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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

A Few Thoughts About The Geoscape


Laitanyel

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Gee...I gotta stop this posting bonanza...anyways:

 

Most of my postings are regarding v1, but I have nowhere else to post, so I do it here.

 

After looking at the Geoscape concept arts, I noticed several different backdrops behind Earth. Now, I haven't played the alpha, so maybe this question is irrelevant:

 

Is the starfield/nebulae behind the Earth supposed to move during gameplay? That is, Earth is spinning by your own orders, but will the starfield reflect this spinning, or will Earth spin all by itself, just as in Xcom 1? It would be cool if it was slowly moving, showing of some meteorites and shooting stars now and then, as well as responding to the players rotation of the view. Mind you, that the player is not rotating EARTH, but rotating his VIEW of the Earth....

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Sounds cool.. It's just that there's a lot of work to do and this is something which isn't so important so I think it's v.1+
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...which is quite low on priority, right?

Yes, but after thinking a bit more of it.. I think while red knight, mamutas and their crew are programming, other's don't have so much to do and can indeed sacrifice some time to it. Who's working on the globe anyway? Deimos?

Edited by Nyyperoid
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Deimos is up to his ears trying to get the cinematics nailed down. (That 30sec avenger-cydonia pic took around 6 hours to make!)

But it's worth it, they're looking VERY nice! :master:

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Actaully the spinning globe and camera positioning is a programming issue more than artwork. I like the idea that as you spin the camera view, the background should show you the proper background data, specifically a correct star chart with the sun and moon is position. Earth/moon/sun move relative to each other depending on time of day/year. You could even have eclipses and all that if done correctly. The overwhelmingly massive downside is the hundreds of hours needed to figure it all out, and the eventual processing power put aside to maintain real-time positioning of everything could be significant. What might be possible (but totally depends on available time) is to include a second sphere surrounding the earth, and it's textured on the inside with the constellations, which maintain a static position relative to the spinning earth. The side between the earth and the camera angle is clipped, so you see just the hemisphere behind the planet. While possible to do, it's all eye-candy in the end and thus comes after everything else is done and tested many times over. Assuming the programmers like it enough to mess with...
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What I'm wondering is if there will be no other ways of changing view than the arrows in the lower corner? I think you should be able to click on earth and drag your viewing position. The arrows move far too fast anyway, if you want to center in on some position it's quite hard
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you can center on a position by right clicking on the spot in question.

It doesn't work for me. I've tried left clicking, right clicking and double clicking. Clicking on the map has no effect in the alphas

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you can center on a position by right clicking on the spot in question.

It doesn't work for me. I've tried left clicking, right clicking and double clicking. Clicking on the map has no effect in the alphas

That feature isn't added yet but it's coming..

 

Breunor,

you are thinking too much. It doesn't have to be like real but some little things to spice up the geoscape view. Few starfalls, orbitting satellites, maybe even NASA rocket starting off from Kennedy Space Center :D

And when you rotate the view, the stars would move. You don't have to see what planets they are exactly. Just stars moving when you rotate..

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Don't forget being able to see mars in the night sky! :D The little red dot in the sky would be a very nice touch.

 

What might be possible (but totally depends on available time) is to include a second sphere surrounding the earth, and it's textured on the inside with the constellations, which maintain a static position relative to the spinning earth.

That seems like the most reasonable thing to do, IMO. A real, computer updated star chart would be very difficult to do. A well done sphere with the night sky would look practically the same.

 

You could add a few extra objects for special things, like the other 8 planets and moons (don't forget mars! :rolleyes: ) and maybe a few comets that we would see around 2010-201X. If there's extra coding talent, maybe even a meteor shower over earth could be done. ^_^ If there's extra-extra, then do the auora borealis! :D

You'll be looking at Earth half of the time, so show it off! :wink:

 

Hmm... maybe I could split up this comment, and get credit for three posts, four if I count this...

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showing of some meteorites and shooting stars now and then,

Burning meteorites and/or shooting stars are only visible as such because they are burning as they enter the atmosphere(attriction with upper atmosphere atoms, bla bla, overheating, yackery schmackery- fire). Since the player's P.O.V. is outside the earth's atmosphere in the geoscape we don't have to worry about those, now do we?(unless you want to have those only on the actual globe. But with 1 day acceleration who would ever notice them?) :hammer:

 

Even though it would be cool to have them in battlescape(only if we ever get to have that in 3D so that we can actually see the sky)- imagine a baseball sized meteorite crashing on that landed Battleship. :devillaugh:

 

As for the background idea..nice one, to have all the visible stars(including the sun) visible(no pun intended) as one rotates the geoscape...

 

 

:beer:

Edited by Tenebrae
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Hey Nyyp, I think we're saying similar things here. If you have a background texture that moves with the planet, you have to tie in the movement some way, and the simplest would be a second sphere linked to the first. The visual clipping would be the same technique that will have to be used to hide building walls when soldiers are inside them. You could have a spot for the sun as well, linked to the rotating light source. So you could see it go behind earth as the globe is totally cloaked in darkness. Putting more than that into it would become pretty distracting IMO, the falling stars and all that wouldn't be visible even at the slowest settings, which are 5-10 times faster than real life. A shooting star is seen for a few seconds, so you might see a tiny flicker on the globe, only visible if it's night and you're paying attention. Not really worth it IMO.
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Well, I think the bottom line here is:

 

Don't make things too complicated and concentrate on making a playable game :LOL:

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