Rambling PewPew update

Ideation
1

Project PewPew is going well actually; I am tinkering away on it as I have time. There is a learning curve as I am using golang, but I am slowly becoming competent with it.

I am using YAML for the galaxy config files, and I am really liking it. The files are definitely human readable. Check out my default pack of races!

aliens:
   - gov_name: Dwarven Federation
     race_single: dwarf
     race_plural: dwarves
     race_ownership: federation
     sectors_of_control: 2
     in_cradle: 1
     style: blocky
     stats:
     - CMD: 50
       PIL: 50
       NAV: 40
       ENG: 60
       WEP: 60
       SCI: 40
       LUK: 01
   - gov_name: Terran Empire
     race_single: human
     race_plural: humans
     race_ownership: empire
     sectors_of_control: 2
     in_cradle: 1
     style: sleek
     stats:
     - CMD: 50
       PIL: 50
       NAV: 50
       ENG: 50
       WEP: 50
       SCI: 50
       LUK: 05
   - gov_name: Elven Enclave
     race_single: elf
     race_plural: elves
     race_ownership: enclave
     sectors_of_control: 2
     in_cradle: 1
     style: sleek
     stats:
     - CMD: 35
       PIL: 60
       NAV: 50
       ENG: 50
       WEP: 50
       SCI: 65
       LUK: 02
   - gov_name: Gnomish Systems
     race_single: gnome
     race_plural: gnomes
     race_ownership: gnosys
     sectors_of_control: 2
     in_cradle: 1
     style: blocky
     stats:
     - CMD: 50
       PIL: 60
       NAV: 60
       ENG: 50
       WEP: 50
       SCI: 50
       LUK: 06

You can see the set of a persons stats in there, Command, Piloting, Navigation, Engineering, Weapons (probably should rename that combat), Science, and Luck.

I am totally getting more engaged in my galaxies backstory, I thought I wouldn’t care so much, but it is a lot of fun to think about.

I can generate a list of coordinates for stars now, which is awesome. I am refactoring things a little, as I want to break up the map more. Instead of all points in the galaxy view being a simple Cartesian coordinate, They will now be grouped by sectors of 50x50. So ‘Alpha Centauri’ and several other stars would appear in sector (2,3). See this ASCII layout of what I mean.

It will allow me to keep adding new sectors easily. I will just generate the cradle of the Galaxy, and everything out side of that will be generated sector by sector as ships make their way out there.

Next up I am adding the races home planet and sectors they control into the stars generation process. Should be not a trivial process; I am excited. :joy:

2 Likes
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Fun fact: after chatting with some people in #go-nuts, YAML parsers are pretty hefty. I think I’ll use YAML, parse it to JSON and will have the app use the JSON as the config information.

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Will systems move in relation to each other, over time?

I like the idea of people starting far apart and knowing that between the hubs of player existence there unknown regions. Will players get access to something like your ASCII map, a top-down view of the galaxy?

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Star systems are static.

I like that idea too, and something that is doable. I was planning on the galaxy having a ‘cradle’ where all the races started in, and outside of those ‘known’ sectors of space was the frontier to be discovered. But I like your approach more, and is easier technically too, so yay! :smile:

Players definitely get access to the galaxy map view.

My plan on views:

  • galaxy view, where you can see star systems. traveling on this view takes time, and while traveling you can do other things, like tune up your ship, train your crew, fiddle with other things.
  • system view, where you see the entire region of the system you are in, with star in the center. In order to get to traveling in the galaxy view, you need to first ‘leave’ the star system you’re in, by flying to the edge of the system map. (reasons being… gravity well something).
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Question for interested parties; if races/factions all start apart, my gut says their galaxy chart should show them all starting in a sector labeled 0,0. This is neat, and is easy to do. However when factions/races do get together, trying to tell someone where something is will be difficult, because an Enclaves chart will show star X in sector -17,22; a federation player would see it at 10,-3.

We can instead fudge it with sector 0,0 being the galactic core I suppose. What do ya’ll think?

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Progenitor Race! Ha!

I had this rolling around in my head, was waiting for a more topical thread to come up, but you can have either an ancient space-faring race set up all the factions, or another thing.

The other thing is an idea I have for the shared universe Systema: there is a matrix of small objects floating across the galaxy measuring gravity and FTL incidents, created by someone or thing, and can be accessed via a certain level of tech. Hence, they can see that there are other places far, far away, but not in between because they are technologically dark (like current Earth).

I put the Systema idea separate to draw attention to that fact that it is developed, and dedicated to the commons, hence ripe for using. :slight_smile:

And that can just be the default setting, and we essentially fudge it for one-off games/parameters for everyone else (like how the galaxy has an up and down in ST).

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@tim, do you have this documented anywhere else? It deserves a text spec stashed somewhere for further inspection. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
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@maiki I do have it documented! I agree that it warrants a deeper dive. I have lots of ideas on this though; I’ve got a baby step game that’d use this, and is awesome.

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