Quote:Original post by Tesseract
As an earlier poster stated, you could have islands which include the antigrav mineral being heated deep in the maelstrom, then floating up to habitable levels, where they would cool off and then sink back into the maelstrom.

Although an interesting idea for game play, it seems likely that the anti-grav mineral's temperature would eventually reach an equilibrium and find an optimal elevation in the planet's atmosphere. I also like the idea of the floating continents or islands being more substantial and permanent. It's kind of nice knowing that a certain location won't disappear when you leave.

However, I think a compromise could be made that would allow more permanent locales to exist while still providing for non-fixed resource nodes as others have described them. I was thinking that the larger the mass that was attached to the antigrav minerals that the slower it would have to pass between the maelstrom and the canopy, so it would naturally obtain the aforementioned equilibrium described above as it was exposed to a more moderate temperature over a longer duration. But smaller deposits that are connected or associated with less additional mass from land and such would still oscillate between the maelstrom and canopy at fairly regular intervals.

This would allow there to be both permanent floating locales in addition to temporal anitgrav mineral resource nodes. Of course the most concentrated source of the mineral would be found on the floating worlds but mining them would have damaging consequences since it would cause the location's floating ability to decline or fail, thereby losing all settlements, bases, etc. attached to it.

I also like the idea of having mountains stick up through the clouds to make the environment more interesting. I definitely think you have something with this concept.

Quote:Original post by WorldPlanter
However, I think a compromise could be made that would allow more permanent locales to exist while still providing for non-fixed resource nodes as others have described them. I was thinking that the larger the mass that was attached to the antigrav minerals that the slower it would have to pass between the maelstrom and the canopy, so it would naturally obtain the aforementioned equilibrium described above as it was exposed to a more moderate temperature over a longer duration. But smaller deposits that are connected or associated with less additional mass from land and such would still oscillate between the maelstrom and canopy at fairly regular intervals.

I guess the best analogy of this I can think of is the circulation of water throughout the planet. It starts off at it's liquid temperature in the form of lakes, rivers, and oceans. As it gets hot enough a small percentage of it turns to water vapor and enters the atmosphere until it collects and gets cool enough to revert into liquid form and fall back to Earth again to continue the cycle. The smaller the body of water, such as a puddle or small pond, the more rapidly its temperature can change and thus evaporate or freeze over. Large bodies of water such as lakes or oceans don't evaporate or freeze nearly as quickly because they retain heat better. The vast majority of ocean water will never know any other state than liquid because of this.

So using water as an analogy I thought it'd be cool if the greater the concentration of the antigrav mineral the more slowly it changes its temperature and consequently the less likely it is to oscillate back and forth between the mealstrom and the canopy. Just something to think about.

Quote:The floating castles could just be fortress built upon chunks of land with plenty of anti-grav material. They keep it floating and maneuver them with engines. Of course if they moved it would be very slowly - they would be the hq and not really meant for battle.
Then the smaller land masses that continuously ascend and descend would provide temporary barriers and mines for the anti-grav, making strategic ideas more necessary.

So these large land masses would effectively be like my Gunships, the smaller land masses would be able to transport troops to assault the larger landmasses, or hold weapons capable of assaulting the defences of the larger landmasses, and then you could have tiny land masses (or even just vehicles with some of this anti-gravity mineral) that are fast, and are good at taking out the assault troops or even destroying the smaller land masses. The tiny land masses would not be able to hold enough troops or weapons (and ammunition) to make an effective assault against the Fortress land masses.

This gives a nice and simple Scissors / Paper / Rock relation ship between the different types.

Quote:Original post by Edtharan

Quote:The floating castles could just be fortress built upon chunks of land with plenty of anti-grav material. They keep it floating and maneuver them with engines. Of course if they moved it would be very slowly - they would be the hq and not really meant for battle.
Then the smaller land masses that continuously ascend and descend would provide temporary barriers and mines for the anti-grav, making strategic ideas more necessary.

So these large land masses would effectively be like my Gunships, the smaller land masses would be able to transport troops to assault the larger landmasses, or hold weapons capable of assaulting the defences of the larger landmasses, and then you could have tiny land masses (or even just vehicles with some of this anti-gravity mineral) that are fast, and are good at taking out the assault troops or even destroying the smaller land masses. The tiny land masses would not be able to hold enough troops or weapons (and ammunition) to make an effective assault against the Fortress land masses.

This gives a nice and simple Scissors / Paper / Rock relation ship between the different types.

That's an interesting way to look at it. This shouldn't undermine the emphasis on airship combat though, which is what Thad originally intended. I see the primary role of the floating land masses and minerals as locations for bases/settlements and resource nodes. I guess they could be used as large slow moving gunships, but I think that the airships should still be the primary combatants.

Quote:Original post by Tesseract
This would allow there to be both permanent floating locales in addition to temporal anitgrav mineral resource nodes. Of course the most concentrated source of the mineral would be found on the floating worlds but mining them would have damaging consequences since it would cause the location's floating ability to decline or fail, thereby losing all settlements, bases, etc. attached to it.

I've been thinking something along the same lines. As the rich veins of lifting mineral are mined out (I need come up with a name for this stuff), an island will naturally begin to sink. I'll also deform the 3d model so it looks a smaller and bit chewed on. I've worked out some basic physics that will apply to the ships, and similar rules should be applied to other game objects.

Some of you have mentioned screenshots, and I'll try to get some up later today. I'm working on a model for an island/castle and want to include that with it. That should happen later tonight after I finish up with the day job.

Thanks everyone, this has been a great discussion so far. :)

Thad

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Quote:Original post by Edtharan
That's an interesting way to look at it. This shouldn't undermine the emphasis on airship combat though, which is what Thad originally intended. I see the primary role of the floating land masses and minerals as locations for bases/settlements and resource nodes. I guess they could be used as large slow moving gunships, but I think that the airships should still be the primary combatants.

Yes, I see most of the game action happening via the airships (which I like to think of as a cross between a steam locomotive and a blimp). The ships will mine and transport resources and perform combat functions. The fortresses can have fixed gun emplacements of course. I had always considered the islands and castles as mostly stationary, but it makes sense that they would gradually drift and could even be slowly towed. Perhaps I should define some air currents that would result in an 'orbit' for the various islands. I've already been thinking about wind and various weather effects (I've implemented fog... very easy in OpenGL).

Thad

A few ideas for you:

1. Have the Maelstorm be where the minerals are. Larger ships may not be able to transport down there without being damaged, but maybe smaller, more armored ships can. That also could save any resource gatherers by allowing them to fly into the area for safety.

2. The idea of the complete customization is a good one, but you seem to be going back and forth between it being an RTS where it is fleet-based, and and action game where it is person-based. The idea of ship customization reminds me of Battlezone, a game from the 90's that allowed customization like this. Unique things like that allow for people to design and create their own custom ships. With that in mind, you should add ALOT of parts that can be customized or changed...this will make it so people can truly get the respective feel of having their own creations.

3. Custom Textures may not be the best idea. Maybe the ability to put a custom design on the side of it, allowing for that final touch of personalization. Massive ammounts of personal textures will just end up eating more and more on the game, and would require alot of work with transfering them when used in multiplayer situations.

4. Will this game be more MMO style where it is always online and expanding, like EVE online, or more situation style, where the game would be started and created with a group of people starting from scratch? This could completely change the way the game can, and should, be.

If I think of anything else, I'll bring it up.