SpaceSimCentral

Thanks! And yes, sir I did. Jack of many trades, master of none!

merry christmas to you all, oouh and im starting to love that simulator

Hey guys. I'm back on this again. Right now I'm working on some core "systems" setup. That is, the ability to wire together various components to build complex systems. The goal here being that everything on the ship has a logical function instead of just scifi space magic.An easy example of this: In most games, to have an automatic opening door you would place an invisible "trigger" box near the doorway, with some type of game script that says "move door 25 units to the left when a player enters this box. In my game, things are set up in a more logical manner. You have a power source that connects to a motion sensor, the motion sensor connects to a set of actuators that move the door. Essentially there is no arbitrary game script that comes up with the logic. You have small components sending flow of data to each other, and you build complexity from that. It's not a real simulation by any means, but it's a model of a skewed reality, which helps increase the tangible nature of the ship. Here's a simple screenshot of the basic "component" system functioning in the engine. Frame1: A simple power source (battery) is wired to a switch, which is wired to a light. The switch is on, so the light lights up.Frame 2: Now, there is a laser sensor in the circuit. The light will only light up if laser is tripped. Frame3: An object blocks the flow of the laser, causing the light to trigger. Ok, now here's where you guys come in. I want to have fairly complex functional systems in the game. These here are micro systems, I need help with the macro systems like Life Support, Energy, etc. What are some cool ideas for how the major systems should function?

Welcome back Charlaten Will this allow the player to fiddle with ship system in the game like you can in Sundog.

Yes sir! That is exactly the point. I want to capture the feeling of being in your own physical ship. Part of that means when something breaks, there's no repair man to call. You have to figure out how to fix it yourself. Since this game is not based around combat, maintenance, repair, and upkeep will play a large part in the overall gameplay.

Hi CharlatanSome nice thought breakdown there.On the major systems on the ship I guess what needs to be decided is what is going to be on the ship in the first place (ie: powerplant, coolent, fuel source, recyclers, batteries/capacitors, replicators or hydroponics, hydraulics, propulsion, thrusters, air circulation, air filtration, H2O pressure and filtration, etc...). So from her you would probably just need to string together like a flow chart for like troubleshooting.We know that there is no system that is self contained (maybe for the self-destruct ), so almost everything will need some sort of electrical wiring and power. After that its deciding if the equipment uses coolent, water, hydraulic or other material to get and keep it running. And if there is a subsystem that manages these settings (ie: terminal/server) this will need to patched in to control the sub-system. Personally I would probably keep it a bit more simple in that you could probably do all terminals for interfacing with the systems or if you know the problem you can delegate to a crew member to fix the problem. Just some thoughts. But I definitely like where you are going with this Charlatan.

Will this involve FTL travel and if so how will it work?