Software tool mapping a 4D galaxy From: Kjetil Friden <cezton@nvg.ntnu.no> Date: Sat, 03 Apr 1999 00:00:00 +0000 Hola! I am playing Beyond the Stellar Empire, which uses a linear jump map and 2D system maps. This is perfectly enough, and some additional dimension effects can be simulated just to add some spice. I really don't see the point in using 3D maps, it just makes things more complicated. If the star travel is complicated, then the rest of the game either makes the game unplayable, or the rest is so simple, the travel is all the game. This is just my view on the request for 3D mapping software. I don't see the point in using 3D coordinates at all, since you can't call that any more 'realistic' than 2D, since any stellar system is a 4D, system, with the fourth dimension being more important than any of the others. Realism is only good for the game, if it doesn't ruin the balance of the rest of the game, in general, realism is bad. I've heard about a dozen ideas of how realistic space combat would be, with various tech and environment, and in all these cases, the crew would mutinee due to boredom DURING the battle, a movie made from it would at the very best end up like a boring contemporary documentary, CNN would have to hire porn stars to make people watch it, and if you made a game with it as a major part, the game would be as fun as C robots, rating in the area of the 'worst game designs of all times', even with the porn baked into it... <g> So, anybody up to the task of making a good game with a 4D geography? -- | Cezton@nvg.ntnu.no | | Kjetil Friden,N Flv 119,N-7099 Flatasen,Norway (72580871) | | Alias: Lady Iztaca (Be IMPerial), Mephisto, Xhosa... | | *I am to Humanity, what Cro Magnon was to Neanderthal... | Referenced By Up