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Post by Farbs on Apr 16, 2012 12:19:21 GMT 10
...is not yet complete. ;D However, I am finally finding time to actively work on it. I figured I'd start a thread describing the changes as I make 'em, so you can get a feel for where the game is going. I'm sure not all the changes will be popular, and I welcome discussion and argument, but, uh, bear in mind that I won't be able to please everyone.
Here are some recent changes: * Semi-fixed enemy spawns - same family flying the same sorts of ships in the same place every game. * Only one guardian per settlement, instead of one per station * Guardian is always floating around, rather than ambushing player
Am working on something new right now that people have been asking for for aaaages. Looking forward to getting it done.
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Post by Vaconcovat on Apr 16, 2012 17:47:14 GMT 10
I think the one guardian per settlement thing is a good idea. Could the difficulty of the guardian be scaled to the level and amount of stations in the settlement, so that a one-station and a five-station settlement don't have the same fight for them?
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Post by stereotypo on Apr 16, 2012 22:57:45 GMT 10
Yes! Progress is good! Thanks for the update.
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Uzguz
Charlie Rank
Posts: 29
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Post by Uzguz on Apr 16, 2012 23:18:43 GMT 10
I'm in two minds about the guardian change. On the one hand, I'll be glad that they no longer spawn up my arse and cripple my ship before I can react; on the other, I'll miss the experience of the initial mad scramble for the oxygen station followed by the more cautious and considered gradual activation of the others. What I would like to see here is some sort of middle ground whereby there is only the one guardian fight, but activating the liberated stations afterwards is still a genuine and sometimes difficult decision.
How about this: Once the guardian is dead, stations can be activated simply by contacting them; however, activating a station will increase the spawn rate of enemy ships in a broad range and attract some of them to it. You'd be able to see them coming on the nav reading if you're in range of one and proactively defend yourself or escape; or you could activate them all at once and do a runner through the swarm. I'll be the first to admit the idea needs refinement but I reckon it's a good starting point.
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Post by Farbs on Apr 17, 2012 0:04:58 GMT 10
...I'll miss the experience of the initial mad scramble for the oxygen station followed by the more cautious and considered gradual activation of the others. That's interesting - cheers! You should still get the mad scramble at the start, since you won't get any oxygen 'till the guardian is defeated. In most cases this effectively just removes the more considered guardian fights you mentioned, which I think in a lot of cases got to be a bit tedious. I'd like the other stations to be interesting though. Hmm. Maybe some could be booby trapped. You have to notice and destroy an explosive device strapped to the outer hull before contacting. Something like that.
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Post by sfsdfd on Apr 17, 2012 21:34:29 GMT 10
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!! ...is not yet complete. ;D YAAAAAoh. Only one guardian per settlement, instead of one per station Big fan of this. If I can delete one guardian of a certain level, I can almost assuredly delete seven more of the same level. The challenge of liberating the settlement one station at a time rapidly became a chore, and then rapidly became optional. The last few times I played Jameson, I found myself only liberating nav and oxy stations. Liberating dozens of scrapyards, factories, repair facilities, warehouses, and docks that I'll probably never use is a gigantic waste of time. So, yes, I much prefer getting those stations for free. Guardian is always floating around, rather than ambushing player Does this mean that guardian damage persists? Maybe indefinitely? If I had a nickel for every protracted boss fight that I stuck with, despite low oxygen or dwindling resources, simply because I didn't want to lose all of the damage I'd done to it during battle... then I'd probably have a couple of extra bucks in my wallet. While that "fish or cut bait" choice is a fun gameplay mechanic, it is a bit nonsensical to have the guardian totally regenerate simply because I flew a few parsecs away. Farbs, maybe you could have them slowly regenerate over time? Say, for every 30 seconds without on-screen visibility, the guardian regains one module that it lost?
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Post by Farbs on Apr 18, 2012 9:05:54 GMT 10
The health and module regen still works as before, for guardians and for general random ships. I really like this mechanic. I like the way it forces you to either stay with a fight and risk asphyxiation or lose the fight progress. I also like the way it discourages the slow, dull, chipping away at stuff.
Speaking of which...
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Post by Farbs on Apr 18, 2012 9:12:20 GMT 10
* Asteroids can now be destroyed!
I'm sure you won't be surprised to hear that next I'll be adding mining. This feature has been in the back of my mind for a very long time, and it's nice to finally work on it. I had planned to add it some time after 0.6, but I realized that since I want the player to return to the original sector occasionally in an 0.6 mechanic some of the megaships people have been building simply wouldn't fit through the asteroid belt. This was the logical next step.
Right now asteroids just fragment into nothing when you destroy them, but once they're gone they stay gone. The interesting challenge now is not how-do-I-spawn-minerals, but actually what-minerals-do-I-spawn-and-where? Wealth distribution is quite a knotty issue.
I look forward to you lot finding good mineral deposits and sharing their locations though.
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Post by Vaconcovat on Apr 18, 2012 11:07:03 GMT 10
Do you have any idea how the minerals mechanic will work? If you mine a [mineral], it is automatically attracted to your ship and credited to your credits, or is it treated like an object, that you have to scoop up and take to a station to cash in?
Also, will there be different mineral types? Ones that have different effects than just monetary value?
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Post by Farbs on Apr 18, 2012 11:55:52 GMT 10
I'm not sure yet. The first thing I'd like to try is having physical bodies in space that you have to push around and guide into the scrap yard in order to sell.
Differences will probably be in value, density, distribution, and size.
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Post by superpirson on Apr 18, 2012 12:41:42 GMT 10
If you can successfully turn out a standalone, that means it'll get rid of the flash related lag, right? (why can't flash be more like unity player in this regard!)
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Post by Farbs on Apr 18, 2012 12:49:54 GMT 10
Yeah, a native standalone build would have a higher framerate on most systems, and would chug less during difficult physics simulation (eg firing a lot of lasers from a massive and complex ship).
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Post by superpirson on Apr 18, 2012 13:43:42 GMT 10
HUZAHA! my mortal foe shall finally be slain! rejoice! ;D (all the cool indie games are getting awesome updates as of late! keep it up entire indie community!)
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Post by Darkond2100 on Apr 18, 2012 14:01:29 GMT 10
It would be most engaging if the most valuable ores spawned "Prospector" Guardians.
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Post by Farbs on Apr 18, 2012 14:39:11 GMT 10
...or space worms I'll try to finish 0.6 and the multi-sector exploration bits before circling back to that.
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Post by Vaconcovat on Apr 18, 2012 17:17:10 GMT 10
Oh, I'd love the look of "space worms" captain-forever themed. I'm imagining some mechanical work with lots of pivoting parts Also, will minerals be able to be picked up by the cursor, like how when scrap hauling we can carry an additional piece by holding it with the mouse? Can't wait for 0.6
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Post by Farbs on Apr 18, 2012 18:11:44 GMT 10
I'm not sure about mouse holding for minerals. Will try it without first and see how that goes. I'm also tempted to just spawn different shapes/colours for different minerals and leave it up to players to learn which is valuable and which is chaff.
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Post by Vaconcovat on Apr 18, 2012 19:08:42 GMT 10
If you don't have mouse holding / using the mouse to manipulate the mineral shards like you do with your modules, then will there be an info-box about the mineral when you click on it? It would be nice to be able to know how much it weighs and possibly some other information about the mineral (Name? Chemical formula? ID?) to help differentiate between minerals.
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Post by Darkond2100 on Apr 19, 2012 14:55:42 GMT 10
I'm also tempted to just spawn different shapes/colours for different minerals and leave it up to players to learn which is valuable and which is chaff. Marvelous! We eagerly anticipate the challenge! As to transportation of minerals, many players make cargo holds out of girders to enclose spare scraps. If enemy ships incorporated the same design into their structure (or better, Guardians!), then players would do the same! What would also work is a deck-sized module with one tile absent in the center, that scrap can be dragged into. It's essentially the same thing. A balancing "feature" to when players use cargo holds is that the cruise control can't be used properly.
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Post by nemoricus on Apr 21, 2012 6:19:55 GMT 10
The trouble with using a cargo hold made of modules is that if the player has to exit the game for whatever reason, any loose debris is destroyed upon reload. And even if they didn't, using a dock moves the ship, which will almost surely leave minerals behind. This forces the player to get them in their hold again.
So, I favor the idea of being able to attach minerals directly to one's modules, or better, have a dedicated module that can store minerals. This avoids the problem of leaving the minerals loose.
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