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Author Topic: Idea for Interface  (Read 13456 times)
FalconMWC
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #45 on: March 10, 2004, 05:08:59 pm »

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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Deep-Jiffa
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #46 on: March 10, 2004, 11:42:37 pm »

I understand that, but what ship is that? The Sa-Matra?
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #47 on: March 11, 2004, 09:07:31 pm »

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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Deep-Jiffa
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #48 on: March 12, 2004, 02:46:32 am »

The Sa-Matra and the Earthling ship were clear... I never noticed the Intruder over there... It looks like it is a part of the Sa-Matra itself!

edit: Besides that, ignoring the fact that it isn't with colors, nice job!
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #49 on: March 12, 2004, 10:26:33 pm »

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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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #50 on: March 13, 2004, 07:42:07 am »

I propose a lock-on system requiring a certain amount of time of the target in your sights before firing like the FCS in AC(Armored Core) firing prematurly should cause the projectile to fire eratically confusing nearby asteroids and comets and rocks for the target.you could always add a missile cam like in WC(wing commander) just for the hell of it.
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FalconMWC
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #51 on: March 13, 2004, 09:05:18 am »

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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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #52 on: March 14, 2004, 10:00:45 pm »

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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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #53 on: March 14, 2004, 10:11:32 pm »

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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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #54 on: March 14, 2004, 10:20:44 pm »

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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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #55 on: March 14, 2004, 10:43:14 pm »

Imagine what a ur-quan fried would be like!
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Chrispy
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #56 on: March 15, 2004, 12:05:36 am »

the fried would come out in 3 dimentions. Hard to animate but awsome!
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #57 on: March 15, 2004, 12:51:16 am »

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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Deep-Jiffa
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #58 on: March 15, 2004, 02:10:05 am »

Problems with 3d combat:
Koar-Ah: will become much less handy because the mines will be less useful.
Orz Marines: Harder to destroy but easier to escape.
Ur-quan Fighers: Harder to destroy. Big plus.
Vux limpest: Less effective
Blazer: Harder to ram opponents with. Maybe a bigger battery and ofcourse bubble cost more to balance(so what you get is only longer time you can be in commet mode).Also the battery regeneration should be better.
Orz Turret: Hard enough to aim with it in 2d now in 3d?
Supox: Another strafing keys for up and down? Way too harder....
Druuge: Read next.
(I hope I didn't forget any, add some if you can)

Now the main problem is in 3d combat is... 3d. Now what happens if one decides to "dive" down? Will he be stopped by "invisible force field" or he will go down and down and escape combat? Or he will just get into darkness? All 3 options are bad.

The first option is bad because it isn't realistic and it limits the fun(trust me).

The second option is also bad because it will make escaping much easier and ofcourse the warp unit will not be used anymore.

The third option the best option but still bad one. If you do such thing, you want to escape right? It will make it much easier if you are faster than your oppenent because you could take a long distance away from him and warp safely. There can be creative solutions like: Melee in an entire system, maybe multi ship fights! (That will really rock!). For now this is the only solution I can think of. Add more if you want.

P.S Oh yea forgot, another big problem: Who will do all of this?  Roll Eyes
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Re: Idea for Interface
« Reply #59 on: March 15, 2004, 02:30:31 am »

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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