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2025.03.11

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Star Fleet Teams
I wanted to let people know that we have a Star Fleet Teams call set up for 23rd April at 8pm UK time.
Drop me an email or let us know on the forum if you would like to join us.

End of Skype 
We moved across from Skype about a year-or-so ago when Microsoft seemed to be steering us towards Teams Personal.

I see that going back to Skype won't be an option in May, as Skype is being taken away:
	Microsoft has confirmed that it is killing Skype | Windows Central

It is meeting the same fate MSN Messenger, which I remember using a lot in the early days of X-Bomber's development.
Teams is a drab application by comparison.

X-Bomber v0.84m
A lot of work is going on around X-Bomber v0.84m, focussed on the '2-player helper' ship: Sylph.
That ship has been almost completely re-done and my daughter has been helping me to test it.

Rather than just 4 weapons - one for each fire button on a basic game controller - the ship now has 3 primary and 3 secondary weapons, which you select with buttons 3 and 4, and fire with buttons 1 and 2.

There are 2 3-segment indicators to help clarify which weapon is selected, which appear when the player cycles through their weapons, and then fade away.

Automatic rear-firing guns have been added as well, since not having them felt a little irritating when I tested it.

The Sylph now has a shield that activates when you collect the shield power-up.
The hit area has been re-shaped, so that it follows the shape of the translucent "core" of the ship.
The hit area also starts to glow red to indicate the level of damage to the ship.

It also has afterburners, which give the ship a lot more performance.

The helper ship can't be too complicated because it needs to be usable right away for novice players.
But now it now feels more comparable to the player 1 ships.

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