Xenovoid 4X Sci-Fi Strategy MMO - Now Accepting Beta Members!

Community Showcases
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CAPTURE PLANETS, EXPLORE THE UNIVERSE, DESTROY OTHER PLAYERS!

The latest trailer:

I am the leader for a large gaming organization (800+ active members) that has been around for over a decade and my members and I love games that have strategy involved. FPS games like Battlefield 4, Arma 3, MMORPG games like World of Warcraft, Eve, and hybrid type games like League of Legends and World of Tanks are all common games you can see our group playing every night.

We also like the occasional “casual” strategic game and this is where Xenovoid comes into play. I like galactic conquest games where you build up planets and send ships to attack players. I like being able to take a few turns during the day and let the game work out the combat and logistics of everything. I like working with my friends to go after an enemy together. The games are easy to get into and they are fun to do well in.

The problem comes is that most of these “conquest” games do not have a point to them. Once you capture a planet, you own it for good. Commonly there is no reason for where you capture a planet. Everything is just a number somewhere in a database. One of my goals with Xenovoid is to change this. In Xenovoid you find the usual 4X elements but there is a strategic map with front-lines and battle positions that can be captured from the computer or from players. You strategize, and you can move the map. There can be reason for what you do and your actions count towards winning the game for your faction. This is one component among many others that set Xenovoid apart from the rest. Read on:

Xenovoid is a WIP Massively-Multiplayer-Strategy free game supporting thousands of players in a game of galactic conquest. Build massive cities, research important technology, construct ships, and expand your colony to other planets in another system or galaxy. Send fleets of ships to attack other factions/players, gather materials, and spend your time trading in goods across the universe. Work with other players to take control of the map in the name of your Faction and eventually unlock the secrets of the universe!

Join the beta here!!! → http://xenovoid.com/download-and-play/

The Website
http://www.Xenovoid.com

A wormhole opens to a brand new universe that has never been explored by humankind. You must colonize planets there and build an empire all in the name of your corporation. After everything the corp has done for you, it is the least you can do for it. But, something is out there. Something is waiting for you…

Features

  • Control your empire from the cockpit of your personal ship in a universe with thousands of players.
  • Manage mining, power production, and more on your planets.
  • Build planet defenses to keep invaders from taking your resources.
  • Research over a dozen technologies to assist in your conquest.
  • Produce trade goods to sell to space stations for a profit.
  • Build ships for combat or commerce.
  • Attack other planets to raid raw materials.
  • Invade and conquer enemy planets with ground forces.
  • Complete quests for experience, in-game money, and planetary resources.
  • Explore each universe with up to 31,000 planets each.
  • Help your Corporation by taking over enemy territory to win monthly payouts.
  • Form alliances and conquer entire solar systems to call your own.
  • Hire commanders to assist you in your efforts.
  • Win battles and explore the universe to level your character.
  • SMS Text messaging to your mobile phone for user-defined alerts.
  • Email compilation daily telling you of the day’s accomplishments and issues.
  • Hire commanders for bonuses.

Work in Progress Screenshots

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The manage planet scene where you can upgrade your industries to produce more raw materials for use in universal conquest. Resources are needed for ships, defenses, research, etc.


View of the research scene where you can spend planet resources to research technology used to build new ships, research other technology, build defenses, and more.


Xenovoid contains a complete metaverse where you fight for control of planets in the name of your corporation.

About
Xenovoid is designed to handle over 10,000 players per universe of over 31,000 planets and has the ability to scale to an infinite number of universe instances. The engine is C# based and runs on the MS Azure Cloud platform for scalability. The current client runs on Unity 3D Pro with add-ons for iPhone and Android. I have been working on the game for over a year now and to date this has been a solo project. You may recognize some of the assets from the asset store (or other places) as I do not have the time to create all of the art-work myself (and the sound.)

F.A.Q.
Q. An MMO, are you crazy or stupid or what?
A. Maybe. I am a Principal Solutions Architect for a large company (~7000 people) and my specialty is distributed processing and “big data” solutions for customers. I have been the lead architect for systems which involved thousands of processing machines and over a hundred terabytes of data (in a single solution.) I work on large complicated problems for my customers and Xenovoid, although complex, is much simpler from a system standpoint than what I do for my “day job.” I have been programming professionally for over 20 years as well and have the necessary skills to write the game.

Q. How many people are on your team?
A. Just me. I used to own an animation studio (and was a lead animator); therefore, I at least have the skills necessary to create some of my own assets when I can not find them or hire for them.

Q. How long has Xenovoid been in development?
A. Over two years now. I hope to release the first version in 2014. The Beta is available now.

Q. What is the financial model?
A. Xenovoid is a micro-transaction model where I am trying to leverage many of the concepts found in other MT games. It is all very much a work in progress though so expect the model to change a lot. What may cost $ today may not cost anything tomorrow, while I balance the game. Everything non-vanity will be available without spending anything (but through in-game work.)

Q. What language do you support?
A. I am programming the game to support over two dozen language on the first release.

Q. What operating system are you targeting?
A. The first release will be for the iPhone and possibly the PC. I am also building it for Anrdroid, Linux, and OSX. The resolution is designed for mobile but in the future I plan to release a high-res design for PCs. Transactions will work between operating systems since the server manages everything. I have it working where you can issue orders on your iPhone while at work and then play on your PC when you get home, all with the same character and in the same universe. XBox One is a platform I like as well and have been working with MS to get into the dev program.

Q. Do you have a website?
A. Sure! http://www.Xenovoid.com.

Q. What is left to do?
A. Several things are left and I have a ton of items envisioned but all of the basics exist. As the game evolves, you can expect a lot of updates, well past the first release. The servers are online now and ready!

Q. Are you using Photon or something else for the MP?
A. I am not using a prebuilt solution for multiplayer. Everything is written in C#, created by me, and is deployed on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Platform for scale. The front-end client communicates via HTTP(S) to the server and receives responses via XML. This gives me the flexibility to write the client on any platform/language that can parse XML. Real-time systems use TCP for chat and other components that require an immediate relay. The chat server(s) work in the same Azure cloud for expandability.

Q. Do you need help or are interested in partnerships?
A. Yes I am to both. If you are an artist or interface designer for Unity 3D, please send me a notification in the forums. If you are interested in plugging in your project to mine, send me a message as well. For example, if you are doing a sci-fi TBS or FPS, I would be interested in using Xenovoid as a lobby of sorts where players can accept missions that take them to an instance of your game. If they “win”, they get rewards in Xenovoid.

SOME OF THE ASSET STORE ITEMS USED

  1. Sprite Manager 2
  2. EZ Gui
  3. Localization
  4. Space Graphics Toolkit
  5. Radar Arrows
  6. Space Unity
  7. SciFi Level Kit
  8. A ton of models from 3DRT
  9. SciFi Muzzle Flashes
  10. War FX
  11. USequencer
  12. Texture Tools
  13. Shuriken Magic
  14. Cartoon FX
  15. Game Analytics
  16. Imphenzia Soundtrack
  17. Glow 11
  18. Autopilot
  19. Andromeda System
  20. Finger Gestures
  21. Master Audio
  22. Heavy Armored SFX
  23. HUD Interface SFX
  24. 83 Explosion SFX
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Lookin’ Good!!!

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@thanks Tylernocks!

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The Meta-Game
The meta-game for Xenovoid is really what sets it apart from the other space conquest games and is also one of the more complicated facets of the game. The universe (world) is made up of quadrants. Each one is the home-space for a corporation in the game except for the one in the center. The central quadrant is the neutral zone.

Each quadrant contains galaxies, systems, or planets, depending on which level you are viewing. For example, when looking at the top-level universe, each quadrant contains galaxies. When you “zoom to” one of the galaxies, you are taken to the galaxy view. In the galaxy view, each quadrant contains systems. When you “zoom to” one of the systems, you are taken to the planet view. In the planet view, each quadrant contains planets. When you select a planet you are taken to the planet where you can manage industries, build ships, build defenses, research technology, etc. if you own it. Current universes are designed to hold a little over 31,000 planets but I am testing smaller ones for speed purposes.

The meta-aspects come into play as it is all about territory control. In Xenovoid you can take over planets from other players but only the planets on the front-lines can be attacked. In order to take over a system on the front-line, you must capture every planet. To take over the galaxy you must capture every system. To move the front line you must capture every galaxy in the “line”. Eventually, if you move the line far enough, you get to the home zone of the corporation you are fighting. You cannot invade the home zone but if your corporation holds every other corporation to their home zone, your corporation wins the map (with a huge reward for everyone involved.) The idea is to allow corporations to fight back until the bitter end.

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Just please don’t make it a play to win game. Anything bought and paid for should be either a short cut to something reasonable (as compared to ‘theoretically’ like in many games) available if you work for it or entirely cosmetic.

Also, suggestion… “Corporation” is just so Eve Online. Let players found EMPIRES! :smile:

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Heh, I actually didn’t consider the Eve tie-in. I think it’s my own life experiences that led to corporations being the term. I can see your point though. :slight_smile:

As for pay to win, I am building it where everything you can pay for that is not purely cosmetic, you can play for as well. It will be one of the harder balance parts to the game.

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True enough. Its moments like that its good to have someone give you an outside viewpoint. :wink:

Thank god for that. I do understand there’s a border between trying to find a level that will get you a reliable income without ruining balance or alienating the player base.

Just at a random thought of dubious usefulness. You’ve made it sound like you want to have multiple servers. Have you considered subscription servers as well as free servers?

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I’ve written it where I can bring on new universes (servers) with different rule-sets, speed, etc. In my current alpha/beta test I run two universes for example. I have considered a monthly subscription where you get a fixed # of benefits but have not really considered a pure paid-only member universe. Technically I could do it though if enough players wanted the option.

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** Update **

I have been working the past few weeks on several updates but the largest one is the new Deploy Fleet Screen. The following shows the progression so far. I expect to have it complete this week!

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This is the current view you see in game. You can only select one type of craft to send and it only shows you available quantities so I could test transmission from the server. It functions enough to test fleet deployment but not much else.

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Here I have completely replaced the scene with a new one. The quantity bar allows you to drag out how many ships you want instead of having to hammer away at plus and minus buttons. On the far right you can see a text entry box which allows you to enter exactly how many ships you want to send. On the bottom you can see the start of the marks selection where you can select the target of your fleet.

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In this version you can see the slider bar graphic updated and the markers at the bottom are now dynamically pulled from the server. The entire marker window can be hidden as well. If you drag up and down on the far right, the list of ships moves up and down. If you drag left to right in the marker window, the selection of markers moves left to right. The quantity sliders are limited by the # of ships you have at home (which is also pulled from the server.)

I need to update the button graphics, add the are-you-sure box, update all strings to support global languages, clean up a few things, then it will be ready for the next release!

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The concept is great, I joined the forums and I hope I will get my beta key soon :slight_smile:

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Great, thanks for helping to support!

Have you tried the following link to request a key? You will get emailed one automatically (check spam folder!)

http://cosmosquest.cloudapp.net/ValidateBetaKey.aspx

You need to register inside the game client first but that only takes a minute.

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EDIT:
You need to register inside the game client first but that only takes a minute.

Aaah, so you have to dl the client before registering, tricky :slight_smile:

My original post:
I am a bit puzzled here. I registered a forum account, as I haven’t found anywhere else to register. The forum sent me a mail that okay, now I am a registered forum member, but didn’t asked for email verification, it just confirmed that I registered as “kalamona”.

Since on the beta key request form it writes that you have to validate your email address before asking for a beta key, I tried the support page’s “resend email validation request” feature; however that wrote that my account doesn’t exist.

I suspect that game account and forum accounts are different; however I did not found where to register a game account. Probably just missed this, but some help would be nice :slight_smile:

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Yeah, sorry for the confusion… The forums are a separate system and not linked yet. They will be down the road but for now they are just a feedback mechanism.

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I added TestFlight support today using the Unity Asset of AutoPilot! If you would like to help test this on your iPhone, please let me know and I will send you an invite.

Keep in mind this is a very early ALPHA build so expect a severe lack of instructions and many bugs.

The Test Flight App Area
https://testflightapp.com/

My Application’s site
http://www.Xenovoid.com

Thank you!

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I added a new alpha gameplay video up top. It contains several of the key scenes. If you are an asset developer you may recognize your work as I am using over a dozen!

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Ground invasion is coming and it will allow you to take over enemy planets! Here is a sneak peak screen-shot of the Deploy Fleet interface where you load ground troops onto your transports. Also of note are the real-time shadows added for a nice visual.

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The # of Troop Transports you have determines the amount of Stowage available to the fleet. This is used to determine how many troops you can load. In the scene, there are 100,000+ Scout troops on the planet and each one requires (1) unit of Stowage. With 10 Troop Transports, you can load 1,000 Scouts. Deploy more Troop Transports to have carry more troops.

During combat, if the enemy fleet is destroyed, your ground troops will land on the planet and begin a siege. There they will fight against the Planet’s defending troops until one side is victorious. If you win the siege, you capture the planet.

Siege takes time and the defender can call in reinforcements to help, but, so can the attacker. The amount of time it takes depends on the size of the planet under siege. More to come!

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id even offer my help as 3d modeller if this wherent ANNOTHER space RTS… NO MORE COPIES OF SOSE PLEASE YES? PLEASE

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Wow, this game looks great…
Can’t wait to see it finished.

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Thanks Lancer!

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The new Hire Commander screen.

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The new help system. If you click on the robot’s portrait on the console, a holographic version pops up. When it is shown, if you click on an item in the view the robot will explain the function of it. For example, when the robot is up if you bring up the command bar and select Manage Planet it will explain what you do on the manage planet scene.

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The new recruit window where you can select what type of ground troop to recruit. You can build armies to defend against invaders and to send out to conquer other player’s planets.

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I’m adding the ability to create, join, and manage Alliances to Xenovoid currently. This allows you to join your friends in galactic conquest! You will be able to apply to alliances in-game, manage applications if you have the job role, and have different ranks in the alliance.

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Also included are tie-ins to Facebook and other benefits such as sending in reinforcements and joining together for planetary combat!