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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#46
ThymineC wrote:
DWMagus wrote:Oh yeah, one more thing I thought of... We need search lights. The lighting is perfect, but when you're on the dark side of an asteroid, dynamic lighting is the last piece. :D
+1

Though I'm hoping that when Josh implements windows and generic ship lighting, that might suffice to give a nice, warm glow as you approach an asteroid.
+1 for this as well. That would be soooo awesome. :D
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Early Spring - 1055: Well, I made it to Boatmurdered, and my initial impressions can be set forth in three words: What. The. F*ck.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#47
DWMagus wrote:Oh yeah, one more thing I thought of... We need search lights. The lighting is perfect, but when you're on the dark side of an asteroid, dynamic lighting is the last piece. :D
This would be really cool.

It'd be nice if lighting was able to be toggled, too. Or to go a step further, making each individual system able to be toggled. For an example of why this would be neat or how it could be applied, imagine you're a pirate who just raided a merchant vessel. Now, the fighters protecting the sector are trying to hunt you down. You manage to break line of sight behind a large asteroid, and promptly turn off your systems to reduce your signature on the enemy scanners. They fly by, unable to detect you, and you go about your business.

If this is already planned, then I apologize. I haven't watched or read everything yet, there's a tonne of content to go through!
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#48
Love it, love it, love it. Better every single time, without exception.

1. Ice: hey, I like it exactly as it is. :)

2. Boost capacitor: I'm not too sure about this one yet. No worries when you're flitting about in a dense asteroid field where you don't need to travel quickly for any distance... but what about when you want to travel between more distant points within a system? Being able to research capacitors that hold more "charge" could help, but they still impose a limit on quick in-system travel, don't they? This is mostly a question from a kind of "get the big picture" exploration perspective.

3. Mining: definitely seeing the potential here. I will say I'm still not sure about the transfer beam approach, but I'm not in a position to be critical because I don't have a more constructive approach to suggest.

I will say that it occurs to me that this feels similar to planet scanning/mining in Mass Effect 2, with the difference that the surveying/mining actions are reversed. In Mass Effect 2's mining, you run a beam across the surface of the object to identify high-frequency target locations, then when you find one you fire a "probe" to that location and it magically adds materials to your notional cargo hold.

I honestly found this pretty boring in ME2; as I've said, I literally dozed off more than once while scanning. I don't know that the same thing would happen during the process of hoovering up ore in LT, especially since this (as mentioned in today's video) has more active gameplay elements than in ME2 -- presumably there'll often be other miners around, and perhaps Evil Pirates as well, so nodding off is probably unwise.

The "play a beam across an object for X amount of time" mechanic is similar, though. So I... need to think about this one some more as well.

4. The new frequency-scanner: oh, yes. :) This is so, so close to what I imagined in my proposal for sensor ops in Star Trek Online back in the Long-Ago Time!

This already shows what the basic functionality can do. There are plenty of enhancements possible, and I hope we can start exchanging ideas about those soon (I have a few in mind). But yes -- nailed it!

5. "Macro-level stuff": You know I'm looking forward to this, too. :D In addition to AI, I'm very interested in seeing how the personal, tactical-level play actions will scale up to multi-sector gameplay, both in terms of our interface to the game and how we can interact with large groups of NPCs.

Definitely future-stuff, but it was nice to hear it mentioned.

6. Gameplay: I also thought the comments about this at the end of the video were absolutely on target. They're exactly what the gamers who enjoy digging into mechanics-as-play want to hear, and they do a bang-up job of ending the video leaving people wanting more. ;)

All in all, another outstanding month's work on display. Thank you, Josh!
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#49
Brilliant update! :clap:

Actually I think it was one of the best ones and I love what I saw! The ice, the mining, the drones, the demonstration of the new ship&station algorithm which is coming ... Again that's excellent ! :)
TheEldestScroll wrote:So with the preface that it may have been discussed and decided upon before, one of the things I wanted to comment on/suggest about this week's update is that maybe instead of your cargo mass affecting your ship's top speed, I think it would make more sense if it affected its acceleration and maneuverability.
Yeah I was kinda surprised too by the choice of caping the top speed according to the mass of the spaceship. Acceleration dependent on the mass would have felt more "natural" to me.

Still, keep up the great work Josh!
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#50
Flatfingers wrote:Boost capacitor: I'm not too sure about this one yet. No worries when you're flitting about in a dense asteroid field where you don't need to travel quickly for any distance... but what about when you want to travel between more distant points within a system? Being able to research capacitors that hold more "charge" could help, but they still impose a limit on quick in-system travel, don't they? This is mostly a question from a kind of "get the big picture" exploration perspective.
This is a fair point - I liked the previous system where you just allocated more power to engines to put them in cruise mode. I'd like boost capacitors to be something that exists alongside this mechanic; otherwise we're going to end up with something like the stamina system from RPGs where you have to alternate between walking and running, and I don't think that would be fun.

I'm guessing it was just implemented this way to demonstrate the boost capacitor and it's not actually going to be used for the cruise mode in the final implementation.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#52
The ice texture and lighting effects look fine, but I think the shapes of the ice 'roids need to look sharper, with some more hard edges. At the moment they look kind of like soft asteroids, and their appearance kind of threw me during the first bit of the video because I thought a few of them looked like clouds. :wtf:

This might be some amount of bias from me having played so much Freelancer, though, where all the ice was chunky and jagged.

Otherwise, it's good progress. I'm glad to see that mining is no longer just for AI and that ships and stations are taking shape.

Your test ship for this video, Josh, reminded me of the Bounty Hunter fighters from Freelancer, albeit with rounder edges and wider fins.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#53
:clap: things are coming into place!

Sensors are mighty cool; mining is developing nicely... May need to reconsider a career in crime if honest work is cool :mrgreen:

For mining, I guess the sensors and the probes are perfect; an intermediate level is missing though in order not to have to use chance - or is it a wrong impression? Could you have used the sensor to find an asteroid with lot's of stuff, and then only used the probe to find the location on the surface with high concentration? It looked like you had to randomly hit each asteroid in order to find one with ore.

Btw, loved the station, would have loved to see more scene with the ship flying very close to the station, to get a better feel of scale. :thumbup:

Congrats once more on your amazing work!
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#54
CSE wrote:an intermediate level is missing though in order not to have to use chance - or is it a wrong impression? Could you have used the sensor to find an asteroid with lot's of stuff, and then only used the probe to find the location on the surface with high concentration? It looked like you had to randomly hit each asteroid in order to find one with ore.
Completely wrong impression, actually. He even explained that you can still randomly drill into roids and hope to find something.
You can already find roids with minerals in them using the scanner, the probes are just for finding high-density veins so you get the most efficient use of your transfer unit.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#57
ThymineC wrote:All of this focus on mining is making me eager to see how pirating will work. :twisted:

I have some ideas for what it might be like. I believe this would adequately fit the feel of Limit Theory.
Yes...I am also very interested in pirating. In most games I like to play the sneaky hit and run kind of character but not too many games REALLY let you do that successfully without making your guy super strong anyways.

On another note...I hate you for that link :wtf:
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#58
Just a thought on mining-game:

Have an upgrade path (equipment wise), and each version of your Transfer Unit (starts at 1.0, goes to 9.0 etc) performs at a variable % efficiency rate, the 'newer' more advanced the Transfer Unit, the less wastage and more efficient the mining operation. Each step up in tech for the TU costs more money etc.

This sort of thing might already have been discussed, but equipment upgrade paths (that have an in-game effect) are often 'fun' things for the player to aim for etc.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#59
Kvallning wrote:
CSE wrote:an intermediate level is missing though in order not to have to use chance - or is it a wrong impression? Could you have used the sensor to find an asteroid with lot's of stuff, and then only used the probe to find the location on the surface with high concentration? It looked like you had to randomly hit each asteroid in order to find one with ore.
Completely wrong impression, actually. He even explained that you can still randomly drill into roids and hope to find something.
You can already find roids with minerals in them using the scanner, the probes are just for finding high-density veins so you get the most efficient use of your transfer unit.
I understood this as the fact that instead of randomly using probes, you can randomly use your material transmitter, and will get something out of it (probably low concentration).
But I am happy if you can use your scanner to pinpoint a promising asteroid ( as opposed as to pinpoint a promising asteroid field).

Edit: let me try to be clear. I guess in my eyes, the sensor should be able to bring you the info of an average concentration and mass of ore in a single asteroid. Then you can mine blindly and get the average concentration - so fill your hold quickly mostly with invaluable rock.
The probes are then to find within the asteroid places with a locally higher concentration to optimize the value of your limited cargo space.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#60
Well aside from being able to see a rough estimate of the concentration (yet), you can do that already. You can still narrow the scope of the scanner like you could with v1.0, and point it at one asteroid. You just won't get any readout besides frequency right now. I'm sure Josh has something in the works for what you're talking about, though.
Grumblesaur wrote:we're going to need
Kvallning wrote:to get beyond Thunderdome
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