To all SSC Station occupants
Thank you for the donations over the past year (2024), it is much appreciated. I am still trying to figure out how to migrate the forums to another community software (probably phpbb) but in the meantime I have updated the forum software to the latest version. SSC has been around a while so their is some very long time members here still using the site, thanks for making SSC home and sorry I haven't been as vocal as I should be in the forums I will try to improve my posting frequency.
Thank you again to all of the members that do take the time to donate a little, it helps keep this station functioning on the outer reaches of space.
-D1-
==========================
==== CHILDREN OF STEEL ====
COS is an(online) open box space fps game!
Over the first 2 years, CoS was my experimental environment for making games. So far is the only project I've started and keep working on. From the beginning of 2011, I decided to take this project more seriously and take it to a whole new level! The technical difficulties of this endeavor are, needless to say, diverse and high! The principle of a "seamless" galaxy might seem simple when explained but very hard to put together. I spend most of the year just working in making such a system work almost without flaws. So, simpler is better! Making such system as simple as possible is necessary, since the game environment must not hinder with game play.
Procedural generation is also in the order of the day in this game, since all the possible data for such a game cannot be stored and handled easily...
So what's CoS all about?
In CoS, the Milky Way is being colonized by an Alien race, the humans are the "by right" owners of this galaxy, and must defeat the invaders. The problem is that the aliens have already taken almost half of the Milky Way and are planning on taking on Earth!
What does the player do in CoS?
The players have a lot of freedom in this game. For starters, there are no mandatory missions. Actually, the missions are generated by the players. On start the player is given a flat and some credits. He can choose his path by taking courses or training at the academies. There will be skills from these qualifications, the skill level will determine the work quality and the player's skill.
Players will be able to feed and take care of the avatar, fight mostly with weapons and ships, travel through space(walk inside ships and buildings), visit and colonize planets, build and mine on them, buy, produce and sell products, form and manage teams, groups of teams or corporations.
What's the graphical style of the game?
Realistic, my aim is to get as much as the BGE can do at best performance !
Isn't that A BIT pretentious, this whole idea? Who do you think you are?
It is indeed, and this is also my sin! I'm really no genius, nor top game designer, programmer or artist. I'm your average Blender artist with a big dream, and a vision to achieve it.
The graphical part:
The following video was a test for interplanetary flight. I allowed me to see where the trouble areas could be.
For now, I'm rebuilding the game from the core, so it's taking some time! I have to code most of the core functions, so that will be a lot of trial and error!
Indeed that is a big ... BIG endeavour and I know all too well how hard it is to pull off.
The project sounds interesting, pretty much everything anyone could want in a game so I wish you the best of luck with it m8.
Your off to a good start here torakunsama.
I think the biggest part is world generation and basic game mechanics. But I really liked you moving around in the station and getting in the ship and taking off.
The project sounds interesting, pretty much everything anyone could want in a game so I wish you the best of luck with it m8.
Aaaah, tell me about it! I had most of the elements working separately. The last video I showed was the only time I had most of the elements working together. The problems started when I added more stars to the galaxy and detail to the planet! Well, the first problem is that I was not using any dynamic LOD, then there was no optimization whatsoever. In the end it proved that Blender3D Could do it!
Now I'm doing the hard part, generating the planets. Coding is not my forte, so this part will take a good part of the dev. time!
You can follow most of the stuff I did at the http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?168815-COS-...generating-planets... blenderartists forum.
I think the biggest part is world generation and basic game mechanics. But I really liked you moving around in the station and getting in the ship and taking off.
Yeah, the idea of COS is almost total freedom of action and movement! The walking-in-the-ship-while-in-flight part needs a lot of work. My focus till june was to get interstellar flight! It doesn't look like it, but in the video, the ship flew from a station to the floor of a planet, to another planet and then to another star system!
All of it is being redone and so far it looks better. As soon as the planet generation is complete (10% for now), a new video will be displayed. I'll be open to questions and suggestions though!
wow looks really neat!
Love the first person to ship to planet to interstellar concept 🙂
Thank you chaosavy! Me too!
I like the way your game is going as well. CoS will have similar elements, like player and NPC facilities building, the interface will be different though. I might have a battle mode or exploration mode UI to make easier for the player to accurately place the buildings in space.
Blender allows very fast developement, but has low performance, so now, I-m trying to make the whole thing lighter in order to run within the BGE limits.
I believe is the dream of most of sci-fi/space game lovers to be able to explore planets on "foot", settle in an asteroid field or own a space station. This is my dream as well, and I want to make it come true, via COS.
Thank you for all your feedback!
got any alpha or beta testing available yet ?
Unfortunately, there isn't any. There are a few pre-alpha blend's available, but they are more POC than anything else. Right now, I'm learning more python and getting a few core lines of code. With blender development is very fast! I can get a stellar system running in less than a week!
There's also a time constraint, I work most of the day, and have to face traffic jam for an hour after work, so I mostly work on week ends (if there's power, or my wife is absent, well it sucks to live here....). Also the rest of the team is take by their own affairs (network and sound programmers). So we will be getting alphas out from next year only...
Maybe I'll do a small test to see how the new code works...maybe...
Greetings to all!
After 2 years of absence, I come back with less than what I have when I left.
I spend an entire year learning more of programming and redesigning the game!
As you may have noticed, I completely changed the game's title, story and all the rest!
The invasion part remains, but the human history is different.
By the time the first alpha will be launched, all humans in the COS universe have died! But before that happened, they have programmed 3 ships to locate and colonize a planet in a nearby star, or failure to do that, recolonize Earth.
The solar system went through a change when the sun entered a huge solar eruption that lasted a century, dooming all life on Earth!
Now the machine on board the ships must find a new home and raise new humans from the DNA banks they carry. Thus Children of Steel (steel being the machines).
The gameplay and principles remain the same.
Right now, I'm finishing building the milky way, so that it can proceduraly generate stars, planets, nebulae and super star clusters.
Everything is still a place holder, since I'm still busy programming!
I'm facing a few difficulties with the planets but will overcome it soon!
Pliz,s tand-by for next week updates!
For a review or historic of this project, check this link.
I like it, Impressive work :good:
Do you have a playable demo or something similar ?
I thank you NevilClavain!
As of now, I'm just generating the game world, so, no gameplay is yet implemented, so it'll take awhile for me to add it. I'm also hurrying to get there, this project is taking way too long if you ask me!
Latest Post: CGA Trek Our newest member: Trishtan Recent Posts Unread Posts
