[General Battuta]

I did not play Operation Savior, but in term of "warships behave like warships", WiH's warships consistently retreating before getting wrecked was definitely noticed.

And WiH was the next campaign to actually make an effort towards that. And even WiH didn't go quite as far, I think; I don't recall anyone in War in Heaven having otherwise intact guns or engines shut off via sexp mid-combat to simulate catastrophic damage, or have a corvette that's trying to bring guns to bear abruptly be constricted to straight-line flight with its maneuvering thrusters shot away. (If they did, I suppose that just further demonstrates the point that nobody noticed.)

Didn't do that (and those are very cool) but there was manipulation of weapon fire rate to simulate power reallocation and stuff, and a bit of network-centric warfare where taking out key sensor platforms would lower accuracy. Players just don't have an easy way to notice that stuff without more detailed HUD feedback.

[mjn.mixael]

Players just don't have an easy way to notice that stuff without more detailed HUD feedback.

New HUD code. I expect to see this kind of detailed HUD feedback in WiH 2.

[General Battuta]

Players just don't have an easy way to notice that stuff without more detailed HUD feedback.

New HUD code. I expect to see this kind of detailed HUD feedback in WiH 2.

We have added a bajillion hud gauges in WiH2 and honestly it's starting to get a little silly  Fortunately you can swap them on and off via SEXP as the mission demands but still, lord

[mjn.mixael]

If I can still see ships in the reticle, there aren't enough HUD gauges. 

[NGTM-1R]

Didn't do that (and those are very cool) but there was manipulation of weapon fire rate to simulate power reallocation and stuff, and a bit of network-centric warfare where taking out key sensor platforms would lower accuracy. Players just don't have an easy way to notice that stuff without more detailed HUD feedback.

Pretty much. (I actually pointed it out via comms a couple times, but not every one.) To be honest, that was all Operation Savior had going for it. I won't pretend the campaign was actually good, so it could have been lost in the noise of the general crap that was the rest of Operation Savior.

[BengalTiger]

I am user of HLP since a year or so, but this is my first post.

Well, it's about time...
The period of time since my last welcome speech is getting so long that it's getting Ridiculous.


We I interrupt hijack this program thread to post a welcome speech, which, just like all the others, is intended to greet the new member.
Since the member isn't new, or so he(she?) claims, this apparently won't be Just Another Day.
The fact the new member went directly Into the Depths of Hell, not bothering to visit the Official new people thread! makes my internal voice say watch out.


Gunnery control, commence plasma core insertion.

Target: Gaschland, fire when ready and willing to do so.


...


...


...




Dear New Member, Welcome to the HLP.

Look around the area next to you, you will find that you are most likely in a seat. Please remain seated at all times while visiting the Hard Light Station. Once a member stood up when the Station was entering subspace and the Aftermath of that could be described with a single word: Inferno.

To the left and right there are emergency exits, but when I last checked, the escape pods on the other side were listed as Casualties of War.
Use at your own risk.

Under your seat is a flamethrower. It is a very mighty tool, and could be dangerous if you have napalm to fuel it. People who flame too much or have Rogue Intentions may get hit by the Almighty Hammer of Ban.
Use at your own risk.

Above us are the ventilation shafts, where Carl the Shivan lives. He's generally a friendly fellow, with lots of stories to tell. He's also hungry- for some reason people prefer to feed the trolls, so be sure to have either your lunch or lunch money with you when you go visit him.
It was written in the Prophecy that Carl's favorite lunch is a Serious Sandwich, along with a can of Bosch Beer. Having these should give a high chance of returning alive.
Nevertheless- enter at your own risk.

Now that the basic surroundings are described, let's Transcend a level higher.

Since you've already made it to the General FS Discussion, allow me to introduce you to the layout of the Hard Light Station.
Directly below us is the Whitehall. This section is host to various strange objects. They have Swords, Teeth of the Tiger, and various other Relics on display.
Going further down is Mainhall. It is currently under repairs due to battle damage, but  Between the Ashes one can find, among others, a Scroll, a Saga and the hangar where the The 158th Banshee Squadron has its residence.
Some of these objects and areas are pimped up and have numerous spoilers however, view at your own risk.

On the next level, through the Echo Gate lead the Pathways to the outer disc of the Hard Light Station. This is the GenDisc.
Threads there may or may not be politically correct.
Discuss at your own risk.

I hope I got everything covered, we will now depart the Blue Planet and head for Uncharted Territory. Enjoy the ride.

[General Battuta]

you do know that the welcome speech is banned because it got so annoying right

[Mongoose]

Yeah, let's not do that anymore.

[General Battuta]

it was a pretty good one though

[yuezhi]

IMO, realism in Freespace would mean chunks getting ripped off ships literally, like static objects on the Frostbite Engine, but staying afloat even after it's in more than ten pieces only to finally explode because of the damage.

[Grizzly]

1. FS is game where you have 3 different species, right? But, somehow they use almost same based technology (seeing from how weapons, engines etc look like) in many areas. Lets take terrans and vasudans as an example. First, they look physically different, right. They had different planetary conditions where they evolved, right. But somehow they have same propulsion, weaponry, energy sources etc. That is exactly the depth which lacks in this game.

2. It is even more illogical if you compare Shivans and other two! Shivans have completely different body structure (exoskeleton etc) and society nature and behaviour. But, they also have propulsion etc almost as same as Ter or Vas. Only colours are different between these species.

Pinguins, lots of fish, and whales and dolphins all move trough the water in more or less the same way, having similar body structures that allows them to swim effeciëntly, and such. Even though they have evolved from entirely different parts of the animal kingdom (birds, fish, mammals). Perhaps the similarity in technology is simply because there are only a few ways in the universe to actually achieve those technologies. I wouldn't be suprised that, if we ever encountered aliens, they would have used nuclear power plants at some point.

[jr2]

* jr2 goes to add BengalTiger's impressive Welcome Speech to his collection... and is foiled!

   

[General Battuta]

IMO, realism in Freespace would mean chunks getting ripped off ships literally, like static objects on the Frostbite Engine, but staying afloat even after it's in more than ten pieces only to finally explode because of the damage.

ironically volition has done this much better than the frostbite engine ever did

[Polpolion]

my main problem with projects like these is that there's nearly always some point where you have to stop making things more realistic and that point is usually arbitrarily defined. If I wanted to play a realistic space game, I'd play Orbiter. As a matter of fact, I frequently do. With virtually any sci-fi universe that wasn't designed with hardness in mind you're going to deal with these things and I'm ok with that.

though i did lay out plans and start work on a semi-realistic mod about a rebellion on mars back in high school. pretty much all you did was sit back and shoot aaa beams at a little dot next to mars in an aeolus and hope they don't manage to hit you. Naturally i did not finish the project.

[General Battuta]

i think 'the blade itself' in BP2 gives a decent idea of where you could go with a more-realistic, all-newtonian, capship-based mod, with a focus on positioning, power allocation, vectors and on board systems rather than twitch evasion and aggression

but then you might as well play i-war

[Dragon]

I think that it'd be great if there was a sim like Orbiter, but supporting space combat and some sort of campaign engine.
Regarding implementing a realistic flight model in FSO, the main problems are: AI and the system used to determine object position.
The former is absolutely not suited for any flight model changes, though it can stomach some tweaks. The latter limits the play area too much for realistic speeds to be usable. Also, it causes cockpit shuddering if you go too far from 0,0,0 point, which gets annoying if you like flying with cockpits.
Unfortunately, overhauling either would be a very difficult task (though AI was edited for such model by The Minbari Project team, they released their code, so it might be worth looking into). In fact, trying to make object position system more precise might involve re-writing the entire engine.

[Sushi]

We have added a bajillion hud gauges in WiH2 and honestly it's starting to get a little silly

Pics or it didn't happen.