Author Topic: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?  (Read 7290 times)

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Offline Kyle (OP)

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Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« on: October 24, 2020, 11:06:03 PM »
Cross posting this from Discord:

Now that I've more or less met my original goal of a VB6 replica, I'm in the mood to start adding stuff that isn't in VB6.  At this point I welcome input from people on what would be most likely to draw you to the game.  Currently I have a shortage of playtesters and no bugs to work on.  Here are the possible directions I'd be interested in going.  (So far, interest seems to be evenly distributed between A, B, and C.)

A. Cherry picking features from C# Aurora that do not change any of the VB6 gameplay paradigms or balance.  My first two picks would be the prototyping system and the ability to change a scientist's specialty at a cost.

B. Multiplayer experiments

C. External scripted player-automation that can double as AI

D. Tutorials and resources on the forum on how to design mods for the game

E. Invaders and Swarm

F. Or.. "Keep VB6 purity. I'll report some bugs for you to fix"

So yeah I'm open to discussion on what would be most interesting to you.  Currently I'm just playing through a campaign pretty casually and fixing whatever issues I run into if any.

 
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Offline Avalanche

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2020, 11:59:05 PM »
I'm quite favourable to A, as there are several quality of life improvements in C# Aurora, such as, as you mention, prototypes and scientist respecialisation.  D is rather interesting to me, a prospective modder, but that really depends on how easy it is to figure out, which is something I don't know as I haven't gotten around to poking modding Quasar; I always have a lot on my plate and I've been taking hard looks at Starfire these last several months for my Aurora itch.
 
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Offline amram

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #2 on: October 25, 2020, 12:23:20 AM »
I'm less concerned with maintaining vb6 purity, but agree A has the most appeal, we got some useful stuff in c# that VB6 could use that doesn't alter it all that much.

Beyond that, I'd love seeing the scripting expanded to permit ever deeper control, so that's a vote for C.  That's the main thing that has kept my interest so far.    A fully scriptable AI means the ability to bring new "spoilers" with minimal extra fuss for any specialty abilities, as well as the potential to take the npr's and civilians to the point of challenging, or efficient and useful cohabitants of your systems.

That's sort of a vote for E as well, in that their not being present yet makes them ideal test bed races to get working as fully external AI.

I'm not really playing vb6, c#, or q4x at the moment as work is once again swallowing my free time, but I am following c# and q4x with interest as I've got large swaths of time possibly available in the not distant future and the mood will take me again sooner or later, I'll dive into one of them and go for a few weeks or months again.  I started thinking about a campaign in q4x when you crossed from work in progress to patching an essentially complete effort.
 
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Offline Froggiest1982

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #3 on: October 25, 2020, 05:59:03 AM »
F.

I think the option of mods like you did for my request of having military geosurvey is a nice touch. One could potentially play vb6 or add small things.

My favourite C# feature for instance is the new terraforming and population mechanic. I like the idea of having capped pop based on water ecc.

If we were going astray from aurora entirely you could create your own spoilers...that could be also a good way of integrating AIs.
« Last Edit: October 25, 2020, 06:00:53 AM by froggiest1982 »
 
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Offline Garfunkel

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #4 on: October 25, 2020, 09:18:58 AM »
Multiplayer is one of, if not the most, requested feature so if it would be at all possible, that would be great.
 

Offline Tree

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2020, 10:34:54 AM »
I'd say E, A, C. The Precursors and Swarm are always a nice roadblock (which I thought were already in?), and C# does have some nice features, as long as you stay away from the ground units system and others. And then some automation'd be nice I suppose, what sort are you thinking of? Some ways to have my empire build X ships and then have them immediately start training, refuelling and resting as needed? Automated orders for tugs to carry new stations to destinations? I'm not sure things like construction or research need much considering we can already order up queues, unless you mean player-replacement entirely rather than player-aid.
 

Offline Droll

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2020, 11:46:45 AM »
I mostly am interested in mechanical modding which sounds like it might be possible anyways. I've always wanted to make railguns and other weapons turretable for example. It would also be nice to be able to mod in stuff like new weapon patterns or new weapon types (like a burst laser that fires multiple times).

Other than that It would be great if we could get a lot of the quality of life stuff from C# into the VB6 playset.
 

Offline Triato

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2020, 01:52:22 PM »
A in regards to quality of life and diplomacy, but please dont make ground combat more complex.

Thank you very much for the work already done. Specially small screen suport.
 
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Offline icekiss

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2020, 02:40:03 PM »
A
Especially the prototyping system sounds great - I love tinkering with potential ship designs.   :)
 
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Offline Haji

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2020, 03:30:44 PM »
I've no idea how long much work it would take but what I'd love to see is the ability to modify stars/planets to my liking the way Aurora C# allows. The fact is I often tinker with my systems, especially when I want to start a game outside the solar system, but I don't know how many people would use that.
I also agree with Triato that ground combat is fine as it is.

Edit: I forgot to add but ability to modify statistics of a race (gravity, temperature, oxygen) as it was something available in aurora and quite useful for me but I need to mess with database in quasar.
« Last Edit: October 26, 2020, 12:53:59 AM by Haji »
 

Offline Froggiest1982

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2020, 04:23:57 PM »
I'd say E, A, C. The Precursors and Swarm are always a nice roadblock (which I thought were already in?)

Precursors are in, invaders on the other hand are not.

Offline xenoscepter

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2020, 11:30:28 PM »
 - I'd say F, E, D, and then C; in order of priority of course. :) I think it better to have a "better" version of VB6 wherewith we can port QoL or other changes in "ala carte" so to speak. I don't think changing the base game would be all that great, since the vanilla VB6 isn't without issues, but is most certainly without support. Keeping faithful to the original would make an excellent base from whence to add-on those QoL changes, among other things... even if it were you yourself who were making them.

 - Maybe a Quasar 2 or Quasar+ could be the option A? That'd be swell IMO, but you're the one doing all the hard work and doing a damn fine job of it to boot, so you do you Kyle. :)
 
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Offline Froggiest1982

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #12 on: October 26, 2020, 12:26:45 AM »
On the C# side also stabilization of new lagrange points are not that bad and would add much to q4x without being too far from the original vb6 mechanics.

Just another question though. Where you working on porting 7.1 or the never released 7.2?

Many of the fixes/addition on the 7.2 version were highly regarded from the community.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8151.0
« Last Edit: October 26, 2020, 12:30:25 AM by froggiest1982 »
 

Offline Kyle (OP)

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #13 on: October 26, 2020, 02:32:33 AM »
Thanks for the great responses everyone, keep 'em coming!  I'll just comment on a few things but I have read everything.

I like the idea of having capped pop based on water ecc.

I do too.  That kind of thing would definitely go in a separately downloadable mod though.  I prefer to keep to the balance and rules of existing VB6 Aurora as close as possible, for better or worse.  Its ruleset has undergone years of thought, discussion, and refinement and my goal is to stay as faithful as I can to VB6 rules. 

(And to the UI layout too.  It's nice knowing where everything is.)


A in regards to quality of life and diplomacy, but please dont make ground combat more complex.

Don't worry, I'm keeping VB6 ground mechanics, 100%.


I'd say E, A, C. The Precursors and Swarm are always a nice roadblock (which I thought were already in?), and C# does have some nice features, as long as you stay away from the ground units system and others. And then some automation'd be nice I suppose, what sort are you thinking of? Some ways to have my empire build X ships and then have them immediately start training, refuelling and resting as needed? Automated orders for tugs to carry new stations to destinations? I'm not sure things like construction or research need much considering we can already order up queues, unless you mean player-replacement entirely rather than player-aid.

More info here, http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=10149.msg116517#msg116517, but in short, think Distant Worlds: Universe (screenshot of a portion of its automation config).  Every box checked = fully automated empire. 

Agreed that some things are less important to have AI for than others, such as ship design and anything that can be queued.  There will be checkboxes for that sort of thing just so the mod can double as an NPR AI, but it will be assumed the player will most likely want to leave them unchecked, unless they really, truly, do not want to manage designs and queues at all.

Since there are multiple ways to solve a problem (which beam type to focus on, for example), the config page will have plenty of dropdown menus to pick your strategy.  Theoretically, you could formulate several different flavors of an AI from a single mod, just by choosing different options in the dropdown menus for each AI. 

That said, the initial mod I write to showcase all this stuff will be technically complete but inadequate for a long drawn out game.  No tugs, maintenance outposts, etc.  I prefer to leave it up to other people to take the example mod I provide and run with it in their own direction. 

I'll be doing one for civilians too.

I suppose I should leave a disclaimer that I have no idea when I'll be starting or finishing work in these areas.


On the C# side also stabilization of new lagrange points are not that bad and would add much to q4x without being too far from the original vb6 mechanics.

Just another question though. Where you working on porting 7.1 or the never released 7.2?

Many of the fixes/addition on the 7.2 version were highly regarded from the community.

http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=8151.0

7.2 is a really interesting thought.  It's tempting to add some of those at some point (disabled by default), the less intrusive / more QoL ones anyway.  I guess the only minor concern would be those updates haven't all been tested in the field like the C# features have.  At some point I really need to do some research to see what people have been saying about the 7.2 changes.

Thanks for the great feedback here and on discord!
 
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Offline Droll

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Re: Which feature(s) would you most look forward to?
« Reply #14 on: October 26, 2020, 12:17:21 PM »
I have a suggestion for a QoL improvement that doesn't even exist in C# aurora.

Mineral shipping civilian contracts. Bonus points if you could set the demand to use reserve levels.

As an aside it would also be nice to have the new "load minerals until full" order which is actually in C#.
 
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