Cosmic Frontier launched on Kickstarter on April 21st, 2020. Over the next five years, there were 53 updates so far.
Kickstarter Campaign[]
Update #1[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Apr 21, 2020
- Kickstarter
- 20% funded. Stud Beefpile tier is popular. (It lets you add a default player name.) New $200 tier to make a new mission.
Update #2[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Apr 22, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Slots moved from mission design tiers to Shipwright (make a new ship) tier. Tier added to make a ship variant. 30% funded.
Update #3[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Apr 23, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Interview with Nolan Markey, composer of the Cosmic Frontier theme.
- EVO was the first game Nolan every played. He played it at a friend's house. Nova became his favorite and he played through all the mission strings a dozen times. He became interested in Science Fiction such as Star Trek and Dune.
- He studied composing music for film at CSU Northridge. He worked as an intern for Bear McCreary on BSG and the Walking Dead. He started working for Kevin Kiner as an orchestrator for Star Wars: Rebels and The Clone Wars and that's when things started to take off. You can hear his music in the final season of Clone Wars.
- He was super excited when he heard EVO was being remastered, so he made a big and heroic theme. The theme was recorded in Hungary with Budapest Scoring. It took less than 30 minutes.
- The future project he's most exited for is Beyond the Western Deep, a fantasy comic by his friend Alex Kain, which he wrote a theme for.
Update #4[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Apr 24, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Saalian Brandy Connoisseur tier added to rewrite a spaceport bar. 40% funded.
Update #5[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 1, 2020
- Kickstarter
- 50% funded. Low views.
Update #6[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 1, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Feeling out the idea of having updated art.
Images:
- Updated Shuttle concept by Chris Smallfield, a Berlin-based 3D artist
Update #7[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 2, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Brokiechill is playing EVO on Twitch.
Update #8[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 5, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Funding has slowed down. Hard to get press.
Image:
- Poster retro Frontier advertisement art by Chris Smallfield, featuring his updated Shuttle model.
Update #9[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 7, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Number of higher reward tiers increased, Anna Balashova tier duplicated twice.
Image:
- Postcard by Chris Smallfield saying 'Greetings from the Cosmic Frontier!' in front of a selection of oceans, some of them featuring floating rocks.
Update #10[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 8, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Interview with Tom Hancocks, engine lead
- Played EV Nova @ 14, never played EVO or EV until later. Made EVN plugins.
- Formative games: Pokemon, Jedi Knight (made maps for JKO)
- Started programming at 9 with realBASIC, moved to Obj-C and Cocoa 6 years later. Made a program called Tunebar as a teen, which controlled iTunes. Did freelance work for macOS before going to Cardiff University and studying Computer Science. After degree became a full time iOS dev.
- Daughter was born the June before the kickstarter project, and married wife the January before.
Images:
- Jedi Knight Outcast screenshot
- Tunebar screenshot
Update #11[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 11, 2020
- Kickstarter
- 1-week campaign extension was offered by Kickstarter due to the pandemic. This offer was activated.
- Pandemic has put some backers in a precarious financial situation.
- Request to spread the word as there is no media coverage and the community is scattered.
Images:
- Calling Poster (full size)
- Greetings Card (full size)
- Dash Riprock Wants You (full size)
Update #12[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 15, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Interview with Peter Cartwright, scenario lead
- PAC was a fan of Ambrosia because of Maelstrom, Apeiron and Swoop. He downloaded EV the day it came out and reverse engineered the raw hexadecimals in ResEdit to figure out what all the fields where.
- PAC didn't want to make a TC that focused on the EV universe. He felt alone in wanting to develop a standalone universe. After suggesting minor changes to the EV engine to Ambrosia, they proposed releasing his TC as a sequel.
- He was able to recruit two school-friends for 3D modelling. Because his friends, the artists, didn't make 3D models the way he imagined them, he eventually got a copy of infini-d himself to fill in the games.
- His first computer was a BBC Model B in the 80s. He played Elite, Bird Strike, Acid Drops and Firetrack. Later he got a B&W Mac and played SimEarth and Spaceward Ho!
- He pitched a sequel to Override in 2000 but got no response at all. The EV community always remained lively however. The appearance of other retro classics and remasters, combined with the Ambrosia site going down, inspired him to think about an EVO remaster project to keep EVO in print.
- The Crescent has a dearth of content compared to the rest of EVO and PAC's looking to add at least one mission string for every Strand and develop the Strandless more.
- XCOM Enemy Unknown is his game of the decade, especially with the Long War mod.
- The Kraits can bully new players and the Emalgha ships really are made of wood.
- No thoughts on Alien race's appearances.
- Ship hangar will circumvent the problem of not being able to carry cargo in a fighter.
- The Strange Asteroid was meant to be a drinks machine.
- Favorite EV ship is the Lightning.
- He's never met an EVO fan in real life. So he was quite pleased to find the online EVO fandom.
- Left university with no idea what to do with himself. Didn't get any good career advice from anyone. EVO wasn't enough to get into the games industry. Went back to university to get an MA in translation. Has freelanced for various international organizations such as IAEA, UNESCO, WHO. Never got a permanent post with them. Never managed to find a partner who can put up with him, and relations with family have broken down.
Images:
- Spaceward Ho! screenshot
- XCOM: Enemy Within Long War screenshot
Update #13[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 19, 2020
- Kickstarter
- They are confident they will reach their goal, as there are 200 followers who haven't backed yet. A direct plea for word-of-mouth.
Images:
- Beware! The Pirate Menace (full size)
Update #14[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 21, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Posted two new pieces of concept art.
Images:
- Welcome to Atlantic Station! Try our famous Albatross Burger!
- Scoutship encounters Azdaras by Joe Higgins
Update #15[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 24, 2020
- Kickstarter
- 100% funded. Although they don't expect to reach their stretch goals, they've made contact with artists and will attempt to extract art from them anyways.
Update #16[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 25, 2020
- Kickstarter
- People are still surprised they haven't heard about the project, but not much they can do at this stage.
Active Development[]
2020[]
Update #17[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Jun 28, 2020
- Kickstarter
- First post-campaign update.
- Kestrel, the game engine, can be used for projects other than Cosmic Frontier.
- Core features: 2D sprite graphics in OpenGL or Metal, Lua integration for modding, loads game data through Resource Files, Portable on multiple platforms and Open Source.
- Kestrel can eventually feature larger sprites than EV, including HiDPI graphics.
- Shaders can be used to perform post-processing on graphics.
- The initial Alpha version of Kestrel is planned for August. The Alpha release of Kestrel doesn't mean a completed version of Cosmic Frontier, just a version of the engine that is complete enough to "begin building Cosmic Frontier properly".
Images:
- Kestrel displaying the EV: Override menu on macOS Catalina
Update #18[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Aug 2, 2020
- Kickstarter
- The trend of apologizing for late updates every update begins here.
- Four talented artists have been added to the project.
- The focus is on ships. Peter has finalized a list of ship classes. The artists are producing ship models now.
- Interview with Chris Smallfield, Art Director
- Chris is looking forward to working with the artists and exploring procedural techniques for creating artwork.
- Played EV as a teen on a 33mhz Apple Performa 630. The idea of getting free reign to determine for yourself who was a bad guy was revolutionary for him.
- Mom is a painter and graphic designer. Also influenced by cartoons and comics. Saw ToyStory and was mindblown, so go at a copy of Ray Dream Designer 3.0. Went to study Computer Animation at the Savannah College of Art.
- CFO is the first game Chris has worked on. He's done 3D VFX for commercials and music videos and got an Emmy nomination. Been working on feature films for the past 5 years.
- Moved to Berlin, Germany and got freelance work as the token American.
- Working on EVO is nostalgic for him.
Images:
- CGI Dragon
- CGI Spiderman
- Cosmic Frontiers are calling
Video:
Update #19[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Aug 31, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Day jobs have gotten in the way of CoFro work.
- While it's 25 years later, Peter has to recognize the success of the original game and pledges to preserve original content. Even if he thinks they're flaws.
- Many aspects of the original EVO were due to resource limitations, however. There was a maximum number of ship classes and images. This is not a part of the original design, allowing the ability to flesh out barebones factions.
- Since EVO was designed for a 640x480 or 800x600 pixel display, it looks teeny on a modern screen. Re-scaling must be done. However, this means that re-balance also needs to be done for the new scale.
- A tutorial system needs to be added, possibly through an achievement system.
- New engine features are useless without content that uses them. However, working within the limits fosters creativity.
Images:
- Voinian Heavy Fighter by robear aka Robert Rose.
- Early versions of the U.E. Monitor (an armed patrol ship based on the Cargo Transporter) and the now-rare Light Freighter, most of which were converted into Destroyers, by Coraxus. Both are ship classes that could have been included in the original but for resource limitations
- Early work on planet graphics by shag aka Joe Higgins.
- A U.E. Cruiser (under construction) by shag aka Joe Higgins.
Update #20[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Sep 30, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Things happened in September.
- Pre-alpha version of Kestrel released on Github. Seismic shifts are possible in architecture and structure. Cosmic Frontier may launch on a beta version of Kestrel, as features could be added to Kestrel after Cosmic Frontier dev finishes.
- Kestrel is a game engine. It's specialized, but it's not uniquely for Cosmic Frontier.
- Cosmic Frontier's existence is based on the Core Game and the Data Files. The Core Game is the actual game code. The Data Files are the traditional EV resource files. This is what Peter and the Art Team will fill up.
- EV data files were small files that contained a ResourceFork. If you opened them up with a text editor, you would only see the empty DataFork, not the populated ResourceFork.
- ResourceForks were depreciated by Apple for compatibility. ResourceForks had to be specifically compressed to send them over the internet. EVN, adopted this a new flattened structure for their data files and called it .ndat. In a flattened file, the resource forks are stored in the datafork. They are now more compatible with non-Mac machines. Windows also introduced the .rez flattened file.
- The system where EV replaces old resources with newly loaded resources will be maintained.
- Mods in Kestrel can include Lua scripts. These contain Lua code, which can be loaded and executed by Kestrel. This causes fundamental alterations to the game.
Images:
- Diagram of how the game engine, Kestrel, relates to the Core Game and data files and exports to openGL and Metal.
- Diagram of how original EV plug-ins worked.
- Diagram of how flattened Nova plug-ins worked.
Update #21[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Nov 2, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Cosmic Frontier will have feature parity to the Nova engine. Backwards compatible with Nova era plugins and content.
- Some Nova era functionality will be reproduced on top of new implementations, such as in-game AI.
- All resource types from Nova can be read.
- Space scene is in place in a basic form.
- Space ports begun work.
- Intention to allow flying around the galaxy before Christmas.
- Live streams have been happening @ Twitch.
Images:
- Screenshot of Kestrel rendering ships, a stellar object, targeting a stellar object and a basic status bar.
Update #22[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Dec 1, 2020
- Kickstarter
- Deep in the woods of the details without anything resembling a final product to show for it.
- Hope things will come together next year.
- Tom is moving house.
- Peter is working on Override files running on Nova.
Video:
- Video of an orchestra playing the Cosmic Frontier main theme.
2021[]
Update #23[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Jan 8, 2021
- Kickstarter
- United States Capitol attack mentioned.
- Look back at 2020. In January this project didn't even have a name.
- Planned release date not delayed yet.
- Many small planned modernization features revealed.
Images:
- Coraxus' WIP of the Crescent Fighter.
Update #24[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Feb 2, 2021
- Kickstarter
- Despite Christmas and house moving, Tom has been putting work in CoFro.
- The Galaxy map has been worked on. The "Canvas" API of Kestrel, an editable bitmap image, was used to draw the map, but it was slow. It had already been used for the Radar and small interface elements, but nothing big enough to show how deficient it was. So, time was spent optimizing "canvas".
- Image scaling has been implemented as something that favors speed over quality for Nebula images.
- Map feature still incomplete as it doesn't show info on system properties.
- Spaceport progressed. Bar, Shipyard, Outfitter, Trade Center are in as incomplete forms. Mission BBS is broke. You can recharge your fuel great though!
Images:
- Screenshot of the main menu.
- Screenshot of the Galaxy Map.
- Screenshot of the space scene.
- Screenshot of the spaceport.
- Screenshot of the shipyard.
- Screenshot of the outfitter.
- Screenshot of the Trade Center.
Update #25[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Mar 5, 2021
- Kickstarter
- Covid lockdowns and translation work have been getting in the way of Cosmic Frontier due to eye-strain.
- Peter can't integrate his work into Cosmic Frontier yet.
- Peter is contacting backers for their rewards.
- Mention of a 'full retro' version as something Peter is not interested in personally doing, but may be a good mod.
- 'Cosmic Frontier Override' has been shortened to simply 'Cosmic Frontier', as the subtitle was simply a way to indicate that the project was EV related.
Update #26[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Apr 1, 2021
- Kickstarter
- Porting to Windows is in the final stage with Graphic and KDL working. Graphics layer needs work.
- Graphite is a library that provides the functionality for reading and writing the Resource Files that EV used. It also allows viewing of Pict files and other video files used by Classic Mac. It is independent of QuickTime.
- KDL is a tool that compiles resource files from plain text files. To build Cosmic Frontier on Windows, KDL needs to work on Windows.
- The last hurdle is implementing a graphics layer. Vulkan is considered.
- Metal (MacOS graphics renderer) support fixed. It was not a priority since OpenGL could be purely used to dev the game.
- There are timing differences between Metal and OpenGL that need to be fixed.
- AI agents have had the groundwork laid out. They can fly around and jump in and out, but do not interact with anything.
- AI agents receive a behaviour upon being spawned. They need to acquire a new behaviour every time something of consequence happens. It does this using all the information it has access to.
Video:
- Video of the AI agents flying around Sol and a tour of all the port facilities. Galaxy map and hyperjump shown. Alien worlds landed on.
Images:
- A simplified illustration of how the agent decision flow works.
- Agents request decisions from their assigned behaviour, which then instructs them on what to do.
Update #27[]
- Peter Cartwright
- May 2, 2021
- Kickstarter
- July 2021 release date cancelled, but end of 2021 targeted.
- Early access offered as recompense for the delay.
Update #28[]
- Tom Hancocks
- May 25, 2021
- Kickstarter
- Kestrel is now Apple Silicon compatible. This was done because Kestrel crashed on Rosetta.
- Metal support fixed.
- HiDPI Images are now supported. Only thing HiDPI is text.
- Kestrel now runs on Windows with HiDPI. Windows version is rough, with crashes.
- Kestrel still needs Sound, movie playback and saving.
- Cosmic Frontier mission features are 75% complete. You can accept them in the BBS and Bar, but not boarding. You can progress the misison, see the map markers and get your rewards. They don't have escort ships or enemy fleets.
- Tom is expecting his second child.
Images:
- Cosmic Frontier on Apple Silicon... the closest that Escape Velocity has ever been to an iPad.
- Cosmic Frontier on Linux on a HiDPI display
- Cosmic Frontier on Windows... it finally happened.
- Luna render by Robert Rose
- Craggy world by Robert Rose
- Voinian station by Robert Rose
- Screenshot of the mission computer
Update #29[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Jul 5, 2021
- Kickstarter
- Teaser text of new missions.
- Settling back into writing Override has not been natural after 20 years. Mind burdened by other things, so forced to sit down and get to brass tacks.
Images:
- Krait by Robert Rose
- Pursue the case of one of the galaxy's most wanted ... (Hector Mission)
- ... vex a befuddled admiral ... (prank Admiral McPherson)
- ... and confront an old adversary? (meet up with The Nadir)
- Helian by Robert Rose
Update #30[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Aug 6, 2021
- Kickstarter
- Recap on how plug-ins worked in EV. They were resource files that contained types that contained resources.
- Explanation of the limitations of resource files and how they have been surpassed with the Extended Resource File.
- Namespaces mentioned.
- Lua scripts will be contained in the LuaS resource.
- Explanation on Lua events and hooks. Resource IDs are not important for Lua scripts. Lua scripts should be placed in namespaces.
- Namespaces will allow CoFro to search for variants of a resource, such as a HiDPI asset.
Images:
- Miranu Freighter by Robert Rose
- Arada by Robert Rose
- Crescent Fighter gimballed engines by Coraxus
Update #31[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Sep 6, 2021
- Kickstarter
- UE Montior exhibit. A combat converted Cargo Transporter for backline patrols that you can buy at the same time as the UE Fighter. This ship nerfs the UE's performance against Renegades. This is a ship that the player won't want to fly except as a stepping stone. It's set dressing.
- Not sure if they'll use mrxak's planets.
Images:
- UE Monitor in shipyard.
- Monitor vs Turncoat.
- mrxak's planetary graphics.
Update #32[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Oct 6, 2021
- Kickstarter
- HiDPI Helian sprite shown.
- Thanks to refactoring work, the hangar feature has been quickly banged out. Lots of questions on how it would be balanced.
Images:
- A selection of original EVO ships as High Resolution sprites
- Ship hangar button shown on landing screen
- The actual Ship hangar screen
Update #33[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Nov 8, 2021
- Kickstarter
- An art update.
Images:
- Green veined space rocks landing by Robert Rose
- Robert Rose's remake of the Voinian Cruiser.
- Rotating Voinian Cruiser sprite.
Video:
- Video of the new Voinian Cruiser rotating with 90 frames instead of the original 36.
Update #34[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Dec 6, 2021
- Kickstarter
- Groundwork for audio laid.
- More HiDPI assets, including the Freighter. They all have 90 frames of rotation.
- Modding support included. HiDPI assets and tweaks are a plug-in.
- UI improved and made functional.
- Lookin' like a real game.
Video:
- Video of audio playing in Cosmic Frontier. New theme, main menu whizzes, classic clicks and whurrs upon landing and targeting. Hyperjump sound.
Images:
- UE Freighter Render.
- hiDPI Earth landing picture by Robert Rose.
Update #35[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Dec 12, 2021
- Kickstarter
- Second round of crowdfunding on Patreon announced.
Update #36[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Dec 28, 2021
- Kickstarter
- EC Henry joins the team.
- Patreon is a great success.
- Peter is writing the bar descriptions for backers and their person ships.
- Unique outfits for ship classes feature announced. You can now greatly enhance your Krait somewhere in the galaxy...
Images:
- Freight-courier by EC Henry.
- UE Carrier by EC Henry.
- Mossy Asteroid by Robert Rose.
- Emalgha Fighter by Robert Rose.
- Scoutship by EC Henry.
- Crescent Fighter by Coraxus.
- Bleak world by Robert Rose.
- UE Destroyer by EC Henry.
- Merry Christmas Voinian Frigate
2022[]
Update #37[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Feb 2, 2022
- Kickstarter
- Update to let us know that the update is delayed. Interest on Expanded features or AOTC info-drop requested.
Update #38[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Feb 9, 2022
- Kickstarter
- Angelos Karderinis, an artist specializing in splash screens and landscapes, has joined the project.
- Update covering the expanded design of CoFro.
- PAC enjoys working within the frame, so the restrictions of the original engine were not a hardship. Mentions the risk of feature creep when a designer can request any feature they want. Also, the engine designer may produce features that the designer feels compelled to use. Tom has been adding features without Peter asking.
- PAC has been working with Nova to implement CoFro content, so the frame is already expanded from EVO.
- The star systems' populations were quite limited in EVO. UE Warships would never show up in Sol, for example. CoFro will allow wider and rarer ship encounters in the dude system.
- EVO didn't have many ship variants. Mostly only the Arada. Nova had a lot. Peter is looking to add many more variants, such as a Lazira with dispersal rockets.
- While the space for text is now much larger, Peter doesn't plan to add too much writing to the mission text boxes. He may add some expanded detail to planet descriptions or some outfits, including info on hard numbers. Fixing up of the original text is only for egregious cases.
- There are new outfits that reflect the strength of each faction. There could be human outfits that boost shield recharge rate. They would be worse than Crescent outfits. Additionally, non-Voinian armor packages can be added.
- There are unique outfits found only in one place for each ship class that will greatly upgrade them. They're challenges to find and a secret.
- Ranks will be used to showcase the player's advancement in the UE hierarchy or their membership in a Strand.
Images:
- Earth landing picture by AngelosK, featuring art from other members.
Update #39[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Mar 15, 2022
- Kickstarter
- Art update.
- Peter has been working on plugging in backer content into the game.
Images:
- Krait by EC Henry
- UE Station by EC Henry
- Arada variant lineup by EC Henry
- Crescent Warship rear by EC Henry
Update #40[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Apr 18, 2022
- Kickstarter
- Renderer reworked over last few months. Target is 60fps, which means the game has 16 milliseconds to produce a frame.
- Renderer was taking 9 milliseconds to produce a frame. Instead of 'botching' existing renderer, reworked it entirely.
- Renderer now takes 90 microseconds.
- Still runs on openGL or metal, but could do directx or vulkan in the future.
- Light weight GUI layer introduced. Will be available to plugin devs.
Images:
- ImGui test within Kestrel, showing a sprite viewer displaying a Helian
- Renegade Fugitive by EC Henry
Update #41[]
- Tom Hancocks
- May 25, 2022
- Kickstarter
- There are so many pers being added that the spawn rate will need to be adjusted.
- Mission submissions are being reviewed. A list of 4 is given.
- Tom is working on profiling the performance of the game. Sprite data was being copied multiple times around the game, which was consuming too much memory. Optimization occurred.
Update #42[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Jul 3, 2022
- Kickstarter
- Engine improvements around reading the resources that read the game data, and decoding the sprites into something that can be rendered were made. Memory usage was lowered.
- Escorts were added. This marks a ship as following a lead ship, which causes it to adopt an escort AI agent. This makes it respond to commands from the leader. There's also a new movement mode that could stop Leviathan escorts from flying as fast as a Starbridge.
Video:
- Cosmic Frontier - Escorts
Update #43[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Sep 6, 2022
- Kickstarter
- An update about running Cosmic Frontier on ultrawide with visually striking assets. The game has increased text sizes and sprites that can be scaled up and down depending on where they're being used. Scaling also helps to run the game at different resolutions.
- All of the spaceport windows have increased sizes, and outfit cell sizes have doubled.
- Video of the game running on the new graphics, as well as all the port facilities.
Images:
- A brand new menu screen, with new buttons for Achievements and managing Plugins.
- The main menu once again, but from an ultra wide monitor.
- Welcome to Sol - everything (except for the stars) is new!
- New Riga - a small rocky red world
- A zoomed view of New Riga in the stellar communication panel
- The Luna Spaceport
- New Shipyard
- New Outfitter
Update #44[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Nov 11, 2022
- Kickstarter
- Tom has been working on combat, which means projectiles. You can now fire rockets at other ships and destroy them.
- Explanation of hitboxes and collisions, and how Kestrel generates them. Kestrel automatically generates Circular, Square or Polygonal hitboxes for every sprite when they first load in. It uses more precise hitboxes for targets that are closer by, while ones that are off-screen use the simpler circular hitboxes.
Images:
- Shuttle firing rockets at an Earth scene with a UE Carrier, Freighter and many shuttles.
- Rocket Launcher, Blaze Cannon and Blaze Turret by EC Henry.
- Colored hit-boxes being rendered.
Update #45[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Dec 13, 2022
- Kickstarter
- Peter talks about the new achievement system that unlocks bonuses for new pilots.
- He also explains that he has been spending most of his time stabilizing his financial situation by finding new freelance translation clients.
Images:
- New pilot window
- Miranu Station by EC Henry
2023[]
Update #46[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Jan 30, 2023
- Kickstarter
- Basic combat video shown. Shuttle launches rockets at passive UE Carrier, then aggros other Shuttles with rockets, which begin to shoot each other when one gets caught in the crossfire.
- Technical explanation of the space scene, ship controls, weapons and agents.
Images:
- A basic overview of the space scene architecture
- An example of the control points of a Ship
- The life cycle of an AI Agent
Update #47[]
- Peter Cartwright
- March 30, 2023
- Kickstarter
- Peter notifies us that he will be contacting Patreon backers for their rewards to implement them in the scenario. This means that rewards acquired after this date may not be in the game at launch. The Patreon will continue to run until the game's launch.
- They would like to say they're in the final stretch, but they can't due to personal circumstances.
- Peter got a new freelance job that's not translation.
Images:
- Weapon animations by Robert Rose
- Asteroids by Coraxus
Update #48[]
- Tom Hancocks
- May 14, 2023
- Kickstarter
- The Cosmic Frontier 'core game' is now effectively feature complete. It is not complete. Things need to be made to work together or simply to render correctly on screen.
- An explanation of how Cosmic Frontier's architecture is laid out, with examples of how ships and ports work with their various components.
Images:
- A render of the UE Carrier by robear.
- A render of the Scoutship by robear
- UE Fighter - Model by ECHenry and rendered by robear
- Ship architecture diagram
- Sidebar mockups
- Port architecture diagram
Update #49[]
- Peter Cartwright
- July 9, 2023
- Kickstarter
- Tom is looking for a new job. Peter posts 4 pieces of art from the art team.
Images:
- Scoutship by EC Henry, Ice Asteroids by Coraxus, Scene by Angelos
- Miranu Courier by Robert Rose
- Freighter convoy: ship by Robert Rose; scene by Angelos
- Turncoat attack! Ships by Robert Rose; scene by Angelos
Update #50[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Oct 16, 2023
- Kickstarter
- Tom brings Windows and Debian up to speed with MacOS. The layout code has been simplified. Animation and physics on Windows and Debian are broken. Windows is too slow and Debian is too fast.
Images:
- Cosmic Frontier running on Windows
- Cosmic Frontier running on Ubuntu
- Voinian Frigate by Robert
- Emalgha Fighter by Robert
- Crescent Warship by Angelos
2024[]
Update #51[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Jan 25, 2024
- Kickstarter
- PAC talks about doing a lot freelance work to stay out of debt. He says he now has one day a week to work on CoFro.
- Landing Scenes by Angelos:
- Crockett: Frontier Express HQ
- Three Miranu planetary scenes
Update #52[]
- Peter Cartwright
- Jul 22, 2024
- Kickstarter
- Development is slow: Tom had to find a new employer and PAC has dug out of a financial hole
- Tom can work on CoFro one day a week
Update #53[]
- Tom Hancocks
- Nov 20, 2024
- Kickstarter
- Refactor work on splitting Kestrel and Cosmic Frontier into distinct functionality is complete
2025[]
No updates so far in 2025 as of May.