Orion 2 clone game

[Brutalisk]

You found someone to do the images?

[Croesus]

on your needed you said graphic. Do you mean art work, or graphics engine? It looks like you have a graphic engine. IF you don't and want a cheap and dirty way, I reccommend using OpenGL. Make the picture of the ship in 2D, and texture it onto a square. Then have OpenGL rotate your ship squares so you won't have to. There is a 2D asteroids game out there that did this. It should work fine on most computers.

[Croesus]

Originally posted by User137
LOL would someone tell me should travel in wormhole be able to cross blackhole? Another dimension or something?

Latest version published yesterday (4.2.2005) btw...

What is a wormhole in your galaxy? if it is a 4th dimensional rift connecting 2 places in 3D space then it can pass through a black hole, because it is possible they don't touch.

Mostly what you should do is what vmxa1 said. Make a rule and stick with it. Call them something else other than worm holes. Like 'Star Lane' (which has been used in MoO3 and Ascendency) or vortexs, nexuses, quantum tunnels. Do you want suggestions on names? hyper nodes. stellar portals.

[User137]

Originally posted by Croesus
on your needed you said graphic. Do you mean art work, or graphics engine? It looks like you have a graphic engine. IF you don't and want a cheap and dirty way, I reccommend using OpenGL. Make the picture of the ship in 2D, and texture it onto a square. Then have OpenGL rotate your ship squares so you won't have to. There is a 2D asteroids game out there that did this. It should work fine on most computers.

Guess i have to explain technicals a bit... I'm using a GLEngine (made by myself) which is OpenGL based, capable of loading BMP, JPG and PNG formats and 3D models. Models can be converted through milkshape3D if necessary, but i prefer using images in this game instead.

The engine itself is quite sufficient to render high quality graphics to this game, but i need someone to draw or get images to it. Current test game version has combat screen with dozens of ships turning smoothly towards mouse in realtime (around 200FPS at my machine, 1024x768 resolution).

For sounds i guess i'll be using OpenAL, but i haven't trained it yet. Sounds come after graphics and gameplay.

At the moment i'm doing alone again.. weeks passed and i haven't heard of 2 people who said to help with game.

Edit: Oh, and its coded with Delphi 7.

[P-K]

I admire your effort but its very hard to find a moo maniac and programist in same person. This is why all new moo clones are made in low progress.

PK

[User137]

I am a "moo maniac" programmer. All i really need is an artist. That would be enough, but for better game, more people would be needed. I am not very good at drawing graphics, better in placing them to game.

[siron]

What about this AR81 guy? Thought he was really interested......and his screens are really great:

http://www.ina-community.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=440280

reading this thread..........it seems you were not really interested......

[Brutalisk]

"All i really need is an artist"

Artists are hard to come by. I, myself, am a programmer, as you know already. But you seem to have the desire to go at it alone in terms of coding.

You said further above you needed help with the design, perhaps I can help you with that when the time comes. (and I'm always willing to help you with testing, as we did on a couple of occasions, so just keep giving me a shout on ICQ)

[Ray K]

Originally posted by Brutalisk
Artists are hard to come by. I, myself, am a programmer, as you know already. But you seem to have the desire to go at it alone in terms of coding.

Actually, for a fan-based game, I think that a solo project is the best way to go. When there's no commercial incentive, it takes persistence and a strong vision of the game to keep someone motivated enough to work it all of the way through. There are no conflicting goals or clashes of egos on a one-man team. At least you would hope so.

Although the functionality of our game is openly debated and discussed among many contributors and testers, I make all final decisions about what goes in the game and what doesn't.

It's a very difficult tightrope to walk. Sometimes you have to tell a contributor that you're not going to use his idea or that his contribution isn't "good enough". And sometimes you have to recognize valid criticism of your own pet idea and be willing to change it or discard it completely. I can handle the latter, but I always dread the former.

But it's not usually a big problem because everyone is doing it for free and for the love of the work, and so most people are just happy to contribute.

[Brutalisk]

Yeah, I know what you mean.

"I can handle the latter, but I always dread the former."

I expected you to say the opposite there. If I was to be asked to contribute in terms of coding, (or in any other way), I would probably at some point offer my own suggestions - that I believe is human nature - but I would try not to insist on them. The person who started this, is the one with the final word, it's his baby.

Ray: you are the one doing the JAVAmoo, right?

[Ray K]

Originally posted by Brutalisk
- but I would try not to insist on them. The person who started this, is the one with the final word, it's his baby.

Ray: you are the one doing the JAVAmoo, right?

Yes, although "Java MOO" was kind of the original project title. The game has a more 'official' name now: "Rise from Ruin"

The thing about contributors is that they can derail your progress, but in a good way. For example, when a few people started sending me a lot of cool graphics to incorporate into the game, I mothballed the other stuff I was working on to focus on that. And when several people volunteered to translate, I spent a lot of time on enabling that. When testers report bugs, I try to make fixing them a priority.

The point is that you have to go out of your way to accommodate people who are willing to help out if you want to benefit from their enthusiasm and skill. If you try to run the whole show, it will end up being a one-man operation with a much inferior result.

[Brutalisk]

I added a line in another post, but I might as well say it here where it's more relevant. If you need some coding (and design) help with "Rise from Ruin" (or even just ideas), I'd be glad to lend you a hand.

My icq is 4506289

[Ray K]

If anyone wants detailed information about Rise From Ruin, don't hesitate to email me at raykerby@comcast.net

I try to keep my promotion of it to a minimum on the Apolyton site, but it's kind of hard because it is the same type of game.

[User137]

I need your opinions now for one thing... It has now become possible to make turn based combat look spectacular show! When combat turn starts, players would only set ships their actions, and firings and actions would commence simultaneously by all ships by both players. Player would assign only targets for each ship, target position to move, and weapons allowed to use in that turn. I think (and hope) graphics engine could handle few hundred ships and show it smoothly.

[Ray K]

Originally posted by User137
I need your opinions now for one thing... It has now become possible to make turn based combat look spectacular show! When combat turn starts, players would only set ships their actions, and firings and actions would commence simultaneously by all ships by both players. Player would assign only targets for each ship, target position to move, and weapons allowed to use in that turn. I think (and hope) graphics engine could handle few hundred ships and show it smoothly.

This is a tough one. The graphics engine is not the problem, but rather balancing between micromanagement or using auto-combat.

For example, if you are handling ships individually, then it would be a nightmare for the player to set actions for hundreds of ships EACH COMBAT TURN.

And if you reduce the burden away by simplifying the combat actions (e.g. simply assigning targets), then you have to increase the AI to move the ships effectively to their target and to fire their weapons properly. This will not be easy and the player will get frustrated if he sees his ships making poor decisions. Then you are approaching the problems of MOO3.

I hate to keep going back to MOO1, but they avoided these problems completely by restricting the player to 6 ship stacks.

Sometimes simpler is better, even if it is not more realistic.