Sorry your browser is not supported!

You are using an outdated browser that does not support modern web technologies, in order to use this site please update to a new browser.

Browsers supported include Chrome, FireFox, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 10+ or Microsoft Edge.

Work in Progress / X Flight

Author
Message
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 2nd Oct 2011 19:59
Fly to the edge of the solar system and it will transition into galactic space. Be careful of your fuel. In-system doesn't use fuel, but extra-solar travel requires fuel. The starmap will give you an estimate of fuel useage to any destination. Better engines will (usually) give you better fuel efficiency and better speed-- look at the description of the engines in stardock's shipyard.

I have several artifacts with some that enhance the ship/rover and some that are devistating in combat. There are random ruins on Earth-Like planets and some fixed-site ruins that are storyline based.

The engine design that makes interstellar travel practical is the slipstream effect created by micro-blackholes created in front of the ship. These micro-blackholes create a strong graviational force pulling the ship foreward. They are short-lived so the ship never collides with them. The nature of these micro-blackholes would cause tidal forces that could tear apart a solar system. For that reason, it's design doesn't allow it to be used in the presence of a star or other massive objects like neighboring ships.

The fastest code is the code never written.
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 3rd Oct 2011 05:02
The first post has some new features listed. Download it and try it out. Let me know of any problems/suggestions.

The fastest code is the code never written.
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 20th Oct 2011 20:45
Unless I get more interest, this may be my last post before production. The first post has the latest version. I really want to know what people think about my work.

The fastest code is the code never written.
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 22nd Oct 2011 13:26
Hey don't get discouraged. I have to say I miss comments from community members for my work as well, so that's (unfortunately) usual.

I had pending to give this another try. I can see all the improvements here and there. Almost everything is working as it should, this is what I experienced:

- Left handed mouse! Cool, it was frustrating to use it inverted. But the setting is not saved to disk and I have to check this again everytime I load the program.

- Suggestion: Organize the text so it can be easier to read. I'm refering to the 'Operations' stuff, where the text goes all into one single paragraph.

- The dialogs are old-fashioned but cool , I like the 'Personnel' dialog where you recruit and train. That is part of the role playing side of this game. Lovely.

- Shipyard dialog, I can see no ship in the ships?

- Tradepost dialog, ok, as well as main, medical, and the ship's log, although at the beginning I was confusing the ship's log with the operations dialog. The cargo dialog stayed in screen longer than the others, oh well, maybe I wasn't using it right.

- Also cool the starmap and the system map, but when selecting a planet it allowed me to use only the left mouse button, and I expected to use the right mouse button, as I was using left handed mouse setting.

- After revising it all I made my first launch and localized the star at 145x41 in the starmap, as it said in the ship's log.
A colony that had communications lost, cool! It reminded me of the Aliens film plot.

- Reached the 4th planet in 145x41. Little issue, selecting place to land resets coordinates if I enter the 'recommend for colonization' dialog. Not a big deal anyway.

- Landed and visited the colony. Cool again.

- Found the base, collected alien cows, alien lifeforms like dirigible and biped (attacking!).

- Then I revised the items collected with the rover, what can I say, lovely colony log, great!

- I repaired the rover and began the treatment for the injured humans. Oh, I have two humans and one robot hehe.

- Entered planet orbit again to land at 8n 23e, then I had a unhandled win32 exception, oops
That was no problem because fortunately I just saved a game.

- Load of a saved game was ok, so I continued.

- After loading, the ship was doing some sound effects that I didn't noticed before, so maybe there is a bug around this.

- I found a lot of minerals and lifeforms at the 8n 23e settlement. I guess the colony was destroyed by those bipeds, I haven't found intelligent lifeforms so far.

- I guess now I will be returning to base to sell my items and check for the next mission in the plot but, how do I reload ship fuel?

Excellent job overall, I got immersed easily. Very cool details like the planet scanning and such. Here are some more questions:

- Is there a day & night cycle in the planets? It would be cool to have one.

- Is there a way to move the camera with the rover mode, other than zoom? The same goes for move the camera when landed, but inside the ship. It would be nice to be able to take a look around before disembarking.

- Now you got the plot and the program running. Excellent and with a lot of details. What about some visual effects? The last layer to make it shine.
A few visual details and some shaders would round the final result.

- How deep the game is? The game looks finished, but I still don't know how many different scenarios can I visit, also I have not found any pirates or need to use spaceship lasers or shields.

This is cool and running, let me offer you my support if you need something. Also I'll be glad to test it again and give you my feedback when needed.

Good job

Serial Velocity
15
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Aug 2008
Location:
Posted: 22nd Oct 2011 16:20
I didn't have enough time to really test this thoroughly, only a 5 minute play, but I was blown away with how in-depth and polished it is, especially the planetary landing!

Some things I could suggest is that you should make the little spaceship have more inertia while in space (no friction, fluid motion), and perhaps make the map in the bottom-left corner a little bigger.

TheComet
16
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th Oct 2007
Location: I`m under ur bridge eating ur goatz.
Posted: 22nd Oct 2011 17:17
Looks amazing, keep up the great work I watched your video, what GUI are you using?

TheComet

Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 23rd Oct 2011 15:51
Quote: "I can see no ship in the ships"

That's odd. Can you see the races when you talk to a ship in an encounter? They use the same concept (render to texture using camera 1).
The left mouse selection on planets (or any other places) when you have selected "left-handed mouse" will be looked at-- it's a matter of me changing a 1 to a variable.
Quote: "how do I reload ship fuel?"

You buy it at starport. I gave the player enough fuel to get to the starting quest planet and back again with some left over. Did you find yourself running out going on a straight path? Or were you joy-riding? There is a fuel consumption estimate in the starmap interface. If it's telling you that the trip is taking more than ~6 then there may be a problem with the calculations (I will fix).
Quote: "Is there a day & night cycle in the planets?"

Sorry, no. I thought of that, but I didn't see the point since the player would not likely spend a very long time on-planet. I *may* do that in the future, but for now, it's just daylight.
Quote: "Is there a way to move the camera with the rover mode, other than zoom? The same goes for move the camera when landed, but inside the ship. It would be nice to be able to take a look around before disembarking."

No on the rover view. As far as the view from the ship, that's a possibility, but why would you want to?
Quote: "A few visual details and some shaders would round the final result."

I wanted to make this game with nothing outside of the native DGDK stuff. My next game will be more "special".
Quote: "I have not found any pirates or need to use spaceship lasers or shields."

Have you launched after getting the "Colony under attack" message and the "Shinny thing"? This will trigger a special encounter. As far as pirates, they are random. Each race starts (when you start a new game) around their homeworld and randomly disperses. Each race has its own percent for piracy so as the game progresses, they become more dispersed and you have a greater chance of meeting a ship in "galaxy". Also, if you have a low skill in Navigation, the ships will not show up until it's right next to you.
@Serial Velocity:
Quote: "fluid motion"

It would completely change the dynamics of fuel consumption. It's beyond the scope of this game. Remember, I am trying to capture the feel of the game "Starflight".
@TheComet:
Quote: "what GUI are you using?"

It's mine. http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=178271&b=22

The fastest code is the code never written.
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 26th Oct 2011 20:50 Edited at: 26th Oct 2011 20:51
Quote: "Can you see the races when you talk to a ship in an encounter?"

Yes I met an alien and it was there
This is what I see strange:



Quote: "You buy it at starport."

Well where are them? I went to the star in 145x41, as the 1st mission says. I guess I didn't plan my course very well lol.

Quote: "As far as the view from the ship, that's a possibility, but why would you want to?"

Just for fun, to take a look. I think it would be nice to watch a view of the alien planet before dissembarking, an it would add more different visuals to the game. Not a big deal but I felt like looking around.

Quote: "I wanted to make this game with nothing outside of the native DGDK stuff."

Hey shaders are part of DGDK in my opinion. That's the reason why we got dbLoadEffect, dbSetObjectEffect and such

Quote: "Have you launched after getting the "Colony under attack" message and the "Shinny thing"? "

Yes I met a couple of ships fighting each other, and I could only watch (no lasers or shields), then the winner started communications with my ship, very cool!

Last thing, I had the crash again.
You must check and debug the planet take-off. The crash happened to me twice when taking-off and switching to orbit view. It never reached the orbit view, so maybe there is a problem when showing this scenario, not when arriving from space but when taking off from the planet surface.

Attachments

Login to view attachments
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 26th Oct 2011 23:46 Edited at: 26th Oct 2011 23:51
Quote: "I had the crash again."

I'll have to look at that. It has never crashed on me. Which planet/system?

The "no ships" may be because you have the wrong version. I'm going to check it and make sure the most current is uploaded.


EDIT: it looks as though the most current was already uploaded. You may have gotten the older one just before I uploaded. I am now going to add a version number that will be displayed at the main menu starting with v0.1

The fastest code is the code never written.
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 31st Oct 2011 12:26
Quote: "It has never crashed on me. Which planet/system?"

Any in star at 145x41, the only ones I have tried.

Quote: "You may have gotten the older one just before I uploaded."

I seriously doubt this. You said to download October 3rd, and I downloaded October 9th.
Nevertheless, please tell us when to download again if any changes.

David iz cool
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Sep 2005
Location: somewhere lol :P
Posted: 31st Oct 2011 17:36
hey i like this game but u really need 2 make landing easier. i landed like 4 x in the green & every time it said my rover was lost.i finally gave up on the 4th try & del the game.pls make landing easier,also when u collect minerals on planets its a little boring.u should add like monsters or weather or something.

not bad thou 4 a start
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 31st Oct 2011 20:51
The crashing while in the green IS a problem. I'm not sure what could be causing it, but it would help if I knew what kind of performance you are having. What's the FPS indicating? I have never heard of anyone else having that problem, but hopefully I can find out what is causing it and correct for it.

As far as the mineral collection, yea, it's boreing. There are some planets with good mineral deposits, but they are rare. I found one with ~49% silver and one with ~29% paladium. The "monsters" are there, you just have to be on a planet with lifeforms. I only have a few lifeform types, but more to come. The weather is present, but you won't be affected unless you have to walk. I may make some visual effects for the weather some time later, but for now, it's just numbers.

The fastest code is the code never written.
David iz cool
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Sep 2005
Location: somewhere lol :P
Posted: 7th Nov 2011 17:38
well i never look at the fps,but i have a very good gaming laptop with windows 7,cant u just increase the variable 2 land within?

1 question are u a master of orion fan? because i am big time! love that game!
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 8th Nov 2011 06:15
MOO & MOO2 are favorites of mine. It's important to know what the FPS is while you are landing. If you are actaully landing "in the green", then you should have no damage. It's not difficult to as it is, so the problem must be a timing issue. I can fix it if I can duplicate the problem.

The fastest code is the code never written.
David iz cool
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Sep 2005
Location: somewhere lol :P
Posted: 15th Nov 2011 20:38
never played moo 1 ,but i love moo2! cant play it on my new pc thou,the ship animations are wayyy too fast
i never played moo 3 either,but ive heard alot of people say they dont like it.hope they make a 4th & improve everything!!

sorry off topic lol
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 15th Nov 2011 21:18
The third one was overly complicated. Have you looked at the fps?

The fastest code is the code never written.
David iz cool
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Sep 2005
Location: somewhere lol :P
Posted: 15th Nov 2011 22:53
im dl your game again,ill tell u the fps after i play again.might take me a while 2 reply again thou,bcoz i dont have any internet at home
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 19th Nov 2011 16:57
Hey how is it going? Did you catch the 'launch from planet' bug?
Ley me know if you need further testing

David iz cool
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Sep 2005
Location: somewhere lol :P
Posted: 21st Nov 2011 17:16
my fps is 32 when landing but i dont have any problems landing any more! thanks 4 fixing that!!

cant wait til u add alot more into this game! hope u keep working on it!

is it possible 2 get into a space battle?? i bought a laser cannon but i havent had any battles yet.
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 21st Dec 2011 20:42
Sorry for the delay in updates. I have been in a programming slump lately. If I had a team, I would get encouragement and feedback to keep me going, but no such luck.....

Quote: "is it possible 2 get into a space battle?? "

ABSOLUTELY! There are ships in the galaxy that move randomly and when you run into one you can talk to/attack them. There is quite a bit of stuff in the game already...
Features:
1000 star systems
~4500 planets (an average of 4.5 planets per star. Actual number is unknown)
Each planet is unique and can be landed on except one with a starport (don't try to land on a planet with gravity >6g or you won't be able to launch)
Rove around on planets to collect artifacts, lifeforms, and valuable mineral
Nebulas that will cause your shields to drain during combat (your enemies have the same problem)
Wormholes that can make travel faster and cheaper
Trade system
Up to 7 crew members you can train to fit into 6 fields.
8 unique races each of which can eventually become part of your crew
Artifacts (some can be used to enhance your ship or rover)
Ruins (remnants of an ancient society)
Space fairing aliens that you can talk to or fight if the need arises
Alien outposts you can trade with
Alien homeworlds you can get missions from and trade with
Pirates! Each race has the possibility of having some pirates in the galaxy
In-game player's manual. Main->Options->Instructions
THERE WILL BE MORE


I hope to have an update by the end of the week, so keep looking.

The fastest code is the code never written.
Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 24th Dec 2011 05:06
The latest update is posted (v0.1.1)

Most of the programming is done. All I need to do is the details.

The fastest code is the code never written.
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 15th Jan 2012 11:40 Edited at: 15th Jan 2012 11:43
Hi there,
tried the last version and it is looking good
Is this finished or are you still improving things here and there?
Personally I would add a HDR shader, to give it a plus with graphics, but just my opinion
When this is finished, I'd like to feature your program release in MPL3D website, if that's ok with you. Your program would get promotion, and I would get some content.
Besides I like to support space related developments here in the TGC community, and your program deserves some attention, don't you thik so?
It has a deep gameplay, and you polished it to a good level of quality

[Edit: Oh what's 'there will be more'? ]

Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 16th Jan 2012 14:32
Quote: "Oh what's 'there will be more'?"

I was going to do cut-scenes at certain points, but I don't have access to a good sound studio. I could make the animation (it would take some time), but the sound would suck.

At this point, I have the game finished but it needs polishing. I mean to say, it's playable from beginning to end. The polishing is in the conversations and adding more content like more collectable lifeforms.

I was considering submitting it to Steam. They have a huge audience and could sell it making a profit for my work.

Quote: "Personally I would add a HDR shader"

My goal was to use only native DGDK stuff with no plugins or shaders. I wanted the graphics simple, yet satisfying to the old-school player that liked "Star Flight".

I plan to release it (somewhere) within the next few months. I more than likely will have a demo version in the "Showcase" forum. It will have a timer so you can't get too far in the story, but you should have enough time to get a little taste of all the aspects of the game.

The fastest code is the code never written.
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 29th Jan 2012 10:14
Alright, I'll stay tunned.
Just please let me know when you want me to publish the announcement about the release of X-Flight

Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 29th Jan 2012 17:01
If Steam rejects it, I will be happy to have you publish it. The reason I am looking at Steam is that they have a HUGE market base and people are always looking for a cheap game to pass the time.

The fastest code is the code never written.
Morcilla
21
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 1st Dec 2002
Location: Spain
Posted: 5th Feb 2012 11:34
Hey sure. I wish you best luck with the release.
I'm not saying I'm publishing your game, I'm just willing to spread the new, like in the TGC newsletter. That would foster more downloads.
If Steam rejects it, you can always go to the Intel AppUp Store.
You just keep us informed

Hawkblood
14
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 5th Dec 2009
Location:
Posted: 25th Feb 2012 16:51
It is finished. The demo version is posted at the top. I will post a new thread in "Program Announcements" and will follow up there from now on. Thank you all for posting.

The fastest code is the code never written.

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-03-29 11:13:06
Your offset time is: 2024-03-29 11:13:06