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D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice
I designed and started to develop my first game, Battlecruiser 3000AD, back in the late eighties. You all know the history surrounding the first game, which was released while still in late Beta by Take Two. So no need to rehash that. You can read more about that and more, in this blog.

After I went to Interplay to release v2.0 of the game, and which did very well, I went back to think outside the box in an attempt to finish my original ideas which I couldn't do at the time due to lack of tech, inexperience in some areas etc. In the interim, I released two more titles, Battlecruiser Millennium and Battlecruiser Millennium Gold while still working on other tech.

The culmination of those efforts, led to Universal Combat released through Dreamcatcher in 2004. I renamed the franchise because the publisher felt that the "Battlecruiser" name was too tainted as being niche, the drama of the original release still loomed etc. I rejected a bunch of names (e.g. Battleforce) they came up with. So as a compromise, I settled for Universal Combat seeing as I had moved the game from a single carrier (the Battlecruiser) to the command of every single asset (ship, vehicle etc) in the game IP, along with adding full blown fps on planets.

The game did well, and so I continued to work on improving it, thus leading for four derivative works in the Universal Combat IP.

Due to the direction that the industry was going in, and seeing as game dev became more and more expensive, while not yielding the same financial rewards as the past, I decided to retire the Battlecruiser/Universal Combat IP. To that end, in 2009 I released a compilation of all the games in both IP, as Universal Combat Collectors Edition.

That same year, have branched off to do a fighter combat game for Turner's GameTap service as Galactic Command Echo Squad, I ported the graphics and other updates from that more modern GCES engine kernel into UCCE and released it as Universal Combat Collectors Edition v2.0, but without multiplayer (too much work for very little gain).

I have always had a fondness for that original IP; but unfortunately it became clear that the decline of the space combat genre, not to mention complex games themselves, was not exactly going to be something to spend money on if the core audience simply wasn't there anymore.

Then 2012 came around and for some reason a bunch of space combat games started to appear. Including that on-going train wreck Star Citizen, as well as the outstanding Elite Dangerous.

Though they were getting all the attention even though neither one was really doing anything different or which I hadn't done before, I was already committed to doing Line Of Defense (SA thread) which I started designing since 2009 and which went into development in 2010.

Then people started contacting me and asking why I was MIA from the great "space combat game resurgence". Including my old fans.

So I went back and cleaned up UCCE v2.0, added a bunch of new stuff to it. Then released it for free on Steam in order to gauge interest.

The response was enough to convince me to, at the very least, go back and overhaul the old gal. Also, I wanted to prove to those Star Citizen White Knight assholes who kept harassing me, that they game they were attacking me over, wasn't doing anything groundbreaking, that I'd done all before - though at much lower visual fidelity - and thus knew the challenges that awaited them. Plus, they didn't have the tech that I had built from the ground up and which completely overshadowed anything croberts could possible dream up.

That interest led me to draw up plans for, not a new game, but a complete overhaul of the UCCE 2.0 graphics, fix some underlying nagging bugs, tweak a few features etc and add a few features that had gone into the All Aspects games.

That was how Universal Combat - The Lyrius Conflict came about. And I branched the entire engine suite to v3.0x that it's now on. Then I released it on Steam Early Access as a $29.99 DLC for those who want to follow the development through to release, via regular updates. I will be increasing the price to $60 at the end of the Early Access period.



In keeping with the tradition of the original Battlecruiser game, it is still the most advanced space combat game ever built; and is the only space combat game to date that has a complete modeling of an entire capital ship command, complete with crew modeling, persistent space/planetary universe etc. Even though it is still a massive sandbox, it still has various open-ended missions which take place in space and on planets.

Nobody - to date - has ever built this sort of tech or this type of game. And they won't because it takes decades of toil, research and experience to do it. And it's costly.

Apparently even $100m isn't enough. But that's largely due to the incompetent clown they gave the money to.

The premise of the original Battlecruiser 3000AD game still holds true today, but amplified by x100 due to the slew of options and new tech implemented over the years and right up to the 2009 Universal Combat CE.

quote:

Total command and control

Command and control a military Battlecruiser complete with manual flight control of 4 fighters, 4 shuttlecrafts, 4 all terrain vehicles in space and over gorgeous planetary landscapes. Assign orders to over 150 ship personnel including officers, engineers, medics, marines and fighter pilots. Mine planets and moons. Attack space and planetary targets using fighters, all terrain vehicles or marines. Deploy or extract personnel and items from space or planets. Orchestrate invasions in any part of a huge game galaxy including strikes against space borne starstations. Order your ships and personnel using a variety of commands such as search and destroy, strike, escort, defend and many more. Use transporters to beam personnel to and from surface strike zones. Attack surface assets from space using devastating orbit to surface weaponry. Launch probes to remote regions to gather intel and stage your attacks. Trade hundreds of items with dozens of stations and bases.
Immense, fully-dynamic universe

Features a fully dynamic and evolving universe with over 13 alien races, including the feared Gammulans and irritating Vesperons. Interact with 25 castes including military, raiders, assassins, scientists, traders, diplomats etc. Each with a unique agenda. Visit 25 starsystems containing 75 planets and 145 moons all modeled in 3D. Traverse this huge universe using wormholes, jump gates and other anomalies. Search asteroid fields for cargo pods or lure your attackers in and watch them die. Soar above the cloud layers of Earth, drive over the craters of the Moon and Mars or explore the vast rings of Saturn complete with rocks and debris. Visit a variety of moons and planets with different topologies, climate zones, cities, bases and other attractions. Watch in real time as the Sun goes down, night falls and stars fill the sky. Explore planets or space regions for days on end with no restrictions or limitations. Observe as this huge universe evolves around you and continues to evolve regardless of your actions. Visit regions as alien nations wage war on each other or watch such skirmishes as military ships engaging in combat against raiders threatening traders, diplomats and other harmless castes. Join in the fray or cloak your ship and go about your business undetected. Destroy stations and other surface based assets and observe as they are rebuilt over time and reinforced with more advanced components. A universe like none other in any game this side of the known universe.

The first fully-modeled starship

The first fully modeled starship. Access a variety of computer systems for personnel control, engineering repairs, tactical command, cargo manipulation, communications, navigation, power allocation etc. Repair and upgrade your ship systems with a detailed parts database containing dozens of components. Observe your crew as they move between decks or get stuck and take injury at locations with broken decks. Monitor their stats including artificial intelligence, fatigue, health and a variety of other attributes. Personnel move to a myriad of ship locations including their quarters, the galley, bridge, engineering etc. Watch your marines spring into action as they go in search of escaped prisoners or engage in combat with intruders that board your ship. Evacuate your personnel from decks that are subject to radiation due to reactor core breaches or quarantine your away teams that come back with infectious diseases. Clone dead officers from stored DNA signatures or hire marines and engineers at starstations. Stock up on rations or watch your personnel die of hunger. Assign your combat pilots to fighters or your marines to all terrain vehicles based on skill. With access to this complex ship, an awesome array of weaponry and a dedicated crew, the decisions you make can mean the difference between life and death as you assume full command control of your ship and crew.

Decide how you play

Most games lock you into a linear plot and if you manage to break free and finish the game, you have no choice but to shelve the game and go in search of another to fill the void. In this game you decide how you play, short term, long term or forever. The choice is yours and the variations are endless. With three unique modes of play, you can choose to either wander the universe as a Commander in Earth’s galactic force, Galactic Command, carrying out your duty of maintaining law and order in allied territories or explore the vast reaches of space. You make your own rules but step out of line and face a court-martial or worse, make a bad decision and your crew die. Decide what you want to do, where you want to go and how you’re going to carry out your goals. Do you invade a planet today or join an NPC controlled force as they attack an enemy station deep in hostile territory? Do you mine for valuable Iridium or do you destroy hostile assets for experience points that eventually lead to increase in the ranks? You can also join a campaign in the Advanced Campaign Mode scenario consisting of a series of missions that are directly affected by the ever changing universe. You can either follow the mission path or ignore orders and move on to the next task in the campaign. To get you going and hone your combat skills, enter Xtreme Carnage and take on space and planetary hostiles as you familiarize yourself with the operation of your fighters. The choice is yours, either way, one day, you’re going to die. You may as well die with a medal and for a good cause.

So if you are playing Universal Combat CE v2.0 on Steam, you are playing the original Battlecruiser 3000AD on steroids and with over two decades of technology improvements and tweaks.

That's how you build this kind of game. You can't do it all in one shot. And that's why I have made the comments about Star Citizen since my first blog in July.

My plan for this DLC is to completely upgrade the graphics engine, fine tune the GUI, replace the entire asset database with new and improved models for every single model in the game. This includes characters, weapons, vehicles, aircraft, planetary buildings, starbases, stations etc. Everything. Since all my games share the same IP, newer assets from more recent games such as All Aspect Warfare / Angle Of Attack, as well as Line Of Defense, will be used so as not to have to re-create them from scratch. And the planetary terrain engine, which is procedural btw, isn't going to be replaced because it works just fine. However, all the texture assets are going to be replaced with higher quality versions.

One thing I would like to do is add a 3D bridge to the game. With 28 capital (transport, carrier, cruiser) ships in the game, it's a lot of work, but it's just one of those things that you either do it or you don't. I would have like to build all of these capital ships similar to the multi-deck Starguard carrier we built for Line Of Defense, but that's over $600K to build all of them; and I don't have $100m of other people's money to do it with. So with the 3D bridge, at least you get a more immersive feel.

Depending on how things go with this Lyrius Conflict DLC (aka UCCE v3.0x) which I hope to complete and release by end of 2016, I will then do Universal Combat Advanced in which, using the UCCE v3.0x engine kernel, build all 28 capital ships, and all stations so that from start to finish, the entire game takes place in first person mode like in LOD. This will allow commanders to run through their ship fighting alongside their NPC marine crew against intruders. Also with the ability to board other ships (since all will be build in 3D now) and stations. With at least 128 client multiplayer, similar to what I did with All Aspect Warfare/Angle Of Attack. Not an MMO as that's too much work.

Make no mistake, at no point in time am I ever going to dumb down these Battlecruiser/Universal Combat games. They will remain as complex and niche as they have always been, and with zero compromises on my part.

Game Info
Game Docs
Game Commands
Game Tutorial
Galaxy Map (color)
Galaxy Map Links (color)
Galaxy Map (standard)
Game Cheat Codes
Game Galaxy Maps
Game Appendix
Changelog // v2x paid & freeware
Changelog // v3x The Lyrius Conflict DLC

Sometimes Steam client won't run the executable that creates shortcuts to the above docs. This KB article shows how to manually install it.

If you prefer the Blackness of space, download this skybox file and copy it into the .\gfx folder. Be sure to rename the existing skybox.zip file in there! This file works with both the freeware and The Lyrius Conflict DLC.

Also Captain Lazychan has a slew of mods and tutorial videos.

D_Smart fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Jan 3, 2016

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D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice
Universal Combat posts culled from other threads

quote:


Quality is not very good, but I made you a video. This is showing tech that I developed back in the nineties and which is currently on which UCCE v2.0 (free on Steam) is based.

https://vimeo.com/147947830

The quality is not very good (the original was about 3.5GB and I didn't have time to mess with Handbrake settings), but you should get the gist of it in terms of scale, real-time and hyperjump travel, seamless space/planetary (not some fake sphere) etc.

And yeah, though not shown in the video, you can also EVA from your ship. In space. And fly around with a weapon. Walk around on top of your ship, station etc.

quote:

Omi-Polari posted:

Derek, in Universal Combat is there a way to warp to a waypoint or a specific user-determined point in a system, say with using TACOPS? Or can you just warp to planets, moons, stations, etc.?

Yes. I showed it in the video actually.

Just set a waypoint in Tacops. Then you can either fly there manually (good luck if it's far away) or have the auto-pilot do it. And if it's a distant point, it is intelligent enough to use hyperspace intelligently.

Just this week I added the ability for the ship's auto-pilot (AI powered) to use hyperspace to jump to a waypoint. This is in the 3.x engine build which is currently undergoing a major graphics upgrade for 2016 release.

Previously, since the entire game world is "real" space with no cheating, instancing, sharding or any of that crap, it would fly at top speed without using hyperspace. Considering that each of those "known space"* regions is over 1m km across, well, you'd be there awhile.

You can fly anywhere using real space. You only really need to use hyperjump for long distance travel. And even so, the world is still being updated in real-time. You can jump to any target, regardless of what it is. If you can select a target on radar, you can jump to it.

* If you go outside the Tacops grid, you're still in the world, but it's considered uncharged "null space". So I had placed a convenient jump anomaly in there to return to known space because people were getting lost.

quote:

Sarsapariller posted:

You know, I watched this- and it's interesting how the people who bag on you the most tend to go after your games, when they are surprisingly similar to Star Citizen in their ambition and scope. From the video, it seems like with all the stability concerns out of the way, the UI is the major thing holding it back. It feels kind of dwarf fortressy- like there's a whole world of stuff being simulated under the hood, but the game doesn't really have a great method of displaying it to the player (or to give them a way to affect it meaningfully). I feel like if you took an engine like this, narrowed down the range of information presented to something that the player could meaningfully understand and base decisions on, and gave it a bit of a visual pass, it'd be quite popular.

Beyond that it seems like the greatest difference is that Star Citizen is trying to represent the player's first-person perspective at all times. Other space sims have let you go to first-person some of the time, but SC is the first one (that I know of) that uses it exclusively at all times. I'm not saying this is a good or a bad thing, but I suspect it is what makes a lot of the technical challenges significantly worse. At the same time it also makes the sense of scale much more apparent when doing something like running around on a ship or station. It's an interesting design choice.

Yeah, the UI in my games have always been a bit of an issue. But once you accept the fact that it's different, it gets easier with time.

The biggest issue is that the game has so many options that there is no other way to slim down the UI, while still presenting relevant info to the player. But I am going to overhaul the UI in the UCCE 3.0 DLC because I'm going to convert it to use Flash (via Iggy, which I use in LOD) and that will give more options for visual fidelity, slimming it down etc.

And yes, Star Citizen isn't doing anything revolutionary in terms of tech. It's just mostly fps and a high visual fidelity (which is going to be a serious problem if they ever finish the game and with all features as promised). But then again, I'm doing the same fps type thing in LOD, but without the in-your-face interactive bullshit (because realism) that doesn't add anything to the gameplay. At the end of the day, smoke and mirrors tend to wear off quickly, leaving you wondering where the hell the game is.

As to sense of scale, you do realize that LOD has massive stations - and an entire multi-deck carrier right? True fact: that carrier can be flown. I just don't allow it in LOD.

quote:

Omi-Polari posted:

Hmm. It might be a bug. Hitting F9 and going into 3rd person and *then* jumping into hyperspace takes me out of 3rd person and back into 1st (but no HUD, though I can toggle it back with F1), and hitting F9 while in hyperspace also takes me to a view that's similar to hitting F3 (it's at a slightly different angle, but basically the same view -- maybe my ship is just invisible?). However, F10 seems to work fine for radar targets in hyperspace.

In your video, it looks like you're watching your ship as it blasts through the system at hyperspeed. That's cool as hell.

I have the DLC.

Yeah, I like 90s games and never played any of yours back in the day, and this thread got me interested. It really is a huge, underrated game for its time. The look and the UI will turn people off but whatever. I've just been tinkering around with it in roam mode, learning systems, etc. And ... it's hard. But that's the point. Enemy boarding parties will sabotage your ship, then steal a shuttlecraft and make a getaway. You'll win a battle only to come out of it shot to hell and drifting while on fire.

Edit:

Ah, it kinda looks like this. I skipped ahead to when he goes into hyperspace. But I'll try to upload a video of my own later and will post it here. (Also Lazy Chan's videos are good tutorials for the basics.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6utp9H55TA&t=494s

It's not a bug. Those are all valid camera views but with different camera types. In fact, F9 and F10 have multiple views which you can cycle through while pressing the keys. See p5 of the game keys.

When you are in hyperspace, the ship is invisible. The parts (around 3:30 and beyond) where I was looking around at the ship, and it was visible, that's real space; though moving very - very - fast because I had my finger on the thrust.

Also, ships that are in hyperspace have a Blue box visible in the HUD or in Tacops. That's why when you click on them, there is nothing to see.

And yeah, intruders are a pest. Some (depending on AI) will just sabotage poo poo and leave. Others will steal poo poo and either transport out back to their ship (if still around) or steal one of your fighters or shuttles and bugger off. The assholes who steal all your valuable cargo, are the worst because they come heavily armed and can take out all your marines.

You can go to PERSCAN and enjoy the fun as they play hide and seek with your marines through the entire ship. That's a completely separate AI tech running the crew simulation. Which is why the crew can get tired, go off-station, go eat, get rested etc. It's all simulated in real-time and runs completely independently of what is going on in the outside world or other parts of the ship. That's why in the video, I sent a team to the transporter, then beamed them to the planet surface. That's how you go on away missions. And if you beam a team of marines into the middle of hostile territory, you can leave them there to battle it out, while you observe from Tacops or just bugger off and go do something else. The game won't stop because the *entire* galaxy (space and planets) runs in real-time. No instancing. No sharding. No bullshit.

Once I built that engine, all I did was build the games (Battlecruiser which morphed into Universal Combat once I added fps and a bunch of other crap) on top of it. Which is the reason why I needed to build a new engine for LOD because this legacy engine just didn't have the graphics prowess for that game and it would have taken way too much time to retool that (because of the planets) and I would lose a lot of functionality that just works.

So I figured that the best way to preserve the old gal (BC/UC), was to give it a graphics boost (engine, redo ALL the assets, fx etc), while retaining all that ground-breaking tech. That's why no new features are promised in that DLC.

Though one thing I always wanted to do, was add the 3D cockpits (from All Aspect Warfare / Angle Of Attack) to all the crafts. That would allow me to also have 3D bridges for all the capital (carrier, cruiser, transport) ships in the game. If you have seen Into The Stars, then you already have an idea what I am planning. But better. The original BC3K (see below) had that, but it was just a 2D image. If I do it in 3D, you will be able to see bridge personnel go on and off the bridge as they go to other parts of the ship. I'm not going to model the entire ship (like the three deck Starguard carrier in LOD) because that's an exceptional amount of work and will cost over $600K to build all 28 capital ships since each one costs approx $20-$25K to build inside/out like the Starguard in LOD.


BrutalistMcDonalds
Oct 4, 2012


Lipstick Apathy

D_Smart posted:

Depending on how things go with this Lyrius Conflict DLC (aka UCCE v3.0x) which I hope to complete and release by end of 2016, I will then do Universal Combat Advanced in which, using the UCCE v3.0x engine kernel, build all 28 capital ships so that from start to finish, the entire game takes place in first person mode like in LOD.
:gowron:

CHICKEN SHOES
Oct 4, 2002
Slippery Tilde
Derek I could never get anything to happen except CTDs in the free release of BC in like 1997, so as I install this I am asking if I should hook up my joystick or is this mainly mouse driven.

It's been like 20 years since the last time I've tried one of your games I hope it goes better this time!

Adam Bowen
Jan 6, 2003

This post probably contains a Rickroll link!
Space, Land, or Sea Air, the choice is yours

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

Omi-Polari posted:

quote:

D_Smart posted:
Depending on how things go with this Lyrius Conflict DLC (aka UCCE v3.0x) which I hope to complete and release by end of 2016, I will then do Universal Combat Advanced in which, using the UCCE v3.0x engine kernel, build all 28 capital ships so that from start to finish, the entire game takes place in first person mode like in LOD.
:gowron:

One of the things I want to do with this is that, since the whole game is in fps, if you get boarded, you can just grab your weapon and go fight alongside your marines wherever intruders happen to be on your ship.

Also, the most requested feature, the boarding of other ships as well as fps inside all the stations. Just like I did in LOD, but for this far more advanced game.

Kraven Moorhed
Jan 5, 2006

So wrong, yet so right.

Soiled Meat
:pcgaming: Posting in the same thread as a PC gaming legend. :pcgaming:

Never tried one of these and I've always been a sucker for sims (I lusted after Steel Battalion, but the folks never relented). What's your input device/combo of choice for this?

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

Hillary Clintons Thong posted:

Derek I could never get anything to happen except CTDs in the free release of BC in like 1997, so as I install this I am asking if I should hook up my joystick or is this mainly mouse driven.

It's been like 20 years since the last time I've tried one of your games I hope it goes better this time!

Yeah, UCCE 2.0 is generations more advanced than that original game. Give it a shot.

Also, note that the freeware version on Steam is using the v2.0 engine, while the DLC using the v3.0 engine which has various improvements and will continue to be updated as development continues through 2016.

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

Kraven Moorhed posted:

:pcgaming: Posting in the same thread as a PC gaming legend. :pcgaming:

Never tried one of these and I've always been a sucker for sims (I lusted after Steel Battalion, but the folks never relented). What's your input device/combo of choice for this?

You can use anything you like. It supports keyboard, joystick, mouse and controllers. I prefer joystick of course.

eonwe
Aug 11, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
these games seem too complicated for me tbqh

Ichabod Tane
Oct 30, 2005

A most notable
coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.


https://youtu.be/_Ojd0BdtMBY?t=4
Let me get this out of the way: Will I be able to marry my space waifu of choice? Is there romance? You might be pushing boundaries in the space-war simulator genre but I haven't seen your emotional side, Derek.

CHICKEN SHOES
Oct 4, 2002
Slippery Tilde

Blacktoll posted:

Let me get this out of the way: Will I be able to marry my space waifu of choice? Is there romance? You might be pushing boundaries in the space-war simulator genre but I haven't seen your emotional side, Derek.

Can my space waifu be a former slave that I raped on the regular after stealing her from a ship and forcing her to be a prisoner and she is actually another PC

BrutalistMcDonalds
Oct 4, 2012


Lipstick Apathy

D_Smart posted:

Make no mistake, at no point in time am I ever going to dumb down these Battlecruiser/Universal Combat games. They will remain as complex and niche as they have always been, and with zero compromises on my part.
So I'm probably be the biggest UC fan on these forums. I tend to like open-world RPGs and grognard wargames that takes a lot of effort to figure out. And ... he's right. These games will not hold your hand. There's missions you can play, but it seems meant to play in roam mode, which is this big sandbox filled with things that are trying to kill you.

A lot of time is spent trying to figure out engineering tricks or problems, tinkering with subsystems, managing crew, and that seems to be by design. Other than that, it's up to the player to figure out what they want to do or where to go. You could play it as a space trucking simulator, if you wanted.

If I had to describe the game universe, it'd be chaos. There's something like a dozen different alien civilizations, and they're all fighting wars with coalitions of other aliens. And each civilization seems to be fighting its own civil war. So if a hostile ship pops up on the radar -- you have to figure out, what kind of ship is that, which alien species is it from, and are they from the government or the insurgents?

And then you can make an informed decision about whether to fight or run away screaming.

Hillary Clintons Thong posted:

Derek I could never get anything to happen except CTDs in the free release of BC in like 1997, so as I install this I am asking if I should hook up my joystick or is this mainly mouse driven.

It's been like 20 years since the last time I've tried one of your games I hope it goes better this time!
I use both. Mainly use the mouse by ordering my ship to fly itself to waypoints, destinations, etc. Joystick is mainly when the situation goes to poo poo.

D_Smart posted:

One of the things I want to do with this is that, since the whole game is in fps, if you get boarded, you can just grab your weapon and go fight alongside your marines wherever intruders happen to be on your ship.

Also, the most requested feature, the boarding of other ships as well as fps inside all the stations. Just like I did in LOD, but for this far more advanced game.
This would be awesome, but can you pull this off? That seems like a lot of work and money.

CHICKEN SHOES
Oct 4, 2002
Slippery Tilde

Omi-Polari posted:


I use both. Mainly use the mouse by ordering my ship to fly itself to waypoints, destinations, etc. Joystick is only when the situation goes to poo poo.


That makes sense. Like when Riker has to pilot the enterprise.

BrutalistMcDonalds
Oct 4, 2012


Lipstick Apathy

Hillary Clintons Thong posted:

That makes sense. Like when Riker has to pilot the enterprise.
lmao

Yes.

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice
If you prefer the Blackness of space, download this skybox file and copy it into the .\gfx folder. Be sure to rename the existing skybox.zip file in there!

Also Captain Lazychan has a slew of mods and tutorial videos.

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

Blacktoll posted:

Let me get this out of the way: Will I be able to marry my space waifu of choice? Is there romance? You might be pushing boundaries in the space-war simulator genre but I haven't seen your emotional side, Derek.

Yes, you can. But you would need the multiplayer version of the original UCCE for that, since v2.0 and v3.0 do not have multiplayer.

Since you can deploy yourself and your entire crew onto planets, nothing is stopping you from having a virtual wedding on a planet.

CHICKEN SHOES
Oct 4, 2002
Slippery Tilde
I'm still downloading this. Can I name my crew members????

Ichabod Tane
Oct 30, 2005

A most notable
coward, an infinite and endless liar, an hourly promise breaker, the owner of no one good quality.


https://youtu.be/_Ojd0BdtMBY?t=4
I'm talking Tali zorah vas Normandy levels of waifu, Derek.

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

Omi-Polari posted:

quote:

D_Smart posted:
One of the things I want to do with this is that, since the whole game is in fps, if you get boarded, you can just grab your weapon and go fight alongside your marines wherever intruders happen to be on your ship.

Also, the most requested feature, the boarding of other ships as well as fps inside all the stations. Just like I did in LOD, but for this far more advanced game.

This would be awesome, but can you pull this off? That seems like a lot of work and money.

The tech is already there (you have played LOD, right?). It's more about time and money, than it is about the tech.

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

Hillary Clintons Thong posted:

I'm still downloading this. Can I name my crew members????

Not yet. I am planning on adding that in the DLC since it's also one of the most requested features. It's trivial to do honestly, I just never found the time to do it. I was planning on just adding a text file, then read the user created data from it which then overloads the game's own built-in names. I didn't do it. So the proper way to do it would be from within the game's UI when you are creating a new game. Right now you enter your name and ship's name. In the DLC you would be able to name your crew (all 100+ of them) if you wanted to from that same screen.

CHICKEN SHOES
Oct 4, 2002
Slippery Tilde
You werent kidding, this game is oldschool as hell. I'll need to read a lot to even figure out tutorial free roam.

BrutalistMcDonalds
Oct 4, 2012


Lipstick Apathy
This is a pretty good (chaotic) video of a fleet battle with Derek Smart co-piloting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCQwpHh4s-0&t=2670s

D_Smart posted:

The tech is already there (you have played LOD, right?). It's more about time and money, than it is about the tech.
Cool. And yeah I've played it a little bit.

BMan
Oct 31, 2015

KNIIIIIIFE
EEEEEYYYYE
ATTAAAACK


I have played such games as X3TC, DCS World, Falcon BMS, and vanilla Dwarf Fortress. Is this game for me?

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

BMan posted:

I have played such games as X3TC, DCS World, Falcon BMS, and vanilla Dwarf Fortress. Is this game for me?

Absolutely. Just check out the game manual in the first post :)

Saint Isaias Boner
Jan 17, 2007

hi how are you

I'm going to give this a whirl but goddamned if it doesn't look as hard as nails to figure out.

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

Gilganixon posted:

I'm going to give this a whirl but goddamned if it doesn't look as hard as nails to figure out.

It can be. But once you get the hang of it, it's a breeze. The entire game can be played using only a mouse and keyboard. But you should play the tutorial first.

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice
I finished the new blog (which the first post in this thread is based on).

Lunchmeat Larry
Nov 3, 2012

I'm going to play this just so I can say I did so on Derek Smart's personal recommendation. You're like a less insane Cleve Blakemore who actually releases games. Never stop.

Larry Parrish
Jul 9, 2012

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I read tjat long rear end post

Saint Isaias Boner
Jan 17, 2007

hi how are you

gotta say I just fired that game up and it is extremely my poo poo. I had no idea what I was doing but I'm going to read that manual and find out.

grate deceiver
Jul 10, 2009

Just a funny av. Not a redtext or an own ok.

D_Smart posted:

The entire game can be played using only a mouse and keyboard.

Wow, I wish more games did that.

Agent Escalus
Oct 5, 2002

"I couldn't stop saying aloud how miscast Jim Carrey was!"
Do you still do most of the programming/art/sound yourself like back in the BC3K days? How much collaboration do you engage in on a project? Any interest in tablet/mobile development, or would you rather leave that up to the Galaxy on Fire crew and similar arcade-like takes on the genre?

Also, any thoughts on the forthcoming VR devices? Any plans for supporting them?

duck monster
Dec 15, 2004

I had UC, god, maybe a decade ago? Was completely mystified by it. But I'm glad it exists :) Maybe when I get some time I'll have another go, if it still runs.

duck monster fucked around with this message at 11:10 on Dec 8, 2015

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

Agent Escalus posted:

Do you still do most of the programming/art/sound yourself like back in the BC3K days? How much collaboration do you engage in on a project? Any interest in tablet/mobile development, or would you rather leave that up to the Galaxy on Fire crew and similar arcade-like takes on the genre?

Also, any thoughts on the forthcoming VR devices? Any plans for supporting them?

Yeah, I still do quite a bit of programming. Not as much as back in the day though, since I now have various teams and projects to run. I actually wrote a blog about this yesterday.

Since I tend to do all my game design work, act as producer etc, I collaborate quite a bit with my team leads, as well as interface with my content providers (art, modeling, writing, audio etc) on all my projects.

My first foray into mobile/console was with Line Of Defense Tactics, the RTS companion game to Line Of Defense MMO. I had put together a separate team to build that game back in 2013 with Unity4. We shipped it in 2014 for mobile (ios/android) and on PC (where it got lambasted on Steam for being a "mobile port", which it wasn't). I then did a deal with Microsoft and an improved version is coming out on Xbox One this Friday, Dec 11th. This is the trailer for that version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p7LzdFlkZc

I have been keeping up to date with VR, but for me, it's still more of a novelty that only the big boys and hobbyists can engage in. I still don't believe that it will go mainstream in games. I actually owned several Occulus devices, but sold them at a tidy profit last year. Naturally if the landscape changes, I will take a closer look. But until then, I simply don't have the time and resources to waste on it.

D_Smart
May 11, 2010

by FactsAreUseless
College Slice

duck monster posted:

I had UC, god, maybe a decade ago? Was completely mystified by it. But I'm glad it exists :) Maybe when I get some time I'll have another go, if it still runs.

Yeah, UC first came out in 2004. Don't bother installing that one though. The free UCCE 2.0 on Steam is far more advanced, runs better etc though it has fewer (it's free, and you need the DLC to get all the missions) missions.

suck my woke dick
Oct 10, 2012

:siren:I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!:siren:

Put this cum-loving slave on ignore immediately!
posting on the first page of an unironic dsmart gaming thread (mods please change my name to coke machine)

TerminalBlue
Aug 13, 2005

I LIVE
I DIE
I LIVE AGAIN


WITNESS ME!!
Gotta make an honest post and say that I've always admired what your games have always tried to accomplish, DSmart. Probably moreso since you keep on making them no matter what bullshit goes around. It might just be the mark of delusional insanity, but whatever, you've gotta admire it and I've never gotten the feeling that you're in it for any reason other than just making the kinds of game you've always wanted make. I've laughed about the shenanigans surrounding your games and Internet presence over the years sure, but in all honesty I'd love nothing more than to see one of your games match your ambition for them. I mean, they're complicated esoteric simulators, and that there's my poo poo, man.

I could point to various reasons why I find all your games almost entirely unplayable regardless of my tolerance for impenetrable simulators, but there's no point, that poo poo's been talked to death. Keep on truckin' man. I always check out your releases if only to get those glimpses of what could've been if games like the ones you wanted to make were even possible to make.

All that aside, could you give a quick ballpark on how many people were involved aside from you in each of your releases? Just the actual game stuff, not marketing or whatever external factors. I'm actually kinda interested.

BrutalistMcDonalds
Oct 4, 2012


Lipstick Apathy
Request: Change all computer voices in the game to Derek Smart's voice.

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BrutalistMcDonalds
Oct 4, 2012


Lipstick Apathy
Here's a question. How did the different main battlecruisers/carriers (MK1, MK2 and MK3) come about?

The MK3 seems like the Starship Enterprise of the franchise. When I see people playing the game, they're usually piloting MK3s. And I started playing UC ... this year. So I don't know the history.

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