The map that will never be

[Kristoffer O]

I'm having an easter break, and since JK is working on his day time job he can't prevent me from working on Gath instead of working on our new project . Actually, he doesn't try to, but it is more fun to work together on that project, so when I'm free I tend to switch back and forth between dom3 and our other project.

I'm proud to say I almost succeeded in making the tartarian 'shattered soul' mechanics work without aid from JK. It didn't work all the way though, and he has to take a look at it, and also add the special stuff.

The first units take some time. I spent several hours on the first of the Gittites and the Kohen Gadol, but then it gets easier, changing equipment and colors and stuff. Giving them stats is just a matter of minutes once the sprites are made.

Simple sprites (human units) might take half an hour for the first one and then about 5-10 min for the rest. Unless I want them to differ more.

Gath is as Gregstrom said the home of Goliath. The nation will be a near eastern nation of giants with influences from Israelites, Canaanites and Philistines. It will be based on accounts of giants in the bible and near eastern texts, such as the Ras Shamra Rephaim texts, Book of Enoch and the like.

Since the Rephaim are huge of stature (size 4) I get stuck in details (I tend to evaluate sprites pixel by pixel even when the sprite is 80 pixels high) and the first ones took a lot of time. Once you have a warrior template and a mage template things tend to go faster.

Gath was a bit quicker than the earlier eras, since they have a larger human population. It was also clever to begin with them since I could rezoom them to make crude Rephaim templates to work from. Making a size 4 unit from scratch is a bit more time consuming.

Descriptions were finished four weeks ago when I has a spring break from school. It was about when 3.15 was about to be released, so I didn't want to make new units that would end up half finished in the map, so I made descriptions instead. It really helps with creativity. You should try it.

[Gregstrom]

Mmm, I wonder if we'll get Nephilim as well? Not to be asking a leading question or anything, really. I like the sound of the word, mostly.

[Kristoffer O]

There will be Nephilim in the early era. The Rephaim are their descendants.

[HoneyBadger]

So, Kristoffer, how *is* Dominions in Space coming along?

[Kristoffer O]

Tzing! Tzing! Banzai! [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/MusicalNote.gif[/img] [img]/threads/images/Graemlins/MusicalNote.gif[/img]

[llamabeast]

Was that a reference to Star Control? Or just general bizarreness?

[Kristoffer O]

Star Control?

[HoneyBadger]

Star Control 2, actually.

You might know it better as The Ur-Quan Masters. That's the free (and best) version. The source code is also free, I believe.

It's basically the most complete gaming experience you can get in a space game. It's got role-playing, good story, really evil villains, a few dozen fairly fleshed out unique/interesting/bizarre alien races, actiony space combat, a sense of ownership, a great sense of humor, some strategy (a bit too light for my tastes, but it's there), a comfortable level of graphics, and a heck of a lot of depth. It's even free. I just wish it A: didn't have a time limit, B: wasn't a click-fest when it comes to combat, and C: had more strategy and open-ended sandboxness (it has them, I just want more, because I'm greedy).

If Master of Orion is a 4X game, then Star Control is, like, 9X. It really gives you a sense of being inside of a good classic space opera.

[quantum_mechani]

HoneyBadger said:


If Master of Orion is a 4X game, then Star Control is, like, 9X.

Exploration, Expansion, Exploitation, Extermination... then Excursions, Examinations, Excellence, (fatal) Exceptions, and finally Exhaustion?

[Kristoffer O]