Battlestar Galactica -Left Behind-

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Gaius Baltar

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Posted: 6th Feb 2007 16:03

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Below is an image of the HUD WIP. It's a mixture of a couple of huds. The Viper MKIIs will use an analog type needle Gauge, however the Cylons hud will be digital read outs. This is not a final product, but some pointers would be helpful. Thank you.

The first demo will be a Mutliplayer only demo, and Lower Logic and I are working to get it out to you as soon as possible.

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Dared1111

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Posted: 6th Feb 2007 16:41

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in my opinion, the kph should be more like lyph (lightyears per hour) and that and engine stress look to different to the other bits and too cartoony, i think they should just be numbers

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lower logic

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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 05:09 Edited at: 7th Feb 2007 05:13

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The ships themselves don't travel at light speed, so kph makes more sense than lyph. Remember that unlike Star Wars and Star Trek, when traveling long distances, the ships just instantly jump from one location to another instead of going to lightspeed. But I do agree the gauges don't fit in with the Dradis. Perhaps use the gauges when in first person/cockpit mode, but when the user puts the camera in third person mode, make the speedometer smaller and/or numeric.

I don't really know if a speedometer makes much sense in space, since there isn't a reference point, and all meaningful movement is relative to other ships, asteroids or other objects in space. Maybe the speed displayed should be relative to the nearest baseship/battlestar or relative to the closest ship. Maybe make the speed calculation take into account all ships, but the farther they are from you, the less they affect the calculated relative speed (and even make battlestars and basestars have more weight in the calculations). Or perhaps we could just display the relative speed of other players or just other teammates in some way.

Another thing to consider is that since the ships can fly in one direction and then turn to face another direction, the direction the ship is traveling and the direction it is facing can be completely different, so I'd find the speed information more useful if it also showed the direction of the speed as well as the amount of it. We could lock an arrow object to the camera and then point it in the direction the ship is moving relative to the camera. Or I could calculate the relative x/y/z velocities so you could display the left/right velocity, the up/down velocity, and the forward/backward velocity.

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Gaius Baltar

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Posted: 7th Feb 2007 15:28 Edited at: 7th Feb 2007 15:29

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lower logic - Very good points. The only reason I was going to use gauges, is because in the "older" Viper MKIIs all of their read outs were on gauges. Of course it's just a TV show, and some of the gauges shown are useless, however remember that they are intended for planetary flight as well. So if you can reuse a gauge in space, I am sure they do. This will be discussed however. I have also fixed the gauges look to more fit the hud scheme.

Left is the Human HUD, Right is the Cylon HUD.

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ZDawg

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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 19:25

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I was going to suggest to change the gauges to look the way they do.
I think you should make a "holographic" rotating (or facing the same direction the actual on is) image of the targeted ship on the lower part of the screen. Also, for radar, you could do like other ship shooters and have arrows on the edge of the screen pointing in the direction of other ships. That always made it easier for me to track the enemies.

I'm seeing other BSG video game vids on youtube and I was wondering if they were yours because they look a lot alike and look like they work sort of the same way too. One of the vids is called "Battlestar Galactica Freespace 2 Footage" Just wondering what THAT is cuz i wanna play it.

Ok. Let's do this. Leroooooooyyy Jenkiiiiiiinnnnnnss.

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dark coder

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Posted: 9th Feb 2007 21:24

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Quote: "Battlestar Galactica Freespace 2 Footage"

Did you even read the title of that? cough "Freespace 2"

Also, I'm not a fan of the HUD for one, I don't really care what speed I'm traveling at, as for one everything is relative, and I would be able to adjust my speed while moving towards my distination, not to mention the size of the dials is rather OTT some simple number readout would be better than a speedometer as you could potentially go very fast.

Also the dradis display should be closer to the ones shown on the show, so it shows a level view of the ships current angle, and then the other contacts are positioned relative to that with the Y offset lines like you have.

I also wonder what your control setup will be like, I hope it's along the lines of using the mouse with WASD and you are able to keep any angular momentum, as that's really vital in a space combat scenario, can't wait to play a demo though! make sure you add loads of raiders

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Gaius Baltar

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Posted: 10th Feb 2007 15:14

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First let me apologize for the long post.

ZDawg - The footage you see on YouTube is Battlestar Galactica:Beyond the Red Line, a Freespace 2 mod. It is VERY nice looking and I will be playing it when it is released. The only thing that my and LowerLogic's game has over it, in my opinion, is newtonian space physics. Freespace has more of an arcade feel.

dark coder - I am getting an overwhelming push toward digital read outs as far as the HUD goes. I think I will ditch the gauges. I just thought that people would want to run the Vipers as the pilots in the show have to. As far as the controls go, LowerLogic has installed a nice MouseLook system with WASD, also he has a Halo type style control. As far as the shows DRADIS, it would not work in reality, the perspective in the show wouldn't allow you to see detect anything from certain angles.

Notice in the image that the sweep is centerd on the lower part of the DRADIS. For this to work well in a game, the origin should be toward the middle of the DRADIS. As lowerlogic and I have done, again the Texture surrounding it is a WIP, and by no means the final.

As far as the over all look of the HUD it is a WIP. It's far from a final product, however I do have to make temp graphics, for placement, and what not. I've mentioned this is previous posts, however many people think that this is the final, so I think I will wait until I have the hud complete to post another screen of it.

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Wartorn

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Posted: 14th Feb 2007 13:14

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Man, i like gauges! I just think you havent hit the sweetspot on how the gauges look! Try different things till you hit the sweetspot

Dont just copy every other space sim out there!

Looking real good!

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Gaius Baltar

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Posted: 21st Feb 2007 18:09

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I have been cleaning the code and trying to work out as many bugs as possible. I am also getting the Client screen and server screens ready for the Multiplayer release.

As far as the HUD goes for the Multiplayer release, I will be using a generic hud, just so I can get it out to you all as quick as possible. Stay tuned.

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Inspire

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Posted: 24th Feb 2007 04:54

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This looks great! I am a big fan of Battlestar Galactica, and am really looking forward to seeing more from this.

I love the Cylon Basestar, and the DRADIS is also very professional and good looking.

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headcrab 53

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Posted: 25th Feb 2007 23:20

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I've never seen the show, but I can still say that this game looks amazing! The controls look great, too, based on the video.

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Gaius Baltar

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Posted: 1st Mar 2007 04:36

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Good news! The Multiplayer release is basicly finished. Now I just have to fix a small clientside bug, and then I will release it on here. I may also put in skins of the viper and raider models, if I have time. So just hang in there

headcrab 53 - Thank you very much for the comments!

Inspire - Thank you for the comments as well, the basestar won't be in the Multiplayer demo, however the raiders will be.

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Inspire

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Posted: 3rd Mar 2007 19:52

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I'm looking forward to it.

Gone: Coming soon! Check it out in the showcase!