Jump node appearance

Anax · Post by **Anax** » Mon May 26, 2003 7:00 am

Just wondering if anybody had thought of changing what the nodes looked like?

At the moment it's kinda hard to tell if you're inside them because as you get close it just turns into a blue haze. also, from a distance the novice VSer mistakes them for actual bodies like planets etc. Ever thought of going wireframe like freespace or similar? Wireframe looks less 'real' (i.e. more obvious that it isnt actually a physical object - unless they ARE pysical objects??) and it's easier to tell if you're inside and doesn't distort your vision as much.

Also, is there something you need other than a jumpdrive to use a node? I bought a jumpdrive and tried to use a node or two and nothing would happen....

Post by **hellcatv** » Mon May 26, 2003 4:50 pm

yes someone needs to make a nice jump node model...the current ones are ridiculous
there's been one made but it looks far too alien to be used on every jump point

I was thinking a wormhole sort of thing that spins...then a confed structure around it to stabilize it

that way when you're in the structure you can jump

Anax · Post by **Anax** » Tue May 27, 2003 2:02 am

the structure would have to be pretty big, otherwise some really uber-big caps may have issues getting through....

if you have a computer image (such as wireframe) then any sized object could fit (as long as some portion of the ship is in the node).

How about a 4-sided pyramid? it's a little bit different, is easy to draw and model (VERY low poly count!), and should be easy to judge size and distance. stick it in a pretty colour and there you go. Perhaps different coloured nodes mean different things? such as distance or which faction is aligned with the target system (eg magenta = enemy system, cyan = friendly system, yellow = neutral system)

personaly, i'm so over all the stargate-lookalikes around, and the freespace 'weakspot-nodes' notion made sense to me with the computer giving you an image to tell you where to find the weakspot.

pincushionman · Post by **pincushionman** » Tue May 27, 2003 4:32 am

My vote is for the wireframe -- but while we're on the subject of wireframes, is there a way to have xmeshes drawn as wireframes? It could be used to denote jumpnodes, waypoints, recommended routes, all kinds of stuff.

-pincushionman

Post by **hellcatv** » Tue May 27, 2003 8:38 am

yes I believe there is a line command in the xmesh

Post by **zaydana** » Tue May 27, 2003 9:08 am

ooooo wireframe. Well after reading this post i just went spent a half an hour modelling a nice terran jump point which was basically a big smootde cylindor (nothing like the stargate, i assure you) with a 'control tower' coming off of it. Huge it was... the jump part was the biggest, and it could easily fit a star-runner inside of it... so yeah. Then the computer crashed. Might be bothered doing another one later... when i install photoshop and can texture it and all. Anyways... yeah i can do a jumpgate model sometime

I love the idea of going different color wireframe for different systems... but soemthing tells me that sometimes the system owner is going to build a massive station on it to destroy any capship that coems through with the wrong markings, plus, it would be better sustaining damage on your station and taking out a fleet in single file instead of them all attackingyou at once. So maybe you could do a mix of the coloured wireframe things... plus station. So when i get time i can do terran + rlaan + aera medium and high polygon stations for round the jump-points?

Anax · Post by **Anax** » Tue May 27, 2003 9:22 am

...??? uh, can you say that entire second paragraph again but this time slooowly??

a little confusing...

Acinonyx · Post by **Acinonyx** » Tue May 27, 2003 4:03 pm

If the main problem lies in making a "control structure" around a node to make it look pretty but still allow large ships through, how about positioning small "bouys" in a pyramid point position around the node, maybe a simple ani of the bouys pumping energy into it (cone shaped?) to jump start it when a ship nears it.

The only reason I suggested bouys is cause you can put a flashing light on em to also show info (red inactive, yellow powering up, green go or stuff like that to make it harder for people to do quick getaways)

Im new to this place ... maybe im talking crap ...

atm I cant play it cause i sold my GF2-400 and the onboard Sis-620 gives me major gfx problems in VS

Post by **hurleybird** » Tue May 27, 2003 9:54 pm

It would be cool to have different sizes of jump nodes which could sustain different sizes of ships. Huge jump-nodes for super capships would need a lot of energy and money to maintain. Smaller nodes would require less money. A faction might charge money for using a node... the amount may be governed by any economic variables, the size of the node, and the amount of traffic through the node. Nodes could be built but would cost a lot of money... the further apart the two nodes were the more money it could cost to make. Jump nodes would be able to be destroyed as well... but would be very well armed and it would be very hard to do so. To get into a heavily defended enemy system you might need stealth or perhaps use some sort of a ferry as cover? Having wormholes or jump balls as well might be cool, and add a more "backdoor" approach into a system. It would also be cool if their were unstable wormholes with only a certain chance of getting to the right destination, and possibly getting lost if the wormhole were to not work properly. definantly would be cool in dynamic universe and would add a new twist to the game.

scheherazade · Post by **scheherazade** » Tue May 27, 2003 10:07 pm

well, if there is a render to texture option, we could do a portal. that opens and spreads to the size of whatever ship enters, and it would be a window into wherever the jump leads to.

-scheherazade

Acinonyx · Post by **Acinonyx** » Wed May 28, 2003 8:34 am

what if the wormhole were inherently invisible, and you stumbled into unknokwn one by accident. The one formed manually would just be a "HUD" effect amd trigger like the DS9 ones when you approach them at the right angle, the only reson to have a "structure" near it is then just to offer a convenient docking station, and a directional marker for the correct approach direction.

Post by **hellcatv** » Wed May 28, 2003 9:26 pm

why not just make them dazzling and gorgeous instead of wireframe or ugly or invisible

surely SOMEONE can make a decent spinning wormhole and structure around it

even just a wormhole would be fine

scheherazade · Post by **scheherazade** » Thu May 29, 2003 2:43 am

hellcat < is there a render to texture option, so we could do a portal?

-scheherazade

Post by **hellcatv** » Thu May 29, 2003 7:25 am

no render to texture yet---but I just added potential future support for it... probably not too much harder than doing the VDU's...
will take some cross platform magic... not quite so easy on the macs either--since they don't appear to have render to tetxure support...at least not that I can find...but we'll figure it out
that's about priority 100000 where priority 0 is the dynamic universe (higher is lower number)

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