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Dinkledash

Alpha Tester
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Everything posted by Dinkledash

  1. I don't think we're getting off on the right foot here. I'm twice your age, so please don't call me son. And asking if someone is braindead for making a suggestion in a thread about making suggestions is kind of rude. I'm not being a jerk for you. Perhaps the training system is inspired by EVE, but that could just be the starting point. The business rules for skills training haven't even been written, so I'm pretty sure the alpha team will be in a position to make suggestions. I've seen several organizations with mission statements that include education. Unless that education is entirely devoted to player skills (how to build stuff, for example) then I am fairly certain that people will indeed want to apprentice to the master roboticist so they can learn how to build and repair higher tech mechs faster. Personal interactions in order to get training create roleplaying opportunities. I don't like the idea of training that is so passive that you don't even have to be online to train. Uploading a skill directly to your brain is like reading and watching videos about blacksmithing and then claiming to be a master when you've never lifted a hammer. You don't know the feel the hammer in your hand, the sound of properly tempered metal, the smell of forge, the heat on your face... there's a lot more to a skill than book knowledge. But that's just me. Maybe you want training to be fully automated, just plug your brain in to the ark and magic happens Demolition Man style. That would certainly be easier to code, but it would shut the door on folks who want there to be a value in experience and effort. So... when you're training, do you set up a queue for training? Get all the level 1 and level 2 skills you want queued up, log off for a week and come back and you're as skilled as people who played 80 hours. I just don't care for that.
  2. It is a French game, and what do we know about fashion compared to them?
  3. Since everything in the game is an object, everything should emit a sound when it executes a given method and if you're in range of that particular sound you'd hear it. For Example, when your character takes a step, it could include a call like PlaySound("step.mp3", 3, 0) Where step is the file being played, 3 is the volume and 0 is the direction (0 meaning omnidirectional, 1 meaning forward, 3 meaning right etc.) It may also be that a step in a corridor sounds different than a step on grass, snow or dry leaves, so it may check where you are stepping before it plays the sound: switch(self.location.terrain) { case 'corridor' : PlaySound("StepCorridor.mp3", 3, 0); break; case 'grass' : PlaySound("StepGrass.mp3", 2, 0); break; case 'water' : PlaySound("StepWater.mp3", 4, 0); break; ... default : PlaySound("StepDefault.mp3", 3, 0); } This file will play on your computer but it will also play on the machine of everyone in range to hear it. For most sounds the range would be limited, say a dozen meters. For very loud sounds like: PlaySound("SpaceshipCrash.mp3", 12, 0); People could hear that sound for kilometers. It would be interesting to allow that to propagate at the speed of sound so when the ship gets blown up 4 km above your head, you see it about 12 seconds before you hear it. Imagine you're in your lab working on a robotic limb and suddenly you hear a muffled explosion in the distance. You look up from your desk and out your window in the distance is a smoking hole where a building used to be, emergency crews already swinging into action.
  4. I suspect your skill level, the tech level of your weapon, the tech level of any defenses the target is employing, defensive skills of the target, environmental considerations, whether you are moving and whether your target is moving and of course range will all factor into whether you hit or not. You also may have a chance of a critical hit, meaning either more damage or damage to a specific module (or in the case of a player, their gear or a body part.) At high levels of skill you may have the option of aiming for specific systems on your target; for example at Gunnery 3 you may be able to aim at a type of system such as engines, fuel tanks, personnel compartments, while at Gunnery 5 you may be able to target a specific turret, engine, or aim for the bridge to increase you chances of getting that particular critical.
  5. Dinkledash

    Stealth

    As far as visual stealth goes, camouflage paint will be the most basic type. Spaceships in deep space could be painted black, for example, and tanks meant for desert fighting could be tan and brown. We'd eventually be able to make active camouflage that checks the terrain you're on and changes color to match, and the quality of the camo will depend on the quality of the scripts (and possibly the quality of the computer the script is running on, how many scripts are running, etc.) There's also just hiding underwater or underground. Giving how easy it is to dig in this game, I expect subterranian warfare would be an especially effective tactic. For electronic stealth, it's dependent on the method being used to sense targets. Active sensors like radar and sonar send out a pulse and can tell you the size, range and direction of a target based on how that pulse gets reflected back. Materials, coatings and even the angles at which the waves impact the target determine the detection range and accuracy of these sensors. Countermeasures such as chaff (aluminum foil strips) can confuse or dampen these signals. If you are using radar or sonar, you yourself are easily detected. Passive sensors include infrared sensors, radio direction finders and hydrophones. You look for electromagnetic spectrum and audio emissions of targets. That's why your fleet maintains radio silence. These sensors make no emissions so are excellent for remote, hidden observation posts and/or for use on stealthy vehicles. They can be mitigated by low heat and quiet drive systems (which would generally be lower performance) and shielding of electronic components (which adds weight) as well as noise and light discipline (don't use flashlights at night, don't use your voice chat when you're waiting in ambush.)
  6. I think the alpha team members will have a huge advantage over other players after general release because of the game skills we'll be developing, the familiarity with the construction and coding techniques and the relationships we'll already have in place.
  7. Do we have an org chart with department heads and such? And while we all have jobs we want to do, I have a feeling we'll all be mostly engaged in prospecting, mining and construction in the beginning inside the safe zone. After we get our basic facilities built and design some ships, we'll need to have security forces for when we move outside the shield to get to the good resources. Is our intent to have organic security or will we typically engage our more militaristic affiliates' personnel in those areas? And as far as the roleplaying aspect goes, since we're building our orgs up pre-alpha and all, does that mean that we already recruited and decided on our focus before we went into deep freeze? Otherwise we're just waking up and someone says "Silverlight Industries!" And 100 people say "Hell yeah!"
  8. About the only thing we can do is create transponders so we can recognize our own organization's ships. I think IFF (Identify Friend or Foe) may be one of the most important things on the interstellar agenda to keep trigger happy Imperials from vaporizing incoming unarmed traders. And of course, stolen or hacked transponders would be used by smugglers, spies, possibly even entire fleets flying a false flag. Like they could be in real life. So yeah, we're going to want to have in-game databases with registered ships, verified transponder codes for those ships that may be changed periodically (if a ship gets stolen and you change codes weekly and the pirates don't know it, they'll have the old code) personnel and passenger manifests... there'll be people who's job is security making sure you are who you say you are. And if you can fool them, you get to make the Kessel Run in three parsecs in order to get the spice smuggled past the Navigators Guild blockade or whatever.
  9. It's confirmed that the only thing DACs can be used for is subscriptions? I remember someone saying they'd be lootable, which suggests that there could be an in-game purpose for them, but since that could result in "pay-to-win" does that mean people could be raiding weaker players and stealing their subscription credits? That seems worse than pay-to-win.
  10. They may wrap their database calls in something to create sealed classes so they get to define the db schema and content servers the way they want to, but I can't see an economy working without writing all the proposed transactions to a database. And they've said they want the players to create the markets. Maybe they'll make the fundamental technology for accessing market data into an element that market terminals will have to use to connect to the legit databases.
  11. A spaceship massing 1 million tons with 500,000 tons of deuterium fuel with 1G acceleration will take 18 years subjective to reach a star 10,000 light years away. But that would be 10,002 years objective. It would get very close to the speed of light causing considerable time dilation. http://nathangeffen.webfactional.com/spacetravel/spacetravel.php
  12. There's going to be a large city built around the arkship just by virtue of it being a completely safe zone. All the major organizations will keep stockpiles, R&D and civilian manufacturing facilities there, probably in skyscrapers. Since that is where all new players spawn, that's where you'll have the main recruiting centers. It may be that the rest of the planet is mined out but maybe by that time there'll be farming. Maybe the planet will be covered in solar cells or fusion plants to power the city. Those would have to be defended. And since it will be the ultimte respawn center, organizations will want to have outposts supporting travel from the arkship city to their own power centers. Mining will certainly move from the center outward but there will still be economic, energy collecting and military activity in the core worlds.
  13. Well then. Time to make a gif signature.
  14. While I agree that a grind is no fun, there is something to be said for practical exercises and OJT. Perhaps you should have the timed skill training as the baseline, but using the skill you are training speeds up training time, to a limit, maybe if you use the skill for 10 minutes you train double speed for the next 12 hours. Or if you use the skill for 10 minutes in range of someone who has the skill to a higher level than you, and they are actively focusing on you with a training or teaching skill for that time, you train at triple speed for the next 12 hours. And there should be a cool down period after learning a skill where you have to use it for 10 minutes a day for a certain number of days before you unlock the next level. And if you don't use your skills, after a while they may start to atrophy and you need to train them back up. Knowing how to fire a rifle and being good at firing a rifle are two very different things. That's why good shots go to the range every week. So say there are 5 skill levels on any skill: Level 1: Novice - 1 hour training Level 2: Basic - 12 hours training Level 3: Capable - 2 days training Level 4: Expert - 2 weeks training Level 5: Master - 2 months training You can only learn one skill at a time. Only in-game time counts for training (yes that 2 months looks a lot longer now) Using your skill for 10 minutes straight allows you to train at double speed for the next 12 hours. If you're level 1 going to level 2 and use the skill, you get done in 6 hours. Being trained by someone who has the skill being taught and the "training" skill at higher level than you allows you to train 3 times faster. You have to use the skill for 10 minutes while they stand next to you and focus the training skill on you for the entire 10 minutes. If they have the skill to be trained and the training skill 2 levels higher, it's 4 times faster, 3 levels higher it's 5 times faster and 4 levels higher 6 times faster, meaning that a level 5 trainer with level 5 gunnery can train a novice gunner to level 1 in 10 minutes. A training skill would create a school system and increase player interaction. If you don't use a skill for at least 10 minutes over the course of 4 x skill level in-game days, you suffer a 10% reduced bonus until you take a refresher course; it takes 25% as long as it took to learn the skill in the first place. This doesn't apply to level 1 skills. So if you don't use a level 4 skill in 16 game days, you have to retrain it. There are skills that don't exist in the arkship database. we know the devs have hinted at alien artifacts. This could include skills needed to use alien technologies like stargates. Jack-of-all-trades is a special level 4 skill. You have to have a level 4 skill of some type to unlock JOT. You train JOT like any other skill but you can't gain any usage or training bonus. You gain no benefit from it until you get to level 4. When you have JOT level 4, you immediately gain all skills in the arkship library to level 1. Some folks think that's not a big deal because it's easy to get level 1 skills, but there could be hundreds of them and you can only learn them one skill at a time. JOT doesn't degrade nor can it be trained to level 5.
  15. It is my understanding they're scrubbing everything except possibly blueprints and probably any blueprints that are kept will become available to the community. What we will get to keep to give us a major edge will be the actual player skills we learn and the relationships we build. I don't know if we'll be allowed to spend DACs in alpha or beta, but if we are we'd certainly get them back since anything we buy with them will be gone. Alpha is set to start in Feb 2017 and run for year, beta Feb 2018, and general release in the second half of 2018.
  16. In Star Wars they made their laser sound effects by banging a hammer on heavy springs and recording that sound. And interestingly enough, in the US Army High Energy Liquid Laser Area Defense System (HELLADS) they added that as an internal sound effect so that operators would know that the laser was firing, since lasers are totally silent.
  17. I'm hoping that we'll be able to design our own elements eventually, so that we can do thinks like drop ramps for troop carriers or launch pods for aeroshell jumpers, that sort of thing. Elements need to be scalable and upgradeable. It's not going to look all that good if every fighter in the galaxy has the exact same cockpit, for example.
  18. 1) CvC 2) Survival - colonization without a survival element seems rather less of a desperate situation than it should be 3) Alien/hostile biomes which require life support/terraforming 4) Animals - livestock, alien and bioengineering 5) Weather - very difficult but would greatly enhance immersion 6) Moving parts in elements 7) Player customization 8) In game voice 9) Emotes and gestures
  19. So they may not implement LuaSQL? https://www.tutorialspoint.com/lua/lua_database_access.htm
  20. Since the scrips are executing on your own machine, I don't know if they'll be able to disable calls to local content. So if you want to play porn videos stored on your PC on a billboard on the side of your space station, they probably can't stop you. However, they can prevent you from linking to commercial content outside of your local machine or approved game content servers.
  21. So close! I've heard that people start piling on in the last few days, so maybe they'll even make a stretch goal.
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