tzlaine wrote:FWIW, the DD describes starlane entrance points as being ellipses. You have them here as polar grid squares.
In the light of the recent commits, I'd like to see this clarified. An elliptical entrance zone would intersect with the combat area. Is this a good idea? Shouldn't it be separate, an extension, where only incoming ships can be placed?
tzlaine wrote:FWIW, the DD describes starlane entrance points as being ellipses. You have them here as polar grid squares.
In the light of the recent commits, I'd like to see this clarified. An elliptical entrance zone would intersect with the combat area. Is this a good idea? Shouldn't it be separate, an extension, where only incoming ships can be placed?
I agree that the entrance/exit zone of a starlane should be distinct from the combat area. I don't think you should be able to "park" ships in it. This can however be achieved with a lane entrance/exit of any shape.
A full ellipse is sorta awkward however, since there would be odd little corners behind the ellipse that was still in the system's radius. If it's elliptical, I'd like to see the entrance zone flush against the edge of the system bounding edge. Like this:
border.jpg (34.93 KiB) Viewed 2906 times
Though we want to make sure we don't have planet's sweeping through the starlane entrance.
Though i really don't remember any particular reason the ellipse was decreed as the shape. It seems like the kind of implementation detail that the DD are supposed to avoid-- unless there is some good reason i don't recall. What PD has in his mockup seem more straightforward to me.
tzlaine wrote:FWIW, the DD describes starlane entrance points as being ellipses. You have them here as polar grid squares.
In the light of the recent commits, I'd like to see this clarified. An elliptical entrance zone would intersect with the combat area. Is this a good idea? Shouldn't it be separate, an extension, where only incoming ships can be placed?
I agree that the entrance/exit zone of a starlane should be distinct from the combat area. I don't think you should be able to "park" ships in it. This can however be achieved with a lane entrance/exit of any shape.
A full ellipse is sorta awkward however, since there would be odd little corners behind the ellipse that was still in the system's radius. If it's elliptical, I'd like to see the entrance zone flush against the edge of the system bounding edge. Like this:
border.jpg
This problem goes away if you scoot the ellipse towards the star so that it only toughes the edge of the combat area, instead of overlapping it as you have here.
pd wrote:...An elliptical entrance zone would intersect with the combat area. Is this a good idea? Shouldn't it be separate, an extension, where only incoming ships can be placed?
I agree that the entrance/exit zone of a starlane should be distinct from the combat area. I don't think you should be able to "park" ships in it. This can however be achieved with a lane entrance/exit of any shape.
A full ellipse is sorta awkward however, since there would be odd little corners behind the ellipse that was still in the system's radius. If it's elliptical, I'd like to see the entrance zone flush against the edge of the system bounding edge. Like this:
border.jpg
This problem goes away if you scoot the ellipse towards the star so that it only toughes the edge of the combat area, instead of overlapping it as you have here.
What problem are you talking about?
pd and i have mentioned two potential problems:
1) The starlane entrance/exit area overlaps the combat area, possibly including planets
2) The entrance/exit area could have weird corners or space behind it
The mockup in my last post avoids #2, but still has problem #1.
Scooting the ellipse toward the star would have both problems.
Pd's mockup has neither problem.
Maybe we're just talking about different things. This is how the starlane entry points are going to work, tentatively (Geoff and I are still working out some details). Each entry point (zone, really) is:
- Ann ellipse
- Near the edge of the battle map
- On the battle map
- Outside the outermost orbit
What you drew seems to be partly in- and partly outside the battle map, that was the problem I was alluding to.
I read through the 0.4 design pad, looking for information displayed on the UI during combat. The DP has some specific information on it, but I couldnt find anywhere on the forums detailing the decision for what will be included in the UI. Has this decision been made already?
Will the combat UI show crew? Has a decision been made about ship to ship boarding or do such decisions come at a later stage of the project?
Will there be stackable attributes? Will this include special, passive, positive and/or negative attributes? How would this be displayed?
I was really just curious. I made a sci fi game a number of years ago and before I could develop the UI, I had to know what I would be displaying on there. I attached a png mockup from something I was working on previously.
