Update .05:
Tons of bugfixes and new stuff. Have fun.
Update .05C:
Finally and hopefully Killed the crash which occurs when people get digested in battle.
Update 0.05D:
Made it so that non device objects are looted from mission battlefields.
Update 0.06:
You lot didn't ask for any content, so there's none in this update. This is a feature release where I added a bunch of improvements to the battle game mode.
Update 0.07:
Space combat mode is now in real time, it's still WAD to fly and clicking the enemy to shoot though.
Other keys are Q to pause, F to toggle firing arcs.
Prisoner and recruits arc completed. Interact with prisoners in the crew window by clicking your chosen interactor and then clicking the prisoner name.
Two vore mode support.
Space pirates.
Better cursor ghost in battle game mode, now recolours itself contextually.
Minimap no longer expands automatically.
List locks are now everywhere they should be.
update 0.07B:
Various small fixes, some of which fix things i screwed up in the data files by rushing the game out so quick.
Mini updates 0.071-0.072:
These updates only update the main executable and add no new content. (Use a full version of the game to get the data assets, copy and past the new exe into it).
0.071: Fix bug where having a crewmember with empty hands but items in their backback while saving would produce unloadable saves. Cargowindow now has much needed drag and drop functionality.
0.072: Battle screen now has selection boxes, no longer will you have to aim at people's feet to select them, now invisible squares extend upwards to encompass them.
Mini update fixes 0.072b-0.072CA:
Fixing AI issues caused by tweaks made in 0.071-0.072 and in general repairing all the horrible things we did. 0.071-0.072 were improperly tested. Thankfully these are less major releases than second digit releases but still I feel a lil bad for inflicting them on people. With any luck a few versions after 0.072CA we'll get everything back the way it should be.
Update 0.073: Includes full game data files.
AI change, feedback wanted.
Various fixes for problems reported since 0.072.
Hopefully somewhat more fixed calculation for shooting enemies near walls.
Update 0.073B:
Main fix makes infested cave mission possible again.
Also fixes for eating people with 'no vore anim' and shooting enemies near walls works a little better.
0.074: This release is partly to apologize for the HORRIBLY BROKEN 0.071-0.073. No guarantees it's stable tho'
-Merged inventory and armoury systems so that starship weaponry derives from item_base. This is an arc fragment of the ship systems arc that will allow starship weaponry to be treated as cargo and looted from alien vessels. Also cleaned up enumerators for item types(No external change, neater code).
-Added Jump attribute. Allows great leaps in battlemode. These leaps cost a large amount of AP but do not provoke reaction fire and can cross obstacles. This feature is currently for enemies only till interface improvements occur.
-Made vision code take height into account.
-Added new enemy and new planet.
0.074B fix: Turns out broken is gonna be a theme for things. Eh, we'll put fix in the label of any release that's just the EXE from now on and call it good.
-Fix the broken shops.
-Tried to kill the 'emptying containers on ground then winning mission causes crash' bug that has arisen like some unholy zombie from back when this game was barely in pre alpha. Killing zombies is hard though and this bug cannot be reliably reproduced.
0.074D: Fixed the containers error at long long last, may have broken other things as a result however. If we HAVE fixed the error though without breaking anything then we have killed the last major bug I know about. Which is good as it means that any further errors are probably a result of new features messing stuff up.
0.075: This is an experimental proof of concept release! It is intended to demonstrate the new conversation and script engine which are both currently rudimentary. No new content has been added with this release.
-Added conversation engine, talk to planetary conversation assets and to alien ships.
-Added script engine, interfaced it with ship encounters so they now run a script to see if they should attack, talk to or run away from you. Script engine also runs inside conversation engine.
-Learned how to make both conversation and scripts formatted in XML.
0.075A: Fixed the shop again.
0.076: Status window repaired.
Shipyard window added.
Armour added.
0.076B: Fixed starship encounter code.
Possibly fixed retreat bug in space combat.
0.077: Introduced the Nova Intrepid.
Added caret to textboxes.
Laid groundwork for upgradeable spacecraft.
Made outline for friendly personnel on battle mode change colour based on hp.
Various minor fixes.
0.077a fix: (exe only)
Fixed crew window in galaxy mode.
0.077B:
Removed code to check for salvaged equipment from enemy ships.
Compacted firing mode data for weaponry. (Minor step towards grenades arc)
0.08: Warning, no stability guarantees. Not tested fully.
-Added new contextual vore rendering system.
-Redid female crew sprites but lost worm and male crew sprites.
-Redid vision code, vision code currently does not handle sprite based obstructions. This is temporary.
0.08B: Still no stability guarantees. I tried to fix it. It might be fixed. I don't know and at the moment I'm not sure I care. All I know is if It's not fixed then at least i wont be suffering alone.
0.080C: Equal part error fixing and me doing whatever the hell i wanted. Should be slightly less crash prone now.
0.080D: (Exe only) Patch to attempt to fix active objects handler crash bug.
0.080E: (exe only) Fix moment of stupidity conducted in last patch.
0.080G: (exe only) fixed double frees, improper array deallocation and a few other heap related crashes.
0.080H: (exe only) fixed AI to accomodate new vore rules, removed infinite loop.
0.081: The refactored release, AI changed, shooting mechanics changed, vision calculations now work correctly. This update was mainly to make the game infrastructure not constrain future changes though so little exterior change has occured. As always, no promises are given regarding stability of the game.
0.081: Patch to fix AI and vore rendering.
0.082: More weapons variety update.
0.082A: Fixed saving
Help wanted: I can't make this game solo though i think i've come pretty far on my own. The Space Odyssey project is looking for contributions in the following areas.
Dialogue writer (dialogue engine is integrated into the game and will be expanded, but writing dialogue is a job i'd rather outsource).
Backstory writer (currently game world has the depth of a cardboard cutout, we should change this).
3d artist (to take the weight of making new enemies off).
2d artist (textures for surfaces, projectiles, etc).
CG artist (we will add some cgs when we have some to add).
Requirements:
You must install directx 9 before attempting to run the game.
Link to game source code repository: http://code.google.com/p/space-odyssey-aryion/
Link to Odyssey folder: contains pre alpha, old tech demo, chunk editor.
http://www.mediafire.com/?vlaskwdia34ps
But don't get disheartened! I like the idea that you have going so far, just take your time to polish it. Is there going to be any kind of story beyond "space aliens eat women?" Keep it up! 
