couple ideas for a patch down the road (Full Version)

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MacCready -> couple ideas for a patch down the road (3/20/2002 6:20:42 AM)

Add irregular galaxy type.

Add more races.

Instead of all stars being perfect main sequence stars,have
elements from all stellar families,

Blue/Green/White/Yellow/Orange/Red
and combinations. binaries,trinaries..

Add more weapons/technologies.



Just suggestions as I see it,game is excellent as is,but if your going to continue to patch it...

:D



Andrew Ewanchyna -> (3/20/2002 10:58:17 PM)

What's your definition of an irregular galaxy type. You've already got 4 choices. Remember, I've got to be able to fit 100 stars, spaced in such a way to get their names to fit. Going with really asymmetrical shapes could cause problems.

Not sure what having the different star types would add to the game. While binaries and trinaries are nice in theory, what will they add to the game?



madmax88 -> (3/21/2002 3:52:36 AM)

In my opinion,
Irregular galaxy types (or random type) isn't necessary but would be a nice addition. Having more to choose from is almost always nicer. ;)

Different types of stars would be great as they could have different effects on battle. Different gravitational fields impairing combat maneuvers. Each weapon type would work more or less efficiently around different types of stars.
Certain types could rend shields useless when too close.
You could add nebulas, asteroid fields and such. Nebulas cutting your computer ability by 1/3, slowing draining your shields. Asteroid fields making combat a lot trickier ; obstructing weapon fire ; making missile weapons' targeting systems totally useless. etc.



MacCready -> (3/21/2002 3:59:43 AM)

Andrew,

I guess they would add nothing to gameplay in reality.

Its just that I've studied Astronomy and in reality there are very few single stars in the galaxy.

Our sun for example is somewhat of an enigma in the galaxy.

And to see all your stars perfect main sequence yellow stars is somewhat disturbing to me thats all.


An irregular galaxy would be completley random in nature.

It would include elements of all other four galaxy types.

Each generated irregular galaxy would be very different from one another.

Also Im a big fan of emmence technology trees.

There can never be too much technology in my opinion.

For example you could add rail-gun technology.A projectile traveling at insane speeds collides with a frigate and promptly ruins its day...


:D



MacCready -> (3/21/2002 4:01:16 AM)

Madmax,

You've got some nice ideas regarding the various star types..



madmax88 -> (3/21/2002 4:10:39 AM)

Thanks,

Well i just think of Sudg as still, a diamond in the ruff.

It's very nice, but imcomplete.



Celt -> (3/21/2002 4:22:09 AM)

Either more stars, or slower ship speed :)



MacCready -> (3/21/2002 4:28:17 AM)

Andrew,

Could you make it so that you don't see the names of the systems unless you've highlighted it?

This would maybe fix the name problem with asymetrical shapes.

I like Madmax88's ideas as well regarding the different star types and various effects on combat and flight.

Asteroids,comets,nebula. all very common space items..



Celt -> (3/21/2002 4:33:41 AM)

Andrew;
When is the next version coming out and can you list some of the changes/fixes?



JonK2002 -> More Music (3/21/2002 9:12:12 AM)

Adding some in-game music down the road would be nice. Maybe there be brief 4-6 bar themes when something important happens, like a "war" theme and a "federation" theme. Just a thought.....



Andrew Ewanchyna -> (3/21/2002 10:08:29 PM)

Hmm, can't see myself creating another galaxy type. I think the 4 that I have, cover it all. The current clustered galaxy seems to fit your definition of irregular.


The Mass Cannon is a rail-gun technology.

SUDG was designed as a quick romp around the galaxy, not an ice-age game like most in the genre. I have a feeling that you'd want stars numbered in the thousands to satisfy your request for 'more stars'. That's really not what SUDG is about.

Not seeing the names would make searching for some star more difficult. When you pressed something like ctrl-A to look for all stars beginning with A, then you'd probably have names falling on top of each other.

You are aware that all planetoids effect weapons differently already. Maybe a more pronounced difference would be better?

What would you want comets to do?

Technically, I can release the next version to Matrix right now. It speeds up the code to run better on slower machines, fixes a crash-to-descktop bug, fixes some AI bugs, makes the AI more aggressive in the highest level (endless task), gives you the ability to create your own alien faces, starships and font. Fixes a bug related to Relics.

I'm debating whether I should add random events to this version (would take some time to implement). My main concern right now is technical issues, especially on slow machines.

I'd like to hear of any technical problems that people may be having. JonK2002 keeps mentioning he'd like some music even though there is a music sound track. Has he turned music off? There's like 7 songs. Do others have problems with hearing the music or other sound problems?



Ghostbear -> Transferring Crews (3/21/2002 11:13:31 PM)

Andrew,

My two cents would be:

1) Ability to either transfer crews to larger ships or upgrade the ships to larger hulls (which makes less sense). I get attached to the scouts I start with, but find it absurd that even "super scouts" can so easily trash cruisers in the late game.

2) Starbases, implemented like mines (in remote systems or colonies) but with the ability to "handle" freighters, and repair and resupply starships.

GB:

cool:



madmax88 -> (3/22/2002 12:18:18 AM)

All in all this is great ; a new patch coming up! :D

Larger sized nebulas with an effect on combat would be great. Ships in the nebula would take slow damage to their shields and hull and could not use computers(reduced targeting, no ship info) for example.
Asteroid fields. Minimal warp speed while going through one. Collision with an asteroid would have the ram effect. Reduced targeting. This would require new graphics but perhaps this could be considered a mod. Or this:
[IMG]http://www.boomspeed.com/madmax88/asteroid.jpg[/IMG]

I think the idea of random events is good.

Thanks for allowing the mods btw.



Celt -> (3/22/2002 5:24:28 AM)

Well with 100 stars, and 4 races, each race has 25 star systems and that really isnt a huge amount :)
When you up the anté to 8 races, 12 and a half systems each will barely sustain your single cruiser nevermind a colony.



madmax88 -> (3/22/2002 8:44:18 AM)

Well how about this:

4 galaxy types like usual
50-75-100 and 125 stars on an expanded map. ;)



Andrew Ewanchyna -> (3/22/2002 9:58:55 PM)

I may be able to add a few more Stars! <=see the pun?



madmax88 -> (3/23/2002 4:29:57 AM)

Joy! That should mean more strange adventures in infinite space! <-- pun ... as long as we can still Reach for the Stars! <-- doublepun ;) :D

Oh! And here's a bronze trophee for your hundredth post. ;)
[IMG]http://www.boomspeed.com/madmax88/bronzeship.gif[/IMG]



MacCready -> (3/23/2002 6:16:20 AM)

Andrew,


It's cool,I understand where your coming from,
I was playing a game using the clustered galaxy type
and your right.

It is random in nature.What I was thinking about was
a situation where the relationships between the stars would change.

I see now that your game is supposed to be a much less glacial experience than most space conquest games.
This is a good thing.


I guess I should have played the game more before opening my big mouth.

The only glitch im experiencing on my AMD T-bird 1333 Mhz (Win98SE)system is when the game starts I get an error saying that direct sound cant be initialized.
This only effects the Matrix opening sequence though and as soom as the Apezone logo comes up,sound works fine.



Andrew Ewanchyna -> (3/23/2002 10:43:27 PM)

Some people are getting that DirectSound error from the Matrix Games menu, not SUDG itself. You could always call up sudg.exe directly to get rid of the error.

I've added a new "150 star galaxy" option for the next patch. It was naming all those new stars that was the hard part. As a bonus, I've exposed the stars.txt file, so you'll be able to replace the star names with your own.

Oh, and nice bit of digital woodworking (or bronze work), madmax88. You're very punny! ;)



madmax88 -> (3/24/2002 7:11:16 AM)

Great,
I'm sure we're all impatiently waiting for this patch!! :D

When do you plan to release it?



lnielsen -> (4/5/2002 3:31:28 AM)

On the CD version, (I don't think you can patch this) the autorun file always asks to install the game if you do not install in the default location. I wish you did not need the CD in to play the game but since you do, I know some games have a checkbox on the main autorun screen to disable autorun from then on.

The music always gets louder and louder. I set it fairly low but after a while I realize how loud it is and have to lower it again. Is this a subliminal thing?

It took forever to find out how to influence unrest. No where in the manual does it say to click on the words to reverse the command although it seems somewhat standard throughout your UI.

I mentioned in another thread assigning duties like anti-pirate to fleets and not ships. That way I can tell a pair of newbe ships to work together until they gain experience. Mutual protection is good. When paired like this the fleet should act as one ship. If one needs repair the other waits or patrols the home system until they are both ready.

Add a 10x or 20x speed for times when nothing is going on.

Often I tell a spy to steal money and I never get a message back about success or failure. I go back and look at the spy and he has no mission at all. I would also think a spy should gain experience like the ships. The longer between missions the better the chance for success (per spy) and the more successful missions completed the more types of missions available.

I know you are supposed to be able to run the game from the star map but I don't think there is a way to see ship status (integrity of each component) from the star map You could also add symbols by each home world to show if they are building, researching, or idle.

With all this said, it is a very good game. Please keep working on it.



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