Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dark.Revenant]

I believe he is holding off the random gen for stuff that would get too predictable for manual content, such as where to discover new tech, and etc.

[Zapier]

I don't want to get into the details too much (too liable to change and all that), but right now thinking in terms of randomly generating some systems.

Yeah I understand. I only asked since some procedural generation is still listed as part of the ongoing development so I was just more surprised if you found more enjoyment just working on more polished and fleshed out systems. Especially with the healthy modding community here already, there's a lot of additional content that the players themselves can make to fill out the sector more rather than an over reliance on only random generation. That's why I'm happy with a good blend of the two or a fully unique and well designed sector.

[Megas]

Some random generation is good.  If the whole sector is hand-crafted, it would end up like Star Control 2 where those who replay know where everything is and can collect plot coupons and play in the most efficient manner.

Over-reliance of random generation is bad.  Savvy players can recognize patterns then devise a counter-strategy akin to no-random/all hand-crafted content.

[Tartiflette]

Please take it easy with procedural generation - its bland, boring and you soon see through it to the formula beneath. =/

I'd much, much rather have fewer but hand-made systems with unique and polished content.

There are many ways to do "randomly generated" content, some allowing to create interesting things. For example the generator could pick into a list of pre-made systems, mix and matching some of the planets around. Or there could be randomly selected all the planets to fill some hand-crafted "systems archetypes"...

[Histidine]

I'd say in terms of Sector area, we're something like 25% of the way there [...]

So, final Sector will be just 4x the area of the current one? I'd imagine it needs to be at least 25x to get a reasonably explore-able space.

[Tartiflette]

Well, that's still more or less 50 systems... 25x the 0.7 sector would be almost 300 which is way out of scope given the current performances.

[Gothars]

So, final Sector will be just 4x the area of the current one? I'd imagine it needs to be at least 25x to get a reasonably explore-able space.

Mh, I'd wait and see how different it feels with the new sensor system. Exploration always seems trivial if you see everything at once, while on the other hand even a relatively small area can make for great exploration if you don't have a good overview and there are many paths and secrets. Many old videogames make use of that.

Was there any information yet about how the limited sensor range will interact with static objects and the map? I think that will be crucial.

[ValkyriaL]

Having the sins of a solar empire system would be nice, you can see the system you are in, and then you can see systems connected to that system, but they are greyed out because you have never been there, and once you explore that system, you can see the ones connected to that one, and so it keeps going.

[Cosmitz]

People are pushing too much in either handcrafting everything or randomly generating everything. Most likely we'll keep a lot of the current systems but either the go-between or fringes will be padded with randomly generated systems. That's fine.

Either way, i trust Alex will come up with something great and playable. He's seen all the work and possibilities that went in on our end with randomly generated material.

[Unfolder]

Still no fighter/carrier modifications? Fuuuuh, literally everything has been changed at this point BUT fighters/carriers lol

[Ratheden]

I personally feel the fighters and carriers are already well balanced, not perfect but they have a nice balance.   No doubt many little tweaks here and there could make them better, one could add those tweaks over time, but why not save it for a time when your thinking nothing but fighters and carriers?

[Intaka]

Alex, is the current build stable? Seems like it would be easy to find yourself not seeing the forest for the trees after such a long period (9 months and counting) of internal development.

[Alex]

Alex, is the current build stable? Seems like it would be easy to find yourself not seeing the forest for the trees after such a long period (9 months and counting) of internal development.

It seems pretty stable to me; hasn't crashed on me during playtesting, memory usage looks good, etc. I mean, I'd expect a fair amount of bugs to slip through due to the scope of the update (hence the all-but-inevitable post-release hotfix), but I feel good about where it's at. Is that what you're asking?

[Clockwork Owl]

No worries, he easily handles some years of internal development. 

[ErKeL]

It seems pretty stable to me; hasn't crashed on me during playtesting, memory usage looks good, etc. I mean, I'd expect a fair amount of bugs to slip through due to the scope of the update (hence the all-but-inevitable post-release hotfix), but I feel good about where it's at. Is that what you're asking?

Have to admit this has been something I've always been impressed with.
Every build I've played has been perfectly stable.