FEDERATION 2 DESIGNER'S NOTES
by Alan Lenton
17 December 2003
Well the maps and locations code didn't take as long as I expected. The time spent on the map editor and the decision to use XML as the format definitely paid off. The map loader only took about a quarter of the time I estimated.
I decided to add Arena space to the Solar system. Although the players won't be able to fight at first, doing it this way will eventually allow newer players who can't get to systems outside Sol to take part in events involving fighting. We will also add other events planets to Sol space, rather than having them out system.
We are also adding a new asteroid belt to Sol, and will add inhabited asteroids as and when they are needed or become available. Fi is still working on cleaning up some of the maps, but they should be available in a couple of days.
Since we will be using Age technology for the events, death locations will be handled by events rather than by setting a 'death' flag on the locations. As a consequence, 'death' will have to wait until I write the code for events, and for a while death locations won't kill players!
Need to warn Fi to make sure players can get out of death locations with an ordinary move, and locations with one-way travel, like into the cell on Earth, are made two-way. Otherwise we will end up with everyone in the game stuck in one-way locations, unable to move.
The fact that maps are arranged in star systems means that players will need to choose both a star name and a planet name when they get their own planet. It also opens the possibility that we can allow higher level players to have more than one planet, as long as it is in the same star system. I need to think about the implications of that.
I did consider perhaps allowing players to share a star system - i.e. have one star system with several planets owned by different players in it. However, on reflection, I don't think that would would be a good idea. What happens, for instance if they fall out? And who would own the star system? I think it would cause far too much friction between players...
One thing that's changed in fed2 is that planet designers will be able to add their own messages for things like a player trying to move in the wrong direction. At the moment they are stuck with a small number of messages I wrote right at the very start of fed1. Those messages are really too general, and with the new system designers will be able to customise their messages right down to individual locations.
Next on my list is the code to handle player's avatars - what's in them, loading, saving and locating where they currently are. Once that's done I can, finally move on to logging in and avatar creation.
