Amp? (Compressor?)

[knucracker]

Yeah, me too.  The "terrain" of the game is still and area of active investigation.  "Barrier", "slow downs", "no movement", etc... those are all things I'm looking at.  In the end it becomes a balance between what adds strategic and tactical variety the the game without introducing unnecessary complexity.

[pawel345]

Can't you just define some global potentials that would serve as terrain? And the ships and player structures modify the shape of that potential so that the particles behave differently? Like each ship create a A*cos(x)+B*cos(y) potential around it so that it would attract the particles toward it, and also attract the particles to  go around the ships outside of their range and attack structures.

[Epic4242]

Can't you just define some global potentials that would serve as terrain? And the ships and player structures modify the shape of that potential so that the particles behave differently? Like each ship create a A*cos(x)+B*cos(y) potential around it so that it would attract the particles toward it, and also attract the particles to  go around the ships outside of their range and attack structures.

...Wow...

[knucracker]

Ships do project an set of "fields" around themselves and some particles are attracted to the ships because of this.  From the players perspective, it looks like particles are attracted to nearby ships.  And, that's all cool stuff.

As for ships that can regulate field around themselves to repulse or direct particles... maybe.  Depends on if it is useful for a ship capability.

For terrain, it's regions of space that affect the movement or properties of particles.  There are numerous options and the trick is finding the options that make a game.  And additionally, whatever the "terrain" options end up being there is also the option for certain ships to be ale to create or alter that terrain.

[pawel345]

What I meant is that if the fields that the ships project are of a A*cos(x) type (or something similar) then in addition to the fact that the particles will be attracted to the position of the ships, they will be also attracted to the place where there are no ships, effectively cause some particles to avoid the player forces and attack trough an empty space. So that the ships don't only attract but change the global fields.

[Epic4242]

I really like the idea of some ships being able to change "terrain" in order to direct the flow of particles. Don't get me wrong, I'm no game designer but it sounds cool. The only negative is that it sounds kinda hard to balance.:)

Nico