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RTS- space sim probs

Started by January 24, 2003 09:58 PM
6 comments, last by sofsenint 22 years ago
I''m working on designing a RTS space sim-type game(real original, I know). Although it''s in the future, I want it to be remotely believable. I''m having trouble coming up with a design for how to represent the modifications necessary to the environment(What are you talking about, of COURSE there''s oxygen on Mars!). I though about each structure having a little bubble over it, but that would really limit vision and be incredibly boring for your eyes(because you''d see the same little bubble over and over). You could fix this by having the bubbles be made by incredibly light alpha-blending, but it would still ruin a lot of detail. I also thought about little outposts that somehow created a bubble of breathable air around them. This could also create an interesting strategy element, where you could try to hurt their units/buildings by destroying these outposts. But this seems like it would become a nuisance very quickly. I''m sure someone else has thought about this before. Does anyone else have any other ideas?
-----------------------------Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning.There are 10 kinds of people in this world-- those who understand binary and those who don't.
I assume you aren''t making a Homeworld clone, but something where you can travel from one planet to another in a rather short (playable) period of time.

In that case, perhaps it is not something you necessarily would see if you were looking at the planet from space, but more of something like a glow around the planet that the player can see.
-No glow around a planet means no breathable air.
-Some redness means barely some air.
-Slowly it fades into green,blue, or white, representing Earth-like atmosphere.

This can be toggled on and off by the player, such as triangles representing ships in Homeworld: Cataclysm, by pressing a single key.
Or not. Up to you.
-------------------------GBGames' Blog: An Indie Game Developer's Somewhat Interesting ThoughtsStaff Reviewer for Game Tunnel
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You could make all the maps circular and around the outside blend in a bubble, so it looks like the whole map is under a space bubble, and make all the battles be between factions in the same space city. Or just explain that all the buildings are air tight like large rectangular spaceships and make most units mechanical, with the few animal units having some kind of space suit (or maybe just an air-tight 'force field' - when it gets destroyed, the unit explodes/freezes or something like that)

I was thinking more like starcraft RTS.

[edited by - Extrarius on January 24, 2003 11:16:32 PM]
"Walk not the trodden path, for it has borne it's burden." -John, Flying Monk
I like the idea of having the whole planet inside an artificial atmosphere. It could probably be explained away pretty easily in the storyline.
-----------------------------Weeks of programming can save you hours of planning.There are 10 kinds of people in this world-- those who understand binary and those who don't.
Another possibility:

Don''t have an Oxygen atmoshpere, let everybody have lung-conversions instead. Or have very small (implanted?) breathing aparatus with compressed Oxygen tanks, making Oxygen into a valuable and no doubt limited resource.
How about something like colony ships that were combined in outer space to form a super colony mothership, but disintegrate into several colony ships on approach to the destinated planet.
These ships possibly land across the planet surface in a designed grid with a view to future tubular interconnection between the colonies after mining some resources? And the mines underneath provide the basis for the foundation of expansion for the new colony?

As for a war/conflict component, you could have that different ideas were being applied at each of the outposts, for example;

- One might be concentrating on mining technology and crave the resources at other outposts. (Expansionist?)
- One might crave for unity and where others refuse to unify, they use force to attempt unity. (Unificationists)
- Another may have been inadequetely protected from the harmful environment that its altered their sub-conscious or genetically mutated them into seeking some form of sanctuary. (Fanaticalism)
- Another may be interested in pure researching the environment without intent for improvement or expansion (ie, strictly research mission oriented perhaps?)

Conflict of motives/priorities might give you interesting diversion such as conflict.. You could also make their military tech seperate too according to their beliefs, eg, miners use their knowledge of the ground for surface vehicles, unified might rely on ordered formations, researchers might use combat probes, etc..

[edited by - lofty on January 26, 2003 2:17:19 AM]
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Check out a paper and pen roleplaying game called Jovian Chronicles made by Dream Pod 9 (the same team that came up with Heavy Gear. I really admire their style because they try to make things as plausible as possible. Even if it may stretch reality a bit, you don''t have to hurt your brain to accept it as bening a possibility and it making sense.

How realistic do you want to make it? How far in the future will it be? Will there be extrasolar travel, and if so, how many other colonized planets are there?

Personally, if you''re going for a very Clarke/Asimov realistic approach, I''d go for some limited terraforming (especially on Mars and possibly Io) with the rest being self contained building on the surface of the planet. If you think about it, if the planet is not yet habitable on the surface, then the only reason for humans to be there is for mining. This can be done mostly through robotics if the technology is viable, and if not, then human''s could either live in envirnomentally sealed buildings on the surface or underground (watch the old movie Outpost with Sean Connery for an idea).

How do you visually represent this? Most colony assets will be underground or in space at LaGrange points in huge space colonies. For underground buildings, you could have an alpha blending that gives a hazy image of the subterranean buildings underneath. As for the LaGrange points, these could be represented as you would any other vehicle (albeit a very very large one, probably dwarfing even the largest warships).

Also, in your game, why would each side be attacking each other? To control resources? If so, then it wouldn''t be good to blow up planetary buildings as they''d want these intact if possible. If the game is simply about, "kill''em all dead" then go ahead and blast away
The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." - General Omar Bradley
Also, if you want a LOT of good ideas from hard SF in a relatively dense format, read the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.

ld
No Excuses

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