 November 27, 2013 - 7:28pm | In my game, I have made the existing 2-D map into a 3-D map. However, even with that, the map is still essentially two-dimensional. In your games, can the players get in a ship and fly straight upward from the map, into an unseen area? Or below the map? Or do you have additional nebulae (or some other plot device) that limit their movements? |
 November 27, 2013 - 7:35pm | I am 3D and the players can go beyond the frontier in or out of the page if they wish. -iggy |
November 27, 2013 - 8:24pm | Awesome! Is your map computer-based? What sort of map do the players have access to? |
 November 27, 2013 - 8:30pm | A spiral galaxy like the Milky Way is on average 1000 ly thick, so how thick is the Frontier in most people's 3d rendering of it? 15-20 ly? In theory you could stack 50 Frontier sectors and ignore the right and left of the map and just fly straight up or straight down, exploring all this space. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 27, 2013 - 10:10pm | I use Celestia to display the frontier. I tried to make a movie a month or so ago to post to youtube but if failed miserably. I need to find a better free app to make a movie of the celestia window as I use it. That would make a good demo movie. -iggy |
 November 28, 2013 - 3:34am | Ever since I first opened the Port Loren map and seen all the little shadows from the buildings, I always tried to imagine the map in 3D. I not just imagined all the building popping up with sub-floors beneath them, but I also go as far as to extend the levels of the buildings, and even imagine all the roads lowered to a sub-level with garages and utility rooms. That is, form the street view, you would not see any cars until you walk up to a railing were the roads would be. From there, you look down at a trenchway a couple meters deep. Down there, you see traffic, parked cars on the sides of the read (and beneath the streets) and open passages to underground parking lots. There would be wide cross walks every so many meters, and even Y- or X-shaped crosswalks over intersection. I'm even re-thinking the big square plaza at the center of the map as a round plaza surrounded by a roundabout. It would be harder to convey movement in the game, but it would make the city look more organic. Plus in real life, you'll have better traffic without all the right-angles. |
