There seems to have been a sudden spike in views on this blog. A very unusual one, that I can not trace back to myself, refreshing over and over.
So - hello to all you new arrivals, I really wish I could show off more, but here we go.
I recently devoted a lot of my time to adding Orbits to the overall mechanics (since this should be a core element), and this made me re-think my focus. While I thought about presenting the Player with a 'Galactic Cluster' of around 1024 stars (with probably way more possible), the whole thing would not have gone very well with the focus on tactics and detail. Also I want asteroid colonies… several thousand asteroids per solar system (or of every second one… it doesn't really change much there.) would be possible to randomly generate, save and load when relevant, but the tactical depth of such a 'terrain' would become null and void, the moment ships could just FTL in and out at will. Also all the potential of orbital mechanics would go to waste.
Also I wrote a little script to shovel stars, exoplanets and other known objects from various catalogues into the xml-format I decided to use for saving things, and it turned out to be a potentially huge project in itself. Just parsing the Saturn-system with all it's bodies is far simpler for a start, so that's what I decided to use for now.
This being said, multiple star-systems could potentially make a comeback at a later stage, when more important things are working.
On Orbital Mechanics:
I'm still working on automatically generating the correct Orbits for Saturnian bodies from the data I can make the program extract from real catalogues. Until that's working, I'm testing the whole thing with random objects and orbits.
And it works.
As of now, all objects except the center of attraction are N-bodies that interact (with limits) are theoretically able to collide, have their orbits altered, and/or their mass changed.
I've also recorded a video to illustrate the Orbital-Module better.
Another big part I still have to figure out is how to adequately represent a complex map like the Saturn-system, making it useable and looking good without ruining too much of the potential realism I could get in by using real catalogue-data to generate the model, what would be content for a future post.
Also using the vector -module to visualize the Orbits got me thinking about other features, such as…
On shiphandling:
I'm still undecided what shiphandling should be in, what would be too gimmicky, and what would be a good Idea. The problem with such features is, that one can not test them on an early stage very well, and all are equally possible.
Some examples: The ships in short range are being rendered per part, including their interiors and eventual damage maps plus crew moving trough them.
Just placing the Camera inside would offer a lot of interesting, but potentially very useless features, such as a 'walktrough' mode and a 'cockpit' view.
Since the Player is probably busy sending around damage-control crews, giving orders, selecting targets and brooding over deeper tactical decisions (such as stop spinning, to be able to dodge kinetics better, while potentially taking more laser damage), or even issuing Commands to ships within the same squadron. Also vessels seldom face each other, neither do they come close enough to be actually visible, making a cockpit view a exercise in 3D interface design, or a pointless (but possibly quite fun) endeavour of staring into blackness.
I will write up a list of currently planned features, and put it up as a additional page on this blog, right after I finish writing this.
Anyway, the following actions are within the core concept:
- Decide facing and Orientation of one's own ship. This includes spinning to evenly distribute ablation and heat from incoming lasers, and probably using certain drives as offensive weapons. (I've still got to do my research on the actual usefulness here)
- Send crewmen around. Also a big 'strap down' button for sudden accelerations.
- Alert-states, also known as 'Battlestations' and 'Seal these goddamn suits"
- Damage control issues, depressurizing sections, fighting fires, trying to hotfix critical systems, manually do things with failed automation, rescuing crewmen from hazardous areas.
- Deploy and eventually control Drones and other automated parasite vehicles.
- Give general commands to subordinate ships when in a Squadron.
Also:
- Plot transfers,
- Dock with friendly bases,
- refit, repair and exchange modules and their loadouts
- hire crew, send them on leave, keep their stress level low, discipline them if neccesary
- obtain fuel and supplies
- push trade-goods around
- Also potentially building and mining should be possible.
The wrong Warcow, or «we need a look»
I have also tried out various ways of texturing, trying to keep the look of ones ship as customizeable and as constant as possible at the same time. My primary Idea is to use a single textured cylinder that would be projected onto the ship's hull, to maintain consistency between the various modules used, with them having a selection of details that would be imposed over the map that would have been generated that way.
This approach currently has the significant drawback of textures wrapping wrong around points and rounded surfaces (such as nosecones, spherical tanks, toroid forms and their like)
I also added a sort-of freestyle texturing session, but I'm currently not satisfied with the results.
I'm currently not sure, but I'm also fantasizing with just going with the graph-paper look I used in previous images, if I can't come up with satisfying textures. (I'm fairly certain I will ;) but just in case)
Yeah, that's it for now. I don't know if it's too early to ask people for feedback, but I suppose such will emerge once the Project reaches the 'right' stage for something like that.
