Life In The Frontier 2024 (The road to the final release)

[Cholmondely]

Starting to look jolly impressive!

Well done, sir!

There was also a GURPS role-playing book on space stations (GURPS Traveller: Starports (gateways to adventure) by John Ford, 2000, 130 pages))

[gilhad]

Impressive work

I remember the old BBC Micro game Maze, with similar graphic, and there was problem, that player could get easily lost, as the movement was just jumps from one coordinate to another and visually was no difference wheather player moved forward/backward/sideways/rotate. I think, that dividing the movement to at least 3 displayed stages would solve this. That means, when player at 0,0 press forward once, there will be shown positions 0,1/3 then 0, 2/3 and finally 0,1. Than it will let player insert another movement. (And similar with rotation - 30,60,90 degrees instead just 90 degrees for one keypress).
Which will be more complicated, but also more natural movement visual (and maybe easier to implement sooner, than later, when all movements account for the need to get both positions (from,to) instead of just the final one (to))
(Well, this is just suggestion)

[Cholmondely]

I’d expect to get lost in some space stations (and that is why ML introduced a maze for his rock hermits in LifT v0.06)!

[gilhad]

I can imagine to get lost for lot of reasons, like all doors the same, unmarked, not knowing where is the target, not remebering already travesed path and so on and so on.
But not seeing if I am turning right or left (or going forward maybe) will look for me as little unfair, if computer would be able to draw it (something like this)

[BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM]

There was also a GURPS role-playing book on space stations (GURPS Traveller: Starports (gateways to adventure) by John Ford, 2000, 130 pages))

I have some GURPS but not this, I'll try to get it.

I remember the old BBC Micro game Maze, with similar graphic, and there was problem, that player could get easily lost, as the movement was just jumps from one coordinate to another and visually was no difference wheather player moved forward/backward/sideways/rotate.

Yes, you're talking about putting some intermediate graphics to render an impression of movement. As of it now, the visual is directly linked to the player position and facing, and gets updated when the page refresh (after selecting a choice). I don't know if it's possible to "force" more than one update since the interface is player-input based (it can't update if you don't press ENTER). It would be a nice effect, and I dread it because it would require me to draw all the intermediate graphics for all the 8 base combinations...

But I agree with the idea. I'm taking inspiration from the old dungeon crawlers (Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder trilogy etc.), that didn't have those intermediate steps - but they had better graphics, no doubt about it. Actual graphics it's very basic and doesn't communicate any info except the spatial position, so it's difficult if not impossible to get a sense of familiarity while navigating the map. That's why I added the map screen as an additional help. I could search a workaround, though.

Maybe a little minimap could better link the player input with the effective movement, showing the map surroundings and the player facing (like the map, but with a more limited view).
Or I could see if it's possible to break the visual in three parts (left-center-right) to "recycle" a number of images, allowing me to introduce more variants: issue here is that I'm not so good with drawing graphics. But alternating two sets of floors/wall could help convey the sense of movement, at least when walking forward.
This is something I have to reflect upon in 2025.

-- ABOUT DEVELOPMENT --

I have added the first version of the station structure to the elevator screen.

I've left the individual choices for every floor. There are 10 "slots" for floors, and they haven't to be necessarily close one to another.
The "Floor x" designation is written in the floor description, so I can use variants like "Sector Alpha/Beta/..." or don't put an indexing at all, for the sake of variety and flavour.

On the Ship floor I've put the hangar directly on front of the elevator, so the player can exit the navigation more quickly - in the future I will add the fast travel option, I would prefer it not to be something persistent, but link it to some terminal or similar things to interact. I will see what I can do.

Regarding the station structure, I examined the old mod versions: given the shape of vanilla stations (coriolis, dodo, ico), I decided to put the hangar in the middle of the structure, splitting the rest in two sections: upper section (more administrative/commercial entities) and lower section (citizens, social services, production).
I still have to think about Rock Hermits, I have to look at the previous work done on the oxp. They will be different from the other GalCop station, obviously.

The full base layout would be like this (for now):

Code: Select all

0 - Station Administration
1 - Galcop Precinct
	Briefing Room
	Detainment Zone 
	GalCop Public Office
2 - Tourism Concourse
	MegaMall
	Hotel
3 - Recreational Area
	Wild World Virtual Tour 
	Opera House
	Art Gallery
	Cinema Hall
4 - Ships & Cargo Management
	Hangar
	Docks (Cargo Management)
	Storage
	Passenger Transfer Area
	Staff Hub
5 - Social Services
	Bookshop 
	Museum 
	Fit Center 
	Medical Center 
6 - Civic Area
	Sprawl Hive
	Apartment Complex
	Public Gardens
	(BBS terminal for private citizen missions)
7 - Religious & Spiritual Hub
	Church of the Cosmic Wanderer 
	Holy Church of St Giles the Creator
	Randomius Factoria
	Happy Eye
	Zenarchy monks
	Black Monks
8 - Production Facilities
	Hydroponic Gardens (agricultural econ)
	Automated Factory (industrial econ)
9 - unused

This is a draft that includes POI that give missions, and POI related to the RPG feature (last thing I will work on I think).
The unused floor would be reserved for procedurally generated maps (linked to local RPG quests).
Eventually the Religious floor will have the St Giles church always present, while randomizing the others (I will base their appearance on the system Id value).
Bookshops will allow to "read" some text like ML/phkb (sorry I can't remember who made what) did on the previous oxp version.
Certain areas or entire floors should be "erased" or modified according to the system TL, economic type, government type. This is a thing that I will have to write down accounting for the various parameters (specifically: low, average, high TL + industrial/agricultural + rich, poor economics + government).

Regarding POI data, I'm thinking I can use only the exitFacing property and remove the exitPos - I can get exitPos using the map coordinates and the exitFacing value, after all.

This is the new prototype - I tried to put everything in but it lacks Floors 5 and 7. The rest should be properly playable (I hope I didn't mess up some coordinates yesterday night).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19c2OJK ... sp=sharing

This should be it for now... so at this point: HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

[Cholmondely]

The full base layout would be like this (for now):

Code: Select all

0 - Station Administration
1 - Galcop Precinct
	Briefing Room
	Detainment Zone 
	GalCop Public Office
2 - Tourism Concourse
	MegaMall
	Hotel
3 - Recreational Area
	Wild World Virtual Tour 
	Opera House
	Art Gallery
	Cinema Hall
4 - Ships & Cargo Management
	Hangar
	Docks (Cargo Management)
	Storage
	Passenger Transfer Area
	Staff Hub
5 - Social Services
	Bookshop 
	Museum 
	Fit Center 
	Medical Center 
6 - Civic Area
	Sprawl Hive
	Apartment Complex
	Public Gardens
	(BBS terminal for private citizen missions)
7 - Religious & Spiritual Hub
	Church of the Cosmic Wanderer 
	Holy Church of St Giles the Creator
	Randomius Factoria
	Happy Eye
	Zenarchy monks
	Black Monks
8 - Production Facilities
	Hydroponic Gardens (agricultural econ)
	Automated Factory (industrial econ)
9 - unused

This is the new prototype - I tried to put everything in but it lacks Floors 5 and 7. The rest should be properly playable (I hope I didn't mess up some coordinates yesterday night).
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19c2OJK ... sp=sharing

This should be it for now... so at this point: HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!

How goes it? Can I help in any way?

[BeeTLe BeTHLeHeM]

Oops, excuse me, since the holidays I have been pretty busy at work unfortunately, then I tried to write a tiny script for Tokyo Xtreme Racer (I confess), but I'm ready to continue the work on the mod.

I have to finalize the parser for the various interactions, and I'm started to think about writing a simple js + hmtl to test it. Before that I have to list the instructions I implemented in the past versions.
Basically, we're talking about something similar to a Choose Your Own Adventure game: you have a "story" built on several interconnected sections. You start at the first section and you make a choice that moves you to another section. This is the main task of the parser.
The second thing is manipulating variables. So we'll have an instruction to create/update a variable with a specified value. This variables will be used, for example, as requisites to display certain choices, or to execute certain choices.

Let's make an example (default values for variables, even non-existent ones, is zero):

--------------------
Section 1
You are in front of a door.
(door=1) The door is open.
(door=0) The door is cloed.
(key=0) You see a key on the floor.

Choices:
> (door=0) Open the door.
.... (key=0) Section 2
.... (key=1) Section 3
> (key=0) Pickup the key.
.... Go Section 4

Section 2:
The door is locked.

Choices:
> You need something to open the door...
.... Go Section 1

Section 3:
You open the door! You win!

Choices:
> Exit the room
.... Quit

Section 4:
You pickup the key.

Choices:
> This will be useful...
.... Set key = 1; Go Section 1

--------------------

I hope this mini-adventure is simple enough to illustrate the basic mechanics. Moving between sections and setting/checking variables should allow for any interaction or random event encountered by the player.
Certain variables would exists outside the single event, as player data (stored forever, like money or health) or local data (stored for the current system, like local reputation). Obviously these things can't alter the space gameplay, but for example, the player could be sick and the station could refuse it departing until cured (a sort of player lockdown). Same things for illegal activities.

Sure this is a feature that will require content, so every suggestion helps building a library of events or interactions that can be implemented in the mod. We can see if there are more instructions or data to implement for a system that allow a variety of experiences in game.

Another things: this will be the base to manage mini-quests too. But those requires creating a "mission" for the player, and I wish to optimize the system I created in the old versions, maybe creating a simpler version for "station adventures".

[Cholmondely]

Can't we use AI to do any of this?

[Cholmondely]

And another point.

We have the most wonderful inspiring and evocative interiors of space stations from movies and from other Sci Fi games.

What are we adding with these "dungeon-like" visuals? They are very clever and do add, but is the effort worth it? Will they introduce an element of gameplay which will further immerse us as players? If so, fine. Or if they add something to the joys and thrills of those writing the OXP. Or if they can help form the basis of superior graphics some time from now.

For my money, the original Coriolis Map was the most immersive. But, sadly, also the least adaptable.



Edited to add...

What sort of fun and games might ensue if some of the station staff go on strike?