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Topic: Project6014 demo release (Read 74128 times)
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JudgeYohance
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Captain in the Black Spathi Squadron
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We have all been talking a lot about the current demo set but I am noticing we aren't talking much about "The story so far"
We all know the story of Star Control 2 and how the game ended. The demo gave us a taste of the story to come (which i forgot to mention, I hate whoever came up with the idea of leaving us a damn cliffhanger! )
We found a half buried ship of unknown origin (most likely Precursor) being guarded by the Lurg who, for reasons unclear, have suddenly chosen this time to rise from the abyss and begin their attack on us. I think a valid question worth asking is, WHY the Lurg were guarding that ship?
As far as the demo itself goes, I think all that needed to be said has been said in that we have hunted down the bugs thoroughly and have been spitting out ideas and feelings towards everything thus far. Now I think we should be focusing on what comes next. Most of us can't contribute to the technical aspect but I think we can all contribute to the writing aspect.
So my question to our Devs is, Has a story, beyond what we have seen in the demo been written yet or at the very least an outline been formed? Also, Star Control 2, if it had any real fault (imo) was a lack of general side questing that was not specifically needed to move the story or finish the game, has anything along those lines been/will be written yet? Lastly, what can we do that will honestly help you guys get work done better and faster from your perspective?
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Of course there are fates worse then death......after all.....you could always make me angry
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Cedric6014
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Some good questions JudgeYohance
There is a pretty solid story outline in place, complete with subplots etc. Really its just properly linking these elements and developing an awesome ending.
I’m a big fan of non-essential easter eggs. There will be quite a few of these. They may or may not take the form of side quests.
There will also be some exciting additions to gameplay
Man, we have a heap of work in front of us. Especially in the graphics department. As well as a need for more artists, it would be useful to have people who were proficient at Photoshop (or Paintshop Pro or Gimp etc) to help convert the art into computer graphics. There will be a LOT of that to do. Lots of laborious image work.
In addition we’ll need voice actors, music composers, dialogue writers and programmers. A lot of the work will be mundane.
It’s worth noting that SC2 is our benchmark for quality in all areas.
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Valos Cor
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Well, when my laptop's last toe of its last foot died off, (except the Linux hard drive) I got this desktop that was three or four steps up from the processing, short and long term memory, and software perspectives. One of them was that it came with Adobe Master Collection CS5. Of course, among several dozen other (mostly untouched) programs, there's Adobe Photoshop for me to use...
However, the only program I consider I'm fairly well at is mspaint, but I've seen people in the other thread who were WAY better than me hands down...
I agree about the storyline. Apparently, dczanik managed to contribute A LOT without getting a lot of the storyline...do you think that's possible? I wish I had the ability to create graphics like these because one of my favorite things about SCII has always been the artwork. I could right some dialogue - at the very least, I could write 20 different versions of greetings for a single race's ship or station. I am pretty good at grammar.
Sadly I can't do much in terms of graphics, since I have never had any talent for photoshop programs. I would love to try for some of the voice work. I am training to be a teacher so if there is one thing I can do, it's talk a lot Cool, what kind of teacher?
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I'm the kind of person that uses Linux and seems to be a very literate adult but has no idea how to do anything code-wise beyond basic stuff.(such as su -<password> yum install uqm) Except I didn't install UQM that way...I used Add/Remove Software...
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Malrunus
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I would offer to assist with some of the dialogue, but some stuff came up at work and I'm going to be really busy but I can chip in wherever I can
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onpon4
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Sharing is good.
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About that: I find the zoom in thing for the Syreen to be rather... annoying. It makes it look better the first time you meet them, but it's disorienting for the view to zoom in and out constantly. Perhaps if you just kept it zoomed in until the dialogue ended, it would be fine.
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dczanik
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I rather like it. It only zooms in when she is talking.
Animation is basically done using a text file that lists the x,y coordinates a png file is placed "on top". When you have a series of these just right it looks like it's moving. Same concept like using multiple sheets of paper for traditional animation. I'm generalizing a bit, the game requires hand coding for a lot of stuff too.
Zooming is done by really having five frames of animation that "fades" between one pic and the next. I just created that by changing the opacity levels between two pictures over the five screens. A fair amount of coding made it work.
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Avaclon
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Wow. This is really impressive.
I've been following since before Pages of Now and Forever moved to its new server... (early 2000ish?)
Gotta say, the moment that I exit Procyon and basically, get dump into space and was told to GO. Wow, what an eerie, dread, yet familiar feeling long gone, I have no idea what to do. Then as I slow explore each stars, I remembered, this is how gaming use to be. Perhaps even how gaming should be. Before the modern games pamper us with giant arrows and direction signs, and we act like errand boys completing one task and on to the next. The awesome sense of exploration and wonder came back. Good job guys!
I'll come up with more suggestion as I explore more of the game!
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ziper1221
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why no button for zoom?
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Elerium
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Well I can give some insight into dialogue writing for you chaps, you seem to have got something rolling pretty well
Several things I think though:
The Explorer, now it in itself is a decent ship design but it seems too Chenjesu, the Chmmr usually have metallic streamlining. As for the Melnorme confuse burst, I'm not sure about the Melnorme would sell their trade secrets relating to the weapons they use on their ships or that the Chmmr would have some basic understanding of how they worked unless it was through combat (but then, why would they attack the Melnormes?). The forward crystal weapon seems a bit out of place for the Chmmr and more Chenjesu, as the Chmmr are more into bold, upfront and personal conflicts. The design of the Avatar is certain of this method of attack.
Personally I'd have the Explorer as some sort of large heavily modified Avatar derived flagship. It cannot serve as a battleship, but there's plenty of room for more of the sciencey gizmos and stuff onboard. Alternatively I'd also throw around that the Chmmr secured the Precursor shipyard on Undzervalt and assimilated it, producing Precursor-Chmmr hybrids under the watchful eye of the Earthers who grow nervous at their growing power and that they're trespassing on their fields of expertise.
Perhaps the Explorer gets a few Zapsats of its own, especially when you're told you might be up against Kohr-Ah and whatnot.
You're told the Shofixti got wiped out, but where? I'm told to go, but no indication where they were last?
Orz wormhole, on approach I think it would be better to have the Captain having some sort of trippy mind programming put there by the Arilou saying Beware! etc, like (From the back of your mind you hear a calming unknown voice).
As for the Ilwrath, maybe have them around but with some sort of cloaked pirate base somewhere, which serves as a sideplot or something. I just find it hard to believe all of them would have died out, same with the Thraddash who might now be the equivalent of space biker gangs that now drive around the universe.
Oh and finally, the Slylandro piloting Kohr-Ah ships. I had to go back a bit and say lolwut. What would have been better (and what I would rather prefer) was them being sold Umgah ships after letting the blobs look at their gassy biology but they came with some dodgy hologram technology that makes them appear as Kohr-Ah for some stupid reason the gasballs haven't figured out. Then they're left wondering why people are fragging them, until you fix the way that they should appear by which they want to come onto your side. Mainly I just found that an unknown faction selling them fully geared Marauders after prying them from their cold dead tentacles was wrong as hell, but if the Umgah are making them fly around scaring the pants off everyone as Kohr-Ah that's just gold. Maybe the Umgah start bragging that they took some Ilwrath junk here and there from the Thraddash war, changed stuff around from "cloaking device" (as light gets manipulated by Ilwrath ships) to "hologram device" and gave it to them, before going Har Har Har!. The Slylandro might have been able to synthesize some sort of probe thing with their ships though, could use it as a DOGI that is released with the image of a small probe that zaps the enemy vessel a bit. Maybe as a joke I'd have a single Slylandro probe harass the captain once, "We come in peace" "Oh dear lord not this again, please tell me I can remember what that self destruct code was..".
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« Last Edit: October 08, 2010, 09:02:59 pm by Elerium »
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