Star Captain WIP (4 screenies + DEMO!)

[esper]

Hi everybody!

I'm working on a game in my spare time that I've been planning for years. Things are a little rough since my mathematical skills are not actually "skills" at all, and a space game does seem to incorporate quite a bit of that    You can find it here: http://www.geocities.com/esper_ian/games.html

Anyway, here are some of the specs:

-takes place in a huge, unbroken galaxy
-randomly generated map (except our own solar system), so a different game every time
-anywhere from 25-75 randomly generated stars, each with 2-15 orbiting planets
-explore the whole galaxy: planets are only visible on short-range sensors until you discover them
-a variety of functions to perform on each planet: start a colony, begin mining operations, or send a landing party to explore
-hyperdrive! For the cost of a little extra fuel, double your ship's speed.
-simple particle engine to render things like stars, engine exhaust, scanner rays, laser and missile blasts*, and explosions*.
-completely open-ended, non-linear gameplay. Do what you want, when you want to do it!
                     *-not yet implemented

And some of what will be in the final game

-choose between 4 Terran ships, and trade, buy, or earn up to 12 alien ships
-a vast array of weapons, equipment, and crew to arm yourself with... fully customize your ship
-turn-based tactical combat scenarios
-4 alien races to meet, trade with, fight, and open diplomatic relations with.
-a living universe with a constantly-changing population
-a full soundtrack with a complete musical score and unique sound effects

And here are some screen caps:


The beginning of your long trek through the stars...


Your starmap. Notice how only the planets of our solar system are revealed...

(Note: the mouse pointer in this shot is photoshopped because it didn't show up in the screen cap)


Scanning a planet before entering orbit can save your ship the difficulties of entering an unknown atmosphere.


In orbit around the fifth planet in the Betelgeuse star system.

(Note: the menu options have been photoshopped in, since I hadn't done them yet... they're finished now)

It will take a while to complete, but work is coming along quite nicely. Eventually I want to do up a nice pdf manual to pack with the game. Also, anyone who wants to lend a hand to fixing some bugs is more than welcome. Here are a few of them:

-some planets are there physically, but not visibly
-the count of planets around some stars is off, and some planet numbers are doubled up. The first planet is sometimes listed as the second.
-some planets and stars overlap, which is especially annoying when they encroach into our solar system. I couldn't find Pluto the other day because Orion Prime was in the way.
-some others I can't think of off the top of my head

Any bug fixers/alpha testers are welcome to lend a hand.

[ShadowCentaur]

seems neet, mind attaching it so we can give it a shot? you seem to have included screen shots but not code for us to run... i'd take a look through and offer some suggestions. seems sorta half shmup, half rts?

[esper]

It's a little less shmup and more tactical combat simulator, and a little sim. I'll try to get a working version up so everyone can give it a trythrough, but it may take about a week as I've stopped working on it for a couple weeks in order to pursue a short film contest. Which reminds me: if you don't mind, pop on over to http://www.ziddio.com/oneVideo.zd?dispatch=fetch&artifactId=45757 and give it a good rating! Anyway, it's a little too buggy to release at the moment, and I need to go through and open up some of the things I locked to speed up testing, like the splash screens and title menu. Give me a couple days... it should be up shortly after Christmas!

[esper]

Okay! It's all set to give a test run to! You can find the download link in the initial post, and I'll reiterate it here:

http://www.geocities.com/esper_ian/games.html

Note: You'll have to scroll to the BOTTOM OF THE PAGE and hit the very last link. If I remember correctly, it says "my space sim game (incomplete).

Please tell me what you think, and remember to take into account some of the bugs I've mentioned.

[ShadowCentaur]

I tested it out, and here's what i think. When opening menus (like the "crew" menu), the hotkey that opens it should also be able to close it (right now i HAVE to click exit, i can't just press the button again). When creating a name and ship, the controlls were very unresponsive for me. It is also somewhat of a pain to actually find objects. A autopilot "plot course" thing on the map menu would be helpfull. Just click on a noteworthy location, and have it set a waypoint or draw a line for you to follow or whatever. Also, my thrusters stop when i change direction, is that intentional? Having the option to click with the mouse in the main menu would also be nice. Most of my things are on user interface, but there ya go. I'd like to see where you go with it.

[esper]

Thanks for the input. I hadn't considered hotkey closing (that should be easy enough to implement) or mouse-driven main menus (a little more difficult, but still, no problem). Can you tell me a little more about your problems in naming your captain and ship? Do you mean you had difficulty getting the computer to register your keypresses? If so, I've had the same problem -- this is a memory issue, probably due to the animated background, and I am not sure how to remedy it. I would like to keep the animated background, but if I can't I'll just Photoshop up a computer screen instead. I may have to reduce the number of stars shown onscreen during the naming procedure.

Finding objects is supposed to be a pain. I'm sorry I didn't give more warning about that. When you start the game, you have the lowest-quality long-range sensors available. Once I've fully implemented trading and mining, you will have to spend some time building up credits in the Sol system in order to purchase a better scanner. If you want, finagle with the sensor settings in the initialization.pba file. (global sensorrange=2000, global sensdiv#=30) Just turn sensorrange up and sensdiv# down proportionately (ie. sensorrange 20000 sensdiv# 3).

As for the thrusters not operating when you turn... yes, that's intentional. The thrusters are only for quick bursts of speed. When more of the game is programmed, using the afterburners will suck up your fuel, based on the quality of your thrusters. You initially won't have any, until you buy some. I was thinking the best quality thrusters WILL allow you to turn while they're on while not using up too much gas, but I haven't programmed that functionality in yet.

There will eventually be an autopilot. It isn't implemented yet, and when it is, you will probably have to buy it before you can use it. Since, on the main map, alot of planets overlap, and since the only thing you can see at the beginning of the game are the stars, I will probably have you select a star to warp to. Once you enter the area of the star, your sensors should be strong enough (if upgraded) to find all the planets in its influence.

By the way, since there is no manual yet, I didn't know if you understood scanning. Right click on a planet to scan it. Green beams will come out of your ship in the direction of your cursor. Hold it there until your message center reads that you have scanned the planet. Then, it will show up on your map and you will be able to enter its orbit.