Interesting option for gfx engine

[Kurilka]

And there is osgSDL,
but i'm still not shure that we need such a complex engine...
as i see all we have will be IMHO:
1. Rectangle with tiles on it (textured)
2. Objects on tiles (may be a little bit complex, but not very, as the units should be small we don't need very detailed models) - units, something like weather effects (rain, clouds etc.)
3. Some GUI stuff (but it's 2D, isn't it?)

[targon]

IMHO, you may use as simple engine as you dare, but only if you will be able to switch to something better at any time. Open-source project community is _very_ different form commertialware, as open projects live as long as someone needs it. This comunity promotes code reuse, too. So last thing we need is our beloved StP tied with messy graphics and the only way to get out as complete rewrite from the scratch. This is silly, among other things.
So either write graphics code _true_ modular (so funky things like Cg may be added without much of pain) or use some existing general-purpose engine with all these things available from its roots. In later case, we will obtain another collective of 3D guru and their community as our best friends rather than our own buggy code. I'm just an artist, but I love OpenGL and computer graphics and I know that burden of programming without some good scene graph implementation grows exponentialy with increase of features.
And one more thing about tile rendering: did you mean that space combat will be something 2d tiled? Oh no, do't spoil good game from beginning, it's to young to die, please, dear developer, think again! Eye candy can't make turn-based game worse than its gameplay, belive me! Just imagine epic battles, mysterious space wonders and all these alien worlds, properly rendered, realtime! Nowdays, even cheap 3D cards offer great rendering power, so why we stick to old century style of graphics? I'm hungry for drawing all this beautiful graphics, and I'm sure other from artist group too, so do't backstab me, us and entire community! Universe awaits you...

[Kurilka]

For me space combat is something i don't understand at the moment
There is quite a lot of post by i still don't see clear picture...
So I mentioned only "planet" level.

[targon]

OK, as veteran Elite gamer I'm surely know something about space combat
I think that it may be something like IG2 (but with modern graphics) Homeworld or ORB, but with Stars! BattleVCR taste.

[DJ]

I was thinking IG2! Great game...

[targon]

OK, just look at IG3 screenshots... IMHO, StP must be better

[Kurilka]

A link?

[targon]

https://www.ig3.de

[Kurilka]

But we have TBS, don't we?
And how do you see such nod-discrete (read realtime) combat in TBS?

[targon]

Did you ever played Stars! ? It has something called "BattleVCR" that shows battles taken place in last turn. Civs also show you attacks of your rivals in their turn. This part may be as eye candy as we desire and in fact realtime with play/stop/back buttons << < [] || > >>

[Leland]

A long time ago, in a message board far, far away (read: old FreeAC discussion forums) the battle system was outlined as such that the battles do in fact occur "for real" instead of being just statistics, but the units follow very simple rules (for example "shoot, move forward, repeat until dead") instead of complex AI so that the battles can be simulated in advance to some extent. So, it's not just eye candy, but an integral part of the game mechanics. If my memory doesn't fail me, Stars! was even mentioned as one of the inspirations of this idea.

[DJ]

IG3 is made by a completely different company then the ones who made IG1 and IG2.

[targon]

Originally posted by Leland
... the units follow very simple rules (for example "shoot, move forward, repeat until dead") instead of complex AI so that the battles can be simulated in advance to some extent.

I fond of Stars!; it's simple yet very playable game. But Stars! were plagued with various glitches in targeting code and so on, so crafty people exploit this flaws in order to obtain unrealistic results (infamous "chaff" etc). For me, simple is "easy to break and spoil" by not too kind fellows.
So units may be controled even by complex rules, but compute it _once_, record via some format (for example, interpolated positions of units with "fire", "dead", "hit" marks etc) and play as gamer desires.

[targon]

You may also chech out here:

http://www.quelsolaar.com/technology/verse.html

and around.

http://www.quelsolaar.com/quelsolaar/index.html

I think these engine is't what we're looking for (but who knows?) yet its client-server aproach deserves some attention.

[Frozzy]

Originally posted by Kurilka
But we have TBS, don't we?
And how do you see such nod-discrete (read realtime) combat in TBS?

IIRC, a while ago the basic outline for gameplay was an RTS/TBS hybrid. Much like pressing pause in the middle of an RTS to hand out new orders.