Ambrosia Software Web Board: Manifest Destiny! (vegetasidea#3) - Ambrosia Software Web Board

Name:
We need a name don't we? Lets decide on it!
Mag suggests: VI / VI3
Patrick suggests: Manifest Destiny
Skyfox suggests: The Space Beyond
Skyfox suggests: Conflict:Space
Skyfox suggests: Colony Wars(Already taken by a game I think?)
Skyfox suggests: Space-Final Battleground
I don't really like any of these. Any other, preferably better suggestions?

Story/Plot Design:
The basic plot outline is complete, as are a preliminary pencil-and-paper list of Union missions.

Government Design:
Miners' Union(MU)- Union of all the miners in Sirus(SF) It also has been taking on ship producing duties so that the miners will have ships capable of defending themselves from the increasing NFFT presence in Sirus. SF is in the middle of a recession and attempts to force the miners to sell below cost right before the plugin, sparking a strike which will lead to violence and the game's first campaign.

CF1-Syna'iara Faction(SF)-The Faction government of the Sirus system works like this: Each planet "elects" a dozen people to the Committe for National Order. The Committe, which also acts as a dictatorial body handling local affairs, casts a vote for one of the other two Factions, corresponding to the other two planets. The Faction with two votes is given control over the system government. If each faction recieves one vote then the incumbent Faction remains in power. This has the effect of making sure a disliked(at least disliked by the other Factions) government does not recieve system-wide power.

CF2-Free Worlds of Jados(FWJ)- Jados, as the original colony world, holds the reins of system-wide power. Jados does in fact have a real constitutional republic(like the US) but the local affairs of the other planets/moons are for the most part run by appointed committees. The FWJ has the smallest military of any of the major factions but has just finished a major buildup aimed at annihilating the barbarians and NFFT.

CF3-Centaurian People's Republic(CPR)- Controls three of the planets orbiting Centauri. Communist government run by a committee of high-ranking Communist Party officials. Despite what the propaganda says, the CPR aren't "good guys". Ransacked and stripmined Beta Centauri while enslaving the local population.

Aliens- Mycenian Global Government(MGG)- Control Beta Centauri. Their ships are mostly older CPR designs refitted to allow the Mycenians to pilot them. Don't like any humans and fight both the CPR and, when they arrive, the GRE.

EF-Global Republic of Earth(GRE)- Controls Mercury, Venusian habitat stations, Earth, Neptune and Uranus. Most powerful goverment in the Sol system and founder of the Solarian League system government which is wholly under Republic control. Founded after the Pakistan-India conflict touched off a nuclear war which left much of the developed world a wasteland.

National Fighters for Free Trade(NFFT)- The pirates. Cute name but they're just highly-organized pirates. Have their own shipyards, habitat stations etc. and infest all four main human-controlled systems.

Barbarians(need a name for these guys!)-
In the Jados system. They are basically a really large group of pirates with their own separate ship designs and a different modus operandi-attacking large targets like stations and even some of the planets and moons of Jados. They showed up only 40-50 years before the plug and as such the FWJ navy hasn't been able to defeat them yet. The FWJ was just preparing to launch a final all-out assault(which would have defeated them) when the GRE Navy arrived.

Other Solarian League Governments-
These guys play a very minor role, occasionally appearing with a ship or two in a couple missions. None of them have a full navy, merely specialized patrol ships etc.

Martian Free Democracy- government of Mars. voted against the invasion of the colonies but was overruled.

Asteriod Habitat Stations- what their name says. Collectively they elect a representative to the League Council but their rep generally sides with the GRE.

Jupiter Colonies/Habitat Stations- Habitat stations in Jupiter's atmosphere and colonies on the moons of Jupiter. Collectively elect one representative to the League Council.

Saturn Colonies/Habitat Stations- Habitat stations in Saturn's atmosphere and colonies on the moons of Saturn. Collectively elect one representative to the League Council.

Virtuous Theocracy of Pluto- religious fundies who came to Pluto to escape the "godless" worlds near the sun. Don't elect a rep to the Council but do send an observer.
Ship Designs:
Ship Stats for all but the Mycenians are done.
Miners' Union(Patrick)-
6/6 Models/Sprites/[url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/patrickcavanaugh/PhotoAlbum3.html"]Briefing Pics[/url] completed

Syna'iara Faction(Patrick)-
3/7 Models/Sprites completed

Free Worlds of Jados(Skyfox)-
8/8 Models/Sprites completed

Centaurian People's Republic(Skyfox)-
6/6 Models/Sprites completed

Global Republic of Earth(Patrick)-
none

National Fighters for Free Trade(Skyfox)-
none

Barbarians(Patrick)-
None.

Mycenian Global Government(Skyfox)-
none

Ship Programming:
Miners' Union(??)-
Unknown Status

Syna'iara Faction(??)-
Unknown Status

Free Worlds of Jados(??)-
Unknown Status

Centaurian People's Republic(??)-
Unknown Status

Global Republic of Earth(??)-
Unknown Status

National Fighters for Free Trade(??)-
Unknown Status

Barbarians(??)-
None

Mycenian Global Government(??)-
None

Levels:
About the levels, because they'll be separate plugins I think we'll need to move some data(read:sprites and brief pics) over to the Ares Sprites file and offer a replacement data file to save on download time.
Also I think I'll stick in 3-5 training missions/race to familarize the player with the new ships.

Miners' Union Missions(Patrick?):
Outlined, 20/20 Planned, 0/20 implemented

Syna'iara Faction Missions(Patrick?):
Outlined, 0/20 Planned, 0/20 implemented

Free Worlds of Jados Missions(Patrick?):
Outlined, 1/20 Planned, 0/20 implemented

Centaurian People's Republic Missions(Patrick?):
Outlined, 0/20 Planned, 0/20 implemented

Barbarian Missions(Patrick?):
Outlined, 0/20 Planned, 0/20 implemented

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 07-20-2002).]

I think the name should be VI3. You can hopefully figure out where that comes from, but we could make it the name of the GRE's plan for conquering the other factions or something like that.

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"Vampiric chickens are spiffy. Bak bak bak ARRR!"

I'm back

Mag: How are you comeing on the drawings of the P ships?

All CF2 and CF3 ships have sprites.
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"Whether you want to or not, one day, EVERY knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is lord to the glory of God the father."

[This message has been edited by Skyfox (edited 07-17-2002).]

mag is on vacation for the next three weeks i think?

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[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

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Well I supose the P sprites will have to wait then.
I do have the first CF2 mission writen down on a peice of paper. I'll get around to sending it soon.

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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

hello

im back from my non ares related plug work.

programmer 9024 reporting for duty SIR.

p.s. i can do things other than programing. (i cant do graphics though)

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*BANG*....hehehehehe


[This message has been edited by 9024 (edited 07-18-2002).]

Patrick did you get the email?

9024:You could help make Mission briefings.
(Patrick you could send him the Storyline.)

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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

ah, back from my outside-imposed blackout. Checking eMail now...got it.
One thing-because we are doing this with such a limited number of systems, it would seem to make more sense to have the view "zoomed in" a bit more-you wont be able to see the whole system but merely nearby objects. So in the first CF2 mission for example you wouldn't see the whole Proxima system but merely the objects(empty space between the planets) and maybe an asteriod or two.Other than that, everything's fine. I'll mail the story to 9024.

So what ships do we have done? We need to fold those together into a single plugin soon and add the remaining races. I'll do the Barbarian and Mycenian ship specs and post them here soon.

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[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

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[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 07-20-2002).]

those cruse missiles will have to be bought in bulk. they may do tonnes of damage but with only 30 shildes they can get shot down easily or get swamped by fighters. (finaly a use for fighters) maby a carryer that picks up missiles and deploys them like fighters closer than usuial and it launches fake missiles to destract the enimiy or gives long range fire suport. (to make the cruse missiles more efficient)

btw patrick i got the email

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*BANG*....hehehehehe

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That's the whole point If the missiles could ignore point defense and escort ships the Barbarians would be godly, even worse than Auds. Opponent builds a capital ship? use one of the two FREE cruise missiles and kill it. This way they still are useful(tons of damage) but not too strong. Of course, we might need to kick the shield power up a bit once we hit alpha testing.


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[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

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Yea that might be a good idea to keep the number of objects down.

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I don't have the CF2/3 Ships "done" but i think i've pushed them as close as they'll get untill we can balence them. I'll send the latest builds to you.

Missions 2&3 written down. Send it when i send the CF2/3 ships.
Oh yea and the latest system build
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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

[This message has been edited by Skyfox (edited 07-21-2002).]

Oh yeah, to fix the problem with some ships having warp which according to the story shouldn't, we'll work it like this:

"warp drive"- supraspace drive(almost lightspeed, new development for FWJ and GRE-very very recent invention)

"jumpgate"- subspatial portal(instantaneous) generally needs another SSP on the other end but is possible to use enormous amounts of energy to send to a place without a SSP(usually used to send a SSP in which is then used for subsequent travel. Only the GRE has the tech to make these but who knows, they might be hacked somehow )

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[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

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So there is Warp Drive like Star Trek. Where the space around the ship is deformed. However this isn't powerfull enough to head FTL.

Then quantum Wormhole transportation. You also need a transporter to make the wormhole-A nice large ship equiped with a special bay, or a fixed Jumpgate.

Oh, Patrick: It seems that you just rendered the MU ships at RT good for the brief pics. It would look a LOT better if you did them a RT best.

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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

[This message has been edited by Skyfox (edited 07-21-2002).]

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Actually, I'm pretty sure they were rendered at my enhanced RT best settings( no antialias filter+ 9x supersampling) What you're seeing is probably a. my crap textures b. the fact that the ares color table is EVIL


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[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 07-21-2002).]

they are rendered at Best or higher. look closely and you can see the black outline around the ship that means it was antialiased

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[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

Oh yea, I forgot to tell you to render them with a white background.

Also 3-5 training missions/race are you kidding? We should only need one. The player should already know how to play Ares, so one would be enough.

CF2 missions 4/5 comeing soon.

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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

Patrick: Are you done with the MU stations yet?

I've made and implamented Pirate Stations.
Should there be multiple types of astroids or should we keep size down?

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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

Single type of asteriod with a destabilization into spacedust after a certain point to keep object limit down.
[edit: I'll do the asteriods, that way the MU asteriod ships(which I plan to redo soon) will look almost identical]
The MU outpost is done, I'll get the HQ done soon.

Also I noticed a problem with the CF2 missions-the pirates are using a probe when they're supposed to have FTL comm systems to communicate. Probes were only used to carry specs for the comm system to the other pirates. Also the main pirate base is in Sirus not Earth so thats where transmissions would come from...I suggest changing the probe into a pirate ship carrying the data and one of the FTL comms to a main pirate station...they destroy the comm system before capture and the FWJ doesn't realise it(the comm) exists.

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[url="http://"http://www.aresaxis.net"]Ares Axis[/url] Admin
[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 07-26-2002).]

The main pirate base is in Sirus? That would be confusing. The story seams to indacate that the most advanced pirates would be in Sol. If the Sol pirates were the most advanced, that would make more sense because all the colony pirates are severl hundered years behind in technology. (Because technology can't increase very well in a colony ship.) So whats the deal with the Sol pirates, or do we realy need them at all?


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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

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The tech for FTL comm was developed by the Sirus pirates...all the pirates have been sharing the tech from their systems with each other so actually they're the most advanced faction out of all the factions. So all the NFFT factions(1/system) have most of the advances made by scientists in Sol, Sirus, Centauri, and Proxima all combined. Also the story does say the pirate leader is at Sirus(see Barbarian campaign)

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[url="http://"http://www.aresaxis.net"]Ares Axis[/url] Admin
[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

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So the pirates are more of an intersteller orginasation then roving pirate bands? Ok thats fine. And that would explane how the pirates poped up in every system. Though i'm not sure pirates would be a proper classifacation for that, maybe raiders would be a more apropriat title. Now i made two pirate stations, a normal kind, and a large kind. I placed the normal ones in all systems (2 in each) and the large station i put in proxima. Should i move the large one to sirus instead?

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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

You know, I think it would make sense to build the station placements around the missions, not the other way(building missions around predone station placements). No point in constraining the missions when we don't have to do it.

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[url="http://"http://www.aresaxis.net"]Ares Axis[/url] Admin
[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1(just don't ask what I placed in the tournament!)

Quote

Well, since all the action is all going to be centered in the same system mainly, i think it would make sense for the placement to remain the same. Or people go "Wait, i thought that stations was on that side of Planet" But maybe have a setup where you can eliminate the uneeded planets, and then multiply the distance between remaining.

About the Comm system, i gues that could fit, They send it in two parts, because its a very large system, the first mission, the ship carrying half of the comm system sneaks through, the second mission the second part is captured.

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"English needs to be fixed!!"-My dad

If they hadn't shipped the second part of the comm system, they wouldn't have been able to communicate with the other systems.

Also for the missions-a far smaller scale with only the VERY local objects will be better. so if you're defending a planet, all you see is that planet, maybe with the moons really far out. if you're in a section of the Asteriod Belt, all you see is that section, not even the whole belt. This allows for more flexibility in mission design and also lets us explain why the warp drive doesn't allow interstellar travel for CF2.

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[url="http://"http://www.aresaxis.net"]Ares Axis[/url] Admin
[url="http://"http://www.magleague.net/bbs2"]MaGLeague[/url] Ares Admin
GR/[url="http://"http://magleague.com/downloads/chat.html"]MaGChat[/url]: Col. El Patrick
#2 on MaG Ares season 1