Galaxy Empire Tech Demo
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Hmmm…I’m going to say it’s going to be the Freelancer 2 we’ve been waiting for
Actually yes. I am sure.
I think that currently this is the most promising space sim. Even taking into consideration those being dveloped by gaming studious/corporations.
No really, it is. And unlike many other indy games, it has a working demo.
Sometimes it makes me doubt weather it was a right decision not to choose some programming occupation. -
Out of curiosity LS, is there any plans for like plugins of sorts? like custom shaders n the like… a long shot as i dont have any real programming knowledge so i dunno how hard it would be to accomplish such a thing =]
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**Actually yes, I had already started building a shader class into the game. The asteroids and trees are rendered using a instancing shader. The problem I have had so far is that I know little about writing them so I don’t have all of the knowledge needed to implement a scripted plugin yet for them. Since it uses strings for the names it will most likely be simple to simply parse the shader file for thoses names.
For when I was working on FL, all of the missions were kill, kill, kill, looking for suggestions for dif types of missions since I don’t want to repeat the way FL does them. I already have the ability to spawn NPCs and the FSM (finite state machine) is coming along nicely.
As far as it being FL 2, that would be really nice if thats how it ended up
but unfortunately I can’t claim that due to copyright issues. It’s a mixture of FL, Elite and Civilization style gameplay. GE 1 & 2 were Civ style games but I wanted to expand it alot further with this version.** -
1st off all: It looks great and very promissing.
congrats ;DAnd so
@Lancer:….It’s a mixture of FL, Elite and Civilization style gameplay. …
… looking for suggestions…maybe add a little WingCommander.
Those recon and patrol missions - together with NPCs (or maybe a group of players) - could be a nice thing.
Always enjoyed those briefings in WC.Also trading missions like here bring that good to this place.
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- Mining missions -usually at least a few ppl enjoy mining while watching a movie, etc.
- Point Defense - defend an asset; perhaps a satellite, storage container, shipyard, jumpgate.
- Smuggle - criminal types need fun too
smuggle cargo from A to B; similarly smuggle X amt of goods between point A and point B -option for time limit. - Smokescreen - draw enemy patrols away from area long enough for npc A to pass by undetected.
- Acquire Nav Coords of X - task to find a wreck, base, etc. usually hidden within a nebula, debris field, minefield, etc.
- Map Path xxx - task to plot a safe route through a debris field / minefield / etc ; must set nav points at each turn (this sort of quests were considering the possibility of trade/sell-able maps -could probably do it without, but think of the base then being able to offer the generated map path for resale to other players, only after another player does this mission)
- Tiered Assault - a more lengthy engagement; scout an area, set an ambush waypoint, obtain x data from that, scout data target, set assault waypoint and join in defeating objective.
- Get inventory of base X - journey to target, select each item to ‘scan it into a temp list’, return safely and hand it in.
Not sure if you’re planning on anything like this, but it might be rather cool to have ship blueprints, which unlock ship types for sale at bases. Could be part of a skill, kill and examine X amt of wrecks to learn ship construction, transcribe blueprint for that ship, sell to base / player. Not exactly a mission, but rather goal oriented killin that could be useful to clan / corporations. Doesn’t necessarily need to be killing either, could just be scanning so many of a ship type, and a scanner ship might be unable to mount weapons due to electronics real estate, therefore needing escorts (npc or player).
Eh, anyhoo, could probably go on fer hours, but research for a report needing to get done today
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@Lancer:
Thanks guys, I have put alot of work into it. Wonder what it will look like at 2 years into it.
I hef an IDEA~!
You’re making it easily moddable, via ini type files, if I remember?
If you get the engine 90% working, let these wonderful modding friends of yours here loose, they will design you 1,500 systems and 3,500 ships in no time at all!
Then all you need to do is fix the engine problems as they are shown up.
Am I right guys?
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Nice video, looks awesome.
But with all respect (its rly not meaned as offense) the System, Planet, asteroids, planetsurface and also the ship are looking a bit “oldscool” and not like a hightech engine of the newest generation.
Could just be the models and textures but i feel that FL does have a bit better grafics than that techdemo.But still looks cool and since u have the SC u can improve it at any time.
Regards
Mind -
**Hehe, thats why I keep bugging people for content to put in the game. I have had to make almost everything except the asteroid models, jump gate and the test ship (the one I’m flying) which was done by El Stupido. It is also why I will most likely end up making an in-game editor for people to add their own content.
I have some really nice station models made by DV8 but I haven’t had any time to texture them, plus he gave me a few ship models as well so they haven’t been put in the game.**
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I know that some FL players would like to see “auto cannons”, especially at trader ships.
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**Thanks guys, there is still a lot of stuff left to add. Such as auto-generated surfaces based on a texture and a height map. Bump mapping, parallax mapping with occlusion, shadowing, procedurally generated cloud cover (in space not the ground), flexible meshes for bodies. The list goes on and on. The auto-turret should be fairly easy though since I wrote a fully working direction finder last week. I also love the way the asteroids work, I only added that just a month ago then extended it a couple of weeks ago so I could use it for the trees and plants on the surface.
@Star Trader, yes, almost everything in the engine is scripted so it should be real easy to mod. Only thing though, to keep cheating to a minimum I have alot of the major parts on the server only such as the ship settings and the markets. I also did that so if something in those areas are changed server-side, nobody has to install anything.**
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I like some of the graphics, but I don’t like others. Have you ever thought about going Cel-shaded? Such as Team Fortress two. It gives good performance but still looks really nice.
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**No disrespect DA but I hate cel-shading. To me it looks like cartoon animations and it reminds me of all of those animes I see coming out of Japan. If I make a plug-in ability the users will be free to add their own cel-shading but it isn’t something I am going to do. Nothing personal it’s just not going to happen…
As far as development goes, I’m expecting 3 years minimum before it will be 90% complete. The graphics should be alot better by then but I am no artist so it will be the best I am capable of
I will be setting up an anonymous FTP tonight if anyone wishes to contribute to the game, once the files are uploaded nobody will be able to see them except me. Just zip them up and specify how you would like them to be used in a readme.txt, don’t forget to put your name in it so I know who to credit…**
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None taken mate :).
Just personal preference really, I just like some of the things that cel-shading offers. -
If ya’ll get a chance, head to the nearest warp tube, trust me
just uh, be sitting down.
Good to hear about the FTP drop box too,
last month of this semester, mebbe I’ll get some free time to go back over me models n’ make some texture adjustments, and add in animations (save time for when its implemented).
