1098
« on: June 07, 2005, 12:51:22 am »
Right now, as head of the project, I'm feeling a bit out to see as far as what to get done during the summer. There are quite a few things we could implement... and most of them are about equal on my list of importance, so I figured I'd ask you all what you think we should get done this summer. Here's the list:
1) Systems - This is ship systems. This would mean that the performance of your ship is based on these systems, which can take damage, and also have reliabilities to them. Basically, it needs to go in for combat, and it also makes it possible to start developing the ways the user interacts with things like systems (as in how to repair them, etc.)
2) Damage - The ability for systems to take damge. Pretty simple... but requires Systems.
3) Combat - Just like the name implies. This would be ship to ship combat.
4) Planets - The ability to land on planets. This requires a good deal of work... like writing the fluid thrusters for the mechanics system.. aka writing more API for the mechanics plugin for CEL, and doing more work to get out app to talk to the physics engine. Then, we'd have to get LOD working, and make the planet itself...
5) Artificial Intelligence - Basically opponents for players to fight. Could be simple, could be complex. Depends on what's wanted for now.
6) GUI - Implement an entire GUI system for the game (aside form the HUD). We'd do it with SVG graphics, but that requires us to write an SVG loader/render for CS. Possibly even an SVG windowing system. Tricky stuff.
7) Stability - Another thing would be simply focusing on cleaning everything up so that most of the bugs are gone, and that what's currently there works flawlessly... although not much fun, it would make it more stable.
8) Polish - Clean up the graphics. Make everything look amazingly cool, with awesome textures, and insane looking shaders (hell, any shaders would be a start). Also optimize it as much as possible to get the most FPS we can out of it.
9) First-Person work - Right now we've ditched FP mode in our game in favor of Flightsim. We really should go back and implement some of the things we wanted to do in Flightsim in FP as well. Hell, it doesn't even use the mechanics plugin yet.
10) Real-Time Strategy / Captital Ship - We could also start the next mode... which is like RTS. Basically, it would alow you to control more than one capital ships at a time.... like a fleet. I think we should start calling it 'Fleet mode' instead of RTS.. Oh, and about captial ships... they fly differently from fighters (which is the flying style we currently have) so they require a different way of controlling them. (If anyone's ever played StarFleet Command... we're thinking of doing something like this.) We could also impliment that at the same time as RTS (or before.)
11) Networking - This could be p2p, server/client, or a mix. We're thinking of using RakkNet. (can't find the link right now...)
So, any other ideas? Any other suggestions? We can work on more than one at a time.. and I can draw up a To-Do list from the suggestions, and update it for what's currently finished when it get completed. (maybe make a sticky thread, and update it as out ToDo list changes.. so you always know what we're doing. Anyone like this idea?)
Also, I personally vote: 1,2,3,11 and then:5,7,6 as time allows.
--Chris
Show Posts
(And when it hits is debatable... and even if it happens might be. Keep in mind the war isn't a part of the game.. it's part of the gaming experiance... aka it's something we'll do on the servers... not cod into the game itself...