Messages

1101

Precursors / Space Flight Controls, and Realism

« on: June 06, 2005, 02:44:11 pm »

Oh, as a note, macguyvok is the God account on these forums.. I mistakenly logged in as him... so assume the above post came from me.

--Chris

1102

Precursors / Looking for a developer?

« on: June 06, 2005, 10:30:49 am »

Nice. I'm pretty pashionate about AI's too, but My programming experiance is significantly less than whitelynx's or yours... so I've been more the project head/idea man/debugging aid. One thing I want for this game is some really smart AI. (The ability to learn tactics is something I would love to have, but I don't know if that's realistic...)

From what you've posted, and what whitelynx said... Yes, we want you as a Dev. Right now, the project is kinda stalled pending a re-write of the mechanics system. Talk to whitelynx, and maybe between you two, you can figure out exactly how to solve the problems he's having with the rewrite... after that, there's two thing that need to be worked on that I think your pashions may play into. First, is the fact that we need some sort of basic AI that will shoot, and fly, and do basic manuevers. (Could even be a hard coded pattern for now... I'd rather it wasn't though.) The other is implimenting systems (and hence damage for combat). In the systems implimentation, we need to write some basic AI into the systems themselves... and we need to figure otu the logic of two special systems; the Power Distribution Network (PDN) and the Data Distribution Network (DDN). What's special about them, is that they function very much like a nueral net... All Systems, except the reactor needs a connection to the PDN. If a connection is severed, it's possible the system is still connected to another system, and can still get power that way. (Somehow it needs a path to the reactor) The DDN is even more like a neural net... the DDN allows systems to communicate. When breaks occure... it's possble the DDN will be cut into two different networks... so they systems can only talk to whatever other systems are still connected to thier part of the DDN.

Well, I'm getting a bit long winded here, and some of this should likely go into either another thread, or an e-mail, or an IRC chat... but yes, we want you as a Dev!

--Chris

1103

Precursors / Source code?

« on: June 06, 2005, 10:16:03 am »

Nah, not at all. We generally put 20 - 25 hours a week in max durring the school year.... right now nothing's been happening, due to Life (tm). However, I'm pushing Dave to get back on the ball, and I *think* we might be hitting development again really soon. We'll take all the help we can get :-D.

1104

Suggestions / What should go into the next version?

« on: June 05, 2005, 12:53:25 pm »

Well, the asteroid issue has bothered me. We se reasonable masses for it, but for some strange reason, the mass wasn't affecting the rotation...

...we forgot to multiply the moments of inertia by the mass (we set it to a unit moment of inertia for simulation stability reasons.

As far as the plasma particles.... it took me an entire night to get the plasma particles to *not* make anything they hit start very badly.... we'll up the mass some more, and see if it feels better. The physics engine already has force reactions in it, so the recoil soundn't be hard....

1105

Bug Reports / Alpha Release v0.3.0

« on: June 05, 2005, 12:48:23 pm »

Yeah, the framerates thing, from what I can tell, is due to some funkiness in the physics engine we're using.... right now we're rewriting our mechanics plugin (that uses the physics engine) to fix long-standing issues, and *hopefully* to repair this. We'll see if it's on our end, or if we need to do some work on the physics engine itself...

The 1280x1024 issue was me running it in fullscreen, on my desktop. No one else has had that issue, but to be safe it's listred as a 'bug'.

--Morgul

1106

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 31, 2005, 10:47:20 am »

Oh, really? Honestly, we don't have a good deal of time either... that's why the development is going as slowly as it is....

Oh, btw... I'm *kinda* back now.... I have internet access again, although it's not very good.

--Chris

1107

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 18, 2005, 03:47:33 pm »

I was only razzing you about the avatar... no biggie. I will be around until Monday... then I'm heading back to my apartment... which means no internet for like a week, or so. (I may hijack a dialup connection, or use my cellphone.. who knows)

--Chris

1108

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 18, 2005, 11:38:05 am »

Looks like the latest CVS is fixed for OSX Tiger now. How's it working for you?

1109

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 17, 2005, 02:12:55 pm »

Hrm.... possibly. Tiger uses GCC 4.0 (which I know has some incompatability with previous versions, since they removed support for deprecated things.) Are you using the latest CVS checkout? (because I'm pretty sure the latest stable doesn't work with GCC 4.0)

I'd post a bug report on the CS mailing list if it's with the latest CVS.

1110

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 17, 2005, 01:45:42 pm »

Ah... Hmm. It's only 3:50 here, so I'm not contemplating bed for another ten hours or so

1111

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 17, 2005, 01:27:23 pm »

Haha. It's black because... well, because it's a scaled down version of a 1024x768 wallpaper (svg :-D) I had. I wanted an avatar, and figured I'd take 3 seconds to make this one. I could make it transparant... but not right now... doing a re-write on the first chapter of the story this game is based off of.

Speaking of avatars... you need one.

--Chris

1112

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 17, 2005, 12:58:37 pm »

Ouch. Never seen it that slow before....

/me wonders if there are any mirrors....


Hmm, I just downloaded the mac osx version in like a second..... (600k/s for me)

Not sure where the hold up is for you...  :?

1113

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 17, 2005, 12:41:22 pm »

Ah. Jam is VERY simple. For example, to compile CS with it, you simply type in:
'jam'

:P.

Basically, it boils down to:  'jam' and then the target... like 'jam apidocs' or something like that. (most typically, I use it to do a clean/distclean: 'jam clean' )

Like I said, it's pretty easy.

--Chris

1114

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 17, 2005, 12:14:16 pm »

Jam. It's sooo much simplier.

--Chris

1115

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 17, 2005, 11:57:21 am »

Ah... IC. Well, we do our development on linux. (There's no linux build up there, because so far all the people we've talk to about testing run windows, or have access to it.

I plan on getting a mac sometime in the future.. but I don't have access to one now, so we can't build it. However, if I talk to Dave, he might be willing to let you build a Mac version for us. (The way our code is written, the only thing we need to do is to build our source on a mac. That's it.)

Final version will be Window, Linux, and Mac.

Oh, about the dll's in the main directory... they've been working on that.. and some of the recent changes should have fixed that. It's a major annoyance to me, and I can assure you if it isn't already, it will be fixed inside the next few months, since I hate having all those dll's in the main app dir.

--Chris

1116

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 17, 2005, 10:21:29 am »

Thanks for the png transparancy trick. I'll get Dave to put it on the site (since  I don't know much more than basic html, and even then I'm not too good with it.)

As far as full control over the system, we've actually been rewritting some parts of CEL to suite our needs, and atually getting them commited to CEL. As of right now, we have full control over everything we need.

Unfortunately, our 'design docs' and skethes are all in a notebook about five hours from where I am. Most are just quick things I've done up. We don't have an overarching design doc, although we've been doing some work on it.

The basic idea is for us to use xml definitions for things lik ship systems, weapons, etc, and then use iPcInventory to attatch them to the entities. We've done some testing and the system works really well, and will work for everythign we need to do in the game.

Oh, about single player... there's still a bit of confusion. The single player is going to be storyline driven, which means that it's not really going to be like the MORPG. The interfaces will be the same, but think of HL's singplayer mode. We're not going to have to worry about what's going on in the entire universe, unless it's part of the story, and then we simply make changes to things when the player reachers a certain part of the story.

(Oh, in thinking about it, I think I very well may post some sketches I do for the different modes. We already have the flightsim screenies on the site, so I'll do FPS, and RTS. Anything else you think might help?

--Chris

1117

Precursors / Precursors FAQ

« on: May 16, 2005, 06:59:58 pm »

This is the official FAQ. Check back as it's updated, corrected, or as things change.


Q: Where is the source code?

A: It's here: svn://kashmir.g33xnexus.com/precursors/source/trunk (Just check that out using subversion.)


Q: What if I want to contribute?

A: Talk to the head of the department you want to contribute to. You can find a list of the departments and team members at the Precursors Team page. If we like you, and think that you can be of help, we'll talk.


Q: Why more than one game mode?

A: That's my fault. I think that only by having more than one mode can you make a game as dynamic as what we want Precursors to be. Also, it's never been done before (near as we can tell).


Q: Doesn't that make it harder?

A: Yes, it does. We don't care, we think it's going to be awesome. If we find out we can't do it, we'll scrap the idea. Until then, we're keeping it.


Q: Does this game have a single-player mode?

A: Not currently. A single-player companion game is planned, but the MMORPG portion will be finished before that is. To help keep people from getting confused, the single-player game will be story driven, and won't work like the MMORPG. It will be more like Half-Life's single player mode.


Q: What libraries/tools are you using to develop this game?

A: We're using Crystal Space with CEL as our game engine, and using ODE as our physics engine. The game is compiled with GCC, and we don't use an IDE (we prefer using gvim). We're also using RakNet and CEGUI.


Q: What operating system(s) will this game support?

A: The game will support Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. It's possible we can support other OS's, if we have a machine to compile binaries on for that platform. (and given that platform is supported by Crystal Space; see this page to determine if your platform can be supported.)

There will be more questions coming as I have time, and issues arise.

--Chris

1118

Precursors / Space Flight Controls, and Realism

« on: May 16, 2005, 06:49:03 pm »

We've recently been told the controls kinda suck. We do know this, and we're aware. We're currently re-re-writing the mehcanics system, and how our thrusters work... in layman's terms we're simplifying everything, and making controls feel much more responsive, and simple. (let us know if you want details.)

--Chris

1119

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 16, 2005, 06:41:06 pm »

Almost forgot: Thanks for the comments on the site! We've tried to make it looks as good as we can. As far as the PNG transpearance... it's not supported in IE. That's why we recomend Firefox.

Also, the phpBB theme is temporary... we're making out own eventually. This one will be the default till then... and we'll keep it as an option. Personally, I like it.

1120

Precursors / Source code?

« on: May 16, 2005, 06:37:54 pm »

Well, let me start off by saying thankyou for the input! It's nice to see someone other than myself or Dave posting on these forums, and it's also nice to see someone taking al look at the game!

Now, to adress your concerns:

Source Code:[/u]
Yes, the project is closed source. There are a number of reasons for this, but I'm not the best person to answer the 'why' of it. (Even though I'm the project head, I left that decision up to Dave, and he opted for closed source. We talk about why a few months ago, but I really can't remember most of his reasons. With any luck he'll reply to this post.)

Single Player:[/u]
Ok, I can see your point here, but it isn't impssible. However, some clarification is needed. The MMORPG will be released before the single player version. If it helps, think of the single player version more as a second project then part of the initial game. You're right when you say a MMORPG is quite enough....      

...for now.

Game Modes:[/u]
Ah, this is something I've heard before. Right now, with just Dave and myself working on this, it seems hard to imaine us ever making a game that encompases more than one genre, and ever pulling it off. Then again, if you take a look at where we are right now, it was hard to imagine we'd even be this far last september when we started. It hasn't even been a year, and we've already released an alpha... seems pretty good to me.

Now, limiting ourselves to one mode might very well make it easy, but the point isn't to get the game out in a year or two; the point is to get a game that does things people have never seen before out the door in something more like five years. (I'm trying to be realistic here.) Even if it takes twenty years, imagine how impressive it will be? (I sure hope it doesn't take that long!!  :P

Balancing very well might be an issue. However, the modes are very seperate. Also, RTS is simply a special case of flightsim (there won't be any real balancing issues here; balance flightsim, and you've balanced RTS). FPS vs Flightsim might pose soe interesting problems, but then again   when will the two ever interact? Should someone hop into a starfighter, the certainly are going to do some damage if they start shooting people with it's weapons. That's not imbalance, that's real life!

As far as the traveling, we've got it figured out. There are two modes of travel: normal space, and sub space. Normal space is exatcly like the real universe. If you start traveling in one direction, eventually you'll get somewhere, but it may take years... litterally. That's why they invented subspace. Subspace is a shortcut: basically warping space around youself, and translating in the fourth dimension. Without getting into the phsyics, it allows a trip from one planet to another to take a few seconds, and traveling across the gallaxy would only take weeks. (Now, we're not sure how that will work in game play; we might shorten the amount of time it takes. We'll see.)

Generating Worlds:[/u]
Defintitely. That's what I've been thinking for a while now. We need more content, and worlds are one of the largest. (As a side note, the ability to destroy a planet may exist, but almost no one will have it. Kinda would unballance things a tad ) Now, something I've been trying to figure out is how one would go about generating planets. I don't even have any real ideas o this, mind sharing some?

Game Engine:[/u]
I was asking Dave this the other day. Honestly, CS might not be the best choice, however it's something Dave is familiare with (and I'm gettin there) plus it has a good deal more infrastructure to it than any other. You see, with CS and CEL about the first year of our development is done for us already. Sure, CS might not be the best interms of raw performance, and/or total grpahics quality, however something I've found is that games that are fun, and have a huge playability factor are seldom ignored because they don't look like doom 3.

FPS:[/u]
When we say FPS, we mean mostly camera mode/game style. It's not going to be a deathmatch. Think of it more like Neverwinter Nights, or MorrowWind. (But FPS, not 3rd person). Sorry for the confusion.

I'd very much like to see what you might eb able to offer. I'm going to talk to Dave (who may be out of contact for the next two weeks, I'm not sure.) and in the mean time, I'd be interested in more of your ideas, and in talking about some of this in more depth! Feel free to respond on the forums.

--Chris