...it's a Massively Multiplayer On-line RPG (MMORPG) set in our solar system.
I hate to be critical, but Terminus is not a MMORPG. I know. I wrote it. It is a multiplayer on-line RPG (MORPG), but you have to set up your own servers, ala Quake, and each server has a finite limit.
I just want to clear this up before I get too much hate mail about not being able to connect to our servers!
The whole simulation of robots angle reminded me of this site: http://sodaplay.com/.
It's a java applet where you can design some silly little robots in 2-D, and see how you can make 'em work. No neural networks, or real-world synthesis, but hey, it's cool!
The entire development team are B5 fans. A lot of us were pretty disappointed when the B5 game never came to fruition, but I think B5 fans will enjoy Terminus quite a bit. Don't even talk to me about the nebulae, though. Those were not my idea...:)
I remember when chuck was working on it three years ago and telling us how the AI was doing retarded things, and how some of his schemes sucked, and the like.
Before anyone gets any wrong ideas, the AI is much less retarded now!
I wish I could find out some specifics about the engine.
Granted.
You've pretty much hit it on the head with the rotating particles bit. This gives us the majority of the feel of space flight, without an enormous CPU expense. (Our enormous CPU expense is AI!)
Planetary gravitation is not modelled, becuase at the speeds we're talking, you would never know the difference. Again, traded off to AI for CPU time.
As for building ships, you will need to choose one of our 8 basic hulls, which you can then customize by installing numerous components. Rest assured, you can build a ship you're happy with.
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.
Jeez, dude! Let's keep the nails out of the coffin until the game at least hits the shelves! I don't know what VV/Vatical has cooked up for marketing, but I assure you, you will know about Terminus before the release date.
Besides, this game is probably not as good as MS Research's Allegiance (very similar).
Ouch. Talk about about how great Microsoft marketing is, and not realize that you're a victim too? I suggest you play both games and find out the truth, first, before you damn me to oblivion.
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.
Oops. Allow a developer to nitpick. It's Glide on Linux, Glide or Direct3D on Windows, and OpenGL on Mac. After some Linux OpenGL things settle down a bit, we may also do OpenGL for Linux after the initial release. (But I'm not speaking in an official capacity on that, so don't go flaming VV.)
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.)
...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.
Don't knock it until you've tried it. Although novice pilots have a tendency to do the jousting thing, after a bit of experience it becomes clearer how to do combat in a zero-G environment. Keep in mind that not all combat is dogfighting. Cruiser and station attacks are much more interesting at times.
Atmospheric flight performance is much more fun for dogfights. And besides, you can always rationalize it.
Well, I'll let you be the judge as to which is more fun, but Newtonian flight combat has certainly not been fully explored yet. Terminus is set in the very near future, and the discovery of yet-undiscovered medium seems unlikey, much less how to control it.
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.
You're right. It doesn't take 10000 monkeys to figure out how Newtonian motion works. That's why we were surprised that no one had ever done it well!
We were working on Terminus right about the time Independence War was being developed as well. It looked like they were thinking the same thing. I had a lot of interesting chats with the developers at Particle Systems about Terminus vs. I-War. With I-War, they went a different way than us, focusing more on capital ship combat, and more tactical-type stuff. Terminus focuses mostly on fighter-style combat.
You're right that we didn't worry about friction effects and such. However, we do have a highly accurate collision detection engine, which results in realistic damage scenarios. (The type of damage to your ship depends upon the location of weapon hits, etc...)
I can tell you how great the game is, but you probably won't believe me. But I will say that it is unlike any other game in many ways, and is worth a look.
It seems to me that if you make password policies too outrageous, users will find a way to circumvent the system
Like what, actually remember their passwords?
No, more likely write them down. When you push your users over the brink like that, that's what happens. They just figure it's easier to put it on a post-it and stick it on their monitor. Because they aren't so insane about security and don't worry about if someone breaks into their account and steals their useless files... You must always look at things from the user's perspective. Not yourself, I mean a normal user...:)
-Chuck
Re:Some cautions in doing it yourself
on
Homebrew S/ADSL
·
· Score: 2
Just out of curiosity, what was the problem with the router? I happen to have a Flowpoint 2200, and just recently I had all kinds of downtime. My ISP checked everything out repeatedly, the loop was good, the signal was strong, etc.. etc... Then they replaced the 2200 with another identical one, and the problem got slightly better. I'm just wondering if the Flowpoint 2200 may just not be a very good box.
This code is LGPL'ed, so they could easily use it in a linked form, as long as they contributed back any changes that they made to it. I don't particularly care for the LGPL, in this sense - I'd just as soon people used the BSD license if they're intending to allow use in commercial apps.
You're not making sense. You say you don't like the LGPL, but you'd want a company to give back any changes they've made to the library? A BSD license wouldn't ensure that at all! Only the LGPL allows commercial use and requires source be made available.
What kind of error is this? I generally have never used a 'Hope Taco and Crew fix it.
Good chance they will.
Folks, remember that Taco et al do not routinely read all of the comments of all of the stories. It would be impossible for them to do so, so if you have a bug report or something that deals directly with/. itself, email it directly to CmdrTaco.
hes funding this doing that even though he isnt going to get back into office. i wonder if he and algore have something going on...
He's got what every second-term president had going on. With no concerns about being voted out of office, he has the freedom to do what he feels is the Right Thing, without being booted by the ignorant American public.
It's unfortunate that we have to wait 4 years for a president to grow a real spine and do what he thinks is right. (Actually, it's way more than four years, since so few actually make it to a second term.)
Some of these geeks are so desperate that never mind the divorces and arrests, even the *dead* thing wouldn't be enough to stop them if they got the chance!
HA! No matter how desparate or lonely I get, I can always make myself feel better knowing that I have at least some standards!
Hedy Lamarr must be about the closest thing to a geek guy's ideal woman.
I thought so at at first. I became suspicious after looking at IMDB. Apparently she's racked up more than half a dozen divorces, as well as a minor criminal record.
So besides being well over 50 years my senior and dead, she's probably not this geek guy's type.
Since this article was inspired by anti-Katz flame, let me postulate my own theory on why Jon Katz is such a target.
One would assume that if reading a Jon Katz article results in such venom, that the article itself has caused the flamer a good deal of personal pain. This is a situation I don't understand, as personally, I have never been insulted by a message or article that was not directed at me. I have seen uninformed, off-topic posts, but none of these feel like a personal attack against me.
But to some it does. So much so, it causes them to lash out in anger. No hostages taken, no feelings spared, it is the singular goal to return this pain and anguish to the one who caused it. Does this feel good? Frankly, I've participated in a flame war or two, and it just makes me feel empty. There is no reward, there is no catharsis, only futility.
I wonder why one would subject himself to such torment, especially in an environment where I can go to my preferences page, press a button, and never see another Jon Katz article again. Ever. Personally, I like Jon's writing, because I can see the value in stating the obvious when necessary, and more often than not, he puts words to thoughts I have had myself, that am grasping to understand. But I digress. Why would anyone choose to be tormented by Jon Katz? I can only think of two possibilities:
The thrill of combat. It is clear that many people attack merely for the joy of battle. If you can craft your words into a weapon, and use them to strike out across the ether, it indicates your prowess with the langauge, your tool of battle. ``Look at how clever and cruel I am!''
A sense of belonging. Let's face it. Hating Jon Katz does not make you stand out in a crowd. If you don't feel like part of the slashdot ``in crowd,'' because you don't like Linux or the GPL or something, it can be difficult. Especially if slashdot is your only connection to intellectual peers, to be separated by ideological differences is painful. I suspect that half or more of the anti-Katz camp really has no problem with Jon Katz at all! But by joining in the ``Please die'' bandwagon, they join a community whose only admission fee is a nastygram. Not bad, if you have a need to belong.
Now much of this might be bogus, and I will probably be flamed, too. I look forward to it, because constructive flames will help me continue to form my opinion on the matter, help me see parts of the argument I have ignored. I look forward to it, because destructive flames will make me laugh. Certainly it will not prevent me from posting again, as it will not prevent Mr. Katz.
Don't blame the antibiotics -- they've saved hundreds of millions of lives. Blame your doctor for prescribing them when you didn't need them.
Well, it's hard to blame doctors for this, either. If a patient thinks he needs antibiotics, but his doctor won't prescribe them, then the doctor loses a customer. It's unfortunate that economics, ignorance, and medicine have to mix like this, but it's true.
Open Source software is not always an option if you are writing cross-platform code
Oh, come on. That's true if you can only code when you shackle yourself to an IDE. I don't see why you need to use the same environment on Mac, Linux, and PalmOS. You use the best tool for the job. I'm speaking from experience. I've spent the past several years working on a project devloped solely under Visual Studio on Windows 95. This summer, I ported it to Linux using GCC and to Mac using Code Warrior. We regularly build all three versions using three different compilers and three different makefiles with little difficulty.
I mean, if you like Code Warrior, then you're obviously unhappy that they've dropped linux support. But it certainly shouldn't destroy your project!
It is a good point that one tends to memorize things through use. That's why I start with one single password. I'll call it my Mega HardCore Secure Password(Tm). The Mega HardCore Secure Password is used on my personal accounts, the ones where I store my mail and files, for about six months each. I will only use the MHCSP on local connections, or SSH, to keep it from being compromised. When the MHCSP expires, I come up with a new MHCSP. The old MHCSP becomes my Semi-Secure Pretty Important Password(Tm). Becaues it is my old MHCSP, the SSPIP is easy to remember. (And because I use the _new_ MHCSP every day, I remember that as well.) I use the SSPIP on commerce sites, and places where I can check my credit card balances, & stuff. These are things that I want secure, but I expect that security is weaker on the other end anyway, so it doesn't matter as much. But in transit it uses SSL, so we're safe from sniffers. When the SSPIP expires, it becomes my Common Remote Access Password(Tm). The CRAP password is used on numerous free email services, online gaming sites, and other things I don't give a CRAP(Tm) about. In fact, I almost expect this password to be discovered at some time, because it's sent around in plaintext, and sometimes I tell people what it is so they can access something. In reality, I have more than three levels, but this is the basic idea. But the key is, since I've used each password for about six months, I remember them all.
Slashdot Mirror
I just want to clear this up before I get too much hate mail about not being able to connect to our servers!
It's a java applet where you can design some silly little robots in 2-D, and see how you can make 'em work. No neural networks, or real-world synthesis, but hey, it's cool!
I never get to talk about it, because no one else has ever heard about it. But for a time, Sentinel Worlds ruled my life!
We had to suspend realism a bit, because after all, it's a game!
However, there is an ``inverse realism slider'' for the audio, if you wish to use it.
The entire development team are B5 fans. A lot of us were pretty disappointed when the B5 game never came to fruition, but I think B5 fans will enjoy Terminus quite a bit. Don't even talk to me about the nebulae, though. Those were not my idea... :)
Thanks, Jay.
You've pretty much hit it on the head with the rotating particles bit. This gives us the majority of the feel of space flight, without an enormous CPU expense. (Our enormous CPU expense is AI!)
Planetary gravitation is not modelled, becuase at the speeds we're talking, you would never know the difference. Again, traded off to AI for CPU time.
As for building ships, you will need to choose one of our 8 basic hulls, which you can then customize by installing numerous components. Rest assured, you can build a ship you're happy with.
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.)
We were working on Terminus right about the time Independence War was being developed as well. It looked like they were thinking the same thing. I had a lot of interesting chats with the developers at Particle Systems about Terminus vs. I-War. With I-War, they went a different way than us, focusing more on capital ship combat, and more tactical-type stuff. Terminus focuses mostly on fighter-style combat.
You're right that we didn't worry about friction effects and such. However, we do have a highly accurate collision detection engine, which results in realistic damage scenarios. (The type of damage to your ship depends upon the location of weapon hits, etc...)
I can tell you how great the game is, but you probably won't believe me. But I will say that it is unlike any other game in many ways, and is worth a look.
It's unfortunate that we have to wait 4 years for a president to grow a real spine and do what he thinks is right. (Actually, it's way more than four years, since so few actually make it to a second term.)
So besides being well over 50 years my senior and dead, she's probably not this geek guy's type.
One would assume that if reading a Jon Katz article results in such venom, that the article itself has caused the flamer a good deal of personal pain. This is a situation I don't understand, as personally, I have never been insulted by a message or article that was not directed at me. I have seen uninformed, off-topic posts, but none of these feel like a personal attack against me.
But to some it does. So much so, it causes them to lash out in anger. No hostages taken, no feelings spared, it is the singular goal to return this pain and anguish to the one who caused it. Does this feel good? Frankly, I've participated in a flame war or two, and it just makes me feel empty. There is no reward, there is no catharsis, only futility.
I wonder why one would subject himself to such torment, especially in an environment where I can go to my preferences page, press a button, and never see another Jon Katz article again. Ever. Personally, I like Jon's writing, because I can see the value in stating the obvious when necessary, and more often than not, he puts words to thoughts I have had myself, that am grasping to understand. But I digress. Why would anyone choose to be tormented by Jon Katz? I can only think of two possibilities:
- The thrill of combat. It is clear that many people attack merely for the joy of battle. If you can craft your words into a weapon, and use them to strike out across the ether, it indicates your prowess with the langauge, your tool of battle. ``Look at how clever and cruel I am!''
- A sense of belonging. Let's face it. Hating Jon Katz does not make you stand out in a crowd. If you don't feel like part of the slashdot ``in crowd,'' because you don't like Linux or the GPL or something, it can be difficult. Especially if slashdot is your only connection to intellectual peers, to be separated by ideological differences is painful. I suspect that half or more of the anti-Katz camp really has no problem with Jon Katz at all! But by joining in the ``Please die'' bandwagon, they join a community whose only admission fee is a nastygram. Not bad, if you have a need to belong.
Now much of this might be bogus, and I will probably be flamed, too. I look forward to it, because constructive flames will help me continue to form my opinion on the matter, help me see parts of the argument I have ignored. I look forward to it, because destructive flames will make me laugh. Certainly it will not prevent me from posting again, as it will not prevent Mr. Katz.Jon, write on!
I mean, if you like Code Warrior, then you're obviously unhappy that they've dropped linux support. But it certainly shouldn't destroy your project!
It is a good point that one tends to memorize things through use. That's why I start with one single password. I'll call it my Mega HardCore Secure Password(Tm). The Mega HardCore Secure Password is used on my personal accounts, the ones where I store my mail and files, for about six months each. I will only use the MHCSP on local connections, or SSH, to keep it from being compromised. When the MHCSP expires, I come up with a new MHCSP. The old MHCSP becomes my Semi-Secure Pretty Important Password(Tm). Becaues it is my old MHCSP, the SSPIP is easy to remember. (And because I use the _new_ MHCSP every day, I remember that as well.) I use the SSPIP on commerce sites, and places where I can check my credit card balances, & stuff. These are things that I want secure, but I expect that security is weaker on the other end anyway, so it doesn't matter as much. But in transit it uses SSL, so we're safe from sniffers. When the SSPIP expires, it becomes my Common Remote Access Password(Tm). The CRAP password is used on numerous free email services, online gaming sites, and other things I don't give a CRAP(Tm) about. In fact, I almost expect this password to be discovered at some time, because it's sent around in plaintext, and sometimes I tell people what it is so they can access something. In reality, I have more than three levels, but this is the basic idea. But the key is, since I've used each password for about six months, I remember them all.