next »

[Rogod]

@JobLeonard
I did think about making navigation around your own ship use the same perspective, but as yet I have no plans to be able to board other vessels. Beaming down to planets, though, is far more in the direction I wanted to take the project, especially now I realise I want to add more planet-surface content anyway.

@vdapps
Abandoned stations isn't something I'd considered yet - I'll add it to the ideas bucket.
The trouble with any kind of gameplay that involves shooting or any realtime interactions is that the control scheme is restricted to being single-key typed input rather than multiple realtime keys (so I can't just go make Doom or something). The closest viable option is to make some kind of turn-based crawler. We'll see what I come up with.

[JobLeonard]

I worry for the redshirts

[Rogod]

Heh, I was planning on just having a 3D view from various buildings you create first - no redshirts will be harmed for a while yet

[Rogod]

Update v0.69
Where we're going, we don't need roads !

• Added monorails which can carry workers a greater distance than roads

• Animated roads, monorails and conduits so you can actually tell what is happening (also helps to make a functioning colony look inhabited )

• Animated hives and tytopops so they look alive too(This also happens to be showing a tytopop juicing machine just for the lolz )

• Made it so that ramming and evading from the bridge actually look like something's happening

• Added some more bar patron chatter

• Tweaked nitygen gas and potanium ore to be distinguishable from one another on purple planets

• Fixed the addon shop being 1 square too short so it looked all cramped & stoopid

• Squashed some tech debt and refactored a fairly core mechanism to be safer and slicker throughout the program

[JobLeonard]

That looks great! It does make the colony come alive

By the way, I forgot in which language you're implementing this. If it's C, then have a look at this:

https://storage.googleapis.com/justine/ape.html

https://storage.googleapis.com/justine/cosmopolitan/index.html

[Rogod]

:D

Sadly Startron is entirely coded in C# with just a few DLL calls to make the magic console stuff for Windows+Linux happen.

I think I'm a little too far down that rabbit hole to start unpicking it now anyway.

The only parts I haven't got under control are: Sound in Linux, and a MacOS build - everything else seems to be working just fine with respect to typed input, ASCII, colour & whole-screen updates.

[JobLeonard]

Well, who knows, maybe the Cosmopolitan project will grow enough in scope to make those DLLs easier to handle too

I think I'm a little too far down that rabbit hole to start unpicking it now anyway.

Nah, don't be - be happy that you don't fall for the temptation instead, like so many programmers when they see something shiny and novel!

[Rogod]

Yea I'm usually the one at work saying "Let's just continue using what we've got - there's nothing wrong with it" (knowing full well the amount of time spent on upgrading tech, only to find there's another thing to upgrade when you're done and no work ever gets done )

[)3ee]

Hey, I can't get the Application file to run on my pc. I'm on Windows 10. I installed ASP.NET Core 3.1 Runtime (v3.1.12) - Windows x64 Installer. After that I rebooted. I unzipped the Startron package (good name, by the way.) But no joy.

[Rogod]

Ah you actually need the x64 console app runtime for .Net further down the page:


Curiously I actually just noticed there is a difference earlier today and intend to update the readme & support section of the website accordingly.

Let me know if you have any other problems.

[)3ee]

Okay, that did the trick. Love the ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US vibe. I made it to Space Dock 1 in one piece, but I'm a little lost as to what I should do now. It probably doesn't help that the app window appears to cut off some game real estate.



I tried resizing the window, and while the arrows to do so show up, they don't seem to do anything. This is where I went back to the README. My screen resolution is 3440 x 1440. However, I believe the game started on my primary monitor which is exactly 1280 x 1024.

[Rogod]

Ah ok, that's a new one on me.

I believe this is caused by Windows zooming in the contents of the windows or upping the font size so text isn't tiny on a large resolution.

I would recommend right clicking the top bar on Startron and going to properties then turning the font size down until it can fit in the window again.

Alternatively, you can try making a startron.cfg file next to the executable with

Code:

squished: on

inside it which will reduce the screen from 120x60 to 120x50 (it's still just as playable, but works better on shorter screens).

I may include some other parameters for adjusting the starting position of the window for that console file if this proves to be an issue.



Also you'll basically always be using the I key to zoom into things, or the O key to zoom out from things (then the L key to leave things like menus and rooms) - Let me know if you get the screen size fixed - I'm intrigued to know the results.

[)3ee]

It appears to be the switch from one monitor to the other that's causing it. Last time(s), I immediately dragged the window over to my second monitor, as I'm used to do, without really paying attention to it on the first monitor. Now, however, I did pay attention, and the window actually starts out fine. It's only when I drag it over to the bigger screen that the real estate is being cut off. Decreasing the font size doesn't help, at least not initially. But if you subsequently close the game and reopen it, the new font size is still in effect, and dragging the window from one monitor to another keeps everything in place. So case closed I guess.

Zooming in and out is a breeze and rather beautiful. However, I'm still a bit at a loss as to how to proceed from there. I've never played a game like this, though I read the occasional high level description of a Dwarf Fortress update.

[Rogod]

Right ok, that makes sense. I've seen some evidence of this when dragging it between monitors myself but I tend not to do that often while developing and assumed it was just the resolution on my smaller screen. So if you're saying you get the same thing I'll add it to my list of things to look into as there could be something I can do (perhaps some kind of window refresh or monitor/window-position configuration to mitigate these issues).

As for gameplay, the controls are largely inspired by Dwarf Fortress, where common actions are assigned keys which can become muscle memory over time. For what you're trying to do, your best bet is to follow the instructions on the transmissions you're getting at the top (press R to see them). But if in doubt, always check the boxes in the 4 corners of the screen as they'll show what actions are available from that perspective.

If you get stuck, you could take a look at the gameplay video I shot for v0.40 a while ago:



Most of this is still accurate although there's a lot more in the game these days.

[Rogod]

Update v0.70
So atmospheric

• Added atmospheres to planets (Startron's been claiming this whole time that there's oxorine surrounding the planets with only clouds to hint at it until now)

• Added configuration for positioning the game's window on startup and also updated the README and support page to better guide somebody trying to install Startron

• Added a new surface structure (resonating crystal) which doesn't do anything yet (it'll be used for super-structures in a future update)

• Decoupled the camera from the ship in body view so you can move the ship around and the camera will start following if it gets too far away from the centre - This should make moving around and building stuff a little less jarring on the eyes as you manoeuvre the ship

• Fixed not being able to place monorails between asteroids

Just a small update while I get other things sorted

[JobLeonard]

That looks goood

[VampireSquid]

It is looking good, works on Ubuntu 20 just by following your instructions.

I have no idea what I was doing but I managed to thrash around and mine some stuff.  I seemed to find a space station too.  I can see how this could be very consuming.  

On the UI front, I like the highlighting of the navigation options, helps the learning process.  I do find it a bit tricky, but probably just me and i haven't invested much time yet.  At some point, you might consider a very short 3-4 minute video that  gives myself and other new ADD players a quick run down on some basics.  I'm sure you have a million other things to dos I will keep toying with it, i will figure it out.

Overall, awesome.  Keep it coming.

[Rogod]

:D

Yea I am planning to do maybe a couple of new videos since the last (meaningful) one was from v0.40 and things have come on a bit since then. I'll probably do a quick overview/instructional one and then maybe a longer play-through similar to the last one.

Definitely glad to hear Startron is working on various people's machines and everybody's having fun with the overly complicated gameplay lol

[VampireSquid]

Given that you are at version 0.7, does that imply the game is 70% complete?

I spent some more time on it and it's really an interesting game. The thing that really draws me in are all the little touches. The blackjack game at the saloon, the rings oscillating around the solar system I landed in, the 3d perspective in some areas. So you are exploring the universe but also hunting for the Easter eggs as well. It's part dwarf fortress but also a bit of the King's quest dna is thrown in there with these.

[Rogod]

Hah, I had actually given some thought to the versioning as I inch closer to 100 releases:
Basically, because it's not really one of those games that has a complete-state (that is to say, I am not aiming for a goalpost here, just iterating on the whole so that each version is better than the last with no need for sequels and addons) it'll probably do something like Minecraft did where it gets a v1.00 release but then carries on after that point anyway. (Alternatively, v0.100 and upwards.)

I'm glad the little things are shining through. I generally feel they are the important things in the games I play and the things that keep me coming back or becoming invested in a game's lore & universe, so Startron is almost a project to see how many little things I can put into a game, and how many ideas I can just think up and then implement.

(Not sure what oscillating rings you're referring to in the solar systems though, or do you mean the little particles of dust coming off of things n swirling around the sun in the middle?)

There are definitely a lot of games that Startron clearly borrows common elements from but part of what I'm going for is to make it as much my own thing as possible then that way I'm not restricted to some kind of template or expected formula (another reason it's in ASCII and not just a standard 2D/3D space game). Basically if there's something I think would be a cool feature in a particular location, I'm gonna add it, and if that happens to be something another game did or something no game's ever done, so be it - Startron is already fairly unique I feel and hopefully will continue to be so by virtue of this method.

That being said, it does amuse me when you guys find games Startron is similar to, because odds are, I haven't actually played those games - Haven't played King's Quest for example (or Star Control for that matter)

EDIT:
I may compile some kind of a behind-the-scenes package/application/pdf/video for Startron if people are interested because I can fairly easily point at the inspiration for most features of the game (for example, each of the collectibles in the ready-room is essentially a nod to something, including the ready-room itself) and there are at least 20 pages of hand-written notes and diagrams from the development process which I'm sure someone would find entertaining. (Not to mention there is a huge list of past implemented features (~400) and future ones (~100) to outline somewhere as well.)