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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: Map, and Space Terrains.  (Read 11746 times)

Qloos

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Map, and Space Terrains.
« on: May 09, 2011, 09:17:22 PM »

Naturally, these concerns are probably on the dev plate.  But they need to be mentioned anyway.

Map size is a large concern of mine at the moment.  It feels claustrophobic, without much room to maneuver.  It's a good skirmish size, but for more in depth missions, larger, or even roaming, (you can't reach an edge and the map moves with you) would be nice.

Also, I've seen two terrain types, lets expand on this with more suggestions!
  • Dense asteroid fields.  So dense: Large ships have trouble even getting through without shooting a path.
  • Asteroid shower.  The kinetic force is increased for an impact.
  • Stellar corona.  Which means, being within proximity of a stars heat/plasma.
  • Gas Giant.  I literally want to fly into one.
  • Black holes and wormholes.  Cookie cutter and almost demanded of any space game.
  • Planet ring.
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Avan

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #1 on: May 09, 2011, 09:25:15 PM »

ooh, on the asteroid one, given that the whole asteroid mechanic is implemented in a more stereotypical way than a realistic way anyways, I think that you could have a lot of fun with heavy asteroid fields.

Alex

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #2 on: May 09, 2011, 10:14:37 PM »

Map size is a large concern of mine at the moment.  It feels claustrophobic, without much room to maneuver. 

Just wanted to say that battles take place in a separate space from travel. Some of the combat maps are already fairly large, and take a *long* time to traverse in a battleship. "Turning the Tables" and "Sinking the Bis'mar" are on the small side, though. In the full game, you can expect battlefield side to correlate to the size of the opposing fleets - if they are bigger, they'll get more room to maneuver.

As far as terrain, I have to be honest that it's not a priority, given everything else there is to work on. These are cool ideas, and you can expect to see some of those trickle in over time, though.

And btw, coronas are already in the game :) (there's a star in "Turning the Tables", though it's admittedly small) You can also mod in a super-dense asteroid field if you like, and change the asteroid speed for much-increased damage (actually, easy enough to tweak any existing asteroid field - iirc, the parameters are documented in the comments).

ooh, on the asteroid one, given that the whole asteroid mechanic is implemented in a more stereotypical way than a realistic way anyways, I think that you could have a lot of fun with heavy asteroid fields.

I've got half a mind to try huge (say, Onslaught-sized) asteroids. Seems like those would be a lot of fun.
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Blips

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #3 on: May 09, 2011, 10:20:17 PM »

Just wanted to say that battles take place in a separate space from travel.

Aw, damn. I was kind of hoping / thinking that the entire game was going to be just one large open map.
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Alex

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #4 on: May 09, 2011, 10:35:56 PM »

Just wanted to say that battles take place in a separate space from travel.

Aw, damn. I was kind of hoping / thinking that the entire game was going to be just one large open map.

I'll admit that sounds good in theory :) Battles and higher-level strategic gameplay have really different requirements in terms of UI, scale, and miscellaneous gameplay mechanics, though. Trying to fit them into a single space is just asking for trouble.
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Apokus

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #5 on: May 09, 2011, 10:44:42 PM »

Quote
Quote from: Alex on Today at 07:14:37 AM
Just wanted to say that battles take place in a separate space from travel.


So its more like for example Master of Orion? Galaxymap -> Moveorders -> Fleet meets Fleet -> Battlemap?
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Avan

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2011, 10:45:25 PM »

how much HP would an onslaught sized asteroid have O_o (Also, would it break up into smaller asteroids?)

Avan

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2011, 08:14:41 AM »

BTW Alex, which argument in addAsteroidField controls the asteroid velocity? (actually, just in general what does each do?)

Alex

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2011, 08:42:40 AM »

So its more like for example Master of Orion? Galaxymap -> Moveorders -> Fleet meets Fleet -> Battlemap?

Not quite - want to make it more personal than that, so you really feel like you're exploring. The travel screen will be real-time, and a single star system will be a few screens' worth in size, depending on zoom. Then you can tab into the galaxy map, much like you do from combat into the warroom.

But aside from that, yeah, that's the basic flow. Travel -> battle -> back to travel.
BTW Alex, which argument in addAsteroidField controls the asteroid velocity? (actually, just in general what does each do?)

Code
// Add an asteroid field going diagonally across the
// battlefield, 2000 pixels wide, with a maximum of
// 100 asteroids in it.
// 20-70 is the range of asteroid speeds.
api.addAsteroidField(x, y, 45, 2000f, 20f, 70f, 100);

From the modding blog post. (x,y) is any point along the field, 45 is the angle (w/ 0 being to the right).


(Also, would it break up into smaller asteroids?)

Been meaning to do that for forever, even for these smaller guys :) Would be nice if they also left dust clouds, too.
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Avan

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2011, 01:31:46 PM »

I jsut had some fun with a hyper-velocity asteroid field  :D
It was mauling Onslaughts with amazing efficiency.

tinsoldier

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2011, 11:40:59 PM »

Just wanted to say that battles take place in a separate space from travel.

Meaning there's some sort of map for fast travel between areas and when you're in-system you get to drive the big ships around during the free explore part of the game or is it like old school rpgs where you putt around with a proxy and then have 'encounters' that take you to the battlefield?
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Alex

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #11 on: May 11, 2011, 11:09:24 AM »

Meaning there's some sort of map for fast travel between areas and when you're in-system you get to drive the big ships around during the free explore part of the game or is it like old school rpgs where you putt around with a proxy and then have 'encounters' that take you to the battlefield?

Think M&B or Star Control 2. So more like your second option.
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Flare

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #12 on: May 13, 2011, 04:55:00 PM »

Just wanted to say that battles take place in a separate space from travel.

Aw, damn. I was kind of hoping / thinking that the entire game was going to be just one large open map.

The pathfinding for your AI allies is going to be a major issue if that's the way it's going to work. You'd be losing battleships and fighter wings all over the place getting from point A to point B.
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Quote from: Thana
Quote from: Alex

The battle station is not completely operational, shall we say.

"Now witness the firepower of this thoroughly buggy and unoperational batt... Oh, hell, you know what? Just ignore the battle station, okay?"

Avan

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #13 on: May 14, 2011, 09:25:12 AM »

especially any time enemies got within range, or if you flew into an asteroid belt (Which can wreak havok with AI piloting on smaller ships)

Qloos

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Re: Map, and Space Terrains.
« Reply #14 on: May 17, 2011, 10:02:41 PM »

A different varient of a nebula which puts a strain on flux would be cool.  A hazard which only the brave would journey through.
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