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Topic: Aftermath (Read 98894 times)
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Madgap
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We come in peace.
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Hey guys, I'm sorry for being out of touch, but the old job hunting thing has been taking up most of my time. I haven't gotten much programming time in over the past month, so I'm not nearly as far along as I would like to be.
In order to get another version out I'm going to have to save some things until later, like improved AI. I've updated the website with what I'm currently working on. I hope to be done very soon.
Cronos: Those are some good ideas, and I really like the modular campaign thing. I'll try to have a basic version of that in the next release.
VileRancour: There's no real end to the game yet...it's still incomplete. In fact, I've been thinking a lot about the strategic level of the game. That's where the game will be 'won', like maybe when all of the enemy bases have been destroyed.
I know some people have mentioned setting up trade routes, and directing other fleets from the starmap. I thought about giving the player more control, but I fear that the game would become something like Master of Orion with realtime combat. I think that would introduce too much complexity at the strategic level, and the high level AI would need to be really good.
The next version will emphasize that you are not fighting on equal footing with your enemies. You represent a rebel group with a few small, secret bases, whereas your enemies are massive empires with enormous resources at their disposal.
-Madgap
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thatsteveguy
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Everything addict.
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Welcome back Madgap! Good to know you're alive... 
-TSG
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Madgap
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I only put a few bases in the last version...I don't remember exactly, but I think in that version I placed them manually. 20 sounds about right.
I've finalized the code for the next version. There are a number of incomplete features that just haven't had time to finish. AI has not been modified at all... However, some of the new user interface stuff is in place, some new strategic level changes, and lots of new ships and weapons. Thanks to thatsteveguy for the new models! 
I've got to finish painting the system icons (pain in the butt), and balance the system weights and prices. Pardon the crude system icons (you will see what I mean.) A question mark just means I haven't created an icon for that system yet. I have temporarily taken out the ogg music because it was eating up a ton of memory. This release will have music in wav format...I converted it to mono, 8 bit so it doesn't take up much HD space.
I'll post the new version on the website in a couple of hours. I'll update this post as well when it's up. There won't be any new documentation at first...I'll get to that later. 
-Madgap
Status: Ready!
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« Last Edit: August 02, 2004, 12:06:15 pm by Madgap »
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Cronos
*Many bubbles*
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Shofixti Scoutmaster
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Excellent work, just a couple of things.
1. There is no way to skip the resource offloading. It may be interesting the first time round but quickly becomes boring. When I hit the escape key, I went back into the system. When I went back to the starbase, I had only a fraction of the resources I should have had. Might want to look into that.
2. Cargo usage and credits appear to overlap eachother, making them difficult to read.
3. Some of the icons you've chosen arent easily intelligible.
4. The exotic asteroids look a bit... Psychedelic... perhaps replacing them with a crystal substance would be better, though it may require a new model. An interesting twist would be to make these crystal asteroids somewhat see through but I'm not sure if thats possible on D3D since I'm not sure of the exact specifications etc.
Thats all the problems I can see, now onto the suggestions!
1. A way to skip resource offloading without losing the resources you have gathered!
2. Fixing the overlapping/bugged writing
3. Small names underneath the icons (Primary weapon slot, Secondary Weapon Slot, Thruster Component, Sensor Grid, etc)
4. If possible, rework the exotic asteroids, but dont spend too much time for a cosmetic change. If anything, get someone thats able to do 3d modelling to do it in his spare time and reserve yours for the coding.
5. Enemies should leave some resources left over to be scavenged, such as broken hulls etc. that can be gathered via the mining laser or by simply flying over it. The bigger the bad guy, the bigger the bounty
6. The ability to create colony worlds that bring a slow, but steady, rate of credits. Should cost 2 to 3 times that of a starbase, but brings in about 500 Credits per day in "Taxes".
7. If your fleet runs out of fuel and your within the 50% scanner range of your starbase, the starbase will send an emergency refuelling ship to your fleet with enough fuel to cover the journey, while taking a modest hit to your credits (pilots dont like coming out to save your keester all the time you know). If you beyond the 50% range, you can cannibalise another vessel from your fleet for roughly 10% of it's cost to be turned into fuel.
So, if you have a ship worth 2000 creds and you run out, you can cannibalise that vessel to get 200 creds worth of fuel for your fleet.
If you've cannibalised your fleet, and exhausted your fuel and are STILL outside the refuel zone, your SOL.
Also, if you have only a few hundred credits you go into a deficit. If you stay in the deficit for too long, some of your ships begin to be repossessed and in the worst case scenario certain starbases may be abandoned at a 40% return.
8. A wussy mode with a respawn ability at your starbase for newbies. Respawning costs credits and you have to rebuild your fleet. To compensate, perhaps make certain aspects of wussy mode a bit harder (Starbases tougher to crack?).
{Edit}
Upon further reflection, respawning should hit the player hard if they rely on it too much. So, after say, 3 respawns, ship costs are doubled, after 6, RU gain is halved, after 12, fuel costs are doubled, after 24, enemy strength (weapon and hull) are doubled, after 48 respawns, your hull and weapon strength are halved, and by 96 respawns, the Ur-Quan will recognise you for the annoying gnat you are and move a fairly large task force to deal with you once and for all regardless of how many starbases they may have left. Might actually make for a very interesting thing, although it is a wussy mode (ability to respawn) it becomes decidedly harder the more you die.
Thats all for now.
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« Last Edit: August 02, 2004, 04:40:39 pm by Cronos »
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Madgap
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I just fixed the text overlap thing, and Esc now speeds up the mineral dump process. I updated the zip file with the new exe, but for those who already downloaded the big file here's a link to just the executable: http://www.umich.edu/~rkingsle/Aftermath_v652.exe
I also noticed another bug: don't sell all of the ships in your fleet, you won't be able to buy any new ones for some reason.
Yeah, the icons kinda' suck, but I was really tired at the time.  Feel free to make icons of your own...use the SysIcon_Empty.tga as a template. Each system file (like Nuke.weapon) has an entry which specifies the name of the icon...something like Icon: SysIcon_Nuke.tga
I don't really like the idea of auto-resource collection. All the player would have to do is sit around in hyperspace for awhile earning money. Still, it's a possibility.
-Madgap
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« Last Edit: August 03, 2004, 04:22:55 am by Madgap »
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thatsteveguy
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Everything addict.
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Madgap-
The new improvements are good! I haven't had time to get into this new incarnation much yet, just about a half hour, but what I was able to see looked cool. (I was working on a website for a client of mine and I had to get certain bits done this morning... sigh, work always interupting what's REALLY important).
I agree with you on the auto-collection of resources, Madgap. In my mind, (which is a very *special* place granted...), when you go out to collect resources you're collecting them for their VALUE. Whereas the mines supply the QUANTITY of raw materials to produce things like, ships, mine contructors, weapons and whatnot. (On a side note you could make building ships take some amount of time which is based on how many mines you have.) Now, on the other hand, once you've got a fleet together it would be cool to be able to jump into a system and issue a command to your fleet, "MINE!", and all the ships that are capable go out and mine what they can see in their radar. That would relieve some of the tedium of mining but at the same time make the player do SOMETHING other than just wait around for the credits to roll in. I of course, will continue to just raid cargo ships...
Good work! I also have a bunch more ships for you. I just haven't mailed 'em yet.
-TSG
Edit:
Don't spend too much time on those icons, when I get a little time I'll put together a bunch and get them to you.
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« Last Edit: August 03, 2004, 01:12:19 am by thatsteveguy »
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putrio
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Hi. I have a suggestion! Perhaps, if it wouldn't be to difficult, if you mine with a ship, and fill it, and then select another ship, the ship you filled will automatically go to your starbase (if in the system). That would make things quite a bit more efficient, and you would still have to mine, just not constantly return to the base. Just a thought.
Ian
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Madgap
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That's a good idea...I think some kind of auto-mining operation should be included.
Something that has changed in this version which makes it a lot easier is you don't fill each ship seperately. They all share a single fleet cargo hold. What I usually do is buy lots of cargo ships and a single shofixti scout equiped with a mining laser. Use the scout to do the mining...the cargo ships hold all the goods.
For some reason I removed the cargo hold bar, so it's impossible to tell how much storage you have left! Ach! I'll add it back in somewhere...the question is where.
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putrio
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I like the idea of the fleet wide storage capacity, it would simplify things a lot. It would also work well with my previous suggestion i think, IF (internally flawless, guess what other message board i'm a member of) the cargo bar can be dynamically altered (i'm sure it can, since the health and energy bar can).
*edit*
i love surfing at work when there's nothing to do 
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« Last Edit: August 03, 2004, 01:38:46 am by putrio »
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Madgap
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Sorry, I've removed the B button for the action menu. Right click on an object to bring up the new icon based action menu. Context sensitive. Use it for building outspots, scanning objects, etc...
There's currently not much difference between the three cargo ships. In the future they will be very different...I'm thinking:
a) Fast, small capacity
b) Medium, medium
c) Heavy, slow (maybe the earthling ship).
Also, I'm going to add a new ship type, the fuel carrier. Right now cargo ships also carry tons of fuel...I'm going to reduce their fuel capacity and create a specialized ship just for that purpose...basically a flying fuel tank.
It's really easy to modify the data files...everything is text based. Mess around with them if you wish, but if you add new ships it will mess up any game saved pre-modification.
EDIT: Added a newer executable, version 0.652, on the downloads page. Has a fleet cargo capacity display, and a bug fix.
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« Last Edit: August 03, 2004, 04:24:32 am by Madgap »
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Cronos
*Many bubbles*
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Another Bug: Whenever I pick up the "Crates" left over from enemy ships, they become "Raw Minerals" in my cargo hold which do absolutely nothing but take up space. I cant sell them and even selling all but one of my ships does not get rid of them (giving me negative cargo volume).
Perhaps the raw minerals should be able to be sold instead of the colony idea. Anything a bit less tedious then mining
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Madgap
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Oops, that was what I originally intended (awarding credits for kills.) That should have been "Minerals, Rare", not "Raw minerals". I've already made the change...I'll upload the next executable (0.653) tonight. I want to wait a bit to see if there are any more bugs found today.
-Madgap
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Deep Jiffa Owns j00!
I tried changing it to something besides B, and it still does not work. Is this a bug or is my comp flicking me crap.