New ideas to improve the game

For what's not in 'Top Priority Game Design'. Post your ideas, visions, suggestions for the game, rules, modifications, etc.

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LordStephen77
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New ideas to improve the game

#1 Post by LordStephen77 »

Hi everyone. I'm working on some graphic improvements of the game.

FreeOrion is a nice project. To make it better, simply enter graphic content and simple animations to make the game more dynamic and rewarding for the player.

Here is my list of ideas:

- avatar of the races, similar to the animated preview of the planets already present in the game. A simple image representing the various races of the game with a small screen scanning effect (shader).

- When creating a new game enter a new window for breed creation, system name, and other options. Very similar to Stellaris (the new Paradox 4x).

- New dynamic combat system (simple) adds gameplay and gratification to the player.

- Moving objects on the map (ships) dynamically (now moving directly from one point to another). With a fluid and progressive movement.

- To better organize the pop-ups of the windows (lined up), I noticed that the windows are disordered, the snap is active, I think it is useful to place the main windows on the far left of the screen.

- Working on new random events, types of alien races, and surprise elements that randomly run for each game, making the game always different and rich in content. Long-term work that takes a long time but represents the core of these strategic games so it is an important element.



I enjoyed the many personalization options (text size, fonts, and many other useful things). You did a great job. FreeOrion has great potential. To improve this project simply work on the list I wrote above.

I'm waiting for your answer, if I get it 8)

Thanks to all of you, I hope I have written everything well :D
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MatGB
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Re: New ideas to improve the game

#2 Post by MatGB »

LordStephen77 wrote: - avatar of the races, similar to the animated preview of the planets already present in the game. A simple image representing the various races of the game with a small screen scanning effect (shader).

This would be quite cool and very simple to setup, if you fancy working on the art the rest should be straightforward given we know it's technically possible to do.
- When creating a new game enter a new window for breed creation, system name, and other options. Very similar to Stellaris (the new Paradox 4x).

Not sure I know what you mean here, never played the game mentioned. Currently the only information on a race is a tooltip mouseover and it's not always as clear as it could be, are you basically proposing replacing that with some sort of interstitial or info box with more complete information?

If so, bear in mind it'd need to work in both the single player and multiplayer lobby, the latter of which has less space. However, improving the info on species at game start is definitely needed.
- New dynamic combat system (simple) adds gameplay and gratification to the player.
Again, not at all sure what you mean: the current combat system is definitely a placeholder, but I suspect we're always going to consider all combat systems placeholders in some way or other.
- Moving objects on the map (ships) dynamically (now moving directly from one point to another). With a fluid and progressive movement.

Not sure I see the point of that, it's a turn based game and I'd worry about the system resource requirements, but if it can be done and it's either not a resource drain or can be turned on/off with a config option then, well, fine with it I guess.
- To better organize the pop-ups of the windows (lined up), I noticed that the windows are disordered, the snap is active, I think it is useful to place the main windows on the far left of the screen.

I think most players arrange windows to suit their preferences, I save mine in Persistent Config and I'm fairly sure my preference is different to most others.
- Working on new random events, types of alien races, and surprise elements that randomly run for each game, making the game always different and rich in content. Long-term work that takes a long time but represents the core of these strategic games so it is an important element.
These are definitely ongoing projects, some are relatively straightforward—we always welcome species submissions and as long as they don't have unusual special rules that require AI team attention they can be integrated quickly. Random events are definitely planned (the spawning of small krill swarms randomly is a newish feature and in part a proof of concept, also nebulae becoming star systems is similar and got expanded substantially over the years).

Geoff's just finished the first stage of a 'game rules' feature allowing players to change basic feature, this'll be in the next test build but if you compile yourself you can test it now, having some of it be more random could presumably also be done at some point.
Thanks to all of you, I hope I have written everything well :D
Pretty much, your English is way better than my Italian (I can just about order food from a menu), but some things I wasn't clear on.

Welcome to the project: I especially look forward to testing any new species ideas you have, expanding the mix is an ongoing project of mine that I work on when I'm in the mood and/or I know the AI team are swamped with other things.
Mat Bowles

Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

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LordStephen77
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Re: New ideas to improve the game

#3 Post by LordStephen77 »

Thank you for your kind reply.

I mean FreeOrion is complete in its structure (I really like the whole gaming structure). Window positioning at the first opening! Some overlap, or are placed badly. The user can move them, close them and the previous apertures are stored in the previous position (this already exists). The first time you open the gaming windows should be placed neatly (it's just an obvious detail).

Insert small animation for fighting, and moving ships. Nothing complex, just make the game map less static. A beautiful thing visually? The parallax of the stars when moving the map (I really enjoyed this little detail). FreeOrion is great, easy to edit, and well organized in its structure.

The translation files in .txt format? I expected .xml or .json

Only minor enhancements and optimizations for things that already exist in the game. Small details that make the game more beautiful and enjoyable.

The combat system would be nice with a pop-up window that displays automated fights (small animations). Increases depth of play and also the player's involvement.

I hope I was clear. They are 2 days playing intensely at FreeOrion by generating small systems to test all the new features.

I use the master to compile the project and follow any changes to github.

Thanks to all of you for the great work done. FreeOrion is a rare pearl in the fabulous world of open source software (especially in the gaming industry).
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Vezzra
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Re: New ideas to improve the game

#4 Post by Vezzra »

LordStephen77 wrote:- avatar of the races, similar to the animated preview of the planets already present in the game. A simple image representing the various races of the game with a small screen scanning effect (shader).
There are already icon graphics for all races, so I assume by "avatar" graphics you mean a bigger/more detailed pic for each race. Where do you suggest such "avatar" graphics should be used? One place that comes to my mind would be in the species descriptions in the pedia, there it certainly would be a nice touch.

Can you provide an example avatar for one of the races, so we can get a better idea what you have in mind?
- When creating a new game enter a new window for breed creation, system name, and other options. Very similar to Stellaris (the new Paradox 4x).
Can you elaborate what exactly you mean by that? Because this sounds like a game setup dialog, and that already exists (unless you start a new game with the "Quickstart" option, which will skip this game setup dialog).
- New dynamic combat system (simple) adds gameplay and gratification to the player.
The current combat system is just meant as a stop-gap solution until we get around to implement something more detailed. Here are links to two (old) threads discussing various ideas for improving/redesigning the combat system:

http://freeorion.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7750
http://freeorion.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9732
- Moving objects on the map (ships) dynamically (now moving directly from one point to another). With a fluid and progressive movement.
When would that movement animation be displayed? As Mat pointed out, this is a turn based game, so animations that simulate movement states between two turns don't make much sense...
- To better organize the pop-ups of the windows (lined up), I noticed that the windows are disordered, the snap is active, I think it is useful to place the main windows on the far left of the screen.
From your answer to Mat I infer that you propose different default positions/sizes of the game windows. Well, this is a difficult thing because everyone probably has different preferences for what the "best" default settings should be.

What "main windows" would you want to move to the left of the screen? The default position of the fleet window is already on the left, and you can't move all the game windows to the left side. So what exactly would you suggest for the default layout of the main map view?
- Working on new random events, types of alien races, and surprise elements that randomly run for each game
As Mat said, all of this is part of the plan, so if you have specific ideas for new races, random events etc. feel free to present them! Some of them could probably incorporated quite quickly (depending on how well e.g. a new race integrates with current content). The backend engine probably already supports much of what you might want to do, the particular parts you need to familiarize yourself with are the content scripts (written in FO's custom scripting language FOCS) and the Python scripted turn events.

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Vezzra
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Re: New ideas to improve the game

#5 Post by Vezzra »

LordStephen77 wrote:Insert small animation for fighting, and moving ships. Nothing complex, just make the game map less static.

...

The combat system would be nice with a pop-up window that displays automated fights (small animations).
Well, animations for fighting could make sense once we have a more detailed combat system for which it would make sense to provide a visual replay, or if we do a tactical combat system where animated representations make sense. On the topic of a tactical combat system and the issues involved with that see the links I posted in my earlier post above.

Or are you talking about more and/or more flashy animations directly on the map? Because in this case you also need to be careful not to go overboard with the visuals, otherwise they become too distracting and potentially annoying to the player. That said, the game would certainly benefit from improved visuals in general. Currently many parts are too plain (IMO).
The translation files in .txt format? I expected .xml or .json
There has been some discussion about this in the past already. One of our core devs strongly suggests to move to gettext. Plain text files have been working well for us so far, but I haven't done any translation work so I don't know anything about alternative, potentially better solutions/approaches that would offer a more efficient workflow.

What advantages would XML or JSON offer over plain text files?
FreeOrion is a rare pearl in the fabulous world of open source software (especially in the gaming industry).
Thanks for that glowing commendation! :D

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LordStephen77
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Re: New ideas to improve the game

#6 Post by LordStephen77 »

Current default location of the windows, and default location by default (the user then moves them as he wants as you can do now, but at the first opening it's nicer so). It's not an important thing, I have the defect of being too critical and observer :lol:

Image
Image

As I said, FreeOrion is a great foundation for development. I take great inspiration from Master of Orion 2, because it's all I have in mind for this project. Also preview the structures of colonies, lateral avatar images when communicating with an alien race, and other typical features of MOO2.

I'm working on the first alien portraits. I'm not a designer, I just make the basics for the initial concept. Getting started can be fine.

Portraits of alien races appear in the game wiki, and in the communication window (text left and portrait right with separation frame).

As already mentioned, I prepare the first sketches to give a clearer idea of what I have in mind. Thank you

Master of Orion 2 Video:

https://youtu.be/TPI8QpBEHAc


XML and JSON improve performance I believe, as well as have greater assurance of character encoding (Spanish, Russian, Polish and other languages use alien symbols). The .txt files are read more slowly (I think) I noticed noticeable waiting times by opening the pedia in game. Is it partly due to this? I would not know sincerely. I need to know the project in more detail, it will take time but I like to put my hands on FreeOrion.
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My Github: https://github.com/LordStephen77

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