10:13 PM - noms: > log starts here >>>>>>>>
10:13 PM - Dr Vagax: Enabled Steam logger
10:14 PM - noms: Development Meeting #1, October 1st 2011.
10:14 PM - noms: Present: Nexium, noms, Shell Deluxe, Dr Vagax, Dkobylarz
10:14 PM - noms: Missing: Knicky, Cepheus
Nexim left chat.
10:15 PM - noms: Also: Nexim
10:15 PM - noms: O.o
10:15 PM - Dr Vagax: Wait, he just left?
10:15 PM - Dr Vagax: Oh
10:15 PM - noms: Reinvite him.
10:15 PM - Dr Vagax: Sure
Nexim has been invited to chat.
10:16 PM - Dr Vagax: There
Nexim entered chat.
10:16 PM - noms: lol
10:16 PM - Nexim: My bad folks.
10:16 PM - Nexim: Cleaning of spare windows got overzealous.
10:16 PM - noms: Okay so the first item I want to bring up, is the Game's Vision.
10:17 PM - noms: I assume by now everyone has read the updated story idea posted on the forums - apart from Dan who hasn't been on the forums until today.
10:17 PM - Shell Deluxe: indeed
10:17 PM - Dr Vagax: I read it all
10:18 PM - noms: http://centration.net/community/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=68 for those who haven't read it.
10:19 PM - Nexim: (It's not gospel, it needs criticism and additional plot hooks, etc. Brainstorm and critique folks.)
10:19 PM - noms: I want everyone to be on the same page with the vision for Centration.
10:20 PM - Dr Vagax: A change of story would do good as it looks like SS13 alot explained in the top section of the first post
10:21 PM - noms: We're creating two kinds of games in one here, first the Campaign, and secondly the sandbox multiplayer.
10:22 PM - noms: The campaign actually acts as an extended introduction to roleplaying, the game mechanics itself and the background story.
10:22 PM - Nexim: (possible multiplayer campagin mode notwithstanding?)
10:23 PM - noms: Yeah we're going to want to include a co-op mode, whether it's co-op campaign or co-op mission
10:24 PM - noms: Probably gonna go with the former, and allow players playing together to either save their progress together, or the host just invite their buddy into any part of the campaign.
10:24 PM - Dr Vagax: I would go for Co op missions, in many games i always prefer to play the story campaign alone so i can focus myself on the story, but that was always for first person shooters
10:24 PM - noms: Kind of like what Magicka did.
10:25 PM - Dr Vagax: But also depends on the gameplay style
10:25 PM - Nexim: Agreed with both points, it does warrant discussion later, I think.
10:25 PM - noms: Me and mike discussed the idea that a seperate co-op mode could utilise up to 4 players with skills that all compliment each other.
10:25 PM - Dr Vagax: We should note down everything we want to discuss at a later point
10:26 PM - Shell Deluxe: Co-op missions could mean extra work to do if you already have a campaign of course
10:26 PM - noms: I'll do that based on the log you're making now, Vagax.
10:26 PM - Dr Vagax: It both has its up and down sides for me
10:26 PM - noms: I'll summarise everything.
10:26 PM - Dr Vagax: Alright
10:26 PM - noms: Okay so going forward and thinking about our vision for the final product -
10:27 PM - noms: We have two ways of doing this. We can release in intervals, for example a campaign, then introduce multiplayer, and finally co-op, or we can release the whole thing at once.
10:28 PM - Dr Vagax: Multiplayer is a big part of the game tho
10:28 PM - noms: We essentially want to focus on PC/Mac versions, with potential release to consoles if it proves popular.
10:28 PM - Shell Deluxe: Releasing a final product just like that might give people many impressions (in a positive way)
10:28 PM - Nexim: What about a crowd-sourced method of releasing? For instance, we open up with multiple playable demos not meant as a commercial endeavor, only released to those who donate to the project?
10:29 PM - noms: Sort of like what Minecraft did?
10:29 PM - Dr Vagax: Just give early access to certain people (of course reviewers). So they got access to the Campaign, this way they would follow up saying they cannot wait to see the campaign
10:29 PM - Dr Vagax: Would bring up the hype
10:29 PM - Dr Vagax: Kinda like minecraft
10:29 PM - noms: Alright - now our theme/visual vision.
10:29 PM - Shell Deluxe: could work yes, we should do something that make people updated every time (something that attracts people somehow)
10:30 PM - Dr Vagax: Zomboid way
10:30 PM - noms stares at Vagax
10:30 PM - Dr Vagax: Typing, sec
10:30 PM - Dr Vagax: heh
10:30 PM - noms: Okay, Knicky hit my vision almost directly on the nail with this concept corridor he did: http://www.centration.net/concept/CorridorFinished.png
10:31 PM - Dkobylarz: yea that looks so sick
10:31 PM - noms: I'm thinking something like this, only a little darker and a bit grimier.
10:32 PM - Shell Deluxe: Ah that one. Dark areas is easier is to hide defects in the environment that isnt suppoesed to be there. its more forgiving for us developers
10:33 PM - Nexim: http://application.denofgeek.com/images/m/corridors/Solaris.jpg
10:33 PM - noms: In terms of how the station is layered, I'm thinking the further 'down' you get, in terms of officer down to engineering levels, it gets darker and grimier as you work your way down
10:33 PM - Nexim: I'm more of a "this" kind of guy, but I like the look of the stations and whatnot from the alien movies. =/
10:34 PM - noms: Trying to encorporate a architecture style like that with environmental modification raises way too many complications
10:34 PM - noms: and it doesn't look very human
10:35 PM - Dr Vagax: People donate money to the developers and they get a access to the early build of the game, lets say the campaign.
People who donated where really impressed by its features and gameplay and people started to tell others,
As soon the developers had enough money and there seems there was alot of interest they opened up a public demo for everyone, however that version was the most recent one of that time
Things like bug fixes, small features and other updates where directly accessable for the donated/paid guys
While the people who could only play it for free had to wait till a so called "Milestone release" for example
1.1 had big fixes, 1.2 added new stuff 1.3 added a big feature 1.4 had a bit of everything and 1.5 had again lots of content
People who paid had access to these releases and enjoyed the game and shared their opinions and stories with other people on the forum (again convincing people to buy the game because of the features that where added or did not wanted to wait)
Free people only get it in this way 1.0 2.0 3.0 Much larger timespan between the releases but they did got access to the game, but not as frequent as the paid guys
10:35 PM - noms: Although on that note - the UniTech and RemCorp architectural styles could be different.
10:35 PM - Dr Vagax: Pow
10:36 PM - Dr Vagax: Don't mind the spelling errors (if i made any)
10:36 PM - Nexim: Sounds perfect, Vagax.
10:36 PM - noms: That actaully does sound like a nice release method.
10:36 PM - Shell Deluxe: sounds like a fair plan to me
10:36 PM - noms: I think we'll go with that if everyone's in agreement,.
10:36 PM - Nexim: I do agree, the RemCorp and UniTech styles should probably be pretty decent, but I'm not sure there's a need to go to a remcorp station in the story.
10:36 PM - Nexim: *different
10:37 PM - noms: Nexim: Yeah but in Multiplayer.. ;-)
10:37 PM - noms: or.. DLC? ;-)
10:37 PM - Nexim: Though, I still say the corridor Knicky made is too simplistic. A little bit of complexity can go a long, long way with that. And still be viable using building blocks and modifiable environment.
10:37 PM - Dr Vagax: I think we should add DLC in a new way
10:37 PM - Shell Deluxe: DLC might become to many impressions for the user to handle (unless we pull it off in some simple and easy understandable way)
10:38 PM - Nexim: Game first, DLC second. We're not EA.
10:38 PM - Dr Vagax: Hah
10:38 PM - noms: It was a very early idea, and we were focusing on modular access - for example those panels could be replaced with things like screens and mechanics
10:38 PM - Dr Vagax: Idea, release DLC before the game is released
10:38 PM - noms: and of course there'll be things littering the corridors.
10:38 PM - Dr Vagax: Ah yes a thing i was thinking about
10:38 PM - noms: "Centration Expansion available!"
10:38 PM - noms: "... Centration still in development."
10:38 PM - noms: *cough*
10:39 PM - Dr Vagax: Locations and areas where people do not come much will automaticly have alot of dust, broken lights and such
10:39 PM - Nexim: (http://comby.star-fleet.org/Portfolio/)
10:39 PM - Dr Vagax: While locations wher people pass alot will have a bit brighter and safe surrounding
10:39 PM - Dr Vagax: where*
10:40 PM - Nexim: Obviously there will be a difference in the structure of areas in the station substructure, and areas tucked into the superstructure.
10:40 PM - Dr Vagax: I did this method in my old SS13 server, locations like a far medical post or something would be blocked off by wooden planks, dead body's and such added by me
10:40 PM - Nexim: So yes, Dr. V
10:40 PM - Dr Vagax: Players foudn that excited to discoer that
10:40 PM - Dr Vagax: discover*
10:40 PM - Dr Vagax: yes i understand that
10:41 PM - noms: Hehe, Star trek architecture
10:41 PM - Nexim: ShellD, Dj, Dko, you guys got any input on architecture?
10:41 PM - Nexim: You have been purty quiet.
10:42 PM - noms: dj is afk, his missus stole him for shopping, i believe
10:42 PM - Shell Deluxe: Take Portal 2 for example, it had a really nice difference in the levels from the start off the game until the end. It tells a subliminal story to the player
10:42 PM - Dr Vagax: But i mean that the game will automaticly adjust to what happens in a game server, for example in once session where some guy uses room 1 alot will have a bit brighter and less dangerous look while room 2 is not used and will be dusty, broken lights and maybe here and there a failure in its power
In the next session this person uses room 2 instead of 1 and will have the opposite effect
10:42 PM - Dkobylarz: yea im kind of new to the whole centration concept so im just trying to follow along with the high-concept. i like the idea of the style to be like that picture that was just posted of the corridor but a bit darker
10:43 PM - Nexim: O_o I don't follow, Dr. V. Let's hold off on that idea.
10:43 PM - noms: I agree with Nexim's view that it's very simplistic
10:43 PM - Shell Deluxe: I have to say that i agree with the dynamic change throughout the level.
10:43 PM - noms: But as a general outline in terms of shape and architecture, it's a good start.
10:43 PM - Nexim: Agreed
10:43 PM - Nexim: At least, for the sake of testing.
10:44 PM - noms: but Nexim, knicky and myself will be working together with concept to improve it.
10:44 PM - noms: But I'm glad we're all on a similar page here.
10:45 PM - Shell Deluxe: Same here, (you will notice if i dont agree. since i will tell my point of view before letting any planning go past)
|LS| JD Tenton entered chat.
10:46 PM - Shell Deluxe: Glad you could come JD
10:46 PM - noms: Hello Mr.Late.
10:46 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: i apologise for my incredible lateness
10:46 PM - Dr Vagax: Hah
10:46 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: so
10:46 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: what's the discussion
10:46 PM - noms: Okay Mike you know everyone in here except Daniel (Dkobylarz)
10:47 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: greetz.
10:47 PM - noms: Daniel, this is Mike, our lead tech
10:47 PM - Nexim: Mike, just to catch you up, we're all pretty much in agreement with a development strategy (crowd sourcing by giving donators/purchasers early access to betas as we build them, while free users have access to the last major revision)
10:47 PM - Dkobylarz: hello Mike!
10:47 PM - Nexim: If you are cool with that too, it's unanimous.
10:47 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: how's it going, daniel?
10:47 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: that sounds good to me
10:47 PM - Dkobylarz: going great. pumped about this project.
10:48 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: glad to hear it
10:48 PM - noms: and to summarise our visual vision, we're currently discussing based on http://www.centration.net/concept/CorridorFinished.png
10:48 PM - Nexim: We're on item two, game vision, covered the storyline, and are now on to visual style, and I think we're about done with that item.
10:48 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: ah, the sketch
10:48 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: well
10:48 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: render
10:49 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: what's the consensus?
10:49 PM - noms: We sort of agree that we're looking at the right basic architecture, but that particular concept looks far too simplistic
10:49 PM - Nexim: The structure is perfect, crawl spaces below the floor and electrical access behind the walls.
10:50 PM - Nexim: We need to allow for pipes and ducts in the ceiling as well.
10:50 PM - noms: Mhm
10:50 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: more texturing and flair needed though
10:50 PM - Nexim: ^
10:50 PM - noms: Definitely
10:50 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: metal things need to look metal
10:51 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: rather than grey matte plastic
10:51 PM - noms: The current art team will work together to develop the idea based on that sort of architecture.
10:51 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: cool
10:51 PM - noms: Okay so we're in agreement with the game's vision? If anyone has anything to bring up in this regard or any questions, ask now.
10:51 PM - Dr Vagax: No comment
10:51 PM - Shell Deluxe: when do we aim for the release?
10:52 PM - noms: Good question.
10:52 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: i think it's a while yet. it's an ambitious idea and a fairly small team
10:52 PM - noms: I think the current 'first playable beta' target for December 2012 is a bit optimistic.
10:52 PM - noms: We should be looking at Q2 '13, for a first BETA, I think?
10:52 PM - Dr Vagax: Just what i wanted to say, we could better aim for the first playable test then the actuall full release
10:53 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: yeah
10:53 PM - Shell Deluxe: (there is a "unwritten" law in game development that you shall take the amount of time you have planned and multiply it by 2)
10:53 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: by the time we get to beta stage everything will be implemented, pratically. after that point it'll be pretty much bug fixes and balance tweaks
10:53 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: perhaps trimming the edges on some of the artwork
10:54 PM - noms: IIndeed.
10:54 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: once you get to or close to the beta phase you can envision a release date with decent certainty
10:54 PM - noms: We'll discuss development order next.
10:55 PM - noms: Any more questions on the game's vision?
10:55 PM - Nexim: one.
10:56 PM - Shell Deluxe: i have one as well
10:56 PM - Nexim: I'm having trouble with the idea of the campaign mode.
10:56 PM - noms: What do you mean?
10:57 PM - Nexim: If we don't want to hype the game as an FPS or a murder simulator, it's going to be awful hard to keep the player in the action without going overboard on combat, innit?
10:58 PM - noms: Hm.
10:58 PM - Nexim: I mean, we're going to have to be careful to put the player in situations where he is in danger at all times, without his only way out being killing someone.
10:58 PM - noms: We just need to make sure the combat system isn't too overpowered.
10:58 PM - Dr Vagax: Ammo should be hard to find
10:58 PM - Shell Deluxe: Perhaps make the player as weak as everyone else
10:58 PM - Dr Vagax: At least make them aware of their ammount of ammo
10:58 PM - noms: Well seeing as every blunt object is a potential weapon, I don't think ammo is too much of an issue.
10:58 PM - Nexim: That's not the solution at all guys, look at SS13.
10:59 PM - Nexim: We're not talking about preventing griefing programmatically.
10:59 PM - noms: and of course, it'll only be available in the armory, and secure.
10:59 PM - Nexim: Which by the way, only works when... well, never.
10:59 PM - noms: So we need to provide enough of a reason for them not to go on a rampage and screw everything up.
10:59 PM - Shell Deluxe: tur
10:59 PM - Shell Deluxe: true*
11:00 PM - Dr Vagax: Poweful weapons have a safe lock
11:00 PM - noms: Perhaps attacking someone risks the wrath of security forces completing owning you?
11:00 PM - Dr Vagax: They cannot fire on someone unless they have permission from a higher ranked person
11:00 PM - Nexim: It's not like weapons were handed out at the spawnpoint. The community was attracted to SS13 because it was an amusing murder simulator, so it became a murder simulator.
11:00 PM - Dr Vagax: The guns can be hacked tho to disable this
11:00 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: well, companies hate lawsuits. and what incites more lawsuits than death?
11:00 PM - Nexim: Dr. Vagax, all that does is encourage griefing.
11:00 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: therefore, there could be reprimands for being trigger-happy
11:01 PM - Nexim: If I can't, as a security guard, attack you, you are free to grief like crazy.
11:01 PM - noms: The thing is we can't be seen to punish players for enjoying themselves in a game.
11:01 PM - Nexim: ^
11:01 PM - Dr Vagax: True
11:01 PM - noms: So all we can do is discourage them from doing it.
11:01 PM - Nexim: Programmatic anti-griefing exploits simply don't work.
11:01 PM - Nexim: We need to encourage playing the game to reach the end goal as much as possible.
11:01 PM - noms: For example in the game, we should simply avoid any mention of combat unless absolutely neccesary
11:02 PM - Dr Vagax: I think this is all in the hands of the server owner
11:02 PM - noms: This is campaign mode we're thinking of.
11:02 PM - Dr Vagax: Ah..
11:02 PM - noms: There -will- be grief servers.
11:02 PM - Nexim: It feeds into that, though.
11:02 PM - noms: We can't even stop that.
11:02 PM - Nexim: If we introduce the campaign as combat heavy, we do our community a serious disservice by interesting people that are interested in combat-heavy gameplay.
11:02 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: speaking of servers, one thing that irritates me about unity is no linux dedicated server.
11:02 PM - Shell Deluxe: perhaps give the griefer a higher risk of consequence
11:03 PM - Dr Vagax: People where afraid to assault others when they saw plenty of times that the AI locked them down, maybe something like that?
11:03 PM - noms: There are trolls and griefers in every game. For example I was playing Mount&Blade: Warband earlier, and some idiot was standing there kicking me as I was trying to aim my bow at people.
11:03 PM - noms: And you couldn't do anything back, because killing him would get you banned.
11:03 PM - Nexim: -_- Okay, I've said it a few times. PREVENTING GRIEFING BY CODE MEASURES DOES NOT WORK. It only punishes the legitemate player.
11:03 PM - Dr Vagax: Its like DRM
11:03 PM - Nexim: ^
11:04 PM - noms: Either way we don't want to limit the player at all in the game.
11:04 PM - noms: Limiting a player's abilities simple makes them want to do it more,
11:04 PM - noms: simply *
11:04 PM - Dr Vagax: Maybe challanges ingame?
11:04 PM - Nexim: We just need to think about the KIND of player we're attracting to the game, and not how we're going to limit players, so the discussion is about not creating a 3D murder simulator.
11:04 PM - noms: So story hooks, and focus on the goal and keep them focused and interested on something rather than getting bored and ending up killing people.
11:05 PM - Dr Vagax: That a challange would be something that would counter griefers, and as reward you would unlock something small.
Could work
11:05 PM - noms: Another thing in games that makes me get bored and start killing shit is repetative misions.
11:05 PM - noms: missions *
11:05 PM - Dr Vagax: But yeah, then what happens after
11:05 PM - Nexim: I still think I'm not being heard. It's not about preventing griefing.
11:06 PM - noms: Vagax: shush for now. :)
11:06 PM - Dr Vagax: ..
11:06 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: then, make clear your point, nexim
11:06 PM - Nexim: It's about focusing the players in a beneficial direction, and getting the player interested in the goal of the game, without having to bribe them with things to kill.
11:07 PM - noms: Nexim: Perhaps a programmed system would benefit this.
11:07 PM - noms: Wages.
11:07 PM - noms: You get paid the more objectives you complete, and with these you can purchase cooler things in-game.
11:07 PM - Dr Vagax: Like i said heh
11:07 PM - noms: Like a more efficient welding tool, a toolbox with more equipment
11:08 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: incentives are a good way to reward specific gameplay styles
11:08 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: but as nexim said
11:08 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: it doesn't engage players
11:08 PM - Nexim: There's a small problem with that, though. What happens when you buy everything you want? You just give the guy who gets bored the advantage over everybody else. So we need to be careful not to make them overpowering.
11:08 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: or keep them engaged
11:09 PM - Dr Vagax: Think of the player perspective, don't look to far.
11:09 PM - noms: Heh, more sidequests.
11:10 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: as long as they aren't just deathmatches or fetchquests
11:10 PM - noms: We need to keep the player thinking - so sidequests that effect the story as it progresses, show them actaul results of their actions.
11:10 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: oh god LA Noire
11:11 PM - Nexim: I dunno, clearly it's going to be a complicated issue. We just need to agree upon an acceptable volume of combat in the game, and find a way to keep the player engaged without a large bit of combat. I don't think we're going to be able to agree today. Shell, what was your question?
11:11 PM - noms: For example finding someone's lost mop (bad example) would result in no spillages and cleaner floors - ignoring it would result in a few more spillages and slipping over.
11:11 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: "You failed every case but you're still an ace detective"
11:11 PM - Shell Deluxe: Sounds like a cool idea, yes, especially with multiplayer included
11:12 PM - noms: This is clearly something we need to bring up again in a future meeting or as its own thread on the forums so we can give it a lot more thought.
11:12 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: yes
11:12 PM - Shell Deluxe: yes
11:12 PM - Nexim: I think it's a forum issue, because some of us aren't communicating the ideas very well in real time.
11:12 PM - noms: Yeah we'll move it to the forums tonight.
11:12 PM - Nexim: I think we're just looking at it from different perspectives.
11:12 PM - noms: Okay, so should we move on?
11:12 PM - Dr Vagax: Yes
11:12 PM - Shell Deluxe: I have one more question about the vision
11:13 PM - Shell Deluxe: What would be the vision of the team? (how much ambition and time should everyone put in, since i know that some people here cant spend all days working on the game since school/work and all that to attend to)
11:13 PM - Nexim: I think shell had a question about the last bullet.
11:13 PM - noms: You mean what the team is getting out of this?
11:13 PM - Shell Deluxe: how the team will work
11:14 PM - noms: Ah that's something I wanted to bring up wit hthis.
11:14 PM - Nexim: However much time they can afford. I think share of any profit should be determined after expenses, and investment of time and effort essential to the game, and not necessarily equal profit share. We should probably as a comittee decide how income splits are going to have to go.
11:15 PM - Nexim: Rather than having a single man holding a wallet and deciding what everyone's share is.
11:15 PM - noms: Essentially we'll work in weekly stages, have small/quick meetings every saturday, say about this time, to discuss what's done, and what needs to be done next.
11:15 PM - Dkobylarz: that sounds good, the more frequent the meetings the better
11:15 PM - Shell Deluxe: ( i can help with the weekly meeting plans, since ive worked with project management in game development before, just in case any help is needed)
11:16 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: speaking of teams
11:16 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: i was thinking the assets and code should be split into two separate repos
11:16 PM - noms: The development/technical aspect of things will be handled seperately from the art/design and intersecting as required, and then delegating components as required.
11:16 PM - noms: I'll agree there too.
11:16 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: as the two teams will probably not have completely interlinking schedules
11:16 PM - Nexim: Third'd
11:17 PM - noms: Alright, any more questions?
11:17 PM - Shell Deluxe: Im fine, thank you
11:17 PM - Nexim: Moving on to development roadmap?
11:17 PM - noms: yes
11:18 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: right
11:18 PM - Nexim: Asset guys, we need a humanoid base model, animated, rigged, and textured first thing as a one-off. I already provided the basic mesh for one, it just needs work. Knicky said he'd mess with it, but haven't heard from him since.
11:18 PM - noms: Essentially we need to decide what needs to be developed, and in what order.
11:19 PM - noms: He said he hasn't been able to download the mesh, I think.
11:19 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: in terms of development in the programming team
11:19 PM - noms: Put it on a dropbox somewhere.
11:19 PM - Nexim: will do
11:20 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: I think our small numbers mean we should probably work on separate things, otherwise we could end up wasting a fair amount of time getting under each other's feet
11:20 PM - Nexim: Agreed,
11:20 PM - noms: Agreed, but they'll need to be things that don't rely on each other.
11:20 PM - Nexim: I reckon there's a small number of things we need to sort out that can be separated enough to be worked on seperately.
11:21 PM - noms: So what is the -first- thing we need.
11:21 PM - Nexim: 1) A character controller that functions better than the unity default, and interacts with a 3D animation interpolator.
11:21 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: If possible, nexim, djdduty, we should have regular meetings, maybe every day or two, to coordinate what we're going to work on for a period, perhaps discussing a target for the end of the week?
11:21 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: that is just a suggestion
11:21 PM - Nexim: 2) An environmental subdivision system, which breaks the map up into an octree data structure for pathing, airflow, and occlusion culling.
11:22 PM - noms: I'm pretty sure you'll all jump into here or the Centration chat regularly anyway.
11:22 PM - Nexim: Maybe just use the forums/centration chat in between regular meetings?
11:22 PM - Dr Vagax: I will always have both the dev and the normal tab open
11:22 PM - Dr Vagax: But the first thing i would open is the normal Centration chat
11:23 PM - Shell Deluxe: same here
11:23 PM - Nexim: We'll have to have a chat about the character controller, so we can talk about how the architecture is going to work, Mike.
11:23 PM - Nexim: And the world thingy should be pretty easy, I think djduty expressed interest in it, so I'll talk to him if he wants to take that over.
11:24 PM - Nexim: Or if I need do it, since I've the most experience in Unity.
11:24 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: yes. a great deal of discussion is needed about structuring.
11:24 PM - Nexim: Almost everything hinges on that character controller, though.
11:24 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: with the very core foundations, a good flexible architecture is a necessity
11:24 PM - noms: I'm going to be bringing up scale, mapping methods, naming conventions and structuring of the project in another point.
11:25 PM - Shell Deluxe: alright, am looking forward to that
11:25 PM - noms: But let's focus on the roadmap here.
11:25 PM - noms: Firstly, the milestone points.
11:25 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: this tech demo
11:25 PM - Nexim: I think first are the core requirements - Movement, Interaction, Environment structure, etc.
11:25 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: teaser
11:25 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: whatever you want to call it
11:25 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: december is looking more and more ambitious
11:26 PM - noms: I agree.
11:26 PM - noms: Q1/2 next year is a bit more likely.
11:26 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: yes.
11:26 PM - Dr Vagax: Can't wait to see the interest of the public
11:26 PM - Dr Vagax: Even the developers are excited to work on this
11:27 PM - Nexim: Meanwhile, we probably ought to have the concept guys working with the modelers and the storyline folks to try to build a sensible station that will contain the entire game story and all side missions.
11:27 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: nexim, it's also important that we outline the technical aspects that level designers need to incorporate
11:27 PM - Shell Deluxe: yes
11:27 PM - Nexim: Indeed.
11:28 PM - noms: Okay so two seperate roadmaps, I think?
11:28 PM - Nexim: But we have to start somewhere, and that ought to be discussed in one of our later bullets.
11:28 PM - noms: Dev Roadmap, Art Roadmap
11:28 PM - Nexim: Maybe just a requirements section? Where we post what assets we need as we need them?
11:30 PM - noms: Good idea.
11:31 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: ^
11:31 PM - Shell Deluxe: Google docs is always a powerful alternative
11:32 PM - Nexim: I mean, ideally, the storyboard guys should be trying to define the storyline bit by bit, incl. side missions.
11:32 PM - noms: Okay so for the roadmap, we still only have two points.
11:32 PM - Nexim: Once we have that, the basic design of the entire station should probably start to be fleshed out.
11:32 PM - noms: character controller, interaction, environment structure
11:32 PM - noms: I realise that's three.
11:32 PM - noms bows head in shame
11:33 PM - Nexim: Once that starts getting fleshed out, we get an idea of what needs to go into it, and that's where assets are going to crop up from, as concept artists start drawing things mentioned in the story guys' work.
11:33 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: in terms of the art team, a few more concept sketches and renders would be nice
11:33 PM - noms: I think we should potentially scrap the 'tech demo' idea, too.
11:33 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: perhaps a few prototype models to see how everything fits
11:33 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: mhm
11:34 PM - noms: Focus on a first playable alpha.
11:34 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: an art style for some more detailed things (props, weapons, character design) is something we really lack right now
11:34 PM - noms: character interaction, networking, environmental systems
11:34 PM - noms: I did a taser concept for lulz
11:34 PM - Nexim: I'm not sure networking should be one of the first things we do.
11:35 PM - noms: Ah true, we're focusing on a campaign for the start.
11:35 PM - noms: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26425222/centration/concept/IMAG0242.jpg
11:35 PM - noms: Taser!
11:36 PM - Nexim: Let's at least get character interaction, environmental systems, and some kind of HUD system set up first, which brings up a discussion point.
11:36 PM - noms: Definitely.
11:36 PM - Nexim: HUD: A lot of it, or only a little bit.
11:36 PM - noms: Okay so first milestone is pretty much interaction and such.
11:36 PM - noms: and some nice art
11:37 PM - noms: as for the HUD
11:37 PM - noms: I think it should be based on what equipment you have.
11:37 PM - noms: When you start - absolutely nothing.
11:37 PM - noms: apart from a small cross-hair so you know where you're looking
11:37 PM - Nexim: Agree wholly, comms device + neural implant = quest journal.
11:37 PM - Dkobylarz: i agree there. make the player work for every item
11:38 PM - Nexim: + medical chip = health monitor.
11:38 PM - Nexim: + environmental chip = O2/pressure monitor.
11:38 PM - Dr Vagax: One thing confuses me, http://www.uploadplaatjes.nl/plaatjes/6/188288.jpg is this in-game or a render?
11:38 PM - Dr Vagax offtopic
11:38 PM - Shell Deluxe: too many items at start might be confusing for the player so i agree with Dkobylarz
11:38 PM - noms: Make chips something you earn via those challenges
11:38 PM - Nexim: Some of them are going to need to be handed out at the start, like one for the quest journal UI
11:38 PM - noms: "Hey if you help out a bit around the medical wing, I'll give you this medical chip prototype I've been working on.."
11:39 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: nexim, what are your thoughts on UnityGUI? is it flexible enough for a decent HUD, or should we look into a more flexible solution?
11:39 PM - Shell Deluxe: exactly
11:39 PM - Nexim: UnityGUI is pretty ok.
11:39 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: replace flexible with efficient or elegent where applicable
11:39 PM - noms: The UnityGUI has a pretty nice window system, which will be useful.
11:39 PM - Nexim: It's not perfect, but it's flexible enough that we can bend it to our sinister will.
11:40 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: ahaha.
11:40 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: general question
11:40 PM - Nexim: Also, had another thought, everybody knows SS13 well enough to know what's included in "environmental" systems, right?
11:41 PM - Shell Deluxe: i do, yes
11:41 PM - noms: Atmospherics, Power, Lighting
11:41 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: if more 3.x releases come out for unity during development, are we sticking with 3.4 or upgrading
11:41 PM - Nexim: Meaning, airflow simulation, electrical simulation, pressure/gravity, etc.
11:41 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: well i say if
11:41 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: i mean when
11:41 PM - noms: The updates usually update our project along with it
11:41 PM - Nexim: Upgrade. Always upgrade. +stability is good.
11:41 PM - noms: so I'm going to say update with updates.
11:42 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: Included in the update are a variety of performance enhancements, new workflows, and visual improvements. Among the Unity 3.5 features that are being shown at Unite 11:
Multi-threaded rendering
High-performance designer-centric GUI system
HDR rendering with gamma correction
Native level-of-detail support
Radiosity Normal Mapping lightmaps
Shuriken -- a completely curve driven particle effects system
Improved occlusion culling
Integrated GPU profiler
Pathfinding and crowd simulation built in
Integrated version control support for Perforce and Subversion
Asset cache server to accelerate import times 100x or more
Improved workflow for editing multiple objects and working with prefabs
A massive stacking up of optimizations have made Unity 60% faster
More than 30 other features!
11:42 PM - Nexim: The updates don't break things very often.
11:42 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: apologies for spam
11:42 PM - noms: Wait 3.5 is out now?
11:42 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: no
11:42 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: it's being shown
11:42 PM - noms: "High-performance designer-centric GUI system"
11:42 PM - noms: drool
11:42 PM - Shell Deluxe: When do 4.0 come out (does 4.0 require a new license to be bhought?)
11:42 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: they say late 2011
11:42 PM - noms: So in a month or two.
11:42 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: that's anywhere between now and december 31st
11:42 PM - Nexim: "A massive stacking up of optimizations have made Unity 60% faster"
11:43 PM - noms: HDR rendering.
11:43 PM - Nexim: *cums in pants*
11:43 PM - Shell Deluxe: ^
11:43 PM - noms: "Improved workflow for editing multiple objects and working with prefabs"
11:43 PM - noms: sex.
11:43 PM - noms: one thing I hated was not b eing able to edit groups of objects.
11:43 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: oh god this
11:43 PM - Nexim: Anyway, there is one question I had... What about water?
11:44 PM - Nexim: Are we going to cop out and have water restricted to pipes and containers as simple particle simulations?
11:44 PM - noms: I think we should cop out.
11:44 PM - Nexim: or are we going to try to ruin our souls by trying to handle some form of fluid simulation?
11:44 PM - Nexim: /agree
11:44 PM - Shell Deluxe: cop out?
11:45 PM - noms: as far as we want to go with water is spillages causing people to slip over, and leaks and such.
11:45 PM - Nexim: English expression. It's kind of like, avoiding a difficult decision.
11:45 PM - noms: fluid systems always kill CPU anyway.
11:45 PM - Shell Deluxe: (ah ok, thanks=
11:45 PM - Nexim: by making an absurd decision.
11:45 PM - noms: Shell: It's like if I ask you if you're pro or against animal testing, and you say "Both has its merits"
11:46 PM - noms: It's a cop out.
11:46 PM - Shell Deluxe: i see, thanks :)
11:46 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: nexim, fluid sim is soul destroying
11:46 PM - noms: olol.
11:46 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: simulating chaotic systems sucks
11:46 PM - Nexim: Okay, good. I was dreading dealing with things like coolant leaks.
11:47 PM - noms: Do we need to focus any more on the roadmap or do we have our first target pretty much confirmed?
11:47 PM - Nexim: pretty much, it's going to require a forum discussion between the developers to divvy out the tasks
11:47 PM - Nexim: *programmers
11:48 PM - noms: Alright, excellent.
11:48 PM - noms: You should all have admin access, so create a forum if neccesary.
11:48 PM - Nexim: We might end up spending this entire week writing up tech documents, rather than doing any real programming, though.
11:48 PM - noms: necessar*
11:48 PM - noms: y*
11:48 PM - noms: I always spell that wrong.
11:48 PM - noms: That's fine, we'll confirm that in next weeks meeting.
11:48 PM - noms: I'll spent this week on concept art.
11:48 PM - noms: spend *
11:49 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: i think that's a pretty sound assessment
11:49 PM - noms: we'll talk about what we'll focus on this week at the end of the meeting.
11:49 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: if you go "WAHEY" and program with now pre-planned structure to your work
11:49 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: bang
11:49 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: it becomes unsuable later on
11:49 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: *unusable
11:50 PM - noms: mhm
11:50 PM - Nexim: ...one of my kittens is sleeping on the back of my neck. It's really distracting.
11:50 PM - noms: which brings me to point three.
11:50 PM - noms: scale, mapping methods, naming conventions.
11:50 PM - Dr Vagax: Nexim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIgZ66DlkKI
11:51 PM - noms: I'm going to go with the easy thing here, and be like, 1unit > 1meter
11:51 PM - noms: metre *
11:51 PM - noms: meter..
11:51 PM - noms: something.
11:51 PM - Shell Deluxe: yeah
11:51 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: works for me
11:51 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: what about you imperialists
11:51 PM - Shell Deluxe: easy for me to work with
11:51 PM - Nexim: Scale. 1 unit in unity should definitely be 1 meter. I'm the only "feet and inches" guy here, so... derp...
11:52 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: lol
11:52 PM - Nexim: We'll have to work out what 3DS Max exports its scale at by default with reference with unity units, and get that info to the modelers.
11:52 PM - Dkobylarz: im all feet and inches too nexim
11:52 PM - Nexim: Ah.
11:53 PM - noms: Dkobylarz: Which reminds me, you mentioned using unity a bit, what other skills can you bring to the project?
11:53 PM - Nexim: The mapping metric, on the other hand, a single-level deck should be what, 3 meters?
11:53 PM - Shell Deluxe: (i will note this down)
11:53 PM - noms: I think that's pretty sound
11:54 PM - Nexim: with a 1 meter crawl space in between each deck and wall?
11:54 PM - noms: mhm.
11:54 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: nexim, by the way, are you more comfortable with C# or JS.NET?
11:54 PM - noms: He'll kill you for that
11:54 PM - noms: The answer should be obvious.
11:54 PM - noms: ;p
11:54 PM - Shell Deluxe: (how thick chould the floor tiles be?)
11:54 PM - Nexim: C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#C#
11:54 PM - Shell Deluxe: lol
11:54 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: ahaha
11:54 PM - Dkobylarz: well i've used unity for a few years so i know a little unityscript. i've only made 1 finished game with unity but i'm familiar with just about every aspect of unity.
11:54 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: C# it is then
11:54 PM - Nexim: That many.
11:55 PM - Dkobylarz: (sry phone just rang) but i can do pretty much every aspect of the sound design for the game
11:55 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: nexim, I was thinking maybe 2cm thick
11:55 PM - Dkobylarz: i'm studying music and thats definitely my thing, but i've done foley work and voice overs as well
11:55 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: 4/5 an inch for you
11:56 PM - Nexim: Part of the problem is that we need to make room for wiring, pipes, and air ducts.
11:56 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: yes
11:57 PM - Nexim: Also, we need to stick to a grid to make things work proper..
11:58 PM - noms: Shell: the floor tiles will fit onto a 1x2x2m frames, I think
11:58 PM - Nexim: Maybe wall tiles can have less space between, we'll have to work this out.
11:58 PM - noms: although a 2x2 floor tiles would be huge
11:58 PM - Nexim: I'm in agreement, I think 1x1 floor tiles is adequate.
11:58 PM - Shell Deluxe: i would prefer a 1x1 floor tile
11:58 PM - noms: the frames would have like 4x4 slots on the top
11:58 PM - noms: 50cm each
11:59 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: 0.5m would be a more appropriate even
11:59 PM - |LS| JD Tenton: ninja'd
11:59 PM - Nexim: I agreed with shell before he typed. I'm that good.
11:59 PM - noms: Sorry I went away for a second, my friend guessed my other friend's facebook password
11:59 PM - Shell Deluxe: or a 0.5 tile works as well
11:59 PM - noms: and has no proceeded to not know where to begin.
11:59 PM - noms: now *
11:59 PM - noms: 50cm is enough for a crawl space, i think
11:59 PM - Nexim: 50cm... That's about what, 20 in? 1ft 8 in?
Sunday, October 02, 2011
12:00 AM - Shell Deluxe: 50 cm = 0.5 meters
12:00 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: slightly over a foot an a half, yeah
12:00 AM - Nexim: Converting to my system of measurement for spacial reference.
12:00 AM - noms: yeah 50cm is enough for a prone-crawl space
12:01 AM - Nexim: Noms, should that be both above and below a deck?
12:01 AM - noms: yeah
12:01 AM - Dr Vagax: Shell what do you think, http://soundcloud.com/solsthoorn/centration-demo-concept
12:01 AM - Nexim: And what happens when we have a two-story deck on the same floor as two one-story decks?
12:01 AM - Nexim: Wait, nvm.
12:01 AM - noms: :D
12:01 AM - Nexim: 2x 50 above and below leaves a perfect grid -measurement.
12:02 AM - Nexim: I'm dumb.
12:02 AM - Dr Vagax: Lower your volume at the last part by the way heh
12:02 AM - noms: Why would there be rain in space.
12:02 AM - Shell Deluxe: haha
12:02 AM - Dr Vagax: Space rain
12:02 AM - Nexim: rain?
12:02 AM - noms: ... space rain..
12:02 AM - Shell Deluxe: maybe flying gravel from an asteroid belt
12:02 AM - Dkobylarz: are you a sound guy vagax? or do you do something else
12:02 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: noms, it was blown in from venus on the solar wind
12:02 AM - noms: lol
12:03 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: only trouble is it dissolves your face
12:03 AM - Shell Deluxe: Im pretty much a sound guy, but that will not be my main purpose for this project
12:03 AM - noms: better install windscreen wipers on the eva suits.
12:03 AM - Dr Vagax: Nah i was bored in the morning and was mixing certain songs, found this one pretty interesting
12:03 AM - noms: That's what we have Dkobylarz for.
12:03 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: because venusian clouds are highly concentrated with sulfuric acid
12:03 AM - Nexim: Sounds like inception.
12:03 AM - Nexim: A LOT like inception.
12:03 AM - Dr Vagax: I don't mean anything with it Noms
12:03 AM - Dr Vagax: Just a concept, nothing els
12:03 AM - Dkobylarz: yea very hans zimmer
12:03 AM - noms: It doesn't have the hans zimmer hook in it though.
12:03 AM - Dr Vagax: Gears of War was from 2006, Inception 2010
12:04 AM - noms: I love hans zimmer.
12:04 AM - noms: Especially when it goes into that bit...
12:04 AM - noms: Gladiator's soundtrack my favourite.
12:04 AM - Nexim: Anyway, I'm in agreement with the 0.5m crawlspaces above and below.
12:04 AM - noms: shweet.
12:04 AM - Shell Deluxe: alright, taking notes
12:04 AM - Nexim: What about between walls?
12:04 AM - noms: heh, small explosion in a corridor, half of the roofing is exposed, someone falls down
12:04 AM - noms: "uhm... shit."
12:05 AM - Nexim: Obviously, not every wall is going to need a girdered space.
12:05 AM - Nexim: Only walls with lots of backing infrastructure, which would fit into the cavity left by the superstructure anyway.
12:05 AM - noms: I had walls as 50cm thick standard, 1.5m if it'll have a maintanance section
12:06 AM - Nexim: But when you think about it, the majority of the innards of a ship or station should really be tonnes and tonnes of steel girders and not much room to walk around.
12:06 AM - Dkobylarz: hey guys im gonna head out for 20 minutes or so, gotta eat something
12:06 AM - Dkobylarz: ill catch up when i get back
12:06 AM - noms: No problem man.
12:06 AM - Nexim: Okay, so literally another 1 tile wall behind it?
12:06 AM - Nexim: *floor
12:06 AM - Nexim: derp
12:06 AM - noms: yeah pretty much
12:07 AM - Nexim: Hull walls really ought to be a solid tile thick though.
12:07 AM - noms: the walls would use the same frame structure as the flooring
12:07 AM - Nexim: Just me saying that, you know.
12:07 AM - noms: Mhm, I agree.
12:07 AM - noms: external walls should be solid
12:08 AM - Nexim: And for the station, how do you picture the superstructure, noms?
12:08 AM - Shell Deluxe: so. 0.5 Unit thick walls
and 1.5 Unit thick walls with interaction on the inside?
12:08 AM - Nexim: Do you picture it as a cobbling of modules like modern space stations, or a largeish city surrounded by metal, like in EVE?
12:08 AM - noms: in terms of shape?
12:09 AM - noms: I had a small sketch somewhere
12:09 AM - noms: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/26425222/centration/concept/ors13_sketch.png
12:09 AM - noms: very crappy but gets the point accross.
12:09 AM - Nexim: K, nice on the inside, crappy on the outside.
12:09 AM - Nexim: Got it.
12:10 AM - noms: I imagine that a standard main module of core requirements for a station would be built
12:10 AM - noms: then extras would be added as required
12:10 AM - Shell Deluxe: Would prefer more vertical environments for the player as well
12:10 AM - Nexim: ^
12:10 AM - Shell Deluxe: so its not just 1 floor
12:11 AM - noms: that main module is three floors high
12:11 AM - Nexim: Agreed, moving oxygen vertically through a station is much more efficient than horizontally.
12:11 AM - Nexim: + ladders are a fun place to grief. =P
12:12 AM - Shell Deluxe: Elevators as well ;)
12:12 AM - noms: okay so we have scale and the important units down.
12:12 AM - Nexim: Okay, are we all settled on that agenda item?
12:12 AM - noms: naming conventions?
12:12 AM - Shell Deluxe: 3 Units to roof from floor tiles.
0.5x0.5 Unit wide floor tiles.
1 Unit crawlspace below the floor tiles.
External walls should be solid.
12:12 AM - noms: or do you want to handle that internally on the forums?
12:13 AM - noms: because one of you should just come up with a standardised naming convention and everyone just follows it, rather than us arguing about it.
12:13 AM - Shell Deluxe: (side note: i would like to bring up the vertical level design subject on a more later point (on the forums for example))
12:13 AM - noms: Alright
12:14 AM - Nexim: I prefer ORS-3 to RS3
12:14 AM - noms: ORP-3?
12:14 AM - Nexim: As for naming conventions, I like the theme of mythology and whatnot, like in stargate.
12:14 AM - Nexim: or ORP-3.
12:14 AM - Nexim: Either.
12:14 AM - noms: I meant naming conventions in terms of file structure, but stations are important too.
12:15 AM - Nexim: In unity, variables need to be NamedLikeThis and not_like_this. Just a heads up.
12:15 AM - Nexim: Not sure about naming conventions for file structures, but everything needs to be english, and please comment your code in english!
12:15 AM - Nexim: And please comment your code in general.
12:15 AM - noms: CamelType variables.
12:17 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: actually
12:17 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: I think you'll find they're supposed to be namedLikeThis
12:17 AM - Nexim: ^
12:17 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: they're only NamedLikeThis if they're classes
12:17 AM - Nexim: $
12:17 AM - Nexim: ^
12:17 AM - Nexim: *^
12:18 AM - Nexim: But yeah, as for how we segment our code, we really ought to keep the interlinked classes for each system in an overall folder that the name will describe what the total function of all classes within do.
12:19 AM - noms: okay
12:19 AM - noms: We'll figure out naming conventions on the forum.
12:19 AM - noms: Now.. let's discuss the Campaign Story.
12:20 AM - Nexim: I only posted a bit of a backstory with a posssible overarching story.
12:20 AM - Nexim: shit's wide open for more.
12:23 AM - Nexim: Maybe the first part of the game, the player is just being introduced to life in the station, doing goto missions while the ship is still intact, and learning the station layout whilst having side missions in each area, doing minor tasks and learning about what each job on the station is responsible for?
12:23 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: now, i think it's key to try not to force a player into one particular play class
12:23 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: if possible, adapt the story line to their choice
12:24 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: that way it also gives players to try different classes to see how the story pans out differently
12:25 AM - Nexim: Part of me worries about that kind of thing, you know?
12:25 AM - Nexim: We'd have to design each and every mission around every possible specialization.
12:26 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: mmm
12:26 AM - Nexim: So that's a concern.
12:27 AM - Nexim: I kind of thought of the campaign introducing the player to every aspect of every job.
12:27 AM - Nexim: more or less an extended tutorial.
12:27 AM - Dr Vagax: Or to choose if the person wants to learn it yes or no
12:27 AM - Dr Vagax: Maybe he wants to discover stuff himself, like i do in most games
12:27 AM - Nexim: That's a definite point.
12:28 AM - Nexim: Perhaps the side missions are the tutorials, while the main storyline doesn't really depend so much on the side mission content?
12:28 AM - Shell Deluxe: Would be nice to let the player explore the thing he want to explore according to his own pacing
12:28 AM - Dr Vagax: ^
12:28 AM - Nexim: Agreed,
12:29 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: mhm
12:29 AM - Nexim: I think we should balance that out a bit though, offer plot hooks, and if the player doesn't want to take them just yet, then fine.
12:30 AM - Nexim: But in order to progress or gain access to X he has to do Y.
12:33 AM - Nexim: Echo...?
12:33 AM - Shell Deluxe: Im here.
12:33 AM - Nexim: Any other thoughts on this item?
12:33 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: none to report right now
12:34 AM - Nexim: We really need you guys to get collaborative in the story forum over this coming week. Just throw out ideas, good or bad.
12:34 AM - noms: Yeah I agree.
12:34 AM - noms: Sorry, utterly face-raped my friend
12:34 AM - Shell Deluxe: hehe, you shoould the people in my class face-raping eachother...its just too much at times
12:34 AM - Shell Deluxe: should see*
12:35 AM - Nexim: I'm lost.
12:35 AM - noms: But yeah - the job intros and stuff could be sidequests and such, but we could also provide almost definite encouragement in the form of like my earlier example, you could help the chief medical officer out by helping out about the medbay, and in return you get an implant that provides a health status HUD item
12:35 AM - Nexim: Not to mention unlocking the job assignment option in multiplay.
12:36 AM - noms: It's entirely possible to progress without it - but it'll definitely be useful
12:36 AM - Shell Deluxe: ^
12:37 AM - noms: So the main compaign should take the player through the story up to the end-game scenario, whether that's new atmosphere for earth, the star getting made and pretty much destroying the whole sector, or something else we need to plan
12:37 AM - noms: Then the sidequests are a mix of completely non-related and interesting things, and introductions to job aspects and to unlock certain extras in the game.
12:38 AM - Nexim: agreed;
12:38 AM - Nexim: multiple endings would add to conversation.
12:38 AM - noms: Definitely.
12:38 AM - Nexim: But one problem I see with multiple endings, is that they seem to be done wrong by almost every game developer.
12:38 AM - Shell Deluxe: Would it be realistic for the story to just let the player settle the station once and for all so everything is at peace?
12:38 AM - Nexim: It seems like either, it's a linear story that locks you in from the beginning, or that you make one of X choices at the end of the game.
12:39 AM - noms: Well we'll do it right and it'll be our making.
12:39 AM - noms: We'll end up selling millions of copies, becoming rich and ... uhm.
12:39 AM - Nexim: BOATS AND HOS!
12:39 AM - noms: well we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
12:39 AM - noms: or drive our boats under it..
12:40 AM - noms: Shit. If this becomes like multi-million pound popular, we'll all actually have to meet and stuff.
12:40 AM - Dr Vagax: No problem for me heh
12:40 AM - Shell Deluxe: haha. that horror.
12:40 AM - Dr Vagax: Cheap plane tickets ahoy
12:40 AM - noms: Cheap? Everyoen is flying business class if we're rich, good sir.
12:41 AM - Shell Deluxe: no problem for me, its like a 2 Hour flight to London from here i think
12:41 AM - Dr Vagax: Big cigar, smoking and private jets
12:41 AM - Nexim: Lol, hopes and dreams
12:41 AM - noms: Game release party @ London
12:41 AM - noms: boo0yeaa
12:41 AM - Dr Vagax: hah
12:41 AM - Nexim: /emote shatters them
12:41 AM - Dr Vagax: Rent out london
12:41 AM - Nexim fuck my life
12:41 AM - noms: All Hail Major Downer
12:41 AM - noms salutes
12:41 AM - noms: Major Buzzkill ahoy
12:41 AM - Dr Vagax: Ow wait i am not a developer oho
12:41 AM - Nexim: Anway, we're good on this item?
12:41 AM - noms salutes again
12:41 AM - noms: Yeah
12:42 AM - noms: TECHNOLOGY LEVEL
12:42 AM - Shell Deluxe just sits there with his aviator glasses in the corner, watching your every move
12:42 AM - Dr Vagax stares back with a telescope
12:42 AM - Dr Vagax: Because why not
12:42 AM - noms: We'll have shirts with our names and game logo on them and everything
12:42 AM - noms: whoop
12:42 AM - Dr Vagax: Merchandise
12:43 AM - Nexim: I picture technology as a midpoint between Space Drudge (Alien) and High Sci-fi (Star Trek)
12:43 AM - noms: Nexim: I have acess to 3,000 gamers for beta testing straight-up.
12:43 AM - noms: Just so you know.
12:43 AM - noms: I agree.
12:43 AM - Dr Vagax: Everyone wants to test a beta
12:43 AM - Dr Vagax: good or bad
12:44 AM - Nexim: I think noms and I were pretty sold on the idea of wormhole control, aritifical gravity control, and AI being the technologies of the day.
12:44 AM - Shell Deluxe: Jokes aside:
Should we go on with the meeting or are we done?
12:44 AM - Dr Vagax: Going to bed now
12:44 AM - noms: We have a couple of points left.
12:44 AM - Dr Vagax: Gotta wake up at 7 heh
12:44 AM - noms: Alright, should we just wrap this up for now, I'm pretty tired too.
12:44 AM - Nexim: Next time we need to get through the points a bit faster, and prepare for them.
12:44 AM - Dr Vagax: Agree
12:44 AM - Shell Deluxe: Agree
12:44 AM - noms: Definitely, I'll have the agenda up sooner.
12:45 AM - Dr Vagax: Well this was our first meeting
12:45 AM - noms: Next Saturday same-time okay for you guys?
12:45 AM - Shell Deluxe: yes
12:45 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: sure
12:45 AM - Dr Vagax: We learned how we must take things up, also how we must plan this meeting again
12:45 AM - Dr Vagax: Yeah sure
12:45 AM - noms: As long as Mike isn't late again.
12:45 AM - noms glares
12:45 AM - Nexim: Meeting one: Complete. Rating: SEGWAY CITY
12:45 AM - noms rolls off
12:45 AM - noms: Okay so
12:45 AM - Shell Deluxe: stop
12:45 AM - noms: To FINALISE
12:45 AM - Shell Deluxe: what points do we still have left?
12:45 AM - Dr Vagax: I can almost complete the log
12:46 AM - noms: Uh, just next steps really.
12:46 AM - noms: Everything else we covered.
12:46 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: noms, apologies.
12:46 AM - noms: It's alright bro, no bad.
12:46 AM - Shell Deluxe: cheers
12:46 AM - noms: But if it happens again, I'm getting the whip out.
12:46 AM - Shell Deluxe: good
12:46 AM - Nexim: No problem, it's not like you are an employee, right?
12:46 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: fffffffffffffff-
12:46 AM - noms: Okay so what are we doing this week folks.
12:47 AM - noms: Mike, dj, and Nex - you'll be preparing your technical docs for developmenty of the first parts of teh game.
12:47 AM - Dr Vagax: End of log?
12:47 AM - noms: Shell, Myself and whoever else wants to get involved, will be putting together an initial design for ORP-3
12:47 AM - noms: Not yet
12:47 AM - Shell Deluxe: I will try to block up a Early level design (early one, very early)
And write more in detail about how i would prefer to build levels and further on
12:48 AM - noms: Nex, Myself, and whoever else is artistically talented will be putting together concept art for the key things we need, mentioned previously
12:48 AM - noms: Knicky will be providing models, namely the character base rigged and animated
12:48 AM - Dr Vagax: And i will remain on my duty to keep the forums clear.. Yeah lets do that
12:48 AM - noms: I'll work with nex to put together some awesome concepts for the structuring
12:48 AM - |LS| JD Tenton: noms, if he is ever around =p
12:48 AM - Nexim: Campaign story too, noms.
12:48 AM - noms: and we'll get some nice model scenes rendered on this subject
12:49 AM - noms: lol mike
12:49 AM - noms: ah yeah that too
12:49 AM - noms: Awesome.
12:49 AM - noms: Okay with that, we wrap up the meeting
12:49 AM - noms: Thanks guys <3
12:49 AM - Shell Deluxe: Great
12:49 AM - noms: END LOG