Oh my Josh, it's the 4th of the month and we don't have one of these up yet?

JoshParnell wrote:In general, I just need to spend time on polish. Loads of small tweaks and fixes would go a long way at this point in time. The good news is that they are almost all small things!

I agree! Polish polish polish!

Don't worry about adding new stuff. (not for now anyways)

Start feature locking.

JoshParnell wrote:Dust clouds are an eyesore when moving at high speeds. It's a result of the tricks that I use to render them cheaply, but I'm clearly going to need to develop something better.

From the point you turned it on I kept hoping you would turn the effect off...

I still enjoyed the video, it was very interesting and nice to see research and missions in action.


I actually think when it comes time to play LT for myself I will turn off all of the movement effects. (including "space flecks")

Edit: assuming there is some other HUD info to let you know your direction of movement, else I may just turn down the "intensity" of the space flecks. (Assuming it will be possible to do so)

I would turn down space flecks too.

Something else I noticed is that single tiny asteroids can completely blot out the local star... That just seems wrong. XD Oh, and the glare effect completely disappears the second the "star pointlight" is offscreen - that's easily fixed, just have it keep the glare effect on until the glare effect is offscreen, then turn it off.

My suggestion with asteroids moving in front of the star is simple. Render the glare effect behind everything with a bloom effect on top, which would not only make it just as difficult to see asteroids, but the star wouldn't appear to blink out of existence whenever the tiniest fragment of rock passed in front.

Also, shadows... the lack of them were incredibly noticeable in that video, particularly around ships and the orbital ring behind the planet - and the fact that none of the asteroids cast shadows on each other. Shadows are pretty important for depth perception, if you don't have parallax to go by. For those who haven't seen it, I posted a thread in the technical forum showing the difference shadows can make, and I really hope shadows fall under "polish"... You don't need them precise - a blurred shadow would do the trick, but still be helpful. Shortcuts, you know. Realistically, they'd be blurred anyway because stars are big.

As to everything else, absolutely no complaints, minus how long it took you to get to the asteroid field. That seemed a bit boring. Honestly, though, that dev video was great. I've watched it a few times already. It was awesome. The nebula was indeed 50% prettier and more artistic, and I love that artistic feel in LT. I'm also feeling a lot better about missions now - they look like they can really be something great. That was a good call you made, Mr. Parnell.

I'm going to cross-post from the anticipation thread since I feel it sums up my views on the way things are looking right now.

I actually feel like the UI has taken a step backwards in the last few updates
It's missing the simplicity, connectedness and "openness" that the nodal UI had. The icons on the tiles all look great, but... I'm not sure about the tiled look - they're just too big and intrusive, and it reminds me too much of what Windows 8 is (was?) trying to do.

Apart from that, though, the update looks fantastic. I really love the backgrounds, and whilst in terms of content it may feel a little sparse, as a programmer I understand the importance of the systems behind it all. Great to see everything coming together!

Other notes:

Talvieno wrote:I would turn down space flecks too.

Something else I noticed is that single tiny asteroids can completely blot out the local star... That just seems wrong. XD Oh, and the glare effect completely disappears the second the "star pointlight" is offscreen - that's easily fixed, just have it keep the glare effect on until the glare effect is offscreen, then turn it off.

I agree about the space flecks, they just seem weird to me. But as with all things, make it a slider! I also noticed the asteroid thing, but I'm sure Josh'll fix that up in like two minutes of work.

Talvieno wrote:
Also, shadows... the lack of them were incredibly noticeable in that video, particularly around ships and the orbital ring behind the planet - and the fact that none of the asteroids cast shadows on each other. Shadows are pretty important for depth perception, if you don't have parallax to go by. For those who haven't seen it, I posted a thread in the technical forum showing the difference shadows can make, and I really hope shadows fall under "polish"... You don't need them precise - a blurred shadow would do the trick, but still be helpful. Shortcuts, you know. Realistically, they'd be blurred anyway because stars are big.

I didn't notice the lack of them that much, but I fully support their implementation if Josh has the time to get around to it. They really do add a sense of perspective.

Talvieno wrote: As to everything else, absolutely no complaints, minus how long it took you to get to the asteroid field. That seemed a bit boring. Honestly, though, that dev video was great. I've watched it a few times already. It was awesome. The nebula was indeed 50% prettier and more artistic, and I love that artistic feel in LT. I'm also feeling a lot better about missions now - they look like they can really be something great. That was a good call you made, Mr. Parnell.

100% this. The aesthetic of LT really, really is something to be admired. And the missions look to be shaping up really well too! Here's to lots and lots of content over the next few weeks!

Although I have to say that the video updates routinely don't seem to reflect how much work Josh puts into this - he's all just like "so yeah, I implemented missions". So much detail from the dev logs is abstracted away. I guess the point of this is to say that I (can I say we? I'm sure others are in the same boat) appreciate the cavernous amount of dedication you put into this game. I can't wait til I can give you money for it

Just wanna ask this josh, was collision on and with how many ship were you in that system?
since you did some performance work in the beginning of the month that was the question that was left unanswered.

The update for the rest was beautiful and i think when the AI learns to do more stuff we can see the missions come to life.

CommanderDJ wrote:I'm going to cross-post from the anticipation thread since I feel it sums up my views on the way things are looking right now.

I actually feel like the UI has taken a step backwards in the last few updates
It's missing the simplicity, connectedness and "openness" that the nodal UI had. The icons on the tiles all look great, but... I'm not sure about the tiled look - they're just too big and intrusive, and it reminds me too much of what Windows 8 is (was?) trying to do.

I disagree, I like this better. To me, the new UI seems more approachable and complete. I prefer it over the over one.

"Approachable" is a dangerous word. It does not mean effective, or concise, or useful.

Duplo is also very approachable and pales in usefulness to lego technic or even mindstorms

Kvallning wrote:"Approachable" is a dangerous word. It does not mean effective, or concise, or useful.

It also doesn't not mean these things. =)

Besides, it's still a nodal UI. Only the screen representation has changed.

To continue the polish idea, if I where Josh I would only focus on fixing and getting the systems that are there now functioning.

I am afraid to say it, but I fear he is falling into the one big downfalls of a one man team.

If you have people over you this happens:

Boss Guy: "Well Josh, what's the plan for this week?"

Josh: "Well Boss, I'm just not happy with the way distant planets look. I mean, they are good, but I think I can do better. Also, have this new idea for space ecology symbiosis and think I am going to try a few things."

Boss Guy: "Josh, your a great worker. Your programing skills and ability to work graphics are amazing. However, I think this month you should really just work on and finish some existing systems. You know that research system you made? It looks great, how about you finish that and the missions, lets get them in a solid state."

I don't want to sound mean of course. It's Josh's game, he can spend the next ten years on it if he really wants. I am sure that "Mid-2014" is pretty much not going to happen now however. I think a realisitic goal at this point would be a beta for the fall and release late 2014 / early 2015.

I think you might underestimate his speed. Now that most of the architecture is in place, I think he will be able to rapidly spit out content and more fleshed out systems quite rapidly, afterall he gave us rings in 5 minutes, new stations in 7 minutes. I imagine he could have ship generation finished up in a day, ship generation that can give us everything from Battlestar Galactica styles to star trek and star wars styles to spaceships that look like plants and others that look like crystals and others that look like jellyfish.

The Whole point of all the architecture was so that he could rapidly dump in content.

I think we could have Beta out by August.

Hyperion wrote:I think you might underestimate his speed. Now that most of the architecture is in place, I think he will be able to rapidly spit out content and more fleshed out systems quite rapidly, afterall he gave us rings in 5 minutes, new stations in 7 minutes. I imagine he could have ship generation finished up in a day, ship generation that can give us everything from Battlestar Galactica styles to star trek and star wars styles to spaceships that look like plants and others that look like crystals and others that look like jellyfish.

The Whole point of all the architecture was so that he could rapidly dump in content.

I think we could have Beta out by August.

Perhaps, but I think some things that appear to have a great effect are easy to change, and some things that seem to have a small effect are more difficult.

Anyone who knows how their code works and how things are generated can quickly change a few numbers to have what ends up being a giant effect. (the asteroid rings for example)

Okay now that I have time to sit down and type!

1. Now that I've seen the research piece in action, I reallllly like the implementation you chose Josh. I know the forums have spent a lot of time discussing it, and you wrestled with it for a long time, but I think you hit the mark on interesting gameplay. Still not sure about the scaling/balance of stats and the development of research over time, but that's polish at this point isn't it?

2. The switch on missions from definite to a more continuous project focus is great. It may have been in the works before this month, but I don't think it had coalesced yet. This is awesome because it will really cut down on the need to micromanage large numbers of assets and let the player focus on the big picture. Assumption: If a system is put in place where missions can be funded through a budget section in the Metaproject UI, players can basically open them up and adjust some percentages/fixed # when necessary, and not have to worry about repeatedly refunding/reposting missions by hand.

3. Data as an asset is cool as well! works perfectly for what we saw. Interested to see how it is implemented for data not related to events, If it is. Still, good work there. I like that you can collect the data before having to formally accept the mission. Allows for some side profit if you happen to deal damage to a targeted faction when defending your assets, and other uses as well. Assumption: I assume data will expire over time, so that you can't cash in on data after it has lost relevance?

4. A lot of comments on graphics from lots of people, but other than the dust clouds, and that one asteroid that blocked the whole star, I wouldn't have noticed them. Still a beautiful game. I do think that there was a section of your super secret research ship that wasn't attached to the rest of the model, but that may have been caused by a lighting issue. it's most noticeable right around 5:10 in the video as you pass over the ship. There is a little arm piece that may or may not be attached to the model.

That's all I have! Top notch!