Blue Water Development Diary

[Sung]

Mindblowing! So much love on the details.
Keep on the good work.

Did you have video of the starting and landing helicopter?

[AzureSkies]

Originally Posted by Sung

Mindblowing! So much love on the details.
Keep on the good work.

Did you have video of the starting and landing helicopter?

Not yet, unfortunately.

[AzureSkies]

Hello again, everyone.

Nothing new to see quite yet, but radar does have a contact: The modelers have been hard at work. Recent work has been on a lot of "under the hood" code and optimization, particularly with regards to the map and sensor systems.

Stay tuned for more updates as they come.

Though it's been brief this time, thanks again for joining us.

[AzureSkies]

Hello again!

So, with current work focusing on things less show-offable, and not having shown a lot recently, I've decided to make the best of it and show off some of the changes to/progress on the minimap/control interface.

The overlay and definitely the console textures will probably be improved considerably before any release, but the addition of a number of simple features such as box selection and locking the map on any contact go a long way to improving the feel of the game.

Still deciding on the exact menu layout/tree structure/button positions, and playing with the font size and style to make it the most legible while maintaining a distinct aesthetic.

Also while the sensors modeled are far from complete, they work and auto-classify contact types (air, helo, surf, or sub) based off the contacts' returns and some simple logic, including true classification on visual ID, and also planned is ESM and active sonar interception to classify contacts based on their sensor type.

Also, datalink is being modeled. Should make multiplayer interesting.

Shown are NATO and Soviet colorations/modes, as well as locking the camera on the player ship, selected ship(s), or nothing, and various zooms, distance units modes and menu positions.





Also, I'm looking forward to showing off some more progress on the modellers' side next week...



Thanks for joining us, if you have any feedback or concerns with regard to the UI system please feel free to discuss. As stated before, it's a bit tricky to come up with a unique, immersive and functional/well-designed UI system that can both allow a great deal of depth to the control while not being too overwhelming on the learning curve and reasonably intuitive.

[Herman]

Originally Posted by AzureSkies

Still deciding on the exact menu layout/tree structure/button positions, and playing with the font size and style to make it the most legible while maintaining a distinct aesthetic.

I would like to suggest that you consider using both upper and lower case letters in the display. I know that the Navy has a tradition of only using upper case in all things (and only recently changed to allow lower case in messages), but I think that the mix will make some words more easily recognizable and also save space in your displays. This can allow for longer words to appear on the same line and not be broken.

Also, I suggest a hotkey beside each function. For example, your display shows "FULL" and "HIDE". Perhaps you could consider allowing a mode that shows "Full [F]" and "Hide [H]". Maybe have two different modes that can be activated/disabled according to player preference.

Harpoon also had a space-saving hotkey feature. It might help to display hotkeys with a different colour "Full" or an underscore "Hide". This way, the length of the word is all that is required (no extraneous spaces or parentheses).

Originally Posted by AzureSkies

Also while the sensors modeled are far from complete, they work and auto-classify contact types (air, helo, surf, or sub) based off the contacts' returns and some simple logic, including true classification on visual ID, and also planned is ESM and active sonar interception to classify contacts based on their sensor type.

The auto-classify function is convenient. However, one shortcoming of Harpoon was the way the game engine tracked contacts. During a battle, a contact might appear and be given the name, "Contact 21". If contact was lost and then re-acquired later, it would still appear as "Contact 21" because the game engine had already assigned every platform a permanent ID number for administrative purposes. This allowed the player to know immediately it was the same contact as before.

Commander Zimm, the creator of the WW2 game, "Action Stations", would have every new contact given a new designation. That way, you never knew if the ship you engaged 5 minutes ago, lost in a smoke cloud, and then re-acquired and re-engaged was the same ship you fought earlier or a new enemy.

Of course, in WW2, it was mostly surface action and often at night, where visibility was the key factor. In modern combat, with the use of electronic sensors, contact is virtually instantaneous. Also, you probably do not want to be generating a gazillion new ID numbers for contacts that are only lost or flicker for a second or two.

Originally Posted by AzureSkies

Also, datalink is being modeled. Should make multiplayer interesting.

Will the information flow between allied players instantaneously? With players able to use Skype or other chat mechanisms, any delay might be moot. Implementation of any potential delay in data transmission may not be worth the candle or effort and may actually detract from the enjoyability of the gameplay.

I raise it as a discussion point and thought exercise.

[Medley1991]

Oh goooshhh, you break my heart ! SEAKING !

Nice job ! Keep on men !

[AzureSkies]

Originally Posted by Herman

I would like to suggest that you consider using both upper and lower case letters in the display.

The LCD font is true to LCD layouts - lower case letters take the same amount of space, and aren't always clearer.

Originally Posted by Herman

Also, I suggest a hotkey beside each function. For example, your display shows "FULL" and "HIDE". Perhaps you could consider allowing a mode that shows "Full [F]" and "Hide [H]". Maybe have two different modes that can be activated/disabled according to player preference.

FULL and HIDE are placeholders for the time being. I'll certainly look at setting custom key bindings, though - that should be fairly easy.

Originally Posted by Herman

Also, you probably do not want to be generating a gazillion new ID numbers for contacts that are only lost or flicker for a second or two.

From the start of implementing the sensor system I made sure lost contacts wouldn't retain information. As it is, there's a fairly simple system in place to account for relatively long delays in-between contact without the contact getting re-assigned next time contact is made. But if it does go for too long, then yes, you won't know which contact is which.

Originally Posted by Herman

Will the information flow between allied players instantaneously?

It depends. But where this will really shine still remains quite awhile down the road.

For multiplayer, I tend to prefer to leave things to the host's settings, and this is probably a good place to do that. Some would rather just trust the other team to not cheat in such a way - and communicating information accurately about the ID of contacts might be difficult enough on its own that it wouldn't be too much an issue - but it shouldn't really be an issue to make data links always active for the entire team as an optional setting.

Originally Posted by Medley1991

Oh goooshhh, you break my heart ! SEAKING !

Nice job ! Keep on men !

Thanks!

Update coming soon. It's a highlight tonight.