Everyone remembers spacebuild right? And how wonderful it was in it's day but from what I can tell it seems to have lost it's 'charm' recently and there are not so many (if not non at all) people playing it nowa-days. This is a shame but I think it might be down to a number of reasons. It is because of these reasons (which I have listed below) that I would like to suggest that we re-create it and make some drastic changes in a bid to return the once brilliant game-mode to our servers again.
First off let me introduce myself; My name's Dan and I am currently studying Computer Games Art at Teesside University in the UK. I am a competent Modeller and I have decent texturing skills. I have very little Lua knowledge but I'm happy to learn.
Mapping skills I lack but I can easily pick up Hammar and spend a month or two mastering it.
So. Enough about me.
Spacebuild. What was wrong with it?
First off; LAG. I don't know about everyone else but the one thing I suffered from the most in SpaceBuild was not crashing servers or screaming 10 year olds but lag. In particular FPS lag. I used to run GMOD on a DELL XPS computer with good enough specs to run Crysis pretty swiftly and In some situations with lots of players on a server flying lots of ships made up of lots of props I hit lag that made the game almost unplayable. There we're a number of reasons for this lag which I was able to determine. One reason was the SBEP props. I opened a few of those models up in 3DSMAX and although they we're great a few of them we're not optimised properly, they we're brilliant and I'm not saying that the creators we're crap at modelling or anything but I think they could be better. Also a lot of the props didn't fit together with other props from other sets and the entities (doors etc) we're a bit laggy too.
Another thing was the weapons.
That giant "MAC Cannon" I mean, really?
The effects we're laggy and unnecessary and there we're way too many weapons to choose from. So how would we solve this? Here are some ideas;
Reduce the number of props players are given the oppertunity to spawn within the game mode.
What I mean by this is that players are able to spawn hundreds of tiny high poly props from HL2, EP2, EP1, Portal and a whole range of props from the SBEP that add to the poly count and kill the frame rate. We need to limit the props players can spawn. Just to the props that are relevant to the game. Relevant to SpaceBuild.
A simlar idea could be applied to the weapons and entities that players can spawn. If it's not relevent then they should not be allowed to spawn it.
Simplify the weapons,
perhaps just have 3 weapons;
-A turret that fires like a machine gun
-A Projectile weapon, A missile asset that is launched that explodes on impact.
-A Beam weapon, self explanitory.
And get rid of those epic effects. how about having a simple break effect that causes props to dissapear replacing them with simple low poly "rubble". Then when the ship is properly destroyed have a reasonably large "death explosion" effect to signify defeat. Make the life support models much simpler, those models are complex considering they serve a minor visual purpose and are often on the inside of ships and are mostly not seen. So just simple low poly models with good textures would suffice.
Also simplify how the whole thing works, mabey instead of players having to build vast wind farms just have a space port on the spawn planet, built into the map that players can plug into and one single "centre console" prop in their ship that handles all resources, much like the resource cache but more advanced.
Control.
This was not too large a problem for me having come from a wiremod background but I noticed a lot of people built cool looking ships and flumped on the controlls for them resulting in 329782306589236498364923 thrusters to rotate it left. There was a ship control module but lets be honest it wasn't that great and the movements we're very robotic. how about instead of having a small prop that you weld to the top of your ship and link to it in wiremod to controll the ship have a tool that lets you apply those control properties to any prop or even to a completed ship as an object defined by what is welded/attached to what. You then link to a seat which you can place where you like, that way the control module is sort of built into the ship making it "one less prop" to reduce the strain on your CPU to render it all.
Also have 3 options for size when placing this "control" prop with different characteristics.
-Small: Ship moves fast and is nimble.
-Medium: Half way between the two.
-Large: Ship moves slow and clumsy like.
Perhaps also we could produce a tool to replace the weld tool so that larger ships don't require 21780971308970 laggy as hell welds to hold them together, perhaps an "attach" tool for hull parts or something? I seem to remember there being something similar to this that was pretty good.
And one final idea I had, which is WAAYYY off the wall but it could, in theory work;
Space. There was never enough of it, there we're ships bigger than planets on some of the servers I went on which for me kind of killed the mood.So what if we could link servers together using a warp function and have the maps each server runs only having 2 or 3 planets on them that are much bigger and when the player chooses to warp (they could initiate this feature through some form of contextual menu, perhaps by right clicking when in the seat of their ship?) they are given a list of servers running the game to choose from, after picking one they are then "warped" to that server and because the game limits what players can spawn and use there would be no conflicting mod errors and they should be able to spawn with their ship in the next server giving a much bigger feel to the game world.
I have many more ideas but I have already written a novel. I just wanted to see how well this was received in the community and see if anyone else was interested in what I'm talking about before I really dive into this.
Feel free to critisise my ideas or suggest any of your own and if there are any major technical flaws that my LUA ignorance has let slip through then please, highlight them.
Basically what I'm looking for here is people who might be on board with this.
People who can help with the technical side of writing code, I can provide 4829826389623 models but they're useless without some decent script behind them.
So.
Thankyou for taking the time to read my wall of text.
Dan.
[url]http://snakesvx.net/forum/index.php?sid=75b70633d81ddab9396ec36b57ed99b7[/url]
Look here, it looks to me as its still being worked on.
Wow that's excellent. Thank's, I didn't find this forum when I searched for information regarding SpaceBuild. I'll drop my ideas on there.
Cheers pal.
I don't get unplayable lag. And I have a shitty graphics card.
Least I've dropped to is 10 FPS and that's even still playable for me (Whilst looking at a ship that had at least 200 props and a bunch of LS and Gas Systems stuff on it).
The only problem I have with Spacebuild is it's instability, especially while paired with Stargate.
Aycerus.com's Spacebuild crashes a lot, mostly due to idiots thinking that Garry's Mod and the server boxes can handle ANY stupid shit they build, but also due to the instability issues.
That's not really due to the models or anything, but just slightly poor lua coding.
Though don't go blaming [i]everything[/i] on Spacebuild, there are people out there who know how to make good, lagless ships (a winner is parenting tool) with exceptional optimization and control.
It's mostly the dumbasses who won't try and learn anything to make lagless things and say "wtu u talkeng abot thois doesnt lag at all ur computer suks" (Which I've had said to me and everyone else on the server when they said it was a laggy junk ship)
Also, your control thing. There IS already something like that.
Gyro Pods. (Mostly the advanced ones)
But they need fixed since the mouse control no longer works and you're limited to keyboard controls.
The weapon part? Yes, I do agree some things need to be removed since they're utterly useless. But not the Gigafish, I use that often when I need to do some planet-cleaning (AKA removing infestors someone got access to without admin privileges) without cleaning up everyone else's props. Remover tool is too slow and isn't any fun.
Over all, I do agree Spacebuild needs to have some fixings, but not as drastic as you want it to be.
boobies joke or Ideas guy joke
BOOBIES JOKE OR IDEAS GUY JOKE
[B]ARGH WHICH ONE TO CHOOSE?![/B]
[QUOTE=SuperDuperScoot;27652146]I don't get unplayable lag. And I have a shitty graphics card.
Least I've dropped to is 10 FPS and that's even still playable for me (Whilst looking at a ship that had at least 200 props and a bunch of LS and Gas Systems stuff on it).
The only problem I have with Spacebuild is it's instability, especially while paired with Stargate.
Aycerus.com's Spacebuild crashes a lot, mostly due to idiots thinking that Garry's Mod and the server boxes can handle ANY stupid shit they build, but also due to the instability issues.
That's not really due to the models or anything, but just slightly poor lua coding.
Though don't go blaming [i]everything[/i] on Spacebuild, there are people out there who know how to make good, lagless ships (a winner is parenting tool) with exceptional optimization and control.
It's mostly the dumbasses who won't try and learn anything to make lagless things and say "wtu u talkeng abot thois doesnt lag at all ur computer suks" (Which I've had said to me and everyone else on the server when they said it was a laggy junk ship)
Also, your control thing. There IS already something like that.
Gyro Pods. (Mostly the advanced ones)
But they need fixed since the mouse control no longer works and you're limited to keyboard controls.
The weapon part? Yes, I do agree some things need to be removed since they're utterly useless. But not the Gigafish, I use that often when I need to do some planet-cleaning (AKA removing infestors someone got access to without admin privileges) without cleaning up everyone else's props. Remover tool is too slow and isn't any fun.
Over all, I do agree Spacebuild needs to have some fixings, but not as drastic as you want it to be.[/QUOTE]
Yes. Perhaps I was a bit drastic.
But I think the limiting of spawn-able props would solve the problem of people just building insane, ridiculous contraptions that just rape the server.
You don't need to remake Spacebuild to do that.
As long as you have ULX, Evolve or any other admin mod, you can limit the amount of spawnable props.
SBEP is not a part of the Spacebuild gamemode.
[QUOTE=SuperDuperScoot;27652596]You don't need to remake Spacebuild to do that.
As long as you have ULX, Evolve or any other admin mod, you can limit the amount of spawnable props.[/QUOTE]
Can you specify which particular props players can spawn?
For example stop players spawning the original HL2 props.
I am currently coding an add-on meant to replace spacebuild. Currently it is far less laggy, and is compatible with everything except Climate Gens and such. It uses the most efficient methods that I could possibly think of. It should fill atleast some of your wants. If you are interested in testing it out or want to see it, just ask. I am also open to any suggestions.
Spacebuild used to be AWESOME I had so much fun but it was always too laggy and stuff to actually fly the cool ships I made and the last few times ive tried to play things just dont work right and its no fun at all.
I think it would be pretty cool for those ship module things that control them etc (that you suggested at the start) you get the different kinds as a registration and you can choose an untaken rego code for your ship. Something like with airplanes in new zealand where I live all the plane rego codes start with ZK which is NZ's thing then has numbers or letters are that. You could have each server as a different space region or something and you register your ship to what ever region you choose to be your home or where you base yourself. Just an idea it could also turn it into space RP and you have to buy rego's then you can use what ever kind you bought on a ship. I think this could work really super duper well if the ships were very basic and didnt have many props etc. Like if you could only use something like SBEP (but better) to make ships but maybe with alot more models so ships can look more different and not all so similar. But make the parts bigger so you dont have to use as many props. Then for each rego/ ship module it can have only a certain number of welded (joined somehow) normal props and another number for parented props. Everything attaches to that one ship module and it weighs the weight of everything attached put together so its strong (and maybe have some other stability welds if needed). It would also be way less laggy with a few servers running only a few planets because less people would all be on one server at once and more spread out across servers. This could make for some awesome bases and missions and wars!
Also ships with rego boxes could be stored at ports which are at different planets or space stations. It works where when you put your ship in port it only gets stored as something like an adv dup file in the port and you can only spawn it from there where it is ported. Everyone can see all the ships in there but only have access to their ones or ships other people have given permission to. i think that would make the gamemode more interesting and less laggy. And what I mean about the people being able to see the ships in there is they can see the rego number and what kind of ship it is and other info maybe. You can also send things to your ship in the port like resources and supplies and keep it stocked with them while stored.
Ive course frontier is coming out idk when or if it has but that looks pretty awesome... Maybe some of these ideas could be added or something. Oh and NO STARGATE!
I think it would be totally awesome if you did make another gamemode like SB but with these ideas and more changes so it could be more of a new game rather than you build a ship out of props and stuff. There is honestly so much potential in gmod for all kinds of games its just all of the gamemodes just seem to be similar to sandbox but with some or quite alot of changes. it would be really fun to have a top down view 2d online RPG like FF or something on gmod and people could do that its just no one does. People just dont seem creative enough to create new things and they just keep making the same general idea over and over but with changes. If I could lua code and model and all that I would be pumping out awesome games for gmod not so much gamemodes. If someone wanted to work with me I would be very happy!
[url]http://getsatisfaction.com/gmod_sb_dev/[/url]
Account I set up a while back for people to report bugs, give ideas, ....
But so far noone used it yet.
[QUOTE=CmdrMatthew;27722612]I am currently coding an add-on meant to replace spacebuild. Currently it is far less laggy, and is compatible with everything except Climate Gens and such. It uses the most efficient methods that I could possibly think of. It should fill atleast some of your wants. If you are interested in testing it out or want to see it, just ask. I am also open to any suggestions.[/QUOTE]
Ok sounds great. You in need of a modeller? I can Model and texture and export them into the right format for you to use.
I also think Willzilla has some great ideas and he's totally right about stargate (how it shouldn't be in the game mode, just causes too many problems) Also the idea of being able to save ships in servers to return to later. I think the problem there would be too many users, perhaps if the data that determines a players ship could be stored on the users PC much like the Adv Dupe system but the ship is automatically spawned in a specific location on the map upon joining the server as the server reads the storage file from your PC. Mabey like a large hanger or something?
I love the idea of linking all the servers together and giving them area codes, That would make the game feel much more vast.
Anyway I'm really eager to get modelling some of the ship modules.
[QUOTE=DTaylorJones;27751263]Ok sounds great. You in need of a modeller? I can Model and texture and export them into the right format for you to use.
[/QUOTE]
If you want to help a spacesuit player model would be epic and would really help me. Otherwise you can just make anything you think would be good. I don't really have much of a need for specific models at this point.
[QUOTE=CmdrMatthew;27752273]If you want to help a spacesuit player model would be epic and would really help me. Otherwise you can just make anything you think would be good. I don't really have much of a need for specific models at this point.[/QUOTE]
Ok you're on.
I'll work on it when I can.
I'll do some ship modules as well, it's up to you if you want to use them.
Thanks!
Would this include its own life support set up? or would you just use the older versions
[editline]31st January 2011[/editline]
with lower poly models?
It actually is compatible with LS3, but it uses its own entities to replace the climate regulator and such. If it works for SB3 it will work with this. Also, eventually I will make my own RD and Life Support from scratch.
For server switching with multiple servers you can make it so when it has the loading screen its a bit like a windows XP screen saver that looks like you are going through space really fast if you know the one. And also have some info or something about where you are going
Problem you have, and it's pretty big, is that Garry tends to update things in no particular order and change things to fix problems very few, if anybody knew about or saw.
This is the problem we had with Frontier. Too many updates in too short a time basically caused a code fuckup and we had to backtrack a bit.
[QUOTE=LokiSan;27830678]Problem you have, and it's pretty big, is that Garry tends to update things in no particular order and change things to fix problems very few, if anybody knew about or saw.
This is the problem we had with Frontier. Too many updates in too short a time basically caused a code fuckup and we had to backtrack a bit.[/QUOTE]
Wait so, Frontier is discontinued?
I have never had a problem with any updates Garry released. I don't think there is much for him to break in my code, he would have to make GMOD lua basically stop functioning for the core to not work.
[QUOTE=afromana;27830914]Wait so, Frontier is discontinued?[/QUOTE]
Negative.
Ok, a beta server is now up at 70.90.77.57:27014 PM me with any bugs, or just post them here. Also, make sure your space suit is on to go into space. Press F2 to toggle it on or off.
[QUOTE=afromana;27830914]Wait so, Frontier is discontinued?[/QUOTE]
What the fuck is Frontier.
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