Functioning within Normal Parameters news

I had an intervention the other day, I was accosted by a group of friends who sat me down and said 'James, we don't think you realise just how much time you spend in front of the computer' I growled at them, cracked open a can of Stella Artios and reluctantly joined the party but even though they are right, I can't help but think if they were PC game loving sci-fi geeks like you and I, they wouldn't be so quick to stand in my way.

I don't mind it keeps me grounded, it struck me the other day that I work in front of a computer, play at a computer, watch TV delivered unto me by a computer and I probably only get a break from the screen when I'm in my car or sleeping. I might actually turn into a computer one day which is something I think I might enjoy because that would help me deal with the parameters and Shallow Space is nothing at the minute if not a gigantic collection of parameters.

Into the pot we've thrown the Battleship class which has spiced things up a little, it's also forced me to rethink the ranges of the weaponry. I think one of the problems with space games in general is that the ships tend to sit on top of each other when firing, its only when playing the game with the planet inserted that I realised that I can go much much bigger with the level design (floating point precision permitting!) The trouble is that when you change one parameter then you really have to change them all; longer ranges on the guns will need bigger levels to test them properly; bigger levels? Then the ships need to be faster to get around them, it's one long chain of parameters.

I spoke last time about representative ships from every class, well that's important also because of the varying levels of engagement - the big ships will sit at a distance purposefully firing Heavy weaponry with medium guns being used at targets of opportunity. The small ships will harry around targets dodging fire and generally being a nuisance. In fact the various ship classes favour each other; with fighters fancying other fighters, bombers and frigates, and the cruisers fancying the larger ships. This sort of depth catches me off-guard sometimes when watching it unfold, and it can be tricky working out those bugs and here comes that word again; it's all one big massive pot of parameters.

We've broken up the sectors a little bit now with the nebula clouds, asteroids that are dimmed outside of sensor range and planets have also been included. The planets, although spectacular work, kinda upset the balance of the art a little but and I've worked closely with Alex to marry them to look of the game but in my eyes they still look a little 'in your face,' I suppose when you are floating around in space that is how celestial bodies would look and I think when I create a full solar system hopefully the planets will find their place in the scene. You might think that it's irrelevant at this stage but you know sometimes its fun to just boot up Unity and work on making it look a bit prettier, sometimes I fancying rolling up my sleeves and getting into the meat of it and sometimes, I just fancy getting plain drunk.

So I hope I've given you an insight into the world of creating Shallow Space, most RTS' you would create a unit, give it a standard set of guns, a speed, HP and that's it. What I'm trying to do here is give an actual sense of the scale of space combat relative to the various engagement ranges and styles of the ship classes and so there is far more to think about, I don't even consider the third dimension to be an obstacle either but clearly it is too. Now I'm not interested in how Homeworld or Nexus did it, I'm exploring this frontier as a programmer on my own, but I have the foundations of a breathing 3D AI - I just need time to get those parameters right, I need time to mold it into something a little more objective based prior to alpha release and of course; I need time for my life in itself.

Thanks for reading.

James