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Limited Edition Terminus For Order
A reader writes "Read over at GA-Source that the space sim game Terminus is finally about to start shipping and that they are taking 100 pre-orders for limited edition signed copies of the game. If you never heard of Terminus, check out GA's preview of the game here. It's got a load of cool features like real Newtonian physics and a persistent online universe and real good AI to boot! I've never been a big sim fan but this is one game I'm definitely gonna check into. "
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Although I've developed the game on a P-200 with a Voodoo 1, I most certainly recommend a P-II system. (The Voodoo 1 is fine, however.)
My Freakin Blog
I hope that they aren't going for Wing Commander-eque gameplay with this -- because real spaceflight physics SUCK for dogfighting. There was a game called Mantis that came out not too long after Wing Commander that used 'real' physics, and it turned every fight into a jousting match. You found the guy, he found you, you charged at each other guns-ablaze, and then shot off in opposite directions, counter thrusting to attempt another pass. Forget 'getting on somone's tail', it ain't gonna happen. Lining up a ship for docking is difficult enough, never mind maintaining position with respect to a guy that is trying to get away.
Atmospheric flight performance is much more fun for dogfights. And besides, you can always rationalize it. The Star Wars (novels, anyway) universe refers to 'ethereal' rudders and ailerons. Same principles as atmospheric flight, but your flaps are pressing against some as-yet-undiscovered-to-us medium, instead of air.
Go to Station Terminus (which was linked in the slashdot story), they have all sorts of info.
The game will run with Glide on Linux and Windows, and with OpenGL on all three platforms. I believe the system requirements are something like a P-200 with a voodoo 1. For hosting, it depends on the number of players, but it sounds like most systems will be able to handle at least 8 or so.
When you're playing freemode or campaign (where the whole solar system is simulated, not the shoot-em-up part) then there's no concept of x humans and y AIs. You simply decide how many humans, and all of the other hundred or so ships get taken over by AI. Somehow it still runs well.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
While the article doesnt really go into much depth on how detailed their modelling scheme is, I suspect you are right. If all they are talking about is Newtonian motion for flying around, that's not too difficult.
:)
However, if they are including three dimensional collisions with friction and correct collision detection, it's a whole 'nother kettle of fish. I worked on writing such simulations for a couple years at a university, so I know at least a bit about it.
Frictional collisions in three dimensions are actually a bit tricky to get correct. More difficult is correct and efficient collision detection; you need to know as precisely as possible where the two bodies collide so that you can calculate accurate surface normals to compute accurate frictional forces. The hip thing in collision detection at the time was to use three dimensional voronoi diagrams to minimize collision checks. Calculating voronoi diagrams is a non-trivial excersize, but at least they can be precomputed.
Dunno what the hip thing is these days in collision detection. The work I did was about 3 years ago.
Of course, this sort of accuracy probably isnt necessary for a game, so they probably aren't really worried about this stuff.
Anyway, as in most areas of computer science, the answer is "it depends"
It makes a huge difference in gameplay. You can't just turn on a dime, at least not when going at a reasonable speed. But as others have noted, you can spin around and fire at someone chasing you without losing speed.
The cake is a pie
I'm certainly waiting for the day when all movement is generated according to strict laws of physics, but until I get a 3Ghz AMD Asskickaron in my computer, I think that I'll trade smooth gameplay and lower load for that fraction of a fraction of a difference.
Got Rhinos?
Station Terminus, the main fansite for the game. Read the latest news post here on how to actually get the limited edition, it's not enought to just pre-order it from the store! (you need to send in an email).
a bunch of screenshots at LinuxGames.
ATFW's Terminus databank entry, lots of info. There's some *really* good MP3 tracks from the game there as well.
I pre-ordered my copy last week and I'm already on the first 100 list, can't wait to play it!
Also, what isn't mentioned in the writeup or in the (rather old) preview that was linked to is that this game will ship with binaries for Windows, Linux (x86) and Macintosh in the box.
Some of the main features are a newtonian physics engine, lots of ship customization features, a half dynamic, half scripted campaign mode that can be played in both single and multiplayer; three different careers to choose from,...
I was demo'd this game by some of the creators at the Linuxworld Conference and Expo in NYC back in early February. While the graphics and whatnot didn't "blow me away", the theory of gameplay did.
.. pardon me if I don't know how to word this .. thrusters that allowed lateral up/down and left/right movement WHILE travelling forward. Don't like how you're approaching the dock at that port? Fine. Fire the thrusters, and get centered properly.
It seems to almost take the old Tradewars 2002 theories and turn them in to a graphical game. There are ports, and trading to be done. Certain ports have better selling prices on certain objects, others higher buying prices.
In the game, time has a meaning. If you sit around and do nothing, you're missing out on what's happening elsewhere in the universe. If you are a certain faction, missions are offered to you and you are given a timeframe to appear "on site" and accept them. Succeed and be paid. Fail, and lose political status.
I also remember there being a true "up/down" feature. He explained that certain ships have
All in all, I walked away looking forward to giving it a try. The story seemed VERY deep, and the demo guys mentioned a trule "online community" where you can work together, compete, etc.
I've been a reviewer of PC games for a magazine for a while, and have been playing them for about 12 years. And I have to conclude that it will fail.
No matter how good a game is, they need marketing. To have marketing, you need a publisher who is going to buy adds in the major mags and secure you shelf space at EB, Best Buy, etc.
Think about Microsoft. While you may not think much of the products, you have to admire their masterful marketing ability. There are probably situations where better products were *totally ignored* because their developers ignored marketing while Microsoft made it priority one.
Besides, this game is probably not as good as MS Research's Allegiance (very similar). But I'll mention it to the editor and see if we can get it reviewed.
Soldier(R)
Soldier(R)
here's an excerpt from this page.
The official U.S. retail launch date is June 8th 2000. We were scheduled to ship in May but the date was pushed back to June. Now before any of you come up with a conspiracy theory on this, here's what happened:
Vatical, our publisher, met with many of the major retailers to introduce Terminus to them. It turned out that the decision makers at some of these retailers, including Electronics Boutique, have known about Terminus and have been following the game's progress for more than a year. And let me tell ya, they were pretty psyched to see it nearing completion.
What happened was, when we finally nailed down a solid timeframe for going gold, the retailers came back to Vatical saying that they needed more time to prepare for the launch. So it was decided that the date be pushed back so we can give it a proper retail launch. It's really thrilling to see some of the retailers getting behind the game!