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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#121
Different forms of "pay" for different types of "workers".

Some workers are going to want money, some will want other commodities.. and droids/drones are going to need maintenance/upkeep. Depending on the type of player you are, it might be more affordable or feasible to use a droid/drone army if your costs of maintaining them are cheaper than paying a NPC workforce with money etc
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#122
light487 wrote:Different forms of "pay" for different types of "workers".

Some workers are going to want money, some will want other commodities.. and droids/drones are going to need maintenance/upkeep. Depending on the type of player you are, it might be more affordable or feasible to use a droid/drone army if your costs of maintaining them are cheaper than paying a NPC workforce with money etc
why would my ships not need upkeep just because they are flown by an NPC, who does need pay in addition to the maintainance costs
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#123
Cornflakes_91 wrote:
Charley_Deallus wrote:
Costs money to hire an NPC? I dunno if we are having to pay constantly for services or just a one time payment. If it is just a one-time payment, then yeah, NPC might work. But I do like the idea of a ship/drone that collects everything and dumps it off or sells it. Maybe I want a droid army!?
then why should i ever bother with NPC's?
Can think more freely without having to have upgrades or research done to give them greater intelligence? Besides...I like my droid army idea :cry:

You could assign an NPC to mine, and he could also sell what he mines or deposit it where you want him to.

A drone might only be able to mine, then another might have to sell or deposit it. Unless you researched better processing for the droids so that they can't just do one simple task, they can now do 2-3 tasks.
Image "Everyone needs to have their avatar's edited to have afros." -Charley Deallus
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#125
ThymineC wrote:I'd really like to see a gradation of intelligence levels of entities within LT. From least to most intelligent:
  • Drones
  • Probes
  • Droids
  • NPCs and the player
i'd place probes under drones, as i see a probe could also be just a bullet with some kind of sensor and communications link, and a drone is a miniature spaceship with equipment and more complex behaviour

but i agree on the basic idea, i'd like to see different intelligent objects in LT
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#126
Cornflakes_91 wrote:i'd place probes under drones, as i see a probe could also be just a bullet with some kind of sensor and communications link, and a drone is a miniature spaceship with equipment and more complex behaviour

but i agree on the basic idea, i'd like to see different intelligent objects in LT
I had probes under drones initially, then I edited it the other way around. Although drones would feature more complex and varied equipment relative to drones, I see them as being more of an extension of an agent's vessel (and therefore dependent on maintaining a communication link with the vessel), whereas a probe would need its own on-board intelligence in order to function independently.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#127
What are these probes and droids of which you speak?

From Josh's February 17 devlog:
Josh Parnell wrote:You find yourself a nice little corner of empty space, open up your drone bay, and deploy a few construction drones (by the way, 'probes' are now 'drones' and 'launchers' are now 'drone bays' ;) )
Has this changed? (Josh did make one later reference to probes, but I can't tell if he was de-canonicalizing "drones" or not.)

And where did he mention artificial life forms functioning as characters? (Which Disney won't let us call "droids" for free, anyway.)

I certainly wouldn't object to those things being included! Just... are they?

Meanwhile, I'd say the Hierarchy of Entity Cleverness is more like:

1. Rockets
2. Missiles
3. Drones
4. NPCs
5. The Player
6. Josh
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#128
I really like the mining stuff, the sound of the transfer unit and the ice field. (What a surprise. :ghost:)

Now I have to be the negative here, the guy that nobody likes. I know because I don't like that guy either. All I'm going to write is my point of view and refers exclusively to personal tastes. It's not about game design but about muy view as a potential player. I hope you don't mind. :mrgreen:

- I prefer the previous space stations to the last one, by far.
- The new ship promises a lot, but the previous ships were much better, to me at least.
- I prefer the circular scanner. I did not get this one. The previous scanner fits more with the "LT vibe" to me.
- I prefer the nodal UI from the Update #11 and Update #12. What I saw in the last video doesn't seem very different from what you find in other games. Maybe it's my mistake, because in this video we didn't see much of the interface.
- It seems like Josh is controlling the ship with a mouse. I hope that's not true, because I don't like vehicles mouse control. I don't think there is a single game where this has worked well. IMO: You control the ship with the keyboard; mouse is for look around. I feel that if this is the case, is a major step back, which brings us back to the times of the first updates. Maybe the problem is not a problem if you use a gamepad? Or perhaps it has always been so and you just change at will between a way and the other, so my concern was never a concern. That's what the last few seconds of the video suggest me.
- Related to the above: There is a new icon between what it seems to be the mouse pointer and the crosshair, with a line between the two. I hope you can disable that at will.

Twice as negatives than positives points? I now feel bad with myself. I am a bad person. :(
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"Playing" is not simply a pastime, it is the primordial basis of imagination and creation. - Hideo Kojima
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#129
Etsu wrote:- I prefer the previous space stations to the last one, by far.
- The new ship promises a lot, but the previous ships were much better, to me at least.
I wouldn't worry too much about this; the power of PCG means that Josh's "placeholder" assets that you prefer could easily make another appearance at some point in the future. It'll just be about the aesthetics of one particular ship-building faction vs. another, if I've understood the plan properly. And if you're still not happy, then design one yourself!
Etsu wrote:- I prefer the circular scanner. I did not get this one. The previous scanner fits more with the "LT vibe" to me.
- I prefer the nodal UI from the Update #11 and Update #12. What I saw in the last video doesn't seem very different from what you find in other games. Maybe it's my mistake, because in this video we didn't see much of the interface.
These are personal preferences, it seems to me. I have a sneaking suspicion that both scanner forms will end up in the game somehow; Scanner 2.0 is just too functionally useful to discard, and Scanner 1.0 is basically too pretty. I'm sure a reason for its use will be invented.
Etsu wrote:- It seems like Josh is controlling the ship with a mouse. I hope that's not true, because I don't like vehicles mouse control. I don't think there is a single game where this has worked well.
Er... Freelancer?! Questions about control are going to persist, I should imagine, until we can all play it. But I believe the LT Prototype was indicative of the final game in this regard, and no-one was loudly complaining after some initial tweaks.
Etsu wrote:- Related to the above: There is a new icon between what it seems to be the mouse pointer and the crosshair, with a line between the two. I hope you can disable that at will.
This is a direct lift from Freelancer and is intended to show how far your cursor is from the centre of the screen, since this will affect your rate of turn. However it's important to remember that Freelancer had two modes: one where the cursor was free to move without impacting the ship direction, and the other "mouse flight" in which the mouse controlled the way you move.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#130
mcsven wrote:
Etsu wrote:- I prefer the circular scanner. I did not get this one. The previous scanner fits more with the "LT vibe" to me.
- I prefer the nodal UI from the Update #11 and Update #12. What I saw in the last video doesn't seem very different from what you find in other games. Maybe it's my mistake, because in this video we didn't see much of the interface.
These are personal preferences, it seems to me. I have a sneaking suspicion that both scanner forms will end up in the game somehow; Scanner 2.0 is just too functionally useful to discard, and Scanner 1.0 is basically too pretty. I'm sure a reason for its use will be invented.
I've already invented it. Scanner 2.0 is used for frequency-space representation. However, you have the option of controlling the range of frequencies received - you have the capability of making your sensors only detect signals in a very narrow frequency band, in which case it becomes pointless to visualise signals in frequency-space and the scanner switches a to time-space representation instead. When this transition happens, the linear, frequency-space Scanner 2.0 will transform into the circular, time-buffer Scanner 1.0. Time-space scanners will be useful for interpreting aperiodic signals, like communications in something equivalent to Morse code, for instance.

The only difference with the Scanner 1.0 is that the "hand" will remain stationary and the "face" will move, as many people had suggested as an improvement after the January update.
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#131
I just discovered LT and I share most of the enthusiasm that most folks here seem to have. Very impressive.

For years my number one complaint about virtual worlds has been scale. They have just been too damn small! So I am just tingly with excitement about procedural generation. With crowd funding the people with visions and ideas - the artists - are in control, and with procedural generation of content those visions and ideas can be truly epic in scope. I think a bit of a 'golden age' of game creation is here, and LT is an example of it. Bravo! :clap: :clap:


I know I'm first time poster and all but after watching the video and reading most of the comments I have an idea to propose. Get rid of 'mining lasers' or 'transfer beams' completely. I know the idea is canon but it's really a bit of handwavium. It's a magical beam that seeks out the ore in a rock, extracts it and carries it to your ship. Just have a variety of mining drones or droids that physically go to the rock and mine the ore, then bring it back to you or hold it for later collection.

I'm really excited about this game. :D
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#132
Welcome. Zvanya.
Zvanya wrote:I know I'm first time poster and all but after watching the video and reading most of the comments I have an idea to propose. Get rid of 'mining lasers' or 'transfer beams' completely. I know the idea is canon but it's really a bit of handwavium. It's a magical beam that seeks out the ore in a rock, extracts it and carries it to your ship. Just have a variety of mining drones or droids that physically go to the rock and mine the ore, then bring it back to you or hold it for later collection.
I really like transfer beams, especially the sound they make while active. I've already developed the theory (lore) behind them so they're not magic anymore anyway. :)
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Re: Development Update #14: February 2014

#135
ThymineC wrote:Welcome. Zvanya.
Thanks! :D

Gazz wrote:I'll think of them as magic just to give you a hard time.
hehe No worries it was just an idea. 8-) Maybe mining droids will be an intermediate step between transfer beams and full scale/permanent installations.

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" - Arthur C. Clarke

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