Sectors

[Arson_Fire]

I may as well try and contribute a bit.

One of the things that keeps alleg fresh is the randomly generated sectors, the aleph and asteroids are in different places each time you load up a map and you can only build bases on asteroids. That's fairly easy in a space based game, just set how many asteroids you want then generate a few random x,y,z coordinates. However in a ground based game it's a bit different as you also have to randomly generate terrain. Would we be better off with more in depth but pre-made maps?

What are we going to use in place of asteroids? At first I was thinking small hills or mounds of some sort scattered around but it would be difficult to make that look right (what I'm picturing looks like a field of haystacks).
Another idea that would be easier to implement is that you can only build bases on top of underground mineral deposits. It still doesn't make a lot of sense that when the base on top dies so does the deposit but I'm sure we can come up with some excuse. It also lets you say that for example, one of them in a sector is a uranium deposit so you can build a tank factory on there.
The downside is it gives the newbs less stuff to crash into.

As for the sectors themselves, what sort of boundary is there to prevent people from driving/flying out? I think that unlike alleg the sector boundary should be a bit more visible, a large shield dome would sort of make sense. You can pass through it but outside there are extreme conditions that cause you to take damage over time. On that note, what sort of planet is Quantus supposed to be? Harsh? Earthlike? Perhaps it would be a better idea to say that Quantus is a star system containing numerous planets to give the maps a bit more visual variety.

[Andon]

Perhaps Quantas takes place on post-apocalyptic Allegiance Earth. That would make the shield dome a bit more viable.
As for buildings - Who says you just have to have hills? You could have trees, hills, pits, mineral deposits, roads, ruined buildings, or more.

[radruin]

We're planning on making the game set on an ancient alien planet, called Quantus.

As for terrain, I'm not exactly sure if we'll have it randomly generated (will if it's possible; i'll have to play around), or a large collection of pre-made models.

For sector boundary, we may do like in the Mechwarrior games and just have you do an about-face if you reach the boundary. You'll be walking along, get a "You're now leaving the field of operations" or w/e message, and if you keep on walking your dude/mech/tank/plane/whatever will turn 180 degrees.

Ask Cadillac about what kind of planet Quantus is (basically, habitable or not). If we have an earth-like planet, then we'll likely have a variety of landscapes, from mountainous, to rolling plains, to marshes/forests (provided all the trees don't run the frames per second count into the ground /wacko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":wacko:" border="0" alt="wacko.gif" /> )

[Cadillac]

QUOTE (Andon @ Jun 21 2007, 02:52 PM) Perhaps Quantas takes place on post-apocalyptic Allegiance Earth. That would make the shield dome a bit more viable.
As for buildings - Who says you just have to have hills? You could have trees, hills, pits, mineral deposits, roads, ruined buildings, or more.

Been there, thought about that.

There is a small problem of the earth having fragmented before the start of Allegiance.

It does not exist as it was anymore.

We could have it like the current allegiance setup, if you stray too far from the sector you will start losing health. But these ideas are still up for grabs.

I'm also still in favour of gates or portals to other sectors, this would keep key strategies from the Allegiance game such as camping, possibly even resonating etc.

[Andon]

Damn... not to up to date on the Alleg backstory. I thought that it was just rendered uninhabitable.

[finnbryant]

Moved my long post to its own thread.

basically its a storyline that explains why sectors are almost exactly the same as the original allegiance

Storyline Tread

EDIT: BTW, i dont think that Earth was ripped apart... was it?

[Cadillac]

No it wasnt, but it's little more than an asteroid I would think.

[Puggle]

So on Quantus, the atmosphere is so harsh that all life forms on the surface need to sue personal life-support systems (anti-radiation, filters etc.) These systems are powered remotely by a central generator.

Within a certain radius, the generator provides all power needed for the ongoing operation of life-support. Outside the radius of the generator, the life-support is run from batteries carried around by each individual. Once these batteries run out you die.

Therefore each sector is the location of a generator and the radius around it.

[Arson_Fire]

and an HoD equivalent could be disabling the generator

[Imperio59]

Well you could potentially have a randomly generated terrain, the algorithm to do that would not be very complex (imho) to write, the problem is seeing how the engine is laid out as far as maps go. If it requires a set file, then that can still be generated by the server at launch, but it might be a lot more complex... (I'm thinking of how most engines' maps have to be compiled before they can be run, which usually takes up quite a bit of time, but as a result lowers lag a lot...)

You could still sort of manage it to be like alleg, by having relatively barren terrain maps with lots of open spots to place your outposts, teleports, refineries, etc... Then the commander would just need to find a spot big enough to place the structure in overhead view. Again depends on how the engine is laid out.