spec system

Talk among developers, and propose and discuss general development planning/tackling/etc... feature in this forum.
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maniac 23

spec system

Post by maniac 23 »

If you really intend to keep the spec system
at least make a fully automatic autopilot with automatic docking and a time accleration (displaythe current accleration) so that people who "severely dislike" the spec system dont have to bother with it.
But my Opionion about the spec system in general is:
remove it !
Replace it a by a wing commander/privateer style autopilot convinient, great for gameplay.

It is simply a chore to wait-till-i-arrive-somewhere.
And consider why games like wing commander, Freespace, Privateer I and II
as wel as all x-wing games never ever used such a system.
Only elite hada similiar thing but it was userfriendly and not muich of a chore.
Guest

sorry wanted to post it in the spec thread....

Post by Guest »

sorry wanted to post it in the spec thread....
peteyg
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Post by peteyg »

It sucks to use SPEC in the current release, not because SPEC itself sucks, but because ships' top speed are way too high, and their thrusts are way way too low. It causes physical pain to use SPEC because it takes forever for your ship to change direction.

This will all be fixed and ironed out for the next major release.
Halleck
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Post by Halleck »

There already is an autopilot feature in the privateer mod, so it should be a snap to implement in VS. The question is- should we?

Here's how I think things should work: Autopilot and SPEC will be systems that you may buy for your vessel. Perhaps autopilot could be the default and you would have to buy a SPEC drive. You aren't allowed to use autopilot too close to an object, asteroid field, or hostile ship, whereas SPEC can be used any time, and even tactically.

The upper tier would be an automatic SPEC system, where you get the best of both worlds (maybe it could even dock for you. A trip computer would also be the only device that can fully take advantage of "travel mode" (no speed cap) since it could compute and execute a flight trajectory without overshooting your target.
jackS
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Post by jackS »

peteyg wrote:It sucks to use SPEC in the current release, not because SPEC itself sucks, but because ships' top speed are way too high, and their thrusts are way way too low.
My occasional dissatisfaction with SPEC tends to center on overall travel time, which is a function of ships going too slow rather than too fast. Significant overshooting due to inertia while in SPEC has not been a significant issue for me for a while.

Now, I've had a couple of discussions with peteyg about his goals for rebalancing (speed-- thrust++) and I understand the motivations, and anxiously await seeing how it plays, and welcome the challenge of how we can manage to keep transit times reasonable (a few ideas have already been floated) because, while the proposed rebalancing will almost certainly make combat a more tenable experience for many players, it seems as likely to exacerbate as solve transit time issues.

As for autopilots -
What we won't see: Timeless autopilot. There are no plans to re-introduce any timeless mechanisms for in-system FTL travel. We understand that there are concerns as to how long it takes to get from one end of a system to another. However, efforts will be made to make this time reasonable, not to remove it. Now, for those players who are disinterested in practicing the virtue of patience by waiting for the developers to smooth everything completely out, a simple edit to the vegastrike.config file will re-enable timeless transit. For more on how to do so, examine the privateer remake.

What we will see: Work is still continuing on an automatic navigation AI. What we have now.... you don't want to use for anything much (in addition to not having most of the prerequisite useful features of such a system, there's some jerkiness that I haven't pinned down yet due to either floating point innacuracies or improper interpolation).

SPEC drives will be installed on all ships capable of interplanetary or greater travel.
As for making a nav AI a commodity that must be purchased... first we have to get one working. Any discussion on where and when it'll be usable is a bit premature.
Guest 222

Post by Guest 222 »

Has anyone thought of using freelancer style or indipendance(sorry for spelling) war style of using the SPEC engine?
Guest 222

Post by Guest 222 »

Though the freelancer way would be without the trade lanes of course. :P
hazard
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Post by hazard »

My biggest thing that I wish there was relating to autopilot was "target auto-center", some thing that when you pressed the button worked to move the nose of your ship directly at your target. Not change the direction intentionally (though unless you are holding the slide button it would).

Ignore me if I'm asking for something that already exists.

Another thing I wish the spec drive had, was an indicator telling you how far you need to be away from an object before it can start making you go really fast. Maybe something up by the "spec" on light which tells you the distances inside/outside of the nearest object that is keeping you from going fast.

On a somewhat related note, i wish there was an indicator for "turrets active" because I always accidentally turn them on while trying to do something else (or they just won't turn on)
Yea...I'm a terrible pilot too...I crash into stations-that's my docking procedure.
Synchrone
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Post by Synchrone »

hazard wrote:My biggest thing that I wish there was relating to autopilot was "target auto-center", some thing that when you pressed the button worked to move the nose of your ship directly at your target. Not change the direction intentionally (though unless you are holding the slide button it would).
Hmm and what if there's a planet between you and your target? One has to be able to direct one's vessel in cases like these.
jackS
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Post by jackS »

Synchrone wrote:
hazard wrote:My biggest thing that I wish there was relating to autopilot was "target auto-center", some thing that when you pressed the button worked to move the nose of your ship directly at your target. Not change the direction intentionally (though unless you are holding the slide button it would).
Hmm and what if there's a planet between you and your target? One has to be able to direct one's vessel in cases like these.
We have a target-center-ish command, but, for the reason you specified (among others), it's not currently bound to anything. If anyone wants to play around with it, bind a key to the "ASAP" function in the keybindings section in vegastrike.config.
wumpus
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Need directions?

Post by wumpus »

Hi

The patch below might help navigating. It draws a little x on the radar screen to indicate the direction that you're flying in. Does not work with the Elite radar, though. It lets you quickly see when your velocity vector lines up with your target. Then turn on SPEC without missing it. I hope it's useful.

Code: Select all

--- vegastrike/src/gfx/cockpit.cpp      2005-02-19 21:50:49.000000000 +0100
+++ vegastrike/src/gfx/cockpit.cpp.X    2005-02-20 13:42:04.000000000 +0100
@@ -637,6 +637,29 @@
   }
   GFXEnd();
   GFXPointSize (1);
+
+  //draw velocity mark
+  Vector local_velocity=un->ToLocalCoordinates (un->GetVelocity ());
+  int i=0;
+  if (local_velocity.k<0) {
+       local_velocity.k=-local_velocity.k;
+       i=1;
+  }
+  if (Radar[i]) {
+       this->LocalToRadar (local_velocity,s,t);                
+       GFXBegin(GFXLINE);
+       GFXColorf (textcol);
+       GFXVertex3f(xcent[i]+xsize[i]*s+(8.0)/g_game.x_resolution,
+                               ycent[i]+ysize[i]*t+(7.7)/g_game.y_resolution,0);
+       GFXVertex3f(xcent[i]+xsize[i]*s-(8.0)/g_game.x_resolution,
+                               ycent[i]+ysize[i]*t-(8.7)/g_game.y_resolution,0);
+       GFXVertex3f(xcent[i]+xsize[i]*s+(8.0)/g_game.x_resolution,
+                               ycent[i]+ysize[i]*t-(8.0)/g_game.y_resolution,0);
+       GFXVertex3f(xcent[i]+xsize[i]*s-(8.0)/g_game.x_resolution,
+                               ycent[i]+ysize[i]*t+(8.0)/g_game.y_resolution,0);
+       GFXEnd();
+  }
+  
   GFXColor4f (1,1,1,1);
   GFXEnable (TEXTURE0);
 }
hurleybird
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Post by hurleybird »

good work :)
eddit
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Center Target Command

Post by eddit »

I've tried binding the command "ASAP" and I think it's great! The only thing that I would suggest for it is that instead of turning controls back to normal when you press the key again, normal navigational control should resume if you move the mouse/joustick by a set amount (ie. when you suddenly realise you're about to fly into some misc craft!).

I would class this like cruse control in a car. Set it, but when you need to react quickly, it turns off.
"beauty is skin deep
but samples with keratin
are just plain ugly"
Guest

Post by Guest »

It didn't take long to realize that ASAP takes over the throttle and locks down the afterburners while it's on, and that guzzles gas in a BIG way.
Is there some config vars that can be tried to control or turn off that behaviour?
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