Forums » Suggestions
For Waylon - Movement
This is one of those Art Suggestions(tm), and a complicated one, so get ready.
Vendetta's universe is beautiful, but beautiful in a very video-game way. Everything is quite obviously a model with textures on it, and just about every movement has a purpose that relates to gameplay. In other words, the world feels as if it exists solely for the players. While it technically does, immersion comes most easily when a player feels that the world moves around them, and that said movement is independent of their own perception.
Other MMORPGS do this with waving trees and grass, sunrise and sunset, etc. Unfortunately, neither of these are available in Vendetta's universe, so we'll have to find something else that works equally well. Keep in mind that what I'm proposing is nothing less than loads of work with little 'practical' result, but in my opinion, these changes would make the Vendetta universe somewhere players want to spend more time.
The Simple-To-Implement:
1) Pulsing lights
The code is already there for the antenna tips on stations, now the trick is to make it work on moving ships, say the capship's fin-tips for starters.Oh yeah, and if the sequence can be altered from fade-in-fade-out to pulse-fadeout, pulse-fadeout it would allow an association with current-day airplanes, sending the unconscious message that 'this is a vehicle'.
2) Player-activated environmental effects
Humans love to push buttons and watch what happens. It gives us a sense of power. We also like having things activate for us when we approach. One possible place to implement this, again on the frigate, is to have a standard enterance-arrow show up at the underbelly dock when a player gets within 500m of the door.
Hard-to-implement (maybe)
3) Long-term animations
Planet-based games have their sunrise and sunset. We can have our rotating starscapes. Make 'em take a month to rotate completely (update rotation on sector wake?) It's subtle, and discovering subtleties makes us feel smart. Another place this could show up is station windows : Have windows fade from golden glow to a soft blue on a 24-hour schedule to approximate station crew night-and-day cycles.
4) 'Idle Animations'
Yeah, ships are technically blocks of plastic floating through space. They don't do much when they're just sitting there. Why not have a capship-sized luxury liner that's basically 3 stretched (for length) rotating station wheels with engine pods and a cockpit stuck front and back?
Okay, getting too tired to finish this. I'll write more later.
Vendetta's universe is beautiful, but beautiful in a very video-game way. Everything is quite obviously a model with textures on it, and just about every movement has a purpose that relates to gameplay. In other words, the world feels as if it exists solely for the players. While it technically does, immersion comes most easily when a player feels that the world moves around them, and that said movement is independent of their own perception.
Other MMORPGS do this with waving trees and grass, sunrise and sunset, etc. Unfortunately, neither of these are available in Vendetta's universe, so we'll have to find something else that works equally well. Keep in mind that what I'm proposing is nothing less than loads of work with little 'practical' result, but in my opinion, these changes would make the Vendetta universe somewhere players want to spend more time.
The Simple-To-Implement:
1) Pulsing lights
The code is already there for the antenna tips on stations, now the trick is to make it work on moving ships, say the capship's fin-tips for starters.Oh yeah, and if the sequence can be altered from fade-in-fade-out to pulse-fadeout, pulse-fadeout it would allow an association with current-day airplanes, sending the unconscious message that 'this is a vehicle'.
2) Player-activated environmental effects
Humans love to push buttons and watch what happens. It gives us a sense of power. We also like having things activate for us when we approach. One possible place to implement this, again on the frigate, is to have a standard enterance-arrow show up at the underbelly dock when a player gets within 500m of the door.
Hard-to-implement (maybe)
3) Long-term animations
Planet-based games have their sunrise and sunset. We can have our rotating starscapes. Make 'em take a month to rotate completely (update rotation on sector wake?) It's subtle, and discovering subtleties makes us feel smart. Another place this could show up is station windows : Have windows fade from golden glow to a soft blue on a 24-hour schedule to approximate station crew night-and-day cycles.
4) 'Idle Animations'
Yeah, ships are technically blocks of plastic floating through space. They don't do much when they're just sitting there. Why not have a capship-sized luxury liner that's basically 3 stretched (for length) rotating station wheels with engine pods and a cockpit stuck front and back?
Okay, getting too tired to finish this. I'll write more later.
hmm i like the idea except if it creates more lag.
#3 rotating starscapes
It sounds cool, except why would the stars be changing around me if I'm not on a spinning/orbitting planet?
It sounds cool, except why would the stars be changing around me if I'm not on a spinning/orbitting planet?
For #2, about the Cap Ship's docking bay, I think having a S on radar when the player is within maybe 1000m of the Cap Ship might be nice too.
another semi neat thing would be metorites occasionally streaking across the background(easy to implement im guessing), the skybox stars twinkling (might already happen, I play with the background off), maybe even a meteor hitting a planet, roid, or station occasionally
why would the skybox stars "twinkle" ?
twinkling stars is an effect of the atmosphere distorting the few rays of light that arrive from the distant stars and causing a varying intensity of the amount of light that reaches the viewer.
the same thing goes for meteorites, the "streak" is caused by the rock burning up in the atmosphere.
(dont mind me, i just like adding logic to discussions occasionally. IMO i think that the above ideas would be cool even tho they arent realistic)
twinkling stars is an effect of the atmosphere distorting the few rays of light that arrive from the distant stars and causing a varying intensity of the amount of light that reaches the viewer.
the same thing goes for meteorites, the "streak" is caused by the rock burning up in the atmosphere.
(dont mind me, i just like adding logic to discussions occasionally. IMO i think that the above ideas would be cool even tho they arent realistic)
To expand on the last two posts. You could have a random asteroid cruise through a sector at at a high velocity at very rare random times. Would add an intersesting aspect to things if it were to say, hit a cap ship?
Spellcast: Who's to say there's nothing between yourself and said stars? If twinkling is caused by a screen of gases, wouldn't a nebula cause a similar effect?
5) Running Lights
This would be implemented with the flashers mentioned earlier, and put on smaller vehicles. I can imagine that an AI Wraith flying past you with altrenately pulsing red (port) and green (starboard) lights would be quite cool.
5) Running Lights
This would be implemented with the flashers mentioned earlier, and put on smaller vehicles. I can imagine that an AI Wraith flying past you with altrenately pulsing red (port) and green (starboard) lights would be quite cool.
6) Space-time distortion at wormholes
This would require setting a cap on fov at 80, and increasing it up to 179 when inside a wormhole area on a sliding scale. It'd look cool and be much more interesting when it comes to finding hidden wormholes. :P
This would require setting a cap on fov at 80, and increasing it up to 179 when inside a wormhole area on a sliding scale. It'd look cool and be much more interesting when it comes to finding hidden wormholes. :P
ctish, I think the density of gas in a nebula isn't as high as the density of gas in the atmosphere... or something like that.
The only thing with flashing running lights is that military ships don't use them when in combat operations. ("hmm... a clear night.... with lots of little blinkys coming towards me... wonder what that means?") Maybe have the running lights on the cap ships when cruising, but the second it enters a system where there's combat (Geira, Deneb, Gray Space, etc), the lights go off. Same go with fighters. They don't leave their running lights on when in combat, only when landing. So maybe they only turn the lights on when you're in a station sector.
The only thing with flashing running lights is that military ships don't use them when in combat operations. ("hmm... a clear night.... with lots of little blinkys coming towards me... wonder what that means?") Maybe have the running lights on the cap ships when cruising, but the second it enters a system where there's combat (Geira, Deneb, Gray Space, etc), the lights go off. Same go with fighters. They don't leave their running lights on when in combat, only when landing. So maybe they only turn the lights on when you're in a station sector.