[conquest] Conquest 8.1.2ng1 development snapshot is available

Wed Jan 18 15:17:05 MST 2006

On Mon, 16 Jan 2006, Bill Patterson wrote:

[... CC'd to the list...]

> Here's what I see....... I don't like the reticle
> thing over the galaxy view. It's distracting. Maybe if
> it were more transparent.

 	the tactical overlay in LR mode?  You can adjust that in the 
(O)ption screen, page 2.

>
> Every single meter scale is off by about 25%. For
> example: say energy is 100%, it shows about 75% on the
> meter. I can't remember which one is which (or read

 	I've noticed this too...

> Orion) so I just go by the numbers now anyways. Which
> is sad because the alien font is way cool. Maybe a
> hotkey that switches to english then back to alien?

 	The problem with the 'alien' fonts is that they aren't really 
fonts.  They are a part of the textures.  I think this will have to go. 
If we want to do the alien font thing, then we should use actual fonts - 
that way we can switch them easily.

>
> I like the warp meter. Oh so cool!
>

 	Yes, but I find it hard to read at a glance.

> I really like the visible shields, but perhaps if they
> were more "glass bubble" looking, and less
> substantial, they would look better. But I like them
> as they are much better than not having them. And the
> shield icon rocks.
>

 	I too prefer a shield indicator around the ship... Just not the 
current one :)

> I've been thinking.... Why not render the stars as
> real lights and the ships as some simple 3d models?
> It'd add alot of snazziness to the game. No need to
> move the camera or anything. Just a bit of dynamic
> lighting. You can get free Trek Blender models from:
> http://www.blenderwars.com/frame.php?module=models
> Alternately bump-mapped sprites would probably look
> 99% as good.
>

 	Hehe, well the selection of ships there is pretty limited.  Might 
be interesting to use them to generate better orion textures though (maybe 
using the b5 models?).

> Actually I been thinking about this alot...... 3D
> could be a command line switch, when enabled causes
> the routine that draw the ship sprite, to draw the 3d
> model instead. I been messing with 3D code from here:
> http://www.spacesimulator.net/tutorials.html
> As good as you are, you could probably have it all
> running in an hour. lol
>

 	Well, for lighting you would need to draw actual objects rather 
than the tex mapped quads we are using now.  But that's quite a bit more 
complicated.  I have always thought it would be cool if the suns were 
light emitters.

> On the server side, I'd love it if there were a way to
> double (or is it quadruple?) the size of the universe.
> Example, max distance from center is now about 28k in
> the middle and about 40k in the corners. It'd be way
> cool if the distance to the barrier in the middle
> could be set out to about 60k or so. Heck even a 100k.
> Add an element of exploration into the game.

 	Well, there is a limit to the universe's size.  In the common 
block, it's a double so it is quite large already, however the protocol 
limit's you to around +/- 1,000,000 CU's.  Pretty big.  The barrier is 
setup to the coords to list, but nothing prevents you from placing 
planets/stars, etc outside the barrier :)

>
> If I see more stuff to whine about, I'll write again.
> :-)
>
> --- Jon Trulson <jon at radscan.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, Jon Trulson wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> 	at:
>>>
>>>
>>
> http://radscan.com/conquest/conquest-8.1.2ng1.src.tar.gz
>>>
>>
>>  	Just curious... Has anyone played with this yet?
>> Any comments?
>>
>>  	Some comments (aside from the 'known problems'
>> listed previously):
>>
>>  	1. Shields... In general, I do not like the new
>> shield graphics...
>> I think the shield graphics used on the icon display
>> is actaully much
>> better - I'd prefer that.  The new sh graphics are
>> just too
>> big/distracting.  What I have in mind is a small
>> 'smoke ring outline'
>> around the ship, whose color/alpha indicates their
>> strength.  Essentially
>> very much like how they are displayed on the ship
>> icon when shields are
>> up.
>>
>>  	2. Any ideas for re-arranging the icon hud so
>> things are more
>> readable?
>>
>>  	3. 'Team colors'.  I find this stuff actually
>> quite confusing.
>> Previously, indicator colors were determined based
>> on the 'status' of an
>> object (ie shield level, temperatures, etc).  It was
>> easy to keep an eye
>> out for things turning yellow or red in the hud
>> while in combat.  I find
>> that I can no longer do that.  I'm thinking of
>> removing this 'team colors'
>> option.  I think, regardless of what ship you use,
>> the color red should
>> mean 'danger' and the color green means 'all ok' :)
>>
>>  	4.  Numeric indicators for heading and warp.  I'd
>> like them to be
>> bigger.  Also, I find reading the graphical warp
>> indicator... not so easy
>> - sometimes I have to search for the indicator line.
>>  Maybe this indicator
>> should be more obvious?
>>
>>  	5. tactical grids.  Look nice.  The relative gamma
>> for these needs
>> to be equalized however, so that a 'brightness' of
>> 50 for example looks
>> the same regardless of what grid (team) you are
>> using.
>>
>>  	A couple of other changes I forgot to mention for
>> the ng1 release:
>>
>>  	- reworked the vbg code so that tac and vbg aren't
>> mutually
>> exclusive.  A future addition will be an ALT-G
>> hotkey for toggling the
>> grid.
>>
>>  	- directional torp vectors are now standard for
>> all ships.  I
>> reworked this somewhat to base the angle() on the
>> torp's delta direction
>> of fire, rather than the lastblast dir (which can
>> change between the time
>> the torp fire command was sent, and when it actually
>> shows up on your
>> screen).  Much more reliable :)
>>
>>  	- Cat had provided different explosion graphics
>> for each team.  I
>> removed this as I think explosions should look the
>> same regardless of
>> what is exploding.
>>
>>  	Anyway, was just wondering if:
>>
>>  	- anybody had tried this version and what
>> problems/comments you
>> may have had.
>>
>>  	Also, Cat, have you looked at this yet?  Are you
>> not speaking to
>> me anymore??? :)
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>
>> --
>> Jon Trulson    mailto:jon at radscan.com
>> ID: 1A9A2B09, FP: C23F328A721264E7 B6188192EC733962
>> PGP keys at http://radscan.com/~jon/PGPKeys.txt
>> #include <std/disclaimer.h>
>> "I am Nomad." -Nomad
>>
>>
>
>
> Bill Patterson
> cyberbillp at yahoo.com
>
> Owner of:
> http://ultramaxx.com
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
> http://mail.yahoo.com
>

-- 
Jon Trulson    mailto:jon at radscan.com
ID: 1A9A2B09, FP: C23F328A721264E7 B6188192EC733962
PGP keys at http://radscan.com/~jon/PGPKeys.txt
#include <std/disclaimer.h>
"I am Nomad." -Nomad