Stellar Emperor Forums

Greetings pilots!

It has been a while since I have posted anything, so I will assure you a little bit by stating that the project is not dead! I'm currently working on the flight server and end-user client in tandem. Things have been progressing very well over the last month.

List of things complete:
Client <-> Server connection, authentication, and keep-alive
Dynamic galaxy selection
Radio chatting/SEN & TUN commands
Rendering of starspace and hyperspace (no graphics yet, just rendered 2D stuff)
Full interaction with Planets (est/aba/lib/sur)

List of things partially implemented:
Visibility of other nearby ships (have to work on SEA/Shields down/PRO SEA yet)
Navigation (currently travel is instant)
IMP/WAR (currently don't take arguments as travel is instant)
View scaling of starspace/hyperspace.

List of things in queue:
Actual non-instant movement of ships
drydock
weapons/combat
probes
planet attack logic
Menu system (scoreboard, team management, pm) [PM currently works fine from Web]
Lobby chat room
Graphics

As I move through the list, I'll be asking various questions with the SE/MW3 Legacy forum about how certain things worked that it would be nice to have other people's recollections stated, as I'm finding there are a few things I don't remember so well.

Now a couple teasers:
http://www.stellaremperor.com/alpha/ima ... _ss004.jpg
http://www.stellaremperor.com/alpha/ima ... _ss005.jpg
http://www.stellaremperor.com/alpha/ima ... _ss006.jpg

My current plans are to have something running in alpha or beta quality by the end of February. I'll try to post an update every week or two as progress sees fit.

Update for 12/2

Complete:

• IMP/WAR are implemented to take full parameters including absolute (@) and relative directions and speed.
• NAV now works in hyperspace or navigating to another star from within a star

In the case of both of the above, acceleration is instant (easy to fix) and turning is instant (still need to do a bit of research to figure out the best way to handle it).

Next up:

• Acceleration
• Turning
• Planet rotation around the sun, which will allow for NAV to planets

After this, I'll work on the client side of keeping a local LIB database, and then start on drydock, combat & planet attacks.

Update for 2/8/10

It has been a while since I've updated, and have unfortunately very little to show for the time, but I assure you the project moves forward.

Changes since last update:
Planet rotation (around the sun) is complete.
Drawing has been re-hashed to be more resource friendly, as well as control friendly (this is more of a coding thing than a tangible thing)
Navigation calculations have been rehashed and vastly improved to be more accurate. Turning rates and acceleration/deceleration coding is complete, but needs tweaks to reflect SE-like values.
Information bars (Velocity/Energy/Temperature) have been added
Navigation has been simplified, now supports click-type navigation akin to SE (Example, double-clicking to remove from orbit and start imp, start warp, or clicking velocity bar to change speed, or changing direction on the outside rim).
Added Galaxy & Province maps
Added ability to maximize Chat & Info windows to review information.

Next on the list:
Energy consumption for movement.
Left menu lists for planets and ships.
Radio Room.
Probes and Missiles.
Torpedo and Laser combat.

Teaser Screenshot:

Cool.
It looks like SE during the Beta years.

Where's the ship?

Green dot is the ship (other ships are red, but none visible in that test pic), as I'm not using any graphics at all yet, just programatically rendered shapes. Graphics will be one of the last steps as I'm not very graphically inclined, so I'll likely be outsourcing that when I'm not confident it will be worthwhile. Don't really need much for graphics to get the core gameplay down.

Very impressive Caleb! Nice work. Brings back alot of good memories seeing that screenshot.

Hetulik