A list of things wanted/needed for Vegastrike

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-REBEL3-
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A list of things wanted/needed for Vegastrike

Post by -REBEL3- »

Vegastrike problems:

I noticed that there is no current list of "things we want and stuff to fix." I decided to compile a list of all the problems I notice while playing Vegastrike, and some possible solutions. If I offend anyone by insulting their work, sorry in advance. Feel free to add stuff. Here's the list:

SHIP problems:

Many common ships are ugly-If I load up the game and see a bunch of ugly ships, I will like the game less. Things people see all the time (like Dodos) need to be pretty and greebled. The way I see it, the following ships need to be redone ASAP, or at least re-greebeled and made prettier:

Llama-pretty good, but, since it is first ship player ever sees, needs to be great.
Dodo-bad. Needs new coloring scheme/textures/poss. model.
Plowshare, Mule, Ox-I know there are other models out there, but I don't know if they are in the SVN yet.
Robin- Needs a better paintjob-but pretty good.
Hyena-lots of work needed. Textures and I think a nicer model would be good.

• Confed ships need redone first, since you start out in Confed territory.

• All Aera capships-fully redone w/ new models. Again, not sure if this has been done in the SVN version, but I doubt it.

• Bases-more of and different bases for different factions.


ENGINE problems/what we need or want:
• More and better texture for the ships
• Better engine effects
• More support for interactive greebles (e.g. opening docking bay doors)
• Cockpit support
• Faction system-If I crash into someone, everybody from that faction hates me-which isn't the way it is in the real world. Needs a major overhaul.
• Different skyboxes/backgrounds for different systems.
• More persistence in the game: I would personally like it if bases not move themselves around when I save.
• Lousy AI-needs complete overhaul.

And then, the pie-in-the-sky stuff...
• RedAdders dynamic economy (or an equivalent of it)
• Some new form of controlling capships-A Leonidas should not have the same GUI as a Schrodinger, and should not be steered like one either.
• Better damage effects. Fires, chunks missing from ships, etc.
• WAY better docking with planets-possibly utilizing that old "space elevator" idea?
• Multiplayer
• Ogre



MISC:

More and better campaigns/storyline.
Better GUI in bases
Better music
More upgrades
Better limiting of weapons "weights" (light-capship heavy) to sensible ship sizes.
General rebalancing of game


(NOTE-I purposely left out having virtual cities on the ground, and seamless flight/ground transitions. This would require so much work it wouldn't be funny)


ANOTHER FEW NOTES:

I am using 0.5.0. If things are different in the SVN (like ships are different,) please let me know.

I'm not even going to discuss the philosophy problems: realism vs non-realism, SPEC travel, etc.
pheonixstorm
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Re: A list of things wanted/needed for Vegastrike

Post by pheonixstorm »

If your on linux go ahead and grab the svn and compile. If on windows... well your SOL till I can get a win32 build running w/o falling apart for w/e reason.. If you have any skill at modeling or coding grab a copy of the svn and get to work.

A lot of this is floating around the forums in all the wrong spots.. except the music bit.. can't say ive heard anyone complain about it. The whole game source/graphics are a mess with few of us still trying to get things working.

And a switch to ogre might not solve a lot of the graphics problems.. though it will help. The real problem is switching over to ogre you loose part of the VS core, which is the vast majority of the code is built from scratch and not cobbled together from multiple sources (ie ogre, bullet, gigi, fmod, havok..)
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Re: A list of things wanted/needed for Vegastrike

Post by klauss »

The benefit of switching to ogre is offloading the graphics engine development to a proven team that is very much active. And they have a lot of very useful features already that VS could benefit from.

You also inherit their content authoring tools, which are quite a few and with good maintainance.

The cons are heavy though, because Ogre needs a different file system, file format, etc, etc... to be taken advantage of, and that means redoing a lot of the game. All ships have to be re-authored (not remodelled, but converted to the new ogre-compatible content format), and a lot more.

There's already a very old ogre branch that got stalled because, in part, I was the only one working on it and suddenly didn't have that much time (and suddenly other things were higher priority), and because - I confess - I overdesigned a bit. I was already going for a simpler design when my timetable went upside down and I suddenly had negative free time for it.

Anyway... delegating parts of the game to external libraries is good, but a lot of work that only pays in the long run.
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chuck_starchaser
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Re: A list of things wanted/needed for Vegastrike

Post by chuck_starchaser »

Good summary, REBEL3. Tons of work involved, tho; but a useful post for us to look over when we
get around to scheduling a detailed TO-DO.
Mets
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Re: A list of things wanted/needed for Vegastrike

Post by Mets »

Definitely agree with AI and multiplayer. The AI is an AI that you'd expect for a game labeled at version 0.5. We just don't want to see it stalled there. And multiplayer is a necessity for this kind of game. I think without it, you end up seeing people download, play for a few weeks, and then never touch it again. It's very necessary for user retention, and more users translates to more developers.

I will confess I can live with the graphics, I don't think that they're that bad, but that might be because I tend to worry more about gaemplay than pictures.
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