Intro
When developing High Albedo, I wanted to incorporate ideas from the X Series about property management. Those games were a huge inspiration to me, the idea of owning as many ships and stations as you want and coordinating their efforts by assigning them commands always got me fascinated.
In Outlier: Open Skies, those ideas are being reborn in a beautiful 3D universe. Because of my efforts in High Albedo, many of the dynamic universe and property management functions were quickly ported to this new game. After all, that kind of code doesn't really care how many dimensions its living in.
The Technology
In many ways I developed High Albedo ( Indiedb.com ) as a 2D prototype for this project. In a simplified 2D world it was possible to focus on the economy, the persistent sandbox universe, and the AI scripts. Most of this code is easily ported into Outlier since it does not rely on any number of dimensions, and the little of it that did really just needs a Z coordinate and some more trig functions. It turns out that most of that code works in any universe!
What does all of this mean for you? Well, it means Outlier will be able to release sooner than anticipated. Most of my work has been on going from 2D sprites to 3D textures, because I have been able to recycle so much code from the mature High Albedo project.
The Economy
The persistent sandbox universe in Outlier, like the one in High Albedo, supports simulating the entire game universe no matter what solar system the player is in. This means that no matter where you go, or what you do, NPCs continue to go about their daily lives hunting bad guys or trying to make a profit trading.
All goods are to be manufactured from raw materials that were mined by someone, either you or an NPC. These goods will be converted into wares by factories and either used as end products or refined by other factories into more sophisticated wares. Traders will have to move these goods from station to station or the economy grinds to a halt. This means that all actions are persistent and have a butterfly effect, stopping ore from being shipped to a Hull Plating Factory could mean that a ship wasn't built.
The Physics
In High Albedo, I tackled the challenge of using Newtonian space physics without allowing for ludicrous velocities or by using really low delta-v limits. The solution was to apply a linear drag coefficient - but only when the ship is accelerating. This means that a ship will peak out at a top speed, since the force of the engine meets the force of drag at some point. However, the moment you stop accelerating the drag goes away so you drift forever until acted on by another force.
This gives you the best of both worlds. Your craft has inertia, and drifts eternally, but the acceleration-only drag keeps velocities in check. In Outlier, your fighter definitely does not fly like an airplane!
The Interface
Many of the interface elements are directly from High Albedo but are being modified to work in 3D space more intuitively. I wrote a complex GDI for High Albedo that is serving me well in Outlier, and the interfaces for trading, property management, and cargo management are already well written. Further refinements will of course occur.
The Models
The 3D models in Outlier are pretty terrible. Although I have no doubt in my programming and computer science abilities, my ability to produce art assets is questionable. The space scenes are stunning, but that's because it's all done procedurally.
In order to have high quality station and ship models, I intend to pay someone to make them. I am attempting to secure funding for an art budget in order to create high quality models, textures, sprites, and sound effects for this game.
Feedback
This project is coming along brilliantly, and I am working easily 6 hours a day on it. Between the code portability from my old High Albedo game, and my familiarity with the now stable JMonkeyEngine, The only thing that is going to hold this game back is going to be art, which I intend to outsource to talented people once funding is secured.
I am always open to questions, comments, and concerns. You can leave them here, or you can send me an email at masternerdguy@yahoo.com . After all, the game is for you isn't it?
