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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: Expanded Battles  (Read 107342 times)

SafariJohn

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #195 on: October 16, 2015, 08:20:04 PM »

STOP! YOU HAVE VIOLATED THE LAW!
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Alex

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #196 on: October 16, 2015, 08:24:45 PM »

May as well make sure: NPC fleets in battle with each other can't leave for any reason until the battle ends, right?

Correct.
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Achataeon

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #197 on: October 16, 2015, 08:53:36 PM »

By the order of the Tri-Tachyon, stop right there!
You have committed crimes against the Tri-Tachyon and her people. What say you in your defense?

Made me crack up ;D
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gruberscomplete

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #198 on: October 18, 2015, 09:05:02 AM »

By the order of the Tri-Tachyon, stop right there!
You have committed crimes against the Tri-Tachyon and her people. What say you in your defense?

Made me crack up ;D

you mean Whiterun?

And also Alex, can we get an ETA on the update? 2 months, 2 days, 2 hours? And what are you specifically working on ATM?
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Alex

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #199 on: October 18, 2015, 09:36:22 AM »

And also Alex, can we get an ETA on the update? 2 months, 2 days, 2 hours? And what are you specifically working on ATM?

No ETAs, as usual, though I'll say that there's an internal target date. And it's soon.... (tm).

Currently updating trade disruption events. Need to clean those up to be more in sync with how the update food shortage event works. Which probably raises more questions than it answers, but that's what you get for asking!
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gruberscomplete

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #200 on: October 18, 2015, 10:19:21 AM »

Thx for reply Alex!
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vilehydra

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #201 on: October 18, 2015, 11:52:10 AM »




What isn't clear is whether these supporting fleets are available from the outset, or if they have delayed arrival. (based upon their speed & distance from the battle site).

From the outset.


Aww Kinda sad about this one because if fleets had delayed timing based on distance it would make for some really interesting scenarios. An example is like if you attacked a smaller fleet that ended up being supported by a much larger fleet. You'd have two minutes or something (dependent on distance and burn speed) to kill or force the small fleet to disengage or you'd end up being caught by a much larger fleet. Could even make some interesting scenarios based off of winning an engagement like that, like being able to set up an ambush as the support fleet full burns to help it's allies.

Or on the other hand you have to stay alive for a couple of minutes  and have your support fleet come in the on the flanks of the engaged enemy etc,.

But I also understand that also makes stuff more difficult code-wise, but I can dream dammit!
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Sabotsas

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #202 on: October 18, 2015, 01:08:26 PM »


Unrelated thought: Officer portrait above the flux/CR bar on every ship looks like clutter, at least judging from the screenshot. They tell you there's an officer on board, but unless you remember which face is which officer it doesn't seem like they communicate more info than that (like the key "what combat skills will this ship have?")
Could ships instead get a "has officer" icon, with the portrait only on targeted ships and in places like the ship info card?

This shot is particularly officer-rich. It doesn't feel cluttered in practice, at least so far. The main thing the icon communicates, aside from the fact that an officer is on board, is the officer's level - which is a very good indicator of their overall strength. I did think about showing this only for targeted ships, but it's just too important a piece of information not to have up at all times. But I guess what you're suggesting would still do that, just with a smaller and different icon. Hmm. I think I like the portraits better - they look nice, convey more information if you *do* recognize the officer, and are more intuitive than a "hey, what IS that icon" that a different - and smaller - icon would be.

I really like polished and minimalistic UIs and Starsector has a very good UI all things considered.
The picture with the officers feels cluttered and takes away from the otherwise awesome and clear battlefield.
At the same time I am a bit conflicted because the portraits look very good (but just don't show them inside the battle).

While this is probably pretty low on the prioritization list I would really appreciate if you could have another look at this
"feature" at some point in the future.

I would suggest one or more of the following:

Make portrait in battle:
[1] optional (changeable via settings)
[2] press key (toggle) to show / hide
[3] press key (toggle) to minimize /maximize
[4] press key (toggle) to switch between symbols / portrait
[5] press key (toggle) to switch between symbols / portrait + let the player color-code their officers / symbols individually

While you said this picture is not representative because fewer officers are the norm, consider the SS endgame and
mods that make extensive use of this new feature. For every ship there will be an additional picture on the battlefield.
For smaller ships like frigates this picture is as big as the ship itself...

Personally I would really like to be able to replace the officer portrait in battles with just a few tiny symbols (maybe color-coded) => solution [4] or [5].
However if this is not doable the solutions [2] and [3] are also very good because they will still enable the player to quickly check
relevant information about the officers when needed. Option [1] would strip the player from this information but at least preserve
the battle-clarity.


Besides this feedback: Very good job Alex! I am looking forward to the next release.

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Adraius

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #203 on: October 18, 2015, 01:30:30 PM »

re: Officer portraits in battle, I just took a closer look at that screenshot, and um, wow.  Yeah, they're kinda large.  I thought they'd be 1/4 that size.

The current implementation would be cool if there was a way to specatate or replay battles - in those situations, cool!  It's like watching sports on TV. =P But I definitely don't want those cluttering up my tactical UI during battle.  All I care about is a) if the ship should be a priority target and b) if it will be extra hard to kill.

I'd prefer a having small, golden five-pointed stars above the word 'flux'.  Assuming that the skill system stays the same, with major bonuses at level 5 and 10, show one star if their aptitude level is under 5, two stars if it's between 5 and 9, and three stars if it's at 10.  Maybe make the stars red and pulse a bit if that person in particular has a bounty on their head.  The point is, I neither need nor want portraits the size of ships.
« Last Edit: October 18, 2015, 01:41:51 PM by Adraius »
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Gothars

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #204 on: October 18, 2015, 03:07:33 PM »

How about if the pictures only show up in high zoom levels? You could even rig it so that the necessary zoom level scales with ship size, so you always see officers of capitals but have to zoom in close to see the portrait of a frigate officer. Symbols for the rest of the time.
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gruberscomplete

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #205 on: October 18, 2015, 03:11:33 PM »

Honestly we don't need to see the picture of the officers.

All that matters is how deadly they are: their level, their type of preferred combat(sniper, assault, defense), and their specialty/skills(missiles, energy weapons...)
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Tartiflette

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #206 on: October 18, 2015, 03:31:30 PM »

Honestly we don't need to see the picture of the officers.

All that matters is how deadly they are: their level, their type of preferred combat(sniper, assault, defense), and their specialty/skills(missiles, energy weapons...)
How could you know that? The rank should give a general idea of the officer competences, but otherwise the game shouldn't reveal that kind of stuff (except maybe in some specific cases like a bounty, or a regular fleet officer in a system you hacked the relay)
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senor

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #207 on: October 19, 2015, 02:27:26 AM »

This looks awesome Alex, keep up the great work.

as some others have pointed out, i think the officer portraits in combat may end up being too cluttered.  i dont think it will be a huge deal, and either way im excited to try it out.  But i wonder if a series of stars / dots / bars (imitating officer uniform ranking symbols) in place of the portrait would work better?  i imagine them being somwhat small, not much taller than the hull / flux bars themselves.

or maybe have full on rank insignias in place of the portrait, perhaps a bit smaller.  some fictioned-up navy/airforce style insignias could be fun.
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Xeroshiva1029

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #208 on: October 19, 2015, 07:26:35 AM »

And also Alex, can we get an ETA on the update? 2 months, 2 days, 2 hours? And what are you specifically working on ATM?

http://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=9530.msg164826#msg164826
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Tartiflette

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Re: Expanded Battles
« Reply #209 on: October 19, 2015, 09:33:42 AM »

Tomorow is the anniversary of the 0.65a release. I hoped for a surprise but since Alex is still coding and testing new things it's not going to happen.  :-[
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