Fleet Combat Status
by Craig Macomber 03 Aug 2010 21:55
Thats a 14*14 grid formation, each node containing a single ship. It is placed inside a parent formation which contains it and a single other ship just behind the front grid. Basic thrust control AI is working so the ships 'try' to stay in formation by both attempting to fly toward their designated formation positions (shown in blue) as well as thrusting to match the velocity of their formation position. With a significant mass and limited thrusting power, there is a limit to what accelerations the ships can follow. Pictured here are the ships after the formation has exceeded their maximum acceleration by stopping and turning rapidly, just before all the ships regain formation.
As the battle simulator can run fine in slower than real time (this fleet of 197 ships did manage to run in real time though), it is possible to simulate and render battles of essentially unlimited scale. It might take a long time, but it could model (and render to a video) a battle of hundreds of formations and thousands of ships. I ran a little test with 40000 ships and it seemed to work (But it ran really slow as expected). 250000 ships works, but is really slow. One million ships did not work (Out of memory error)
I've been doing quite a bit on both the editor and battle simulator recently. With a bit more progress on the editor, and some more AI, we will be starting to have a real game.
Discuss here.
Comments: 2 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Development Direction: Fleet Battle Game
by Craig Macomber 10 Mar 2010 22:12
Edit: I should clarify that does not really effect the main plan, just the development order, though it may lead to a related separate game getting produced.
Fragmented Galaxy has been an extraordinarily poorly focused and organized project. I know this, and it is mostly my fault. Also, I don't really mind. For me it has always been an impulse based project. I felt doing ground combat first would allow us to quickly get a functional game out. Without ground combat, there would be no resources, and thus no economy, ships, or game. Well, I went and made planets for a while instead.
Anyway, the plan for ground combat, which will be the source of all resources and ship production, really hasn't been designed to a point where I feel I can implement it. The designs just seem to gain complexity, and I'm unsure of how big of portion of the game screwing with ground combat stuff should be. Originally the plan was to make is super simple, but the idea of significance between different parts of planets was introduced, and things got messy. On that front the project has basically stalled.
Now, on a different topic: Why do I work on this project? The concept for Fragmented Galaxy (aside from the unrefined ground combat ideas) seems very elegant from my perspective as a programmer. It has a very simple yet powerful and realistic economic system, very powerful political system based on some simple building blocks, a rather different and clever technology/research approach, an truly clever and powerful AI setup integrated with the fleet design which mirrors the ship design system. All of these are built on simple principles that are combine either through a hierarchical structure, networking or both. From the programming perspective Fragmented Galaxy is in some cases a worst case game (massively server side, computational expensive, realtime), but those are issues related to computational load. As far as basic implementation and design, Fragmented Galaxy is just a collection of fundamentally beautiful algorithms. This is why I'm still here, 3 years into the project.
And, as to why the project always gets sidetracked: I'm just here to play with clever algorithms. When I started generating planets, I ventured into the realm of procedural terrain generation, high end rendering, graphics card programming, and now the Python programming language. Any of these areas could happily consume years of my life, and I expect them to do so. As far as Fragmented Galaxy goes though, none of these are really very important to the game.
And that leads me back to a new idea. I'm going to want to get to play with those clever AI, ship and fleet design ideas sometime, and ground combat just isn't seeming very interesting at the moment. Thus, I came up with the idea of making a fleet battle game. Basically you would be given a fixed budget to make a fleet, and battle another fleet made with that budget (or potentially a different budget as a handicap). This could start without fleets, just with single ships, and fleets could be added later. Saving fleet/ship designs (including AI settings) out to files for sharing would allow a single player campaign (which could serve as a tutorial) of preset opponent fleets and corresponding budgets (you could score based on budget used, or losses taken, or both, or simply win/lose). We could allow players to battle their own fleets, battle over the network (Lan) or online, and we could host official tournaments (submit your fleet, battles run server side)
This would be a pure strategy and design game with no realtime aspects. Simply make your fleet (or select one you already made), and press go. Potentially realtime or turn based modes could be added where you could send in backup waves or something like that.
This entire system could be kept intact, but imported into Fragmented Galaxy to allow you to use your same fleets in the MMORTS. The only issue I see is with techs; not all nations in Fragmented Galaxy will have the same techs, and none will have the exact same development status on the techs. It is only an issue with integrating the fleet battling game with FG, and thus I'm not going to worry about it now.
Anyway, I now have an idea that will let me play with the AI, ship and fleet stuff, and make an interesting game that does not have serious hosting issues. It might happen sometime.
Comments: 8 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Panda3D Planet Viewer/Client Second Release
by Craig Macomber 05 Feb 2010 22:01
Head on over to the downloads page to check out the new release. I took out the networking that was in the last release because it does not have proper error handling yet, and has a really long timeout.
Again, it is just a planet viewer, with just one planet.
Basic testing shows that it does run on Mac, Windows and Linux, though there are some rather ugly graphical bugs in some cases, possibly on all Windows and Linux computers.
Comments: 2 | category: Testers / Testing News
Panda3D Planet Viewer/Client First Release
by Craig Macomber 03 Feb 2010 05:58
Head on over to the downloads page to check out the new release. I haven't tested it on any other computers yet, but there is a good chance it will actually do something interesting (maybe even work mostly correctly) on any mac, windows or linux computer with a newish graphics card.
It is just a planet viewer, with just one planet, but it does actually connect to the server and do a few other things you don't see.
Comments: 5 | category: Testers / Testing News
Server, Client, Documentation and design progress
by Craig Macomber 15 Nov 2009 05:11
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
Comments: 0 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Game Play Page Updated
by Craig Macomber 02 Nov 2009 03:38
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).
Comments: 1 | category: Site / Site News
New Video
by Craig Macomber 11 Sep 2009 03:26
The old video on the main page was annoying me, so I replaced it. The quality on the video is pretty horrible though.
Edit: Quality improved. Still not great, but much better.
Comments: 6 | category: Site / Site News
New Background Image
by Craig Macomber 09 Sep 2009 20:54
I did some messing with the new client so that it can export very large screen shots. A darkened and scaled down version of one of them is now the background to this site. I hope you like it. If it causes you any readability or functionality related issues, please let me know. Also, just let me know your thoughts about it: Is it nice? Is it annoying? Should it be moved to not go behind other stuff? Should it repeat vertically?
Eventually I will set up an image gallery system that is much more functional with ratings, comments, tags, various sorting options, and better support for viewing and downloading very large images. When this is done (it's a low priority compared to making the game work) I'll offer up some more nice high quality renderings from the client.
Comments: 3 | category: Site / Site News
[[/module]]
Archive
Client Tuning
06 Sep 2009 05:30
Appearance adjustments
Comments: 0 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
New Screen Shots
04 Sep 2009 02:25
Lots of pretty pics!
Comments: 3 | category: Site / Site News
Server (and other) Progress
29 Aug 2009 04:26
Overview of project status
Comments: 5 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
SIte Issues (Internal Service Error 500)
26 Aug 2009 06:43
Not my fault, just my problem
Comments: 0 | category: Site / Site News
Exploring Planets
16 Jul 2009 02:40
Comments: 3 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Improved Planets
13 Jul 2009 02:44
Comments: 4 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
New Client in the works!
05 Jul 2009 06:26
Comments: 1 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Ground Combat App
17 Jun 2009 20:26
Full structure roughed out!
Comments: 3 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Database Setup
31 May 2009 19:04
Comments: 0 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Ground Combat Update and Long Term Plans
30 May 2009 22:53
The plans are laid
Comments: 0 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Ground Combat Game
16 Apr 2009 00:44
Progress!
Comments: 10 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Shaders
11 Feb 2009 04:40
Finally where I can use them
Comments: 3 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
GPU Tex
09 Feb 2009 00:14
Shaders
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Planet Thoughts
26 Jan 2009 07:07
Comments: 8 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Update
17 Jan 2009 21:45
Some progress
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Planet Tool Design Delay
09 Nov 2008 02:58
A small mistake.
Comments: 1 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Planet Tool Progress
07 Oct 2008 02:22
It is coming together.
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Slow Progress
06 Oct 2008 03:46
We have been rather busy with other things.
Comments: 9 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Back to work
20 Sep 2008 01:08
HUD Progress
Comments: 2 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
New Server Build
09 Sep 2008 01:12
I switched to a new server build
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Pricing
07 Sep 2008 02:18
How will FG make money.
Comments: 21 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
HUD and Planet tool approaching usable.
03 Sep 2008 00:43
The HUD and the built in editing tools are going well, and so it the planet tool.
Comments: 4 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Site fixes and cleaning
03 Sep 2008 00:34
The main page was to crowded, so I fixed it.
Comments: 0 | category: Site / Site News
HUD Redo and Ground combat design
30 Aug 2008 08:11
Remaking the HUD system
Comments: 2 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Planet Tool
18 Aug 2008 04:19
I just put up a new page.
Comments: 6 | category: Site / Site News
In-Game Mail Interface
08 Aug 2008 06:00
A taste of the GUI...
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
HUD, Planning and Planet progress
04 Aug 2008 22:02
More done, more to do!
Comments: 1 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
HUD Progress
26 Jul 2008 02:34
Comments: 3 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
More Planets
22 Jul 2008 02:19
Better tuning, more layers!
Comments: 9 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Planets
19 Jul 2008 23:44
Planets and their Textures
Comments: 10 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Further HUD progress
16 Jul 2008 04:36
Progress! :)
Comments: 1 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
HUD Progress
11 Jul 2008 05:54
The HUD works now, minimally.
Comments: 2 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Fixes
25 Jun 2008 23:43
Lots of bugs
Comments: 5 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Formations and AI
23 Jun 2008 06:31
Today I designed something...
Comments: 2 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Bug fixes up - 1.4.1_33
21 Jun 2008 22:34
I fixed some things
Comments: 1 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
New Release 1.4.0_31
21 Jun 2008 05:04
1.4.0_31 is up!
Comments: 7 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Upcomming Release
15 Jun 2008 05:07
Coming soon!
Comments: 8 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
New Engine Rendering
12 Jun 2008 00:07
Comments: 5 | category: Site / Site News
New Cruiser Model
09 Jun 2008 05:24
First new model in a while!
Comments: 1 | category: Site / Site News
Design Progress
04 Jun 2008 04:39
We have been planning!
Comments: 0 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Database Design
25 May 2008 06:15
I've been laying out the database design.
Comments: 2 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Ground Combat Progress
15 May 2008 04:59
First success
Comments: 21 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Back to Work and Future Plans
10 May 2008 05:01
We had some idle time, but now I'm back.
Comments: 3 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
General progress
15 Apr 2008 05:08
Ground Combat Update, In game help/encyclopedia functional
Comments: 4 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Client 1.2.0_25 Released
03 Apr 2008 02:27
Better performance, less functionality
Comments: 1 | category: Testers / Testing News
Ground Combat, On its way!
02 Apr 2008 08:03
The plans are laid, designs are made, it will be played. Soon you will crusade, let us hope it shall not be delayed.
Comments: 3 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Anniversary
01 Apr 2008 00:50
FG has been going for a year!
Comments: 5 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Status update
30 Mar 2008 23:13
Things are moving forward.
Comments: 9 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Client 1.1.1_22 Released!
27 Mar 2008 03:05
Download and try the new release.
Comments: 0 | category: Testers / Testing News
Client Updates
27 Mar 2008 01:35
There has been some work on the client.
Comments: 2 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Mucis App is back!
03 Mar 2008 03:13
Download out music app
Comments: 1 | category: Site / Site News
Videos and theme update
02 Mar 2008 23:52
Changed the videos page and side nav bar.
Comments: 1 | category: Site / Site News
Client 1.1.0_16 Released along with new Server
02 Mar 2008 06:26
The server is back, and the new release is up!
Comments: 11 | category: Testers / Testing News
Excuses
01 Mar 2008 04:34
We need justifications for stuff right?
Comments: 1 | category: Site / Site News
Server will be unavailable for a while
24 Feb 2008 19:15
The game server is getting upgraded this week.
Comments: 12 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
First Successful Login
23 Feb 2008 00:26
The login framework works
Comments: 10 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Logins
18 Feb 2008 08:40
Work started on managing logins
Comments: 14 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Development Plans
16 Feb 2008 07:17
We have plans!
Comments: 0 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Music Handler
16 Feb 2008 07:07
Work started
Comments: 12 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
New Scheduling Engine
27 Jan 2008 01:16
I just rewrote the scheduling engine in the server to be much more expendable, capable and efficient.
Comments: 33 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
New Music Up!
15 Jan 2008 16:06
Comments: 1 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Graphics Update
12 Jan 2008 05:24
Comments: 29 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Game Play Pages
09 Jan 2008 02:31
I added some game play pages.
Comments: 1 | category: Site / Site News
New Models on Display
03 Jan 2008 23:50
3 new ship models, the first (completed) in a set, are now on display.
Comments: 11 | category: Site / Site News
Camera Control Progress
30 Dec 2007 08:23
New video!
Comments: 8 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
RSS Feeds
20 Dec 2007 22:55
New RSS links in side bar.
Comments: 2 | category: Site / Site News
New Music!
19 Dec 2007 17:55
Comments: 2 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Mid-December Status Update
19 Dec 2007 00:37
Expect Delays.
Comments: 5 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Gravity and controls
09 Dec 2007 00:01
Yesterday I added gravity and tested an AI Control.
Comments: 4 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Client 1.0.0_11 Released
04 Dec 2007 03:58
New version, major improvements!
Comments: 5 | category: Testers / Testing News
Screen Shots
02 Dec 2007 23:55
Screen shots page finished
Comments: 3 | category: Site / Site News
Improved Server
02 Dec 2007 21:23
The new version of the server is up
Comments: 8 | category: Testers / Testing News
AI Framework works!
02 Dec 2007 05:54
Well, the first half works
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Music has Started
01 Dec 2007 14:25
We have our first piece of music uploaded
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
We need music
29 Nov 2007 18:31
Drop by the music site and apply
Comments: 5 | category: Site / Site News
Server Switch
29 Nov 2007 02:22
I just moved the server to another computer
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Modeling Developer Site Re-furnished
27 Nov 2007 11:14
The Modeling wiki has been updated to gear up for a larger modeling community.
Comments: 12 | category: Site / Site News
Server Status
25 Nov 2007 03:56
There is a new server status page
Comments: 2 | category: Site / Site News
New Downloads 1.0.0_8
24 Nov 2007 23:26
Slightly improved user interface
Comments: 12 | category: Testers / Testing News
First Downloads
24 Nov 2007 07:39
The first downloads are available!
Comments: 1 | category: Testers / Testing News
Networking Test Sucess
24 Nov 2007 05:55
More news, the networking works. The client works!
Comments: 14 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Thanks for the Support!
23 Nov 2007 05:08
FG forums are growing fast!
Comments: 2 | category: Site / Site News
Late November Update
23 Nov 2007 04:16
Particles improved, AI planned, some physics details and modeling progress
Comments: 6 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
New Ship in Game!
18 Nov 2007 20:25
We have our first FG ship in the FG engine!
Comments: 11 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Organization and the engine
17 Nov 2007 08:03
More news!
Comments: 7 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Video!
17 Nov 2007 04:05
Our first video is available.
Comments: 7 | category: Site / Site News
November Preview
02 Nov 2007 01:14
The run-down on what we're planning to accomplish this month
Comments: 1 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Destroyer Pics Available
02 Nov 2007 00:51
Some recent images of a destroyer have been uploaded for your pleasure.
Comments: 3 | category: Site / Site News
Game Name Vote
31 Oct 2007 00:17
We might be changing the name of our game, and we want to see what you all think!
Comments: 16 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Frigate Pics Added to Renderings
29 Oct 2007 23:58
The Renderings page now includes pics of a frigate-class starship.
Comments: 2 | category: Site / Site News
New Ships added to Renderings Page
19 Oct 2007 02:23
The renderings page now has seven new renderings of two new ships.
Comments: 9 | category: Site / Site News
October: Development Update
15 Oct 2007 03:28
Progress is happening in various sections of development this month
Comments: 3 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Economy Resources and Trade
08 Oct 2007 01:13
We have started work on an economy simulator.
Comments: 0 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
Renderings page Updated
06 Oct 2007 21:53
Now some weapons!
Comments: 4 | category: Site / Site News
Added Renderings Page
05 Oct 2007 04:04
The renderings page is now up.
Comments: 1 | category: Site / Site News
Updates: 30 Sep 2007
30 Sep 2007 20:47
Six new weapons, work on resource system and explosions
Comments: 3 | category: Fragmented Galaxy / Game News
News Changes
30 Sep 2007 20:31
We realized that it would be best if we frequently posted updates
Comments: 0 | category: Site / Site News
Site Goes Public!
15 Sep 2007 04:40
The Fragmented Galaxy site (this site) is now available to the public!
Comments: 3 | category: Other / Announcements