I created the different ship classes that populate space in this game, starting with the battleship and the cruiser. The battleship is a small vessel with two generators and a couple of cannons on either side, whereas the cruiser is a more formidable enemy, with more cannons facing to the front and side. I will also have more advanced defences later on.

I added several placeholder classes for each ship component in the form of static meshes, which would later be replaced by the respective components. I had to do this as the destructible meshes had to be their own destructible actors attached to the ships rather than being a part of it, otherwise they wouldn’t work properly.

I created not only the ship classes but also their respective controllers. I had some trouble with figuring out how ships should move and tried out many different functions. I spent several hours with a problem where ships would not rotate towards where they were facing, which I was finally able to solve once I realized that I had used an offset rather than an actual transformation. The controllers also needed a way to search for enemies and move towards them, as well as then stop and face their cannons towards them. They also slow down if they are close enough to them.

Next week, I will create more components, make a nicer ship and have it shoot bolts.