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[oyog]

I was wondering whether you were planning on this being specifically man made objects (space stations, ships) or if you're hoping to include larger objects like planets and suns? I was trying to imagine how that would work in the game you've described so far.

[zoq]

I was wondering whether you were planning on this being specifically man made objects (space stations, ships) or if you're hoping to include larger objects like planets and suns? I was trying to imagine how that would work in the game you've described so far.

The game will also include larger, non-player-made, objects than ships and stations. It's too early to say if we will have planets specifically (they are technically a bit complex), but asteroids and stars it will have. Everything, including asteroid and stars, will hopefully be fully destructible. The "hopefully" is there, because for very large objects such as stars, things rarely go as straightforward as one would hope.

Edit ::: To expand this answer, I have been using 8000x8000x8000 block asteroid for general game testing and it works without problems. Larger objects, such as 100 000 x 100 000 x 100 000 blocks work internally okay and are destructible fine, but have some display complications which make them at the moment unusable for real gameplay. However, for single-colour stars these display complications should be less severe. Even with the fairly good data compression algorithm I'm sure there's a limit somewhere, so it would be my guess that realistic star sizes (for example 1 000 000 000 blocks for each dimension) are really not possible with 1 meter blocks. Most likely I'll have to use smaller stars (don't like this) or larger basic blocks for stars (better alternative, since I don't think most people are carving home caves inside stars anyway)

[zoq]

A brief update: I have been working on Minecraft-style block removal and mining and it's coming nicely. Hopefully I can soon start adding some actual gameplay.

[peous]

Do you plan to have any specific graphic style ?

I haven't thought much about that yet. I hope to have something clear but at the same time sci-fi-y and cool. Can you be more specific about what you mean?

- About world shape, do you want to keep everything box-shaped like Minecraft ? Or add more specific elements like some pipes or so ?
- About view, it seems that you have some 3rd person or 1st person ?

[zoq]

- About world shape, do you want to keep everything box-shaped like Minecraft ? Or add more specific elements like some pipes or so ?
- About view, it seems that you have some 3rd person or 1st person ?

At the moment I'm seriously considering all-blocks-style, but with the very important addition of being able to use smaller blocks in addition to the normal ones. This is done more for the gameplay than graphical reasons. There may or may not be angled blocks, I haven't decided yet.

The gameplay will be "1st person" in the sense that you are seeing only what your character sees. However, you can have cameras around your ship that will expand your character's looking options either via monitor stations or perhaps wireless connection to your character's HUD.

[peous]

Just found this
http://www.indiedb.com/games/blockade-runner/
Hope this can inspire you !

[zoq]

Just found this
http://www.indiedb.com/games/blockade-runner/
Hope this can inspire you !

Yeah, BR seems to somewhat similar to what I'm doing, at least superficially. I'm really not sure what kind of gameplay or level of physics they are designing, however.

[peous]

Don't know, but the funny thing seems that you can play outside & inside the ship (FPS) !

I'm really not sure what kind of gameplay or level of physics you are designing, however

[zoq]

Don't know, but the funny thing seems that you can play outside & inside the ship (FPS) !

I'm really not sure what kind of gameplay or level of physics you are designing, however

On the very basic level, you have guy(s) and ships (and stations and asteroids etc). You can move around with the dude in and out of the ship like in a fps or minecraft and so on, then run to the cockpit or bridge and activate the controls, after which you control the ship and not the individual character. So, that's probably very much like what they are doing (and a kind of a no-brainer in these kind of games). Inside the ship you are either in an artificial gravity and walk around normally, or you use magnetic boots/handrails to walk around on whatever surface you want.

Alternatively without a gravity, and usually in space, you need to use small motors (or a gun!) to move your character, like you were a small ship. I actually have thought about making the space suit customizable like any other ship, so you can design how many motors you have, what kind of boots, armor or no armor, weapons and tools, etc. This is of course very tentative at the moment, but I see no real reason why it wouldn't work fine.

[peous]

Nice ! So no real objective, like in MC ?
Going from planet to planet, mining elements to build bigger ship...
At least you need some threat !

[zoq]

Nice ! So no real objective, like in MC ?
Going from planet to planet, mining elements to build bigger ship...
At least you need some threat !

The gameplay ideas are still quite tentative, but most likely there is no real ending. There may be a way to "win" akin to Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft, but there is no need to trigger that if the player does not want to. In the first stages at least there will be no win condition.

In addition to mining and crafting I plan to add trading, pirating (and pirate hunting) and probably some way of taking territory by force. Defending your own territory may or may not be in, depending on how it feels (as of now I think "nope").

[peous]

Nice. Because one of the best things in MC, from the beginning, was building the day & defending/hunting the night

[aurasprw]

So who "are" you? In minecraft you are a person. Are you a ship in this game? How do you manipulate objects?

I suppose I might compare a game like this or minecraft to 3D paint. In minecraft there is a somewhat visceral sense that you are the one building your monuments; in this game, I don't imagine I'd get that feeling.

[zoq]

So who "are" you? In minecraft you are a person. Are you a ship in this game? How do you manipulate objects?

I suppose I might compare a game like this or minecraft to 3D paint. In minecraft there is a somewhat visceral sense that you are the one building your monuments; in this game, I don't imagine I'd get that feeling.

You are a person, who can control ships, but who also can walk around the ship and so on. Avatar-based object manipulation is normal (like in every 1st person game), but mining is probably done with short-range lasers instead of picks.

[aurasprw]

So how do you switch from viewing yourself inside the ship to outside the ship?

Also, are you supposed to be realistically scaled to fit in your ship? Because that would tend to make building a ship a lot more work than the original model seems to indicate, unless you're manipulating blocks several times your size.