The laser cannon now works, and can destroy fighters.
The sound playback is still just slightly off, but otherwise all is good. The display issues with the laser and target scanner are fixed, the damage coefficients are corrected (the only reason the laser works too well right now is the fighters haven’t had their shields set to the correct type yet).
My current short-to-medium-term list of things to work on:
- Fix the sound issue with the laser.
- Implement the shield type selection for fighters.
- Implement torpedo holds, torpedo launchers, and torpedos.
- Implement the various scanner systems (lrs, sector, viewscreen) for the ship (this means they’ll be able to take damage and go offline as intended).
- Implement life support. This also involves being able to take damage and go offline, making crew members start dying.
- Implement the computer. This represents the final missing system on the player’s ship and will also give me an excuse to implement the keyboard command interface.
- Implement the crew members. With the keyboard command interface in place, this is just a matter of tying them into existing code.
After that comes messaging capabilities (“Captain, the laser cannon is offline!”, “Captain, we’ve received a message from Alliance HQ.”), more weapons (missiles, tractor beam, the battleship planet-buster – I plan to call it an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator, and a secret easter egg I’m not gonna tell you about), the rest of the enemy types (battleship, cruiser, rebel cruiser, laser satellite), the interface for hailing and interacting with a base (repairs, medical facilities, mat-trans, crew transfer), and the various items that add bonuses to the player’s ship (hyperspace jump drive, super laser couplings, laser and shield types, etc.). Then comes the overall mission logic, and that’s effectively the whole game. It looks like a lot, but about 70-80% of the framework is now in place.
Oh, and when I do the cloaking device, instead of just an expanding wave, it’ll be an alpha-blended 75%-opaque expanding wave over a fading-out ship. OpenGL makes this kinda coolness so very easy.
Stay tuned for more news about my progress.
As a devotee of Missions of the Reliant!, let me just say, holy bejeezus, thank you for undertaking this noble cause. I don’t think I’ve ever played as rewarding a game as this one and it’s amazing to me that no one has ported this game before. Go go go! On behalf of every deserving game that died a premature death, KEEP IT UP!!!!
That’s a pretty awesome compliment, thanks! And thanks to Gwynne for doing this — it’s brought back a lot of memories.