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Re: Don't Let the Stars Fade Away Sat, 03 February 2007 01:12 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
Iconian is currently offline Iconian

 
Officer Cadet 2nd Year

Messages: 233
Registered: January 2006
Location: Nevada, USA
Wow . . . quite a few posts for this thread for not being up too long. I guess a lot of people were thinking the same thing I was . . .

I’ve been busy the last few days getting stuff done around here (and Hardheads started up), but I have a bit of free time now.

Quote:

I don't mean to sound rude here but if you want option 3 instead you should probably GTFO and work on a different project


Laughing

Unity
While there are some things I disagree with Coyote about, I absolutely feel he’s right on this:


Quote:

We need to keep a focus on the project and what we want it to be. We've basically got three different paths available and we need to all be pulling in the same direction.


1. Stars! 3, with improvements and significant new material but still undeniably Stars!

2. Clone of 2.6jrc3, with non-gameplay improvements (UI, graphics)

3. A brand new game that borrows from Stars! but is fundamentally different.



I think he’s touched one of the most important things I discussed in my first post:

Quote:

3. What can we learn from the past to prevent the mistakes, disagreements, and other problems that contributed to disunity?


m.a@stars said:
Quote:

I vote (2), with (1) a long-term goal.


And then, Coyote followed up again with:

Quote:

If most of you agree to simply clone 2.6jrc3 exactly, well, then it'll be an identical tech list. But ultimately, that's boring to me. I want more!


And my opinion? I think I’d fall pretty well into the third category? Do I want to see something fundamentally different? I guess that kind of depends. I think a lot of people have different views of what defines Stars! on a fundamental level. To me, Stars! is a game about strategic movement, placing your assets carefully, outthinking your opponent, building up colonies and warships, design and counterdesign, and developing a unique race that takes on specific qualities that get as close as possible to how the player wants to play. I think the exact way these things appear in the game, or the form they take, are more surface issues. If you change a rook in chess so it looks like a skyscraper and the knight into a tank, have you changed it fundamentally? Not in my opinion.

All that said, I’ve played a lot of different games over the years, and truth be told, I think Stars! lacks a lot. It’s good, but not perfect by any means.

So, already we’re hearing different voices, each pulling in different directions. I’m not saying this is a bad thing—I knew it would happen, and that we’d need to work around it. So, how do we do that?

I think my path is clear. In spite of what I’d like to see in Stars!, I will sacrifice it, because what we need now is unity. We need a set path, and so here is what I propose so we can move forward:

Where To?
First, I think we’ve all pretty much decided that Nova is what we want to use to make the new Stars! Still, we should keep our options open, so I’d like to send messages to some of the developers for the other Stars! clones, to see if they’d like to join. Perhaps Nova could also benefit from some additions in regard to code from those games.

Next, I propose a three-step development process. We try to get Nova advanced as far along as we can. At some point soon we get it to where it’s pretty much bug free, but not really a Stars! clone. Then, the majority of the team develops it along the lines of Stars! 3, with significant improvements but still undeniably Stars! If a few people want to they could work on turning it into an exact replica to the original. At some point in the future—3 to 12 months perhaps—we release a nice fleshed-out, user friendly Nova. At some point after that, maybe two years from now, we can work on making bigger changes to Stars! that some people might consider to be fundamental.

Graphics
Now, regarding graphics, I’m fairly opinionated.

Quote:

I do think that apart from simplicity and complexity (need both) the clone should have graphics, and LOTS of it. Look at any and all new indi games. They are all full of eye candy, and that's the only thing that will get people interested. Take my idea for a hull designer/tech browser, it's a start. We should move away from the stars! GUI and make something new and and not so windowsey (don't think that's a word but meh)

Things that would help is being able to install "skins" like on winamp and media player. Or even Themes like on desktops and cell phones. Make it so that people can customize thier stars! experience. But that's all for later


I like graphics, but time and again I have seen games focus on graphics heavily at the expense of gameplay and other such important aspects. As long as we don’t carried away we should be fine.

Finally, what did everyone think about the idea I had for the Stars! Revival? I think some sort of a plot would definitely make the game more interesting.



Yeah, bread too.

Don't Let the Stars! Fade Away

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