Jump Bubbles or Jump Buoys?

They are not a big issue for me at all, I'd get rid of them. I'm just aware of the fact that it's a big issue for other people, so I was trying to find some kind of compromise; and in the process found that the original Privateer has this inconsistency. So, might as well correct the inconsistency, and blame the goofiness on the programmers that programmed the navigation computers... ;-)

EDIT: And in fact, to make it clearer that the balls are computer projections, we could have that some of the new ships, or newer radars, project balls of a different color, say green, or nothing at all except a reticle, or some might project a wire-frame polygon. The idea of projecting a sphere or solid around the jump point is to let the pilot know whether the ship is within the jump point's extent; but this could also be indicated by a dashboard light.
 
Well not all HUDs are 45 degree plates of glass. We can now superimpose images on the windshield of cars. I once saw a IR cam hooked to the winshield of a car for night driving. So all the windows in a cockpit could be HUD enabled. And 3rd person is not even worth thinking about unless you really think that you can pilot your ship tetherd to it like a kite, best to ignore 3rd person issues.
 
i'd just stick to the floating ball o' water. get to damn complicated with each individual radar doing something new everytime
 
Forlarren said:
Well not all HUDs are 45 degree plates of glass. We can now superimpose images on the windshield of cars. I once saw a IR cam hooked to the winshield of a car for night driving. So all the windows in a cockpit could be HUD enabled. And 3rd person is not even worth thinking about unless you really think that you can pilot your ship tetherd to it like a kite, best to ignore 3rd person issues.
Click to expand...

Very, VERY true. I never understood this concept of having external views. I would get rid of them, myself. Thanks for the clarification about modern HUD's.
 
Well the idea is that each race / faction / avionics package design would have differing ways of dealing with the same data. And each ship would have a more or less consistant user interface design. Its a major imersion thing.
 
hmm....i would advise against using other games as a means of implementing something with regards to WC. i understand it...but it's not WC.

it was simple enough in privateer.


you kill a crap load a merchants, confed and the militia hate you, the pirates are fine with you, also the bounty hunters and merchants too.

you kill a crapload of pirates, the pirates hate you.

you kill mercenaries, they hate you. (i don't think anyone else will hate you)

the cats always hate you.

the retros, always hate you.

now, why do we need to get complicated about it?
 
BradMick said:
i'd just stick to the floating ball o' water. get to damn complicated with each individual radar doing something new everytime
Click to expand...

Okay. I was just throwing that in. In fact, we may not need to change anything at all, but it kind of helps going through these mental exercises, so that one may know what the story behind the story is. Now we know we can have a blue ball AND/OR a buoy at a jump point, and that there is no conflict. The military don't have blue balls on their HUD, and although I'm pretty sure their computers can tell where a jump point is, they like to have external, physical buoys as a back up. And if a merchant goes there, she'll see the buoy, AND a blue ball on top or around the buoy.

No problemo.
 
Jump buoys do not emit jump points. They serve three purposes (and are not related to the blue spheres in Privateer - we see no buoys in Gemini, and therefore assume none exist in 2669):

* They mark where jump points are.

* Early warning/recon.

* They're part of an elaborate inter-system communications network developed (supposedly) at the behest of Chris Roberts himself for Wing Commander IV. Jump Buoys can relay communications through a jump point at high speeds. They work in tandem with communications relay stations and arrays (which also show up in WCIV).

For this reason, Confed has an interest in creating a communications network in its space... and the Kilrathi have an interest in creating their own (and both have an interest in blowing up eachothers buoys, hence the missile armed Kilrathi ones on WCA). In the post-war era, Confed has embarked on a big program to expand its civilian communications network.

Privateer 2 is certainly part of the continuity, though if you're setting your game in the 2600s you should tone back the Tri-Systems technology by a century. The 'jump gate' system is actually first developed in the Wing Commander IV novel... where the Outerworlds Fleet includes an experimental corvette that can open and close jump tunnels to allow non-capable fighters to move through them.
 
The way it works in the new version I just uploaded (you CAN get it from CVS now right? if not tell me and I'll upload it like usual) is:

* There are buoys. Confed-related buoys have Confed texturing. Kilrathi buoys have Kilrathi texturing. Other buoys have neutral texturing.

* There is a wireframe (ish... still doesn't look right, anyone up to redoing it?) thing around the buoy, projected by the buoy. This is how the "ball" in the original priv should have been done first I believe.

* The wireframe is different colors depending on who owns the buoy.

* Some systems don't have buoys at all (most notably unexplored systems).

* This is all eye candy anyway: jump points work no matter what.

* I think I'm getting the best of all worlds this way... I would do a ball instead of a wireframe, but for some reason I can't make (semi)transparent meshes. I'd rather have a ball if anything, IF someone can bake a better mesh than me!!! Please do!!!!
 
Loaf: You're a walking encyclopaedia. I don't know who doesn't like you or why, but this project would be lost without your knowledge of WC.

Spirit: As Loaf just said, the buoys don't emit balls, nor wireframes. They are communications relays, like communications satellites. Emitting anything would take too much energy.

Semi-transparent balls are already all over Gemini, and they should look the same anywhere there is a jump point, in any sector. If in some WC games you don't see them, it is because the computers in the ships in that game don't project them as such on the HUD. IOW, what jump points look like is ship-dependent, NOT system or faction dependent.

By the way, the blue balls were larger, brighter and easier to see in the original Privateer.

So, to summarize:

* Buoys should be there wherever they were in original WC games for the most part; --i.e.: Wherever the militaries placed them.

* Blue balls should be there wherever there is a known jump point (a jump point that is programmed in your ship's computer), and should all look the same, whether in Gemini, Vega or Kilrah, from the same ship type. Some military ships perhaps don't project jump-points as blueballs, and such ships would not see blue balls anywhere.

* Finally, there may be jump points that are "secret", or unexplored, or that for whatever circumstantial reasons have not been programmed into your computer. In this case you'd see nothing at all. But if you were at the right spot and press J you'd jump anyhow. This could be used for secret pirate bases, where the pirates might tell you, "go near such and so asteroid field, then fly a little bit towards the star, and press J to jump to our base", or something along the lines.
 
Well, I can be a huge jerk (G)

That all sounds great, though. If someone models the Kilrathi buoy from WCA, it'd be a fun game element to have to dodge Kilrathi missiles (or blow up the buoys) to get deep into cat space.
 
I got Wings 3D, though I've only used it once, but if you have a couple of pics I could give it a try.
 
screenshots

Stuff.
 

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