Re: space game

[Darel Finkbeiner <darelf@crafton.net>]

On Tue, 12 Jan 1999, you wrote:
>On Sun, 10 Jan 1999, Darel Finkbeiner wrote:
>
>> I see the point your making.  I keep too many things in my head. :)
>> I had envisioned travel as Jump Gate type of things.  Worm holes, whatever 
>> we want to call them, but instantaneous transportation from system to
>> system, although it may be necessary to code an in-system model as well.
>
>They have to be arranged in some manner internally. Either
>as an array or pointers in a hash table etc. 
>
>It might be a good idea to narrow down ways a users selects a 
>destination. Not necessarily the actual getting the input, but 
>the way the user sees the way the game is layed out. x,y or simple
>numerical fashion similar to Tradewars are possiblities. 
>
>If you can up with some guide lines it means I can do some coding.

wow, wouldn't that be something... :)

Ok, my original plan is this:
	Users would be choosing destinations one of two ways.  
	A) choose which JumpGate to use, each Gate having one destination
	B) choose final destination, calculating which Gates to use along the
way, a sort of "Navigation Console" type thing.

Internally, the code for the gates, the position of the ship, and the
calculations for moving from system to system would be set, the only
"gfx-object" binding I can forsee is an "in-system" type.  And we can skip that
for now.  Have only the Ports as possible locations and the Gates as the way to
move from port to port.  That way, the system would keep a list of ships and
their locations.
Looking into my "game-design crystal ball" I forsee a multi-panel setup where
you see your current location, an information display, and a communications
display.  You would see the Star Port in the main panel, looking at a
representation of all the possible activities at the port - trading, upgrade
ship, go to bank, enter StarGate.
Click on the StarGate you wish to enter and zoom, your off to the next port.
Now when we add in-system flight time, we run across the only main problem that
I see in this whole game.  How do we choose a method of displaying that
in-system time, and bind it to the ship object?  This is something I am
unfamiliar with.  The ship object itself could remain mostly unchanged as far as
movement is concerned, since the location would own the ship.
Tile based would be best for this in my opinion.  At least as the simple version
of the game.  Have a grid for in system stuff and have each location on the grid
own objects that represent the Gates, Ports, Planets, other ships, etc.

ack, line count is over 50, I am losing control of my thoughts.
umm...   add to this if you wish..
I will finish up my measly port code and send it email.  warning:  have not done
a whole lot on this yet, but I will send it anywayz.  Please poke holes in it
and let me know a better way to do something.  right now the code doesn't
actually do anything, but you can see the port class. 

darelf@crafton.net