Supreme Cmdr

quote: But I guess you need a bit more of texture resolution if you're gonna have people walking on the hull. Resolutions are restricted to 256x256. If its coarse, its coarse. Can't have everything. quote: And what happens with the Logistix (and all other frontends for that matter) problem? I don't think you'll be doing frontend graphics, Logistix ship layouts, etc for all the ships in the game I have something in mind, if that does not work, then I guess everyone is restricted to BCs and ICs. Won't bother me either way.

I agree with Echo, the work uniform does seem bulky.

quote: Damn that is a NICE looking ship...you going to re-do the textures on the Galactan class the same way? Or just bump up the resolution the current textures? Just bumping up the texture to 16-bit with no other visible changes. quote: Derek: hmm, not so sure about losing the ACM campaigns. Maybe you could contract one of your Testers to put together an ACM for you, and save you the time and the trouble? I just think structured missions are more appropriate for a military ship. Yes, but I would rather leave the fate of my game's development in the hands of developers with a stake in it. No offense, but if the testers were that enthusiastic about it, you would have seen GBS missions appearing by now for the public. I have no faith in this. As far as I know, only Jon and Pan know how to use it and they have real life commitments to worry about. So, no, I will not do any ACM missions. If I have time, I'll do about 10 or so for newbie training, but thats it. quote: Which brings me to my question. Will it be possible to fly as a different caste and in a different ship to one of the Battlecruiser classes in single player mode in BC3020AD? Ie. can I fly as a Terran/Trader in a Tarin Mk II in single player? Can I fly as a Credian/Assassin in a Violon in sing eplayer mode in BC3020AD? Or is this only supported in multiplayer? Multiplayer only. Remember, the game is about GALCOM military, nothing else. The reason I put in the ACM Insurgent mission was because I wanted to promote the Insurgent presence, especially since they are not some bunch of fanatics that you can easily discard as the odd raider. There is already support to start off as an Insurgent Commander at an Insurgent station. But thats the extent of it. What I have to do now is budget the creation of images for the personnel and pilots. I was going to ask Crista (who did the current ones) to do them sometime soon. I still have to figure out what ship to give the Insurgent side. Either way, the ship schematics would have to fit in Logistix. Since the Insurgents are from Earth, it wouldn't be odd to give them access to a MK2 Battlecruiser. So, to save the aggravation of modifying Logistix, I'll give them this ship, which means, no access to the Starion, except in multiplayer. So, the plan if I have time, is to have support for Terran military or Terran Insurgent in single-player. In multiplayer, you chose what the heck you like. There are only 16 players (maybe higher depending on the performance results from the open-beta testing). Each class you chose, will determine how you play. For instance, if you chose a BC, you won't get to launch any fighters. Each fighter,shuttle,atv you have, will be another player. So you can log on, chose a BC and anyone else joining can jump in as one of your support ships. In fact, I may just restrict each game to 4 BCs that you have to chose from. It is very, very difficult to design multiplayer for this game without losing some of the single-player freedom and I've lost a lot of sleep doing the design and making it balanced. There is no way, I'm going to have 16 players have access to a complement of 12 support crafts and 40 marines. One idea I had was to have each server have a set of assets. So, you log on and pick a side depending on the server config. So, if the server only allows: race Terran, Gammulan, Vesperon caste Insurgent, Military, Trader You can then chose from a list of assets. Each side will have a number of stations, planets and moons in their own regions. So if the Terran Insurgent side has 2 stations, and 2 starbases, you will start from one of them. If they have 4 BC, 4 shuttles, 4 ATVs, 4 fighters, 4 marine slots, you pick one. Whatever you pick, will launch you from the selected station/base. Here is the scenario. 1Log on and chose Terran/Military 2Select GALCOM HQ 3Select a BC 4Launch from GALCOM HQ in Earth region or 1Log on and chose Terran/Insurgent 2Select SYGAN starbase 3Select a marine 4Launch from SYGAN starbase planet So, when you browse the server, it shows you what is available and you can chose to play or find another server. You should also be able to see the stats for each space/planet/side before you log on. If you decide to be a trader, you have your work cut out for you. We have the usual chat between sides or open-air broadcast, repairs will be free at your station (they are resupplied at intervals), trading helps the players have supplies when the station is either destroyed (and being rebuilt) or when it has none. He, I can just see someone logging on as a trader and buying up all the Vagrants and go scalping. Player to player exchange works the same way it works now as far as transfers are concerned. To prevent pkilling, there is no incentive to destroy a trader in order to steal his cache because a cargo pod of his goods is not created. Again, it is all down to design and gameplay testing. It is my first foray into this sort of thing, which is why I'm making it an open beta. Like everything advanced in BC3K, mp is about team play. If you are commanding a BC and you have 4 players as fighters, you already know what you have to worry about. I am also going to add the ability for players to log on as a turret gunner in either the station or a deployed BC. That is the easy part. In fact, the restrictions in the BC:3020AD mp are what prompted me to consider doing a full blown, 1000 person per server online on game, BC3K Online due out around the end of 2000 sometime. It will use the same kernel code but allows more players and more options and longer tweaking/testing time. The plan is to make it a pay for play service like Everquest, UO etc. It will probably be the first non-RPG online universe.

Your alter ego can't be cloned for security reasons. Apart from that, it was a gameplay decision. If he dies, game ends. I have no plans to change it. So you can all quieten down now.

hehe, thanks Jon, I was beginning to wonder about myself too. Anyway, I'll let him back in tomorrow. Just reading his post makes me think "...ah, another pest, and a disrespectful one at that

The idea is that there is only one of this in the game. Its a prototype and you are the only one with access to it. If my plan goes right, you'll never get to see this baby until you make Fleet Commander or so. Until then, you are stuck with the old gal, the Galactan class MK2. In fact, I'll probably start you off with the old Constellation class, then to the Galactan class and then the Starion. This will be based on EPs, rank etc. Of course, any violations and you'll never get to command one of these babies. I'm doing away with ACM completely, instead, I am doing one humongous FF campaign that will last forever. Anyone who wants their own mission, can use the GBS to make their own. The time I'll spend doing ACM missions, I could spend designing an AI controlled kick-ass FF, complete with space, planetary invasions, treaties, skirmishes etc.

What the **** is the matter with you. Are you out of ****ing mind? Thats it, you're out until next week. Goodbye. [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 04-10-99).]

Den Dee, I don't want any suggestions. Hector, the docking is a day's work. Manual docking has been in the game since 1996, it is disabled because the collision detection was course and I didn't have the proper model to support it. I'm going to put in everything on my design docs (all 45 new features), if the game doesn't ship until Christmas 2001, thats my problem. I don't have a publisher breathing down my back and I'm not doing it for people whose only stake is to spend $45 and come bitch about it. The BC3K series will always push the limits of innovation. I have more at stake. As a personal friend, you understand. So, don't sweat it. Anyone who thinks that the internal docking in the WC series is anything, this is me, laughing my ass off. Just wait. btw, the reason these images are not on GNN or released to the press is because they are not finished. I expect the model and texturing to finish this weekend. Then I will post those. If you think this is good, heh, just wait until you see what I'm looking at. [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 04-10-99).]

Say hello to the Starion class Battlecruiser. The ship you will be commanding in Battlecruiser 3020AD. After much controversy, I decided to do away with the previous organic looking textures in the last movie I did. They will be used in another alien ship. As you look at these images, I want you to imagine this 1. You go to Tactical and send a Marine to an 'airlock' location on deck 1 2. You watch the Perscan (now an internal 3D model of the entire ship) until he actually gets there. 3. Once he gets there, you go to an external camera view to watch the poor fool hanging around topside (in idle animation). Zoom in, take a look around etc. 4. You then press a key and you are auto-switched to that marine. You can now walk around your ship (topside) as it hurtles through space, held down to the hull by magnetic boots. 5. As the ship nears GALCOM HQ, you press a button to activate the jetpack. Using normal flight controls, you fly over to GHQ, deactivate the jetpack and you slow fall under the weight of the magnets. You then proceed to walk over the top of the station over to an area where other GALCOM marines are battling marines who just landed on top of the station from a passing cruiser. It is a quick and deadly fight and you whip out your Pulse Cannon and join the fray. 6. During all this, you notice one of your interceptors flying by. You press a key and switch to it. You then fly to the BC (leaving the AI to take over the marine of course) and request docking clearance. The ship slows down and the as you draw closer to the docking bay (under the ship in bcimage3.jpg), it opens, revealing the inside bay. You cautiously dock the craft, the door closes. You press a key and you are switched over to the model of the pilot as animated personnel and drones move the craft out of the way. You walk around the docking bay looking around. Tired, you press a key and you are back on the bridge. 7. Back on the bridge, you remember the marine. You fly over to GHQ and give the poor sod an RTB order. Only in BC3K. This version is going to rock something serious. There will be more screen shots this Sunday which will feature the external turrets, missile launch rails (independent systems which can be targeted and destroyed). A new movie with this model (also showing the internal docking bay) and the new interceptor, will be online sometime soon. Note: The model is still needs some more texture work. The purple polygon you see, is an area that has not yet been textured. www.bc3000ad.com/images/screen_shots/bc3020ad/bcimage1.jpg www.bc3000ad.com/images/screen_shots/bc3020ad/bcimage2.jpg www.bc3000ad.com/images/screen_shots/bc3020ad/bcimage3.jpg www.bc3000ad.com/images/screen_shots/bc3020ad/bcimage4.jpg www.bc3000ad.com/images/screen_shots/bc3020ad/bcimage5.jpg [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 04-12-99).]

Rico, radar ranging is different in 3020AD. There are 3 ranges (L/M/S) now which determine how far any ship can see. In ACTive mode, you are pinging as they are. If anyone is within your range, they can see you. But if you are in PASsive mode and not pinging, you can only see ships if they are within visual range and if they are pinging. In tacops, you cannot see the entire region but a probe can provide a wider radar range. Stations can see the entire region. The radar 'bubbles' are shaded for your ships so that if you were viewing one of your ICs, you will see a bubble around it, showing its radar range. As it moves, the bubble moves with it as it lights up the new areas. If a ship moves out of radar range and shuts down its radar, you will only be able to reacquire if it is visual range or you pick up its weak signature. Missiles once they acquire a target, work as normal. The tacscan beeps are the smallest that they can be but the blinking dot indicating the current target has been replaced with a pair of captains bars (vertical lines) on the L/R of the dot. Some ships have all around radar, some have Forward Looking Radar. For the ones with FLR, you should see a series of concentric cones coming from the front indicating the region they are painting. The ones with Full View Radar, FVR, have the 360 bubble around them. All fighters have FLR. There are other fog of war changes that I don't care to discuss right now. [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 04-06-99).]

....interesting

Rico, we don't have time to support software and hardware renderers especially due to the advanced effects that the engine now uses. Think of 3D cards as sound cards, at one point, you needed one to play a game. 3D cards are the same way today and most companies writing high-end games, are either (a) shying away from software renderers or ( releasing pitiful software versions. At any rate, thats the deal. A 3D card is required and I said that a long time ago. Charles, RTM = ...read your keyboard command sheet under weapons systems

Its at: www.bc3000ad.com/images/screen_shots/bc3020ad/bcbridgeproto.jpg The entire bridge is now mouse clickable. You can also select targets from within the NID, TACSCAN and BRIDGEVIEWER using the mouse. The entire bridge is transparent and comes in 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768 in D3D and Glide modes. There is no software rendering support (a 3D card is required) This new bridge simulates an eyepiece rather than a view of the bridge. Screen shots of this in action and some kick-ass screen shots from the new 16-bit rendering engine, should start appearing sometime in May. Your comments are welcome even though this is the final prototype. [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 04-04-99).]

No, it doesn't work like that. It is all or nothing. OK, in v2.07, I'll change it so that you only get Fleet C&C when you reach Tacops Cmdr rank. Even in Free Flight (which is enabled by default)

Area damage was the first new BC:3020AD feature implemented.

There are no plans to change the flight dynamics. If there are any changes, they will be minor (all the values in the objects.scr will be used, speeds will be slower, NPC ships will have the same speed restrictions as player etc). This is because any flight dynamics changes will also have to be done for NPC ships and they have to 'learn' how to use them. No thanks. [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 03-27-99).]

No

uhm, I wasn't talking about breaking them up, even an orangutang can do that, I'm talking about in game support. Stay focused

Yep, you got everything right Rico.

There won't be any in-game interaction between players while docked at stations. That said, the money transaction is fairly simple since it is all electronic. If you are in a buy/sell scenario, then you would probably put the goods in a cargo pod and drop it for your buddy to pick up. Sure enough, you have to get paid first. If someone decides to stiff the other person, then blow him up because anything he is carrying, including his galcreds, will be in a cargo pod to collect. Yes, I am serious about this but it is down to time. If it does not make it into the final release, then probably in a patch. The reason it is down in the feature list is because I really cannot see people logging in to trade when there are missiles and lasers flying everywhere. Besides, you can't trade unless you log in as a trader, in which case, you only get to choose tranport ships to fly. Those economic holes where people have millions of dollars right off the bat won't apply in multiplayer either. In fact, I can see some folks playing trader with armed transports and hanging around hot spots..."...hey, wanna buy Vagrants cheap?" I think it will be cool, which is why I have in my feature list of things to do. Imagine having your station (refer to my previous notes regarding the size of the mp universe)destroyed and while you are waiting to have it fixed, you have no missiles. Go look for Jose hanging around the trade lanes and either buy from him....or blow him up. Of course I'm going to beef up the hull/armor and firepower of transports to compensate. This way, they won't be a pushover. Multiplayer is gonna kick-ass, just wait. Can you imagine dropping a cargo pod of sniper bullets to your friends running around on planets as marines? hehe, just stay out of range of those Surface To Orbit or Surface To Air shoulder launched missile batteries.

This is getting interesting. Rattler, please send me this via email. Thanks As for the squads for marines, that is a good idea but it will make handling them more complex. Still thinking....

Thanks Badgerius. heh, if you see the code, you would surprised that it even runs. Scary I tell ya. ...and we're not even done yet. If you think its good now, wait until you get BC:3020AD [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 03-27-99).]

No Badgerius, that level of detail is not modeled. In fact, though the trading model is being significantly overhauled, I don't think I would put that sort of detail in. However, the price of goods would be dependent upon the availability, the stability of the region and if transports can get through. I think I already mentioned that you will be able to prevent a station from having supplies if you prevent transports from docking. In v2.0x, there is already a prelim model whereby if you prevent ships from docking with the station, its integrity is lowered over time, simulating rundown conditions due to lack of food, supplies etc. Go try it! btw, I've enabled the ability to dock your ATV, shuttles or IC at surface bases. Once tacOPS has a simpler method of locating them (I am going to be using white squares to indicate areas of interest. You can then just zoom those), you will be able to target the starbase and dock with it. This code has been in there since 1994 and the testers who have access to the standalone Frontend module have already seen how it works. With this, you can now trade with planets as well, which will make it more harzadous and challenging. Look for this around 2.07 or 2.08. [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 03-27-99).]

The race/caste alliance changes are even more dynamic in BC:3020AD and your actions can now trigger a global war. You should get messages from GALCOM as alliances change. Go about taking out enough Empirian ships and don't be surprised if they get colder and colder toward the Terrans and eventually trigger open hostilities. Guess who gets court-martialed. I'm taking suggestions on how to implement the promotions for crew. This would be restricted to pilots, marines and officers only. Submit your ideas in this thread. I suspect that the system would automatically award medals/promotions (it is easier than have you do it manuallY) based on performance, AI etc. As you gain promotion and medals, your AI and skills improve etc. I don't have a rank table for GALCOM yet but I was thinking of using the US Army or US Navy ranking model. Any ideas? Rattler? [This message has been edited by Supreme Cmdr (edited 03-27-99).]