I think the gradient looks nice and keeps the focus on the ship itself. As I often need to keep in mind and tell my students: simple is usually the best.

What krugeruwsp said.

+1

krugerwusp is an English teacher isn't he? I mean... "ahem":

I concur most wholeheartedly!

You mention he's an English teacher (professor, actually) and then go and misspell his name. For shame.

Edit: I should add a disclaimer: I'm not positive krugeruwsp is a professor, I only think I remember reading a post of his saying he taught at a college, which leads me to assume he's a professor.

This post has been edited by DarthKev : 02 January 2014 - 06:07 PM

<- cixelsyD

High school.

I'm finally tackling something that has caused me much consternation, and several deposits in the swear jar: stations. As it turns out, while I'm comfortable creating things that fly in a certain direction, I get completely lost when trying to create "ambidextrous" structures that need to serve special functions from most, if not all sides. Every station I would usually make would end up looking just like a really bad ship. However, I think I've made something I can be happy with, here:

This behemoth will serve as the NDC's primary medium-sized battle station, at least until/if I decide I don't like the design and invent something better. The general design matches the philosophy behind NDC starships: the vehicle itself is primarily a cannon, and all other components are just means to that end. The station is tipped at bow and stern with a pair of absolutely massive long-range Nichron cannons, designed for bombardment of enemy fleets as they approach the station. Thanks to the graviton-harnessing technology that makes artificial gravity a reality, the station can safely pivot slightly in place to target enemy vessels without affecting the inhabitants within itself. Because of the energy requirements involved, the amount of deviation is only minimal, but this is made up for by the deadly range of its cannons at each end. Obviously, in the game engine, it doesn't actually move. The station is also equipped with compartmental turrets secreted away inside of its hull, including two turreted Nichron cannons to mop up any craft that make it past the station's primary artillery - these will manifest as the station's weapon emplacements observed within the game, which fire on hostile ships in the system. Docking spacecraft will typically approach the inner edges of the station near the "neck", where the inward-facing components of the station's docking mechanisms are protected from external aggressors. As a final measure of added durability, the station is equipped with giant, physical armor plates thick enough to deflect a collision from anything up to a moderately-sized cruiser.

For those just joining us, the ship pictured next to it is the Monolith, the primary battlecruiser of the Nova Defence Coalition.

There will be one general station larger than this, and one smaller, and then a series of specialized stations such as mining bases, manufacturing facilities, refineries, shipyards, and sensor arrays.

This post has been edited by Delphi : 08 January 2014 - 01:57 AM

That looks really cool I was just getting ready to bother you too

I've decided that I just like the Star Liner of Nova too much for my own universe not to have something similar. Though still designed along brutish lines, the "Galileo" passenger transport is designed for comfort over great distances. Not so much a "cruise ship" so much as a colony vessel, it is engineering to haul thousands of people between worlds, including some for solely leisurely purposes. The average Galileo will carry mostly travellers moving their families to new planets for work, and a small portion of the social elite wanting to explore the galaxy for minimal effort. The ship is largely unarmed, but carries a surprisingly extraordinary amount of armor to protect its precious cargo from attackers and dangerous stellar phenomena.

In truth, I'm almost putting the ship in the game just for deliberate frustration purposes; it will be one of the most heavily-armored vehicles in the game aside from high-end military cruisers, but with absolutely minimal capability of armament. One turret and one gun, at most, and buying it will trigger a few flags that prevent particular military upgrades from being acquired. Those colonists don't like being surrounded by heavy weaponry. Fly it if you will, but it will serve better as decoration.

Very nice. I think you should have a mini version with forward-swept wings and cannons poking out everywhere

...or I could just shut up and be appreciative.

I thought that big, flying wing, Star Destroyer-ish thing was a colony ship. I don't remember the name, I think it was Atlas.

Also, looking back through the thread a bit, I find myself wondering what a textured Chrenari looks like.

@darthkev, on 11 January 2014 - 03:29 AM, said in EVN - Delphi:

I thought that big, flying wing, Star Destroyer-ish thing was a colony ship. I don't remember the name, I think it was Atlas.

Also, looking back through the thread a bit, I find myself wondering what a textured Chrenari looks like.

I haven't rendered the Chrenari, because I'm still not certain on the design. In the game, it'll appear as a space station, but the Rled is going to be HUGE. It's supposed to look generally like a really long sort of a snake, with a few twists up and down in the design to make it look deliberately non-aerodynamic. While the ship I've made is definitely not a bad piece, I don't feel it's captured my vision of what the Chrenari should be: a monstrous spear in the night sent to destroy a planet's surface in entirety and make it completely uninhabitable. It's a flying war-crime, and I want it to look ugly and frightening as such. Most importantly, I don't feel the design I've made properly incorporates the concept that the entire center axis of the ship is a massive reactor and cannon assembly, running the full kilometers-long length of the vessel.

Regarding the Atlas, it IS indeed used as a Colony ship at times, but is also several times more massive than the Galileo, and may be unnecessary unless establishing a full settlement of several thousand people. The Galileo works best as a passenger transport, but when colonizing, several of the ships may be used from different worlds to collect an assortment of colonists all of varying career specialties and ethnic diversity. The Atlas works best in deployments where it doesn't have to move too much, too quickly, such as a long freight trip to deliver every last piece of a colony to the planet, or to carry battlestation components to the front line with military escort. The Atlas represents the pinnacle of freight capability, but sometimes it may be more than what is necessary. The Galileo is a bit more nimble, and a lot more comfortable, being designed primarily for passengers instead of cargo.

Remember, building a thriving colony takes a lot more than just one ship. You'll likely see the Atlas working alongside the Galileo for such operations.

@delphi, on 11 January 2014 - 03:21 PM, said in EVN - Delphi:

I haven't rendered the Chrenari, because I'm still not certain on the design. In the game, it'll appear as a space station, but the Rled is going to be HUGE. It's supposed to look generally like a really long sort of a snake, with a few twists up and down in the design to make it look deliberately non-aerodynamic. While the ship I've made is definitely not a bad piece, I don't feel it's captured my vision of what the Chrenari should be: a monstrous spear in the night sent to destroy a planet's surface in entirety and make it completely uninhabitable. It's a flying war-crime, and I want it to look ugly and frightening as such. Most importantly, I don't feel the design I've made properly incorporates the concept that the entire center axis of the ship is a massive reactor and cannon assembly, running the full kilometers-long length of the vessel.

Maybe add more of those flaps from the rear. I'm assuming those are giant turrets for assaulting enemy capital ships that manage to avoid the prow. A few others, or even simply larger ones could work. Especially if you place them to resemble wings. A winged serpent is definitely more threatening than a non-winged one.

As for the front, it might be taking a page from Star Wars, but perhaps you could add focusing antennae of some sort that fire their own beams into a cone shape. They could be positioned around the main gun in such a way to resemble teeth or even an entire maw.

Quote

Regarding the Atlas, it IS indeed used as a Colony ship at times, but is also several times more massive than the Galileo, and may be unnecessary unless establishing a full settlement of several thousand people. The Galileo works best as a passenger transport, but when colonizing, several of the ships may be used from different worlds to collect an assortment of colonists all of varying career specialties and ethnic diversity. The Atlas works best in deployments where it doesn't have to move too much, too quickly, such as a long freight trip to deliver every last piece of a colony to the planet, or to carry battlestation components to the front line with military escort. The Atlas represents the pinnacle of freight capability, but sometimes it may be more than what is necessary. The Galileo is a bit more nimble, and a lot more comfortable, being designed primarily for passengers instead of cargo.

Remember, building a thriving colony takes a lot more than just one ship. You'll likely see the Atlas working alongside the Galileo for such operations.

Fair enough. Actually, it's a relationship not unlike the Polaris' Cambrian and Sprite, or EVC's bulk freighter and light freighter, or EVO's freighter/Transporter and the entire Miranu line. Dunno why it didn't occur to me before.

So here's a fun idea I just had: your ship's weapons and outfits will determine how certain missions branch out, and what options are available to you. I just had the thought come to me as I was designing a few secondary outfit types, one of which is a specialty Electromag cannon normally used for anti-personnel efforts as a troop transport lands, but is also useful as a point defence weapon. It'll basically be Delphi's version of a poor-man's Quad Light Blaster Turret, but then I had this thought come to me: if you were performing a mission that requires landing in a war zone, wouldn't such a weapon give you a tactical advantage? As such, I've decided that I'm going to set up several outfits with contributing bits, and these bits will give you different outcomes during a mission.

So, for instance, just to explain it with a really basic example, you may have the following two scenarios happen:

Without Anti-Personnel Turret:

"As you approach the landing zone to capture the enemy commander, your ship is rocked by a hail of gunfire from the surface. The enemy soldiers' weapons aren't strong enough to pierce the hull, but they do significantly stall your approach and force you to come about a few times trying to stabilize the ship. By the time you have the hatch open, hostile forces are surrounding the ship, forcing you to fight your way out. By no small amount of equal parts effort and luck, you break through their lines and make it into the facility. Their offensive against your landing yet achieved its goal, though: the commander has retreated to a waiting ship. You fire shots at several fighter pilots as they begin to lift off to escort his escape. Making your way back to your ship, you know you'll be in for a firefight on the way up, and that's saying nothing of determining where their leader will have jumped off to."

With Anti-Personnel Turret:

"Your vessel crests the next ridge and the enemy installation is laid out bare before you, the landing zone in sight. Enemy troops scramble to arm themselves and fire upon your vessel. Your gunner takes to the turret and unleashes a furious storm of death upon them, decimating their numbers. The guns pulsate rhythmically as shot after shot strike the targets below, turning flesh to smouldering slag in wholesale quantity. They dive for cover and return fire with small armaments, but their pitiful guns ricochet miserably against the hull as your cannons return report with exponentially greater effect. With the landing zone clear, you are quickly landed. Stepping over steaming pieces of your foes, you march through the entry to the facility and open fire on a small contingent of guards armed only with pistols. Cowering behind cover in the corridor you find your target, the enemy commander. He fires a small handheld pistol at you but your armor is more than sufficient to deflect the impacts. Striking him down with your heavily-plated gauntlet, it is short time before he is in restraints and loaded aboard the ship for the journey back."

Please note these are not indicative of the actual game writing; just a proof of concept. I can write far better than that, and would never dream of handing down something so generic. I just really like the idea that having a certain upgrade on your ship may have unforeseen benefits, or perhaps even consequences (maybe having too many heavy armor upgrades, which reduce your speed, prevent you from landing in time and the enemy escapes in a ship before you can give chase). This would obviously not be the only scenario in which upgrades would help/hinder. Having marine upgrades on your ship may affect boarding missions, and as an even more extreme example, some missions could even play out differently according to your ship's size! I already had intended this just for the sake of eliminating the implication that "Your (6,000,000 ton, 3 km long behemoth star cruiser) lifts off the launchpad effortlessly and blasts off into space, doing a loop-the-loop over a passing freighter," having missions scripted properly for big and small vehicles, but now I realize that I could extend it a bit further into realism, where your ship's trade-off between maneuvering and armament causes the mission to play out differently.

That's a good idea. I thought your writing was great, so if you can do better than that then WoW!

One question about the Chrenari: can the player land on it? If you don't intend for it to be landable, you're probably going to have to change that str that says "you can't dock at this station, it's too unstable." The reason I mention this is because if you don't intend the player to ever land there, you probably can't have other space stations that are "uninhabitable", especially if that str is Chrenari-specific.

You're probably got that figured out already, though.

I think it's supposed to be landable, judging from what he said before. It's used as a mobile base more often than a planet-melting behemoth.

@darthkev, on 15 January 2014 - 09:53 AM, said in EVN - Delphi:

I think it's supposed to be landable, judging from what he said before. It's used as a mobile base more often than a planet-melting behemoth.

I'll have it treated as a station, wherein you dock your ship with it.

Jesus, you're still working on it. It's been so long I don't even know how to access my old account, Insomniac. Sad, I was the official ambrosia saint at one point.

Spare me the looking through 70 pages- what did I miss? Where are you in development? Do you have a page of screenshots somewhere?

Keep up the great and amazing work Delphi! I check in here every once in a while just to continually be amazed by your great stuff! ...and I always have to recover my password every time I want to post in here hahaha Keep going! I'd love to play your game!

@gooust, on 18 January 2014 - 10:02 PM, said in EVN - Delphi:

Jesus, you're still working on it. It's been so long I don't even know how to access my old account, Insomniac. Sad, I was the official ambrosia saint at one point.

Spare me the looking through 70 pages- what did I miss? Where are you in development? Do you have a page of screenshots somewhere?

A vast majority of the shipyard is completely rendered, and some of the game's graphical elements are getting into their final stages. Yet to be done are the shipyard "splash" pictures, the landing graphics for planets (easier than you may think), and I need to redo the galaxy map nebulae. I've been working away at making outfit graphics as I create the outfits themselves, as though I know what I want the outfit to do, I'm never quite sure what it'll look like until inspiration hits.

The ships still require serious balance, but mostly just due to the sheer spread of scale between the smallest and largest craft. There's a lot to account for in between. Somehow, I have to make artillery cannons strong enough to let warships do proper combat with each other, while not being so strong as to knock smaller cruisers right out of the sky with a single shot. On the flip-side, though, I can't afford to make the larger ships too weak, for fear of somebody like Qaanol acing the entire campaign in a shuttle. While I respect his insane ability to do that, it definitely reveals something of an improperly-balanced environment when such a little ship can take down the largest battleship.

I've got descriptions for almost every existing planet in the galaxy (300-350 systems; yes, smaller than Nova, but less wasted space). There are some planets I've not yet placed, as my galaxy differs from Nova's in that the one primary government has several different cultures within it, separated by star clusters. There's a whole two clusters in the south and south-east galaxy map that I haven't quite decided on yet. As it stands for the NDC, though, they possess these clusters:

Core Region - the metropolitan heart of the empire
Ulysses Rift - dedicated to mining and manufacturing
Capellan Atoll - strong commercial/trading culture
Hades Cradle - heavy industry and weapons testing
Capraechian Maw - contested; almost entirely abandoned except for military installations
Armageddon Veil - largely a farming region (but with some subtle military undertones).

And, for the Enclave Colonies:

Hecate Verge - Recently "liberated" from the NDC militarily, but still populated by billions of loyalist NDC citizens. Devoted to farming and manufacturing.
Magellan Expanse - The home of the Enclave Colonies. A combination of all trades (necessary due to their insular nature), with a strong focus on research.

Don't be disheartened that the Enclave have less space than the NDC. Their strength is in the worlds they subjugate from the Coalition, disrupting typical trade routes and destabilizing local regions by creating an "interior front" of sorts for the NDC to deal with. It's a little bit like having an anthill inside your home. You can still fight the bugs outside, but now you've got this thing potentially lurking behind your back, and it becomes difficult to fight both fronts simultaneously. The Hecate Verge and the Magellan Expanse are just the two most cohesive sectors of Enclave space, but they've got little installations and colonies throughout the NDC empire (hence the "enclave" part of their name).

I still have to pick empire assignment and cultures for the Oblivion Scar and the Sculptor Void. Both will probably be NDC-assigned, but I'm strongly considering giving a large portion of the Scar to the Enclave, so that there's a nice little battleground close to the Core Region. In Nova, I always liked popping down into Auroran space from the Tichel system just to shoot stuff up, so I'm hoping I can emulate something similar.

Sound design is miserable, because I've learned I suffer from auditory fatigue rapidly, and things that are objectively terrible start to sound good, so I always have to hope for a moment of pure genius, or I'll just make another phased/flanged "thump" sound for the electromag laser. I've gone through about seven versions of sounds for that gun, and I'm still not entirely satisfied.

It's difficult to describe where I'm at for the story writing. To put it in really basic terms, there's not a single campaign mission scripted into the engine yet, but the entire story and its multiple branching points have already been plotted on paper, and I know exactly what narrative I want the player to experience, regardless of their choices. I also have several notes on side missions that I absolute intend to implement, making the universe a little more fun than some of the generic missions in Nova. For instance, instead of terraforming a planet by doing the typical "go here, pick this up, return to <DSN>", how about picking up a (technically) planet-killing weapon that turns an uninhabited world into a habitable one and plants a nice little colony on the surface? Mind you, this wouldn't be just any ol' gun that you can pick up and deploy anywhere - it'll be mission specific with restrictions to make sure you don't use it elsewhere - but you'll have opportunities to build new infrastructure across civilized space, and set up some very handy little maintenance stations for yourself. It's always nice to have a place to call "home", right? Aside from this will be a great number of individual missions scripted specifically for certain classes of ships, and playing to their advantages to keep things interesting. Though there will be ample opportunities to accept missions that cater to any type of vehicle, events like planetary invasions require something with a little bit more "oomph". Conversely, there will be covert missions in which you benefit greatest from having a smaller, lighter ship, and maybe some special upgrades.

I also mentioned on the previous page that I'll be implementing regular-styled ship upgrades that double as mission modifiers; picking up an anti-missile/anti-personnel turret for your ship will sometimes give you an advantage in missions where such a tool would be useful, such as landing in a hostile area with enemy troops firing on your hull. Similarly, during diplomatic missions, carrying less weaponry or avoiding truly heinous devices aboard your ship will make the mission go more smoothly. I want to create a universe that reacts appropriately to who you are as a player and what you choose for your ship. Dignitaries don't always like to fly aboard cramped warships, and if enemy negotiators see you show up with eight artillery cannons across your bow, they'll perhaps be reconsidering their offer of amnesty in their space. I know this'll involve a LOT of scripting, but once the basic rubric is assembled, it's just a matter of introducing necessary variety.

I hope that gives you a good, generalized synopsis of what's going on.