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Topic: Improving the original? What to improve to do the game even better? (Read 98743 times)
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Draxas
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I wasn't super-keen on the Spathi voiceover, but it has a certain "reedy" quality and that weird accent that made it charming, rather than annoying. I dunno, they seemed a little bit too calm at times, though. Still, I like it overall.
I'd continue my playthrough just to hear some of the other voices, if it wasn't for Dragon Quest 8 sucking up all my free time. 
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ILuvCheese
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something i wanted to do since SC2 first came out...
how abt allowing one to import the precursor ship so you can use it in supermelee? i'd code it myself but my skills leave much to be desired.
i wanna see how my customized ship stands up to an avatar. 
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Draxas
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Your customized ship would blow an Avatar clear out of the sky before it could hit you. Same story with nearly every standard vessel in the game (Maybe not a Jugger; that's the only exception, though). The precursor ship is broken in terms of game balance, which is why so many people stop using their escorts after a while.
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Halleck
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Sorry, Halleck. By some unknown means, I totally missed your post.
I've never really done much open source stuff, just a lot of creating projects. But I'll take your word on it...for now. ;p
I actually stand corrected on that point- open source projects sometimes do pay people as Death 999 pointed out (ubuntu linux bounties, the lead developer of medawiki, etc.)
Rather, I'll say that hiring people is not the UQM way. The coders, testers, composers, documentation writers, etc. all work for free. I see no reason why this should change for artists.
If I have time, I'll to do a revamp of the basic interface (essentially, take a screencap of, say, space navigation and take it to hell and back in Photoshop) and see what happens.
A mockup of what you have in mind would be interesting, certainly. I believe that a full overhaul of the interface would require a good deal of code overhauling to support it- as far as I know, the current interface is completely hard coded, except for maybe the 3d0 style menu icons.
A possibility....Remember the "crew" chats that pop up occassionally? Since MOST of the missing dialogue refers to space coordinates, we could have a computer readout from a random crew member stating "We have received a set of coordinates from the Utwig. They are apparently the Supox homeworld, sir."
Not quite as good, but we could even voice those without worrying about matching naything, since no crew chat was ever voiced.
That is one possible solution, yes. Personally, though, I think that any information presented in the PC version through dialogue should also be presented in UQM through dialogue.
There's no reason to write new text in order to sneak bits of info back in if the text has already been written- besides, it would fall outside the 'straight port' doctrine.
Edit: What would be a good resolution for a new high-res interface?
Mock it up in any size you like. For the target size, probably 1024 x 768, since that's the current maximum resolution. I think it will be easier to start high-rez and scale down as opposed to starting low-rez and scaling up, correct?
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 Currently working on: Going outside more |
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Megagun
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All UQM images are scaled so that they fit in a 320x200 window perfectly.. The resulting frame gets resized to the resolution you play UQM in.. right?
So I'd guess that you'd make the new interface in 320x200, then upscale it and retouch it, save it again, repeat.. So that for each and every possible resolution, you'd make a new interface, so it looks best on all possible resolutions..
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, though...
And yes, the interface is currently hardcoded in the game itself.. It doesn't use images, it just places lines of various colours which eventually make out the interface....
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Clay
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What can we do for you...today?
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A mockup of what you have in mind would be interesting, certainly. I believe that a full overhaul of the interface would require a good deal of code overhauling to support it- as far as I know, the current interface is completely hard coded, except for maybe the 3d0 style menu icons.
Of course, I am told this too late. 9_9
That is one possible solution, yes. Personally, though, I think that any information presented in the PC version through dialogue should also be presented in UQM through dialogue.
There's no reason to write new text in order to sneak bits of info back in if the text has already been written- besides, it would fall outside the 'straight port' doctrine.
There IS reason. It's called "the real voice actors aren't available." And I say a quick hack like this is a LOT less lame than the NPCs randomly not talking to give this information. Certainly less distracting to newbie players.
Mock it up in any size you like. For the target size, probably 1024 x 768, since that's the current maximum resolution. I think it will be easier to start high-rez and scale down as opposed to starting low-rez and scaling up, correct?
Not always. Scaling down is prone to losing key details and such. But if you do a 1024x768 design with scaling down in mind...should work. It's what I did, anyway.
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Clay
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Well, since the interface is likely not going to happen any time soon, how do the ship graphics work? Can hi-res versions be plugged into the game, or do these require programming overhauls, too?
Just checking before I go and do it
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Burb
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Your customized ship would blow an Avatar clear out of the sky before it could hit you. Same story with nearly every standard vessel in the game (Maybe not a Jugger; that's the only exception, though). The precursor ship is broken in terms of game balance, which is why so many people stop using their escorts after a while.
Silly.
Put in the option in melee to choose a flagship. Once you've chosen it, you customize it by adding varying amounts of crew, pdls, hellbores/the other two types of weapons, dynamos, shivas, tracking systems, turning jets and the booster things.
This way, you can test out which configuration lets you fire the most rapidly or what does the most damage, how many pdl's you need vs this ship's projectiles, etc. All this stuff can already be found on the forums, but it's not very easy to find, and it'd be fun to do that. Different builds can be tested versus different ships without wasting gametime and finding resources. Plus, friends can compete and see whose flagship is better for fun  .
Of course, it is very possible to simply put a fully upgraded flagship, not bothering to get fuel tanks or cargo modules and just beat the computer all day long, but so what? Just because you can do it doesn't mean that putting in the ability to use a flagship is BAD.
Well, from your quote it appears that you assume that only a flagship from a save file can be used, but that's sort of narrowminded. Think outside the box 
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Clay
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Random Q, is there even any interest in better graphics for UQM? It's quite a bit of work, so if the reaction is gonna be lukewarm at best, I'll probably pass for, I dunno, stuff I'm SUPPOSED to be doing. *laughs*
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Clay
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I know where you're coming from, Halleck. I always insist on playing the original versions of games before playing any remakes. I also played SC2 without any of the additional remix packs.
But at the same time, might be interesting to kick it in high gear. I think I was a bit too ambitious though. As if it wouldn't trying enough, the menu is supposed to be transparent, and various screens will appear by ribbed dark grey side bar pulling out like a drawer. In a word, not happening, I'm sure. ^_^
But I might take a stab at a Yehat ship. Time Warp's version is so dreadful I just feel like it needs it.
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JonoPorter
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Don't mess with the US.
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Or we could start from scratch like I have. Not that I am trying to hog the spotlight. 
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