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I've decided to call this "Astro Cross: Flashback 1942" and that the first appearnce of the Blue military fleet will be during what was IRL called the Battle of Los Angeles on 1942 02 25, when 1400 AAA rounds were fired at a ufo but no aircraft was downed. With the more advanced tech tree in ACF42 and the Atalanta (my p38 like design) being the first Allied variable fighter (the Nazis had their VV-2 Kreigerakete) and put into service a bit faster than the RL Lightning, the west coast interceptor squadron
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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formed when the USAAF took delivery of 30 or 40 units originally ordered by Britain and France but later disputed after France fell and Britain had second thoughts about their dumbass varient specifications was there to try to fulfill their designated role. Later, the veteran PC pilot will get sent to be cadre for first Britain's and then Australia's delivery of mecha, but the alien scout escapes and makes repairs, leaving 1942 08 14 with a burst of cosmic rays, to report. Main fleet invasion begins about
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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a year later.
As for actual development as a game... well, I started writing a design document. That's progress, right?
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Depends on how much you've done.
I don't think anybody who hasn't tried to write a program really understands how much *work* the design phase really is. My current project, a 4X space strategy game, is well over 100kb of plain text, and I've yet to produce a truly definitive design document. I have notes on how basically every aspect of the game is to work, what features are important to the design, and even an outline for what could be a game-wide design document... but I don't have that design. Part of it is that I don't *know* everything that'll go into the game- I understand the mechanics that are unique, and I have a good sense of what else has to be in it, but I look at my feature list, and go 'There MUST be things I'm missing! This isn't all of it!' Part of it is assumptions, too- when you do a design, odds are you might write down three features, only to skip over the other five that go with them because they're just so *obvious* they don't really need mentioning.
If you're just starting, than you've made just a little bit of progress. If you're even half done with the document, I salute you- you've done quite a bit.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
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Just starting, really - outlining key aspects of play and the mechanics to make them work, while story notes go into a separate file. Actual interface design has a few notes in a third, to be integrated with the design doc as it gets more into shape.
Visual design of maps and characters/mecha is largely a distraction at this point, but one I must warmly embrace to keep up enthusiasm as it's my primary point of entry to the mental space of doing a game in the first place...
Plus fighting general laziness.
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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I suspect that you already know much or all of this, but there are some things that cry out to be said.
- Cherish your design process. You're going to make mistakes. You're going to have to fix them - and for each of those mistakes, the earlier in the process you can catch them, the faster and easier they are to fix.
- Alongside that, write code to make it easy to fix things. Write code to make it easy to change your mind. Copy/paste feels easy at first, but if you have the same piece of code in four different places, and then figure out that you did it wrong, you have four places to change the bloody thing (and four places to mess it up as you change it). Try not to have the same piece of code in more than one place at a time, and if you think there's any chance that you might want to change something later, keep that in mind as you're designing it. Don't hard code anything you can easily put in a properties file, etc, etc, etc.
- If you've never made a game before, or never made a game of this type before, or whatever, build an extremely stripped-down version first. Don't expect to reuse any of the code (if any of it is salvageable, that's great, but it's not the point). Making the really stripped down version will teach you a fair bit about what goes into make the real thing, and you can take that back to the design process - and if you find that the code you make *isn't* reusable, it's one of the more efficient ways to figure out that sort of mistake before it's deep in the code you're actually using. Also, if it's even remotely playable, you can stick it out there for people to play. That's always nice.
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To add to that:
-Don't leap straight from design to code. Your design document is great for making sure you know what has to be done, what'll be in the game, and all that, but it does nothing except give you a list of things wot need coding. The next step is program logic and pseudocode. If you go from "These are the things that need to be coded", to "To do this, I need to program these tasks", to "The code to do this task is...", you'll have a better grasp of what you're doing, why you're doing it, and what its place in the bigger picture is.
-Don't feel you have to finish everything in order. If you feel like doing the logic for the enemy movement function one day, and the pseudocode for the menu screen the next, do that. Anything that helps you keep moving forward and avoid burnout is good- just keep track of what you've done (and, more importantly, what still needs doing!)
-To add to Sirrocco's third point, start small, and build up. With my 4X project, I'm starting by creating a ship designer... well, part of one. The first version is just the interface, and the most basic functions. The end of the project will be the full design spec for the game's ship designer. I figure that, by the time I reach that point, I'll have learned a good bit more about coding, data storage, and, more crucially, what all that part of my game actually has be. That'll give me a better idea what the full spec for other, related bits actually is. It might get used, in whole or in part, but the important part is what I learn writing the code.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
My human Battleship/Carrier name preferences, given the clarification
Tecumseh Sherman
Ulysses S. Grant
Alvin York
Lieutenant Furlong (The guy who would throw his hat into the fort, race his troops to it, and beat them every time. Later, IIRC, killed himself when they court martialed him.)
Colonel Rogers (Folks say that Pershing liked to bury Moro Juramento in pigskins, or something to that effect. That was apparently a misattribution of what this guy did.)
John Paul Jones
Alfred Mahan
Question: Will I be able to set my PC as Alice S Grant, pronounced Ulysses, an American partially of Portuguese descent? I think she is fifteen, and was born in Robertson County, TN, the seat of which is Springfield. I'm still working out the rest of her childhood and background. Not to mention personality.
Related questions: What is the organizational and skillset makeup of the initial Blue settlers. Were they all and only soldiers, like the Zentrandai (sp?) and maybe the Nazzidi? Technicians? Did they have any skills relating to political or internal warfare? What are their enzymes for processing ethanol like? Do Blue/Earth mixes have any low probability extremely abnormal hybrids like the Nazzidi/Human Whites? Was there anything unusual to speak of about the age and gender make up of the lifeboat population?
What kind of age limits are there for the partly Blue pilots? What kind of educational requirements are there? Physical health, including eyesight? Can developing psychic powers further cause dizziness and other things that might wash a person out of a piloting program?
I guess I should also ask about coloration variations in hybrids. Of course, now my sleep addled brain has jumped around to various questions relating to Blue color perception.
That WWII happened anyway suggests to me that the Blues did not shift the result of the Russian Civil war from a Red victory to a White Victory. Which suggests that the Soviet Union lasts some time. Anyway, assume that I have my usual boring and obnoxious mix of suggestions and questions relating to my historical obsessions. Plus some weirder than normal ones. Like, if she does really well, can she kill Mao Zedong somehow?
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Last first, most world governments get bombarded from space during the 'blue fleet pounds everyone until the remaining mecha corps of all sides band together for survival' stage. Since China was a US ally at this time, the only way you'd get to kill Mao is if he's a collaborationist leader during the 'retake the earth' stage after that. Note that I am actually in favor of such a thing if it can be justified, but as I am not in fact a history buff most of your questions let alone answers will go right over
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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my head. Assistance in such matters will be greatly appreciated and get you an "Alternate Historian" credit, or something like that.
re female PCs: given that the WASPS, WAVES, and WACs were active by then, Blue techs (due to smaller hands and finer sense of touch) and ace pilots (due to G-tolerance) tending to be female, and the desperate need for Blue or part-Blue mecha pilots, as long as she can persuade the recruiter she's of age or has parental consent they'll take her.
Blues will probably get a
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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different racial name by the end, but are so called because hair colors range from acid green to purple, with wedgewood blue being the median and mode. Skin tones range from albino pale to mediterrainian bronzed, due to a shipboard/space suited lifestyle not selecting for UV resistance. Bone structure is closest to northern european. These factors made it easier to gain acceptance in the rather racist atmosphere of the times. Halfbloods tend to have a wider range of saturation and brightness in hair colors
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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from barely tinted pastels to black-with-technicolor-specular-highlights, but skin tone almost always mimics the human parent closely. I don't know anything about Nazzadi, though I vaguely recognise the word.
Color perception is mostly human normal but extends higher into the extremes, because the ability to see thermal and uv hotspots is prosurvival in space. Since the ship the refugees came from was as close as you get to civilian in a Blue patrol/exploration fleet, there were lots of techs and admin
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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types, youngsters and creche caretakers, medics, and pilots for the defense screen mecha. Being on a supply run they weren't dealing with large numbers of wounded at least. Techs tend to be at the compont swapping level rather than make-a-part-to-fit problem solving or really understanding the underlying principles, an intentional measure to keep the military reliant on centrally provided designs and parts - likewise customization of equipment aside from fitting body size and handedness is forbidden. A
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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factory/drydock ship would have actual engineers but still no researchers, but a ciloier handles mecha repairs at most, and primarily carries consumable supplies and those parts a fac-ship can't or is forbidden to develop the ability to make.
Active psy powers are pretty much limited to sensing and affecting emotions, and those on the rare side, or tk about equal to normal body strength, very handy to techs especially to lift double the mass their arms could manage or for three hand jobs. Passively, it
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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helps counter impacts and g-loading. Direction finding relative to a reference point (galactic core and north, known location or object) is almost ubiquitous, as not getting lost in mostly empty outer space is again a critical survival trait. Any tendency to motion sickness has also long bred out of their genome.
Sirrocco, Bluemage, thanks for the good advice! Though generally aware of most of it, having it in concrete, bullet pointed form is helpful. And yeah, my first stage is going to be getting a
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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single mecha modeled, textured, and animated, then putting it into the IrrWeather demo so you can fly around in the happy little clouds 
The trickiest part of that will probably be figuring out a chase camera that doesn't suck - which will also be a critical aspect of the final product, so the sooner it's handled the better. Following that will be adding another object to lock onto, and probably enemy AI and various forms of weapon from there, aka creating a playable demo to keep up enthusiasm.
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Having thought about it more, I think the salvaged collier-turned-battleship should begin on the Axis side, both to serve as counterweight and reason to develop the carrier, and to have a key 'you are all fighting together now' asset that's game changing enough to make it viable to begin counterstriking rather than the previous defense/survival focus. That means it can't be the Jervis Bay after all; they'd hardly name it after an enemy ship! I'm not even really sure where to have it come down - given that
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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the current plan has the PC actually getting pulled from Europe to the Pacific front, probably somewhere there, to be a threat dire enough to divert that attention. So it needs a Japanese name, probably.
Oh, and at least the propoganda reason for kicking off WW2 is to have the planet united under control of the master race when the alien fleet shows up - like I said before, oops! Though the wartime tech growth is indeed barely enough to prevent utter defeat as it turns out.
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Just to share what is, at least for my unmusical self, an absolutely critical resource: a library of thousands of pieces of high quality music under the Creative Commons Attributions license. Given that musical/telempathic psychological warfare is a key point for my project, crappy music would be the kiss of death!
http://freemusicarchive.org
Given that I'm using an original (as much as anything is) storyline and visual designs for this, it probably doesn't quite fit in OPF, but I'm not sure where else..
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Very briefly, as sleepy, and in a hurry.
Totally can count as fanfic. a) A game with enough of the right material counts as fiction. This totally will, I think. b) Even with original intellectual property, a game closely enough inspired by another can be considered fanfic. (C&C and Dune II doesn't exactly work as an example, but it is close.) c) Unless and until this part of the project gets very big, I suspect Bob will be willing to accommodate the individual variations that may take the overall project outside the category of fanfic. d) depending, some of my own or others fanon, which may be mentioned in thread, may count as fanfiction.
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Eh, fair enough. Question for you though, why would a White victory in the Russian revolution have headed off WWII? I'm not planning on dealing with the Eastern Front at all so it would at most be incidental backstory either way barring a 60s/cold war era sequel (Astro Cross: Black & Blue or AC:Misspent Cold War Youth?) but I'm not averse to including such butterflies in the story even if they just end up being fanfiction hooks. At least one Romanoff may live to have a descendent b2014 named Nene though
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Been looking at various historical web sites since asking, but haven't really seen anything definitive yet. Unfortunately with the Blue shipwreck happening mid 1920 the czar's family was already a year dead, so there's no effecting their survival through alien intervention, nor the Red Baron's, dang it. And I really wanted a MeV-262 pilot that was his kid, too. Maybe I could drop them in April 1918? But that puts a few dozen mecha on the ground, effectively invulnerable save to each other... better not.
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Would it be possible for them to land in 1918, but keep a low profile until the war settles down?
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I've been writing a bit.
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the P-80 Shooting Star but it would be really iffy.
While not suited to transformation either, I think I am going to have the Payen severe-delta-plus-canard planform be a thing, say he got a few Blue techs enthusiastic and had engines worth mentioning available as well as more hands, so his Pa100 racer got to compete and turned some heads, and one of the passenger or ambulance prototypes available for the team to escape when France goes down. They're funky, and Germany already had Lippisch & the Hortons.
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Transformation-wise, you could try adapting the VA-3 Invader's transformation scheme to the Glostor Meteor. Or the early British carrier jets tended to share this wild twin-tail layout that would also have potential.
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"Yes, and it was glorious."
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