Space Monster/Dragon/Creature to battle in Oolite deep space

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 11:08 am

I'm interested as one day I really do intend to turn my many many ideas into some more "real" and it would be nice to see the art of the possible!

ClymAngus · Post by **ClymAngus** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:20 pm

Commander McLane wrote:
Lestradae wrote:
ClymAngus wrote:
So technically you could sub-sub-sub entity tenticles and stuff?
Charlie managed to do that - the Constitution ship for example has a subentity which has a further subentity - a sub-subentity so to speak.
No, he didn't manage, because it never worked. (That something is specified in shipdata.plist does not mean that it actually works.)

So we could do a stumpy squiddy thing then?

Here's an idea, fungus. Single celled hive mind that takes over ships, people, stations and planets. You could adapt existing ships to look "infected" and give them homicidal ai's, this would keep the oxp size to a minimum (as your only emblishing whats there).

I would imagine it looking something like "the thing" or "tyrant" from the resident evil series.

Post by **Kaks** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 12:35 pm

Lestradae wrote:
I thought so too, but then I became curious and looked deeper into the matter, and I think it does actually work.

If you're interested, I'll dig it out and post it here as an example, either will have to admit I'm wrong then or perhaps it does work as I think it does - that would be interesting for some people too, I guess

Speaking as some people: I'm definitely interested! I did 'rescue' a couple of Charlie's oxps, and I had plans for the rest when I could get some of the more 'out there' ideas to work. Sub-sub entities was one of the things that got me stumped...

dima · Post by **dima** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:07 pm

sounds great!! I think it's something not every space sim has - but definitely should! I really wonder how this would look ingame!

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Fri Feb 20, 2009 9:17 pm

dima wrote:
sounds great!! I think it's something not every space sim has - but definitely should! I really wonder how this would look ingame!

Probably like a highly modernized version of that worm in "the arc of captain blood"? They did just paint 2d-segments over each other and shift around, thus creating the image of a moving worm. Pretty low tech and it did work well. I'm afraid though, that oolite will require some much more complex work on that as it's true 3d.

Looking forward to it...

I am still searching for a logical way to come to a peaceful encounter and become friend with such a space creature...could be fun but won't fit the current ideas, unless the player would rescue a herd.

Screet, hoping that someone with nvidia card experience may help us in the pc-ati thread https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.php?t=5722

Post by **Disembodied** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:03 am

Screet wrote:
I am still searching for a logical way to come to a peaceful encounter and become friend with such a space creature...could be fun but won't fit the current ideas, unless the player would rescue a herd.

How about ejecting cargo (perhaps a certain type of cargo, or a special type) for it to eat? Or scooping up its eggs from somewhere else and bringing them to it?

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:10 am

Disembodied wrote:
How about ejecting cargo (perhaps a certain type of cargo, or a special type) for it to eat? Or scooping up its eggs from somewhere else and bringing them to it?

Yeah! EGGS!!! I bet you've seen that star trek episode with horta? The humans had some mining colony because they could get these precious and rare metals there...strangely, it only appeared in as spheroids....and then people began dying. Turned out to be the mother defending their children.

So....these things eat metal? They need metal, thus the eggs contain precious metals already in order to allow growth? Pirates surely want to gather and sell these!

Story twist: Some "honorable" businessman asks for help because his mining operations in a certain sector always result in destroyed ships. The player goes there and encounters one of these "monsters" (probably after having to fight off other competitors for the eggs) and begins to understand who the real monster is!

Screet
P.S.: Tried to, but could not add a link to the ST-horta...there's a full report on that episode on english wikipedia.

dima · Post by **dima** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:50 am

Nice, I really like your ideas

But remember it should be implementable in a reasonable amount of time. I'd say a basic first version with only the most necessary features would be a worthy goal to achieve

And I'm not even fit enough at scripting in Oolite I am afraid

Killer Wolf · Post by **Killer Wolf** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:02 am

all this talk of creatures reminds me of a game i saw touted a lot of years back in the mags, but it never appeared (far i i know). it was called (i think) Eye Of The Storm, and it was Elite-ish, based in the big red spot/storm of Jupiter. as well as the usual ship and stations there were things like big humpback whales and dragons flitting about and i think you got extra cash by actually finding them and taking pics.
be interesting to have pods of space whales or big mantas cruising about but i'm not sure what use they'd be other than eye candy. unles you put a bounty on them

ooh crikey, one last push of the Next button on google came up w/ this
http://www.mobygames.com/game/eye-of-the-storm

dima · Post by **dima** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:53 am

And here are some more: http://hol.abime.net/2905/screenshot

Looks interesting - however, there's nothing "Elite" in it, or is there? No trading, no stations and no... space?

Edit: Ah but it's from Rebellion

I absolutely love Rebellion since http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/r ... creenshots and of course Aliens vs. Predator

Killer Wolf · Post by **Killer Wolf** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 6:33 pm

well, the lack of Eliteishness is down to my failing memory! to be honest i didn't think it was even released, i distinctly recall an in-progress article cos they mentioned a bug that made all the whales in-game suddenly stop and point nose-down for no reason, and then i heard nowt more. i coulda sworn there was something about trading, but there y'go.

ZygoUgo · Post by **ZygoUgo** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 4:47 pm

These are ideas that could possibly be implemented once the basics are up and running.

I've got some more angles on this and a slight redesign of the beastie I suggested, personally I'm not too keen on the idea of the eggs, I was thinking that destroying them and picking up the peices, as in they are made of the precious alloys.
I was thinking of a way to keep to it an arcade type end-level-beastie by having a bit of a challenge to it.
Firstly, to stop it looking like a daisy from a distance I've added two more 'self feeding' pipes to its 'face', the trick would be to shoot it in the hole at the front without destroying all three of these pipes, if you knock all three out, the creature seizes up (suffocates?) instead of explodes and you get no precious metals, if you do it right it explodes, releasing your prize.
I liked the idea of it rushing at you instead of shooting anything, so perhaps the trick is to keep moving, if you stop for more than a second it focus's on you and rushes at you much faster than you can move, this would add more of a challenge to not destroying the tubes in the battle.
Maybe this could be done by the angle you are in relation to it? That way you wouldn't be able to fly straight at it for too long either.
It would be very tense.

If you are having trouble with the sub-sub entities I was thinking a way round it would possibly be to have a russian doll effect, as in the subentities all belong to the main 'head', but have gradually increasing time delays on them (if that's possible), so when it is still, it is a sphere, but it becomes a worm when moving, trailing its segments.

I'll return with a sketch or two in a while..

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:00 pm

ZygoUgo wrote:
I've got some more angles on this and a slight redesign of the beastie I suggested, personally I'm not too keen on the idea of the eggs, I was thinking that destroying them and picking up the peices, as in they are made of the precious alloys.

Even if the idea into direction of the horta thing would be done, the player should be able to choose his actions, and that includes not being the nice guy.

After all, players can do anything from passenger flying via trading and bounty hunting up to piracy and assassinations, so that would allow a broader range of player styles if it were not linked to a single outcome!

Anyway, your idea of shooting them up and then scooping surely is easier to do...guess even if there's more allowed, the first version would most probably support it just the way you mentioned?!?

Screet

ZygoUgo · Post by **ZygoUgo** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:40 pm

Maybe the finished OXP could include a mission in which you join either a secret society that tries to protect them (keeping a respectful distance as you would with wild animals, so if you get too close they will still attack you, so be careful defending them if the scraps in the same location as the creatures!) or a loosely connected pirate gang that gets tip offs to locations they have been spotted in, not always true, and any precious metals you reap are prone to a percentage 'protection' fees to the gang.

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:45 pm

ZygoUgo wrote:
Maybe the finished OXP could include a mission in which you join either a secret society that tries to protect them (keeping a respectful distance as you would with wild animals, so if you get too close they will still attack you, so be careful defending them if the scraps in the same location as the creatures!) or a loosely connected pirate gang that gets tip offs to locations they have been spotted in, not always true, and any precious metals you reap are prone to a percentage 'protection' fees to the gang.

I would love it!!!

Screet, curious why there hasn't been a "free the slaves" oxp yet...

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