Spring RTS Engine

And if I recall correctly, it are the molecules that are vibrating reather then the atoms (they are probably vibrating as well).
And don't start dabating over the time that it takes for a lazer to hit the target... and if they should couse an explosion yes or no.

<chuckles>

Combat spacecraft built under anything like the known laws of physics would not be like anything from Star Trek. There is no such thing as an "electromagnetic shield" that prevents laser radiation from striking the target- while you can cancel incoming waves, it's very easy to randomly change the wavelength at the emitter and defeat such attempts.

Instead, I suspect that the vast majority of space combat would be conducted by robotic drones that were very, very stealthy, to prevent being detected until they'd reached optimal ranges- somewhere on the order of a hundreth of a light-second or so, or less. Which is still a pretty good distance- we're talking 1800+ km here- but short enough that the beam would not attenuate too much for the amount of power you pumped in.

Contrary to Grand-Scale Sci-Fi, lasers cannot shoot across gigantic distances and still have exactly the same power they had when they left their emitter. Like any light, they will spread over distance, greatly lessening their effectiveness. In space, this is much less of a problem than in atmosphere, where stray molecules will absorb the photons, but even in space, the beam still spreads- and it doesn't take much spread before a deadly super-laser is just a warm glow. Like, say, the Sun.

IRL, short of technology capable of negating inertia (a favorite of most sci-fi writers) a human-piloted spacecraft would be profoundly useless for actual combat. Combat would be pretty much between drones with laser emitters, nukes, and ... um... that's pretty much it. No, you would NOT use "plasma" or projectiles- space is too darn big, and the relative velocities of things makes this a pretty ridiculous concept. None of this is very romantic, though- I mean, how exciting is combat, when the only real decisions a human would make is when to press the "attack" button, and how many ships to send into the attack? After that... the drones would be pulling hundreds of gs, playing dodgeball with one another, and trying to stop the other side's drones from penetrating the defenses. Both sides would use things like directed nukes to both destroy and blind attackers, for example- a human a half-light-second away isn't going to do much except wait and hope.

This might actually be kind've cool in an RTS, actually. You could build an RTS where the human spacecraft build fleets of drones, and have missiles with extremely long ranges that were shoot-downable (using the interceptor=1 tag, which I think beams, etc., can now use in Spring) and because we have the beamlaser=1 tag (which I just tried out- it's ultra cool) we could even have beams that do damage over time, as well as tiny pulses with enormous damage- simulating the two real-world types of combat lasers. As an RTS, it might even be really cool- both sides would, um... "mine asteroids" or something, to get resources, and ... drat. If only I didn't need to sleep occasionally, and work, and... eat

Aaaaannyways... I'm guilty of thread hijacking... I'm moving on now...

I have to agree with both Caydr and TRO on a couple of points:

1. Caydr is right, those anime-style ships don't make any sense, even if they look kewl. I'm not sure that what he built makes sense, either, but ... he's re-creating an older game, so who cares?

2. TRO is right, they look really kewl- it's nice to see that somebody besides me likes stealing from the Zentradi/Invid designs of Robotech (or, for you purists, whatever those series were called before Harmony Gold put them all together and made them into an epic). The bumpmaps are definately what makes it all work. That guy made stuff for VegaStrike, and I tried to talk him into loaning out his content for Freelancer's mod community at one point, though, and he somewhat-snootily stiffed me, so I'm not going to give him a cookie. People who're nice get cookies.

Cruiser 1 model:

Yay for Argh!

He's right, you know. I would love the intricate planning of how to deploy my force's across the entire solar system in a ballet of gravity and inertia.

But onto GEM, Cyder keep up the good woork. Thats cool ass cruiser...but texture it with something apporpreate to its coolness.

Neds moar lensflaer





Nice work Caydr... I suspect your UV/Texxing skills will improve with time (they're not half bad as it is)... i'm looking forward to the future of GEM, esepcially after what you've done with your AA compilation :)

The bumpmaps are definately what makes it all work. That guy made stuff for VegaStrike, and I tried to talk him into loaning out his content for Freelancer's mod community at one point, though, and he somewhat-snootily stiffed me, so I'm not going to give him a cookie. People who're nice get cookies.

It has come to my attention that these are AF-grade cookies, and as such I will be eyeing you very closely, we all know I'm the cookie guy here.

Untill then I suggest you trade in custard creams or digestive buscuits, ginger nuts are out of bounds too.

"Digestive biscuits"? I don't even wanna know...

They're like normal buscuits, big and round and you dip them in your cofee/tea

COOKIES!?!?!?!

WHERE!?!!?!

Hang on, Digestive are my domain... seeing as I eat about a pack a day anyway. Get your own biscuit!

On teh moddel, sweet cool, Now it just needs a puck texture! I have already noticed your textures have improved since you started.. maybe this one will have teh best yet, yes/no?

aGorm

Digestives kick ass. However, dollar for dollar I think ginger snaps are the better deal. Especially if you can get one of those economy bags. Ohhh man, if there's anything unhealthy I like, it's those...

good texture... bad texture... I have been railing your texturing
with good reason caydr... here is an example that I HOPE
will make clear the need for good texturing.....

The origonal...


My retexture...


Note: the origonal texture is 1024.... mine is 512. I really must
point this out. Caydr... look at the model in question... now look
at your models... just imagine the possibilities.

I like the original better. That's the fugliest chunk of fugly I've ever seen, and fugly.

it still looks better then your current texturing, That is my point. I think if you spend more time on your texturing you models would look better... it seems you missed my point.

Why dont we make a compromise. Caydr makes the guts of the mod, and smoth makes the models? Then we get the skills Caydr has shown with AA, and the modelling skills smoth apparently has.

BTW, with a reworked camo texture I think the first texture would look better out of those two models. Really, what is with that pink glow thing?

umm it is purple.

Caydr wrote:I like the original better. That's the fugliest chunk of fugly I've ever seen, and fugly.

I think smoth's is waaaay better than the original, but regardless, it still looks infinitely better than yours, Caydr. for one, his texturing tries to compliment the geometry of the model.=, rather than just crudely wrapped textures

Thanks for the positive, useful critique, TRO. My answer to your commentary is very simple- I was in a hurry to get a S3O built and working, and I will be reworking the skin, because I wasn't terribly happy with it either- it was a one-hour hack job, simply put.

We can continue this conversation, such as it is, when I'm done with a better version that fits my design goals. Bringing Caydr, who is making everybody cool mods, for free, in his spare time... into this... was neither productive, nor necessary. As for Smoth's work, that's between me and Smoth- it's my unit design.

grah... wrong post

I don't really understand why everyone keeps complaining about Caydr's models and texturing, he's already admitted they suck and he plans to redo them, so why keep mentioning it?