Re: Stars Supernova Genesis Beta

On 21 Sep 2005 09:11:05 -0700, christopher.secord@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>RJLadd wrote:
>I'd like to make two suggestions if I may.
>1) do the tactical battle engine first and release it in some beta
>form. Even if people have to manually edit input files to specify what
>type and how many ships are involved, having the battle engine out
>there early will let you work out bugs in it. It really is one of the
>critical parts of the game. I makes sense to get it out early and let
>people think about those balancing issues. As a bonus, it will stir up
>added interest in the game.

I understand the point, and mostly agree with it. That isn't where I
started in the code, though. Keep in mind my compiler background. RDL
and game object management come naturally to me, but graphics doesn't.
Oddly enough, I have reason to be learning graphics in my day job
lately, so I'm waiting until I've figured out enough of it there to
work on the battle simulator.

Then again, I'm in awe of what Jeff (L, not M or J) did for the SN
battle simulator display. I can't use it as it is, and I was never
satisfied with the battle AI, but the visuals were stunning.

>2) consider making the some part of it open source, and then calling
>that part as a library. The whole game doesn't have to be open source,
>and anyone who works on the open source portion would have no claim to
>any royalties if you end up selling the game. The only effect would be
>to help you out. You might open source the battle engine, or the
>graphics libraries, or whatever you can.

I'd like to use OpenGL for the graphics, but I don't know enough yet
to be certain of that. One advantage it would have is the possibility
of doing a Unix/Linux version of the client/UI.

Most, and perhaps all, of the file formats will be entirely open.
Anyone will be able to write player aids or AIs.

Large parts of game setup / scenario design / tech tree / etc. are in
RDL 2, and open to modding. You can't change the RDL once the game has
started, of course.

Graphics are in files available to players, and can be replaced by
anyone. I haven't given any thought to sound yet; sound is low on my
priority list.

I don't plan to open source the C/C++ code of the server, though, and
that would have to include the battle simulator. But it might be
possible to create a separation between the battle display code and
the battle simulation engine, and then to open source the displayer.

>I also have a question. Have you considered making use of the idea of
>"star lanes" rather than direct travel between stars? I wont try to
>sway you either way. You've already stated that you're making the game
>you want to play and that's certainly understandable. I just
>personally find that the strategic possibilities associated with choke
>points and such make the game more fun. Also, the concept of
>interstellar mine fields is patently ridiculous.

Jeff M and I each had our pet ideas. He liked spies; I like terrain.
Most of the physics of the universe can be controlled via RDL, as can
the presence/absence/number/placement and behavior of various map
features. You can get very close to the effect you want by removing
FTL engine tech, giving each star system some number of worm holes
(could be a range, i.e. 1 to 4 at random), and changing the
definitions of the transit times through worm holes.

This is another example of the engine's design approach. I don't have
to implement "star lanes"; I just have to think through the kinds of
primitive behaviors that are defined for various objects by RDL. The
same effort also gets me the ability to tune game balance without
making bug-prone C/C++ code changes.

Yeah, interstellar mine fields are absurd, but I'm afraid your stuck
with them. :-) They are somewhat different from S2 (much more similar
to what we were doing for SN). They allow the players to create
terrain features, and I have this thing about terrain. :-)

On the other hand, engine technologies are defined by RDL, as is the
interaction between any given engine tech and any particular mine
field tech. I plan to try out having more than one engine type, with
various kinds of vulnerabilities/immunities to different kinds of mine
fields.

Jim Lane

.

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