Aether
A downloadable game for Windows and Linux
Aether is a 2D real time tactics game based on pure Newtonian physics. Fleets are constructed from 10 different ship hulls, which can be equipped with various specialized weapons, sensors, fighters, and other systems.
The player has intricate control over various ship systems, power management, repairing, etc. But the most important aspect of the game is managing the momentum and positions of the units to gain a situational advantage. The units do not have any maximum speed, and there is no fixed frame of reference.
There is a singleplayer campaign, plus singleplayer and mulitplayer skirmish mode.
Aether is open source. The GitHub page can be found here:
Download
Install instructions
Windows version has been tested on Windows 7,10
Linux version tested on Mint Cinnamon 19.3 and Ubuntu 18.04
Comments
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This game has lots of promise, it is a shame that mission 1 is a literal brick wall in terms of difficulty. Demanding the player to have complete understanding of the enemy AI's movement logic in the first mission is a bit much.
[Edit]: Even after learning the orbiting controls it still feels like luck, as deterministic as it may be, if I even have a chance at beating the first mission.
For the balance of the game, it seems that a mix of anacondas and adders is the best with the Hades being the best hull.
As for features I hope that are included in future builds: setting the default stances on weapons before you enter a skirmish, formations, ordering your ship to turn on the spot, and ordering your ship to move with full forward thrust at all times during a maneuver. There are a number of QoL improvements in the menus that I hope will come as well.
Hi, thanks for the feedback. Good to know about the difficulty curve, it can be hard to tell how hard it is when playing your own game.
You can actually already manually control the turning and thrust of the ships, but only one at a time. If you double-click a unit, it will lock the camera onto it, then you can right click anywhere to turn and hold W to use thrusters.
I don't think I am to be able to maneuver better than the automated system, it is hard to judge the distance it will take to stop.
Yep the two biggest problems with this game IMO are the steep learning curve and the terrible interface. I might get around eventually to improving the interface. That could also help the learning curve somewhat.
I don't think the learning curve has to be so steep even with the UI as is. As long as the player is not required to have the movement finesse greater than basic orbital controls for the first few missions then the learning curve can be just fine.
This is the best game I have played so far! I love everything about this game.
haha maybe you haven't played many games then. Glad you liked it though
I revisited this game a few days ago, and I gotta say, I still love it. One feature I would love to have a button or a key that could launch all craft in the selected ship(s). That would make the initial combat so much easier.
For real, this is one of the few games that can scratch my itch for space combat. Are you planning on developing it any further?