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Development News - 08/01/07 |
Drafell Grand Admiral Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003 Posts: 2449 From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2007-01-08 07:03  
The New Year saw DarkSpace enter the fray with a initial whimper, and then a nice big bang as we hit you with a new map layout for the MetaVerse. It was decided after some long contemplation that the removal of some of the 'excess' (IE. never used) systems would help to streamline the MV, also removing a little unnecessary load from the servers.
In addition we re-arranged the inter-system jumpgates to encourage combat in more centralized locations. So far this has been met with a large degree of support from the community, although there have been one or two concerns that some elements of the map design give certain factions an advantage.
The concept behind the current model is to give each faction seven 'home' systems which are linked to two central combat zones (currently R33 and Tripwik). We have tried, where possible, to keep the system positions consistent with the concept and development work done by |2eason several years back.
We have also renamed a few planets as a surprise bonus for the recent competition winners.
As we review and evaluate the new changes there are likely to be several tweaks and optimizations. Currently under consideration is an alteration to the Tripwik system layout to better facilitate strategic gameplay, along with some further tweaks to the jumpgate mapping.
Please keep in mind that due to the future changes in the server model, there will be another necessary reconfiguration of the Metaverse map when 1.484 goes live. This is a little inconsistent with the persistent world philosophy we would prefer to pursue, but as ever "gameplay > realism".
As for development work on 1.484:
Many of you will probably notice that there has not been much apparent progress with getting a working beta running. Unfortunately we cannot proceed with re-balancing ship designs and layouts to conform with the new ship modification restrictions until we have a working test server, so I have no real news to report on this front.
Work, however, is progressing with the Beta Documentation. In particular the Developer Guide (Ship Design) and the Fiction and Lore documents have received some extensive updates and revisions, which also include a variety of submissions from some community members. As always, we are happy to accept any assistance our players are willing to provide.
That is all that I have to report for now, but here is to a fruitful year in the future of DarkSpace, and I hope to be able to bring you some more exciting new soon.
-Draf.
[ This Message was edited by: Drafell on 2007-01-08 07:15 ]
_________________ It's gone now, no longer here...Yet still I see, and still I fear.rnrn
rnrn
DarkSpace Developer - Retired
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Maskerade Grand Admiral Galactic Navy
Joined: March 21, 2002 Posts: 638 From: Canada
| Posted: 2007-01-08 12:31  
cheers
_________________ - Maskerade
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Fattierob Vice Admiral
Joined: April 25, 2003 Posts: 4059
| Posted: 2007-01-08 14:27  
I have always thought we should flesh out more of the battles of the History of Darkspace - I know I started to, but I wanted to remake my characters (which I never did) into less 2-d cutouts of ideals then they were before.
Besides, i'm sure their are really good fan writers that you could ask. And i'm sure they'd be more then happy to write up one or two battles, or extra history information
I also started to try and flesh out some of the technological issues (or at least BS it a bit) - IE: how a chemical laser works, how a shield works, et cetra.
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