Privateer: Ascii Sector

as far as I understand, there's nothing wrong with the Russian topic, as long as we're dicsussing possible names and not the ones already rejected :)

so... let me be your guide through the existing star system names; maybe it'll help further understand the principles applied and thus appropriately name the new systems.

(let's start with a bug report: unfortunately, Gagarin's name is mistyped in this map :)

Petrov quadrant: most likely it's Boris Petrov, the scientist who took part in the Soyuz-Apollo program. or it's not :) it's not a rare name, maybe Origin meant some other Petrov.

Kasparov: obviously Garry Kasparov, the chess master.

Leonov: Alexei Leonov, one of the first cosmonauts; first man to step outside a spaceship into the void.

Korolyov: Sergey Korolyov, rocket engineer and production organizer. "father of the Soviet cosmonautics". there's a science town near Moscow named after him.

Titov: Gherman Titov, the second man in space :)

Glushko: Valentin Glushko, the scientist who created the rocket engine using liquid fuel.

Komarov: Vladimir Komarov, captain of "Voskhod" (literally "Sunrise"; the first spaceship with a multiple crew); died in a landing module crash.

Cherenkov: Pavel Cherenkov, a physicist and Nobel Prize winner; studied cosmic rays and radiation.

New Baikal: Baikal is a great lake in Russia.

Vostock: literally "East", the name of a successful series of Soviet spaceships.

Yorin: can't say I know this one

Ivan's Joy: again, buggered if I know what they meant...

Lenin: uh oh. I mean, if the future Russians name a star system after Lenin it means that somewhere in the future we'll have us another of those revolutions :) anyway, Lenin's the man who seized the power for the Communist party in 1917, an idealized ideological leader whose body still lies in a sarcophagus beneath the Red Square in Moscow.

Minsk: not really a Russian name anymore: it's the capital of Belarus. (I don't know what have the Baldur's Gate developers been smoking when they've named a schizophrenic warrior NPC after this city :)

Kirov: another improbable Soviet name. Kirov was one of the initial Communist revolutionaries who helped Lenin get the power, along with Stalin, Trotsky and Dzerzhinsky. in contemporary Russia, cities and places named after Kirov have mostly regained their old names.
 
Shere Khan said:
(A whole bunch of interesting stuff!)
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Wow. Thanks for the info. Very interesting!

I just thought of something... It seems that a lot of systems and planets in the Wing Commander universe are named after people that were somehow involved in the US and Russian space programs, such as scientists and engineers. I figure that since space exploration is still a very new thing, the designers of such games think that the inventors of rockets and ion engines and jump drives and what have you will be remembered by naming systems and planets after them, but then I think about exploration and colonization here on Earth and it doesn't seem that people named cities and countries after the people who invented or worked on the form of transportation that brought them there (i.e. ships, navigation, sails, rudders, and so on...).

I guess naming after the explorers themselves is somewhat common, but not after the engineers and inventors? In games such as Wing Commander, isn't all the naming of locations after fx. Boris Petrov, Sergey Korolyov, Pavel Cherenkov and Werner von Braun rather unrealistic and mostly a result of the game designers being very interested in the history of space exploration?

Anyway, just a though that popped into my mind... :)
 
good point. famous Russian explorers are... er.

Yermak - the conqueror of Siberia (XVI century)

Kolchak - counter-admiral, brave explorer, leader of several unprecedented sea expeditions and brilliant tactician. received the great golden Constantine medal of Russian Geographic society in 1906. later fought the Red Army and lost. executed in 1920.

Bering - reached Alaska, discovered several islands, died during his second big expedition. has an island, a sea and a stream named after him. Danish origins.

Papanin - counter-admiral, leader of the famous North Pole expedition in 1937. has a cape, an Antarctic mountain range and an underwater cliffs in the Pacific ocean named after him.

you know, I think there's about enough Russian names for starters... and when new unnamed planets and bases appear, they can be christened individually, according to their function. I suppose it's more productive, inventing names for existing objects.
 
Work on the AI is completed! As the video clip I posted showed, I had already done most of the AI related to combat. Now the rest of the AI is completed as well, so the computer controlled ships can now land at bases, dock with ships, use jump points, fly to designated points in space, escort other ships, or just fly around casually.

Next up is the placement of AI ships whenever a new system is "loaded" (i.e. whenever you enter a system, either by taking off from a base or jumping into a new system). After that I'll start working on missions (placement of mission related ships and a procedure for checking if mission objectives have been accomplished or failed).
 
Placement of non-mission related AI ships is done. I'm going to start working on all the non-plot mission related procedures next.

So far I've got 17 kinds of non-plot missions -- that is, missions you receive from the Merchants' and Mercenearies' Guilds, and from private persons (usually in bars on the bases and planets, these private missions will replace the mission computer). If any of you have got ideas for other kinds of missions, please let me know, as I would like for the non-plot missions to be as varied as possible. I would especially like more missions for the Merchants' Guild...


Merchants' Guild:
1) Buy commodity and deliver it to a base
2) Buy commodity and deliver it to a ship (docking)


Mercenaries' Guild:
3) Patrol nav points and kill hostiles
4) Scout nav points
5) Attack hostiles at a nav point
6) Defend a base from hostiles
7) Escort a ship to a jump point
8) Escort a ship to a base
9) Escort a ship while it docks with another ship
10) Bounty hunting (find and kill a designated target)


Private:
11) Deliver a message to a character on a base
12) Deliver a message to a ship in space
13) Deliver item to a character on a base
14) Deliver item to a ship (docking)
15) Assassination (like bounty hunting, but target is a merchant, bounty hunter, confed or militia)
16) Transport a character
17) Smuggle contraband
 
Wow! That's far more mission options than in original privateer.

I did some brainstorming :
- Merchants Guild also had bounty missions in privateer. I think that they can have escort missions as well.
- Private : Intercept cargo - destroy ship and collect it's cargo.
- Mercs Guild : Bounty (alive) - destroy ship and pick up ejected pilot .To do it, you'll have to heavily damage his ship and then after few seconds he ejects, but if you destroy ship too fast he dies and mission is failed. That would be a tricky one ;)
 
Mike-L said:
Wow! That's far more mission options than in original privateer.

I did some brainstorming :
- Merchants Guild also had bounty missions in privateer. I think that they can have escort missions as well.
- Private : Intercept cargo - destroy ship and collect it's cargo.
- Mercs Guild : Bounty (alive) - destroy ship and pick up ejected pilot .To do it, you'll have to heavily damage his ship and then after few seconds he ejects, but if you destroy ship too fast he dies and mission is failed. That would be a tricky one ;)
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You're right that the Merchants' Guild also had bounty missions in the original Privateer, but I always found that pretty odd, since they wouldn't need a merchant for a bounty mission, but a mercenary (or hunter), so why would they post the mission on the Merchants' Guild network?

Your other two missions are excellent ideas! I had actually considered having bounty missions where you needed to capture the ejected pilot alive and then deliver him to a prison base to get your pay. As I haven't made any prison bases in the five systems for the demo, I'll probably save that kind of mission for the full game.

The intercept cargo type mission should be pretty easy to implement. Thanks!
 
merchant: join a cargo caravan of several ships (essentially like escort, but with cargo on board and necessary docking in the end)
mercenary or private: search and rescue of an ejected pilot or cargo in one of several nav points
torpedo a cap ship
join a raid (essentially a sweep of hostile space with several wingmen)
any guild: rendezvouz with an agent to give/receive some information

one more thought. in original Privateer, if you got a mission of a certain kind, there was only one way it could progress. the pirate you had to kill was in some nav point in the sector, and he didn't leave you with three of his goons and run to another system if you were too slow, or try to give you a bigger price than you'd get for his head, or promise to redeem your status with his clan... the mission-specific cargo was intercepted by scripted pirates, never by, say, a competitive runner-up in the Merchants guild who didn't get the mission or a mercenary hired by someone in the point of destination, interested to maintain his monopoly on furs... you get the idea. I guess it would add a bit of fun if there's several possible endings to any given generic mission scenario, and you don't know in advance just how exactly it would develop and what to expect.
 
Shere Khan said:
merchant: join a cargo caravan of several ships (essentially like escort, but with cargo on board and necessary docking in the end)
mercenary or private: search and rescue of an ejected pilot or cargo in one of several nav points
torpedo a cap ship
join a raid (essentially a sweep of hostile space with several wingmen)
any guild: rendezvouz with an agent to give/receive some information
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Excellent ideas! Though I think I'll save all the give/receive information missions for private missions (I'd like for each mission type to only be available from one of the three mission sources).

Shere Khan said:
one more thought. in original Privateer, if you got a mission of a certain kind, there was only one way it could progress. the pirate you had to kill was in some nav point in the sector, and he didn't leave you with three of his goons and run to another system if you were too slow, or try to give you a bigger price than you'd get for his head, or promise to redeem your status with his clan... the mission-specific cargo was intercepted by scripted pirates, never by, say, a competitive runner-up in the Merchants guild who didn't get the mission or a mercenary hired by someone in the point of destination, interested to maintain his monopoly on furs... you get the idea. I guess it would add a bit of fun if there's several possible endings to any given generic mission scenario, and you don't know in advance just how exactly it would develop and what to expect.
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It wouldn't be too hard to have random encounters during each mission. These encounters can just be based on the (somewhat) random placement of AI ships in the systems. Say for instance that you're on an escort mission. How many pirates you encounter during that mission would depend upon how the system was 'populated' during the loading of that system. So if you fail the mission, load a previous saved game and attempt the mission again, you'll have different encounters as the system will be populated in a different way.

As to the different endings to the generic mission scenarios -- I suppose this could be possible. I could just give each mission a variety of different endings or scripted encounters, and whenever you accept a mission, a random ending or scripted encounter is chosen. This ending or encounter would however be the same if you fail the mission, reload and attempt it again...

Another thing I've considered in regards to the private missions, is that most of the time your pay will be transfered to you automatically, but sometimes (maybe for the more illegal missions, such as assassinations and smuggling) you have to return to the person that gave you the mission to get your pay -- and if you're really unlucky, they'll have split and you won't get paid.
 
For the last, you may want to consider making that a quite rare event. I can imagine losing multiple missions because the "end point" skipped town, so to speak, might get a little annoying.

I don't know how hard or easy this would be to code, but for those that do skip out, perhaps a hint as to where to find them to get paid what you're owed? I'm thinking of the hint being something like a note along the lines of "sorry, cops were on me, had to bail. you can find me at [base]", a bartender complaining about someone who bailed on their tab and that the bartender overheard them talking about going somewhere specific, or something else that points you in the right direction, if not give you a pointer to their exact location ("X nav point in Y system" or somesuch).
 
Death said:
I don't know how hard or easy this would be to code, but for those that do skip out, perhaps a hint as to where to find them to get paid what you're owed? I'm thinking of the hint being something like a note along the lines of "sorry, cops were on me, had to bail. you can find me at [base]", a bartender complaining about someone who bailed on their tab and that the bartender overheard them talking about going somewhere specific, or something else that points you in the right direction, if not give you a pointer to their exact location ("X nav point in Y system" or somesuch).
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That would make a really cool plot mission.

The plot drives you to take a series of missions for a less than reputable character, in return for both money, and information to help you along in the plot.

You finish the last mission for him, and land to meet up with him. Instead, you find that he has skipped out on you.

Using clues from the bartender (or someone else) your next mission involves tracking him down and expressing your "displeasure" at his failure to uphold his end of the bargain (as well as forcing the plot relevant info out of him).

Don't know how hard something like that would be to do. But, it's just a thought.
 
Death: You're right. Having your contact bail on paying you shouldn't happen very often. I'm thinking a 1 in 100 risk of that happening for the 'legal' missions and maybe 1 in 25 for the illegal, but those will also carry a bigger paycheck to make the risk worth it.

As to the bartender or somebody else leaving clues to where your contact has disappeared to -- I think that will add too much of a subplot to a simple non-plot mission. I'll reserve your idea for a plot mission. :)
 
With the last suggestions, I've now got 23 different types of non-plot missions:


Merchants' Guild:
1) Buy commodity and deliver it to a base
2) Buy commodity and deliver it to a ship (docking)
3) Join a cargo caravan (like escort, but with cargo on board and land at destination base)


Mercenaries' Guild:
4) Patrol nav points and kill hostiles
5) Scout nav points
6) Attack hostiles at a nav point
7) Defend a base from hostiles
8) Escort a ship to a jump point
9) Escort a ship to a base
10) Escort a ship while it docks with another ship
11) Bounty hunting, dead or alive (find and kill a designated target)
12) Bounty hunting, alive (destroy ship, pick up ejected pilot, deliver to prison base)
13) Join a raid (sweep hostile space with several other mercenaries)


Private:
14) Deliver a message to a character on a base
15) Deliver a message to a ship in space
16) Deliver item to a character on a base
17) Deliver item to a ship (docking)
18) Assassination (like bounty hunting, but target is a merchant, bounty hunter, confed or militia)
19) Transport a character
20) Smuggle contraband
21) Search and rescue of an ejected pilot in one of several nav points (deliver pilot to contact)
22) Search and pickup of cargo in one of several nav points (deliver cargo to contact)
23) Intercept cargo (destroy ship and collect its cargo, deliver to contact)


EDIT: I've just thought of another idea for merchants. It's not exactly a mission, but my idea is that bartenders will sometimes give you information or news that can be used for trading commodities. Maybe he'll tell you that an epidemic has broken out on a base; you can then pick up a large supply of medicine and deliver it to that base for a good price. Or maybe a mining base has just discovered a large deposit of diamonds. Head on over to it and buy yourself some gems for a cheap price. Any other ideas for these kinds of 'events'?
 
Yeah, for a non-plot mission that whole "chase down the stiffing contact" thing is a bit too detailed. But the more I think of the idea in general, the more I like it. Kinda-sorta like the 2-part missions in WC3 onwards (like, for example, chasing after Flint at Locanda, or saving Catscratch in Circe/Speradon)
 
I never played WC3 or onwards (I've only played WC1, 2 and Privateer -- and definitely mostly Privateer!), so I'm not familiar with those missions. But I agree that it'll make a cool plot mission! :D
 
When you get to the guy the player will eventually have to track down, make sure you establish (in the missions prior to the "final" one for that guy) how sleazy and disreputable a character he is.

The fact that he skips out on you should be horribly frustrating, but not all that surprising given who it is you're dealing with. An ideal situation might even involve having to either cripple his (or her?) ship or blow the guy out of the sky when you catch up with him - and then tractor him on board and interrogate him for the info you need after you land on a nearby planet.
 
Chris Knudsen said:
EDIT: I've just thought of another idea for merchants. It's not exactly a mission, but my idea is that bartenders will sometimes give you information or news that can be used for trading commodities. Maybe he'll tell you that an epidemic has broken out on a base; you can then pick up a large supply of medicine and deliver it to that base for a good price. Or maybe a mining base has just discovered a large deposit of diamonds. Head on over to it and buy yourself some gems for a cheap price. Any other ideas for these kinds of 'events'?
Click to expand...


I like that--it reminds me of Privateer 2, where you would get a "news brief" when you checked the computer every time you land. Some news items would be like the above, informing you of a temporary rise or drop in the cost of particular goods in certain places, while others would announce the availability of new upgrades for your ship, and a few would just be political/sports/human interest news events for flavour.
 
I didn't realise Privateer 2 used that kind of 'news' system. I think I was more inspired by the Elite/Frontier series of games. I've also looked to that series for inspiration for the Guild networks in my game. Where each Guild mission computer on each base in the original Privateer offered different missions (all related to the system/base you're in/on), in Ascii Sector all Guild computers will display the same missions from all over the sector. These missions will be updated periodically (some will be removed, others will be added) to simulate other privateers accepting missions, or simply to remove missions that have expired.
 
I've completed a basic structure for the non-plot missions and their descriptions in the nav computer. In the below examples all the ship names have been made up by me (as you can probably guess by the mention of the Millennium Falcon!), whereas all the names of characters have been randomly generated by the game engine. Also, in the below examples, Guamao is mentioned as a prison base -- it won't be a prison base, as there won't be any in the game demo. I've just designated it as such for testing the non-plot mission structure.


Merchants' Guild:
1.gif



Mercenaries' Guild:
2.gif



Private:
3.gif
 
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