Code Release

Hey Granpa, we gonna see any new releases for the beta?? im anxious to see how its comming, any updates anyway?

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Epic Modeller - Buda5 Modeller

The Man with the really big ship, aka the Columbia Class Super Danube

I am not sure. Struggling with AI design - relating to fleets and getting the factions to generate the right kind of mission at the right time.

It looks like end of week for another cluster release with the stations fixed to have proper station types, and tons of new stations. And perhaps a suprise.

-Gtrout

*Crank Yankers voice* Yea!

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Epic Modeller - Buda5 Modeller

The Man with the really big ship, aka the Columbia Class Super Danube

Ummmm, Granpa...............any updates for us? News? Anything? Im slowly getting somewhere on my models, but that is because i have more crap going on in my real life than i am willing to list. Other than that, im getting along in my slow way.

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Epic Modeller - Buda5 Modeller

The Man with the really big ship, aka the Columbia Class Super Danube

Ok, so it has been three weeks - and I am still thrashing the AI. Yikes. What a nest of snakes I have created.

I won't make any (more) promises but I can tell you what is happening (lots of things):

1. All the stations are now POG created. This changed almost every code module from the cluster generation spreadsheets to the cargo and trade modules. But it was a very good thing, because governments and corporations are all about building stations and placing them. And so are pirates.

2. The ship creation code for the new traffic scripts is ready for new ships. Stations will now use the new ships to create defensive fleets.

3. I had to redraft the economy plan to know where and how many stations to place. And attach importance to every station. Every kind of station is now critical to AI and so you can damage AI plans by destroying any type of station. This is true from factory to space traffic control. Epic uses only a few of EoCs station types. But after 20 or so, how many more do you really need?

4. I wrote a proof of concept for the story block system. Story blocks are a high level script for creating the Epic campaign out of mission blocks. Problems here led me back to:

5. Designing the AI. Right now there are 3 AI systems underway: The "First Person Shooter" event handler AI. This is the one that deals with combat, sneeking, and docking the player reputation for attacking innocent people. There is the Real Time Stratagy AI planner - that tells governments where to move the Navy, corporations where to build new stations, and pirates where to raid and pillage. And there is a Cluster Wide Event handler - so the same governments can react to pirate attacks, or news reports can broadcast that stations were destroyed. Of course none of these work - but until I know how they WILL work - I cannot finish any of the combat or mission scripts properly. (I am up to my neck in chickens and eggs right now!)

6. I wrote a gravity simulator - in POG. Right now flying is very boring. Especially multiple capsule jumps. The trade and smuggler parts of Epic will be mostly flying around, and I don't want them to be dull. I don't intend to change spaceflight - but to possibly change how capsule jumps work. As a pilot you would now need to navigate a twisting gravity pulls to get to your target - or fall back to where you started. But more on that in phase two. I did this prototype to just prove to myself it was possible. (It has not been discussed, so it might not end up in Epic at all.) And it does work.

Other work that is progressing "behind the scenes":
Ship rebalance, damage, and loadout are all reporting progress. The cluster wide Epic main story is being converted from novel form into the dozens of little bits that make up missions, news, emails, and dialog. The planet and background textures are nearing finish.

DarkFire: I could include a "junkyard" station and "pirate hideout" station at any time. The cluster is ready to take them. I have stand ins for them right now. (send me an email and we can talk more about them).

So: many, many lines of code, text, ini file and texture written. Sadly, many more to go! I will try to stay on top of status reporting. If I don't - feel free to give me a push.

-Gtrout

Oh, one last note:
Epic could use more staff! So if you guys/gals waiting feel like jumping in I have work to give.

We really need: model and texture people. Stations, faction ship textures, and new ships.
2D artists who like to do faces, to give the story more visual pizazz.
An experienced windows GUI programmer (for tools and a really cool app).
A POG programmer to help code missions. Distress and rescue calls, pirate hunts, grapples, tracking beacons, cargo raids, etc.

Of course we are always glad to get testing and feedback when pieces release.

-Gtrout