ColoursElite UK 2

Things change all the time, DX Studio, whilst in it’s infancy, it was too buggy and unable to cope with the scales involved.  Take, if you will, the size of the sun when compared to a space shuttle.  To get everything in and right meant that the space shuttle ended up being 0.00012 of a pixel and it shimmered.  And the handling kept reversing everytime you went over on your head.

But, a newer system has been found, and it’s very very scaleable.  With 64bit numbers coming soon, it would be possible to make everything to a decent scale – still not 1:1 but enough to be far more realistic.

We have a similar concept to FL, but you will have a universe mode as well as a system mode – so instead of going from one system to another, you will be able to “warp” between different systems.  You will only use impulse inter systems with possibly some speedier way of navigating intersystem if it’s needed.

The planets revolve, and it’s possible to land on planets now (in theory) but we’re not sure if that’s going to happen yet.

So, we’ve taken a step back to go forward.  It is likely that the background will be made up of the real systems so you should be able to fly to a star in the “background” and end up at a star with planets orbiting.

All good news.

Blimey – how things move on.
The sun now stays and gets smaller right up to the edge of the system – It was disappearing when it rendered a lower res image to improve frame rate.
The starship enterprise is now in too, but the size of the system v’s the scale of the earth solar system is an issue. The sun is approx 1.5 mil k’s across, and pluto is approx 1,600 Mil k’s away from the sun.

To scale everything correctly, the shuttle ends up being oh so tiny…… 0.012 pixels from memory….. and the sun ends up being only 24pixels wide…. just to accommodate the disstance to scale to pluto (which isn’t a planet)

However, on second thoughts, why do we need an orbiting earth or solar system? are you really planning on sitting there 364 days 23 hours and 53 seconds (or whatever the time is) to see if earth comes past you again? You’ld be shot first. Nice idea but dismissed now.

The most important thing about this is the scale of all the ships to each other – planets and sun come second and can be proportionate but only for visuals.

Trading – more thought – pen to paper achieved too, and programming theoretical system has started.
One massive problem with Ogame is that after a while, players that start at the outset gain a massive advantage. We think we’ve solved this so that even after a year, new players will soon quickly catch up in terms of infrastructure.

There will be Mines – Dilithium, Sandstone and Iron Ore, Factories capable of refining, basic dynamic economy and an overall tech level control which will prevent old players from getting away from new players.

There will also be a restriction on 3 players per machine irrespective of who is on it, and no advantage gained by creating multiple accounts since the advantage is gained by having more players in the universe. We’re not sure yet about inter account trading yet – it probably will be barred.

A new way of depiciting the systems has been thought of which keeps it realistic and is being tested tonight.

You will need to trade as to create items such as ships will involve more than just mining the mines. You will have a specific type of planet, and to create any one item will always require something from a different type of planet to complete the build. Also, the type of planet will increase the speed of production of certain items e.g. a technological planet will produce computers quicker than an agricultural one (if at all) but an agricultural one will be able to produce food quicker than a technological one.

Possibly, population size may come into this which will also affect the speed of production. Whilst we don’t want it complicated, we need to make it more than a server that you would just sit on and pvp on. PVP whilst important, doesn’t sustain interest in a game.

10th Jan

The ship – it flies – in all directions, just like freelancer handles a ship.
I see a sun – it gets bigger when we fly towards it. smaller when you fly away.
There’s a rear view Picture in Picture, so I can see if you are sneaking up behind me.
Another camera gives me an external view of my ship – and I can move that all around me too.
Ahhh – and now there’s a scanner working showing a miniture version of the universe in 3d so I can see where I am

Networking was talked about but it was too late in the night to get started on

But…..

More talking

One account is all you will have – after all, you are only one player.
Now, – you are worth a wealth – even at the start. a shuttle would cost about 10mil credits? what if you were in it and were shot up – your ship is destroyed… However, – all ships have an escape pod, which is ejected in a random direction from the one that killed you. Good job that you have enough funds in the bank to call for help. a good % of your total wealth, so there is a risk in not banking enough credits should you leave space dock.
There’s going to be a lot to think about now all the time…. The distress call goes out – and after an rescue warp at 9.99, your rescuer is in the facinity and checking the radar that your attacker has left. It’s also a good job that the distress signal can only be picked up by any member of your faction… but that doesn’t stop the enemy trying to ambush you as I’m sure that they can see you when you are close.

You get picked up, and your rescuer warps you to where you or they want to go.
Do you have any other ships you can use? Thumb a lift or request passage if someone is going past. Access your bank and buy a new shuttle or ship. Buy a shuttle and dock with a larger ship capable of taking you somewhere…

This is getting bigger by the minute and a list of major things to do before fine tuning them will be made.

1st Jan 09

A new year and a new start. Some other engines had been found, suggested and dismissed after a while. The original seems to fit all aspects so that’s a good thing.

Another good thing is gravity. It’s there in the world and when the ship stops, gravity takes over and pulls it into the ground.
However, flying is ok- but rolling a ship when flying is causing a problem as, as it rotates, up is no longer up.

various things were tried and failed. A frustrating new year’s day. But at least the stars are out in this world…. We have space

29th Dec 08

Is this do-able? – I fed Buck a feed to a 3d Engine and script, something he admitted to having looked at before, we looked at several – some free, some by disney, and some worth several thousands of dollars. If we were to do this, we had to have something that was good at 3D, and able to cope with many different things such as networking, client / server stuff

the orginal system worked a treat, it was compatible with the models that had already been created for freelancer and various mods.

The space shuttle was imported, but it came in back to front. Forwards was backwards, and left was right. However, by exporting from milkshape into 3d Max, and then into the engine, that issue was corrected.

So

We have the spaceshuttle from Startrek, sat beside a house, and it can “fly”

23rd Dec 08

Spoke to Buck at length regarding the lack of playing of freelancer and muted idea’s about what has driven people away. FLSM was part of the issue as was Ogame and the amount of time players were spending on that. We talked about the current mod as FLSM is pretty much there working as it was intended, and the idea that he had back in May 08 came up again and the demo of the mod was shown.

Essentially, it requires re-writing the whole of freelancer, creating new factions, missions, npc’s ships, planets – everything. no small feat. It would work on the combination of Star trek, star wars , battlestar galactica and babylon 5 environments and factions versus their enemies. A role playing mod with no clans. you create a character and play in the faction you decide.

The environment would be more releastic, Planets would be scaled accordingly so they were realistic in size, revolving and orbiting their sun. the moon, for example would rotate around earth. Ships would also be scaled accordingly. The star trek space shuttle would be small enough to dock inside the galaxy class ship, and that in turn would be small enough to dock inside the space station.

For the demo, this environment was up and running and whilst visually it looked great, it was still freelancer and bound by the limitations that freelancer gave.

I fed Buck a little line and left it at that.

The line????? – Lets create a sequel to Freelancer built how we want it based on the sucessful elements of games we have played in the past.

So – it’s not a mod

Rather than just use the forum to show what is going on, we thought it might be better to use a real blog instead. So, here it is