Clicken for Biggen
Having ranted about Nu-Lo-Fi I feel kinda guilty for never exploring it. I occasionally devise unusual yet simple display systems, but so far I’ve not been able to use one in a finished project. Today however I caught myself doodling ideas for a lozenge-based renderer, and realized I could easily integrate it into Ticky Tacky. With a few minor changes its shamefully retro box renderer began churning out lovely drop-shadowed lozenges, bringing a new feel to the game and allowing slightly different forms of expression through radius of curvature and shadow ordering. I’m not sure it’ll go anywhere, but it was fun to do.
Another fun experiment I tried this week was removing friction from Captain Jameson. Inspired by Chris K’s comment I replaced the game’s fast travel time scaling system with the option to remove friction (and therefore travel at insane speeds with terrifyingly bad handling). It was an interesting experiment, it gave me ideas for new booster types, and it allowed me to modify friction per-cluster and thus make debris float like proper space junk, but for the purpose of quickly travelling across empty space it was utterly pants. It was the exact opposite of fun. I’ve since rerouted the shift key back to time dilation.
I’m now working on another player feedback system, to replace the email and “Captain Clippy” message systems discussed earlier. Email is a better metaphor for receipt of in-game messages, but the interface requirements are utterly horrid. Instead I’m letting NPC’s upload to your command module’s file system. All the player need do is LIST (or LS or DIR) to view a list of available files and LOAD (or OPEN, CAT, MORE, or LESS) a file to view its contents. I think it’s a good approach, especially as it means I can play some lovely old modem sounds.
<3 Farbs
The fact that I don’t understand too much of what you just said only makes me want it more. I am a little concerned about the over-complication of the interface, but I think it’ll reflect the increased depth of the new game, and may even add to the satisfaction…
Anyway, keep up the good work chap :)
Each of these blog posts fill me with sublime delight.
Perhaps removing friction would have worked a little better if there was some kind of artificial speed limit… Nah, it probably would’ve still been rather unfun.
Anyway, I can’t wait to try playing Captain Jameson. I’m particularly interested to see how you’ll handle teaching the console interface inside of the game. And, you know, to play a full length Captain Forever game.
@Chris K: Well, in space there is actually a speed limit. As an object approaches the speed of light, effectively its mass increases exponentially (not really, but it’s easier to explain that way). Because the force exerted to move the space ship (or whatever it is) is constant, the acceleration decreases as it gains speed. This is why only particles with no mass (such as photons, obviously) can travel at the speed of light.
Yeah, I know. But I wouldn’t suggest trying to recreate the effects of light speed travel.
Even ignoring the problem of your ship imploding from its enormous mass, there’s still the distorted vision and the fact that time would grind to a halt.
What I’m talking about is a purely arbitrary speed limit, not the one universal speed limit.
And I do understand the real life physics quite well, just for the record. But real physics don’t always translate well into the game world… Blah
Umm, this doesn’t sound very nice, does it? I’m sorry. I just happen to have a real love for physics…
The friction is what made these games fun. Without it, my uber strafing skills would be amiss. Also, i dont think it suits the genre. An on/off option on the other hand is a different story…
Also:
Do we have another estimated completion point?
Did you try my idea? Because the way I see it, it could completely work or be really bad.
I’d still like to get the game out in December, but that’s creeping up very quickly. I still have a few mystery issues to solve, both in tech and design, before I’ll feel that the game is ready for release. Being mystery issues they’re particularly difficult to schedule around.
By your idea do you mean an on/off toggle for friction? Yeah, that’s exactly what I tried. It was, as you predicted, really bad :)
My idea was for a new module. I think i called it “arc something”
Basically, it was a mixture of auto-target and medium range modules. YOU SAID YOU WOULD MAKE A NOTE.
>:[
so you have the shift key bound to change game speed? is that a developer thing or a game play mechanic?
Probably an actual mechanic, seeing as how this game will probably very travel-heavy
yea i guess that would help with long distance travel, id just be worried about zipping by an enemy ship and getting blown up before you get a chance to stop and deal with it. im sure if that were the case farbs has a clever idea for indicating proximity to an enemy either visually or by comm messages.
I am not much of a physics fan, but hey, you’re doing good so far!
A few things:
I would have implemented the option for toggling friction and zoom-to-time to different difficulty levels (or something similar, like maybe an options menu or something) so that different people playing the game can have different experiences.
I would keep experimenting with the strategy of zoom/speed ratios in order to find good times to slow down or speed up, and bad times to do them too. Therefore you can add them on the tips list on the flight manual.
I would keep going on friction experiments so that I can one day perfect the friction-based gameplay on Jameson.
All these would be what i would do to make Captain Jameson better, but that’s just me. Do whatever, Farbs, its your game!
@Vaconcovat – Oh, right. I did make a note. It’s in my notes. I’m trying to finish CJ before working on new modules though.
@ryan & Chris K – yep, it’s a game mechanic. There’s some risk in flying headfirst into enemy fire, but it adds a nice risk/reward layer to the game. You’re also able to detect enemy vessels via NAV stations, so unless you’re flying in an uncharted area or haven’t bothered to check the maps you should know roughly where they are.
uhh, what?
Heh, I’m pretty sure that was spam. It’s gone now.
the website it had under its name doesn’t even link to anything. i was expecting at least a purse or shoe spam bot.
Hmmm?Did i miss something?
I am wondering the same thing, though I think it has to do with the Nu-Lo-Fi thing?
Hey farbs, any more updates? Soon it will be a month between posts…
im hoping for a not so much a surprise but really a surprise release of Jameson. but really yea, just toss up a couple screen shots and let us theorize what they mean.
Maybe he’s gone silent so we can all be surprised when he quietly releases Captain Jameson in the middle of the night.
I’d rather hoped for that, but unfortunately the game still isn’t ready. I’ll keep on it.