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Author Topic: Idea for UQM  (Read 13831 times)
Arne
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #15 on: September 22, 2008, 07:33:31 am »

I've had a similar idea for a long time, but I suppose it's more viable now when you don't have to explain it to people, you can just say "you make stuff, like in Spore, except different!" and people will be much more receptive. That's how game pitches works. If something seems a bit alien and you need to explain it, it's an instant no-go.

For a game like SC, I'd use the Elite Frontier ship hull approach. You buy a hull and stuff it with stuff. This wouldn't work with the Arcade style gameplay in SC though, because you must be able to instantly see what you're up against so you can make a tactical response. But, SC was not about the melee for me, it was about the universe, so I wouldn't mind having customizable ships.

It's still a good idea being able to read a ship's capabilities from the exterior though. You could in Elite, the little antennas, fuel scopes, missiles etc. could be seen, and you'd know from the mass of a ship that it probably had a big laser and plenty of shields. I'd like to see battleships lined with turrets. Then the present SC ships would be something along the size of torpedo boats or destroyers. I guess I have a bit of a problem with the abstract nature of SC battles, because the universe is so... alive.

Seeing how almost all games today are geared towards accessibility over depth (a false dichotomy, imo ), I don't think TfB would depart much from the current Melee system. Departing might be quite risky and I'm sure the Melee system is an integral part of SC to many.

A less intrusive idea could be to add a flagship for each race. These are rare, and can be outfitted with various goodies pertaining to each species (which you can then loot form the derelicts), then the regular SC ships are identical 'grunts'.

Edit: Drew some haphazard ship designs on that note.
Edit: I guess this idea is for my own never ending project. I just like to rant.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2008, 11:16:00 pm by Arne » Logged
Glory_device
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #16 on: September 22, 2008, 03:51:20 pm »

Nice drawing!

But, before venturing in the let's add new things part...we should begin to make the first step... I think even before telling exactly what new feature we could add....We need to form a team to do it... I am not a real great programmer but I am learning...also I can draw a tad bit and do music...after that, we need to know what we want to add and the order. All option that we will add must be disabled quite easily

In my opinion:
-make multi star ship combat available with current sc2 star ship
-increase the discrete degree amount

Let's begin by doing those two thing ... and THEN we will talk about bigger things.

But, I am in!
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Elvish Pillager
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #17 on: September 22, 2008, 11:28:34 pm »

It would be possible to dissect the existing sprites and systematically put them together to represent the outfits of the ships.
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #18 on: September 22, 2008, 11:53:23 pm »

some sort of comparative algorithm? Or more like pixel based drawing?
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Arne
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #19 on: September 23, 2008, 04:45:03 am »

I think he means to erase everything but the nacelles on the Cruiser for example, then you draw a couple of different versions of them, maybe using the ones in SC1 and SC2 (they're different). Then you do the same with the 'head' and 'body', etc. Now you can just draw several layers of stuff to complete the ship. Still a lot of work though with all the angles and mipmapping. Add programming and game balance, and the task seems... daunting.


Something which could be interesting is support for drawing (and colliding) 3D models. I'm not sure how separated the graphics drawing is from the game mechanics in UQM. It would be neat having a graphics engine as a module or something (taking arguments from the game mechanics engine). Might be a tricky task with the ship bitmap collisions and other stuff. I'm not much of a coder so I'm just ranting here.
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #20 on: September 24, 2008, 03:57:08 am »

Okay, I think it is now time to check something up: who is up to make this project real, to make a STABLE and user friendly melee that could be used to play with multiple ship and introducing the less discrete turn system? Who would be ready to commit time to this project?

I am willing to...for the programming part I am not quite ready to venture in this world (still learning)

Tho I can work a lot with sound, and graphics (for drawing 2d sprite etc...) I will also help for discussion about the gaming principles!

So who is in?
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Alvarin
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #21 on: September 24, 2008, 10:08:51 am »

I would like to help .
My contribution can be pixel-drawing and, mainly, as a "flaw-finder" for various aspects (other than actual code).
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #22 on: September 24, 2008, 03:29:13 pm »

Oh, by the way I forgot to mention: what mean of communication...sure there is the uqm forum but we don't want to load it up all the time...so the best thing would be either a mailing list or IRC just tell me your input about it!
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #23 on: September 24, 2008, 10:34:11 pm »

I'd say both - for development - mailing list , for brainnstorming - IRC .
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #24 on: September 25, 2008, 02:54:43 am »

So who is in?

Me, but since I'm still in Visual Basic (learning Visual C++ next year, hopefully), there's not much coding I can do. But I'd bet if I knew my task, I could manage to write some code if I looked at something like a C tutorial, since I do know a little about how C works from my experience in Game Maker. Still, I would mostly only be able to write comments.
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #25 on: September 25, 2008, 06:26:58 am »

So for now we would be three....still need a solid code monkey to help us ...But, at least we can begin brainstorming and setting up the basic (objective...what we want to do etc..)

so hum here is my e-mail

simon.marcoux@usherbrooke.ca

so hum that's it for the mailing list...

and for IRC channel witch one?
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #26 on: September 25, 2008, 12:19:07 pm »

We need a name for the project. I suggest calling the project Star Control Advance, for now, and we can come up with a real name later.
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #27 on: September 25, 2008, 08:56:10 pm »

I'm "dwarfinblues(at)gmail(dot)com" .
I don't know about the name - calling it "advance" would be jinxing it from the get go . Let's first actually get somewhere and then we'll see how "advanced" it will get .
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #28 on: September 25, 2008, 09:30:39 pm »

Star Control Advance would just be a codename for the project, not the actual name of the game. And actually, more than 16 ship directions IS advanced for SC2.

How about this: I'll start a poll so we can vote on what the name should be. But it'll be a quick poll, because we don't want the name to be a big issue. Besides, we should all agree on the name.
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Re: Idea for UQM
« Reply #29 on: September 26, 2008, 01:05:26 am »

name isn't an issue here .... you could name it project X for all I care...having a name do not make a project ...working on it does...I think we should focus more on what is in rather than what is the name of the whole thing...

But this is just my opinon...But, from what I know... name in VG are not decided until a middle point. Because a name bear signification about the content of the game or at least part of it...so I say we wait

thank you Alvarin I will send you a E-mail to confirm that you are on the list... when more peole will join I will keep adding more to the pool!

That is all for the moment...gotta go back to my program documentation.. arf Sad
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