Starfury : Lacking a lot?

[Markavian]

Yeah people like me? I was going to knock up my own Version of the the game, but with simlper constrainsts.

Kinda one solar system, shuttling cargo between planets.

I was also going to try a 'real scale' system, and represent everything on a holographic map, replacing the need for the view system map. My idea would use labels to highligh key items, because everythng would be too small.

In a real scale system, you could add alot more detail, and then do the Zelda thing where you can only see whats near you (based on scanner technology/speed of light response time), and then larger items such as the Sun and big planets would be always visible but 'in the fog'.

Too busy at the moment tho =)


Might try adjusting the view angle of some of the ships then, might make my life easier. Thx for the research/code Phoenix.

[dHay]

Originally posted by Markavians:
Even so, the game was still lacking a lot. If it was made even better, they'd sell more copies right?
What were you getting at?:

quote:

---

that games at this level are not done to get rich....

.

---

Your suggestion of hiring another programmer is expensive. It is easy for one person to work on something at a relatively low hourly rate of return. It becomes a much different proposition when you hire someone and have to pay them for every hour worked.

Open source? Interesting. But there seem to be a lot of open source projects that start, and never get very far.

[Wydraz]

Originally posted by dHay:
Open source? Interesting. But there seem to be a lot of open source projects that start, and never get very far.

Um, based on the fan base here, I think that is a spurious remark. There are a few very talented and dedicated programmers on these forums, and some darn good artists too. I think an open source project is a fine idea for SESF!

[Phoenix-D]

More to the point, you can't really make money on open source projects, and this is Aaron's job. He may not be making enough to hire another programmer, but SF -would- suffer if he had to get another job (see the recent patch history for an example of that, and rememeber that he's working on the SE4 patch too)

[dHay]

Originally posted by Wydraz:
I want my Starfury galaxy map editor!

There is your starting project. You have all the info you need to create it. Start small, then grow.

I would count myself as one of the better programmers on this forum, but my day job leaves me little energy to spend on recreational programming. I suspect that is true of most programmers with day jobs.

I find bugs, though... That is easy.

There is a fair amount of code behind StarFury, although some of it is definitely common with SEIV. I am impressed that one programmer has created these two games.

[Ed Kolis]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
More to the point, you can't really make money on open source projects, and this is Aaron's job. He may not be making enough to hire another programmer, but SF -would- suffer if he had to get another job (see the recent patch history for an example of that, and rememeber that he's working on the SE4 patch too)

Which is why I'm hoping for of a plugin system for SE5 - it keeps the basic game engine proprietary, so Aaron can still make money off it, but people can write plugins in some programming language or another (hopefully via COM objects or something common enough that you don't have to use the same language the game was developed in), but people can still add to the game in much greater depth than they can by modding data files. (Imagine if the combat engine was just contained in a DLL function that took as input some predefined data class containing all the ships and formations involved in combat and returned the results (survivors, damage, etc.) ... and if you set the game to use a different DLL created by someone with the publicly available SE5 SDK then you could use a whole new combat engine! )

(edit: obviously this makes cheating by mod creators and writing of Trojan horses much easier, but it's no worse than the risks you take when you download a freeware game off the Internet )

[ December 18, 2003, 14:27: Message edited by: Ed Kolis ]

[dHay]

I just want a plug in for the AI. I don't want to write the whole game, but I would really like to improve the computer players...

So if we get into allowing DLLs or whatever, I've got my choice.

Trying to fix the AI in SEIV requires code changes. The data file entries are just too weak. In StarFury the AI could certainly fight better. There are all these data files for flight patterns, but the reactions to player actions are, umm, consistent? pathetic?

[Fyron]

There is a fair amount of code behind StarFury, although some of it is definitely common with SEIV. I am impressed that one programmer has created these two games.

And there is a fair amount common with Dungeon Odyssey. Potions/emergency plating anyone?