Lost Empires

[shanejfilomena]

Sounds AWESOMELY interesting : I did a Carbon Planet using the graphics in the game: could not tell which it was so I stationed mining ships at them to see where and when they showed up in the systems : i then added illegal miners to the ship table for the Carbon planets just before I released the .xml ......just to be Evil......

[Keedo420]

Surprises are the spice of life...or something like that. I almost can't wait for players to discover some of the surprises I have in store for them in my mod, but since it will be over a month before the new planet graphics are all ready (according to dczanik), I don't have much choice but to wait.

[RPC]

Get all the code done before graphics. IMO, good code is much harder to come by than good graphics. (but that's because I'm not proficient at code yet )

[Keedo420]

Well, I'm fairly certain it is working. Last night I completed a tour of the 11 system cluster I created and saw many of the new planet graphics. I still haven't encountered a Rainbow World, but I'm sure that is just because they are extra rare. When a system is created, there are first the tables that determine what rarity each of the planets is. For example, in a YellowStarSystem it looks like this:

Code: Select all

					<Variants>
						<Table maxRadius="300">
							<Lookup chance="60"  table="CommonInnerPlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="25"  table="UncommonInnerPlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="5"  table="RareInnerPlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="5"  table="InnerGasWorld"/>
							<Lookup chance="5" table="InnerMethaneWorld"/>
						</Table>
						<Table maxRadius="500">
							<Lookup chance="60"  table="CommonLifezonePlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="25"  table="UncommonLifezonePlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="10"  table="RareLifezonePlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="5"  table="OuterRockyGroup"/>
						</Table>
						<Table maxRadius="2000">
							<Lookup chance="60"  table="CommonOuterPlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="25"  table="UncommonOuterPlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="10"  table="RareOuterPlanet"/>
							<Lookup chance="5"  table="OuterRockyGroup"/>
						</Table>
					</Variants>

So in the outer zone, there is a 10% chance of a rare planet. Now, the table for rare outer planets looks like this:

Code: Select all

			<RareOuterPlanet>
				<Table>
					<Lookup chance="20"  table="EmeraldWorld"/>
					<Lookup chance="16"  table="QuasiWorld"/>
					<Lookup chance="14"  table="RubyWorld"/>
					<Lookup chance="23" table="SapphireWorld"/>
					<Lookup chance="25" table="TreasureWorld"/>
					<Lookup chance="2" table="RainbowWorld"/>
				</Table>
			</RareOuterPlanet>

So if a rare planet does occur, there is only a 2% chance it will be a Rainbow World. Now with only 11 systems (currently) to play in, the chances of a Rainbow World occuring are very small. BUT...I have the dockscreens for docking with planets setup so that the description says what type of planet you are docked with, so even for the planets still using vanilla graphics, I can tell what they are.

[Keedo420]

So today I worked on the buildable Ore Refinery. It works essentially like a tinkerer, but only with Ore. It's one of the first things the player will want to build since it not only allows the refining of ore into base armor types, but also allows the refining of ore into fuel, manual refueling using the fuel in the refinery's cargo hold (works exactly the same as manual reloading from the ship's cargo), and converting of ore into Resources. Resources will be needed for just about everything related to player stations and colonies. The player can also use the refinery's cargo hold for storage if needed. I haven't made the Refinery Construction item yet, but the station itself is working as intended (currently I've got one placed at the player's spawn point at the start of a new game though it will be removed once the contruction item is made).

[Keedo420]

OK, so I've finally encountered some rare planets but I forgot to take screenshots. I also added Digdug's planet graphics, Worlds3, 4, & 5, found in the graphics section of Xelerus. That's added some variants to some planets that already had new graphics as well as adding new graphics to planets that didn't. Additionally, I have done some work on the planetary orbit dockscreen. It still needs a little work, but here is a preliminary screenshot:

Yes, I realize that 68 tons of gas is not exactly a lot for a gas giant. That was just a test. Currently the only thing you can do at planets is look at their detectable resources and change the display from "tons" to "kg", but eventually, there will be many more options as mentioned in the first post. The screen was made with a heavily modified version of Bobby's Cargo Summary customized specifically for planets. The various resource categories don't mean much YET, since only a few of the vanilla misc items (Hydrogen Gas was used for this test) fit into any of them, but I'll be doing a bit of research on real minerals, metals, and other elements, and adding in a bunch of new items (many of which were used in Star Control II). I will also be removing certain items that make no sense to me. Certain vanilla ores for example are described as alloys...alloys should not be minable. They are produced. So that will fit into the research part of the mod. You will have to conduct research in alloys to produce metals such as durallox and plasteel. Well, that is all for today.

[RPC]

Nice! Hopefully I'm not asking his question early but will the code for producing things such as alloys be hardcoded, like the tinkers? Will there be other factors that will influence what you can produce, etc?

[shanejfilomena]

i am starting to understand where this going: i like it.

[Keedo420]

Nice! Hopefully I'm not asking his question early but will the code for producing things such as alloys be hardcoded, like the tinkers? Will there be other factors that will influence what you can produce, etc?

Well, I haven't started working on the research coding yet. What you can produce will be partly influenced by what you've researched, partly by what stations you've built, and partly by what minerals, metals, and other elements you can find. Take for example plasteel. Plasteel is essentially a blend of plastic and steel. So you'll need to research both plastic (which you'll need to find natural polymers to produce) and steel (which will require iron ore and carbon to produce) before you can research Plasteel. You'll be able to produce plastic at a Science Station and steel at a Refinery, but you'll need to have both plastic and steel to produce Plasteel armor (or anything else made from Plasteel) at a Factory. Natural Polymers will be found on Organic Worlds, Green Worlds, Water Worlds, and perhaps on a few other types of worlds that may support life. Iron Ore will be mined from asteroids or planets and will be as common as Titanium ore. Carbon will also be common and found on a variety of worlds. On the other hand, basic items such as Titanium armor (which will require only Titanium ore) can be produced at the Refinery.

I don't know yet if I'll be using every element on the periodic table, but I plan to be very detailed and scientifically accurate enough to be believable yet still allow for some fiction in my science.

[Keedo420]

Just a small progress report... Haven't gotten a lot of work done lately. The only thing I really have to report is that I have expanded the topology a bit. In addition to the starting system which is level 1 and the Battle Arena which is level 2, there are now 10 level 1 systems, 10 level 2 systems, and 10 level 3 systems, all of which are non-linear and randomly generated. There is a certain progression from level 1 systems to level 3 systems, but there is not one single path. Some systems have only 2 stargates, while others have 3 or 4. The gate locations are randomly generated as well, even in the starting system. I have not checked every single system and gate yet, but so far it seems to be working out. Every gate that I have tried is connected as it should be and I have not seen any systems with more gates than they are supposed to have. I plan to have 10 randomly generated systems per level in addition to any non-random systems. The non-random systems will include the home systems of the various factions, as well as systems where artifacts, unique resources, and unique encounters can be found.

[RPC]

Are you using the Galactic Map function? I'd like to see what galaxy you're using for the Not-Yet-Named Mod. Spoilers pls!

[Keedo420]

I will not be using the Galactic Map function until I've finished the topology. Plus I don't have an image for it yet.

[Keedo420]

Well I haven't been able to post for the past couple of days, but here's what I've been up to...

1) Added a bunch of new names to the random planet names, all taken from science fiction sources including movies, TV series, and books. Letters A-I are done at this point. I've taken a few liberties with some of the names when the 10 character limit was an issue (shortening Geidi Prime to simply Geidi, for example) or removing a letter or two when a name has double letters in it or a vowel at the end.

2) I decided to use a Construction Drone for the creation of player stations instead of items. I took the Ferian Miner and turned it into a Construction Drone and created a launcher for it. The player will start with it along with enough Resources to build one basic station. For example, they could choose to build the Ore Refinery so they might convert ore into fuel and Resources or they could choose the Scrapyard to convert damaged items into undamaged versions of the same items (5 damaged Titanium Armor for 1 new Titanium Armor, for example) or into Resources. Whatever the player chooses, they must have a way to gain Resources in order to build other stations. After the drone is launched (it will fight like fighter), you can communicate with it and tell it which station to build (it will be built at the drone's location) or tell it to return to the Hangar (to keep it out of combat or bring it with you to other systems).

3) I've set up a Nanite Blight station and random encounters, including a Sentient Gate which spawns in similar fashion to the Charon Frigates.

4) I have also been trying various experiments to get the intro text to vary depending on which ship you choose, but so far I've had no luck with that. See this thread for details: http://neurohack.com/transcendence/foru ... f=5&t=4556

[Keedo420]

I have added in the second buildable station - the Scrapyard. It works like a Tinkerer but only for damaged items. For example, you could convert 10 damaged Titanium Armors into 1 undamaged Titanium Armor. You can also convert damaged items into Resources. Though it functions similarly to the Refinery, it is cheaper to build since you cannot refuel at the Scrapyard. Here are a couple of screenshots showing the images I used for the two stations as well as showing two of the rare planet types (it probably took me about an hour to get both of these planets to show up in the starting system ). Note that in both shots, I moved the Construction Drone so that it wasn't on top of the station after building it. Currently, building is instantaneous, but eventually I will attempt to work out a system where the station takes a certain amount of time to be finished.

Ore Refinery orbitting a Rainbow World:


Scrapyard orbitting a Treasure World:

[Keedo420]

OK, so development on this has been somewhat slow, but here's my latest update:

I've added in the buildable Shipyard. It will be more expensive than the Refinery or Scrapyard, and for good reason. This is where the player will build hangar bays and replace destroyed fighters. The Shipyard also has some of the drydock features, such as installing and removing devices, repairing armor, and decontaminating the player's ship. All of this is done using Resources instead of credits. I have tested out most of the features and they all seem to work. One feature still to be added is the repairing of damaged hangar bays.

Currently, the Shipyard "sells" all of the hangar bays I have made so far: Colonial Vipers, Cylon Raiders, X-wing fighters, Probe Droid (non-combat scout), Raptor-class scout, and the Danube-class Runabout. However, once I move on to coding the research aspect of the mod, the Shipyard will only sell/replace those hangar bays/fighters the player has researched.

Here is a screenshot featuring all three of the currently buildable stations. From left to right: Ore Refinery, Shipyard, Scrapyard.