Post by lorathor on Oct 28, 2014 23:38:41 GMT
Ay there everybody.
So, in the last times there is a lot of concept drafting going on. Where we're going and where not. Basically with the voting we decided to go standalone, which coding language isn't decided yet (I think) and theoretically I've nothing to do with it since I know almost nothing about coding. So that's your construction site.
First point is the graphics. Since we decided (not per voting) to stay at 2D pixelart I would suggest that we're going a little bit bigger with the spriting. I think 64x64 is quite good and big enough to show a lot of detail with keeping the pixelart as it'll look "oldschool". But that's only my opinion, if you want to stick to 48x48, thats fine. I don't know how you would handle the object-placing itself but I would go for a Object / Item pattern like Spacestation13 but the characters could be moved around borderless and without restrictions. The base sprites and animations for object should be done first and after we can think about animating the characters (walking cycle, using objects etc). Also I would suggest to go for a 2.5D artstyle with a bit of perspective to obtain immersion. With this the sprites could be a bit taller like 64x96 to get some taller walls. They player could be able to 'walk behind' the walls which will be then faded out but I leave this out at first. What do you think ?
Than there's the big discussion about how the game and the servers are handled. Now I could explain every point ever said or discussed but I'll do it in another way. I'll tell you my opinion and how I would solve the whole thing (With the original buildstation intent in mind).
The overall gamestyle for this project is a Spacestation13 inspired building game with a lot of RP involved. Let's say eveythings working and the server is set up. Players could join this server and have to decide in which Corporation they would like to join or roam free as a 'Civilian'. These "main-server" is maintained by an admin team to oversee the whole situation, representing the biggest corporation so far and establishing a constand 'RP-ing' - just like as normal on SS13 servers. Some servers may shelter more players than others and with this, the server-map changes to it's desired size. Let's say we have an average server with 2 independent corporations next to the 'main' one. All corporations are player driven and the 'main' one is guided by the admin-team.
So, you join the server as a civilian and seek out for a special corporation or you just join the omnipotent 'main'. You can seek yourself a job or something to do at the omnipotent or see what the others can offer. They are player driven and with this they can set their own ruleset, jobs, tasks, stations, forts and whatever. The rounds would last infinite or atleast the server is reset by overall demand. If this happens, the map will be reset and the corporations have to be build up again with ther stations (Some stations and outposts are uninhabited from the beginning to accomplish a fast start). The corporations are able to mine, explore, build and research own their own, almost unlimited. We talked about a somewhat "multiverse" where some instanced z-leves are fixed and other will be randomly accessable with the propper equipment and also will close within a different amount of time so you need to be fast to obtain the research, materials or whatever you can imagine. Basically this would be a somewhat bigger Spacestation13 remake / inspired game with obviously more players than 70. This could be a huge Roleplay based server where the corporations are trying to work together to exchange materials, research or artifact OR just try to kill each other. It's up to the player with the guidance of the "omnicorp".
But there are some major downsides with this plan: What if the players aren't working together and just griefing ? The whole server would be a total mess and needed to be restartet soon again. Also, if one player-corporation has set up their base and somewhat newbie is accidentally bombing up the whole place - you could say bad luck, let's build it up again, start from scratch or abandon the station. What if the admins are sleeping or no corporation-members is online ? You could literally do eiter nothing or mess up the whole server by your own. A first solution is to introduce the "rounds"- like in SS13 again with the possibility to poll a restart. But how will the player-corporations be able to build up a station if the server is restarting the round ? I frankly don't know. If we advance, the playerbase will be able to host their own servers with their own ruleset and change a lot to be able to archive a wide variety of serversetrules.
As for the building inside this games I'd stick to almost everything Nullbear once said. Overall and infinity production lines with a buckload of materials, properties and usability.
If one day the whole thing will be monetized, thats okay but please DO NOT care about it too much now... If you develop something only with the money in your thoughts you can throw this whole thing right into the trashcan, this is a promise.
These are my thoughts about the whole game-situation right now. Maybe my thoughts are going way to off for some of you, maybe not, I don't know. Please tell me what you think and where you'd see this project. And keep in mind, this is only my opinion of how it could be handled!
So, in the last times there is a lot of concept drafting going on. Where we're going and where not. Basically with the voting we decided to go standalone, which coding language isn't decided yet (I think) and theoretically I've nothing to do with it since I know almost nothing about coding. So that's your construction site.
First point is the graphics. Since we decided (not per voting) to stay at 2D pixelart I would suggest that we're going a little bit bigger with the spriting. I think 64x64 is quite good and big enough to show a lot of detail with keeping the pixelart as it'll look "oldschool". But that's only my opinion, if you want to stick to 48x48, thats fine. I don't know how you would handle the object-placing itself but I would go for a Object / Item pattern like Spacestation13 but the characters could be moved around borderless and without restrictions. The base sprites and animations for object should be done first and after we can think about animating the characters (walking cycle, using objects etc). Also I would suggest to go for a 2.5D artstyle with a bit of perspective to obtain immersion. With this the sprites could be a bit taller like 64x96 to get some taller walls. They player could be able to 'walk behind' the walls which will be then faded out but I leave this out at first. What do you think ?
Than there's the big discussion about how the game and the servers are handled. Now I could explain every point ever said or discussed but I'll do it in another way. I'll tell you my opinion and how I would solve the whole thing (With the original buildstation intent in mind).
The overall gamestyle for this project is a Spacestation13 inspired building game with a lot of RP involved. Let's say eveythings working and the server is set up. Players could join this server and have to decide in which Corporation they would like to join or roam free as a 'Civilian'. These "main-server" is maintained by an admin team to oversee the whole situation, representing the biggest corporation so far and establishing a constand 'RP-ing' - just like as normal on SS13 servers. Some servers may shelter more players than others and with this, the server-map changes to it's desired size. Let's say we have an average server with 2 independent corporations next to the 'main' one. All corporations are player driven and the 'main' one is guided by the admin-team.
So, you join the server as a civilian and seek out for a special corporation or you just join the omnipotent 'main'. You can seek yourself a job or something to do at the omnipotent or see what the others can offer. They are player driven and with this they can set their own ruleset, jobs, tasks, stations, forts and whatever. The rounds would last infinite or atleast the server is reset by overall demand. If this happens, the map will be reset and the corporations have to be build up again with ther stations (Some stations and outposts are uninhabited from the beginning to accomplish a fast start). The corporations are able to mine, explore, build and research own their own, almost unlimited. We talked about a somewhat "multiverse" where some instanced z-leves are fixed and other will be randomly accessable with the propper equipment and also will close within a different amount of time so you need to be fast to obtain the research, materials or whatever you can imagine. Basically this would be a somewhat bigger Spacestation13 remake / inspired game with obviously more players than 70. This could be a huge Roleplay based server where the corporations are trying to work together to exchange materials, research or artifact OR just try to kill each other. It's up to the player with the guidance of the "omnicorp".
But there are some major downsides with this plan: What if the players aren't working together and just griefing ? The whole server would be a total mess and needed to be restartet soon again. Also, if one player-corporation has set up their base and somewhat newbie is accidentally bombing up the whole place - you could say bad luck, let's build it up again, start from scratch or abandon the station. What if the admins are sleeping or no corporation-members is online ? You could literally do eiter nothing or mess up the whole server by your own. A first solution is to introduce the "rounds"- like in SS13 again with the possibility to poll a restart. But how will the player-corporations be able to build up a station if the server is restarting the round ? I frankly don't know. If we advance, the playerbase will be able to host their own servers with their own ruleset and change a lot to be able to archive a wide variety of serversetrules.
As for the building inside this games I'd stick to almost everything Nullbear once said. Overall and infinity production lines with a buckload of materials, properties and usability.
If one day the whole thing will be monetized, thats okay but please DO NOT care about it too much now... If you develop something only with the money in your thoughts you can throw this whole thing right into the trashcan, this is a promise.
These are my thoughts about the whole game-situation right now. Maybe my thoughts are going way to off for some of you, maybe not, I don't know. Please tell me what you think and where you'd see this project. And keep in mind, this is only my opinion of how it could be handled!
) he's advancing and develop a lot of things but some day on the server someone messed up a whole station and a poll is thrown in. Obviously the scientist votes against but in the end the last known save is loaded and everything he did is gone. The player is frustrated and leaves forever. You can mirror this on every other job, it destroys the RP and fun in a bad way.
