Lost Empires

[alterecco]

the name still doesn't show up on the map the way it does for normal stations.

try adding noMapLabel="false" or changing the scale (you have "star", "world" and "ship")

[Keedo420]

try adding noMapLabel="false" or changing the scale (you have "star", "world" and "ship")

Thanks I will try that when I get home. I'll post another update about the mod tomorrow.

[mistere]

Well, if I do include zombies in my mod, it will only be to a minor extent.

Perfectly understandable. If we've learned anything from sci-fi, it's that outer space is full of surprises!
I hope you won't mind if somebody adapts/includes some your code to make a fully whacked out zombie adventure

The docking with planets etc. and the element that will add to gameplay is a great advancement that would open up possibilities for lots of new adventures!

[Keedo420]

@RPC: I looked at WE4 like you suggested, and wow, that's a lot of names. But it works like a charm. The names show up next to the planet as you fly past it, and also on the big map once you've discovered them, and I've got it set up to dock with the planet label instead of the planet itself. There are only two minor problems. First, my scouts will not report discovering planets (a minor problem since you can see the planets on the map regardless). And two, some of the planet names get cut-off on the close-up in a weird way though they show up normally on the map. As you can see in the screenshot below, the last few letters of the name get cut-off and either it is duplicating the first two letters below or it is starting to print the next name on the list. So far though, it only seems to be happening to names with more than ten characters.

[RPC]

Nice ships!
I always thought that the planet names were separated at the 10th letter, this may be ticket worthy to report.
If you want, report it on bugtrac here.

[Keedo420]

Those ships were made by Darth Saber. I sent him a message requesting permission to use them, but haven't received a response yet so they may not wind up in the final version of the mod. But I have my fingers crossed.

[alterecco]

There are only two minor problems. First, my scouts will not report discovering planets (a minor problem since you can see the planets on the map regardless). And two, some of the planet names get cut-off on the close-up in a weird way though they show up normally on the map.

What technique are you using to show the labels?

[Keedo420]

What technique are you using to show the labels?

I'm currently using the same technique as in WE4.

Here's the code for the station that shows the name (well, just the beginning part because there really are A LOT of names)...

Code: Select all

<StationType UNID="&stPlanetOrbit;"
			name=				"(planet label)"
			sovereign=			"&svIndependent;"
			immutable=      	"true"
			mass=				"5000"
			sign=				"true"
			dockingPorts=    	"1"
			dockScreen=    	  	"Main"
			
			>

The sign="true" line is what makes its name show up on the map.

On a slightly related note, I have expanded the number of planet types to 54, basing the new planet types on the ones from Star Control 2 (50 are found here: http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/List_of_planet_types, the others are the three types of gas giants found in vanilla, plus a Silicon World....a.k.a Desert planet in vanilla). I'm going to use a system similar to the Cargo Summary mod to simulate ship sensors scanning the planet (by looking at what's in the planet's "inventory") to show what types of resources (metals, minerals, gases, etc) can be mined/collected by the landing party (assuming they aren't killed in the process). This may cause problems if the player builds a colony on a planet since the planet's inventory will be needed for storage and whatnot, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it. Of course, if the player doesn't have Ship-To-Planet sensors installed, all they will be able to tell is what type of planet it is. I don't have appropriate images for all of the planets yet, though I do have a number of new planet images taken from the resources section of Xelerus. The Mars graphic for example will be used for Dust Worlds since (at least according to Star Control 2) that's what it is.

[Darth Saber]

Keedo420, I have some suggestions for mod names:

The Lost Empire (s)
Voyage to the Stars
Kalak 'Shira: The Journey Begins
Dzhin Shi-su: Into the Abyss
Maldoran Ishii: Glorious Pilgrimage
The Dominator Chronicles: A Core Dilemma

Pronounciation Guide
---------------------
Kalak 'Shira - (Ka-lahk Shear-uh)
Dzhin Shi-su - (D zhin Shy-sue)
Maldoran Ishii - (Mal-door-ahn E-sh-E)

Anyhow, just a thought.

[Keedo420]

Hmm. The Lost Empires has potential. It goes along with the theme of being in an unknown sector of space. I was already considering something along the lines of Galactic Empires...an homage to the mmo Starport: Galactic Empires which has similar gameplay to Transcendence. I'm also considering some titles with the word "Amalgam" in them since there will be many sci-fi references from a variety of sources (Star Trek, Star Wars, and BSG being the three most obvious). Amalgalactic?

[alterecco]

Amalgamcendence? :)

[Keedo420]

OK, here's a small update. I now have a good (at least I think so) reason for the player being stuck in this unknown sector of space. I present to you the first of my mod's new sovereigns, the Nanite Blight. The Blight was started by an AI virus that infected a batch of repairing nanites and eventually evolved. The Blight now exists as a series of hive-like colonies of nanites that break down and reconfigure various materials for their own needs. A ship infected by Blight is either reconfigured into a Blight vessel or broken down for resources. Each Blight colony is control by a hive-mind (A.I.) that is in turn controlled by one of the Sentient A.I.'s that evolved from the Blight. The Sentient A.I.'s will take a variety of forms from battleships to....

Sentient Gates are Stargates that were infected by the Blight and developed Sentient A.I.'s. While most have no weapons, they are capable of gating in Blight fighters to defend them. They can also gate in and infect non-blight ships to break down for resources. This is what will cause the player to be pulled into this unknown sector of space, and since the Gate will try to destroy them, they will not be able to use it to get home. However, I have also made playable Sentient Gates. I did this mostly as an exercise in scripting, but also to see if I could make a stargate a playable ship. Of course, if the player chooses to play one, their reason for being there will be different and the gameplay will be very different. I have posted some screenshots below. In the current version, the gate itself does not turn as the player moves around, but the inner rings rotate as the player turns the ship and the drive graphic rotates around the edge of the gate to simulate a series of maneuvering thrusters. However, I will be making a better version where the gate itself turns as well as having the inner rings rotate. Also, while the Blight Summoner functions similarly to hangar bays, it has a couple of differences. First, it is equipped as a weapon. Second, the player does not have to replace the Blight fighters. They can simply summon more once they are all destroyed. They are still limited to how many can be summoned at any one time (rationalizing that the A.I. can only control so many at once). The only problem I've had with the Summoner so far is that while it activates the Gate effect when fired, just like when you enter or exit a stargate, I haven't figured out a way to trigger the gate effect when the fighters re-enter the gate after being given the Return command....yet.

Summoning Blight Fighters...


Cruising with the fighters...


Oh my.... which one is me?


The graphics for the blight fighters were made by dvelnk6. I've already talked to Wolfy about this and was told it should be OK to use them since I am not releasing them as a single playership or as part of a ship pack. They are equipped with alternating nano cannons which do Nanotech damage and their armor will be highly resistant to kinetic and laser damage with some minor resistant to other damage types, but will be highly vulnerable to ion damage.

[RPC]

Nanite Blight

D:
Someone's beating me to making zombies!
Nice concept. I really would like to see how this project pans out (especially since only one person is doing it!- it's a miracle!).

[Keedo420]

D:
Someone's beating me to making zombies!

I doubt I will beat you to it. I haven't even begun working on the random events yet.

Nanite Blight

Nice concept. I really would like to see how this project pans out (especially since only one person is doing it!- it's a miracle!).

I'm really not sure what inspired me to make playable stargates, but the Nanite Blight (or Nite Blight for short...well it's only two letters shorter, but more fun to say... ) is something I've been playing with since before I learned of Transcendence.

Anyway, not much to report today. I did however, make it so that players can now mine Water Ice from frost asteroids. Also, here are the first 16 new planet graphics (2 are variants of the Emerald World) courtesy of dczanik. To anyone who has played Star Control 2, the Rainbow World will be instantly recognizable.

[Keedo420]

Just a little progress report... Over the weekend, I have been working on modifying the random system tables to accomodate the new planet types. I've created several new tables to account for common, uncommon, and rare inner, lifezone, and outer planets, as well as tables for moons in each of those zones. Most of the new planet types still fall under the vanilla "worlds" tables. Most inner planets, for example, use modified VolcanicWorld or DesertWorld tables while most outer planets use a modified IcyWorld table. It's all pretty much setup and working now, though most of the new planet types still don't have new graphics yet and are simply sharing the vanilla planet graphics. Of the 15 new planet types that do have new graphics, they are showing up ingame as intended (as far as I can tell... I still haven't encountered any of the rare planet types though I have encountered a few of the new common and uncommons, but that's mostly because I still only have a 10 system cluster in the topology). Well, actually it's hard to say if I've encountered any of the rare planets since only two or three of them have new graphics. Anyway, I guess that's all for now. If you're interested, look at the post above this one to check out the 16 new planet graphics (14 + 2 variations of the emerald world).