Space map idea

[SpaceEngineer]

Hello all! I have an idea for ONS map. Imagine small asteroid and two space ships next to it, placed so that the asteroid hiding them from each other. Power cores placed inside the ships, with several nodes. Asteroid have caves where few nodes and superweapons placed.

Each ship have hangar of space fighters, that players can use. Remember AS-Mothership map. I had experiments with them - replace Raptor with Space Fighter on ONS maps, and fly on it. However, Fighter have some strange properties - it is very small in size (smaller than Manta), it cannot be braked to full stop (like airplane), and you cannot exit it (LOL). I would like make normal vehicles using Human and Skaarj Space Fighter models and their code. Maybe easier way is copy-paste Raptor code, rename class and replace Raptor model with Space Fighter model. But for the beginnig, in first versions of map I can use Raptors instead of Space Fighters. But for the final version, Space Fighters more desirable than Raptors, because they more advanced to fight against each other.

Each ship have laser turrets, but ships cannot shoot to each other directly due to asteroid, they should shoot down incoming enemy Space Fighters. However, laser turrets may be too much effective against Space Fighters, so they probably should be replaced with Link turrets.

Ship's interior shouldn't be too complex, as long as this is space fight map. It will have Power Core hall, two Fighters hangars (at nose and tail of the ship or at left and right side), turret control rooms, and coridors connecting all together. Power nodes are placed in hangars, disabling Space Fighters if it was destroyed. Also there are several rooms with power nodes only - captain's bridge, crew deck and cargo deck. Some wheeled vehicles may be placed there, to allow players fast moving inside the ship. Ships can be made with different design - say "Human" and "Skaarj".

I can made realistic skybox using my SpaceEngine simulator. Also, action can take place in the planetary ring - here and there small asteroids moves across the map, making space fight more complex and dynamic.

The battle will take place in such a way. Players starts at the core, builds all ship's nodes, reach hangars and build their nodes to take access to Space Fighters. Then they use them as usual vehicles - fly to asteroid, exit and build nodes inside it, then attack enemy ship - shoot down turrets and enemy Fighters, land in hangar and attack its node. Hangar's nodes can be attacked from space. Also, making a two-way link setup allows interesting tactics: your team can capture a half of enemy ship with one of two hangars and turrets, that helps in space attack on another half of ship, together with onboard infantry attack. Once team capture node inside enemy ship, they may respawn there, but someone should control space to prevent enemy counter-attack to home ship.

How this idea? I have little experience on UnrealScript and map making, so some help from more experienced developers would not prevent.

[SpaceEngineer]

So, nobody interesting?

[Pegasus]

Almost everyone has ideas, some decent ones even, and quite often too. Prototype or sketch up something and show us your vision/work. Ppl might jump in to help if they like where it's going.

[Cat1981England]

Nice idea. Sounds similar to Airmars which i personally loved.

[SpaceEngineer]

I start making my map, I show it for you soon. I would like test it with real players, somewhere on Russian server, if it have good ping for you.

[Zon3r]

you can also upload the beta versions somewhere and post the link here

[lilalurl]

ONS-Galadriël-System is a map on which the node setup uses planets/asteroids.

No space ships there (no like those in Mothership), but anyway it might give you ideas to check it out:
http://www.mapraider.com/maps/?fileid=3577

[SpaceEngineer]

ONS-Galadriël-System is a map on which the node setup uses planets/asteroids.
No space ships there (no like those in Mothership), but anyway it might give you ideas to check it out:
http://www.mapraider.com/maps/?fileid=3577

Thanks.

So, I made one (blue) spaceship, but it seems too large. Walking through very long corridors is not good. I don't want use teleoprets too. Is there a way to scale it down? 2 times will be perfect. I've try use standart "scale actor" feature, but it shifts vertexes so they no longer snap to grid.

[VK!*]

No. There is a way to do it, but everyting will be off grid. And that cosst u more work. U need to do it manually.
Static meshes can be scaled.

Also work on grid 16-30 for bsp interiors, details, like lichting, switches drop to 4 min. Never use 1, if u want hom effects and bugs.

[SpaceEngineer]

I ams almost finished first beta version of the map. I simply copy/paste the ship and change Blue Poew Core to the Red one. All works good, bot paths should be improved a bit. But now I have no idea how to make a huge asteroid with several caverns in it. On other maps asteroids usually maded as static meshes. So I should launch 3ds max and make mesh there? Is it possible to do it in UnrealEd? Like create a sphere brush, then distort it by moving vertexes. I've tried it but it too complicated, and it is almost impossible to good texture these brush. Maybe it is possible to use UT terrain? Create a two terrains - one for upper part and one for lower. Does UT terrain have adaptively level-of-detail system, or it is just static geometry?