[GAME] EmptyEpsilon

daid

Latest updates,

You can now select beam&shield frequency. This effects beam damage, the science officer can see which frequencies are good and bad. Not 100% happy about the science display of this yet, as it's still a bit unclear which bars are good for shields and which are for beams. But the system works.

Re-calibrating the shield frequency pulls the shields offline, so that's an important thing to watch out for.

And, I was talking with someone and we might have figured out how to make comms much more interesting. Solving some problems I had with comms at the same time.

kwadroke

Looking good. Maybe we'll get a chance to play it for real next weekend at the convention if we have some down time.

Are we going to be able to see the ships in the Database so that they can be identified visually?

daid

Yes, ship pictures are in the planning, but not made yet. Also lacking some screen space for them right now, so not sure how to solve that. (Especially on the 4/3 screen version, which I need for my touchscreens) Not 100% sure if I will do static pictures or rotating 3D models.

Friend of mine will be working on the lore, and with that will also update all the ship types.

He already quickly wrote down stuff like this:

-- Karnack cruiser mark I

-- Fabricated by: Repulse shipyards

-- Due to it's versitility, this ship has found wide adoptation in most factions. Most factions have extensively retrofitted these ships

-- to suit their combat doctrines. Because it's an older model, most factions have been selling stripped versions. This practice has led to this ship becomming an all time favourite with smugglers and other civillian parties. However, they have used it's adaptable nature to re-fit them with (illigal) weaponry.

-- Karnack Cruiser mark II

-- Fabricated by: Repulse shipyards

-- The sucessor to the widly sucesfull mark I cruiser. This ship has several notable improvements over the original ship, including better armor, slightly improved weaponry and customization by the shipyards. The latter improvement was the most requested feature by several factions once they realized that their old surplus mark I ships were used for less savoury purposes.

He also has experience in game design, so that helps.

kwadroke

Cool. 

Just curious, what video resolution are you running on your screens?

daid

I think they are 1024x768, but they could also be 1280x1024

kwadroke

I tried running some games this last Sunday at Ark-La-Tex Comic Con, but had some crashing & un-pausing problems my Windows XP & Linux setup. I didn't have much time to test or debug due to having some players waiting on games. Will dig into it more sometime soon and submit information to GitHub.

daid

Ah, that's a shame. Which git version did you use? I had a crashing bug a while back, bug fixed that. But I fully understand not wanting to let your players waiting.

daid

Oh, and it's extremely important to use the same git version on all machines. Else the network code will cause random problems. There is a version check for this in place, but the version is always "0" which is why all different versions can connect on each-other.

I should be doing builds&releases, that might help...

kwadroke

I used a commit from August 31st (if I remember right) . I cloned it out that morning, copied it to 2 machines and compiled it on both Windows & Debian Linux (32bit). I did compile it on a Win 7 machine, but also ran it on Win XP. Will try to setup my Win XP boxes to compile directly and do more testing.

daid

Hmm, the 31st August commit shouldn't have any major issues that I know of. But, there could be windows/linux compatibility issues that I do not know off yet.

Compiling on windows XP or windows 7 shouldn't be causing any difference.

I did commit some changes for the comms station, which now has a map display, and can set waypoints. It only shows friendlies and everything within 5km of those. So it has way less visibility then the science radar. But, you can order friendly ships around by sending them messages. So you have other tactical things you can do there now. Especially the waypoint system will work nice I think.

kwadroke

I'm currently in the process of moving, so, I should hopefully get around to testing after the first weekend in October on multiple machines again.

daid

One partially done. Still needs paint and stuff. Single station, touch-screen based.

You can take it apart without screws, becomes a stack of wooden plates then, easier for storage and transport.

kwadroke

Nice. I've been trying to come up with something similar, but for people to sit in front of.
Long games make people tired of standing.

daid

I think I could design a "sit in front" version as well, if you want. It just needs to be lower and with an open front so you can put your legs under it. I'm still tuning the design, as this version required a lot of sanding to put together.

We where lucky to pickup 6 of these: http://www.elotouch.com/products/discontinued/lcds/1537l0910.asp

For pretty cheap.

And I'm lucky to have access to one of these at work:

http://www.shopbottools.com/mProducts/prSalpha.htm

So we build the above stand in a single evening with just 2 people. While we where still learning how to properly operate the CNC milling machine (we've only had it for a little while now, first big project that we're making on it)

So, without paint, a single console cost me about 100 euros right now.

And did some more debugging, think I finally found that crash bug you where experiencing lately. And hope to run some network games at my home today (with just me playing, for network testing)

daid

Awhhhhhrg.

Think I found the source of a lot of network problems I'm having during testing right now. Need to do some more tests, but might need to do some major changes in the lower network code. Beh.

Being a geek does help:

http://daid.eu/~daid/20141004_192110.small.jpg

1 main screen on my media center, 2 stations. And then I'm not even using my desktop :-)

Chuckachu

Nice to see you are tinkering with alot of options.

Okay I finally got this compilled on two machines. This bad boy is ALOT harder than it looks, but boy does it come with a crap ton of sweet features. I'm on the artemis TS as Daniel | Da Comms Guy and when you get this bad boy stablizied would happily move over to EE to play. I can't pilot in any game but the interface system for Comms made me very excited to see how much you can squeeze into this game.

daid

Oh yes, it needs some more game balancing. Right now, it is possible to win the basic scenario, but you'll need to do every single thing right.

Setting up proper frequencies for shields and beams, power to proper systems during combat and outside of it, reloading nukes at stations. If you stress everything to the limits you can win. Sometimes.

Comms currently can set waypoints, ask for backup ships to be send to the waypoints, and command ships to go to different waypoint. But these ships sometimes get stuck behind stations. So the AI needs work on this aspect.

Also added options for running a more show game setup. You can add "window" clients (start a game, goto "other options", select a ship, select an angle, and press the window button). This will give a 3D view viewing out of your ship into the world. You could setup multiple with different angles, with beamers pointed at walls, to get a real sense of being in the ship and having windows looking outside into the world.

Also added a "3D top view", which you can put up on an external monitor for other people to watch the game action in nice 3D view. Still want to add dynamic zooming on this one so it zooms in on action when there is action, but zooms out when things are happening on a larger scale.

This view is not intended to be shown to the players.

Finally, I think I fixed the networking problems last night. So be sure to update the code of both repositories. As this bug has been causing a lot of issues.

daid

So, and now for something new.

Self destruct sequence:

Entry dialog, shown on some stations, other stations will see the codes that need to be entered. So you need to work together and everyone has to agree to self-destruct.

The engineering station can trigger the self destruct sequence.

Still working on the final details of the code. But I wanted to show this :-)

(Also, not using numpad entry to be touchscreen friendly)

kwadroke

Cool. Sometimes all you can do is blow up the ship when things get too bad.

Chuckachu

One thing that I can see that might be an idea for the future once you get it stablized is the ability to choose between warp and jump. Both look great but some fans are really particular about which they want. 

BTW that destruct code stuff is awesome! Perhaps something similiar between Comms and Helm to access spawned in jump points i.e. Babylon 5

kwadroke

+1 on the Warp/Jump selection (or 2 ships with similar stats: one with jump, another with warp)

Chuckachu

Perhaps as far as the user is concerned its a toggle switch to change but on the programming their actually just two ships? Also please put in some audio setting sliders. haha That music gets really loud. ^_^

kwadroke

I figured it would be easier just to add another ship the the LUA files than make a code change to enabling toggling of warp & jump.

daid

Would be quite easy to add a option actually. As there is a bit of a bigger plan behind it. All ships can be retro-fit at runtime. The templates are used to create the ship, but after that it can be modified by the code, per ship.

Could add a simple option that switches between "ship default" "warp drive" "jump drive" and "both" (as a ship can have both if you want)

Thinking about changing the server-start screen anyhow. So that might come in there.

Music is already set at 50%, but sliders for some options would be good. Note that only the server has music. So it's not multiple machines blasting music everywhere :-)

Chuckachu

Sweet. This current build is tougher to keep running but again looks marvelous when its up.

daid

First semi-layer of primer. Already makes it look much more like I wanted it to look :-)

Chuckachu

Looks neat. This just your proof of concept or just your personnel station?

daid

It's actually a group effort at my work, going to build 5 or 6 of these. We already have the touchscreens. Also got a few spare beamers. I suggested that we could visit makerfaires or something like that with it. As the whole setup can be disassembled without and tools, and put in the back of a single car.

But the initial goal is to have our own bridge setup at the office.

Chuckachu

Both are worthy goals! Artemis gets alot of attention when setup. And as slick as your mainscreen can look with the ships current artwork I'm sure Empty Epsilon would as well.

Quick question, what is with the large bars of dead space on the side of my display? Is it due to my screen size?

daid

Yes, the bars are due to screen size. You can start the game with "screen43=1" in the startup parameters if you have a 4:3 screen, else it will assume you have a widescreen monitor.