Over the past two weeks, instead of visiting family, taking care of personal hygiene and spreading holiday cheer, the FW:ToW has been locked away in our respective "coding dungeons" and churning out code/models like no other time. Unfortunately, most of what we've done isn't article worthy (since it was mostly bug fixing). That being said, we do have something that we'd like to unveil to the public, our prototype heads up display (HUD).
The reason we've developed this is that we've found that the old Freelancer radar was not allowing the player to quickly assess what is happening on the battlefield. We needed to create something for the player so they can quickly discern the type of enemy forces they're up against and the number. This will allow players of particular factions to make better tactical decisions and improve gameplay.
We also found a need for this HUD since the systems in FW:ToW are so much larger than the original Freelancer (almost 5x). Having such a large space brings the epic scale of Star Wars to life, but also makes it a challenge to know your surroundings.
In the video below, you'll see the first installation of this new HUD. I've placed the tactical markers on each vessel for both the New Republic and Imperial fighters/bombers/interceptors/patrol boats. The ship transitions from being a marker to the model itself at approximately 3500m. The blue dots are the Imperial craft, the red dots are the New Republic. I've also intentionally made the system a bit darker to show the HUD better.
As we further develop this HUD, we will employ the same method on all the faction ships (Corellians will be green in colour, Hutts will be orange, Civilians will be white and Pirates will be yellow), as well as type; freighters, transports, capital ships.
Also, we hope to improve upon the tactical map that was made by Devast8tor 2 years ago. Essentially, this takes the player into a dynamic birds eye view of the immediate surrounding area the vessel and allows the pilot to make a decision on the course they will take.
This aside, I wanted to ask the MODDB community two questions:
- What would you like to see in the next Freeworlds: Tides of War Development Video? Is there anything we've mentioned that you'd like to see in more detail?
- We've talked about creating mission systems in both the Battle of Bilbringi and the Battle of Yavin. What other type of missions would you like to see? Is there any epic space scene from SWs or missions from XvT, XWA you'd like us to recreate?
As always, any questions, comments or suggestions are always welcome. If you like what you see on our page here at MODDB, please give us a vote. We'd truly appreciate it.
Have a great New Years and we'll see you in 2010,
Sushi
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Hey guys great work so far its looking really good..
umm just an idea i had..
umm well in star wars you always hear them talking about coordinates then they jump and disappear you could do something similar in this mod..
by putting in a waypoint and making the speed super duper high.. and u cant move while in it just a thought... what do you think ??
We've done that, sorta. During cruise, you cannot move the ship, it's only in a straight line.
Awesome idea but how about changing the target images shapes into empty lined triangles instead of points for a more of a star wars look, anyway way it already looks great.
The problem is that it has to be a 3-dimensional image that is the same at all angles. The only shape that fills that description is a sphere, sadly.
1. a player controlled star destroyer/ mon calamari battle from each perspective
2. any battle with the death star would be epic
I like it. Nice ideas!
I looked at it and it looks alright to me. Keep up the awsome work you Gods among men !
Ok, this is sort of a suggestion, and a request for a video. Is there(if there isn't, are you planning on fixing it?) a new ship to ship collision mechanic? I remember when you were in a capital ship, and got hit by a fighter, it would trow you way off course. It would be awesome if this could be fixed, and even more awesome if there could be accurate damage dealt in such an occurrence(i.e a fighter does no, or very little damage, but gets severely hurt itself or blows up; whereas a cap to cap collision would result in heavy amounts of damage to both ships.) This would open up a world of possibilities, such as ramming your ship in to another as a last ditch effort, or maybe even hitting the bridge of an ssd with an a-wing. Anyway, great job and keep up the great work! /long windedness
We have fixed the capital ship flipping issue :) I posted a video of it here: Youtube.com
Now, in terms of damage, essentially, the little fighter gets blown to smithereens and the larger capital ship doesn't take any significant damage. However, when two same size vessels collide, they both go kaboom.
As for capital to capital collisions, that's a lot tricker and we haven't found a fix for that yet.
Well it's great to hear your working on it! By the way, what problems are you having with cap to cap collisions? Are they behaving like the fighters and caps used to?
On a side note, it would be soooo awesome if when a fighter crashed into the bridge of a capitol ship, or maybe even a turret, it would/could destroy it. Speaking of which, will there be area specific damage(i.e you get hit in a turret, so that turret is fried and no longer works anymore)?
Thanks for all the answers and good luck!(oh and Happy New Year!
Edit: right as i posted this I had an idea to solve your collision probloem. Could you have the capitol ship defined or labeled as a station, that way it doesn't move when hit, but at the same time make it fly like a ship.(basically i guess i mean make caps into stations)You'd probably have to mesh some code together, but maybe it will work. Ill se if i can code it to work on my own and ill get back to you guys, mmmkay?
We're currently working on creating these area specific damage you are talking about. Once the shield is destroyed, you are be able to hit the hull and to destroy turrets and missile launchers. Using torpedoes, you can also shoot down power generators (to disable the ship) or shield generators (so that the shield can't be restaured).
Ya, we're going to need to show a video how that works, eh, DT :)
I also have an idea for defining enemy targets from friendly targets by using the ship icon that doesn't seem to be used on the second from the left side of the hud for enemy ships and fighters so it's easier to target a ship that a commanding officer has ordered you to attack without the tactical disadvantage of looking into the mele and making your ship vulnerable for a matter of seconds. I wish i knew coding and such myself but from being a playing member i would like to at least share idea's with all who know how to. That is if you all think it's a feasably good idea. I mearly want to add some input to help out as best as i can. Also if it's possable to maybe add and act some of your own voices in the cantina for missions without using too many of the reguler Freelancer voices for some. It has an odd feel when you speak with someone and they say they work for the Bretonia Mining and Metals. That and as a neat trick, change the bar music for the cantina music from Mos Eisley Space Port as well as the other music from such Star Wars clubs like the one from Attack of the Clones, the dance scene from Jabba's Palace from the first music style to the special addition style that George Lucas changed in the original movies before the Phantom Menace Release. Is it possable or do you think it a bit too much ?