Flee control

Aggrav8d · #1 December 21st, 2005, 04:35 PM

When I run away from a solar system I'd like the option of where to run to. going back to a star I already know is a giant waste of time.

mod idea: the mummy of a travelling salesman. Tells you the shortest path to visit every star in the quadrant.

As a programmer, I love your in-game menus. Are you doing it all with sprites in C like you did in SAIS, or are you doing something more sophisticated?

Fingers · #2 December 21st, 2005, 04:59 PM

Fleeing is supposed to be a penalty. If you were able to go anywhere after losing combat, there'd be no point in using the sensor systems to avoid systems with enemies as you could just fly through them anyway.

The GUI uses pre-defined graphics (window borders etc) kind of like SAIS. That way it'll be possible to change how it looks in a mod. The main difference in terms of graphics is that since it's in OpenGL we can easily change the colors and transparency of any GUI object for highlighting and such. The graphic files are all drawn in white and they're colored ingame using vertex colors.

The GUI code however is *completely* different as it's a fully generic windowing system that I intend to use in future projects.

Aggrav8d · #3 December 21st, 2005, 06:30 PM

A penalty for fleeing combat seems very reasonable. However, if I travel to a system and the locals tell me to leave - even before fighting - I should have a choice of where to leave to. After all, I'm not running away, I'm being ... agreeable. Diplomatic, even.

I notice that you have text input fields. Do you have sliders and (bain of my existence) combo boxes? I'd love to talk in depth with you about GUI engineering. I got all the basic widgets working but I didn't use the vertex coloring trick you're suggesting.

Zogu · #4 December 21st, 2005, 07:25 PM

One mod question.
Is it possible to have an encounter with a fleet, when reaching a star system... and NOT be given the choice to flee?

And I'm talking about the two ways of avoiding confrontation:
1. the radar screen with the opt-out ("Avoid") option
2. the combat screen with the "Retreat all" option

Are these things modifiable by flags?

PS: It shoudn't be possible to flee a Urluqai trap once you've gottin into it.

Fingers · #5 December 21st, 2005, 07:58 PM

I have basic list boxes with sliders in the launcher (if you have a lot of video modes available or a lot of mods you can scroll) and sort-of-sliders for volume control in the settings.

No drop-down menu type things, though my GUI has a core "gizmo" element that all the others derive from and it can be used to make totally custom interface elements (like the formation interface). You basically point the blank gizmo at your own init/use/render/kill functions and the GUI will call them when needed.

Zogu: no, you'll always get the radar and the retreat options.

Puke · #6 December 21st, 2005, 08:47 PM

you cant retreat if ships are close to you. thus, you could probably mod the squidey formations to bring the fighters in tighter, and then you would not be able to retreat until you shot your way out one side of it.

Tanelorn · #7 December 21st, 2005, 09:05 PM

Quote:

Fingers said:
Fleeing is supposed to be a penalty.

I understand the penalty idea and the balance, but lets be reasonable... If you're going to leave, it would take the ship captain and navigator only a few seconds to say, "No, don't go that way, go THIS way".

Why not make a different fleeing penalty, such as negative points?

In a somewhat related subject, I would really like the game to remember what species of alien we encounter when we approach a star system and choose not to fight in it. Say, for example, we enter a mukitan area. They give us the option to stay or leave. If we leave, there's no icon in tat system to remind us that mukitans were there. Only if we actually engage the ships, or if we have a diplomatic boon, does the game remind us that mukitans live there.

I'd like to see that patched, so we can remember what systems had what aliens in them when we choose not to fight.

Aggrav8d · #8 December 21st, 2005, 11:01 PM

Fingers - is there some way we could compare notes? I'd love to show you my gui code (already online) and vice versa.

Puke · #9 December 22nd, 2005, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Tanelorn said:
[..like the game to remember what species of alien we encounter when we approach a star system and choose not to fight in it.

i can imagine at least one reason that this is a technical difficulty:

when you encounter a species for the first time, they show up as "unknown" on the radar. if you choose to leave, the system is flaged with a generic presence.

If you engage in combat and run, you see everyone there and get little ship icons.

But if you encounter a system with one familliar species and one "unknown" flotillia, and you dont engage in combat so the "unknown" remains "unknown" - what does it display? does it just ommit the "unknown" fleet? does the game add another icon to represent it?

in a related idea, "remembered" fleets are displayed with a dotted line. is there any way that normal fleets can move between systems (like the yellow kwangi) so that those dotted lines may prove invalid or unreliable?