Development Cycle Archive

I think that we need more skill points or that the skill requirements should be lowered

I play as a wookiee on Kettemoor and I hate the racism against wookies by the empire. I think that all races should have faction penalties depending on their rank not their race. The wook I play as is currently an Imperial Colonel.

I think that post was rather harsh. Programming hitboxes into absolutely everything, and making them absolutely unclippable is actually quite hard. If you had any concept of the graphics design section of things, you'd know this. Also, making hitboxes on everything involves a lot of work on the processor. Well, not huge amounts, but clipping EVERYTHING would make a really make an impact on the processing requirements. And with the stars and moons and stuff being in the right place, that is also another problem which cannot be resolved easily. The moons, or rather, planets, are part of the environment mapping. To understand what I mean, take a box. A big box, absolutely huge. Now step inside the box, and map the entire 'planet' inside this box. Now apply a 'space' texture (which in this case happens to be the sky and the moons) to the inside of the box. The moving environment (stars, clouds, rain) have to be inside the box too, to be visible, so they will be in front of the planets and the sky, no matter what you do. Unless you take away the moving environment, and we're stuck in either night or day.

Please forgive me for the length of this post. The following is part of an on-going brainstorm that doesn't seem to want to quit:



Some Ideas for New Structures:

Player City Structures:

Star Port:
For those cities that have reached Metropolis Status. A player city Star Port would be a great way to avoid the lag encountered in the Non-Player Cities such as Coronet and Mos Eisley.


Hotel/Apartment House:
This would be a great way to provide Revenue for the city AND income for the owner of the establishment. This structures could have multiple floors (the more successful the architect is, the more floors available). It could also have a variety of room and suite sizes ranging from a single room just large enough for a bed and 10 items, to a royal suite with four rooms and capacity for 200 items. The owner of the establishment shall determine rent. As long as rent is paid for the patron’s room/suite they may have access. Those patrons who fail to pay the rent will be denied access until rent is paid, or until the owner grants them the right to enter. In the case of evictions, for whatever reason, the patron will be given a one-week period in which he/she may evacuate the room/suite of all personal items. Any items left in the room/suite after the one week period, shall be transferred to Hotel/Apartment House warehouse and held there for an additional 30 days. The patron may retrieve those items in exchange for storage rent (determined by the devs). A G-Mail notice will be sent to the patron to advise them of rent/fees due, eviction, or transfer of items to hotel/apartment house warehouse (including coordinates). If the items are not retrieved in 30 days, the owner of the hotel/apartment house may keep, sell or destroy any items remaining in inventory. All Hotels could have a lounge, main foyer and elevator. All Apartment houses could have an elevator, stairways, and a small foyer. There can be different styles of hotels and apartment houses. Some could have rooms sporting balconies and others with or without windows (would be cool to look down over the city). More than one Hotel/Apartment House (up to a limit) should be allowed in a city in order to provide adequate living space and competitive pricing.


Warehouse:
Within the population of Crafters, Merchants and Collectors, there is an ever increasing need for storage space. A player city could benefit greatly from warehouse structures that can accommodate that need. These structures will have rent similar to the hotel, but will function more like the safety deposit at the bank (this will prevent players from living in the warehouse). The warehouse structure can have an interface terminal that will provide the following information:

Warehouse Owner (who owns the warehouse)
Availability (the number of empty storage compartments remaining)
Rental cost per storage compartment (100 items)
Compartment Number (if more than one compartment is rented, this number will help differentiate between compartments)
Compartment Owner (Who is renting this compartment)
Rental days (how many paid days remaining)
Storage compartment status (how many items in the compartment)
Permissions (who has permission to access this compartment)

Warehouse compartments could be controlled the same way as the Hotel and Apartment House when dealing with back rent and evictions.


Casino:
With all of the Gamblers and Smugglers in the Star Wars universe, there should be a dedicated casino to attract them. A player city could benefit greatly from a casino. The structure could be city owned or player owned. The revenue collected could be placed in a “Casino Vault” which may be withdrawn from by the owner of the structure (or the Mayor if city owned). A variety of games and consoles could be created to place around the structure. Games, which would require player made dice, would be great. Player made Cards would also be nice for use in a Casino. There could be a Lounge/Bar in the casino, as well as a back room or two for poker-like games.


Creature Stable:
Creature Handlers and Bio-Engineers could benefit from a Creature Stable. This structure would allow them to display and sell creatures.


Bridges, Roadways, Walls and Archways:
These structures would be a great way to spruce up a city and organize it. Bridges and roadways would make it easier for vehicles and mounts to travel in and through a player city. Bridges would make it easier to cross deep gullies and waterways. Roadways would help to level out a strip of terrain within the city. Walls and Archways would provide a way to protect, organize and decorate a city.


General Structures:

Creature Farm:
Chefs, Tailors, Bio Engineers and many other crafters would benefit by being able to raise certain creatures for milk, eggs, hide, meat and bone. This is where the Creature Farm comes in. It could function in a similar way to a factory, but would require the input of at least TWO of the same creatures, food and water to get things started. For instance…We have a Bio-Engineer create two Eopies which can be placed in the Creature farm. Or, we can have a Creature Handler tame TWO Carrion Spats, which can be placed in the creature farm. Those two creatures can be instructed by the owner of the farm to do the following:

-Breed: Breeding will increase the population of the creatures in the farm. The number of creatures in the farm will determine the farm’s production of milk, egg, meat, hide or bone. Once creatures are placed in the farm they can not be extracted or sold as pets.
-Produce Milk: This will require a milk-producing creature such as a Bageraset or Eopie
-Produce Eggs: This will require an egg-laying creature such as a Spat or Rasp
-Harvest Bone: This will slowly deplete the number of creatures in the farm.
-Harvest Meat: This will slowly deplete the number of creatures in the farm.
-Harvest Hide: This will slowly deplete the number of creatures in the farm.

The Farm will require Maintenance, food and water supplies. The type of food required would depend on the type of creature being farmed. Carnivores would require meats or bones, Herbivores would require grains or greens, Avians would require seeds or fruits and all of them would require water. The better the quality of the food and water, the faster the creatures will reproduce. The Creature Farm would produce Creature Resources in the same way factories produce sub-assembly items. The largest benefit of the farm would be the ability to produce a specific type of meat, bone, hide, milk or eggs regardless of how the resources shift on the planet.

Example, you place two Durni’s into the farm. The Durni’s that you placed have “Osis” Herbivore Meat. From that point on, those Durni’s in the farm will ALWAYS produce “Osis” Herbivore Meat, even if the type of meat on wild Durni’s changes. This will help to provide schematic users with a reliable source of material. This process will maintain the game balance, because it still requires a higher cost to produce the desired product…so the cost vrs. availability is still maintained. In addition, Creature Farms would only be placable OUTSIDE of a players city. This will help maintain the "city-like" atmosphere.


Solar Installation
It may sound strange at first, but a larger Solar Power installation would be a benefit for those who can not find enough radioactive ore to make setting up a mineral harvester or ion generator cost effective. There have been many times when I have heard people say they had to shut down their harvesters due to lack of power. A solar Installation doesn’t need to be a monster power harvester…just something that can pull a little more than the standard solar harvester.


Some General Ideas:

Player Homes and Image Designers:

After having decorated my home and a medical bay in Star Wars Galaxies, it hit me as rather odd that Tailors and Armor Smiths could choose colors for clothing and armor, yet Architects and Image Designers were unable to change the colors of walls, furniture and Structures. The following is an idea that has been floating around for awhile:

Floor Plans and Furniture:
It would be great if Image Designers and Architects could collaborate on the design and color of structures and furniture. Image designers could use a grid-like interface for laying out a floor plan for houses and then creating a “Floor Plan Schematic” which could be used as an optional component in Large, Medium and Small House. This “Floor Plan Schematic would determine the layout or arrangement of rooms, halls, doorways, stairways and even lifts (elevators) in a House. In addition, Image Designers could also create a “Custom Color Palate” or “Structure and Furniture Customization Kit” (similar to a Droid Customization or Vehicale Customization kit) as an optional component or a tool that will change the exterior color of a structure or certain furniture.

Interior Walls:
Image Designers could be hired to come into a person’s home or other structure and change the colors of individual walls based on the Image Designers level of skill. The textures of a wall such as stucco, brick, stone, smooth, sandstone and even wallpaper would make homes and structures even more desirable to own.

These ideas would greatly improve the demand for Image Designers as well as improve the interaction between professions and individuals.


I hope you find one or more these ideas interesting.