As the mostly-under-wraps progress on Star Trek multiplayer nears the 50% mark, I thought I'd share some of the new planned features for the game, as well as share what is done.


First off, the game's source code is being hosted privately, on my private web server. Access is via ssh. Anyone who wants to help with what's left can comment the topic and I'll PM you the URL and password to the repo.






Shields


I have slightly revised the way the shields work. Originally, it was intended that weapons have an energy damage rating and a solids damage rating, for damage to shields and ship, respectively.


The new system uses a payload rating for a weapon and a dispersal rating for a shield. The shield's current dispersal rating is equal to its max rating multiplied by its current percentage health. For example, imagine a weapon with a payload of 10 is fired at a shield with dispersal rating of 10, at 100%. The weapon impact damage is reduced as such 10 - (10 * 100%) which equals 0, and the shield health is reduced by 10. The next time the damage occurs at 10 - (10 * 90%), which equals 1. So 1 damage is dealt to the ship, and full 10 damage to the shields. **If a weapon's payload is less than the shield can block, no damage will be dealt, but shields will not gain health (sorry :p). If the weapon's payload exceeds the shield's blocking ability, even at 100%, the weapon will still break through.


You will have the ability to install more than one shield module onto your ship. One module will deplete its health, and then be replaced by another. In this case, however, as long as you have one other active shield module that is online, no damage will break through, even if the current module's percentage of health drops.


Sensors and Multi-targetting


The ability to install more than one weapon module will also enable you target your ship's weapons at either one target for combined damage, or to target each module at a different ship. Sensors will enable this by displaying three different targeting interfaces. Press a key to toggle between single target and spread target.


AI Borg Cubes


In keeping with the series, the server will control several Borg cubes with powerful weapons and shielding, designed to be attacked in groups, or fled from if you can run. They will be occasionally spawned in some distance away from an online player and will pursue that player or whatever player moves closest.


Stealth Tech


You can purchase (using points) and equip stealth tech modules. Stealth tech includes: (1) cloaking devices, a level 1 cloak automatically shuts off if you fire, a level 2 does not, and the cloak drops if the module looses health, (2) EMP pulses, which knocks all power systems (warp and impulse) offline for a time, which knocks all systems offline for just as long, (3) viruses, which damage a targeted ship. You may also emit a scrambling signal, which stops all sensors in a certain range from working. Lastly, you may scan another ship to gain info about where their systems are, their shield modulations, etc.






Currently done in the game is the opening menus, most of the CALCnet routines. Still to be done, rendering and the hub. I should have a beta done in a few months.

Whenever you'd like. However, you will need to create a public/private key pair for SSH and email the public one to me so i can give you git access to the server.

TL;DR, as always but I skimmed through some of it and I'm glad you are still planning gCn support (especially with the Spark Core-enabled gCn development and the possibility that one day any USB wifi dongle becomes useable) and more importantly that this project is still alive

It never quite died DJ. I had to stop work on it a few times bc of RL things, and lack of skill on some things, but with a git repo where I can let a few other people help, and a vastly improved knowledge of asm, I feel like this time will be it!!!

Aah ok good to hear. I was worried it might have been due to lack of support, but honestly I think the reason why not many people replied is because people are busy and the update posts are often too long for them under such circumstances. It's good that you also got help.

Haha! Yeah, I do tend to make long posts. I'll try to trim them in the future.
And no, of course not. If anything, this game was well-supported. Perhaps it would've gotten a bit more if I actually finished projects :p
And yeah, some help is always nice. As of now, I've got Deep Thought, Zeda, Sorunome, and a friend of Monkey0x9's in the repo. Anyone else who wants to help, even on just a routine, or sprites, is welcome to join. They'll just have to make an SSH key, email me the public one, and then I'll give them the origin address.

I'm really curious to see how this turns out, but to be honest i think your Zelda project is much more feasible (or rather, less "daunting"). The gCn stuff all sounds really nice (though i've never used it and wouldn't know where to start), but personally i'd rather see some actual gameplay first (ie more than just game menus). I like how well you plan your projects, but at one point we've got to actually start coding Especially for these sorts of projects which we do as a hobby, it's easy to lose interest/motivation if we don't start actually coding and seeing results.

I'd love to help out, but i'm currently working on a little Pokémon clone with deeph over at yAronet. Though with Deep thought, Zeda, and Sorunome (and whoever the other person is) i'm sure you'll get stuff done, especially if they're actively contributing code. All the password and SSH stuff is beyond me, anyway

What sort of game will this be? Tilemap-based?