Hudson, on Feb 3 2006, 08:06 AM, said:

Raga's correct; I experimented with this a year or so back; limited, jerky, and while QT is supported through the engine, pointer feed-back isn't, which means you can't send data back to QT - ie, no interaction. Plus, as I recall, I think you had to include the swf as a layer in a QT movie, rather than a stand-alone swf, and that's just plane poopy.
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You're right about interactive flash files not working, but non-interactive swfs don't have to be folded into QT movies; the "movie file" slot in the desc resource seems to be able to take any non-interactive audio or video file that QuickTime can handle -- .swf (through v5, at least), .mpg, .mp3, .gif, .mid, .txt.... If you care, see here and the posts that follow.

This post has been edited by Dr. Trowel : 03 February 2006 - 09:43 AM

I still think that using a 3D engine would be good. It doesn't have to be super-awesome, nor even a full-3D universe (such like, say Total Annihilation). 3D doesn't have to include movement. If coupled with the zooming camera idea that's been tossed around, it would improve the scaling thing a whole lot without having to make gigantic sprites. A 3D engine would allow much more dynamic ship appearances, as you would not have to render situations before they ever happen. In this situation, weapon mounts on a ship could actually BE locations on a ship where a weapon is designated to be mounted if purchased (things such as orientation would also have to be programmed). This could be similar to the designing of a unit in Earth 2150, for those who have played it. When dealing with adding weapon slots with outfits, there could either be an absolute max number of slots programmed into a ship that COULD be made available, or there could be something in the engine that just chooses some spot on the ship's model based on whatever criteria the programmers wish, to add a new weapon slot.

This could also apply to other add-ons with their own places (or they could just be considered internal and not shown), fighter bays, cargo pods and what have you.

If you wanted to get really fancy, have some sort of top-down 2D-universe-with-a-3D-engine deal for normal flight and navigation, but then a full 3D environment for serious battles, or just special ones.

Sure, a 3D engine would have certain downsides, but I think a lot of things people want improved could be much more easily done with a 3D engine. That's just my view, though.

This post has been edited by Fnoigy : 03 February 2006 - 10:01 AM

Heres another. How about you can still capture/hire escorts beyond the max. When you go over, you are forced to release one immediately or cancel the capture/hire.

Fnoigy, on Feb 3 2006, 09:59 AM, said:

If you wanted to get really fancy, have some sort of top-down 2D-universe-with-a-3D-engine deal for normal flight and navigation, but then a full 3D environment for serious battles, or just special ones.
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There was a poll awhile back, asking the question "Would you rather see 2D gameplay with realtime 3D graphics, 3D gameplay, or leave it sprite-based". An overwhelming majority voted for the first one, if I remember correctly.

Well, here's my take on the issue (1-3 are sorta related)

1. Variable fuel cost (ie distance between systems matters when jumping, effeciency can vary with different ships/oufits, and can even be set to the old 'always costs 100 units')

2. System flag that lets you jump to anywhere within x-radius (would work nicely with my 1st idea)

3. Variable jump-in/jump-out distances for SYSTEMS (ie a mass factor, you'd be able to jump-out immediately if it was just a station in the middle of nowhere, but a planet creates a gravity well. Also, you'd wan't to jump-in farther away from a big planet than, say, a small moon)

4. 'Follow the Leader' weapon flag (ie all guided ordinance set to be weak against x, y, or z jamming follows the FtL weapon instead of the intended target, and hit whatever the FtL weapon hits)

5. SUBMUNITIONING FIGHTERS!

6. More than 6 escorts w/o missions, fighters, or bug exploits. (8 would be better)

7. Ships spill out cargo when destroyed (Provided they haven't been boarded, and their flagged to carry cargo)

8. Arcing Beams, not just straight and lightning (I know that it might be possible with a workaround, but guided weapons can't have coronas, now can they?)

9. Engine checks values when using negitives (ie, can't have negitive armor via an outfit, nor can you do that dumb 'mass manipulation' trick)

I've thought of even more!

More escort controls (disable (defend just ain't good enough), board enemy ship, capture/plunder boarded ship, etc.).

Make mission escorts "aware" of the mission's objective, so they don't go destroying ships that need to be boarded, etc.

A new type of weapon (or modification of standard beam weapons), a single-shot beam. Instead of having a continuous stream of energy, just one shot is fired. Graphical effect is similar to the shock rifle of Unreal Tournament. This effect can be simulated now by a beam with a really short life span, but it looks jerky if the innacuracy is too high.

The ability to make capital ship weapons that may be accurate when shooting at larger vessels, but the targeting system is just too clumsy and innacurate to fire at small ships with any accuracy. This could be done with a modified "don't fire at fast ships" flag, where you specify what is a fast ship (i.e., "anything with max speed of X or higher", or "anything going X speed or faster", where X is specified by the developer). Also, "don't fire at small ships" and "innacurate against small ships" flags, where "small" is defined by the developer and the increase in innacuracy set by him/her.

More behaviors for special and auxiliary mission ships, like attack player escorts (that one might already exist, but again, I'm too lazy to look it up).

More uses for the Item Class field in the oütf resource.

Outfits that improve the accuracy of certain weapons, which are specified by the developer. (New use for Item Class field, only the class would have to specify weapon outfits only.) This could represent targeting system upgrades or gunnery crew.

Here's one ~vIsitor~ reminded me of.

Ships mass effects acceleration. Ship with a lot of cargo accelerates slower and ship without does so more quickly. So when being pursued by pirates the ship could jettison its cargo and the pirates would scoop it up. That's a neat little feature from my long list of wants and woes for EVN.

Realtime 3D is bad. Very very bad. Stay away from it. For just one example of something that can't be done with 3D, but can with sprites, try my Wacky Asteroids plugin. (If that .zip doesn't work try this sitx version.)

Incidentally, Edwards, when you changed that one thing, did you check to see whether that other thing was still a part of the thing you changed?

In general, the use of prerendered sprites allows the spďn to be used for animations of any sort, including objects of spin 1/2 or spin 2, or anything else, not just a rigid spin 1. Indeed, as my asteroids show, the entire concept of "spin" is inadequate to describe the uses of sprites.

I have not made a Wacky Ship yet, but I have made a weapon that behaves rather interestingly. I haven't released it though.

One thing I would like to see from a new engine is the ability to flag weapons, especially missiles, as having inertia.

Another thing is to simplify everything. Cut way back on the number of fields in the resources. Keep all data entry at a minimum.

I wish it to be noted that with a clearly defined brief and with the right developers, there is little that can not be achieved by a 3D game engine.

The ability to haggle the reward pay for any mission.

JoshTigerheart, on Feb 3 2006, 01:32 PM, said:

Heres another. How about you can still capture/hire escorts beyond the max. When you go over, you are forced to release one immediately or cancel the capture/hire.
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Here's an idea: how about increase the max? Instead of only six escorts, increase the number to somewhere around 15-20, give or take. Also increase the ships per system allowance by a sizeable amount, so there could possibly be battles with hundreds of ships on either side- useful for those final epic two governments coming down to their last battle that goes down in history for thousands of years type situations.

Also: ships when hyperspacing out of a system actually travel the real hyperspace routes instead of flying off in random directions. This feature would be even nicer if the game implimented a somewhat real-time situation where the player could perhaps follow a single ship, like a pirate vessel that was fleeing and whatnot. In addition, not all AI ships should show up in system with 100% sheilds and armor, since we know that they've been fighting where they came from as well. As it is it seems as if the galaxy is at peace until the player shows up to cause trouble.

I think Nova already has the last feature you mentioned.

Rameretz, on Feb 4 2006, 02:19 PM, said:

I think Nova already has the last feature you mentioned.
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It definitely doesn't; try making a system with no jumps out of it. You still see ships jump out.

3D and multiplayer would be nice

yeah, at the risk of being mauled, LAN capabilites would own.

"Smart" shield sprites. If the developer decides to make the sprites look like Polycon (only part of the shield lights up, instead of the whole thing), the part that lights up will face towards the area where the weapon hit.

The ability to make smoke or sparks come out of ships when their armor is low. Same goes for stations.

Multiple weapon sprites for ships.

Weapon sprites for stations.

This post has been edited by The CrimpMaster : 04 February 2006 - 04:23 PM

1. More dynamic ship graphics. As said before, it would be nice if the actual ship graphics changed as you buy new weapons and outfits. It would also be cool to have damage to your ship be more visual. Like your ship gets scortch marks on it after the shields fail, and once your armor is down, parts of your ship can actualy break up.

2. It'd be nice if the zoom could be affected by the size of your ship, so if you have a carrier or a fighter, the size of your ship on the screen will pretty much be the same, but the other ships get bigger or smaller, as well as planets. Like if you were in a fighter a carrier would look huge to you, but if you were in a carrier, you would barely notice the fighters.

3. More dynamic systems. Make them more like real systems. Have stars with gravity in the middle, surrounded by planets that slowly orbit the star, and moons that orbit the planets. The star of course would be deadly. You would be able to jump once you were a certain distance from the star, but if you came into system and the planet you wanted to go to were on the other side of the star, you'd have to take the long way around. Of course, the orbits of the planets and moons would be slow, but still noticeable.

4. Ability to have more than 64 different planet space pics. It'd be nice to have a different planet graphic for every spöb there is.

This post has been edited by ThrawnRocks : 04 February 2006 - 06:17 PM

ThrawnRocks, on Feb 4 2006, 05:12 PM, said:

4. Ability to have more than 64 different planet space pics. It'd be nice to have a different planet graphic for every spöb there is.
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Are you sure there is a limit to space pics? I see no mention of that in the nova bible.

From what I've heard that limit exists. I don't remember where I found that though.

I could of course be mistaken.

This post has been edited by ThrawnRocks : 04 February 2006 - 06:46 PM

Quote

Max Ships In System 64
Max Stellar Objects 2048
Max Systems 2048
Max Ship Classes 768
Max Stellar Classes 256
Jump Distance 1000 pixels
Max Weapon Types 256
Max Outfit Item Types 512