- The Future of Captain Forever - 28 November 2022
Hi, It feels super weird to be writing this. Just one year ago I was sure that the Captain Forever series was finished. I'd done everything I thought there was to do and was busy working on other projects. The removal of Flash from browsers really bugged me though - it made it very difficult for anyone to play the old builds of Captain Jameson (aka The Dawn Star, aka Captain Forever Universe). And so, as a holiday treat for myself and the quiet little community on the Captain Forever discord, I wrapped up the buggy, incomplete pieces of that game into a standalone executable and snuck them into an unannounced beta branch of Captain Forever Trilogy. And then people played it. And some of them played it a lot. That's all it took to convince me - I should finish up this nearly-complete project over the next month or two and send it out into the world. Soon two months became four, four mont…
- Equip a side-mount in Captain Forever Universe 15.5 & 15.6 - 10 November 2022
Hi Pilots, Captain Forever Universe updates 15.5 and 15.6 are live right now! 15.5 launched a little while ago but, uh, I forgot to write an update post. I guess this time I'll cover both! The first thing you'll notice is the new backgrounds. I repaired the background mesh generator tool and ran ninety Hubble Space Telescope photographs through it, keeping the best 19 for the game. I've also darkened the backgrounds a little, so we shouldn't have any more problems with blindingly bright backgrounds in inferno sectors. Speaking of graphics and hot rocks, I've made a lot of small graphical changes to the game, including making asteroids distort atmosphere bubbles. This should make it much harder for them to hide in the horizon, which was always surprising, sometimes funny, and occasionally fatal. For a more detailed list of graphical changes check the changelist at the bottom of the post.…
- Minimaps and friendly acks in Captain Forever Universe 15.4 - 12 October 2022
Hi Pilots, Captain Forever Universe update 15.4 is live right now! The last build added sensor modules, which are great for quickly uncovering the map, but you had to constantly open and close it to see what you'd discovered. So, this build, I've added a minimap - a very Captain Forever style of minimap. After finding a Map Vis module, attach it to your ship and click on it to open the module description display. You'll see a minimap right there in the description, with a scan line rolling through it as it updates each row, ten rows per second. Alpha and Bravo map vis might not be so helpful as they have a very small radius. Delta and Echo modules are great for slinking through asteroid fields and past other ships. India and Juliet are excellent for longer journeys. The second big gameplay update in 15.4 is a change to initial NPC behaviours. In previous builds all other ships would spa…
- Scan faster and breathe easier in Captain Forever Universe 15.3 - 30 September 2022
Hi Pilots, Captain Forever Universe update 15.3 is now live! The two standout features for this build are the new Sensor modules, which scan back and forth adding distant data to your sector map, and an oxygen grace period, adding 60 seconds extra flight time after your oxygen supply runs out. Sensor modules are occasionally found on the wingtips of other craft, and can be mounted in any orientation. They only scan in the direction they're facing, and only at their fixed distance, so you might need to experiment with different placements to find what works best for you. The oxygen grace period kicks off at 0L, and bleeps every 15 seconds as it tells you how much time you have left. I still strongly recommend turning back, or at least making a plan to find oxygen nearby, as soon as your tank hits 50%. The extra 60 seconds are a good buffer in case you get lost or held up on the way to sa…
- Automapping, starfields and more in Captain Forever Universe 15.2 - 15 September 2022
Hi Pilots, Captain Forever Universe update 15.2 is now live! The first thing you'll notice is the new dust mote effect, which give you a sense of speed and motion as you jet about the universe. I've also added a dust filter option in the settings menu, which you can use to change the number of motes around you. The number of motes varies inversely with the filter voltage, ranging from 1 mote at 1,000V, to a ridiculous 10,000 motes if you turn the filter off entirely. It's fun to muck about with but I don't recommend playing it that way :) The motes are fun, but the less obvious changes are also the most useful. The first is a new automapping feature. Now as you travel through unexplored areas of a sector they are revealed on your nav map, saving you the effort of remembering where you found unmapped stations or paths around asteroids. The final feature for 15.2 is another new system set…
- Mine and deliver more efficiently in Captain Forever Universe 15.1 - 6 September 2022
Hi Pilots, I've released Captain Forever Universe update 15.1 Now when you fly past an asteroid you can see what materials it contains. Will it drop giant chunks of iron ore, or valuable slivers of silicates? Or perhaps just a lump of rock. This'll save a lot of time and makes mining much more fun (and profitable!) I've also made a small change to the mail system - now when you visit an apartment that doesn't have mail, it'll give you the name and coordinates of one that does. This means you can proactively find and deliver mail, rather than just stumbling upon it by chance. It also adds another way to find new stations, hiding out there in the darkness! What do you think of these changes? Please let me (and other pilots) know by chatting with us in the Discord. Getting Started Open Steam and click Library Right click on Captain Forever Trilogy and select Properties... Select BETAS Sele…
- Play the Captain Forever Universe Beta in Captain Forever Trilogy (Update 15) - 31 August 2022
Hi Pilots, I've added Captain Forever Universe Update 15 to Captain Forever Trilogy. Explore, rescue, mine, work, and salvage your way through an enormous, persistent galaxy. Captain Forever gave you things to do - fight and build. Captain Forever Universe offers a place to be. Started 12 years ago, this project was previously titled Captain Jameson, or sometimes The Dawn Star. At the encouragement of fans I've resumed development, and I'm glad I did. With a massive design overhaul, a new renderer and graphics, and new features coming online, I think Universe is shaping up to be something special. If you own Captain Forever Trilogy then you can play Universe right now! I'd also love to hear from you about it, so please consider joining the Discord. Getting Started Open Steam and click Library Right click on Captain Forever Trilogy and select Properties... Select BETAS Select captainfore…
- Captain Together Update - 5 May 2020
Hi Pilots, Multiplayer. The final frontier. The shared voyages of starship Nemesis, Eris, Narcissus, and Artemis begin today. This update adds a new game - Captain Together - to the Captain Forever Trilogy package. Modelled on Captain Successor, Together allows 2-4 players to simultaneously build, fly, and shoot their way through the galaxy, through local co-op and online with Steam Remote Play Together. Getting Started Open your Steam Library and select Captain Forever Trilogy Click Play Select Play Captain Together Click Play Select the number of pilots Check the various ship manuals for each ship's unique keybindings Click Launch Note that although each player has their own keys, all players share the same mouse and mouse cursor. Playing Online Even though Captain Together is build as a local co-op game, it's really intended to be played online via Steam's Remote Play Together system…
- Captain Forever Trilogy pilots its way out - 22 May 2018
See that spaceship up there? That’s what my ship looked like in my first minute or so of Captain Successor. I built it from a semi-randomised collection of parts floating around the start point, but those were never going to last me long. Within 40 minutes I’d blown up dozens of rival spaceships, plundered those vessels and entirely replaced my design several times over. Captain Forever Trilogy is a collection that contains revamped versions of the 2009 browser game Captain Forever , its sequel Captain Successor, and its clone-creating spin off Captain Imposter. There’s a new engine that makes each game now run more smoothly and with a prettier background, though the only substantial additions are the new wing modules and some writing by Cassandra Khaw. It just came out, and the best way I can think of convincing you it’s great is to show you what I got up to in…
- I can t wait to build spaceships again in Captain Forever Trilogy - 4 May 2018
The original Captain Forever , a browser-based game about blowing up hostile spaceships and nicking their parts to build your own, is a little bit special to me. Years back, it was my go to game in a school that had locked down access to most school-distraction providing websites – but I’d probably have played it for months on end even if the rest of the internet was open to me. Trying to destroy ships while also minimising damage to them was a blast, and improvising new designs from the resulting debris blended creativity with resourcefulness in a way that was deeply satisfying. All of that made the upcoming launch of Captain Forever Trilogy excellent news to wake up to on a bleary Friday. It’s a revamped version of the original game, its sequel (not Captain Forever: Remix ) and its clone-creating spin off, with some fancy new wing modules and the minimalist story fle…
