[milo]

Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead on you guys, but I just wanted to mention that a new playable demo of my game Starshatter is now available for download at:

http://www.starshatter.com

The new demo features a few new ships, two new star systems, and the beginnings of the dynamic campaign engine, along with a bunch of smaller playability improvements.  This will be the last public demo released before the game goes into beta-test this summer.

I hope you enjoy it!

[Kamikaze]

Ooh, the game looks cool, I'll try the demo...

thumbs up for the work!

[Martinus]

Hello Milo, I hope you don't think I'm being a little presumptious, you have managed to do all that work on your own but we have a great deal of material here at HLP that could be converted to work in your game.

Between models, interface art, effects, plots and other miscelaneous goodies I'm sure we could possibly help out.
If you do plan to keep this a one man effort will you be adding MODability to the engine, it looks like it has a great deal of potential. :Nod:

[Styxx]

Originally posted by milo
Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead on you guys, but I just wanted to mention that a new playable demo of my game Starshatter is now available for download at:

http://www.starshatter.com

The new demo features a few new ships, two new star systems, and the beginnings of the dynamic campaign engine, along with a bunch of smaller playability improvements.  This will be the last public demo released before the game goes into beta-test this summer.

I hope you enjoy it!

Sorry? Sorry?!?

Good to hear about that, I'll download and try it as soon as I can. Man, that thing looks awesome, specially for something that has been done by a single person! You da man!

[milo]

Originally posted by Maeglamor
If you do plan to keep this a one man effort will you be adding MODability to the engine, it looks like it has a great deal of potential. :Nod:

Already in there, to some extent.  You can add custom ships, missions, weapons, shields, and explosions to the current demo.  However, the tools are somewhat limited.  

The game uses a proprietary model format.  When I started this thing I was too poor to afford LightWave, and all the cool freeware modeling programs hadn't been invented yet.  So I had to write my own low-poly modeler (called "Magic") to design the ships for the game.  I haven't had time to write exporters for the Magic file format for any of the standard modeling tools yet.  There is an effort underway by one of the fans to write an exporter for 3DS Max, but he just started and it's not done yet.  Most of the guys who are creating mods for the game now are struggling along creating new meshes using Magic.

Thanks for the offer of help.  I've been working on the game by myself for five years, so I'm understandably posessive of it.  What I really need the most help with is testing and gameplay feedback.  You want to help me make it better?  Tell me what parts didn't work for you, and why you didn't like them.

[Martinus]

This sounds excellent, except for the minor model format problem you've got a fully moddable engine COOLNESS

I'm looking forward to seeing more on this, it's quite an achievement. I'm assuming you have code for the 'magic' filetype, would it be possible to get a look at it?

[Shrike]

Originally posted by Styxx
Good to hear about that, I'll download and try it as soon as I can. Man, that thing looks awesome, specially for something that has been done by a single person! You da man!

We should hire him.  :devilidea

[Styxx]

Originally posted by Shrike
We should hire him.  :devilidea

Doesn't look like he'd be interested in what we want, though...

[Shrike]

Mmm, I suppose so........

[Nico]

the only thing I'm annoyed with is that your ships looks like wing co ships. In itself, it's not bad, but they really do look a lot like some of the wingco ships...

[wEvil]

Wow - he posted here.

I've been following the development on this for quite some time now.

Great work Milo

[Zeronet]

Well this is what im going to be spending the next 3 hours d/ling

[milo]

Originally posted by venom2506
the only thing I'm annoyed with is that your ships looks like wing co ships. In itself, it's not bad, but they really do look a lot like some of the wingco ships...

Sorry, I didn't mean to be annoying.

The ships in Starshatter aren't particularly modeled after Wing Commander.  The fighters need to be aerodynamic because they fly like airplanes in atmosphere.  The starships are an amalgam of influences including Babylon 5 and other space combat game sources.  Actually the biggest influence on my art is my rather modest skill with a 3D modeling program.  I don't bother posting concept art drawings because my ship models never come out looking like what I planned for them anyway.

[Nico]

oh, btw, apart from the soung of the gears, I have no sound at all
samr for the joystick, it won't work...
Oh, a last bug: I tried that atmospheric mission, when you go too high, you're set on autopilot and end up directly in space, right? well, it thrown me directly into my wingman, and we both died

[Ulala]

Originally posted by jonskowitz
Sounds like a great idea venom.  

Got the demo yesterday and tried it out.  The flight engine is pretty darn cool, I just wish I could look left/right instead of being forced to rely on the stupid radar display.  

Haven't tried any of the command stuff yet, so far just been goofing off with his little starfighter.  I especially like the landing sequence  , definately a nice touch.


------------------
I told you that It would be done by November, well, mostly anyway...

Sounds like it could be a bit like Ender's Game to me. I'll hafta check this out!

[CP5670]

Downloading this now.

[milo]

Originally posted by venom2506
oh, btw, apart from the soung of the gears, I have no sound at all
samr for the joystick, it won't work...
Oh, a last bug: I tried that atmospheric mission, when you go too high, you're set on autopilot and end up directly in space, right? well, it thrown me directly into my wingman, and we both died  

Yikes.  Apparently, your sound card is only playing stereo sound effects.  Most of the effects in the game are monaural.  (I'm not blaming your sound system, it's probably something I messed up in DirectSound).

If you send me the "errlog.txt" file from the game install directory I will take a look.

Oh, and I already have a fix for that wingman crash bug.  I'll let you know when you can download a new exe.

[Kamikaze]

Uhh, cool game (love the capship to capship battles ) but the problem is whenever I try to land it kills me (boom!) and none of my wingman seem to be able to land either. I have a few fighters try to land in a fighterbay and boom they explode

[Dark_4ce]

Wow, that game looks sweet!

Downloading demo....

[milo]

Originally posted by Kamikaze
Uhh, cool game (love the capship to capship battles ) but the problem is whenever I try to land it kills me (boom!) and none of my wingman seem to be able to land either. I have a few fighters try to land in a fighterbay and boom they explode

Sounds like you are living up to your forum handle.

You may want to go to the gameplay options screen and select Landings: Easier.  If you prefer Freespace to IWar, you may also want to select Flight Model: Arcade.

Either that, or make sure your speed relative to the carrier is under 100 m/s.  By the way, each fighter needs to land on a different landing bay.  And you can only land in the aft two bays near the engines.  The forward bay is for launching ONLY.

Proper landing procedure:

1. Press Alt+R (order your flight to return to base)
2. Press R, 3, 3 (request clearance to land from the carrier)
3. Fly to a point well behind the carrier
4. Aim for the ILS hoops that are showing you which bay you can land in
5. Slow to 250 m/s relative to the carrier
6. When you reach the outermost ILS hoop, slow to 100 m/s
7. Press G to lower your undercarriage
8. Press R, 3, 4 (optional) to inform the carrier you are on final approach
9. Put your gun cross on or slightly above the landing marker (X) in the landing bay
10. Wait for the docking sequence to complete

Landing on a planet is pretty much the same procedure, but if you are flying with the realistic physics model, you will need to manage your speed, lift, drag, and glide path as you approach the runway.