115 replies to this topic

[Boomerang Python]

We have been working with space now.. but Im not the best man with worldbuilder however.. i think i have a solution which i will share with you when our lord governor cartographer arrives!

[sam]

Can you edit the view height to be fuck off big, give units a suitably fuck off big erm.........flight height, then re-texture the ground to be stars?

Edit: Didn't read all of mr Z's post

Edited by sam, 12 April 2008 - 08:59 PM.

[The Mr Z]

yes you can, it's called paralax.

Boomerang: what's this solution?

[Boomerang Python]

TOP SECRET NISSAN stuff..

[The Mr Z]

ah right. i get it.

[Helge129]

You can set the ground to be invisible. But then, you see just white behind it...

[The Mr Z]

not if you put something behind it.

[Helge129]

Yeah, you could make a plane surface with space painted on it. And then put it underground and make the whole map transparent,

[The Mr Z]

or a massive dome, or some other object. that's one of the possibilities we've been throwing around this whole time.

[Boomerang Python]

yeah we did manage to make transparent textures.. however they didnt look transparent since they turned everything white.. or was it black?.. anyway to make space this way you'd have to figure out how to slap shit underneath a map

[The Mr Z]

make an upside down dome and stick it at ground level the rest of the object is beneath the invisible land.

or make a space sky dome...If CNC3 has sky domes...

[Boomerang Python]

it has some kind of skydome but it doesnt go underground apparently

[The Mr Z]

can you even look up and see the sky? i can't remember.

It'll have to be an object then. upside down dome would work best.

[Dynamic Echo]

Is the space section still going ahead? This thread has been mighty quiet. (I've been ocasionally watching as a guest) One small thing I would like to mention is the ballistics in space. In reality munitions would travel a theoretically infinite distance (not accounting for possible barriers and gravity wells), will this be represented in-game? The targeting ranges would still be relatively short for balance (explained as limited effective range for targeting scanners) but munitions would continue to move in the direction fired. This may be difficult to code for however so would be understandable if not put in the game. That would only work if force firing on ground was disabled. Another good feature that would be nice in a similar vein is inertia fully effecting ship husks. ie. they keep going in the direction they were moving before destruction.

Edited by Dynamic Echo, 07 June 2008 - 07:50 PM.

[Boomerang Python]

Both nice ideas, however im not sure about the first one.. maybe maybe not.. the second one has been a goal of ours since we came up with the space idea

[Dynamic Echo]

On second thoughts the first idea would be hideously easy to exploit, if acurate scientifically. Ah well.

[essi2]

I don't really know if the first idea would be any fun... just picture it, bombs and lasers that just keep going until they hit something....

the second idea I do like

[Dynamic Echo]

something I must ask is: how are torpedoes going to work? Are they going to be manually targeted like in BFG, with or without gidance systems. Or will they operate like any other weapon. Basically my preferred way to deal with torpedoes is that they have to be fired manually, the same with other ordanance like the nova cannon, so a player chooses a target and presses fire, simple. And then the enemy ship can fire on the torpedoes to try and take them out.

[The Mr Z]

you could have the bullets go on forever but become "spent", i.e. after a certain distance they do much less damage.

i think it would be a great idea. perhaps even better make it possible to shoot at any target you have LOS to, even if it's on the other side of the map. the range means it'd be easy to dodge, but a good player could set up a crossfire. a tiny fleet could destroy one much larger by splitting up and setting up a crossfire. it would encourage tactics.

even if you could shoot across the map it may not be advantageous as it's too easy to miss/dodge. and if shooting at said target would reveal the firers position i the FOW (you can trace trajectories), you could get immense long range exchanges before the fleets close in for the real fight.

I think that would properly capture the essence of space combat: long range exchanges are less effective and reveal your location, but distracting. crossfires can be set up, and ships can communicate with each other to locate and attack enemies from a long way, even if they don't have LOS themselves.

the player would have to use lightly armed scout ships with large LOS and speed together with lumbering capital ships with small LOS to bring their full firepower to bear.

also missiles would have a finite distance, as there is actually resistance in space (it's not a perfect vacuum) it'd be very long, but after a while they'd slow down or detonate. that way the strongest weapons would be shorter ranged.

as for the ability vs self-targeting, it depends on the ship. i think giving all or most ships a manual targeting ordanace would be good, but clearly what would be the best torpedoes on a smaller ship would be the weakest on a larger one, so the larger ship would have a different "ability weapon" that's more powerful.

be careful with shooting at torpedoes, it could render them useless.

[Dynamic Echo]

Actually, I like what this guy said about the infinite range on munitions. Also yes, space is not a perfect vacuum especially in proximity to asteroid belts etc. but it would have little to no effect as the density of matter is so low. Only at the sort of range between Mercury and Mars* when in alignment would you see any difference. Even then, it would not be appreciable. However, the stronger weapons are primarily ordanance, like the nova cannon and torpedoes, with weapon batteries being esentially lots of quite small guns, so the mechanic of stronger weapons not shooting as far wouldn't really come into play. With the anti-torpedo turrets on a ship it would have to be carefully balanced so that a signifcant salvo of torpedoes could cripple or destory a lone battleship, but when with escorts their combined fire of turrets would be able to stop the torpedoes. It would be hard to do but is the best option in all probability as it encourages using mixed fleets. Also these turrets should be short-ranged and not change rate of fire etc. of main guns. Fighters would also be able to engage the torpedoes which would give them a secondary role other than escorting bombers.

*assuming use of conventional solid round weapons, if using lasers the range would be much longer.

Edited by Dynamic Echo, 10 June 2008 - 03:49 PM.