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[jotapeh]

Topic now locked. Will be starting a DevLog in the future, under a different name, with a new engine.

Greetings gentlebeans.  

It's been a while since I've posted something worthwhile here and I've been working on a little prototype for a couple weeks now that I'm hoping you all find as exciting as I do. Without further ado, it is my pleasure to bring you:

Eternity

Heavy influence from Escape Velocity, and a bit of inspiration from EVE Online plus a few others. This game will have a lot of keys, because that is the 1990s way to do things! Here is a list for now, since there's no in-game help:

- Z Key Fires Primary Weapon
- C and V Keys Zoom In/Out
- Tab targets enemies. This automagically zooms the camera to the appropriate rectangle to encompass both you and your foe
- L lands on planets.
- H enters Hyperspace (when you are a safe distance from the center of the system as marked by the blue circle)

LATEST UPDATE - NOV 9 2010

- Traders now spawn in systems with planets. They'll poke around a bit and fly to a planet, trade then leave the system for greener pastures.
- Ships and their pilots are persistent - as in, leave the screen and come back and they'll still be there. Traders who leave the system will be found in adjacent systems.
- Pilots will communicate with you and other ships. At the moment this means pirates smack-talk their victims and traders cry for help. You can also kill traders. If you are feeling mean.

Features implemented thus far

- Procedurally generated Galaxy, new every time you play/die. You'll get around 40-60 solar systems each with planets, moons, a star in random orbits, etc.. to explore
- Rudimentary AI/combat. Visit systems and occasionally some enemies will spawn and pew pew you. Enemies sometimes blow their teammates up, it's rather tragic.
- 5 different types of ships
- Ability to land on planets and view neat stats about them.
- Starports on planets are open for business and sell you a variety of ships. All five of them.

Features planned

- Claim planets
- Ability to extract minerals from planets
- Build stations, turrets on planets
- Build your own spacecraft & spacecraft mods.
- As needed, the game will generate more galaxies for you to explore and conquer.
- ...Massive Multiplayer... if other people find this idea as awesome as I do.

As always, I value the TIG community's opinion quite a lot, so I'd like to hear anything you folks have to say, good, bad, or ugly.

[Montoli]

Neat!  it reminds me a lot of Star Control 2, actually!  (Which, btw, is one of my all time favorite games, and everyone should play since the creators are totally cool and released the code to it and everything so now it's free.)

Some comments so far:

• Would be nice if the tutorial told you how to shoot.  (Since it tells you everything else.)  I had to figure that out by trial and error
• Enemies obviously need explosions at some point, although that's clearly a ways away
• I found the camera a little awkward to work with when I got in a fight.  It would be nice if there were a button to let you have the camera "auto-zoom", where it would smoothly move to whatever size is necessary to keep everything you care about in the system on one screen.  (i. e. you, + all enemies)  It's hard to mess with the camera when you're trying to dodge.
• I like the planets with moons around them.  Actually the whole solar systems are pretty great.
• It was weird having to click for the starmap, since the rest of the game was keyboard controlled.  (and it didn't give me any onscreen hints for that)  It took me a little while.  Would be nice if you could select from the starmap via your keyboard keys.
• When you're way zoomed out, it is really hard to tell which direction you are facing.

I like it!  A promising start!


Also - I am also wondering what is up with the flash icon.  Where did it go?

[fraxcell]

Looks cool so far, I'm definitely looking forward to when you start implementing some of those planned features.

My only complaint right now is that you transition without much warning to the star map screen when you exit the boundaries of a solar system. It would be nice if you would get a little warning, like "exiting solar system in 5 seconds...". A lot of times I would be in an intense dogfight when I would be suddenly transported to the star map.

[Melly]

No idea about the Flash icon. Probably a good idea to send Derek a message.

I gave the game a quick try. It looks interesting and promissing, but there's plenty to do still, from what I can see.

You should let the player know the controls better. I had no idea how to interact with planets, or if I even could do so. Once I got to the star systems map, there seemed to be nothing I could do to leave it. I had no idea I should also use the mouse. It's usually best to either have the whole game control with mouse or not at all, to keep the control consistent.

I didn't see any enemies in my short time with the game. I also found the shooting button through trial and error with the keyboard.

Space games with procedural generation are quite rare, I think. I'm sure you could have plenty of people interested in your game if you polished it more.

[imaginationac]

I love space exploration!

Okay, feedback:
Like Montoli said, the only control your weren't told how to use was to shoot. I panicked the first time I got attacked in another solar system. :concerned

Pretty much parroting what Montoli said.

I should also check out Star Control 2, I've been meaning to do that for a while now.

Good luck and I hope to see more soon.

[desdinova]

this sounds pretty cool.  Starflight II was one of the first games a played a lot of, so I do enjoy a  bit of space exploration.  Looking forward to seeing more

[LazyWaffle]

Looks pretty awesome. I'm assuming this will have somewhat of an RTS-like feel to it when you implement the planet-claiming feature?

Anyway, the combat feels really awkward, with arrow keys for movement shooting at tiny ships. It feels really hard to dodge things. Not really sure how it could be fixed though.

[Maunomau]

It would be nice if leaving solar system system required pressing a button(or going very far) ie. "press space to enter hypespace" since as is it's like being trapped inside a bubble while enemies can come and go freely.
Having some marker pointing to off-screen enemies would reduce the need to fiddle with zoom.
Also some sounds for shields being hit or some other clear indication of actually hitting something or being hit would be great.

[jotapeh]

Thanks everyone! You guys are pros – I've already been hard at work implementing some of your suggestions, and put a few of them up in a small update, eg.:

• Exiting a system now requires that you initiate hyperspace outside of the blue line by pressing 'H' or ESC (looking for a better alternative to this control scheme though)
• No more mouse control. Everything is done via keyboard.
• It's a little easier to hit your targets with laz0rs (and conversely a little easier for them to hit you and each other.)
• Tutorial mentions shooting. Also you'll be prompted to enter hyperspace when you're at the blue exit distance.
• Shield damage sound (plus others)
• Settings to lower volume because people might find all these new sounds rather grating

Oh yes, and a bonus, splash screen plus a possible title...

Montoli, I tried out Star Control 2. I must suck at it pretty bad because the Starbase Commander constantly berates me for my 'small payload'... and some weird crystal thing keep showing up and saying "We Come In Peace" before blowing me to bits. Definitely enjoying it thoroughly though

LazyWaffle – I don't believe it will go the RTS route. Think more you will claim planets and continue to fly your own starship, possibly with a small escort. But the benefit of owning planets will be increased income and/or access to minerals, etc.. for dodging, well, actually the AI right now has a hard time keeping up if you simply fly perpendicular to them and keep moving, generally they can't hit you very well at all.

[jotapeh]

Well, I'm moving ahead with this still, and keeping the title "Eternity" until someone complains

The latest alpha is available at the same place and it features a lot of improvements, mostly based on things you guys mentioned.

Another big addition is a targeting system which you can use by pressing TAB when there are enemies in your system. This will keep the camera zoomed in just enough for you to see that target.

I also added 4 new types of ships, 3 of which are actually somewhat visually interesting. Ships explode into particle system bits of goodness too. I feel like combat is pretty serviceable now, and I'd like to move on to the meat of visiting planets, but additional feedback on it is still more than welcome!

Ka-splooie

PS. If a mod thinks it is more appropriate, this post might actually belong better in the DevLog forum as I plan to update it somewhat regularly with progress/new alphas... please move it as you deem fit

[fraxcell]

Awesome update! I love the title screen and the targeting system, although I think it zoomed in a little too much sometimes. Also, I think you should be able to cycle to the "no target" mode by pressing tab. Other than that, it I'm enjoying the progress you're making. Keep it up!

[jotapeh]

Thanks for your help ninjutsu. I capped the zoom in and zoom out.. other additions:

• Planets now space themselves a little more uniformly according (roughly) to Bode's 'Law'
• Planets calculate a random amount of available minerals, and an ambient surface temperature based on their distance from the system's star
• You can now land on planets by pressing 'L' near them, which will show you some details on the planet
• Interface tweaks (cheers to SundownKid for his help with that!  )
• Hyperspace in/out of systems occurs from the edge of the system, not the center.
• Several optimization tweaks to the particle system, sound system and planetary objects as gameplay was starting to chug a little bit..

(edit: screenie of planet interface WIP)

Yeah so, planets are obviously getting attention right now, mostly because it will be through planets that you can buy new ships/weapons.

[jotapeh]

OK, I lied. I did new weapons first.   

I've put in a giant laser beam and a guided missile. If you have someone targeted, you'll fire a missile – if not, then giant laser beam.

You can try them out at the same place as usual. I'd like to hear how people think this 'feels'.. weapons seem a finicky to me in games like this.

Also, some overhaul to particle/planetary systems which was causing slowdowns... and the sounds are 'redone' (that is, I stopped Flash from doing that awful 16kbps MP3 compression to everything.) There's some other new bits in too.

More to come. Sooner rather than later I am hoping. 

[LazyWaffle]

This is shaping up pretty well! I think the player should appear on the mini-map, and so should the enemies and planets.

[jotapeh]

This is shaping up pretty well! I think the player should appear on the mini-map, and so should the enemies and planets.

Your wish is my command. 

Planets, the player and the player's targeted enemy now show on the minimap.

[Draknek]

If you go too far from a star it's easy get lost without being sure which way to go back. I later realised that there is a marker on the map, but it's very subtle.

The tutorial doesn't mention landing on planets? Possibly because there's nothing you can do there yet?

You should be able to press "space" everywhere you need to use "enter".

The stars should probably be inter-connected? It's a bit weird that you can't travel between stars which are close on the map but aren't directly connected.

[jotapeh]

Thanks for your feedback, Draknek. Sorry for the delayed reply, I wanted to wait until I had updates to show.

Anyway, to address your specific concerns:

If you go too far from a star it's easy get lost without being sure which way to go back. I later realised that there is a marker on the map, but it's very subtle.

I agree, and I think the solution will have to be an arrow pointing towards the player or something, as I don't much like the idea of centering the minimap on the player all the time.

The tutorial doesn't mention landing on planets? Possibly because there's nothing you can do there yet?

It mentions it now but.. still not much you can do there.

You should be able to press "space" everywhere you need to use "enter".

I included "Enter" as an alternative to pressing "Z", I don't know if Spacebar is also necessary. Seems overkill...?

The stars should probably be inter-connected? It's a bit weird that you can't travel between stars which are close on the map but aren't directly connected.

This one I'm still not sure about. Escape Velocity and EVE both have stars that appear to be in close proximity but aren't connected for one reason or another. I sort of like it this way, although there is no context in this particular game to explain WHY you can't travel between them, perhaps I can figure out some sort of way of faking a 'z-level' or natural phenomena that might prevent such travel.


Anyway, UPDATE! I spent all weekend losing sleep on this, mostly due to some crazy bugs, but I think it's good to go now. What's new?

- Traders now spawn in systems with planets. They'll poke around a bit and fly to a planet, trade then leave the system for greener pastures.
- Ships and their pilots are persistent - as in, leave the screen and come back and they'll still be there. Traders who leave the system will be found in adjacent systems.
- Pilots will communicate with you and other ships. At the moment this means pirates smack-talk their victims and traders cry for help. You can also kill traders. If you are feeling mean.

As always there are other small changes I can't remember this second. Check it out, yo.

[jotapeh]

Moar updates. (This really should probably go in the DevLog section soon, I am thinking.)

First and foremost! Starports now work. If you land on a planet with one you can select it and browse the available ships, maybe even buy one! Or, if you'd rather, you can watch a little trailer that I put together for a bit of a giggle:





I'm still really excited about this game so you can expect regular updates to continue!  ...Whether you like it or not!

[Desert Dog]

This is probably pretty silly, but I've landed on a planet with L, and now I don't know what to do. I can move the selection up the 3 options (Probe Launcher,Trade Depot Factory)
But can't seem to select, or do anything.

Oh, and can't figure out how to go back.

Looks fun,though. I didn't like the initial text at the start when I was loading it up. Flickery, green. It made it harder to read, and didn't exactly make it seem more realistic to me.. I mean, you'd think in space age, they'd figure out how to make computers display text properly.

I like space games, hope you finish this.  

Edit: Now I'm in a star port, have no money to buy anything, and can't seem to find my way to close the star port screen.. Am I missing some sort of important button? I'm trying all the keys..

[jotapeh]

Hey, thanks for your feedback Desert Dog!

You raise an excellent point with the Planet and Starport interfaces, it's completely unclear how to close them. (ESC key, by the way.) A tooltip should probably appear advising how to do this, or perhaps an 'Exit' menu item included in the interfaces, maybe something along those lines!

Regarding the flickery green text, yeah. I think I got carried away with it. I think originally I was going for more a desolate, semi-broken down ship feeling for an intro... In any case it's sloppy design and it always bugged me how illegible that font is there, but something very legible like a normal sans-serif font seems so out of place. Still not sure what to do about it though  I think the whole HUD could use a reskin, although I'm happy with the element positioning..

Actually the planet interface could use a redesign as well, although I'm quite happy with the Starport interface. A big problem is that I design something in Photoshop, feel really good about it, and then a little something gets lost in the translation to Flash... well, no matter, there is always time for more design!