QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 30 2010, 08:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Very interesting format for the story, Delphi. I like it a lot. However, you said that Chapter IV would be the end of the Delphi/NDC storyline. Does this mean you're planning more chapters for players that side with the Enclave in Chapter II, or do I misunderstand?

No matter the victor of the war between the NDC and the Enclave, both nations continue to exist, and a tentative peace is formed. Much like the end of World War II, Germany continued to exist and now stands perfectly well as its own nation. If you side with the Enclave, your actions precipitate the end of the war either way, and ultimately the NDC continues to exist as a legion of immense power. Much like the Federation of EVN, the NDC is not implicitly a governing body by itself. If the leaders are removed, the force of the Coalition is easily put under control of whoever takes command. So, either way, you end up back in the ranks of the NDC, as well as many Enclave officers. The Enclave then ceases to exist as a military presence, much of their technology is adopted into NDC designs, and humanity moves forward toward a bolder, more unified future.

A real world example can be imagined if the countries of Earth were to declare peace and unify as a single nation, the military of which would now be comprised of the combined forces of all member nations. It has actually happened before, at the end of the American Civil War. It's not like every single Confederate soldier and general was executed; pretty much any that didn't resign and become civilians were added to the ranks of the unified US Army.

Thus, during Chapter II you'll see both Enclave and NDC ships, as well as a few hybrids that combine the best of both governments' tech, including the Delphi colony ship itself.

Also, I did a bit more for the target graphics.

The target graphics idea is amazing. It may be more of a pain to do, but I'd prefer it that way simply because it's so cool-looking.

Okay, these explosions are starting to look REALLY, REALLY GOOD. I was experimenting with having a great big black could remnant from a lot of them, but it still just didn't look good. If you're going to have a lot of explosions on the screen at once (like a ship breaking up), I think they're going to need to be more fire than cloud. As a result, I tried turning the smoke layer to full black, and now it makes the fire look like it bursts and then evaporates into the vacuum of space. If I can mask it right, it'll look stunning.

I'm going to make it as perfect as I can, and then I'll actually put up an image of the sprite table, so you can see what I mean. The movie upload feature on most websites plays it too quickly and doesn't let you really see the individual frames.

Here's the link to the explosion files. You'll have to download the zip file, decompress it, and then put the sprite and mask into Mission Computer, but once that's done you can view it, go through frame by frame, and even put it into your own copy of Nova, if you really think it's that good.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=HKEK9PSS

Have fun! I'll be blowing stuff up all night tonight, so there'll be lots of juicy plasma filling the sky by tomorrow!

As a side note, because I usually don't act this excited on the forum (though I actually am, inherently): I can't WAIT to get this whole explosion set done! I think I'll buy an Alexander and self-destruct it JUST to watch a huge explosion and all the little type-128 sparks! Glee!!!

The title of this hour's post is
DEAR SWEET ORY'HARA ON A STICK THIS IS AWESOME.

Oh dear, it would appear that I tripped the self-destruct sequence on my poor humble Journeyman.

Ah well, there she blows. Well chaps, off to the shipyard, then?

I also just came to the shocking realization that Nova isn't as limited for boom resources as I once thought. I can have several different fitting explosions for the different hull sizes, covering everything from the lowly Journeyman 1A up to the Alexander (as if you'll ever see that one, though; ha!).

This is going to be a very explosive universe.

Heh, Delphi's having a 'boom-gasm'.

Incredible explosions, Delphi.

And now I get to take even greater pleasure in destroying everything, why? Because it will look so darn pretty! Come here little ships, let me explode you!

QUOTE (DarthKev @ Aug 31 2010, 01:09 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Heh, Delphi's having a 'boom-gasm'.

Incredible explosions, Delphi.

Did you try the sprite download up above? You can actually download the medium-sized explosion and tell me what you think! I'm amazed at how good the mask turned out for that one, actually. It's great; I was originally going to just fade all the explosions to black to make them disappear, but the new method I used causes them to bleed away into space just like they should.

Here's one of the first official video demonstrations of the Delphi/NDC game universe in action. It's just me flying around and bullying a few locals in the Tirach system, but ultimately a squad of NDC Scimitars ruin my fun... and my ship.

This video really shows off the new explosions, and you can see how nicely they animate for each of the different ships!

Skirmish Over Tirach (Video)

Actually, the AI behavior brings up a question I've always been meaning to ask: is there a way to tell Nova escorts to space themselves out further? As you know, I'm using a few large sprites, and it looks really odd when the Scimitars are so close together as they are.

QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 31 2010, 12:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did you try the sprite download up above?

Yes I did, thus my compliment. It truly is incredible, not to mention one of the most realistic explosions I've ever seen in a video game.

QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 31 2010, 01:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here's one of the first official video demonstrations of the Delphi/NDC game universe in action. It's just me flying around and bullying a few locals in the Tirach system, but ultimately a squad of NDC Scimitars ruin my fun... and my ship.

Niiiice.

QUOTE

Actually, the AI behavior brings up a question I've always been meaning to ask: is there a way to tell Nova escorts to space themselves out further? As you know, I'm using a few large sprites, and it looks really odd when the Scimitars are so close together as they are.

Hmm, I think the amount of space escorts put between themselves and their leader depends on the mass of the lead ship; the more mass, the more space. I used to think it had to do with the size of the lead ship's graphic, but your video proves otherwise. The length might also play a factor, I don't know for sure.

QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 31 2010, 12:48 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did you try the sprite download up above? You can actually download the medium-sized explosion and tell me what you think! I'm amazed at how good the mask turned out for that one, actually. It's great; I was originally going to just fade all the explosions to black to make them disappear, but the new method I used causes them to bleed away into space just like they should.

QUOTE (Delphi @ Aug 31 2010, 01:53 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Here's one of the first official video demonstrations of the Delphi/NDC game universe in action. It's just me flying around and bullying a few locals in the Tirach system, but ultimately a squad of NDC Scimitars ruin my fun... and my ship.

Delphi, you are now exploding my mind. Give. Us. More. Explosions. Nao.

I love this, I show massive feelings of affection and admiration towards this. It is so great and wonderful and amazing.

Careful, Delphi. If you keep up this kind of graphics quality for much longer, you might inadvertently create the Pariah Combine in the real world.

An Enclave "Aegis" frigate and two Kevilan escorts harass a Journeyman in NDC space.

All your ships so far use orange engine flames--will there be some with blue/other cool colored flames?

QUOTE (king_of_manticores @ Aug 31 2010, 10:08 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

All your ships so far use orange engine flames--will there be some with blue/other cool colored flames?

Not really too much. The primary idea is that the majority of humanity is using the same nuclear propulsion technology, but there are some prototype ships that have specialized engine types. I considered using blue, but then the NDC ships all look monochromatic, so I tried green on a few ships, and that just looked weird. So far, orange seems to be the most comfortable in-between for both races, but like I said, you'll see the occasional exemption.

I actually considered giving the Enclave fuchsia engine contrails at one point, but the end result looked really silly.

I'm hoping personally that you won't spend so much time looking at the engine contrails as you will looking at the multi-colored weaponry bearing down on your ship and pulverizing your hull closer and closer to resembling one of those pretty explosions from the previous page.

So far the list of completed ships is looking really good.

NDC Monolith (though I'm going to re-render the sprite with better color differentiation - too blue right now)
NDC Athena
NDC Alexander
NDC Scimitar
NDC Journeyman
NDC Journeyman 1A
NDC Daybreaker
EC Aegis Freighter
EC Aegis Frigate
EC Kevilan II
EC Journeyman 1A

Like I said a while back, there will be several Enclave ships that are identical to their NDC counterparts, except for the paint job. These aren't plentiful though, so the universe won't look bland. For instance, the Enclave considers the NDC Monolith to be far too cumbersome, and thus copying the blueprint just isn't worth their time. Their own Ecliptic class cruiser more than holds its own against the Monolith.

I'm going to be pushing the boundaries of the Nova engine over the new couple of days, testing ships with massive numbers of turning frames. I rendered the Monolith over again with 120 frames, and turns as smooth as butter, even through its lumbering and sluggish by design. If I can apply the same to the absolutely dauntingly massive Alexander, then the quality of the animations will finally catch up with the quality of the new texture graphics.

And with a click, thus starts the longest render I've ever done for the sake of this project.

The Alexander will be finished rendering at 500 x 500 pixels per frame, at 180 frames (2° rotation per frame), with super-fine antialiasing in approximately 2 hours and 3 minutes. See you all in the morning when it's done.

By the way, did I read somewhere that Nova has a certain graphics cap, or what that just in relation to certain types of sprites? I think I remember vaguely someone saying something once a long time ago about how planet graphics couldn't be too large or the engine would crash, but I don't implicitly remember anything about ships.

Also, DarthKev, before you get your hopes up, I'm still going to be compressing the Alexander into 250 x 250 per frame. Otherwise it's just not playable because of the immense size on screen.

http://i53.tinypic.com/1zy7us8.png

EDIT: Changed the IMG link to a URL so that this page doesn't crash peoples' browsers like last time.

This post has been edited by Delphi : 01 September 2010 - 06:48 AM

By the way, this is the way the Monolith looks in-game with the new sprite. I brought it down to 125 x 125, because there are several ships quite larger than it, but now it looks like it has a very sturdy frame to it with some malevolent firepower to boot. I also added a nifty little added glow to the engine, and I think I'll go back and do that on a few of the other ships as well. It really makes the glow look powerful and fiery.