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New ship on the sketchfab http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/08/29/balaena-trader-unveiled-on-sketchfab/ and a update about the book. http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/08/25/book-update-insurmountable-odds-edit-complete/

 

 

 

 

cover-2-600x300.jpg

Insurmountable Odds, Book One of When Stars Fall.

It is done.

Long have I laboured, etc. et al. I can’t tell you how damned good it felt to hit the final ‘Save’ on the document, and Wendy suggested a tweak to the closing paragraph which hit the nail on the head. And I promise, it is definitely, finally, ultimately, no more changes, no more tweaks, adjustments or refinements, done. Complete. Ready.

I have written quite a lot in the past – none of which has ever gotten to the point of being publishable (even self-publishable). I’m damned proud of Book One, I just hope it is judged ‘worthy’ by fellow sci-fi readers!

Now, on to ePub world, and deciding how I can promote this whole affair…


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New ship to ogle.  http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/09/05/sulranian-heavy-frigate/


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maksw
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Hi Pinback! I've just epublished the first book set in my game universe, where would be best to announce it? I was thinking the Sci-fi movies/tv forum, but wasn't 100% sure. Any help appreciated, as ever!

 

(I tried PM'ing you and DarkOne, but it kept saying messages couldn't be sent for some reason... 🙁 )


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Methinks their inboxes might need emptying   As to where to post details of your book maksw, you bring up an interesting point.  The SSC does not have a book section. How about it D1 or Pinback? A new forum section for books?


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Hi Pinback! I've just epublished the first book set in my game universe, where would be best to announce it? I was thinking the Sci-fi movies/tv forum, but wasn't 100% sure. Any help appreciated, as ever!

You might want to create a new thread here or see answer to Geraldine question.

 

Methinks their inboxes might need emptying   As to where to post details of your book maksw, you bring up an interesting point.  The SSC does not have a book section. How about it D1 or Pinback? A new forum section for books?

we already have one  here http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/forum/43-scifi-books-and-fan-fiction/


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maksw
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Cheers Pinback, and thanks Geraldine as ever 🙂

 

I've raised this topic as per your hint Pinback, fingers crossed it sits well with everyone on SSC : 

 

http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/topic/5196-announcing-insurmountable-odds-book-one-of-when-stars-fall/


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You might want to create a new thread here or see answer to Geraldine question.

 

we already have one  here http://spacesimcentral.com/ssc/forum/43-scifi-books-and-fan-fiction/

 

You do!?! Goodness I must be getting scatty in my old age! All is well then.


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New video blog.

 


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Update about lights and light sources.

 


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More about the lighting. http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/11/09/polylux-part-dux/

 


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Nice lighting demonstration <looks complicated>, when you sit and think about what really goes into game development its no wonder you need a team of 50 people to get something out within a respectable time frame. Things we take for granted like lighting effects look like they take a ton of time to get right and master with the rest of the environment.


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It's a challenge, for sure DarkOne 😉 That lighting is only one part of the solution as well. Illuminating the inside of the engine housings will be via lightmapping, which is next on the list. I don't want to soak up valuable light sources in the shader for the glow of an engine, or the ship lights mounted on the hull. When you think about it, these are always 'static' relative to the ship, so they can all be prebaked. The shader is just for dynamic lights. So, really, there will be a lot of 'lighting' going on even in a relatively calm/quiet scene, like parking outside a station. ED does this really well, it has the lushest visuals I've seen tbh.

 

So is this kind of techy-oriented video a good thing? I want to make sure the stuff I do is at least semi-interesting... especially with my droney voice rambling on 🙂


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Blog post on the state of Dom http://dominium.maksw.com/2015/11/21/state-of-dominium/ suppose the two most likely answers to funding Dominium is another crack at crowd funding or Steams early access both of which have pros and con.


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Couple of new updates http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/01/26/reorganised-the-depressing-truth-but-so-what/ and http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/01/28/barely-viable-product-anyone/

 

 

Despite the above, I am clearly unstable, and fully intend to plod on. I see the likes of Elite Dangerous and now Star Citizen finally (well, almost) delivering (some of) the vision I had in my head so many years ago, and I know full well that my chance to ‘get there first’ is long gone, and I can never deliver the Dominium before it becomes so old hat no one will care.

So what will I do?

Well, a rethink on the original rethink of ‘First Playable’ is first. Cut down the Minimum Viable Product feature set that I’d already striven to produce, and move to a ‘Barely Viable Product’ and see how much time is needed for that. Ditch some of the game mechanics for example – so throw out missions/jobs, exploration et al. Get combat and trading done, lock the player to a single vessel experience, go ‘old skool’ gameplay, perhaps more arcade like (start game, fight, die, new life, rinse repeat).

 

Sound like a plan, get something put together and put it out in the wild internet if nothing else it may get the game some attention.


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Maksw has been enjoying himself with a bit of bug hunting. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/03/03/the-bug-bane/


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But, that all said, it’s leaving me with an increasingly robust ‘fly about space n’ stuff’ system, which is giving me a much needed ‘warm and cosy’ feeling. It shouldn’t be long before it’s all locked down and solid, allowing me to return to putting the ‘stuff’ into space so you can fly around and reliably encounter it.

Progress is progress, I know Maksw would probably much rather stick new stuff in the game but this process is probably the most important and time consuming. More bugs you squash now the less later and even more important the gamers on steam seem to love to kill games in early access because of bugs so you have better chances in their ranking system if bugs are minimum. 🙂


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For sure sscadmin - bugs are truly the bane of a developers life. No one wants them. No one should code them. But, they happen nonetheless 🙂 Interesting point on Steam Early Access - it's obvious when you think about it, but it's great you pointed it out. Probably as a developer I'd be more forgiving of a bug ridden Early Access if the game itself stood out. But, the first bite is with the eye... it would be totally understandable for someone to just go 'Yep, nah, next' if they were thwarted by bugs from the off.

 

Mental note taken - Early Access - hammer it before submitting to Steam.


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Maksw still on his bug hunt http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/03/29/busted-bugs/

 

I tend to think Steams early access is very much a double edged sword for indie devs, although it will give a game greater exposure it also tends to bring a lot of demanding players and if updates are not forthcoming they will leave negative reviews which I have read has an impacted on sales.


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Materials and faulty laptops in this blog update. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/04/22/pbr-on-the-horizon/

 

 

Due to having no laptop this past week, I decided to do some research on Physically Based Rendering.

I’d been planning to tackle something along these lines since I first created 666’s material system back in 2003. Back then, I’d been inspired by id’s Quake material system, and created my own extensible one that could allow a material to be assigned ‘properties’ – like metal, wood, etc. The idea back then was to tailor sound effects to the material, so you would get the appropriate ‘walking on wood/metal’ effects, and so on without an artist/level designer having to pither about doing extra markup. They just apply a ‘metal class’ material to the level floor where they want it, and voila. Clank, clank, clank.


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Update o the book. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/06/08/insurmountable-odds-v1-1-published/

 

 

A quick announcement that the (very long awaited) v1.1 edits have finally been uploaded to Google Play,Amazon and Kobo!

 

v1.1 sees a lot (far too many!) of spelling and grammatical fixes, and a small bonus section for any fans of Horthaz near the end of the book  But, more importantly, there are no plot or character changes.

I promise, emphatically and passionately, that there will be no more edits to Book 1, provided I haven’t fluffed up the latest ePub that is!

Now I can breathe a sigh of relief and start pulling Book Two together at long last.

Enjoy!


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New update from Maksw. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/06/29/visual-tweaksits-all-about-the-speed/

 

 

Dominion-2013-12-27-14-27-32-52-600x300.

I’ve been back visiting the unpleasant Bugland this past week or so, and also tinkering with some visual effects; velocity markers and course tunnels.

Velocity Markers have two tiers; HUD markers which are projected by the ship-board systems, and ‘real’ physical markers/indicators which range from little ‘flecks’ of imaginary space dust in the scene around your ship, to full on motion blured, spectrum shifted star trails for interstellar flight. The system is fully tweakable, and seamlessly transitions as you cross the various scenes in your travels. And of course, the ‘Realism’ vs ‘Pretty’ settings will allow such cruft to be turned off.

Course Tunnels are HUD markers that align to your plotted course, which you then fly through as you go about your business. Together they bring a sense of movement across the otherwise boring void of space, and allow you to visualise the currently selected course lodged with the Autopilot. And as importantly for me at the moment, provide useful debugging aids!

 

Always tricky getting that sensation of speed, noticed a few game are stating to use a camera shake effect as well now. I like course tunnels always reminds me of the landing scene in Alien and Frontier nicked the idea as well.


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Maksw gets his book onto Apple I Book store. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/07/02/insurmountable-odds-now-on-ibooks-finally/


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Maksw get back to working on the game http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/07/08/back-to-dominium-huzzah-etc/ more on the blog.

 

 

Dominion-2013-09-29-14-07-44-47-600x300.

Hi folks, and a return back to Dom Dev for those tired of the flood of book updates!

To avoid getting dragged into the mire with bug-fixing the vessel mount code (which is not really a priority at the moment), I’ve decided to return to actual feature development in line with gameplay oriented features.

So, I’ve returned to the flight mechanics work with a view to locking it all down as far as I can.


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The tricky question of Newtonian vs non Newtonian flight/combat models http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/07/13/newton-or-not-newton-that-is-the-question/

 

 

Now, this may be a dangerous combination… Newtonian and Non-newtonian flight models? In the same game?

Well, if I get it wrong… yes, very dangerous! It could be horrifically unfair, leaving Newtonian vessels at the mercy of far more manoueverable Non-newtonian vessels.

Consider the considerably awesome Independence War, which very doggedly set out to implement Newtonian space flight mechanics. Seriously, if you’ve never played this, go buy it! Worth every penny. Golden oldie now, but not forgotten!

Now grab a few ships from say Freespace, and throw them into the same game. Whups! I-War ships lose big time!

So how to counter the obvious combat superiority of Non-newtonian ‘arcade-like’ flight vs realistic Newtonian? Well, clearly there have to be trade-offs. I’ve yet to iron out such things fully, but immediate ideas spring to mind. Newtonian vessels could have more powerful shields & weaponry, as they expend less energy via Inertial Compensators, they can afford heavier armour, and so on. No doubt this may spark some interest & debate, and nothing is set in stone yet, other than I want Dom to be fun, challenging and rewarding to play – for both fighters and capital ship owners, and both flight models.

Most space-‘sim’ games (IMHO) deal with this by making the flight experience very ‘aerodynamic’, because this is more familiar, and more comfortable. It doesn’t break the ‘principle of least astonishment’ for the game player, i.e. the typical player expects planes to bank as they turn, to do loop-de-loop manouevers or wide sweeps to perform u-turns, etc. In space, there is no medium of friction (of any worth) to allow aerodynamic manouevers like these. All you have is thrust, and whether you can withstand the g-forces created by accelerating in a given direction. Of course, given enough thrust and plenty of thrusters, and low enough speeds, you could effect aerodynamic style movement – effectively faking the resistance caused by atmospheric drag by providing the necessary counter-thrust. But, why bother when _not_ faking it is far more effective for space combat, and provides a completely different flight experience?

Well, the reason why is people want to enjoy playing the game 1f642.png Not everyone is into spending six months learning how to fly a real space craft, but then – plenty of people _are_… I want to try and please both camps (to increase the games appeal/user base), and therein lies a danger. By aiming to please both, you may end up pleasing none…

Chances are there will be a dividing line, with smaller lighter craft using Non-newtonian movement, and larger heavier craft using Newtonian. No one expects a Capital ship to turn on a dime and flit about like a may-fly, but a figther needs to be snappy and responsive. This immediately provides a nice design conceit to separate gameplay concerns, but leaves a ‘grey area’ in the middle, where mid-sized craft (haulers, traders, cruisers) can mix and match. Here then, would be the mainstay of ‘personal choice’. If a Newtonian Gas Hauler is not for you then pick a Non-newtonian Ice Hauler, and so on. Larger vessels will also be less ‘hands on’ flight anyway, and more instruction oriented. Who wants to pull ‘left’ on a Capital ship, and wait for it to slowly drag itself about? Far better to tell it ‘turn left’ and then let it get on with it and then see to weapons control.

How these control systems pan out, and what vessels they may apply to will become apparent in the fullness of time. Right now, my concerns are more in getting both flight models in place, and then tinkering with them to see how they feel. If they sit right, then the next challenge will be working with the NPC logic and getting them to work with either model as they go about their own business.

When it comes to it, gameplay balancing is going to prove… interesting.

BTW – reasons for the above may become clearer when I reveal my plans for space combat… which, if I pull them off, as far as I am aware, have not been done in any game to date, and would be a game changer – hopefully a good one!

 

I would say it comes to the choice of the player and that why we should have menus in games so that the player can turn then on or off.


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Maksw been busy with the update. http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/07/20/space-flight-mechanics-check/

 

 

The first phase of development on the Flight Mechanics is now complete, and I have to say, I’m pretty chuffed with the results!

Let me begin by saying that this doesn’t mean ‘Flight Mechanics’ is completed and now final. I’ve implemented support for the various flight models, and established a fair number of parameters to control each of them. These, in turn, will be exposed through the UI to the player in various forms, allowing you to tweak your perfect setup. I’m intending (hoping) to set this up so you can have a flight config _per_ vessel that you own – as each will fly and handle differently, with different systems. They’ll all come pre-configured, of course, but to get the very best out of your new ship with it’s modified drive system… you will want to hit the config panel

 

and http://dominium.maksw.com/2016/07/22/the-effect-of-mass/

 

 

As Dominium’s Flight Mechanics journey continues, I’m revelling in the nostalgia of all that school math/mechanics/physics from so long ago.

Now I have Newton’s Second Law(F=ma) in the code armoury, and all the various tunable ‘bits’ which affect movement and orientation (steering) I have set about establishing those basic configurations I mentioned previously, chiefly being;

  • Fighter
  • Hauler/Cruiser
  • Carrier
  • Capital Ship (an additional one)

 

Can read the full blogs though the links and hopefully we will see a new video about the changes.


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