If u were writing FL2, what would u add?
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Speech hasn’t been added because I don’t have any voice talent, any volunteers?
You could ask some kind of dubbing group in the internet. I have seen two modifications for the game Gothic II which had very nice voices. If you are interested in, I might check if I can find such a thing for you…
- How about multiple players per ship? For instance, transporters, or battleships where players can shoot with the turrets manually. Undocking from cap ships etc
- Different guns and weapons, you might want to check FS2 for that. (for instance that marker gun that simple marks enemies as targets and then the capital ships shot at those targets)
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I don’t know if you have any limitations but DX11 tesselation allows some pretty drastic visual improvements to surfaces. If you’re looking to produce an engine you hope to last well into the future it might be worth consideration.
Many requests seem to be based around things people would like to be able to mod, is that the kind of input you’re asking for or are you asking about content, background, storyline etc as well? Is this a product you’re looking to market or an open source community type project?
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Unsurpirsed by the heavy modding related suggestions.
Focusing upon the game play aspects rather than what you wish they’d do to make modding easier/better (graphics, sod that, FL still looks nice to me - so not that bothered).However, I can’t help but feel one or two (such as seeing from security feeds?) is irrelevant and something that won’t ever get used (what is the advantage it offers? Being able to see…the space?).
I agree with the dynamic economy - it is vital.
Since this is for your work, I’d go with things that would have helped me play the game longer, or more.
- Dynamic economy (which you’ve got)
- Make mining an actual possibility, but you require special stuff - mining lasers etc to make it worthwhile.
- Make it so that piracy IS possible - without necessarily ruining your reputation with everyone. In other words, if you had a “jammer” - you could pirate without too much of a reputation hit as the call never goes out (if in a desolate area of space) - whereas close to bases, you’re going to be toast. However, this would require care… as obviously everyone would pirate everything - so some rep degradation is required.
OR
Ships may be viewable on radar, but only within a certain range (1k) can you actually identify the owner, til then just the class. That way you may sneak around passively, unless actively scanned by cops etc.
Maybe you could implement an ID system to help out - change ID’s if you’re a smuggler, which may pass with civilian ships - but when the military or police scan you deeper, they may work out whom you really are…
Make lane hacking better - you can hack into the lane system, and realise what is coming, and therefore drop it. This may require a skill, or equipment etc. Of course, whilst doing this you may be vulnerable to NPC pirates.
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NPC bounty hunters (basically an NPC with a mission objective of killing you…) which may be “hired” in the event you cause trouble (if you’re a pirate!).
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NPC’s respond to changing world - so if a shipping company is having lots of attacks on a trade route, they may either hire bounty hunters to patrol it (i.e. increased bounty hunter activity in the area, looking for YOU), or deploy more of their own patrols.
Likewise, as markets change, the NPC’s may pick up the profit too… -
Mission variety - not just go and kill, but go protect, go source/mine, go trade, go escort, go observe/collect information. A lot more variety.
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If you’re attacked by pirates, the possibility of putting out a distress call. You’re owning, or local legal factions, may respond to such calls for help by dispatching ships from the nearest suitable location (divert a patrol, or from a battleship - as long as it is within a certain range of course - can’t call for help 10 systems away…).
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The ability to manufacture. So you can source goods and produce other goods, like ships. Or weapons. Or food + spices = luxury food. You get the idea
For this, in a base, you would have to “rent” space - which costs, as does storage for goods…and it costs to produce units in time, so you can’t just flood the market with hundreds of goods…
However, economy may be difficult if everything costs (i.e. NPC’s spend for missiles…).
Maybe trading could require licenses that you have to pay for - certainly with certain goods. Maybe you could pay to become a trader on a station instead - you pay for a license, and get a small amount of space. Then when people sell the type of good you own the license for (or buying a new license starts trade of good at that base) it goes via you (and you net profit).
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Ability to hire a (note A) wingman (if in a fighter), or maybe two (if you’re a trader). But not to command an army!
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Ship balance. Whilst VHF in FL is the ultimate, it’d be nice if a LF could easily evade one. It may not be able to beat one, but at least it can get away and out manoeuvre it in order to escape…
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Ability for players to put out a bounty upon other players heads. Of course, putting up a bounty means that a certain amount of money is required per difficulty level of the hunter AND the money defines the level of bounty hunter dispatched. Requires work to ensure it isn’t abused, or spammed to bully players. One option is to start by only allowing bounty hunters hired by legal against illegal. Pirates only allowed to be hired by illegal against legal.).
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Player posted missions (transports, kill, protect, etc) where they must provide money up front, although the person taking it may only receive money if the mission is a success. Obviously appears in bars, or where-ever you have missions available from etc.
Just things off the top of my head.
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Apart from good suggestions already made (especially the economy! Even if it’s only a supply-and-demand driver price modifier) and also apart from all the cool hacks that have already been figured out, I’d add gravity, so e.g. flying away from a planet would be harder. Besides, I’d add and involuntary auto-jumping of holes (and gates but that wouldn’t make much sense) In combination with gravity, this could be used to implement a ‘realistically working’ black/white hole.
I’d also like reputation-dependant jump gates (so a gate could be set to be accessible from a given rep level)
And maybe a moving or somehwat dynamic radiation clouds (that could be used for solar flares or gamma ray bursts)
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Chips wrote:
- Mission variety - not just go and kill, but go protect, go source/mine, go trade, go escort, go observe/collect information. A lot more variety.
Very good and important point. As they are now, the missions are indeed so limited in variety, it could make one cry.
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Which begs the question. Are you using jumpgates and holes, or a jump drive? If you’re using jump drives, that could be an upgradeable device which could allow you to jump greater distances.
A tractor beam which allows you to tow things would be an idea to, as opposed to being dependant on cargo hold size alone. Could also be upgradeable to allow for towing greater masses, larger containers for example. Towing would slow a ship down and make it less maneuverable, which could again be offset by upgradeable engines or some kind of inertia negation device maybe.
Upgradeable repair droids, defence droids, decoy droids, mining droids etc is another idea.
Point defence turret types for larger ships or freighters.
As Xarian mentioned, modular ship addons, wing extensions for increased agility, hull plating, extra weapon mounts etc.
Thought about a fuel system? Have to land to refuel, not necessarily at cost. If you use jump drives to travel between systems make them have a recharge time so you can’t just insta-jump between systems, another upgrade feature to decrease recharge times.
Enough for now.
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Cannon
1 - interesting idea, it is what is done in Allegience
2 - thats an idea, the smaller ship can be carried as cargo
3 - atm it’s set to 256 players, I will be switching it to a dynamic array soon so it will just be however many your connection can handle
4 - In-game items are owner based, so owning a base is quite possible
4a - NPC ownership, as in own the NPC or the NPC owning something?
4b - player factions, will be handled in-game as a clanMini-Me
1 - input options only use INI for now, may use XML later for the infocards but Im following the KISS method for modding GE, plus I dont care for XML’s over-complexity for stuff a text file will do fine for
2 - message board will be an integral part of the game, it’s how the missions will be processed and also how the NPCs will request materials to build something, think of a shout box
3 - there will be permanent NPCs, always being replaced when dieing, I had also considered adding temp NPCs (aka FL NPCs) for doing such stuff as defending a base or making the waves of a mission. Usually this ends in a boss fight but I dont believe I would want one of those wandering the galaxy.
3a - taking over a local factions, thats what the game is about, capturing. I am help balance it to where if a player attacks multiple systems in a short period of time, the possiblity of mutiny (base revolt) grows.
4 - each and every scene (aka FL systems/rooms) has a script. I have the init script coded, next is the in-scene triggers. Feel free to post any trigger types you can come up with.
5 - since MS dumped support for DXMedia stuff, I don’t know of any other usable method for showing video in 3dTo be continued…
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Crazy
- Don’t sell it to Microsoft Games
weeellll if they offer a nice mil for it, I might.
BBalazs
Yes, I want those to, I may make a mini ST mod to play with and without beam weapons it would not be rightBas
1 - I will look around, hadn’t considered that option, if you know of some please post a linky
2 - explained in the response to Cannon
3 - interesting possibility, for the moment weps are either guns or torpsTimmy51m
1 - maybe in a couple of years, I don’t have DX11 yet
2 - very good question, modding is the main aspect focused upon by most of us (me included) but the rest is just as valid. At this time it seems I’m the only one working on the other parts. Sol’s models did help in the content area but that is just a single part of the equation. You are welcome to help out if you wish…
3 - open source - maybe in a few years, I would like to make a little bit of money for the amount of work I’ve done on it. Don’t worry though, modding is fully supported, the client is free (server isn’t) so SP mods can easily be made and distributed.Nova
1 - working space factories - yes
2 - factory cargo limited - yes
3 - produce stuff - yes
4 - require resources - yes, up to 4 types per item, a specific quantity and usage settings (usage is so I could add artifacts and use those without destroying the artifact, ie quantity = 1, usage = 0 )Chips will get his own post next, trying to answer all of them so be patient
- Don’t sell it to Microsoft Games
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Chips
1 - yes
2 - one of the research tree items is a mining robot, each one gives u the ability to extract more rare elements (all 118 elements are in the game)
3 - this is a great idea, I have considered jammers before, will flesh it out to avoid any ability of abusing it
3a - since targetting is ranged based this one would be easy
3b - kinda like a fake driver’s license, interesting
3c - lane hacking, thats a possibility. I still haven’t decided if I even want to include trade lanes. I may add trade lanes as an optional feature
4 - good idea and make it where players can hire them as well
5 - that is intended, I want the NPCs to be able to do anything the players can
6 - I havent made it to the random missions part yet but I will add these to the list of mission types. Only the structures have been added so far, have to add the bulletin board stuff first (no missions without it)
7 - thats a good idea and could be implemented as part of the conversation system (player/NPC interaction is handled here). This could be extended to sending the call to players in the same area.
8 - each item in the universe can have an owner. Until the player actually owns a base they will be limited to trading, mining.
8a - license to trade on a base, since it’s always in 3d mode this wouldn’t work unless I forced the player to be at a base. Hard to explain but suffice it to say GE has no rooms like FL does.
9 - this will a part of the game
10 - this just takes time to get it right
11 - good idea to split it between good/bad factions
12 - will be part of the BBS system -
Moonhead
1 - it has that already, need to make a video showing it
2 - involutary jump holes, not a bad idea
3 - this would be limited to player create jumpgates
4 - moving clouds is easy
5 - mission variety is plannedTimmy51m
1 - jumpdrives may be added later, dropped in this version, it is limited to jump gates/holes atm
2 - tractor beams and loot beams are different, loot beams are used for beaming in loot only, tractors are for towing since ship salvage is part of the game
3 - upgrades are handled thru the technology tree (research)
4 - maybe, not a priority
5 - modular ships, can’t model so I doubt that will happen, plus consider the amount of time to cover every configuration of every ship in the game
6 - a fuel system will only be reimplemented if I reimplement the jump drives -
Chips:
However, I can’t help but feel one or two (such as seeing from security feeds?) is irrelevant and something that won’t ever get used (what is the advantage it offers? Being able to see…the space?).
Seeing as it’s going to be a bit more player faction oriented than FL, it makes sense to have a better means of command and control to orchestrate system / base / resource defense. Some well placed comm sats could provide advance warning of the attacker’s route of approach. Conversely, these comm sats need to be taken out to ensure attackers go unidentified in faction and number, thus it provides a little more strategy to faction wars.
Allies gathering resources in an area monitored by you come under attack. Switching over to a live feed could help assess what kind of a response needs to be sent to secure the area, rather than rely on reports from those under fire and busy trying to keep their lives / cargo safe. Same as above, pie-rats need to locate and avoid or take down comm sats to surgically get in, gank cargo, and get out before responders arrive. Or perhaps provide decoys to lay a trap for responders thinking only a couple ships are attacking.
Cap ship / Base drone. Why not send a drone to scout the situation ahead, rather than stumble into an ambush? No weapons, low life, speedy, replenish-able via manufacturing / trade. If base monitoring is part of the game (which can be sort of a game within a game - monitoring stock prices and resource levels, assigning / hiring NPC convoys to fill orders, etc), it would be nice to be able to monitor trade routes to ensure safe passage of your high value cargo in and out.
There are plenty of applications for having a changeable viewpoint. Plus it fits in if multiple players per ship becomes doable.
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LancerSolurus wrote:
Moonhead
1 - it has that already, need to make a video showing itYou mean the Economy, or Gravity??
If you mean the Economy: is that downloadable as a module?
If you mean Gravity: I know there’s the interference drag, but it’s not quite the same. It’s not directional imho (although I’ve not experimented wildly with it. To be honest, I wouldn’t even know how the format is, without looking it up)
LancerSolurus wrote:
3 - this would be limited to player create jumpgatesI don’t understand what you mean… In fact I don’t know what you’re refering to… Rep-dependent Jump Gates? I imagine these would work analog to the stuff you can only buy if you’re friendly to a certain degree (“You need to be on friendlier terms to buy this item.”)
From your responses, I understand you’re really working on all of this?? Will this be a new prog altogether? Or an expansion kit, like a heavy mod?
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Mini-Me
1 - radar sensor drones would be very easy to add, the way it will be made anyway is that what u own allows you to see anything around it out to it’s max sensor range. The actual handling of your empire will be done thru the local starmap and galaxy map. The implementation will most likely resemble the Armada style (see TOW’s latest tactical map video for an example, it’s exactly like the game Armada I & II)
2 - automated drone will be part of the game, it’s what player’s will mainly use for exploring. GE 2 had 10000 stars so this was the only real option of exploring the entire galaxy. GE 3 has considerably less since the galaxy isn’t procedurably generated.
3 - the rest is SOP (standard operating procedure) in the GE series including fleet control, resource and base management, etcMoonhead
1 - I meant gravity.- Unfortunately you seem to be under the impression this is about the current FL game engine, it is not. It is about that if you had the ability to actually write your own space game in the same genre as FL then what would you add. Please click the GE link in my sig to see what this is about. I am writing just such a game an like to hear my fellow FL users ideas on what they would add even if it isn’t possible to reasonably add.
2 - rep dependent jump gate, for example, the Corsairs owned a jump gate and locked it to only get used by Corsairs, so if you weren’t a Corsair the gate won’t work for u.
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1 - working space factories - yes
2 - factory cargo limited - yes
3 - produce stuff - yes
4 - require resources - yes, up to 4 types per item, a specific quantity and usage settings (usage is so I could add artifacts and use those without destroying the artifact, ie quantity = 1, usage = 0 )O.o HOW???
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Well to explain the coding would take forever, I will instead explain a little bit about how the this version works. It will be fine tuned once the NPC become a factor.
First off I decided to set the economy off into it’s own domain. This means it can be used across multiple programs, in this case both the client and server. This way both sides will have the exact same economy rules and abilities.
The main part of it is the markets. Everything dealing with cargo handling, trading, manufacturing, tech development needs a place to be stored. This includes the player inventory, which means the player could also manufacture stuff.
Commodities are exactly like in the real world, anything developed, built or picked up can be traded since they are stored in the market.
Prices are based on how much is at the base. Once NPC trading is added, supply and demand will influence the prices. Prices are adjusted at a set time period and slowly change in price.
Markets have a maximum storage amount. Any manufacturing is stopped just before it completes if the cargo capacity will overflow if it is finished.
The main reason for the 4 requirement part is tech development. Alot of the items in the game require specific ores and technology to be built. Some will require artifacts in your possesion as well. This is how the tech tree is integrated into the markets.
