Gameplay, factions, missions, blah blah blah

[walterar]

Well, I interpret that nobody is working on it then. Therefore the issue remains factions blah, blah, blah. And the Pioneer project is stalled in this regard, and many others.I think, actually, although there are good programmers C++, they do not know what to do, the ideas are scarce.

[fluffyfreak]

@WalterarDude you posted asking if someone could add those functions on the 23rd, then on the 24th you post that? That's pretty damned unreasonable since we're all VOLUNTEERING OUR TIME <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//angry2.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />I haven't gotten back to answering your question because I'm currently unemployed and am trying to get a job, hence why I'm doing a 3 day long programming test right now and don't have time to dive into the code for a few hours to figure how to answer your question or do the work.In short: fuck off.Ok, I've calmed down again now.Walterar if someone doesn't respond for a whole week then feel free to bump a thread to get their attention, maybe send them a 'PM' via the messaging system to ask them if they've seen the topic at all. Just change your expectations that people will respond immediately, or even within a day or two.The problem isn't a lack of ideas it's that there are a LOT of ideas and each of them takes a long time, sometimes MONTHS to implement because we have to fit them into our lives.I am currently unemployed, so I am looking for work so that I can pay my mortgage, that means I've rewritten my CV - several times actually to customise it for job applications, I'm also doing programming tests - these take between 3 hours and 5 days of programming, I'm also writing demo's and example mini-games or tools for level editing etc to show people.Also today I became an Uncle again as my little sister (she's 31) just gave birth to her 2nd daughter, this isn't a burden - it's ace <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' /> so at some point I'll be travelling to visit them....Where exactly in that list do you expect Pioneer development fits into as a priority? I check this forum for pleasure, for a break from all the other stuff that's going on in life.I had been considering how to implement fetching the information you've been asking for but it would have to wait at least the next few days until I'd finished this test.In the time you've spent asking for things and complaining you could have learnt how to program in C++ and done it yourself.

[walterar]

Reassurance fluffy, is bad for health. Also may frighten children (only them). Glad you have understood me.And I'm sorry that you have personal problems, you may need to consider not wasting time here.I'll dusting my old notes from C + + Do not be afraid, I will not bother at you, but I reiterate what was above said. Thank you.

[laarmen]

Walterar, I shouldn't have to remind you that this forum is not exactly a place where all the Pioneer dev hang out. So the fact that nobody says that they work on something doesn't mean that it isn't done anyway.Furthermore, this is an open source projet, and exporting this kind of variable to Lua is usually not very complicated. I hereby invite you to write a nice patch and file a Pull Request on Github.Oh, and this kind of code is usually more of the C kind than C++, the lua API being written in C.

[walterar]

laarmen, I should no remind you that Pioneer is not just a group of friends of GitHub or IRC. There are a lot of the Pioneer world, out here. Perhaps you do not understand what I think, but I do understand what you show.

[DaveAngel]

Does anybody remember some of the old 8bit combat flight sims that had dynamic campaigns?I used to have a couple when i was a kid - fighter bomber and tommohawk.They used to use a system where there was a constant battle going on across a large area, now i'm sure that ZX Spectrums of old did not have the capacity to remember every tank, infantry man and bunker so must of worked on an odds based system. If you spent time in a certain quadrant racking up kills for one side then they would take control of that quadrant, so that the battle space was constantly changing.I'd love to see a system like this again, where border systems could change hands - maybe that this is calculated on a batch basis. the relative strength of each faction could be calculated on the number of planets they have, with industrial planets having a greater weighting than agri ones - maybe costs of things like food stuffs could go up if there isn't enough agri planets in the factions sphere of control.If then you could assist either side to tip the balance it would be great - imaging calculating which system a faction would go after, then, if you are of sufficient rank, you will be asked to join the invasion force, or defend against an upcoming attack.With this type of dynamic, you could effectively see one faction getting much stronger that the other, it would be fun to go and help the underdog to keep the dynamic changing, and make massive profits by prolonging any war.

[Fish]

I had fighter bomber on my C64 that was a good flight/combat sim (for its time) except that i was never very good with free fall bombs and unlike the so called combat/flight sims of today (blazing angels, hawks and so on) you would have to land to rearm your plane.i also have a quick question. will the economy be set on a planet by planet basis or will it be system wide prices?

[fluffyfreak]

@DaveAngel,People have been discussing that sort of thing but it's a bit beyond what I'm initially aiming for. I know the usual approach is to aim high and see how far you get but with this work I just want to put in place the bare minimum that other people can then build upon later. Hopefully I should be able to get back to doing a little work on it... soon.@Fish,Economy will probably set on a per-planet basis, if you have a system with two large inhabited worlds but one is outdoors and lots of farming + tourism whilst the other is all about mining then that will be reflected in their imports and exports. It should already work that way I believe for the existing worlds.Was the game "Wings" or "Knights of the Sky", actually now I just reread what you wrote and I think they were both Amiga games.I think I had Chuck Yeagers Advanced Flight Trainer on my C64 <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

[walterar]

The current trading system has nothing to do with reality. Just look at the international commodity prices, and compare these prices in supermarkets. The difference between what the producer receives and the final consumer price is enormous. The higher cost is transportation. I do not think this will change much in the year 3200.Balancing this trade system would be easy, in lua, but still not enough support from C + + or C.Is possible that many work "in secret" in this, I do not know.I see a lot of individual work doubled. It seems to be a contest of egos. Maybe that should be.

[fluffyfreak]

I am soliciting... for advice! <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />Been working on this a little again and I now have some simple volumes setup that have differing illegal goods and allegiances etc... but you wouldn't know it from looking at the Sector screen (where you pick hyperspace destinations etc) because you don't see any difference on that screen until you select a star system and go to look at its information specifically.So there's two obvious questions that arise from this:
Should it be obvious that a star system has a particular allegiance on the Sector screen?
If it *IS* desirable to show it then *HOW* should it be shown?
Now as possible answers to the 2nd question I so far can only think of changing the colour of the text to match a colour defined for each faction.Thus meaning that, as an example: Earth could have Green text because it's "Earth Federation" but Ross 154 would have Red text because it's "Bahnahweepgrahnahweepninnybon"-aligned. This would mean that inhabited planets with certain allegiances would be clearly visible.What do people think or prefer?

[Marcel]

I like the colored text idea. It should work as long as there aren't more than 6 factions (ROYGBV). I was thinking that Bahnahweepgrahnahweepninnybon would be a good name for one of them too. <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//crazy.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':crazy:' />

[fluffyfreak]

Colouring stars based on their allegiance and whether they're within hyperspace range seems to be the most popular one so far <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />

[walterar]

Answer very, very short:'We, the faithful Bahnahweepgrahnahweepninnybon, we have in -our- maps, to sun, marked in red'.

[Fish]

perhaps (and just as an idea to add to the mix) have a small icon at the end of the star system name, i suggest this because some star systems may be under the control of a faction/empire yet uninhabitedthe size of the icon next to the name could also give the player some idea of the level of control that faction has over the system, so a small icon could mean that its a border system that has very low security with less space cops and more black market opportunity's while a large icon would mean you have more chance of being setup when trying to buy those illegal goods and a higher chance of being denied landing until the sector patrol has had a chance to scan your cargo

[robn]

'Fish' wrote:
perhaps (and just as an idea to add to the mix) have a small icon at the end of the star system name, i suggest this because some star systems may be under the control of a faction/empire yet uninhabited
#1197 made some moves in this direction. They're not shown here but I remember at the time we had some mockups that used small chevron icons next to the name to show trade information. I think this is probably a good way to go.

[fluffyfreak]

I think that the System Info screen looked good but couldn't see the point of the "(i,e)" appended to the end of system names in the Sector View since they were already highlighted if they were inhabited meaning that they would of course have some imports & exports by that very virtue.Of more use would be knowing what kind worlds they had, tourism, agricultural, industrial etc.Either way I'm not thinking of adding it to the current work, there's plenty as it is! <img src="'[url]http://spacesimcentral.com/forum/public/style_emoticons//icon_e_smile.gif[/url] class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':)' />@FishYes I considered that too but it starts to get very cluttered, also just because a system is within the volume associated with a particular faction doesn't mean that it's actually under their control. CustomSystems should still have a different allegiance if they're setup to have one and uninhabited systems might logically be under a certain faction but if no-one builds an outpost there then they should be fair game I think.

[robn]

'fluffyfreak' wrote:
I think that the System Info screen looked good but couldn't see the point of the "(i,e)" appended to the end of system names in the Sector View since they were already highlighted if they were inhabited meaning that they would of course have some imports & exports by that very virtue.Of more use would be knowing what kind worlds they had, tourism, agricultural, industrial etc.
iirc it showed multiple i/e (or maybe i++ or something) based on the quality or strength of that system for that particular function. We found it a bit fiddly which is part of why it didn't go in. Icons were generally agreed to be the better options (one, two or three up/down chevrons, and damn I wish I could find the mockups).

[Guest]

'robn' wrote:
Icons were generally agreed to be the better options (one, two or three up/down chevrons, and damn I wish I could find the mockups).
All from kko.(check IRC log for April 18th)

[robn]

'jpab' wrote:
(check IRC log for April 18th)
My logs are a mess due to repeated server moves and new computers. Thanks!

[walterar]

I'm testing #1505 and I think a step in the right direction.The good thing is that the colors are configurable in lua, and the Bahnahweepgrahnahweepninnybon may change, the sun system, by the color red.Now we need to know (in lua) what faction to belong ship. Thus we can define different "labels" of faction.Have a look at this: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_registration[/url] ideas:Federation: FX-1234Empire: EX-1234Red: RX-1234And finally:Bahnahweepgrahnahweepninnybon: Bahnahweepgrahnahweepninnybon-1234 (these people are very strange)