Space Engineers

[masterofra]

That sounds better, so nuclear is less efficient, but uses less space.

In the beta version I got from you hosting yesterday (I think), but not the one that is in the first post, you had added engine models to the in game ship view. Will this also extend, later, to showing weapons, and anything else like that in the same way?

As for the orbit, perhaps temperately, add a command that sets a variable that determines the starting speed, and try a bunch of values until you find one that produces an almost circular orbit?

Determining how stable the orbit is, by checking the max and min distance to the planet you end up at over several orbits. the closer the values are, the more stable the orbit is.

The only think I really want for the orbit is to have it stable enough that you do not have to apply any thrust initially to avoid CRASHING into the planet 10 seconds after start.

 

[M0RT]

Yes, I plan giving models to some other devices, too (like the bridge in previous post).

Orbit: yes, I will eventually change the starting speed to enforce an circular orbit, but still, during the game, it will be pretty hard to stay on circle.

 

[Tleno]

By the way about that fatal eror when craft moves with endless speed because of odd reason, maybe you should make some kind of speed limiter?

 

[M0RT]

That is not the solution. The correct solution would be to fix physics engine. The easy (which I am chosing right now ) is to check the coordinates before moving the ship.

 

[masterofra]

One thing I find bothersome In construction, is trying to focus weapons. I mean like, telling 3 lasers to fire at the same point, so that more than one attacks each tile in a small area. You can easily do this for very short ranges by selecting all of them and using the set direction ability. but this doesn't work for longer ranges.

Here is the idea.
Add an ability to weapons in the second phase. When used. it puts you in focus mode. The focus point is displayed like the center of mass rune, and starts at that location. When you use the abilities "set direction north, south, east, and west", it moves the focus in that direction one half block. This would then point all weapons selected towards the focus point. When the focus mode is deactivated, the focus rune disappears. The only problem I can see is that it would cast the ability for all selected modules, and not just one, I do not know how to handle that correctly. hmm, and the rune could end up leaving your area. Perhaps make it so that the mode hides your building area, and shows the blocks smaller, so that it will stay in your area?

Also, How about a device, a centrifugal rotatory or something, which is a massive wheel, like the gyroscope. However, You use it to rotate the ship. It has two modes, clockwise, and counter clockwise. When activated. It uses power to rotate rapidly in the opposite direction, and will result in the ship rotating in said direction.

I have a new ship design to add, A Barrage Boat. (Dreadnought)

csYaFQbkATW!TG!RTG!TG(UUUIBUUUUTWyTgyRTgyTg(cvaeOaj

It is a huge (95) ship that has a large number of rail guns, which deal the highest amount of damage per power. It works well, And if you focus the guns at a particular point, it becomes deadly. It was an experiment.

Hm, The microwave engines are still glitched, Thought I would record that so that it isn't forgotten. If i don't record a change I need to make, I forget it when I go to edit my game.

 

[M0RT]

Version 0.42 finally out, mostly bug fixes though

Changelog

- glitch in laser targeting fixed
- added temperature(useless so far, also doesn't work correctly)
- changed error messages to something more understandable
- microwave engine cost fixed
- hopefully fixed some crashes
- added Barrage Boat template

focus mode: That seems pretty complicated for players, now it's not ideal, but hopefully easy to understand (you saw yourself that many players have already problems with this basic mode)

Wheel device: Not a bad idea, it would require to change the device control mode a bit (to allow 2 stages), it would spare some space and allow to rotate the ship even when your engines are blasted off...

 

[masterofra]

Yea, The focus mode was just an idea that lets you focus your LAZORS to make them EPIC WIN, lol. Its a lot of work to weapons manually, unless you use very short distances. If i could, say, type in a command instead, that would be how many tiles, x and y, away from the center of mass, and focus all selected devices towards that point, that would work too, and would be easier.

And the centrifugal rotary was intended to be used for immobile ships like satellites, like you would have in orbit mode (which you still crash 10 seconds after launch in), that would not use engines. So that you can rotate and blast them with your laser, and the turning ability would be harder to remove when your are attacked. that was the idea. What does Chaos do?

Oh, and btw, The abilities in spellbooks, their normal locations do not matter. It is simply that the first one is in slot (0,0) the third is (2,0), the 8th is in (3,1), ect. It doesn't matter the location data the ability itself has.

 

[Tleno]

Talking about that, what about stabilizers that would cost fuel to work? You know, some kind of "Stabilizer thrusters".

 

[M0RT]

"Chaos" is ability that transforms units into other units (it's called chaos because it's originally used in the mission when orcs turn into chaos orcs). It works differently than standart "replace unit"

The focusing command seems better, it would be "hidden" for normal players and usable for experienced ones.

Spellbook: I know that now, I didn't know that before I changed positions of most abilities, only to realize it was useless.

Stabilizer thrusters: Possible, the stabilizers weren't really updated for like 30 versions, I usually don't use them. This can be done, as the most powerful stabilizers possible. They even could be on/off switchable.

 

[masterofra]

I would like you to put a TriggerSleepAction(0) every so often while auto-binding, because it seems to thread-crash with large ships(TriggerSleepAction(0) starts a new thread after a slight delay). (such as the barrage boat, (which the code you got for was slightly wrong), I made a few mistakes)

csYaFQbkATG!TG!RTG!TG!UUUIBUUUUTgyTgyRTgyTgycvaeOaj!

Oh, and as a note, The design is vulnerable if it loses it's engines. Heh, If it had centrifugal rotaries, it would work much better.

Hmm, Did you try, for when chaosing (technical term ), removing the spell-book, then adding it back? or maybe disabling and enabling it?

Edit:
Hey, I just thought of something. I have noticed that if you were to double hit an arrow key, sometimes, it will fire said attached devices, and sometimes will not. This is probably due to the periodic timer duration, and that the time when the key is down is in between two ticks. I was thinking, that you could, say, record WHEN the key was last pressed, and when it was last released, and then, during the tick, if either of those were between this tick, and the last one, then do something. For weapons, if it was activated at all between the tick, try to fire. for engines, if it was activated between the tick, then deactivated, or any other combo, Then figure out the duration it was active for the last tick, and apply that fraction of the effect it would have on the ship.

Also, the crashes, currently, seem to mostly occur after playing some, and you then hit return to construct.

I just tried another code for a ship, and it was completely invalid, in that it loaded nothing at all.
K_(+tTzaXYYXbPrdId<DD!gWHeYWq
It is however what i got from saving, so there seems to be a problem.

About planet mode + arcade, why is there no pull of gravity? I assume that is because it is impossible to do an orbit in that mode, though I think that if the effect was small enough, there wouldn't be a problem.
Also, I found, at some point, Don't remember where, a map that may help you somehow with orbit stabilization. I don't know if it will help tho.
-----------------------------------------
I thought of another game mode, perhaps. Carrier battle. It would be a 4-12 player battle, with the first of each team, or maybe two random players, being the carriers, which are normal size, and must have a carrier module, and the fighters, which are scaled down to ~20%. The first team to kill the other carrier wins. The fighters, are not only scaled down to ~20%, but also will take, from carriers 10X damage, and deal 1/10th to carriers. They do however have normal speed, as they would if they were not scaled. Also, they can land back in the carrier module to get power and fuel from the carrier, though they will get 10X the fuel/energy as the carrier gives to them, due to the scale(display is the same, energy and fuel too, but it would be like each point of fuel in a carrier is like 10 points of fuel in a fighter.). The carrier is half as fast as normal, acceleration wise.

I have gotten frustrated with the current camera, and was wondering if you could add camera options at some point, such as zooming, tilting, rotating, or otherwise.

Shield ideas:
-add options to name shields yourself
-the shield will not simply do a square around it, but would cover 9 squares regardless, using adjacency, so that you don't necessarily have to use a square ship to make use of shields
-make upgrades either have more defense power, or cover more squares, and use more energy.
-----------------------------------------

 

[The World Is Flat]

How is this going?

 

[masterofra]

The blue and red lasers are incorrect. Blue should be stronger than red, as blue has the shorter wave length, not the other way around. Found it out watching a science show. And when i noticed it contradicted what you had stated in game, I looked it up online.

 

[Krl70]

O_O tried to do this once...

 

[M0RT]

Well you are right about the lasers, blue color can carry almost twice the energy than the red one per photon, therefore blue lasers have higher intensity limits. The other, more important, limit is the material you use. As for now, the most powerful lasers are red, because there aren't materials that could unleash the full power of the blue color.
But as this is sci-fi, we can expect the most advanced technology to be avaiable, so you are right.

 

[frostloh]

i found 2 minor issues in this map
1 its sorta hard to move your ship if it's big...takes an eternity to accelerate,or am i doing things wrong?
2 auto bind is screwed up,i told he newbies who were playing with me to use it,and when we went out to test they were spinning like tops...

other than that,i think this map has great potential and will be a hit when it is released.
i hope more weapons come soon

 

[The World Is Flat]

I think you need sc2.

 

[Krl70]

indeed

 

[M0RT]

I don't think so. First, I wouldn't be able to keep up with sc2 graphics, the model needs to be created in-game from a lot of smaller models, which will always look a little bit strange.
Second, creating SE took a lot of time, and the result was that I no one, except you guys here, was able to play a single game. And from what I have seen so far, sc2 players like even stupider maps than warcraft players.
Besides, the only thing starcraft has to offer would be custom dialogs and key control, I don't think it would be such an upgrade for the game.

 

[Tleno]

Not exactly, it allows tons of minor additions we could use in our maps. Like those dirrection of a unit showing things in campaing.
And compare it too WC3RoC, not FT. I mean it's just a first game from Trylogy.

Hmmm, actually I think I've got a problem of your map complication. See, in it ships obey to physics laws and other things like that. And you have to set controls.
If you would make the gameplay itself more arcadish, I'm sure it would be more popular.

 

[M0RT]

If you would make the gameplay itself more arcadish, I'm sure it would be more popular.

It is true that the physics was a kill, arcade mode was so much easier, but that kinda ruins the point of the game.
Also, most of the players were stuck in the building phase and couldn't move past it, so I think that is the issue here (and I can't really remove that, right?)

 

[Landmine]

I had no issues with this map, other then the fact I couldn't control my ships properly (not enough practice). SC2 wouuld probably have its ups, but I don't think its worth recreating all the current triggers/systems you have done.

 

[Tleno]

Hmmm, probably they didn't really understood what should they put, there are funds you have to kick in and how do you move to next contruction step.

Okay, here's my ideas of this part of game simplification:
-Get rid of selecting a butto command for an object. Most of objects will already have them, others that require dirrection to use, can be selected which dirrection you want with a spellpack and abilities in it. Kinda like you build an engine and you choose dirrection and key button with one ability. This will limit possibilities of a game a bit, but will simplify the hardest part. Actually it will completely eradicate this problem actually.
-If you're gonna do that, you might also make so you could only select directions of some devices (like left/right/front/back), this will limit strategy of building something but it will get much simplier.

-From begining of game the contruction menu is not empty, there already is a most basic template. Kinda like shall we say two engines, cockpit, a gun and a generator. Or two.

-Write some basic advices of how to combine items. Like "If you want to use energy only, you can use ionic engines, energy based weapons like plasma and laser and don't forget that your reactor amount then should be not lower than amount of engines+amount of energy weapons." or "If you want to make a more manevrable and agile fighter and don't need so much accuracy, you can get rid of stabilizers".


By the way, name idea: Replace the basic names with Starcraft ones. Like Laser to Yamato Cannon MK1. Plasma cannons can be renamed to Laser batteries. Well I think you can just take the attack names of SC units and use them as weapon names in your map...

 

[The World Is Flat]

Sc2 is more powerful in so many ways... i belive that if this was in sc2 it could be amazing, its easier to do more complex things, and frame rate loss wouldent be much of an issue with the more powerful engine.

the coding is faster and more powerful, plus there are alot of powerful visuals too.
there are also more people to play it, and mouse enabled control and a custom UI could be an amazing benifit... even if you dont remake this in sc2, i think your amazing mind deserves a fitting platform... wc3 is good, but sc2 is amazing.

(i also belived u had an idea for some 'mad scientist' based game, like your dungeon lords? that would be brilliant)

on sc2 players loving stupid games, you are so right.

on the whole though i think you could make some awesome stuff in sc2.


on simplification: i agree with tleno, on everything but the names.

 

[Tleno]

Why do you not like the names? They fit the space theme. And are better than current ones. seriously, you really should replace the basic names with more creative ones... just like with real vehicle or anything parts. Like "Nuketech" NR-5B reactor is so much better than just reactor, and something like Fusion reactor maybe is less awesome but shorter and easier to remember.

SC2 people just don't have any good maps currently. After some time they'll becme more demanding than WC3 players before the current downfall of it... by downfall I mean SC2's release and increase of bot amounts in b.net...

Yes, mad scientist... and other side would be agents or super heroes. That was my idea. kinda came up after Evil Genius game... you would have to use traps and your henchmen to stop good guys. I kinda also had an idea that there are three areas:
-Good guys HQ, where they upgrade themselves, spend cash and do things like that... also they might pay cash to gain info about evil player, order good side NPCs to attack island (works as distraction or a serious assault force if used properly, these are kinda like some special force troops or whatever) and things like that.
-Island. With a volcano and palm trees. There is also entrance to the mad scientist's base or maybe even few of these and some key areas that may give somebenefit to one of sides if controlled by them.
-Evil Lair. Yes, the place where all the traps are built, henchmen trained, research made and evil weapons pof mass terror and destruction are complete.
The concept was that differently from DL, it was not round based, but mad scinetist could all the time control his island and everything, good guys (they seriously need a better name, maybe G.O.O.D.?) can allways secretly enter the island in disguise or any other way, depending from the hero (Super Hero just flies in, uses laser eyes or whatever is more steriotipic nad kills henchmen, agent infiltrates into island, disguises as other person and does other James Bondy tricks, Commander comes with a whole platoon of brave and steraotipic marines) and tryes to deal the highest damage to mad scientist's base, like destroying doomsday devices or invasion force training center. By dealing damage they decrease the scientist's reputation in League of Evil. When it gets to 0, he gets expelled and it means game over. The more good guys there are, the faster it restores. Yes, leaver decreases the restoration of it. Mad scientist can win by forcing world goverments close the G.O.O.D. by lovering their reputation by succeding in his evil plans, like nuking the Washington (twice!). Well I think you've got what I mean... sorry for off-topic.

 

[mrzwach]

SC2 actually has various "block" pieces, which you could use to create more types of ships.

Also, you can do a lot with attachments, ie this is from something I made in beta:

Sandcrawler

Using things like catalog functions, you could possibly do things like this ingame. :O

 

[The World Is Flat]

(I am liking the idea tleno)


Mrzwach is right, sc2 is amazing.

 

[M0RT]

Ok you are right that SC2 is more powerful, but recreating SE would be a ton of work - I spend half a year on SE in warcraft.

The mad scientist game was just a concept, I currently have two sc2 projects going on. Maybe someone else should do it (I think that this concept was brainstormed sooner in this thread, or maybe Dungeon Lords thread)

About attachments: Can they be added in-game? I noticed that some actor fields can't be changed with catalog functions (or at least couldn't a while ago)

 

[The World Is Flat]

Where are your sc2 games?

 

[M0RT]

I have a thread called "Looking for EU-betatesters", where I gave a little preview of "Cruiser wars" (sc2 version of Canon fight) (the game is in beta, it needs balancing and then it will be playable, but I still have a lot of features planned for it.
The second map is called "Get rid of the sh**", and I am making a thread right know, will be up in a minute.

 

[The World Is Flat]

We need some of your games localized in NA.

 

[M0RT]

You still have to localize maps, like in beta?

And other question, when the map is done, would you (or someone else) be willing to publish it in NA? (I will of course offer publish his maps on EU, no problem with increased limits)

Here are links to my sc2 projects: Cruiser wars ;Get rid of the sh**

 

[The World Is Flat]

I would LOVE to publish one of your maps on NA.

 

[Tleno]

Localize? You mean translate? Hmmm, maybe I could make a Russian version... like someone would really need it... but still.

Yes, I came up with Mad scientist map idea in DL thread. Of course those hero type ideas and most of concept stuff were still not published then, but the main idea of making something like Evil Genius was born then...
Oh, if you're ever gonna make this Mad scientist map, maybe you should actually make it in SC2? WC3 is currently having not it's best times with multiplayer (Altrough singleplayer is still awesome, nothing can ruin it in WC3), while I think that by the time you'll reacrate this in SC2 player will already be "matured" enough for a SE or DL level maps. Currently they are just having hormone storms...

Yes, I think you can attach stuff ingame... I think you can even attach fruit models (There are few of them in editor, like apple or pineapple) to marine heads... yes, "Annoying Orange Marine", that would be great cinematic...


Oh and what do you think about my simplification ideas? Are they not too drastic? But maybe you should, I mkean it's immportant for you not only to make your map, but also make it popular, so you have to make some kind of compromises for that...

 

[M0RT]

Localize: Maps in sc2 can have multiple localizations in them. The problem in beta was that if the map didn't have the localization your game was, it bugged and you couldn't see any texts. I believe that is not the problem anymore, since there are lot of different localizations on EU and I never saw any problems with it.

I am not starting new warcraft maps, starcraft engine is way better.

Simplification: You mean what you posted here or in the DL thread. What you posted here was interesting, however I didn't see a real "simplification". The main problem of DL was the actual dungeon digging, playing as heroes was fairly simple (except for arcane magi), and I still have no idea on how to simplify that. Making the players build the dungeon "on the fly" would be even more complicated for them I think (however the 10 minutes of waiting is worse) - then again, maybe players will, in time, learn to expect more complicated maps than a spawn war with melee units

 

[masterofra]

Here's an Idea that will never work. How about, For a dungeon creation map, you make the map have two modes. One, a single player mode, where you create the dungeon, and you then save it to that file thing. (Bank I think) and the second mode which is the multiplayer dungeon crawl part, so that they get to start immediately. Most likely wont work, but just an idea.

 

[Tleno]

No, I was talking about SE simplification. Space Engineers map.

 

[M0RT]

Oh
Pre-build ship template is a good idea, I wanted to create something like that (I tried a guide that shows construction of the ship and then leaves the ship behind, it somehow failed)
Hotkey assignment was very complicated, I admit that, some more automatic system would be nice.

However in my experience, the really hardest part was device placement. Most players just weren't able to understand that an engine or weapon needs to point out of the ship, not inside. So If I limited rotation of devices so that they can't even be set to the wrong direction, it would help a lot too. I don't think it would be necessary to limit the angle to 4 possible angles (depends on the UI, if there were two buttons + and - 10 degrees, it could be simple enough) (or maybe rather "left" and "right", some "degrees" would be confusing )

 

[Tleno]

Yes, no degrees, just left, right, front and rear. This way you woudnt need any user asignment at all, it all would be already auto-assigned depending from device type and dirrection.

 

[masterofra]

I found, while browsing, something called a Plasma_window that has similar properties to a force field. You could possibly use it as an explanation for the shield module, if you were still working on this map.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_window#cite_note-0

 

[Rispetto]

Oh, forgot to comment when I tested the map awhile back.
It's very interesting and has a lot of potential, but it's also verrryyy buggy and unrealistic.
I turned on that planet mode.. and tried 4-5 times (restarting the map) just to keep myself afloat without being spun a million miles per second to the center of the of the planet and then being destroyed.
Also.. adding a feature that lets you revive after you die would be a major bonus to this map.
In general, I'd have to say 3/5

Edit: And also.. keep largely variable degrees. It adds a lot of functionality to the device placement.
If people can't understand very basic physics, then they don't deserve to play the map xD

 

[M0RT]

I have recently started working on space engineers 2 (starcraft version). I plan to make this second version much easier for new players. So far I have the very basic map systems, see for yourself:

I will create a thread in starcraft section once there is something to show.

 

[The World Is Flat]

oooh man now THIS is exciting as hell please make the first decent sc2 custom map.

Also, having static backgroud objects will help to gage speed, aswell as have perhase a simplistic (part/addon maybe) optional arcade control system, as well as easier hotkey mapping to multiple parts ect.

 

[M0RT]

Well it's the fact that you can't recognize your speed that I like. Besides, there is no ground, so the actual speed doesn't really say anything. What I want to add is an autopilot mode that will match your speed with a targeted object, I think that could help a lot.

I am currently working on part two of the physics engine, the radiometry (I don't think anyone has done a physics engine for that so far). I failed last time when I tried to implement it for warcraft, but I hope this time I'll be more succesful. If it works, it will provide a lot of new options ("invisible" ships, hiding in asteriod field, fake signals reflected of rocks, ...)

Also, SE 2 will be suited for an average starcraft player. I already thought of new ship construction system: In the first couple games, player will only be able to choose from several predefined ships (beginning with the really easy ones, with simple devices and homing missiles), with experience more of the predefined ships will be unlocked (like stealth ships, hyperspace-equipped...), and finally, experienced players will be able to create their own ships (However it's not a reward system, "higher" ships won't be better, just harder to control. The only aim of this system is to provide new players a very simple game)

 

[Tleno]

Awesome! So about engineering, will there be like some "Blueprint" panel where you'll be able to choose components? Oh, you can use the upgrade and unit attack names.
Oh, and will there be different hulls?

Oh, that's a good idea. Hull gives you different amounts of different components, like Viking gives extra on hull and weapons, Banshee gives extra for equipment and weapontry, Raven - extra to reactor and equipment, Wraith - Engines and equipment. Oh about the each component:
-Hull:
-Reflective armor. Decreases the percentage of recieved damage.
-Heavy Armor. Weights a lot, decreases speedup speed, but decreases damage really well.
-Medium Armor. Self-explanatory.
-Light Armor.
-Regenerative Armor. Weak but regenerates hp!

Reactor:
-***** reactor. All stats are average.
-***** reactor. High energy regen speed, but low capacity.
-***** reactor. High max energy capacity, low energy regen.
-***** reactor. Decreases max HP, but high capacity and regen.

Equipment (Enables activateable/passive abilities, some of them might require energy):

-Seeker Missle. Goes for some time in front of your spaceship, if it detects any moving object moving in front of it, will lock on it, but it might lock on asteroids too!
-Cloak. Consumes a lot of energy, but only your silueth is seen.
-Point Defence Module. Kinda like PDD, but built in your ship.
-Mine Spawner. Creates behind spaceship a line of mines that explode on contact or after few seconds.
-Shield Spawner. Spawns an inpenetrateable shield behind you for few seconds.
-Emergency Batter. Restores some energy.
-Repair module. Increases your HP regen.
-Defencive Shield. makes you invulnerable for few seconds when you HP is low.

Weapons (using all of them requires energy, nothing else required):
-Laser. Basic weapon, fast, moderate damage, not so energy consuming...
-Missles. Low attack speed, high splash damage.
-Swarm Missles. Lots of small short-range missles flying everywhere.
-Energy Cannon. Just like laser from SE1. High energy consumption.
-and stuff like that...

Dude, about that experienced player unlock function... awesome! But there should be some tech practice mode where everyone can design ships and test them freely....

 

[Landmine]

I'm liking what I see. One thing, will it be possible to pilot a to-scale Battlecruiser? That would be so much fun. "Hehe, look at the ants flying around there"

 

[M0RT]

Wow, that's a lot of ideas...
I will try to explain what I have in mind for SE 2:
1) Ship construction
much easier, hull will be selected, much like you said. You will also be able to select the ship size, which will affect weight, device limitations and of course cost. (I would like to create the "mothership" mod someone suggested for SE 1, there the size could really make a difference). The devices propably won't even be placed on the ship, you will just have a number of device "slots" of several types (much like cruiser wars actually), where evere device will take up a number of slots, depending on the type (with the most powerful devices taking up so much slots, that they won't fit on smaller ships)
Besides ship size, you will have further "general ship options". One would propably be the armor, but there will be a second, very important option, and that is the color of the ship. As I said, I want the radiometry (heat/gamma/radio emission/absorbtion/reflection) to work and to be an important feature in the game. Basically that will allow original "space stealth". I hope it will work somehow (I am working on this very system right now)

2) Ship control
The hotkey assignment in SE 1 was pretty complicated, and even if player understood it, it took a lot of time. Now it should be much easier. For engine control, there will be more options (I will explain them in another video perhaps). For everything else, there would be an easy setup dialog, basically offering you all possible "ship skills", which can be assigned to several buttons on "action bar" (possible to assign more skills to each button).

3) Weapons
This time, in order to make the game easier, I decided to focus on missiles, as they will be the main weapon for most ships. They will come in several variations. They will have different guideance technologies (heat-seeking, radar-guided...), and different warheads (shrapnel, heavy explosive, EMP...).
Second basic type would be mines, that just launch in space and stay there, exploding upon impact (in the end of the game, the battlefield could be full of unexploded mines...)
Then of course projectile weapons, lasers...

About the unlocking: It really shouldn't be somehow limiting to player, what I meant was like 3 categories (easy, medium and hard ships), each one unlocking after a single finished game, so that you would get to custom ship in 4th game. It would be sort of a long-term guide, so that new players won't get overwhelmed with difficult gameplay systems right away.

 

[Tleno]

Oh, that gave me an idea. You know that Card Game map? You could use similar achievement system to unlock some more intresting ship types. You know, reward ships... oh, even more awesome idea. You'll get to unlock Protoss ships this way! They will be same as Terran ships, but kinda more hard to get. Like to get Scout, you'll need to kill three enemies in a row. To get Void Ray, you have to kill ten enemies in five minutes...

Hmmm, if there will be slot size limitation, maybe there should be energy limitation too/ instead of slot size? You know, can't have too powerful weapons because reactor has not enough energy to power them, unless you sacriface some of equipment and armor to get more free energy...
So no lasers? And what about auto cannons and stuff? Or somwthing like point defence drones...

Oh, and about the newbie spaceships, I recommend the weapons with more fast attack speed and faster missle movement, I mean if you'll really immplement radiometry (Which sounds quite intresting but complicated), seeking misles might sometimes work weird, like for now reason crashing into asteroid while there's spaceship five meters left to it, making newbies go wtf. Plus don't know how you, but I would rather go up for more arcade-like controls. Those would be more fun, easy and, well, popular.

Oh, and when you finish your map, you might ask those Blizz mods from EU B.net forums to make your map the ne hosted map. I mean if they'll like it you're sure to get it as a featured map, which will bean top of the list for a long time.

 

[M0RT]

Auto-cannons will propably be there, to protect from missiles and mines. Lasers maybe too, I'll see how I can make them using actors.

Energy will propably be same as in SE 1, reactor will provide some amount of energy, and if your devices consume more, there will be a problem. (of course you will be able to overcharge the reactor, and even turn off safety systems, great idea for nuclear reactors )

Seeking missiles will crash into asteroids, hiding in asteroid field should be the best way to protect yourself from missiles. But that all depends on how the system will affect the game, I can't really imagine it (although I have an idea, and even idea for some evasive maneuvers). But still, using missiles will propably be easier than other weapons.

About the achievement awards: I originally didn't want to do that, as I think that not beeing able to use the best ships is extremely discouraging for new players. But that maybe be just my opinion.

 

[Hiruty]

make some Asteroid Belts for sc2
Very good looking map looking forward to a great map

 

[The World Is Flat]

For energy, make a basic production/supply system. Your reactor produces so much energy that feeds a income into your batteries, and any devices that use power add a negative factor to the income varaible. a single reactor will produce 10 pps, a single thruster will use somthing like 5? so if you hav 1, your pps is 5, if you have 3, your pps is -5, that way you can also have other comples systems like solid fuel for asteroid mining, improving battery or fuel canister sizes (asteroid mining!) and more efficinet thruster nodes w/e so for some ships you could change the way they act based on how you makeup the power/supply/use factors, you could have slower ships that never run out of power, you could have ships that use up all of their power with a pair of incredibly powerful trusters to get out of trouble fast, so they hop to places instead of fly in a normal pattern.

LIMITLESS