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Topic: Idea for Interface (Read 13238 times)
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FalconMWC
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Acually Terminator I have not played nor heard of wing commander. I got one idea from Descent.
DJ: What Culture20 is trying to do is show different views of the melee and seeing which one we like the most. (I think)
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Culture20
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Thraddash Flower Child
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I knew I should have spent more time at least coloring things (or making them different basic colors). The grayscale was easy; I just made rg&b increase a step between 126 & 255 for every object in each model. Unforunately this makes the image I put together in gimp look like a mish-mash of gray& white.
The three ships in the scene: the Sa-Matra in the background (underneath), an earthling cruiser, facing away from the player in the foreground (the player's ship), and a VUX bearing down on the cruiser (facing the player).
And btw, they aren't my meshes; I snagged 'em from both SC3D and youbastrd!'s model page, then converted them to autocad dxf format, then converted them into raw cpp code for openGL (so that I didn't have to mess with model loader libraries yet. They're reasonably fast when you put all the triangles in a display list). I also converted them into VRML2 just for kicks, but they're _really_ slow in cortona (haven't tried cosmo).
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Culture20
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Thraddash Flower Child
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Wing commander style radar is top-down only; The one from xwing vs tie-fighter is forward & backward radar, which lets you easily see if someone is tailing you or just above you...
Weapons displays might be insteresting but they would only have a use with the Chenjesu (to know when to release the crystal). Any other places that they might be usefull?
Having a transparent ship with the camera just behind would be a good idea if it's really far behind (far enough that you can see enemies on your tail).
Locking for missiles? Besides being un-SC, it also would make the earthlings too powerful. Homing weapons become much more usefull when there is an extra dimension of freedom; the earthlings don't need to have an extra advantage beyond that.
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FalconMWC
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Only problem with the earthling having no lock on is it is hard tell distance in first person space games. Maybe you could have a range.
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Culture20
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But like I mentioned before, this is balanced by the fact that homing weapons have an extreme advantage over non-homing when a new dimension of movement is added. I would add a distance-meter to non-homing ships before I would give it to craft with homing weapons.
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FalconMWC
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Of course if this were to happen the orz ship would be at a extreme advantage.
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Chrispy
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Hmmm, orz with more range. I like.
The zoq fot pik would be awsome since the anti matter spreads in 3 dimentions.
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FalconMWC
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Imagine what a ur-quan fried would be like!
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Chrispy
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the fried would come out in 3 dimentions. Hard to animate but awsome!
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ShofixtiWithAK-47
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Am I a clown? Do I amuse you? How am I funny?
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I have a some ideas about a 3d interface version
1. The gameplay would be taken from a behind the ship point of view. Everything would roughly in proportion to whatever it encounters. (The Vindicator would come upon proportional planets, instead of planets that "appear the double the size as dreadnoughts") The planets design would correspond to their atmosphere and actual size in the game. The Vindicator, however, would move at the same speed as it does in sc2. Maybe an in-screen map could allow for easy exploration in a 2d format. Just to make interplanetary travel more easy, the yaw wouldn't be controlled by the player at all, and both planets and starship would stay on the same 3d plane. A planet could be encountered pretty much the same way as in the game.
2. The "planet scan" option would also be much different. It would take place again from a "behind the ship" point of view. A crosshair or aiming device would be pointed on the planet, and the lander would land on a sphere, rather than a 2d map. The planet essentially moves around according to where you want to land, and the ship's point of view is stationary. Also, the planets geograpical features could be shown on the same 3d, spherical format. Mountains and landmarks would stay consistent, even during landing.
3. The landing phase would be taken from the same behind the ship point of view, only using the lander. The planet exploration would be less fast, but the planet's features could again be seen in a 3d point of view. Instead of using lame lighting, earthquake and hotspot designs, the cockpit controls of the lander could be seen by the player. A temperature gauge, and perhaps weather and planet controls could also be viewed. Maybe an option is to include what type of clouds are producing the lightning, or even make a new planetary danger, volcanoes.
4. Hyperspace navigation will be similar, only again in a 3d, single plane format. If a Slylandro start to chase you through hyperspace, they will appear as a blip on your picture-in-picture map until the become close enough to recoginize as a 3d object. (pretty obvious conclusion). Stars of course will be in their 3d state, and stay consistent to the game as far as color and size. Hyperspace, of course will stay a bright red.
5. Alien conversation will probably stay in the same format as Sc3, except programs should be made for free speech from the player. The "free speech" idea can only be a possibility if somehow the aliens are limited to a number of things to say. (Depending on the aggressiveness, inquisitiveness, etc of the player speaking.)
6. Melee mode will of course be much different. I'd say that this time the ships aren't restricted to one 3d plane, but rather a sphereical plane with boundaries. The planet will be of equal size as in the real game, and have a gravitational field depending of its mass. A possibility besides having a 2d map, is using a lock-on capability, which will lessen the chance of completely losing your opponent. This lock on ability will also make controlling the direction and accuracy of your fire much easier. I'd say that a joystick would be the simplest way to make the possible, but perhaps there could be yaw/roll control on the keyboard.
What I'm saying may sound an awful lot like sc3, but the best way to decribe what I'm thinking is to picture the game Star Wars Shadows of the Empire for N64. The X-Wing viewpoint is sort-of what I was looking at for both in-game and melee.
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Shiver's really angry.
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Chrispy
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I planned this idea as 3rd person and 3d. Its very very hard to discribe over a forum. The camara could not be locked behind the ship because you couldnt see anything behind you. You would have to program the camara to pick a view where it can see your ship and the aponent, and maybe any near asteroids/plantes/mines.
If you dive down, then you appear back at the top. Its like the square arena in sc2 but instead its a cube.
The controls would be hard. You could use the mouse for stearing. Most turns you in all directions. The mouse buttons are roll left and right. Then with your other hand youd have to cover 3 bottons. Thrust/fire/special. How you could rotate the orz turret with this interface is beond me. Maybe it could rotate automatically:D
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Deep Jiffa Owns j00!
