Well, it finally happened! The prototype stage for the new mission system is done — and it’s now available in version 0.2.x. And you can take a look at this here - https://awaken-protocol.com/start
Yeah, it’s still just a prototype — no real depth, complexity, or game design polish yet. But I’m really happy to finally show it off and talk a bit about what’s been done, how it works, and where it’s all heading.
How It Works
One of the main goals for this feature was to make a full gameplay loop for missions.
A player gets offered available missions, can accept or discard them, progress is tracked, and when all objectives are complete — boom, reward time. Nothing revolutionary, right?
But… one of the key design goals was to make missions automatable — so that a player’s ships could complete them even when the player is offline. Also, in the future, players will be able to create missions for other players. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
For now, I focused on four main mission types:
- Resource gathering (mining)
- Cargo delivery
- Combat encounters
- Patrol missions
A mission can mix any of these conditions. For example: a mining mission might not only require extracting resources from an asteroid but also delivering a certain amount of that ore to a specific station. A patrol mission might include both scouting points of interest in a star system and engaging hostiles. Basically, missions can be any combination and number of objectives.
Missions have several statuses:
- Open – available to the player. Only basic info is shown: what needs to be done and where. You can decline it right away if, say, it’s too far, too dangerous, or just not your kind of thing.
- Accepted – you took the mission. Now you see all the details: asteroid coordinates, enemy ship locations, required cargo volume, etc. Progress is tracked. But you can still back out and discard mission if you change your mind.
- Finished – mission complete, rewards claimed. Easy.
- Discarded – mission abandoned, penalties paid. Also easy.
Right now there are two basic templates:
- Mining + Delivery – find and mine an asteroid, then deliver the resources to a designated station. Everything (location, asteroid content, delivery volume) is generated randomly but logically — meaning there’s always enough resources to complete the job.
- Combat Encounter – this one required a simple but very aggressive AI to make the enemy ship actually dangerous. So when you arrive… prepare to meet pure, unfiltered hostility 😈
Fancy Stuff: Rich Text UI
I also want to talk about a new UI component I made for displaying rich text — text where certain parts can be interactive.
For example, a mission description can contain system names, coordinates, station names, or item names — and each of these elements can be clicked to show different context menus. Warp to coordinates, dock at a station, inspect an item — you name it.
This system will be useful in many parts of the game, especially in chat, where players will be able to share links to locations or items right in the messages.
Under the Hood
Now let’s talk about what’s happening behind the scenes — some of the architecture that I think will open up a lot of future possibilities.
First — the autonomous mission tracker. Its main job is to monitor mission progress independently of whether the player is online or not. It also handles multiple active missions per player, and each mission can be assigned to a different ship. So you could:
- Accept a mining mission on your mining ship and start extracting ore. - Meanwhile, jump into your combat ship, accept a battle mission, and go shoot some hostiles.
Or You could accept a mining mission, assign it to your mining ship, and then attach your automation script so that it travels, mines, and delivers resources on its own — even if you log out. Of course, you’ll need to write that script yourself using the in-game scripting tools (which is a whole different topic worthy of its own devlog).
Another cool part of the architecture is the mission condition system. It’s built in a modular way, so missions can use any combination of objectives, and new ones can easily be added in the future. Imagine missions like: manufacturing specific items, repairing stations or ships, scanning systems, conducting archaeological surveys, or researching certain data. Stealth missions, such as data hacking and infiltration, or sabotaging automated ships or stations. Or, conversely, protecting facilities from such stealth attacks. Trade operations, such as organizing/maintaining a trade hub or conducting trade interventions in a competitive market (hub). There’s a huge scope for imagination, and the current architecture makes it relatively easy to add such new mission conditions and combine them.
And since it’s flexible, players themselves will also be able to create missions. From obvious delivery contracts to military contracts to destroy stations or enemy communications.
What’s Next
As I said — the possibilities are endless. The hard part is choosing where to start. Where are you, game designer of my dreams? 😅
Here, I’ll just outline possible development directions as milestones. Some of this is a TODO, and some is still just a rough idea—all together, like a scattering of colored pebbles on a table.
- Story missions with narrative and world-building
- Expanded rewards – not just credits, but also items, and faction reputation (yep, factions are coming ofc)
- Automation tools for mission scripting — so ships can fully complete missions autonomously
- Skills related to missions – like increasing available missions per faction, improving rewards, or reducing penalties
- Player-created missions for other players
- Mission chains united by a single mini-plot and goal, integrating with the current game world. I already mentioned this briefly when listing possible ideas for new mission conditions—intervention on the trade hubs of rival factions. Such chains could include several missions united by a common goal. And even more, they could unite different players around this goal. So each player have their own missions as part of general goal.
- Making missions less templated and much more diverse.
I know I’m thinking like a developer right now — focusing on systems, not the “fun” yet.
But don’t worry — I’m thinking about that too. Step by step, we’re getting closer to a game you can actually play and enjoy ❤️