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Server, Client, Documentation and design progress

Craig Macomber 1258261872|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Fragmented Galaxy / Game News » Server, Client, Documentation and design progress

I've been working somewhat on everything. I made some major progress in designing and documenting the server setup, as well as implementing it. I made some changes and improvements to the client's networking to match. I also fixed up and cleaned up the shaders a bit, and fixed some issues. I also generally tried to improve the appearance of some things. My friend developing the UI system I want to use has made some excellent progress, so I think I will be installing it soon. Also, recently the developers of Panda3D have made good progress on the next version which will include a great distribution system including easy mac windows and linux builds as well as plugin based web apps. I have don't some prerelease testing and initial work toward getting FG working with it. I have also been developing an effects/shaders system that should meet our needs for good looking ships make up lots of customizable materials. I have devised and/or partly implemented a few different terrain mesh approaches have been that might work better for our planets. I think I have also found a solution to most of the remaining precision issues for rendering the planets, and my new noise sampling system, which is mostly finished, should fix the precision, and increase the graphics and quality greatly, while solving the issue of how the server will sample data on planets as well.

I have been working on everything, and making pretty good all around progress. I'm looking to have a solid cross platform release of the planet viewer with login and maybe chat built in done by the end of the year. The server is far enough for this, but needs to be a bit more stable. The client can already login, so its mainly a matter of getting the user interface done, and getting a release put together. Once thats done, I'll work toward getting ground combat designed and implemented.

Here is a Large Screen Shot

Re: Bombs in a Vacuum

tbg10101 1257187648|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Other / Off Topic » Bombs in a Vacuum

I made a strong distinction between inter-system and intra-system travel. Sub-light speeds are too slow for a local modern economy inside a system.

In-FTL battles would not exist though, I agree. There would be no way to detect incoming ships and no way to attack them either.

Re: Bombs in a Vacuum

Craig Macomber 1257138080|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Other / Off Topic » Bombs in a Vacuum

@Craig
I disagree Craig. I think that sub-light speeds will be too slow for intra-system travel. A three tier system must exist: Sublight, FTL, and a relay or teleportation system for inter-system travel.

We are not going to. Ships can only go FTL outside/between solar systems, and there they can not do anything else.

intra-system travel is only FTL. Other stuff is strictly non FTL, thus no ships ever interact when they are going FTL, nor interact with ships going FTL. Problem solved. There is an assumption that interstellar space is huge and empty, and that no ships can interact there. Also, detecting FTL ships in a useful manner is impossible because they go faster than you can see them even if you could see such small things at those ranges. You might as well wait for them to arrive before you see look.

The assumption that you can not use FTL within a system is a gameplay decision we made a log time ago (with the possible exception of constructed special areas of jump gates). We could change this, but I don't think we should. If you want quasi physics excuses to justify this limitation, I can provide several.

Re: Bombs in a Vacuum

tbg10101 1257136415|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Other / Off Topic » Bombs in a Vacuum

@Craig
I disagree Craig. I think that sub-light speeds will be too slow for intra-system travel. A three tier system must exist: Sublight, FTL, and a relay or teleportation system for inter-system travel.

@Phenoca
FTL and sub-light interactions depend heavily on the type of FTL that is used. For example an Alcubierre drive warps space to apparently move faster than light. No matter can survive the transition between the bubble and the outside universe. Not to mention that detecting a ship at FTL may be impossible.

These are all decisions that we will need to make.

Re: Game Play Page Updated

tbg10101 1257136215|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » Game Play Page Updated

I will look it over now!

Game Play Page Updated

Craig Macomber 1257133121|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » Game Play Page Updated

I updated the game play page to actually include something useful. It has not even had a single editing pass, and it was just written mostly straight as I though of it. Thus, I imagine it needs some revising and editing (devs, feel free to fix it up), but I thought it was better than what was there (nothing but links to mostly empty out of date pages).

Re: Bombs in a Vacuum

Craig Macomber 1256774946|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Other / Off Topic » Bombs in a Vacuum

And also - how are we going to do FTL-battles

We are not going to. Ships can only go FTL outside/between solar systems, and there they can not do anything else.

Bombs in a Vacuum

Phenoca 1256706373|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Other / Off Topic » Bombs in a Vacuum

Reminded me of FG inter-fleet combat: http://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos101.html

And also - how are we going to do FTL-battles versus orbital battles? Does one fleet suck the other fleet up into a spacetime rupture? Does the battle take-place inside of a wormhole, or a blackhole, or do we just pretend they instantly slow-down to equal velocities, or do we do something unique like warping local spacetime into a torus? Could we pick a non-orientable surface? Would it matter?

Imagine you are wearing a shirt, and fleet A is travelling down your left arm; fleet B is travelling down your right arm. If you hold your sleeves together, then fleet A cross onto the other sleeve to intercept fleet B, and move up your right arm. But such curvature of spacetime is impossible.

Another possibility would be portals, or warpgates.

And… I've removed the rest of my post because I just kept coming-up with the above idea, with wormholes being made by creating a large mass between both fleets which will curve spacetime enough to create a wormhole. I also found out that making a wormhole through time breaks the laws of physics… And if we "shrink" a 3D wormhole, then we get a 2D playing-field. If we shrink a 4D wormhole (with time not a dimension) then we might get a 3D playing-field until the wormhole collapses (your shirt sleeves are no longer connected). And the velocity of fleet B inside of the wormhole will start as (velocity outside of wormhole minus v-components in direction of velocity of fleet A outside the wormhole) all with respect to fleet A.

So if fleet A creates a 4D wormhole, I propose that the battle takes place in 3D space with fleet A's start velocity equal to 0, and fleet B's start speed is equal to (velocity of fleet B outside of wormhole)*sinθ, where θ is the angle between fleet A and fleet B's velocity, and fleet B is travelling away from fleet A.

Re: Google Wave

Craig Macomber 1254634814|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Other / Off Topic » Google Wave

Yes, it's cool. I signed up to be notified about it the day, or day after it was announced (quite a while ago). I really like their open protocol setup. It can function completely independent from google, which is good. I want it for the FG dev site.

Google Wave

Phenoca 1254630755|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Other / Off Topic » Google Wave

It's cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDu2A3WzQpo

But under private testing for now :(

Re: New Video

Craig Macomber 1253520689|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Video

Thanks. I sure hope we can deliver a fun game to go with the graphics!

Re: New Video

Craig Macomber 1253520637|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Video

The only one I have uploaded is here: http://f-g.wdfiles.com/local--files/start/FG_ScreenShotHD1252684706.12.jpg
I need to setup a good place to display them.

Re: New Video

tbg10101 1253511760|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Video

Do we have any HD screenshots on the website?

Re: New Video

Vimes1970 1253133569|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Video

Like it Craig - very promising. If you can deliver that you will have many fans ;)

Re: New Background Image

tbg10101 1253044322|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Background Image

If it is possible, make the menu background solid black at 50% opacity. Then get rid of the grey border.

For the banner, fill it with opaque black (from side to side) then put the current image on that.

SHould I clarify?

Re: New Video

Craig Macomber 1252993146|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Video

I haven't started school yet this year, but I assume it will be harder for me as well. I'm glad you like the video.

Re: New Background Image

Craig Macomber 1252992238|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Background Image

How do you think I should resolve the overlap? The easy thing to do is push the BG image down and over a bit. I was thinking it might be better mirror it, or use some other image (I have a massive collection of them now).

Re: New Background Image

tbg10101 1252986020|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Background Image

I love it! As long as the text stays bright there should be no visibility problems.

I don't like our banner or the menu on the left going over it. It is too beautiful to be hidden!

Re: Comics

tbg10101 1252984079|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Other / Off Topic » Comics

I love XKCD!!

I also read Prematurely Disappointed and CTRL+ALT+DEL.

Re: New Screen Shots

tbg10101 1252983923|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
in discussion Site / Site News » New Screen Shots

They are truly excellent!!