Federation Commander

So I'm tinkering around, and I can assure you nothing great will come from it, but I had some questions I thought ya'll could help me with.

I'm trying to make a real time method to simulate a game like SFB on the computer. I'm just not real sure how to do some of it and wanted some input.

I am not using hexes, so all movement will be fluid. By default a turn will be 64 seconds, an impulse 2 seconds, though the turn length can be changed (and impulses are really ignored). I'll be updating all properties each frame based on the ticks (1/10,000 of a second) elapsed since the previous frame.

Here is how I was planning on dealing with movement:

Accelerate
- Maximum of 10 or current speed, multiplied by % of Turn Elapsed
Decelerate
- Half current speed, multiplied by % of Turn Elapsed
Reversing Direction
- Slow down to 0, can then accelerate in reverse
Quick Reverse
- If speed <=5, can perform
- Immediately makes speed 0
- Braking energy worth of unused warp/impulse power must be available
- 8 impulse cooldown (shared with HET)
Base Rotations
- Each rate is 60 degrees per turn of turning
Zero-Energy Turns
- Turns unit 60 degrees over 1 Turn
Sublight Tactical Maneuvers
- Turns unit 60 degrees over 1/2 Turn, cumulative with Warp Tactical Maneuvers
Warp Tactical Maneuvers
- Turns unit 60 degrees over 1/4 Turn, cumulative with Warp Tactical Maneuvers
High Energy Turns
- If unused warp move power available, can perform at any time
- 8 impulse cooldown (shared with quick reverse)
- Turns to face any direction
Erratic Maneuvers
- If unused warp/impulse move power, can start/stop at any time
Directed Turn Modes
- Turning is simply a degrees per second based on current turn mode, though I'd like to have a formula instead of having a turn mode "jump" a full point between 2 speeds.
Emergency Deceleration
- Instantly go to speed 0, and stay there 16 impulses, but power returns at standard decel rate
Sideslip (Ignored)
Positron Flywheel (Ignored)
Mid turn speed changes (Ignored)
Docking (Ignored, For Now)
Pinwheel (Ignored, For Now)


However reserve power throws a wrench into things. Basically since I can track the power in real time, the unit could have power at any given moment for any purpose, or dynamically redirect it where needed. Obviously doing this in the board game would be, well, horribly slow, but in a computer real time I can do it easily.

One of the things that's giving me headaches is how to deal with the power. For example, 1 warp generates 1 power in a single SFB turn. In real time, I'm tracking it by frame, so should the engine generate 1 power over an entire turn, or constantly generate 1 power. If constant things like move power costs are easier, but if you want to charge a weapon that values has to be divided up. I guess I'm just not real sure the best method to convert power in SFB, to power in "real time". Any ideas?

Thanks!

Go find an old computer game named Star Trek Starfleet Command or Star Trek Starfleet Command Orion Pirates (skip the ones with "II" and especially "III" in the title). Copy its mechanics. Seriously. They already did what you are trying to do. Go copy them.

Yeah, I played the heck outta SFC. In fact, its what started me programming so many years ago.

Thing is, they didn't model everything. Stuff like reverse movement and TACs weren't in the game at all. I also don't have the source, so its kinda tough to figure out how they did some aspects exactly. While I can make broad general assumptions, I want to try to be more accurate. Plus, I'm not real sure how power should transition into the engine.

I guess if nobody has input I'll just fudge it, but I hate doing that

SFC adjusted the available power real time based on whatever speed you choose, and what gets armed or activated, SFC power allocation has more in common with FC than it does with SFB. SFC also made no distinction between warp & impulse energy as far as I know. (at least I never noticed one)

I think the basic element you need to pin down is the timing in SFC..they had it all broke down into a series of ticks (which you could actually speed up or slow down). With each tick your game engine makes decisions based on available data.

As such you have to translate something like the 2 turns to arm a standard photon torpedo into something that uses a time measurement (your ticks)instead of using a fixed # of impulses or turns to determine when it will be armed and ready.

Example:

Determine how many ticks it should take to fully arm a photon torpedo, and the total arming cost. Subtract the arming cost from the available pool of power, and then divide the power required over the # of ticks to arm.

SFC also allowed you to stop arming midstream (like for an overload)..but you did not lose the all the power. So if you decided to abort the overload in favor of a standard shot you could, and if there was enough power already applied to fully arm/fire as a standard then the torp would be ready to fire right then and there (discarding the excess).

At any rate your time measurement system will be the backbone. All of SFB mechanics that rely on a set # of impulses/turns to arm or activate have to be translated into a an amount of time, and the power draw divided across that time.

I'm thinking that like SFC, I need to just set some standards and go with them.

In SFB for example, you can charge a weapon at the start of a turn, and fire it on impulse 8, meaning it has an 8 impulse charge time. However, you can't fire it again for 8 impulses after, which means you could fire it on impulse 31, then fire it again on impulse 7, meaning the weapon can fire every 8 impulses. However, technically the weapon can only fire once per "turn", so it really screws with SFB to move to real time.

Essentially, a weapon can be powered twice and fired twice in 9 impulses in SFB over 2 turns, which is actually really unbalanced in a way... unless its meant to be unbalanced like that, and perhaps weapons can fire twice in 9 impulses, but then have to wait like 23 more impulses to fire again once, or could fire again twice 9 impulses after that. That thought makes my head hurt.

Perhaps I'll make it take 32 impulses of power applied to arm a weapon, and after it is fired it takes 32 impulses to charge/fire it again. I think this is in more of the spirit of how the impulses should work, but it would prevent closing, doing massive damage, and then massive damage again 9 impulses later, which can be done in SFB now.

In fact, I'd have to make everything that can be powered take 32 impulses to receive that power, which doesn't feel very star trek like. Saying 1 power is free and powering a transporter instantly makes sense, however, that would allow 1 point of power to be used for multiple different things over a turn.

And while I can easily just do my own system or make SFB fit my needs, I'm trying to model the SFB system as precisely as I can without excessive modification. I think that is my major stumbling block.