Pre-SysNES2: Beta-testing and Submission

[Kal'thzar]

mhmmm, thats cool. Although it wasn't immediately clear to me that the Y/N checkbox was to use the imported or your own made up stats!

Are you not doing any of the rather fun world trait combo's? (I recall, molten and Hot had a nice bonus).

 

[Disenfrancised]

mhmmm, thats cool. Although it wasn't immediately clear to me that the Y/N checkbox was to use the imported or your own made up stats!

Are you not doing any of the rather fun world trait combo's? (I recall, molten and Hot had a nice bonus).

Combinational traits take more work to implement in an excel datasheet model .

 

[Kal'thzar]

Ach Shame.

I note that some traits are just that, traits. Other blocks of traits are a choose one (or more) variety (i.e. all Planets are, Hot Jovian, Jovian, Gas Giant, Ice Gas Giant, Terrestrial or Snowball, another group is the temperature group etc), any plans to group them together at the top and have the additional stuff on the bottom (Cleaner?).

Anyway, is there a max and min for the Insolation and Thermal ranges?

Also the ground base on a Hot Jovian is making my eyes water...

 

[Disenfrancised]

Ach Shame.

I note that some traits are just that, traits. Other blocks of traits are a choose one (or more) variety (i.e. all Planets are, Hot Jovian, Jovian, Gas Giant, Ice Gas Giant, Terrestrial or Snowball, another group is the temperature group etc), any plans to group them together at the top and have the additional stuff on the bottom (Cleaner?).

Anyway, is there a max and min for the Insolation and Thermal ranges?

Also the ground base on a Hot Jovian is making my eyes water...

They are grouped together, they cannot be more grouped together, I have no idea what you mean. The only isolate is forests, and that's next to the biosphere ones for thematic reasons.

0-4

 

[Kal'thzar]

Oh sorry, I meant group the groups

I.e. move the Gravity/radiation/Rings groups further down as its not going to be a group of traits that will always have something selected from them.

Its a little pointless to be honest...

 

[Disenfrancised]

Oh sorry, I meant group the groups

I.e. move the Gravity/radiation/Rings groups further down as its not going to be a group of traits that will always have something selected from them.

Its a little pointless to be honest...

It clumps up all the space habitat affecting ones together the way it is right now.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Yeah I suppose, so long as some thought to how the groups are arranged is good

 

[Disenfrancised]

So I'm planning to use pixel sprites on the main map for the world traits, buildings and ships: here is the first batch, the world traits. Note each exotic biosphere will have its own little sprite based on the ecology.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Looks good though, some images are not immediately obvious but it encapsulates the essential info.

 

[Matt0088]

Couldn't toxic be skull and crossbones (i.e. this)? The current smileys are kinda

Edit: Mixing up Exotic & Toxic apparently.

 

[Kal'thzar]

ok Some actual comments on the symbols, it is hard to differentiate between Poisonous and Deadly (are they different shades of yellow?). Is there a slush symbol is up there (red flat-molten, grey blobs-rock, blue flat- ice, light raining cloud - moist?)

 

[Disenfrancised]

Couldn't toxic be skull and crossbones (i.e. this)? The current smileys are kinda

Edit: Mixing up Exotic & Toxic apparently.

Try and do a nice 16x16 skull yourself, then get back to me.

 

[Matt0088]

Looking at the old thread, Symph was able to create one within a 17x15 space, which is pretty damn close.

Spoiler :

 

[Disenfrancised]

ok Some actual comments on the symbols, it is hard to differentiate between Poisonous and Deadly (are they different shades of yellow?). Is there a slush symbol is up there (red flat-molten, grey blobs-rock, blue flat- ice, light raining cloud - moist?)

The blue is slush, I forgot the rocks, here is a new version of the sprites with all the basic buildings included.

 

[Symphony D.]

I'm going to publicly suggest Commlinks and Scanners be reduced to COM1 techreq and Computer Modules be increased to COM2. Neither of the former is particularly complicated (it's implied Commlinks are high-bandwidth STL as opposed to low-bandwidth quantum-entanglement or something for most comms, and Scanners are STL radar/lidar/etc. sensors with maybe some gravimetrics thrown in or something). Meanwhile the latter is presumably a dedicated piece of genetic/quantum/optical computing hardware beyond the innumerable computers a ship already has.

If those assumptions are correct, then building either of the former is notably simpler than the latter (compare radio and radar vs. the computer) and it just feels more realistic. Especially when you can theoretically construct an FTL fleet at COM1 and communicate with it using those QECs yet not scan things. At present, anyone with only COM1 is sort of screwed out of immediate exploration due to that limitation. While that's certainly a thing, all it's going to do is encourage them to plow resources back into domestic development immediately rather than explore until they research COM2.

Some more thoughts:

Shouldn't techreqs of External/Internal Hangars and External Pods/Cargo Bays be flipped? It's a lot easier to just weld a pod or an attachment strut to the outside of an existing ship that it is to purpose-build an internal bay to do the same thing (compare shipping container cargo ships versus aircraft carriers). Considering the innate disadvantages of the external options as compared to the interior ones, putting them two levels higher on the CON tree doesn't make a lot of sense; nobody should ever want to use them unless there's no other choice or the user is that much of a cheapskate.

Shouldn't Water Suspension be Construction or Materials instead of Social? The main limitation would seem to be holding in all the water, not having the social enlightenment to undertaken the prudent survival tactic of submerging yourself to endure crushing g-forces. Also, possibly just title it Liquid Suspension or Fluid Suspension; a liquid-breathing fluid is a lot cheaper to implement than giving everyone gills or the equivalent, and voids the Social aspect, plus you can get a higher viscosity and better performance. This technology also already exists, it just isn't implemented widely (too heavy to fill a cockpit vs. a water-using g-suit, for example). It seems like filling the living areas of a larger ship with the stuff would also do really bad things for your mass value beyond an increase of 3 (and be generally unnecessary).

Is anybody not going to start with FTL? That seems like a real possibility based on techs.

 

[Kal'thzar]

The blue is slush, I forgot the rocks, here is a new version of the sprites with all the basic buildings included.

Spoiler sprites :

Cool

@Matt the symbol being used for toxic is actually already in use (for hazardous material, irritants, don't breath this stuff in type of stuff. I see it all the time in the lab, see here for some symbols http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dangerous_goods)

Lets see those buildings: The resource buildings are easy enough

Factory, Industrial Park, [no automation?]

Heavy Fission, Fission (on actinium?), Fusion 1, Fusion 2 (neither of which we have seen before), Solar PP, Plasma tap, wind, geothermal, tidal, hydro.

Network, Media Centre, 5 levels of Data Centre

Next section is simple enough, not sure what the tourism centre represents, but I like the red light district. There is a blank space after the stock exchange then capitol, civic centre, provincial Admin and academy.

Next 5 symbols are new? Spaceport, Spacedock, Shipyard, Elevator, Fountain ???

4 Hab types, Spaceframe, Base, Dome, 2 levels of Cladding? I can sort of see the boxes being cladding material but whats that above them? Last 5 are Bunker levels

Only Automation missing. Only thing I don't like is the university, looks really bland (a couple of grey boxes)

 

[Disenfrancised]

They are in the same order they appear on the building graphic Kal'. Cladding is not on there but will be bunkers turned 90 degrees. The boxes are always for pop, and the ones with only one are bases and space frames. I just don't know how to make the university look distinctive.

Farm
Hydroponics [1-5]
Mining Complex
Borehole
Pumping Station
Aerostat
Plasma Array
Factory
Industrial Park
Automation [absent]
Heavy Fission Reactor
Fission Reactor
Fusion Reactor
Exotic Fusion Reactor
Solar Plant
Plasma Tap
Wind Plant
Geothermal Plant
Tidal Power Plant
Hydropower Plant
Network
Media Centre
Data Centre [1-5]
Broadcaster
Social Infrastructure [1-5]
University
Sports League
Red Light District
Tourism Region
Stock Exchange
Civic Centre [blank space]
Capitol
Provincial Administration
Academy
Cadet School
Spaceport
Spacedock
Shipyard
Space Fountain
Space Elevator
Urbanisation
Suburb
Arcology
Hab Module
Domes
Superdome
Worldhouse
Base
Space Frame
Bunkers & Cladding [1-5]

I'm going to publicly suggest Commlinks and Scanners be reduced to COM1 techreq and Computer Modules be increased to COM2. Neither of the former is particularly complicated (it's implied Commlinks are high-bandwidth STL as opposed to low-bandwidth quantum-entanglement or something for most comms, and Scanners are STL radar/lidar/etc. sensors with maybe some gravimetrics thrown in or something). Meanwhile the latter is presumably a dedicated piece of genetic/quantum/optical computing hardware beyond the innumerable computers a ship already has.

Maybe, I'll think about it.

If those assumptions are correct, then building either of the former is notably simpler than the latter (compare radio and radar vs. the computer) and it just feels more realistic. Especially when you can theoretically construct an FTL fleet at COM1 and communicate with it using those QECs yet not scan things. At present, anyone with only COM1 is sort of screwed out of immediate exploration due to that limitation. While that's certainly a thing, all it's going to do is encourage them to plow resources back into domestic development immediately rather than explore until they research COM2.

Deep space exploration maybe, but in the inhabited areas most people start off in exploring will likely or not come across another group or NPC (and you could just ask the NPCs what planets are in their system).

Shouldn't techreqs of External/Internal Hangars and External Pods/Cargo Bays be flipped? It's a lot easier to just weld a pod or an attachment strut to the outside of an existing ship that it is to purpose-build an internal bay to do the same thing (compare shipping container cargo ships versus aircraft carriers). Considering the innate disadvantages of the external options as compared to the interior ones, putting them two levels higher on the CON tree doesn't make a lot of sense; nobody should ever want to use them unless there's no other choice or the user is that much of a cheapskate.

Its easier in a gravitational field yes, but when the thrust axis goes along the ship, having other ships hanging off the outside is quite the engineering challenge. You may be right on external pods, which were done that way round to mimic the hangers.

Shouldn't Water Suspension be Construction or Materials instead of Social? The main limitation would seem to be holding in all the water, not having the social enlightenment to undertaken the prudent survival tactic of submerging yourself to endure crushing g-forces. Also, possibly just title it Liquid Suspension or Fluid Suspension; a liquid-breathing fluid is a lot cheaper to implement than giving everyone gills or the equivalent, and voids the Social aspect, plus you can get a higher viscosity and better performance. This technology also already exists, it just isn't implemented widely (too heavy to fill a cockpit vs. a water-using g-suit, for example). It seems like filling the living areas of a larger ship with the stuff would also do really bad things for your mass value beyond an increase of 3 (and be generally unnecessary).

Ships here are not like star trek with vast decks, the majority of ship will be engineering. Yes water suspension is very technically simple, using it is just a question of training and organisation - which falls under social tech.

Is anybody not going to start with FTL? That seems like a real possibility based on techs.

Yes, the actual mechanics of it are an easy enough thing to lose, if not the basic concept. Some won't have independent FTL capacity at the start.

 

[Kal'thzar]

They are in the same order they appear on the building graphic Kal'. Cladding is not on there but will be bunkers turned 90 degrees. The boxes are always for pop, and the ones with only one are bases and space frames. I just don't know how to make the university look distinctive.

Excepting the new stuff? (fusion, some more power stuff, spaceport (well, expanded into more than one class), and I'm not sure what the round things are between the space arcology and the bases are (well, one is Domes, is it the case that the first two are domes (space and planet)?)

I've been comparing the sprites to the list you gave us, I've just been trying to figure out the new stuff...

 

[Disenfrancised]

Excepting the new stuff? (fusion, some more power stuff, spaceport (well, expanded into more than one class), and I'm not sure what the round things are between the space arcology and the bases are (well, one is Domes, is it the case that the first two are domes (space and planet)?)

I've been comparing the sprites to the list you gave us, I've just been trying to figure out the new stuff...

Its listed in the post?

Anyway ships are going to be sprites done in real colour, with ownership indicated by glowing outlines.

Here is a provisional Standardite Cargo Ship and a Praxzen small scout - both very small. People should really list their ship aesthetics in thread with [$SOMEDUDE aesthetics] so I can find them easily.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Its listed in the post?

Anyway ships are going to be sprites done in real colour, with ownership indicated by glowing outlines.

Here is a provisional Standardite Cargo Ship and a Praxzen small scout - both very small. People should really list their ship aesthetics in thread with [$SOMEDUDE aesthetics] so I can find them easily.

Awesome, a four minute difference from post to edit

I'll get an aesthetic up 'tonight' (tm)

I'll also PM it to you