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76

Suggestions / boarding takes time

« on: May 30, 2013, 11:40:03 AM »

So right now i assume boarding is like it is now where you clik a button and instantly get the results. Maight be better if there's a time delay to represent the boarding process, with the progress like marines lost, explosion countdown (if self distruct sequence is started) and ship secured (in percentage) on display and a retreat button readily visible. This serves to both heighten tension (think X3) and allow retreating mid operation in case things don't go as planned

thoughts?

Gunny

77

Discussions / free recording software?

« on: May 15, 2013, 08:59:15 PM »

hi all

so for an english project, a few friend and I are doing an reenactment of Shakespeare's Macbeth in Minecraft

The project will be presented in the form of a video, recorded by a player in creative mode and voiced over skype

what would be the best software to use to record both the video and sound?

thanks in advance

gunny

78

Suggestions / 2 submarine inspired phase cloak suggestions

« on: May 12, 2013, 12:29:47 AM »

after reading the newest discussion on phase ships, I went back and read the phase cloak entry

they were meant to simulate submarines.

this led me to think, how did submarines fight in their time, since obviously they didn't pop out to open up with all weapons and then go back down again, they fought from below and only came out for breath when they need it.

to submarines, surfacing and submerging isn't small ordeals, either, they took time, time during which a submarine is quite vulnerable, submarines certainly can't submerge when a shell is coming at it hoping to avoid the shell.

considering those 2, I think:
a) some weapons should be usable in phase space, be it specialized phase weapons or just your normal everyday torpedoes. EDIT: maybe there could be special phase hardpoints on a ship that allows the weapons on it to fire from phase space

b) cloaking and decloaking should take longer, and phase ships should be corporeal during that time.


essentially, gameplay wise this will make phase ships a bit slower to play, perhaps mirroring the slower pace of submarine warfare. This will also get rid of the possibility of decloaking and cloaking quickly near the enemy to dissipate flux, instead forcing a more long-term plan to be made about "coming up for air"

note that these suggestions are made without thinking much about how they'll fit into the core game, my thoughts while typing this is more or less summed up by OMGIWANTMYSPACESUBMARINES!!!

thoughts?

thanks

gunny

79

Suggestions / more effects on hit

« on: May 07, 2013, 04:26:42 PM »

Just thought of this... I feel like we could use a bit more feedback when our ship is hit to increase awareness and perhaps induce panic

basically I'm thinking some sort of a screen shake effect when taking damage to armor/hull, disableable on the option menu ofc.

also, a thought from the whole "emotional attachment to crew" idea brought up in the blog, maybe there should be a way to notify the player that someone is dead on your ship while in battle as opposed to only being able to find out after the fact, not sure how best to achieve that, just figured it might be a good idea

thoughts?

thanks

gunny

80

General Discussion / starfarer ship scale (size comparison)

« on: April 19, 2013, 12:54:42 AM »

so I was making a hound for a school project the other day and, while using the hound hangar picture extensively for reference, I took another look at the scale of ships. Then I tried to visualize how big some of the biggest ships in the sf fleet would look next to those of other sci-fi. One thing led to another and I ended up making this, figure I'd share it here

size comparison below, warning: large picture

Spoiler

[close]

the comparison chart itself was not made by me, credit is on the picture proper, all I did was space them out and superimpose sf ships on them

Frigs and fighters were said to be out of scale so in the picture they're all scaled by a factor of 0.8, then I used the hound size from the hangar discussion and scaled everything else accordingly. All in all I think that was fairly reasonable, seeing how the picture turned out

81

Modding / [script] ship damage effects

« on: April 17, 2013, 01:52:56 AM »

This is a little something I've been whipping up in the past few days, inspired by xangle's smoldering ship script. This should be compatible with any mod

essentially like what xangle did, but I found the short smoke duration (since it stops burning once the weapon recovers) quite unsatisfying. So I made it health based instead, also I added flames and sparks, flames I made myself and sparks based on scripts made by psyion found at the code foundry

technical explanation and code

Spoiler

I made a few decorative weapon "Burn Points" spread out across each ship, on average a frigate has 3-4, destroyers 6, cruisers 8, and caps 10. Upon the ship reaching %75, %50, and %25 health, the burn points roll for a chance to "activate". A burn point only rolls for activation ones at each health milestone, Once a burn point is activated, it no longer rolls for further activation and will... well... burn. This system ensures that two ships will rarely burn on the same spots (because I found that weird in GSB) and not all burn points will activate the moment ships start taking fire (another problem from GSB). The use of decorative weapons mean the grouping bug takes its toll though, still not sure how to deal with that, but at least these weapons don't fire so unless your first group is alternating, it can generally be ignored


code below, this is the one for the low-tech version, high tech ones use different color, among other things

package data.scripts.plugins;

import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.CombatEngineAPI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.DamageType;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.EveryFrameWeaponEffectPlugin;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.WeaponAPI;
import com.fs.starfarer.api.combat.ShipAPI;
import java.awt.Color;
import org.lwjgl.util.vector.Vector2f;

public class LowTechWeakPoint implements EveryFrameWeaponEffectPlugin {

   
   public void advance(float amount, CombatEngineAPI engine, WeaponAPI weapon) {


      if (engine.isPaused()) return;
      if (weapon.getShip().isHulk()) return;
      ShipAPI ship = weapon.getShip();
      if (ship.getHitpoints() >= ship.getMaxHitpoints() * 0.75f) return;
      
      Vector2f weaponlocation = weapon.getLocation();
      weaponlocation.x += (Math.random() - 0.5) * 10;
      weaponlocation.y += (Math.random() - 0.5) * 10;
      float velX = (float)Math.random() * 10f - 5f;
      float velY = (float)Math.sqrt(25f - velX * velX);
      int ammo = weapon.getAmmo();
      
      
      if (ammo == 100)
      {
         if((float)Math.random() <= 0.003f)
            {
               engine.spawnEmpArc(ship, weaponlocation, ship, ship,
                        DamageType.ENERGY,
                        0f,
                        0f, // emp
                        10f, // max range
                        "hit_shield_beam_loop", //Just used a blank sound ID so it'll work with anything.
                        5f, // thickness
                        new Color(155,100,25,255),
                        new Color(255,255,255,255)
                        );   
            }
         engine.addSmokeParticle(weaponlocation, new Vector2f(velX,velY), 30f, 0.6f, 4f, new Color(15,15,15,40));
         engine.addSmoothParticle(weaponlocation, new Vector2f(velX,velY), 20f, 1f, 0.5f, new Color(225,150,100,255));
      }
      else if (ship.getHitpoints() >= ship.getMaxHitpoints() * 0.5f)
      {
         if (ammo == 1) return;
         weapon.setAmmo(1);
         if((float)Math.random() >= 0.8f)
         {
            engine.spawnExplosion(weaponlocation, new Vector2f(velX,velY), new Color(225,200,150,200), 75f, 3f);
            for (double k = Math.random() * 10; k > 0; k--)
            {
               engine.addSmoothParticle(weaponlocation, new Vector2f((float)Math.random() * 300f - 150f,(float)Math.random() * 300f - 150f), (float)Math.random() * 10f + 5f, 1.0f, 5f, new Color(225,150,100,200));
            }
            weapon.setAmmo(100);
         }
      }
      else if (ship.getHitpoints() >= ship.getMaxHitpoints() * 0.25f)
      {
         if (ammo == 2) return;
         weapon.setAmmo(2);
         if((float)Math.random() >= 0.7f)
         {            
            engine.spawnExplosion(weaponlocation, new Vector2f(velX,velY), new Color(225,200,150,200), 75f, 3f);
            for (double k = Math.random() * 10; k > 0; k--)
            {
               engine.addSmoothParticle(weaponlocation, new Vector2f((float)Math.random() * 300f - 150f,(float)Math.random() * 300f - 150f), (float)Math.random() * 10f + 5f, 1.0f, 5f, new Color(225,150,100,200));
            }
            weapon.setAmmo(100);
         }
      }
      else
      {
         if (ammo == 3) return;
         weapon.setAmmo(3);
         if((float)Math.random() >= 0.9f)
         {
            engine.spawnExplosion(weaponlocation, new Vector2f(velX,velY), new Color(225,200,150,200), 75f, 3f);
            for (double k = Math.random() * 10; k > 0; k--)
            {
               engine.addSmoothParticle(weaponlocation, new Vector2f((float)Math.random() * 300f - 150f,(float)Math.random() * 300f - 150f), (float)Math.random() * 10f + 5f, 1.0f, 5f, new Color(225,150,100,200));
            }
            weapon.setAmmo(100);
         }
      }
   }   
}

[close]

screenshots (they look much better in motion but here you go):

Spoiler

onslaught running away from.... something




reaching safety




Damaged Odessey




Enforcer, after damaging above Odessey




Aurora, after helping above Enforcer damaging said Odessey




Innocent Condor, caught in the middle of all the unpleasantness

[close]

still perfecting it, going to add silentstormpt's escapepods at some point. Looking for feedback

thoughts?

thanks

gunny

EDIT: attached script, place in data/scripts/plugins to implement

[attachment deleted by admin]

82

Bug Reports & Support / admiral AI not capturing points

« on: April 14, 2013, 02:52:07 PM »

minor bug/problem, but I thought I'd point this out. This seems to happen about 10-15 percents of the time, the enemy will throw all ships at the player in the beginning instead of capturing points to gain more reinforcements (even a comm relay right on their side gets ignored)

picture, note the 2 points on the upper half of the map, enemy is on attack:

Spoiler

[close]

83

Suggestions / randomly generated objective layouts for campaign

« on: April 13, 2013, 06:14:03 PM »

Since the battle maps and stuff are getting an overhaul, hoping alex can take the time and look at that

as is there's 3 possible layouts of objectives in any battle in the campaign (2 on the middle, 3 diagonal, and 5 in X formation iirc). I'm wondering if it would be possible to make this a bit more random.

as is this can be done for the campaign by something like this (forgive any error in code, just theoretical example for demonstration)

api.addObjective(minX + width * (float) Math.random(), minY + height * (float) Math.random(), "nav_buoy");


the problem with this, of course, is that things can get rather imbalanced (what if all the objectives spawned at your side or the enemies?). To solve that, two things can be done:

a) simply mirror the map, basically setting a set of variables on the generator instead of randomizing it there, then use the reverse to add another objective, this way the objectives will come in pairs, like such:

float thisx = math.random();
float thisy = math.random();

api.addObjective(minX + width *thisx, minY + height * thisy, "nav_buoy");
api.addObjective(minX + width * (1-thisx), minY + height * (1-thisy), "nav_buoy");


b) the more complex way of going about this, I don't have it all figured out yet. Perhaps a value can be assigned to each objective, depending on its type and location. (though with the next patch, maybe all the objectives will have about the same value)

the equation should go something like this:

float value = (objective.y/height)-0.5 / (1+math.abs((objective.x/width)-0.5)) * objectivevalue

meaning, each objective will be graded on its height (negative value if closer to player, positive if close to enemy), it's location on X axis (objectives on the sides are worth less since they're harder to get to), and its original value (as is comm relays are far more valuable than the rest, for example, but this will change with time). Then the map generator can use that data and generate the map so that all the objective values in the game adds up to or close to 0, ensuring relative balance

hope I made sense for the most part, thoughts?

gunny

84

Bug Reports & Support / SS performance

« on: April 10, 2013, 07:26:43 PM »

So I've been experiencing some slowdowns in larger battles and/or battles in nebulous areas (think coral nebula, sometimes drops to 30-), but my radeon 6950 can run tomb raider on ultra at about 30 in large battles and high at 40+ at all times. Is this normal or am I doing something wrong? I mean, I understand optimization isn't the best in SS but should a 2d game be this taxing on graphics? Or does it even use graphics card at all? (sry dk much about lwjgl, or java in general)

thanks in advance

gunny

85

Suggestions / moddable zoom levels?

« on: April 09, 2013, 01:46:18 PM »

I know the idea of a generally wider zoom has been suggested and shot down before, but I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile to consider making it moddable.

I've been working on a mod with significantly more dramatic ship scales (think a battleship 8-10 times longer than a frigate as opposed to like 3 now) and commanding one of these could prove problemetic down the line.

Now I seem to notice that zoom level varies from ship to ship, not sure if that's based on class or size though, since I never tried a ship that big before.

Will this be a problem in my mod? Is there any way around it? Can the suggestion be considered?

thanks in advance

gunny

86

Discussions / fast games? (looking for recommendation)

« on: March 25, 2013, 01:42:26 AM »

Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone knows of good games on the pc with a good sense of speed

looking for basically any genre here, hopefully something recent, and I guess going fast usually means either racing or dogfights. (though having played tribes, I'm not taking anything out of consideration)

any help is much appreciated

gunny

87

Suggestions / turn stop point prediction

« on: February 03, 2013, 06:51:33 PM »

so when piloting larger ships like onslaughts or paragons, I often find myself overshooting my target when aiming the TPC or tachyon lance (the front hardpoints)

I'm wondering if it's at all practical to add an UI element that will predict where you'll stop turning if you released all keys now, kind of like what starshatter did but on a 2d plane


video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=9oGqR_6or_c#t=155s

88

Discussions / 419 scams and scam baiting

« on: January 18, 2013, 12:08:09 AM »

So a few days ago I checked my email and found a wild 419 scam that somehow made it through the spam filter

just out of curiosity (and knowing full well that it is a scam), instead of deleting the mail as I routinely do, I shot the guy a response. When he mailed back thinking he's got a fish on the hook I transferred the conversation to a fake email address and started researching on baiting techniques.

I'm wondering, has anyone tried anything like this before? Experiences to share, suggestions on responses?

general discussions on scams welcome

thanks in advance

gunny

89

Suggestions / AI tip: DONT_USE_AGAINST_FIGHTER

« on: January 15, 2013, 12:49:06 AM »

basically make some weapons not used against fighters by the AI (even on autofire)

would be helpful in things like hellbore or TPC

90

Modding / continous burst vs one click burst

« on: January 14, 2013, 01:27:39 AM »

Hi all,

so in starfarer, there's 2 types of burst-fire weapons

there's the burst you hold down (like the thumper and storm needler)

and the burst where you click once and it fires (HAC, l/h needler)

what code makes that difference? I havent been able to find anything. Thoughts?

thanks in advance

gunny