I know its early to start a thread in this field but i just have to know.

Is the graphics engine that supports the space battles gonna have teeth ?
By that i mean will it be able to support some cool effects.

The reason I ask is because i really like when phasers are fired that they charge the whole strip. You know, the light starts at both ends of the strip and move towards the firing point, and together with that great charging sound ... IT WOULD BE GREAT!

So .... any chance of this being possible?

The first battle engine for the beta version will be a 2D battle field with flic objects. But i think that there will be a 3d engine in the final version. I prefer 2d over 3d, because it requires much more thinking, and tactics rather then push assault button and see the light effects on the screen. This is actually a question to Gturfrey will it be possible to create 2D tactical disicions and later on showed in 3D?

the flc format we hope to use will not be able to have detail like that i`m afraid, think civ 3 and thats what were aiming for in the beta.
For the 3d engine the effects for weapons are down to whoever designs the ships and their hardpoints, what you suggest would involve animateing two hardpoints to move along the saucer and then fire when they meet. i`m fairly sure it`s possible but i`d have to ask dafadz as he knows a lot more about this sort of stuff than me,

Yes i know about those flic object, but i still like them

What is possabel and it not possable in a FLC. Ive looked one the sites about them and they seem simple enough (he says ) but the one thing that i dont get is how the effects work. I know theres gotta be another file that states what hardpoints do what, but what about the shield effect. Prehaps i should put more research into this but any help from ppl whos uesd them befor would be nice.

flc is basicly a very simple animation like gifs, just a few frames stuck togather, there would be no shield effects at all i`m afriad, all you get is attack die run and fidget.

Well wouldn't it be possible to put in the end of a faser blast a shield effect, as if it was part of the phaser.

i`ll give it a go tonight, maybe it can be done.

I think what Jigalypuff was explaining is the .gifs and .flcs are a series of pictures pasted together in a predetermined order and then played out back to back to completion like a mini-movie creating the animation effects.

I might be wrong but scripting in both offensive and defensive effects like phaser fire and shield hits would all have to be together in the animated movie like action replay of the smaller pictures included in the .flc or .gif. This would repeat each time losing the offensive and defensive nature of the phasers firing one moment then at another the shield hits being display in a timely sequence with the actions being taken by both 2D vessels engaging in combat.

Does bring up another point. Is the battle sequencing and resolution going to be an I-Go-You-Go sequencing? OR A We-Go-Orders-Phase then We-Watch-Resolutions-Phase? With both players or all players watching the resulting resolutions phase type of combat system after giving their orders?

2nd posting. Might be answered already elsewhere?

Awsric Armitage

i think the 3D battles in BOTF were GREAT

i think they should pretty much stay that way, but be a little more refined

i mean, theres nothing like the sight of a Federation battle fleet and a cardassian battle fleet staring each other down before the furball

maybe add sum effects like being able to blow an emy ships war nacelles off the pylons, and blowing holes thru the holes


sumtimes its the little things

but i guess im just big on details

I guess it might boil down to the 2D engine for the intial release then the later add-on 3D. As long as we know ahead of time and include the proper areas in the coding to be able to convert to the full 3D version when it is completed.

I think this is already planned if I am not mistaken.