Map objects, terrain and other map related ideas

[Zebh]

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 12:19 pm

Last edited by Zebh on May 22nd, 2010, 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Once again, some map ideas. The wormhole ideas might have been posted before too.

Moving map objects.
The original Armada I & II had moving asteroid fields. I wonder, could this be used for other map objects too.  I don't think it was possible in original Armada, but it would also be very interesting if the objects could go in some other way than a straight line, a wall style formation would be very interesting.

Some ideas how that could be used on maps
Ion storm. Nebulae could be moving similar fashion to the old asteroids. The basic effect of it can be that it disables engines, causes some damage and slightly damages subsystems. It also drags the ships with it, and the distance how far it will drag the ships would be dependent on the vessel size. Bigger ships travel less farther than smaller ships.  So when the ion storm hits a ship or fleet, it would stop it as they will be unable to move and the storm would drag them some distance away and scatter the fleet on its way.

Similar idea with units
Another idea I got about those moving map objects. The moving thing wouldn't need to be some asteroids or nebulae. How about small fleets of 8472 bioships passing trough the map, destroying everything on their way. Of course, they wouldn't follow the ships, at least not far from their original path, the fleets would be small and they would not appear so often ( once in 7  min? ).

Subspace anomalies
Random appearing/disappearing anomalies with various effects. Some parts of the map could be selected to be "unstable subspace", causing anomalies appear and disappear randomly. Some anomalies: Speed slowing subspace field, subsystem damaging area, random ship appearing/disappearing (derelict or hostile).

Wormholes
I think that it would be nice if the wormholes would be bigger than they currently are. I made a small test (screenshot attached), where wormhole is much bigger when open and a little smaller than it currently is when closed.

I find it a little odd that the ships accelerate so much when they enter the wormhole, why don't they just go the usual speed?

I think that the traveling trough wormhole is too instant. It would be nice if the trip via wormhole would take some time by default. Also, it would be nice if that could be adjusted in map editor.

Unstable wormholes
Some specific wormholes could also appear/disappear periodically.

Damaging wormholes
Passing trough the wormhole causes damage to the ships, making attacks and retreats more risky. Some ships could also be destroyed in it and only debris of that ship would exit.


What do you think? Any thoughts?

Attachments

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 12:40 pm

very nice, my support to all of these as options for map makers.

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 1:59 pm

Great ideas there

[Canny]

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 2:25 pm

Last edited by Canny on May 22nd, 2010, 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.

moving map objects is good, but reqires more memory usage, myles computer may not be able to keep up, that should be a selectable function in the options menu, but it adds a more to it for sure. [glow=red,2,300]yes[/glow]

the bioship idea needs more thought, atm i dont know enough of the idea to be convinced its will be good enough especially in a mp round. for example, if the 8472 ships are coming in, what direction are they going out, it would igve the other player in a 1v1 the win by default because of this 'idea'. that is just one such question, the other is how big will the fleet be, is it convoy size and are the bio-ships all destroyers and battleships? how do you define a small fleet? 400 ships, 1254 ships? [glow=red,2,300]no[/glow]

subspace anomaly as you describe it, sounds like homeworld mission 7 and 8, the garden of kadesh. scanner interference due to a very high natural energy field, and random means random, including small freak occurance of an old romulan mine destroying a small ship in a fleet. that idea needs more though, i said the other day, trying to define random isnt random at all, its predefined which means, what kind of anomalies are you thinking of. [glow=red,2,300]no[/glow]

wormholes a good idea,

seen ds9 on that episode where one of jadzia's former lovers has this idea about a triangular red wormhole, or a tiny wormhole restricted for smaller ships like scouts or frigates or maybe a battleship and there is a chance the ship could be caught and crushed with no debris coming out. etc as seen on voyager season 1 but without the phase shifting.[glow=red,2,300]yes[/glow]

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 2:34 pm

A small fleet of bioships would be just a dozen of them or so. And the path would be set in the map, which they would follow, like the asteroids, but they might follow targets little if there are ships/stations nearby, but if they can't go far from the original path. So if they would follow, they don't follow long, and if the target ships get far enough from their path, the bioships would stop following and return to their original path. And I would assume that this would be disabled with the rest of the NPC races from in game setup.

The subspace anomalies would be limited to an area where they would occur. And perhaps each phenomena could be set separately.

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 2:45 pm

myles computer may not be able to keep up,

watch it you!!

my computer can handle all the maps/detail levels in fleetops with ease. and it can handle all modern computer games up until about 2007-09. so it can do far cry 1 but not 2 for example. it can handle doom 3, but not crysis.

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 3:47 pm

watch it you!!

my computer can handle all the maps/detail levels in fleetops with ease. and it can handle all modern computer games up until about 2007-09. so it can do far cry 1 but not 2 for example. it can handle doom 3, but not crysis.

hahaha.

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 4:38 pm

I think we need more.

Nebula that move around the map, or like you said an ion storm, move around the map and damage ship.

Another cool thing could be the black holes being brought back, and if you go to close, by by ship.

I also think things like moving asteroid fields could be cool.

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 4:50 pm

All sound like superb ideas Zebh 

In the same respect, maybe we could have nebulae or or "pakled-style fleets" that fly around and drop some resources or damaged ships. Perhaps also we could have areas of space where if you build a structure around a moon pair, this little area slowly moves in an orbit or something? Perhaps as a map object to allow scripting

I think also there could be some different sizes of dilithium and tritanium moons, as well as some nebulae you could mine from.

posted on May 22nd, 2010, 6:22 pm

fun ideas

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 1:22 am

maybe instead of having spacific map objects that follow a path all map objects follow a path

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 1:24 am

Some things should be fixed, I doubt everything in space moves. At least, not fast enough to be noticed in the space of a game.

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 1:29 am

while i would agree with that rules in star trek are ment to be broken/ignored.

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 6:06 pm

Yes I would love all of these changes 

posted on May 23rd, 2010, 6:38 pm

if the laws of gravity were obeyed, the intrepid class voyager landing on planets would of tipped over head first into the ground due to the positioning of the landing arms on the engineering section, the galaxy class ship would be completely unresponsive at the front due to the ridiculous size of that saucer section, phaser noises, docking noises, general noises like that are not heard in space because of the complete lack of any atmosphere and doesn't matter what type it is. ships being hit with weapon strikes would knock the ship back when not moving, additionally based on the angle the explosion happened and the rapid oxygen evac, the ships rotation should of also changed. starbases once hit as well should been knocked back.

but thats just a tiny portion. i like the idea of randomly generated derelicts, homeworld had the same system on mp maps if enabled, if say your main production unit goes out and you recently lost a carrier, you head to the derelict and regain the lost carrier instantly, maybe re-adapt it to regain one construction ship for FO, any other time though its 1 random ship of any class and random amount of resources or supplies, make it worth while.