Spaceships: Chance of a space combat aid. But is there a need? 2D or 3D?

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

I can't help but notice that the ship file you have there only includes two items that would come from the ship spreadsheet: the name and the hit points. It seems like it would be more work to load the spreadsheet and export than it would be to write a quick dialog that inputs a name and hit points.

Of course, there will need to be system names/types, system HPs, system power consumption/production, storage etc. I just showed what the format looks like. (Though I guess anyone familiar with xml should get the idea without the example.)

I'm intending to implement systems as some sort of list of either classes or structs. Though I'm not quite sure how to best implement system positioning - two options are through their positioning in the list, or through a property/variable within the system class/struct itself. The main reason why it matters at all is that it is possible to have more than the standard 6+6+6+2 system groups (i.e. in case of larger/smaller systems).

[vicky_molokh]

Done alpha-testing of the save/load functions for fleets. Well, it mostly works with minor bugs, and doesn't have a UI subsection yet. I guess you can expect an ability to save a battle in progress (or a premade) in a few days (depending on free time and inspiration).

At this point, I'm getting a bit worried about planning the class structure of ship data. Specifically, whether to make much of a plan ahead in order to offer non-clumsy Rogue Trader support in addition to GURPS Spaceships support. Or any other game, for that matter.

[edit] Okay, seems like I cleared out the bugs of the load/save functionality, but it turns out (and I only noticed a minute ago) that the formation builder is screwed up in any orientation other than zero. So it'll go for a rewrite eventually.

PC version with F2 to save and F3 to load; file is saved to the Data directory.
[/edit]

[vicky_molokh]

I'm currently fiddling with the data hierarchy. That is, the convenient way to record all the many variables (and lists...) describing a ship in terms of a game system. Yes, a game system - I'm planning at least rudimentary support for Rogue Trader and SJG Ogre too.

Currently, I'm thinking something along these lines (instead of lumping all variables together the way they are now):

class ShipData

• contains several system-agnostic variables, notably coordinates of all important components (the ship, the vector, the number of models and model type, as well as the type/size of the formation; and finally the fleet to which the ship belongs - e.g. "Player 1's Fleet").
• A variable that indicates which game system is used with this ship (it should not be allowed to load a ship made for GURPS Spaceships into an Ogre landscape and vice-versa).
• an instance of each of the several (3) game system-specific classes (see below), of which only one is used at a time.

class GameSystemSpecificClass (name subject to change)
as an abstract class only, maybe with some methods that are identical between game systems (e.g. . Maybe, just maybe, it should be enumerable (if I can implement that - not sure yet)

class GURPSSpaceshipsData (inherits from GameSysSpecClass class)
contains a series of variables/properties, some of the public/writeable, while others only supporting a get accessor (due to being calculated from other properties)

class RogueTraderData and class OgreData (ditto)
as the GURPS one.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Does this look as a reasonable course, or are there some things I am going to regret later?

[vicky_molokh]

Okay, so either the hierarchy is good, or nobody's brave enough to pick its nits. ;)

Anyway, stumbled on another issue:

System-specific data contains some bits that are edited directly, and others that are calculated (and not user-writeable) from editable data.

This means that for many ship traits, the 'I' (edit ship info) interface will be inappropriate. That actually means that there's reason for two separate windows available - the ship editor, which modifies defining traits (e.g. SM), and the Quick Ship Sheet window, which allows one to modify some of the traits (e.g. current HP) and only view others (e.g. max HP, loaded mass etc.).

Anyone have preferences regarding how it should look/be done? I'm aiming at a simple interface, mostly in the form of textboxes and checkboxes.