Different Kind of TC

Pirates? Gold? Ninjas?

So now that I got the hang of making most parts of a total conversion, I have an idea to propose. Well, I'm more asking for tips or help. So, first off, would anyone be interested in playing a Pirate total conversion? Second, would anyone be willing to help?
Thanks,
Jai.

EDIT: Hmm, this is embarrassing. If anyone would like to help, you may contact me at ajosiahw@gmail.com. Thanks again.

This post has been edited by Spartan Jai : 19 August 2010 - 05:52 PM

Pirates as in pirates on the high seas or pirates as in space pirates?

Normal Pirates. Like, pirates of the high seas, gold, British Naval warships, stuff like that. It's probably going to be really hard.
EDIT: Do remember, Josh, that I did mention that it was DIFFERENT, and there is GOLD.

This post has been edited by Spartan Jai : 20 August 2010 - 07:31 AM

It is possible to give a water kind of effect by replacing the star resource, but it looks pretty terrible.

Yeah... I was wondering how I'd get around the stars and make it look nice.

Someone was working on this, once upon a time. They used all inertia-less ships, and were making planets islands. I'm not sure how far they got, but I do know it fizzled out. It was called something like "Bermuda" or "Carribean" or something.

An idea that might make it work better (visually) would be to make planets/stations appear as points on a map, instead of actual areas of land. I think that that was part of what got the other effort hung up (along with hyperspace)- you could sail your ship right up into the islands, so something graphically differentiating ports and making them seem reasonably sailable might work well.

You're thinking of Mantaray's ‘Caribbean’. There were some screenshots once, I think during the year or so after EV Nova 's release, which looked as good as any pirate-ship game I've seen ever did, but they don't seem to be available any more.

The biggest hurdles, aside from the ones all TCs share, would be graphical and dealing with weapons and the A.I. NPC ships are a bit too dumb to use "broadside" weapons properly.

Hmm, the broadside weapons would be a problem. As far as the map and the stellar objects go, the points on a map are a good idea. However, the hyperspace is also something I've considered. If I understand this, there is no way to change how you jump, so... explaining that in terms of pirates and water (or even changing that if possible) will be difficult. For weapons you do forget that they did have (albiet very small) swivel cannons. I understand this shall be difficult, which is why I started this topic.

Something you might consider that might make it more interesting, reasonable, and still completely unique would be to make some kind of air-based TC. Think Blimps, airplanes, and helicopters. You could explain oddities by making it some kind of steam-punk fantasy (FF VII style, anyone?).

Broadside, as I understand, is possible, it is just that the computer wasn't programmed to use it effectively (-90 in the firing spread angle should make a weapon always fire out the sides of the ship).

Well, Meaker, I like the air idea, but if the AI isn't programmed to use broadside weapons very well, then the game will be too easy. Already in nova all you have to do is get behind the ship and you win. So if I go with either the air or boat idea (i'm still worried about hyperspacing for both) broadsides aren't my favorite idea.

The idea in using air as your medium is that your ships don't need to use broadsides - in fact, I don't think any air combat has ever involved "broadsides," and is much more like the system already in NOVA. An old WWII B-17 bomber had something like 7 turrets, and fighters had (and still have) guns. Blimps and Zeppelins weren't usually armed, but some did do bombing runs and the USAF attempted to mount fighters to one. It would work for the AI pretty well, and beat the system requiring you to use broadside-type weapons while still making a unique TC.

Y'know, if I can get some help with the ship and 'airfield' graphics, I'll try it. It's not that I wouldn't be able to do it, but it would take forever. Just look at my Making Shans topic... And there are actually some bombers that basically have a hole cut in the side with a machine gun sticking out (they're actually large rectangular holes) that just cover the sides.

I could throw up a set of different coloured blimps.

As for Hyperspace, just have all the ships having less than 100 fuel, and only have like "Slipstreams" or something replace hypergates.

Making all ships fast-jumping would cure the "slow, turn, slow more, turn, jump" issue.

The blimps would be great, and as for the hypergate idea, I like it. Besides graphics, what about the background? It can only be one color. I had a dumb idea about having a gray being in the mountains, having white be arctic regions/tops of mountains, and tan being deserts, etc. And, we could just have the interface show no fuel bar. And give all ships 0 fuel.

I think I like Meaker's idea of air, so I decided to model a rough bomber.

So in essence, the fighters and other major craft are going to look like this. But better. If you notice anything strange about the cockpit windshield (other than the fact that it's yellow), let me know.

I noticed something strange: it sticks out. Other than that, it's fine. Though I do see something wrong with an air idea. You see, how do you explain aircraft coming to a complete stop over airfields?

... Actually, I have an idea for that. Take advantage of the 'folding wings' mechanic. The folding of the wings will simply show the ship shrinking, so when AI ships land, they'll shrink as they lower themselves down to the airfield. Since hyperspace will be replaced with 'slipstream' hypergates, you don't have to worry about ships shrinking before leaving a 'system'.

A: You're right about the windshield. I can't get the entire thing to curve, and if I did I don't know if it would stay a face, or just become a bunch of lines. From the top you can't really notice much at all.
B: The folding wings mechanic is an awesome idea... except for I don't exactly know how to get the wings to fold...
I know nobody mentioned this, but I will be using delphi's fin and arm to create the wings until I develop my own.

You don't need to know how to fold wings. You shrink the craft by a few pixels for about five times in order to make the craft look like it has landed. Folding wings would only be a problem with variable sweep-wing jets like the F-14 Tomcat.