Update#49 : Almost got it...

I'm just excited and wanted to share that I'm sooo close to finishing the new star designer! I just need to figure out one last piece of this machine...

Update#48 : New Days

So it's been a little while since my last update (blame Christmas!) and I thought I should share what's going on, aside from all that family stuff.

I have been making progress with the whole planetary formation thing. In the process, I've found that... while I've been using a bit more and more scientific references for my models, I'm a bit lost with some of my previous choices. Mainly, the arbitrary values I was giving stars for their variety, and how they were mucking up my planetary designs. My solution: take a step back to star formation. I'm not going to be revising the whole system and thus need to start over with the stupid equations that took months; I just need to change how the star values are determined, and then adjust a few surrounding things to accomodate the new value ranges.

The specific problem: Originally, I gave stars a random mass and volume, to account for the possibility of small massive bright stars and red giants. Now what I'll do is roll a mass for a star, generate planets according to that mass (and resulting brightness) then roll for its age to determine which phase of star life it's in.

The final piece of related info: The values that I was using were totally arbitrary, so I couldn't relate them at all to the more-realistic models I was starting to formulate and, well, without any relation, I didn't know how to proceed! Also, again, I was ending up with wonky systems due to the star properties being too random.

If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go back to having fun with finding good number ranges and figuring out nice easy ways to make them, so that I can get back to building planets!

Update#47 : Olden Days ... with Programming?

No snow around here, so I've been convinced to visit a place with snow, where I can work by candles some more. I forgot how many details there really were for designing planets; much more complicated than stars. Writing it all up will probably take a few pages per draft and I don't know how many drafts I'll be doing...

Before I get overwhelmed, I just have to remember ... snow and candles.

Update#46 : Definition

I have all my new equations fully refined and set, and I promise this will be the last time that I touch them ... excluding the event that I find I've made a mistake in any of them. I say that specifically because I've found a couple errors in current and past equations already (and, I believe, have fixed them all) ...

Also, this last set of equations I had a little more fun with than usual. I hold to the belief that handwriting is the best way to solve equations (not including the number-crunching part) and so I have my binder with sheets of paper and write out my equations in pencil. The last set, however, I wrote without the tv on, or music, or computer aid, or even lights... by the light of four candles, I derived my equations carefully, including factoring and compressing my terms all in two steps. I mathed this night like I haven't mathed in a long time; and doing it in quiet by candle light, I felt like a classic mathematician. I know I'm quite the nerd, but I can't help it, I had a lot of fun with this and I hope I'll get to do it again some time. I think that should be fairly easy, actually; I might not be doing math specifically but I do a lot of brainstorming and writing it into my binder...! Looking forward to it!

Now, though, it's about time to sleep again. It seems I might have a busy day tomorrow [outside and excluding programming] but we'll see.


Lately I've been putting together plans for a more advanced map interface; it will be pretty similar to the current one but a little more intuitive for interaction and control... Actually it will be essentially the same, except simply better, the deal is that I'd build the new one from scratch. It shouldn't be too bad though, since I've done it once and I'll probably copy-and-paste a lot... details are secret for now, just trust me it'll be awesome! But I'll definitely finish the planetary formation stuff completely before I start into the new map styles. With the planets finished, I'll actually have 4 map types to set up:
1) Star Region : your local stellar neighbourhood
2) Solar System : an overview of the selected solar system
3) Planet Syetem : an overview of the selected planet (planet name, its moons, nearby fleets)
4) Planetoid View : all of the details about a specific planet/moon/asteroid, such as type and resources


That's enough babbling for now, it's bed time!

Update#45 : Refinement

So I'm preobably being an exceptional perfectionist, but I've made another adjustment to my equation. I will need to spend some time tomorrow finalizing and installing my new modified equations.

Also, I wasn't perfectly happy with the equations with respect to how it would represent natural formations, but was going to accept it; but after some reading I found some theories that help to close the gap between reality and my equation, so everything is dandy now.

I've spent quite a while in this now, so, I'm going to take a little break until the math itch comes back and I have to work the equations a little more... or sleep, that's good too.

Update#44 : Resolution

Now, I absolutely do have my equations, and they are all giving me the results that I want out of them.

Finally I can really move forward preparing planetary design and generation; back on the road with "it's going to be a good winter"

It's still going to take a little while and a lot of trial-and-error to get the full planetary formation strategy finished in a form that I'd like, but I think this should take about a week, and maybe a couple days to expand it to fill the 'galaxy' ... after which I can declare all of my foundations finished, and begin building player-owned objects in the Universe. Hopefully that step will begin before the new year. Wish me luck!

Update#43 : Resolve

That title is a bit of a play with words. There's the meaning "resolve" as in determination, which is being described, but also it can be read as re-solve as applicable in the sense of re-working a mathematical equation.

As I said, some trial-and-error was in order, and ... well I found that the equation I finally got was wrong. After a couple more days with several more revisions and re-discoveries, I finally really have the right equation that I've been looking for. The numbers coming out are what I expect, and can really start putting it to work once I have the full planet creation strategy figured out. I have another couple equations to solve actually but they will be easy and fun in comparison, and I'll have them done tonight.

Update#42 : Planetary Tactics

Pretty simple and short update today. I'm devising the methods of how the system will produce planets, using the equations developed in the previous steps. This will probably take a few more days of trial-and-error to tweak it until I can get results that I'm happy with, then a few days after that to expand it to work on a massive scale.

Update#41 : Solution Today, Construction Tomorrow

I'm pretty happy now with my equations, now they just need a little but of tuning and then I'll be assembling some code to put them to work. Actually, this is a bit of re-tuning because I found that the scale they were producing before wasn't nearly big enough to properly represent real solar systems, in my opinion.

Make no mistake, space is big. Space is REALLY big.

With this math hurdle finished, I expect to get into the good stuff of planet-building tomorrow. Excited!

 If I work hard and get reeeeeally lucky, we might have something to start test-playing by the end of the year! Hopefully not too much distraction will come up between now and then.

Also, I might be able to get a dedicated web host in the near future, which might make the test site more responsive.

 It's going to be a good winter =D

Update#40 : Zeroing Solution

I know I haven't been updating much. I probably should have said more, but being busy with life stuff AND trying to design game stuff, didn't leave much time for sharing.

In short, I've been rethinking how to manage some things with planets. I wasn't comfortable or happy with how the planetary design was looking before.

The main thing is this: Originally, planets would have a certain number of 'slots' on them; they would be arbitrary points based on planet size, where an outpost or city or army could be located, or a fleet in orbit overhead. The programming to manage that was going to be really complicated and fairly awkward, and considering the freedom of motion allowed in the rest of the game, it just didn't feel right.

Oddly enough, I foresaw this possible solution, so when I created the coordinate system I made an accomodation for this. At that time, it didn't seem likely that I would use it since I looked at it a little differently than I am now... but with a little adjustment, it will now take over! I'll have to go back and make adjustments anyway, simply to remove the old accomodation from the system, but that should be pretty easy.

I know I said it last time, but hopefully I'll start posting regular updates soon... I love winter, and now that it's getting to winter season here, I think it's helping to re-excite me about everything again =D

I'm not yet 100% on the rules of planet formation, but I'm close. Reeeeally close, now!


Revealed : Outposts and cities can be built anywhere on a planet, and different locations will have different resource richness. Geological probing and scanning should be performed to determine the value of a planet and find the best places to build. Outposts cannot be placed too close together, thus the planet can host a limited number of settlements, based on its size.

Update#39 : Getting Back on Track

Yeah so maybe I got a little derailed... or a lot. I didn't think that so much time had passed, but it's actually been about a month; I'm pretty unhappy about that. Now that I'm getting back on track though, you should start to see updates coming up a little more.

Sorry for getting so busy/distracted (it's a mix of both) but I'll be trying really hard now to be a devoted programmer once again.

Update#38 : Time-Out

Sorry for the lack of significant update and advancement... I do have what I was trying to do (mentioned in recent posts) but I've also been quite busy IRL, and will probably keep busy for the next week. Thus, I'm afraid, no promises for any real advancement or update between now and then.

After next weekend, I intend and hope to start being really devoted to the project again. It's not far from making regular big leaps, but I need to get past the next week and the current programming&design challenges; just the numeracy of planet generation.

Update#37 : Another Step

I'm reeeally close to having an equation for planet formation that does what I want  =D  I'll have it figured out tomorrow, I know it!

Update#36 : Quick Little Fix

As a planet's design is partly related to the star it orbits, I had to do some checking up on the numbers for stars... and I found that I had made a terrible little error with some math in the region map. You will see that stars in the region map vary significantly in brightness now. This is due to the difference in size; bigger stars appear brighter. I had intended this already but with a little mistake the difference was insignificant; now, it is significant.

I still have an annoying little bug to find and fix eventually, but it's minor and it can wait for now.

Also, I've finally narrowed down on how I'll get planets generated. I need to do a bit more math on paper, but the target is in sight. Pew pew!

That's all for this little update, and now I sleep, because sleep is necessary for good brainworkings.

Update#35 : Muddy, but Free

Alright, I'm feeling better, and am getting back to work.

Before tackling planets I have done a couple of tiny little things.

First: Fixed a teensy error with the region map star links, actually caused by new star generator.
Second: Added the little icon that most websites have for tabs and bookmarks.
Third: Installed a basic/placeholder System Map page for the stars to link to.

Additionally I discovered a little thing I could do to help make things easier for making some of my web pages; a little thing I'll have to go back and change on a few other pages to make them match, but not a big deal at all.

Also, if I'm understanding my options correctly, people should be now allowed to post comments =3



Revealed : Most, but not all weapon types will be available to a player when they start playing in UNIVERSE. Advanced weapons will not necessarily be better than older weapons, but will have some more extreme properties for you to try to take advantage of.

Update#34 : Caught in the Bogs

It's a 2x Double Bog Combo!

#1 - Allergies or a bad cold, I don't know, but for the last few days I've not been able to sleep or function well at all. This makes it very, very difficult to focus and do research and make the decisions that I need to move forward with ..

#2 - The planet generation scheme is... to make it do what I want, it's actually far more complicated than what I was expecting. There a bunch of factors that... the way I was going to try it before, they were somewhat interdependant on each other, to make the values that I want. That is, I couldn't roll a random number generator and start making a planet; all of the factors/generators need an initializing key. I have not yet figured out what is the first key, so I'm having trouble rolling it.

So, please bear with my lack of updates, as I'm trying to get over some illness and do something that - for me, right now - seems to be rather difficult or complicated.

Once I figure out that key, I'll let you know, and everything will start falling into place from there.

Update#33 : Nice, Lean and Clean

Ah, my re-re-reformed codeworks is very pleasant to work with. I thought it was going to be a real bother, rebuilding my basic star generator, but I made it rather pleasant... it's nice to look at, nice to work with, and worked perfectly with every test! I'm finally past all the rebuilding I think, and now it's just forward and on to planets  =)

Update#32 : Trimmed the Fat

O busy life! Busy busy life!

Aside from getting supremely busy with all the stuff going on about me, I've managed to trim one of my function libraries... I'd spent a long time making some powerful tools there. Many of those functions and tools were ultimately much less efficient than I wanted them to be, and others were simply unnecessary. I moved these parts into another file, making the 'common' library much more memory-friendly.

The 'powerful' tools came at the cost of being big... and I decided that I didn't want the system to load and prepare several huge pieces of code when I only needed one or two little pieces.

Overall, it's one of those things that's better done sooner than later.


I'm hoping that tomorrow I won't get bogged down with living too much, and can take care of rebuilding/tweaking the star generation system... that should be the last thing between me and my planet generation.


Revealed : One of the things that I want to add to the game some day are nebulas. The problem is, they can be so large in reality, that I haven't decided yet whether or how I can actually add them to the game!

Update#31 : Powerbase, Transform! ..Again!

I'm just going to Grrr a bit about how I only recently remembered that before I go generating more stars and planets, I need to do one last overhaul to update the coordinate/genesis systems and tools. It shouldn't take long, but it's still annoying as another delay.

That's all.

Update#30 : Planets Are Not Like Stars

This is just a little post about me complaining. I'm complaining about how hard it is to decide how I want planets to be formed. I have a relation-idea so far between planet size and distance from sun/other planets... but that's it, just an idea, and it's not even complete.

And, that's all only applicable to completely-random solar systems. I also need to make up solar systems that artificially have a naturally 'habitable' world to act as a homeworld for starting players; most planets - same as in nature - will not be naturally habitable, and thus not suitable as a homeworld... Thus I need to forcibly increase the odds of a habitable homeworld forming in some systems, to make sure that new players have some place where they can start!

I'm really curious... how many naturally-occuring habitable worlds will there be? I'll honestly be surprized if it's any higher than of 0.001% of all planets, but I guess we'll find out.

... Actually, I think I need to find out, because it will also affect how many habitable worlds are artificially injected into the galaxy!

And I just remembered how the properties of the star will be a key in the build of the planets, so...
> Unfortunately I have another constraint to abide by.
> Fortunately I have another source/key of information to make choices with.

Revealed : Since the stars and solar systems of UNIVERSE will be somewhat modeled on existing known atronomical bodies and physics... if you learn about those kids of things, you might have better luck when searching the stars for particular worlds and resources. Still random though, so no promises!

Update#29 : Engines Firing

I keep telling myself that with the Region Map 'finished' I can move on to other things, but I keep thinking up ways to improve it!

I'm glad to have let myself go with that, because I always felt like there was something wrong with the long wait time for updating the map when there's a lot of stars...

Today I found and fixed a mistake that I thought I had taken care of in the beginning, but nope! So now I really did fix it and resulted in a drastic improvement in the draw speed of the map when there are a lot of stars. With this change and improvement, the Render Controls that were recently added now provide a meaningful effect on the draw speed, and I now formally recommend the 'Automatic' setting.

This improvement makes me happy, and I think this actually might be my last distraction from moving forward with other areas of game development.

Update#28 : Gliding, Upwards

I took it a bit easier for the past few days, but still did some work. After the 'launch' of the star map Region Map I found a couple of bugs and conjured up areas for improvement.

So, I fixed the bugs. Then I added a new control panel (normally minimized) called Render Control. The idea is to give options to make it easier for the browser to draw the stars spots; in short, faster map refresh when seeing a lot of stars on the screen. There are 4 options: Automatic, Low, Medium, High. 'Low' is for faster map draw, 'High' is for nicer looking star orbs, 'Medium' is in between, and with 'Automatic' it will try to decide and give you the best look vs speed. I still need to tweak the numbers to be sure that the Automatic setting is practical, but I won't know until I get to try it myself on my computers.

To be perfectly honest I'm not sure how much it will help; some feedback on that would be much appreciated!


Sooo yeah I deviated from what I said before on my plan of what's next, adding more to the starmap Region Map first instead of doing the other stuff I said... but it seemed important to do before I moved on to next steps; especially the bug fixing! But now I think I really can move on to the other stuff I had planned.

An additional idea came to mind, since the Region Map is a bit complicated, that maybe I should start compiling some Manual/Help pages soon, to describe all the features and functions on each page. In addition to this, there's also the option of using a wikia site to describe everything as it comes up, which also leaves the option for players to add more user-friendly tips and suggestions.

Ah, decisions, decisions... decisions that I can make later! I have a busy day tomorrow and it's well past time-to-sleep.



Revealed : Most planetoids will be generated completely at random. However, depending on various properties they may end up in generalized groups like 'ice world' or 'volcanic world' ... if our planet Venus was in the game, it would probably be classified as a 'volcanic fire planet' and would be very very difficult to colonize. I'm not sure yet if I'd put on labels like that or just let the properties alone determine the colonization requirements, but the ideas exist and will certainly affect the game. Some worlds might be very difficult to colonize, but if they're rich in precious resources then it could be worth the investment. Was that a 'reveal' or a babble?

Update#27 : *Flop*

That is a victorious flop of an exhausting victory.

Tired. Stricken. Distracted, and busy. I have met delay after delay, errors and bugs and all manner of setbacks. I have met them all and, with a bit of time, overcome them.

I'm sorry it took so much longer than expected, but it's done. The starmap - now officially titled the "Region Map" - is finally finished, sufficient for release.

 What can it do?
- It draws stars of various colours and brightness.
- It draws them in 3D, though they're pretty much just dots. To see the 3D, you have to
- ROTATE your view around, which is controlled in the View Control panel.
- It can zoom in and out. Be careful when zooming out; depending on your computer's capability, drawing many stars can take a while. (The final gameplay version won't allow that many stars initially, though you are able to get extra stars in your map if you want them)
- It can download more stars. Using the Data Control panel; it will have a specified point as a center point, and a range option that you can manipulate with the buttons, and when you click on the request button then the map will request star data from the server; which will respond with all of the stars within 'range' of the center point. FYI, there are currently 6 blobs of stars forming a square-base pyramid, with an extra blob in the middle. This is to help see the 3D, though with so many stars it can be hard to get a good view on slower computers.
- It can save your current view and download settings, so that if you have a preference that you want to see whenever you go to the map page then it will automatically load those settings. In the final game form, the default will just focus on the area surrounding your home star.
- It can load your view and data settings back to your saved/default settings.
- It has little buttons on the control panels that allow you to 'minimize' the panel and get it out of the way; then there will be a little button that allows you to 'restore' the control panel.
- It can find a point based on object names as long as there is an object with that name. This is part of the more advanced use of coordinates... or is it basic use? Well, I'm not ready to go into too much detail about the coordinates at this particular moment, mostly because I'm exhausted by my allergies. All that I'll tell you right now is that the galaxy's name is Protoform, and there is a star named Minimus, and a planet named Maximus... And if you enter the the coordinate "Protoform.Minimus.0" or "Protoform.Minimus.Maximus" then the Region Map will go ask for its 'proper' coordinates, put them into your view/data panel, and thus be automatically centered on that star. Pretty nifty, right? =D

 What can't it do?
- It doesn't give any option menu when you click on a star, but it will have that later. For now it's a link to the star's system view page, which doesn't actually exist at the time of this post.
- It can't go faster than what it does now. I'll add more and better view filters to help with load times.
- It can't make pie. Yet.
- It can't show fleets or things. This is partly due to the fact that there's no such thing as fleets or things.
- It can't click-and-drag pan. That would be monstrously laggy to implement right now.

 What's next?
The first next thing that I'm going to do (after taking care of some real-life stuff) is set up a page for the stars to link to, and also tweak some numbers to get a better variety of stars; there should be more yellows and whites and maybe some blue. The page will be needed eventually, and having an incomplete page is still better than "Not Found" or whatever. Then I'll do some more BORING work to do some internal coding that will make my life a lot easier in the future. After which I will start on the massive and exciting task of planet generation. This will involve me deciding how to make the computer decide how to build planets! Once there's a bunch of planets, I can make some system/planet map stuffs, and then be another huge step closer to the game being finished.

Oh, and please let me know if you encounter any bugs.
That's all for now. Goodnight, and have a nice day.
*flop*



Revealed : All that stuff I just said!

Update#26 : Starting my Twilight Stroll

Yep, I'm already making good use of the finished coordinate validator and have gotten back to the point where I was about a month ago with drawing stars into the map field... except this time with a good foundation and the necessary background tools to keep moving forward. On my map (not one that you would currently see, sorry!) I have dots drawn on an XY plane for where stars would be, and with that I'm taking a break for teh night. Tomorrow I'll start on making them draw 'in 3D' and make the map zoom/rotations work, hopefully I'll even get that done and can give the stars their colours. It's going to be a good weekend.


Revealed : Currently planning 3-5 main weapon types, each with its own combination of advantages and disadvantages. The right one to use will really depend on your preferences!

Update#25 : The Beginning of... the Beginning?

IT'S DONE IT'S FINALLY DONE THE COORDINATE VALIDATOR IS FINISHED.

With that out of the way I can pretty much go ahead and get back to the good stuff... in terms of game-building. I'm quite excited; it should be much easier now to start throwing up meaningful additions.

With that having been said... No, the star map is not yet finished. However, I do still believe I'll have it done for the weekend.


Revealed : I have now decided that there will be 4 primary resources. They are listed below.

1. UC ('Universal Currency', aka money)
2. Metals (primary material)
3. Minerals (secondary material)
4. Heavy Metals (tertiary material, new!)

UC is stored in your account and can't be stolen and is not limited in location. All other materials however will be 'physical' stuffs that can be transported and traded and stolen and looted, and their availability will vary according to many factors (such as natural concentration levels, mining intensity, and trade).

Update#24 : Tangent-Chain-Discoveries

While on a tangent with game design, I learned a few more theories and things about how various celestial bodies form, giving me ideas on how I can add a bit more to the game while also making it easier to plan out related details.

Another tangent discovery/realization; while almost finishing the main coordinate-checking system, I realize that I really really need to know exactly how planets are going to be addressed and operated in the deeper system levels.

Fortunately, I should be too busy tomorrow, but I also can't be at my computer all day. I will use this unique block of time to sit with my binder and figure out all these pesky little details. Probably tomorrow night I can get it figured out and then finish. Hope!


Revealed : Designing static defense units will be the same as designing your ships. Because static defenses are static defenses, it will be impossible to match the eventual massing potential of allies who are grouping their fleets and working together. However, the lack of engines will give static defenses a much better value-cost ratio, while also making them easier to produce en masse. It will be up to you to decide how you spend your resources!

Update#23 : Milestones

Yesterday was my birthday. Today I have the new map behaving the way I want it to, without too many hiccups. I'm discovering new things that will make the mapping system more powerful and secure, but also require a bit more back-end work than I expected (boo). But in the end it will all be great... I know I keep saying that and not showing anything. Oh, and I also fixed the UNIVERSE home page; it had a link to this web page, which was broken  >_<

The last few days have been pretty exciting for me, both personally and UNIVERSEally. The next few days should be even more fun \o/ including...

1) The Perseid Meteor Shower is peaking over the next few days, so it's a good weekend to head out to a dark area away from city lights and watch the skies for a while. Hope for clear skies!
2) This weekend will also see a semi-open beta for CCP's upcoming DUST514, a FPS which is both standalone AND a complementary game for EVE Online which is a fantastic space Strategy/RPG.


I also feel like... by the end of next weekend, I might have the Starmap sufficiently finished to showcase it, or even import it to the main game! But that could be too optimistic; there's one big block of back-end code that I need to write to make it happen. It shouldn't be too bad...


Revealed : The coordinate system is a bit complicated! But don't worry, you won't have to deal with it too directly. There will be bookmarking and addressing systems that will allow you to avoid dealing with complex coordinates. You will be given the option to deal with direct coordinates too, so that once you get comfortable with them you can use them to open some new strategic possibilities.

Update#22 : Minor Achievement Unlocked!

Finally I have something to see for all my work in the last while! I've finished a basic prototype of the final-form Star Map. It's ugly now, but all of the elements are present and ready for me to work with them. Now I can really get things working, and once it's working I'll pretty it up a bit. After that, I'll add this new piece to the game so that the other testers can proof that it works and see what I've been so excited about. Hopefully I'll be finished all the functionality in just a few days =D


Revealed : There will eventually be added a dedicated Constellation Viewer. With this, you will be able to look out from a point at all of the stars (and maybe even galaxies!) around. It won't literally show you constellations with lines and names, but it will be as if you are looking into a night sky. With a view like this, you can make up your own constellations as you see them!

Update#21 : A Long Quiet Night

I know I haven't been posting much, life's got me busy as well as the map being pretty complicated. I wish it wasn't taking so long, I want to get past this and on to making MORE DETAILS AND AWESOME STUFF. I haven't stopped - I never stop - I just get caught up in life. Yesterday, for example, I went to the wedding of a cherished cousin. It was my first full big wedding and it was nice, and I was gone for the whole day not exaggerating. Just remember that I'me taking my time to get the fundamentals right and solid, and the maps are a fundamental piece of what will make this game different and awesome.

Revealed : Large space ships will be very expensive, and each one you build will be like a little achievement. If you can mass-produce large ships, I'd consider you a superpower!

Update#20 : Real Graphics?

Having no desire to have a game entirely without graphics, I've created an image board to where I'm uploading saved images. It's located at space.booru.org and you can just enjoy the images there so far or upload your own! All you need to do is create an account, and then on this page you should be able to upload a picture. All I ask is that for the source you should enter the address where you got the picture from, and in the tags you include the word "tagme" so that I can deal with it later.

A 'booru' imageboard is one where people upload images and they or others can add information to the image in the form of 'tags'. When looking for an image, a user only needs to search for one or more 'tags' that interest them and they'll get all images which have all of the requested tags. So, if you only want to see pictures of nebulas, you just search for "nebula" and all "nebula" pictures will come up.

I want to build up a collection of nice pictures that can be used in the game, and any help with this that I can get would be really helpful. Please, no copyright-protected material!

Update#19 : Better

I've had my rest and have been refreshed by a little vacation. There's a new task list and carefully recrafting the star map has begun. Things are still a bit foggy as to how long it will all take, since I still have to do a bit of rebuilding and such... still, I feel good about it again =)

Update#18 : The Great Brwar

I thought the next few days were going to be great for visible progress for the map; at least for me. I thought it was going to be an exciting week of churning out new map visuals, and I thought I'd surprize you soon with another fancy screenshot despite saying that I wouldn't.

What I discovered and realized is that I made a change in plans a few days ago and I've been running with it as it seemed like an insignificant change that I could just go ahead and do. What I forgot is that I wasn't originally going to go with this idea so soon because of how much extra work it was. I've already started it though and it's what I want the final result to be, so I pretty much have to go through with it and finish.

There is another piece in 'The Great Brwar' : code quality. For the last little while I have been so excited about making progress that I've cut corners and sacrificed on my idea of code quality. While not a huge issue now, it could become a problem for me in the near future. Compound this with the fact that I need to write a lot of new code, and it means even more work. Thus, I am no longer so excited about getting it done.

Furthermore, the specific functionality of the map is more complex than I really expected... or at least I'm now daunted by it where I wasn't before. Whatever the case, I need to spend some time carefully designing how I really want the star map to end up looking, and working, and... well, as I said, it's complicated.

SO, instead of an exciting week of creating my awesome star map engine, I'm taking some time away to rest from coding, and do the proper planning and design that I need to do anyway.

That's all for now~


Revealed : The three primary resources in UNIVERSE required to make things will be Metals, Minerals, and UC ('Universal Credits') ... These are just the basic resources used to make outposts, buildings, ships, and other commodities.

Update#17 : Nightfall

Finally, I have something to show for the last few weeks of effort. I won't be revealing much about it, but I will be giving you this fancy screenshot about it. The first sample of my star map at work. It's absolutely unfinished and the end result will look nothing like this.... but it is a start. It is THE start.

I created five (5) teeny tiny star clusters of stars from my star generator, centered on 5 logical points that I can use to easily see if the map functions are all working properly. Right now, all I wanted it to do was draw something and it did that. I think I've earned my dinner today, so I'll be going to do that once I'm done this post ^^ but then it's back to work! There's a LOT more awesomeness to cram into this little box, and now that I've gotten this far, I don't want to waste any more time! And, I'm sorry to say that you won't see any of the progress for a while.

I'll try to make regular posts to keep you updated, now that it's getting exciting =3



Revealed : There will be 2 main types of travel engines. One is used to travel within a solar system and can help with evasion in battle, the other is used to travel the vast distances of interstellar space.



PS ~ In case you're curious how many stars are in that picture ........... the answer is 514.

Update#16 : Waning Orange

After much hard work and some amount of frustration, I've finally completed the first piece of my Genesis Engine. I can now make spherical star clusters at a whim! With that done, I am now moving on with producing a star map, with which to see said stars and thus further develop everything ... the star map will be a critical element, as a lot of what goes on in the game will involve the star map. I feel like it shouldn't take too long to make, but I get the feeling that it will take another little while as I start having to consider and design things that I never even thought about before... I don't think I'm forgetting anything, but I'm sure I'll find something. There's always something.


Revealed : Star designs and star-cluster formation is modeled after realistic patterns as observed in astronomy. Entire galaxies be modeled according to astronomical observations; while still being randomly generated!

Update#15 : The Promised Dusk

Alright, that stuff I mentioned last time is out of the way, now. There is nothing left that I need to do between now and working on building up the maps... so, the next thing I work on will be building up the maps. You won't see much or anything until it's done (or at least done-ish) but when you do, it's going to be pretty beyond awesome for a text-based space empire game =D

HELP I'M ALREADY GETTING OVERLY EXCITED ABOUT IT

Revealed : Leader and Empire names will allow spaces in them!

Update#14 : The Sun is Setting...

... but it's not down yet.

I have the original/remade admin tools finished and a couple new ones added, but before the stars can start coming out I want to implement one more little back-end feature. Basically, I have these admin tools, and I want a record of what I do with them. If I screw up somehow, I want to know about it and what I did.

This will also serve as practise for other record-keeping functions that I will likely add in the future, such as keeping a history of purchases.  It's a big deal and not quite as simple as it sounds; I'll want to keep such records in a secondary database. Why? Suppose you make a donation of money to me or purchase in-game tokens with money, and then something happens that requires me to restore a previous backup from before your purchase. If the special records were in the same database, then your purchase is lost and I'd have to look through bank records or whatever to confirm your claim of "gimme what I paid for!"

That's just an example, but yeah, I think it's important enough to delay the mapping thing one more time.


Revealed : All of the playing and competitive features of UNIVERSE will be free! UNIVERSE will raise money by selling small token items and features that won't have any real effect in a player's ability to do well in the game. Details are being kept quiet for now!

Update#13 : A Measure of Clarity

This is just a quick little post to note that I have approximately 1/2 finished my pre-mapping task on the new admin tools. It's much nicer than the old tool page already as well as more concise while giving more/better information! This will definitely help building and management later.

Revealed : There will be a trading system permitting the exchange of almost everything!

Update#12 : A Detour Through the Scenic Route

As I was starting on the path to building an early-prototype galaxy to start with mapping, it occured to me that I would want to add an admin tool for easily generating star clusters for this purpose.

My special admin tools - which I made soon after starting the project - were and will be useful... but also consider that they predate the completion of the mail system. At the time of their initial build, I felt that I could afford myself the liberty of having one loosely-developed page. The page that would only ever be seen and used by myself was allowed to be ugly, because that would make it easier to build.

Now, I have since grown in my proficiency and find that it seems messy both to look at and to add on to. I wanted to add my personal development tools and map, but didn't know how to comfirtably make them fit!

So, I'm building my server/admin tools again. I should be able to do it fairly quickly now, and the page will be much more flexible.  Anyway, I want to say sorry for the delay that this will cause, but - yet again - it is an investment to the future, which will be wonderful. I promise.

I think that, for fun, I will start mentioning little tidbids of what neato things will be part of the game in a little end-of-post section that I'll called 'Revealed' ... especially things that will set it apart from other games, but sometimes maybe not. Some of these things might have been mentioned previouslydue to my poor memory, and some things might be mentioned repeatedly, oops! Anyway, that's all for now~


Revealed : Player-designed space ships.

Update#11 : Let There Be Light!

Friday, the twenty-ninth day of June in the year noted as two-thousand and twelve.

And so it came to pass that the stars in the heavens began truly to form and coalesce, their warm glow sure to set the skys alight, and pave the way for the formation of mineral-rich worlds from which great civilizations will be born.

What I mean by this, is, that I've finally completed a fully functional Star Generator. It is a tool that is built by several parts working together, and what it does is it easily creates stars for me. Lots of stars. In this case, they're limited to being placed in a spherical form, but, now that this is working nicely it should be a matter of mere geometry to create generators that will set stars in other patterns.

However.

Those additional star generators can wait for later. The next step is to display the stars in all their pixellated glory. My next project block for a while will be developing the mapping pages and methods. My intention is to allow 3-D viewing of the stars in a local area. I don't think we'll be spinning cameras in smooth 3-D but I do intend to allow some camera rotation to view stars from a certain angle, and I would also like to add the ability for users to create a 'default' camera view, so that when they go to the map, their will be shown a view that is most relevant to them at the time based on what they're doing in the game.

One step at a time, though... star map: show me some stars  =)


Looking back a couple steps... It's been really frustrating to get the star generator fully working. Code bugs, code inefficiency, datainefficiency, more bugs, more inefficiency, more big bugs.... and yardwork! It's been a taxing job, this star generator.... I hope that the planet generator won't be so buggy as I put it together... but it will probably be even more complicated, so, there's another week of agony to look forward to, yay~


Time for a little break and a snack :3

Update#10 : What's That Over There?

I lost a few hours of work to a really stupid mistake on my part... but most of the last day and a half was genuinely spent coding and bug-fixing the star-designer. I thought it was going to be simple and no problem, but I was so very very wrong.  Not only did it take a full day to make the star designer, but when I finally debugged it to the point that I could start seeing any results, I found that it wasn't even close to producing the results that I was hoping for.  I'd spent the better part of 3 days pre-designing how the designer should work, and it failed.  Fortunately, some extra-hard work and a few eureka moments led to an acceptable solution.

Even still, it's only partially finished. Looking at the numbers produced by the star designer is one thing, seeing them actually come out the way I want them to is quite something else. I'm still a little iffy on the numbers coming out of this thing, too...

I just finished writing the next step, which is the part that takes the star data and makes it into a reality.... next part should be easier though, and hopefully it won't drive me nuts; the star cluster generator which is basically practise for the galaxy generator, and will use the previous parts to actually build star clusters (duh) which will allow me to really start on the next step: finalized design of planets, planet formation, and the introduction of player-controlled elements.

I need to stay focussed and keep myself held back though... I think I also lose a fair amount of work time by thinking too much about next-steps. Many times I had to stop myself, as I got into tangents of how various star properties should be used or handled, while I was trying to figure out how to generate the properties. I need to remind myself: handling the properties of the universe can come later... and if I don't like the properties, then too bad, because it's a harsh place XD

I won't simply allow you, players, to suffer in a harsh game, though. A major reason that I'm building this game is because I want to play it myself! So, I'll feel first-hand how things are and aren't working well, and I'll suffer with you when requirements or living conditions are harsh.  It will be tough, but I promise I won't cheat  o7


Time for a short break, and then on to the cluster generator.

Update#9 : Dust in the Dark

A quick and uncharacterful update, because I'm tired and busy.
1) Finished determining the formation factors of stars, and their properties.
2) Started the first mapping page.

That's it! Goodnight.

Update#8 : Another Block Down, Ninety-Seven Or So To Go

As is often the case, it's 5am when I'm finishing something and writing this update.

Today's accomplishment is finishing all the base coordinate-handling functions that I need.  Alot ended up changing as I went along. I thought I had it all ironed out before but, well, WRONG. That's okay though, because all these time sinks are learning experiences!  I now have a lean set of tools that I can rely on when I start dealing with spatial objects, which should be soon.

What I don't have finished yet (regarding strictly coordinate-handling abilities) is the full coordinate validator; that one will be a bit of a moonster and will take a full day (maybe two) to complete from start to finish. That won't be an issue until later though, so it can wait for now.

Now a really exciting period starts as I am about to finally set in stone the properties of stars and planets and other such entities, which is half a step away from actually creating and mapping the stars&planets.

The bad news is, it seems that I'm behind my schedule again, by a lot. I'll try to keep pushing forward and see how it goes. If I can start catching up (or at least stop falling further behind) then I'll just adjust my schedule and go back to being on-schedule. If I keep faling behind, I'll change my style from 'keeping on schedule' to 'following the roadmap'  ^^;

*looks out the window*  Hm, a red dawn... blood has been shed this night.


That's all for now. Goodnight.

Update#7 : Back to Work

I have my new schedule, and with re-consideration I should have basic mapping to be done in about 2 weeks, with an estimate that more advanced mapping will be finished 1 week later. I will be wholly focussed on mapping during this time, which unfortunately means still no player-playing for a little while. As much as we would all like to start building things, we can also appreciate the value of having a solid foundation to build on.

Update#6 : Schedule Needs a Fix!

So I spent the better part of today still doing on-paper planning and prototyping. I didn't expect this section to take as long as it did, I expected to be writing code already! My plan before was to have mapping all finished by next weekend, but I think I need to be a bit more generous to myself and project it to the end of June :( It's not all bad though; while I feel that some time was wasted with this paper work, I have to remember that it's leading up to a better final product. Besides, some parts might end up taking less time to do than expected.  It's about 5:25am right now so I'm going to bed.

I'll write up my new schedule/plan tomorrow and let you know how it looks.

Update#5 : Coming up!

Based on what I have written up on my schedule, the next 2 weeks will see some massive transformations and additions. Of course, that's assuming that I can actually figure things out as quickly as I think I can, and not get stumped and stuck repeatedly like I did with the mail system.

It also depends on me keeping my sanity through the next 2 weeks, because from today until next friday I have what I think is a fair amount of work laid out. I'm pretty sure it will be fine, but it's a bit daunting to see how long it should take to do what I want.... and knowing that's it's just the first of multiple 'hard' parts.

Once again, wish me luck  <:3

Update#4 : Time Off?

Sooo the last few days were devoted for cleaning, some of tomorrow will also be spent cleaning but mostly it will be about UNIVERSE planning. Sadly I did not get my day off for gaming and relaxing. I've been getting antsy about not working on it, maybe withdrawl? Heh. I'm feeling tired now, I might even set back my schedule by a day to take tomorrow off. I'll make me sad to take another day away from game work, but some times breaks are necessary; and once I get started again, it will be a while until I take another break.

Either way, wish me luck.

Update#3 : Introductory Stage Completed

As the title suggests, I'm declaring the 'Introductory Stage' of UNIVERSE Project* to be completed. There was some delay introduced by unexpected guests, but not enough to put me much off schedule. My creation now sits tidy with...
> CSS structure : stable, flexible, working
> PHP structure : stable, flexible, working, neatly written and/or packed
> Javascript : all which is applied is working

> Message system : stable, safe, working
> Backups : created safely, saved regularly, well-described
> Page headers : there are now 4 layouts to choose from

* = "UNIVERSE Project" is a name I use for UNIVERSE when talking about working on it.

As stated before, the next two days I'll be taking a break from programming to have some personal time. After which I'll be going to back to work, probably Tuesday, possibly Wednesday depending on how my under-the-bed and other cleaning goes.

Once I get back to work there won't be many visible updates on the site for a little while. The next few working days on the site will be writing up back-end code and planning on how to build the real foundation for the game. It might not sound great, but I'm looking forward to making code and tools that will immensely help with building the rest of the site.... if you only knew what I did/had to deal with last time... welp, done for today. Ta~!

Update#2 : Rework, Rework, and More Rework

So, having finally completed the full mail system just last night, I found a bug and realized another. So, today I set out on two tasks, and have now completed both, sort of.

#1 - Rework the mail system to remove the bugs, streamline the code, and make it more multi-language-friendly ... no I don't have any plans to support additional languages soon, but once I'm ready to go there then I won't have to edit as much core code as I would have before.

#2 - Rearrange the whole file structure. I expected this to take about an hour, turns out it was actually a four-hour job. I'm glad I did it though... better now than later. Doing it now took 4 hours, and I only had a few pages to deal with. The next major segments of development would have added a lot more pages and a lot more ... stuff to have to re-organize. As it is now, though, it should be pretty much optimal and I doubt I'll need to do this kind of re-arrangement ever again. Aside from tomorrow, when I'll overhaul my CSS structure... today's PHP structure overhaul was a tangent of that goal, but it's probably best that I took care of this first anyway. Tomorrow's CSS target should be relatively easy to do... maybe just another 3 hours =P


SO tomorrow's first aim is to restructure the CSS, and something else... add a few new header layouts! It's not much, but it's something I can do that won't take too much effort and will give us something to do other than just talk to each other while we wait for the rest of the game to come together.... didn't I announce this last post? Oh well.

Also, like I said last time, I'll be taking a break for a few days to get some personal chores done and do some relaxing.

As much as I would like to force myself to take the days off completely, I won't... the next stages of the game need to be developed and added in a sepecific order, because each step will be completely reliant on the thorough completion of the step before it. Here, I'll show you:


1 - Coordinates - Everything has to go somewhere.
2 - Mapping - Without a specific coordinate format, how can anything be placed in the UNIVERSE?
3 - Cities - Without star systems and planets being placed, where will bases be placed?
4 - Economy - Without cities, where does the money come from?
5 - Production - Without an economy, how do you buy&build an army/fleet?
6 - Combat - Without a fleet/army, how will you fight?
7 - Bragging Rights - How can you brag when you have nothing to show for it?


You probably get the idea by now..... well it's just about 5am now, so I'm going to bed. Goodnight!

Update#1 : There's Always Something

So last night(?) I went to bed about 5am after making slow progress (I may have been distracted, and maybe just tired) and then realizing&discovering two mistakes in the message system at about the same time. Not only will those mistakes set me back a day, but I also had the courage to assign myself a bit more work before taking a break from the project.

The 'break' will actually be just a few days: one day for play (I like to play StarCraft2, Diablo3, League of Legends, EVE Online, HALO WARS, plus a few others) and another day or two to clean my room. It's a chore that I've been meaning to do consistently, but have been putting it off in favour of finishing the mail system.

And then what? After I finish the start-new-conversation page I'll fix the little errors I made in the mail system, then I'm going to restructure my CSS in such as way that will make it easier to work with, and also reduced traffic load on all pages (not an issue now, but it's better done than not once the site gets busy). Once that is all done, I'm going to have a bit of fun for the site by making a few new page-header layouts for players to choose from; As much as I am happy and proud of my 'Galaxy' pattern page head, having a few options is good too. It will be easy to add, and I think it will add a bit of a cool factor to the site.

Welp, back to work!

Update#0.1 : Mostly Then

 The following is the contents of the text-file-journal that I was using prior to 'Blogger' ... I've pasted it here and replaced the link to that file with a link to this 'blog' site.... I hate the word blog!


 

12.06.02
 The website's mail system is well under-way now! The 'Message Center' is now mostly finished, and I'm currently working on the actually message-read/reply page. It will be a pop-up window. The game will have numerous pop-up windows, large and small, functional and informative.(THERE WILL NEVER BE A POP-UP AD because everybody hates them!) This should make it easy to sort through your mail and find the most important things.

I would also like to note the following about UNIVERSE's mail system: Mail will be kept for 7 days, after which it will be MOVED to an archive section where it will be stored. It will still be accessible, it just won't come up every time you go to check on new messages. There will be a link in the Message Center to go to the Archives.  However, I won't add the Archive feature until later when the message system starts to see some serious use.


12.05.22
 Woo! Fireworks! Victoria Day is finished! And with it, I finished assembling the form for the universal (no pun intended) page headers, where a player will find a link to all of the major pages! I have to say, I'm feeling good about it; much better than in the previous build! I hope everyone else likes it as much as I do :) Now I'm finally putting a start to the universal page format as well, and I think I might even be done already! It will be quite easy for me to build the core of most pages now. Having only realized now that I do have the core outline made, I think I'll finalize it into a template that I can use once I finish this journal entry. Thank you journal for your contribution to progress! XD


12.05.19
 I've been a bit negligent about posting news; partly because I procrastinate, and partly because I was lazy and didn't feel like writing in HTML format! Ah, sorry... Anyway! Diablo3 is finally out, also causing some delay in the progress. TOTALLY WORTH IT, maybe. Anyway, I have the core login function working, and now I'm starting on a proper page format that I can use across the whole website. I'm having a hard time deciding on the format for the page head (where all the nice game-control links go!) but I think I'm centering in on one that I like. Maybe I can eventually make a few layout options and you pick your favourite? Either way, I'm going to make it like the rest of the website; flexible! So that I can easily make it grow along with the rest of the game.


12.04.30
 Okay it just happens that I'm taking a trip with some friends to their cottage for a few days... but don't worry! I'm still committed. I almost didn't go, for teh sake of the project! But I realized, I need to do a lot of work on paper still to figure out some of the details on how the game will work, so I'll still be working on it while I'm there!


12.04.29
 Here we go starting again on the UNIVERSE project! This time we'll see it through and get it done! Serious! I know I can do it and with a little help it'll be the best game out of all the text-based MMORTSG's!

Update#0 : Then to Now

I hate the word 'blog' but I guess that's irrelevant right now.

Here is the beginning of my development log, not sure if I'll stick with it but at least here is a record of me trying to!  Today I've pretty much finished the message system, minus the ability to start a new conversation with another player; practically speaking, that will be dependant on having a way for players to find another player to send a message to. That doesn't exist yet. Fortunately, that should be fairly easy, and I'll be doing that tonight/tomorrow. How does anything work now? Having access to the database, I've been able to insert some messages directly (with some effort required for proper formatting!) to allow me to view and reply to messages, and a few more manipulations. The creation of a new message should be mostly copy-and-paste from the Reply Message page, so no problem!  This message system has taken about 1 week longer to create than I expected it to, but I think it's unique and cool for a browser-based game. I hope you all like it :)

Of course, even when I have it working, there's little else to see on the site, there's a lot to do before I can start to open alpha/beta testing, so I'm afraid I won't be posting up any links yet. Sorry!

You might be wondering what this game is? It's a Space Empires game, text-based and played via web browser. There will be graphical elements for mapping, but that's about all I can go into for now about that. It is also a MMORTS, and it will be quite epic. Choosing the name UNIVERSE isn't just for the sake of sounding big; it will really be a large-scale environment, and there will only be one instance of it running. One Verse. One, very large, very expandable universe.

As a player, you are the leader of an industrious society who has reached a point in their social and technological development that they are ready to join and compete with the larger galactic community. Your goal is to grow, survive, and thrive by whatever means you see fit.  Whether your empire is a military or economic giant, or a diplomatic and social civilization, or perhaps a centre of high-tech marvels... it all depends on how you apply your resources, and how you get along with those around you.

One of this game's unique aspects - which I'm really looking forward to seeing how it gets used by players - is the existance and use of 'dead space'. Dead space? It's space with nothing in it as far as the environment is concerned. Players will be able to travel to dead space as they wish and do what they want with it.... which will include things like building outposts or space stations, or perhaps just parking a fleet in someone else's back yard to make a statement.

Well I guess that's all for now, I'll babble some more another time. I'm busy trying to build a game and don't actually want to talk too much about it before it's there; it's mostly in my head now, but the good stuff is making it a reality. Ta~