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[TheDTYP]

Hmmmmm.... I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and say that this new "extra" involves multi-fleet battles? That's my answer. Locking it in.

[Dark.Revenant]

The extra probably has to do with art/sound assets, considering that Alex is not worried about it delaying the update.

[SafariJohn]

You could put hyperspace waves and snaky paths together to get hyperspace currents/rivers/rapids/whatever - areas where you get pushed in a certain direction. Would achieve go faster and reliable while still being interesting. Like earth rivers they could shift position and change speeds, too.

Yeah. One issue with currents is how to visualize 'em. It's not straightforward at all, and any "obvious" solutions tend to involve an unreasonable number of particles to indicate movement.

Sadly I have next to no knowledge of rendering techniques.

Maybe some kind of directional distortion of the background similar to how hyperspace currently wobbles or like the smudge tool in image editors? Throw a few moving space flecks in the current to make it more obvious?

[Dark.Revenant]

While that would be possible, albeit annoying to set up, in something like OpenGL 3.3, Starsector largely uses OpenGL 1.2.

[CrashToDesktop]

I know I'm probably scrutinizing images to harshly here, but where's the officer tab in this screenshot?

http://fractalsoftworks.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/hyperspace.jpg

Seems like it's not there, or it's been combined with something else.  Could have been mashed into the Fleet or Crew/Cargo tab (since, well, the officers *are* crew).


...That aside, the relatively new hyperspace storms (well, I say relatively new since I spied it on the Twitter a few days ago, heh) sound pretty awesome.  However - I'm the kind of guy that sees things as better if you can incentivise a faster form of travel, instead of deincentivising going through certain areas.  People will more likely than not, just click a planet and travel there, regardless of the consequences, because we don't like thinking.  Making something benefit you, however, holds much more power in the realm of persuasion.  A couple of years in helping balance games has taught me that much, at least.  Even if the hyperspace wave didn't make the cut, see if you can find something else that can.

[Chaos Farseer]

Actually, on that note: it seems that if you're trying to go somewhere, and the areas of 'open' hyperspace are maze-like, it would get really inconvenient to visit a planet. Clicking on it would let you go straight there, but what if you want to avoid the deep hyperspace?

There were always those complaints about having to open the map all the time. Could there be a feature to lock onto a fleet or planet, much like the in-combat lock on, so that you can see its position while it is off-screen?

[Alex]

Seems like it's not there, or it's been combined with something else.  Could have been mashed into the Fleet or Crew/Cargo tab (since, well, the officers *are* crew).

It's accessed by clicking on an officer portrait (or a "no officer" portrait) in the fleet screen.

However - I'm the kind of guy that sees things as better if you can incentivise a faster form of travel, instead of deincentivising going through certain areas. 

I get what you're saying, and had the same thoughts. It'd be ideal to have both a reward for doing well and a penalty for doing poorly, but, as mentioned in the blog post, the scale of things isn't super well-suited to movement speed rewards. Mechanically, the end result is still the same, though of course there's a psychological difference.

People will more likely than not, just click a planet and travel there, regardless of the consequences, because we don't like thinking. 

I don't know about that; the first time you do that and get stuck in a hyperspace storm is going to convince you to pay attention to where you're going This is also likely to be the first time you do this, as storms are pretty frequent.

Actually, on that note: it seems that if you're trying to go somewhere, and the areas of 'open' hyperspace are maze-like, it would get really inconvenient to visit a planet. Clicking on it would let you go straight there, but what if you want to avoid the deep hyperspace?

There were always those complaints about having to open the map all the time. Could there be a feature to lock onto a fleet or planet, much like the in-combat lock on, so that you can see its position while it is off-screen?

Hmm. At the moment, just opening the map up once to figure out the direction you want to go, and then once again as you get closer, seems to be working out more or less fine. One thing that helps here is that you're now able to zoom out a bit more in the campaign.

[Debido]

I liked he idea of hyper space waves and the hyperspace terrain in general.

Perhaps with the hyperspace waves you could have them as intermittent wave events that spread out radially from stars, this allows a player to ride the wave in any direction they like. Radial textures increasing in size can be difficult to do though...

But you would be able to make waves visible inside and outside of hyperspace by having the wave generation events from suns effect the luminosity/colour of the sun. So in the 30 seconds to a minute or whatever leading up to the event there is predictable and easily observable changes giving the player some warning to if they want to jump on the next hyperspace wave.

By having the waves generated from stars and having them on a regular or predictable basis it would be easier to program Fleet AI to take advantage of these events as you could check the star's 'hyperspace wave generation' timer and determine when best to move through a jump point and exploit the wave.

That's one theory anyway.

[Eternity]

Hi there,

Just a question about hyperspace storm (it may be already asked - sorry if it's the case) : would it be possible to exit from hyperspace like in any other games & films ?  because hyperspace take a lot of fuel to maintain but if you are stuck in a storm you should be able to get out and prevent lack of fuel ? (by the way once you no longer have fuel to substain hyperspace, ships should "fall" into normal space... then being in the deep space with nothing around and then after a while try to activate once again hyperspace...

What do you think about that ?

I know it will introduce lot of gameplay changes while starsector mixe 2 concepts :
- whormhole entry (with gravity pit for entrance and exit)
- free navigation in hyperspace (not wormhole way between a point to another)

With this new way of work, it could introduce new gameplay opportunities... and events (fuel rescue team to a fleet, strike an ennemy fleet stuck in the middle of nowhere, trying to escape hunting fleet....)

Fly safe commanders :-)

[Gothars]

One issue with currents is how to visualize 'em. It's not straightforward at all, and any "obvious" solutions tend to involve an unreasonable number of particles to indicate movement.

There is one gentleman's way of visualizing a current mechanic with only one sprite: giant space turtles that you can hike a ride on. Like this:

Spoiler

[close]

(You are the cat.)
I'm not even (purely) kidding here. It could maybe visibly charge up (you have to reach it in time) and then move a huge distance with a single stroke. One might find this silly, but I think it would be rad and something really new.


Do you wanna ride a turtle?
Come on lets go and play
I never see you as of late
Come out the gate
And we can fly awaaaay-

We used to see new places
And now we're not
I wish you would tell me whyyyy!-
Do you wanna ride a turtle?
It doesn't have to be a turtle.

Go away, Gothars

Okay, byyye...

[Aklyon]

While that would be possible, albeit annoying to set up, in something like OpenGL 3.3, Starsector largely uses OpenGL 1.2.

How big of a difference is that between GLs?

[Tartiflette]

Between those two? Only 12 years of new features, improvements and new hardware possibilities...

[Trylobot]

What a great idea Alex. Hyperspace terrain; can't wait to play with this!

[Plantissue]

Why not just borrow some sci-fi stables.

I've always thought hyperspace is like Warhammer 40K's Warp minus the demons. Just have jet streams going across the map at random set points and allow it to deviate a little (like pouring down a thin stream of water down the shower wall). Add in warp storms etc and all the random factors would require players to pay attention during travel while not guarantee the same result every time.

I find the idea of demons in hyperspace funny. Instead of a storm losing you time, you end up losing crew and combat readiness when you get caught in a demon storm. Might make traveling in hyperspace a little dark though.

[Alex]

I liked he idea of hyper space waves and the hyperspace terrain in general.

Perhaps with the hyperspace waves you could have them as intermittent wave events that spread out radially from stars, this allows a player to ride the wave in any direction they like. Radial textures increasing in size can be difficult to do though...

But you would be able to make waves visible inside and outside of hyperspace by having the wave generation events from suns effect the luminosity/colour of the sun. So in the 30 seconds to a minute or whatever leading up to the event there is predictable and easily observable changes giving the player some warning to if they want to jump on the next hyperspace wave.

By having the waves generated from stars and having them on a regular or predictable basis it would be easier to program Fleet AI to take advantage of these events as you could check the star's 'hyperspace wave generation' timer and determine when best to move through a jump point and exploit the wave.

Had a similar idea, actually, with a slight twist - basing wavefronts on solar flare activity. The issue here is, why wait for a wave? If you just go, you'll catch it whenever it catches up to you, if it does. On the flip side, you might have trouble approaching a star if you keep being pushed away by 360 degree waves. It's a neat idea, but it doesn't seem to do the job by itself.

Just a question about hyperspace storm (it may be already asked - sorry if it's the case) : would it be possible to exit from hyperspace like in any other games & films ?  because hyperspace take a lot of fuel to maintain but if you are stuck in a storm you should be able to get out and prevent lack of fuel ? (by the way once you no longer have fuel to substain hyperspace, ships should "fall" into normal space... then being in the deep space with nothing around and then after a while try to activate once again hyperspace...

The way it works is if you're out of fuel, you'll drift towards a nearby jump point. Storms don't interact with that mechanic, beyond slowing you down if you get stuck in one while drifting.

Spoiler

There is one gentleman's way of visualizing a current mechanic with only one sprite: giant space turtles that you can hike a ride on. Like this:

Spoiler

[close]

(You are the cat.)
I'm not even (purely) kidding here. It could maybe visibly charge up (you have to reach it in time) and then move a huge distance with a single stroke. One might find this silly, but I think it would be rad and something really new.


Do you wanna ride a turtle?
Come on lets go and play
I never see you as of late
Come out the gate
And we can fly awaaaay-

We used to see new places
And now we're not
I wish you would tell me whyyyy!-
Do you wanna ride a turtle?
It doesn't have to be a turtle.

Go away, Gothars

Okay, byyye...

[close]

You're drunk Gothars, go home.

(In seriousness: that's basically the wavefront thing. As opposed to a "stream" thing.)

What a great idea Alex. Hyperspace terrain; can't wait to play with this!

Always wanted to do this. I mean, storms in hyperspace? Sign me up!