AD ASTRA: A Reimagining of Stock and The Outer Planets Mod - "It's Cloudin' Time"

[Great Liao]

9 hours ago, G'th said:

Im still pretty focused on my TTRPG, though the temptation to crack open this old chestnut is starting to grow. If only just so I can take a break lol. Like you I got pretty burnt out on KSP in general but it has been a sufficiently ling while...

 

Yooooo! He's back!

[Cytauri]

15 hours ago, G'th said:

 

I am indeed.

Im still pretty focused on my TTRPG, though the temptation to crack open this old chestnut is starting to grow. If only just so I can take a break lol. Like you I got pretty burnt out on KSP in general but it has been a sufficiently ling while...

Id also say it's less that it was never born and more that I locked it in the basement like a red headed stepchild.

Thanks for responding. If you don't want to continue this project, I totally understand. I've been focusing more on life now and I kind of am getting bored of video games. I want you to enjoy life for what it is. Take care!

Edited October 19, 2023 by Cytauri

[TwoCalories]

If I installed this midway through a stock system save, would it destroy my landed vessels or break the save?

[Cytauri]

Looks like I contradicted myself. I decided to jump back into KSP and start a career save. Now I can't stop playing, I just got a probe around the Mun and was rewarded with a boatload of science! 

[KerbalOnKerbin]

Is the project still on the sidelines for now? I was just wondering, take your time

[Rutabaga22]

On 3/13/2023 at 6:03 PM, G'th said:

 

Somewhat recent events in the TTRPG world culminated in me starting to write my own game and thats been sucking up all my creative willpower. 

The mod isn't necessarily dead, and I can honestly pick right back up where I left off whenever, it just isn't what Im wanting to focus on atm. 

Plus I like to think it'll be a good thing in the end. When I come back inspired to work on it more it'll be the better for it, particularly considering only one planet needs "hard" terrain work put into it, and the rest is just making it beautiful which is the comparatively easier part for me. 

How's the ttrpg going?

[G'th]

10 hours ago, KerbalOnKerbin said:

Is the project still on the sidelines for now? I was just wondering, take your time

It is. My computer did the not alive (which wasn't surprising) and it'll be a longwhile before Im up to getting a replacement. Fortunately, as this isn't the first time this has happened, I do have the data backed up so nothing is lost. 

That said, I do keep thinking on it and while I have other things Im focused on, I probably will come back around to it. Particularly because now I have a pretty well developed eye for game design, and I think I could come up with some clever stuff given that. 

But that'd have to come after I get another computer, and that'll be a while as I have other priorities that require my money atm. Like having functional eyesight and personal transportation 

Fortunately, at least barring some horrible disaster coming out of nowhere, I don't suspect it'll be too long. This has been the longest I've been stable in nearly a decade, and thats saying something. 

5 hours ago, Rutabaga22 said:

How's the ttrpg going?

Pretty well. The game is called Labyrinthian, and I've had a heck of a time working on it. Its still in a proto stage, as its a pretty big game by rpg standards, but its coming along. 

In terms of a game pitch, its a game about shaping your character's legend. In other games you'd find cool lore about these wild characters that did things way cooler than what you can do in the game; in Labyrinthian, you get to be those wild characters other games use as background lore. You see that dragon over there, by that mountain? You can suplex that dragon, and break the mountain with it. 

But it goes farther than that, as the game seeks to deliver a truly reactive, living world where, even if you and your party decide to just be fantasy Bakers (and they can, its fully supported!), the world will change and develop around them as they play. And if they do decide to get involved, then they can start forging a legacy that will persist even past their own lifetimes. Your character's great grandchildren could very well still be dealing with the fallout of your original choices. 

Feature wise, we got:

• Tactical, fast-paced combat that scales cleanly, and effortlessly, from the grit of 1v1 Duels to the dire slaying of complex boss monsters, to epic slug fests between the tens of thousands amongst the forces of Good and Evil. You will witness the reality of warfare in a world of high magic. Featuring a core system revolving around the Combat Grid, inspired by the Tactical Grid of the upcoming game Hollows and featuring a hybrid of Position and Zone play, Combat is an intricate tactics game thats easy to learn and effortlessly fun. 
• An expansive and wide open character building system that hybridizes classic Class systems with an Elder Scrolls style Skill+Perk system. Make a character in minutes, and realize their potential in how you play. 
• 20 Base Classes and 80 Subclasses, all of which can be mix and matched and built up in any order you choose. You want to take all the subclasses at once? Go for it, its balanced.
• Crafting - Inspired by Tears of the Kingdom, the game will feature an elaborate, and relatively realistic, crafting and gathering system, allowing you an unprecedented amount of expression in what your character will make of the things they find in the world. A sword is no mere combination of a couple ingots and some leather strips, but of potentially many different metals, leathers, woods, and oils, all of which will provide unique and emergent properties as you combine them. The cost of your creations is that they won't last forever, but this is a good thing; as your equipment degrades, you'll be able to repair them and add new materials to gain temporary abilities, and if you let your weapons break (or, with the right Skill, do so deliberately), you can add these new abilities permanently. Sprinkle some Springhorn into your sword as you sharpen it, and it'll gain the Boomerang property, and will fly back to your hand after being thrown at a target a few times. Reforge your broken sword with it, and you'll be able to do it forever. And all this before we even start talking about Magic!
• A True Exploration System - Exploring the world is the bread and butter of an adventure in Labyrinthian, and as you learn more about the world, your characters will find Inspiration in their knowledge, and will be able to leverage what they've learned not just to succeed in the challenges they find out there, but in the greater schemes of play. Seek out and discover new places to build, to gather, and to explore, or don't! Exploring is about more than just striking out into the wilderness; its about learning. Find out that big bad evil guy is weak to bananas? You're Exploring!
• A Systemic Living World - Building out from very simple mechanics governing the passage of Time, the gameworld will come alive as play continues, and narratives begin to emerge. Entire Cultures could rise and fall and change, and heroes and villains will come forth to inevitably face each other. Your characters Reputations will invite challengers and pleas for help, and as you affect others they'll affect you back, whether they be Rivals or Allies. 
• Full Integration of Improv - Its an open secret that much of whats enjoyable about RPGs is just improv; we call it roleplaying, but there's a whole lot more we can do than just pretend to be elves. Improvisation is useful and supported in nearly every sector of the game, from Combat to Exploration to Questing. 
• Easy Set Up - The game only needs a World map and the Combat Grid, and new characters can be drawn up in minutes. World Keepers, the Game Masters, will need a bit more, but the game has your back, with innovative tools to get you in the game. The Quantum Statblocks and Quantum Quest Blocks will help you improvise enemies and entire questlines all on the fly, and the gameworld is designed to be easily managed with nothing more than a Calendar and a handful of Region Sheets. 
• Easy Integration with all Playstyles - Don't want to just play with an abstract grid and some tokens? The game's got you; you can build as elaborate a set up as you want and the Combat Grid is easily applied to it. Don't want to engage with this elaborate living world? Thats fine too; the game will only break if you stop playing it. Want to play without a World Keeper? Co-op is easy. Want to just play by yourself? Go solo!

=====

But anyway, yeah lol. I'm under no delusion that I'll perfectly nail all of this, but so far I've nailed a hell of a lot of it, and when its ready to be playtested publically, I'm confident I'll be able to refine it to a fine sheen, so to speak. 

I also didn't even elaborate on everything that's going into the game, but I'm always happy to talk about my ideas if anyones curious. 

Edited January 6 by G'th

[Spikemaster]

Beautiful! Hopefully it comes out soon. I deleted the mod for performance porposes. Will definitely get back to the Outer Planets after the release. Also, will it be available at CKAN?

 

[G'th]

5 hours ago, Spikemaster said:

Beautiful! Hopefully it comes out soon. I deleted the mod for performance porposes. Will definitely get back to the Outer Planets after the release. Also, will it be available at CKAN?

So my life did a topsyturvy all over again recently, but actually for the absurdly better for a change (like so much better I got motivated to care about my physical health, sooo yeah). 

The plan as of now is just focusing on getting a new, working computer going which I should have roughly around June or July. From there I'll be recovering my old data and this mod should start seeing some updates not too long after that (though Im also making the leap into VR, and will even be able to play DCS again after so long, so that will be taking up time too. Im going to have a healthy amount of free time so I don't see any issues there). 

For the mod, my plan is to first get over the hurdle I originally ran into when I stalled out originally, which had to do with getting Kerbin to work as I wanted it to. Essentially as I wanted to go all out and support detailed underwater topography, the height maps and their related settings have to be set just right and that was a fickle thing to get right. (Otherwise the land topography gets wack)

But push comes to shove, I can table that particular feature and just get the actual surface working as a stopgap. 

From there I'll be going through each world and just tuning them up essentially, cleaning up anything I no longer like and ensuring the basic visuals are all in place. As volumetrics are a thing I'll be looking at that too and seeing what all it can do. 

At that stage, whenever that will be, I will be moving the mod into an ongoing, public testing phase. The goal there will be for you fine folks to help me tune each worlds topography to cull any wackiness; on-orbit visuals are pretty simple for me to deal with solo but I'll definitely want the help when it comes to the surface, particularly down the line when I want to start doing scatters, launch sites, and whatever else. 

And yes I don't see any reason why this can't be set up with Ckan at some point. Probably not during testing, but with releases yes. 

So ultimately just bear with me. Time is the enemy now and I just have to hurry up and kill a whole lot of it lol. 

[Spikemaster]

14 hours ago, G'th said:

I don't see any reason why this can't be set up with Ckan at some point.

Great! this is seeming more and more like a no-brainer. 

Is the new moon of Duna 'Mic', the new moon of Sarnus 'Lypso' and the new locations of Gilly and Bop a part of the base mod?

 

14 hours ago, G'th said:

Time is the enemy now and I just have to hurry up and kill a whole lot of it lol.

All right. Take your time and have fun!

 

Edited March 15 by Spikemaster

[G'th]

10 hours ago, Spikemaster said:

Is the new moon of Duna 'Mic', the new moon of Sarnus 'Lypso' and the new locations of Gilly and Bop a part of the base mod

So they are my own creations, and aren't a part of the original OPM. They will be included in Ad Astra however, as the idea is for the entire system to be more analogous to the real Solar System while maintaining the Kerbalized aesthetic. Hence the silly puns in "Mic" and "Ike", aka Mike and Ike, and Knut and Wal, or, "Wal Knut". 

And yeah, Gilly and Bop were relocated to further that. As Venus has no real moons of consequence, neither will Eve, and so on. 

[Spikemaster]

Alright

9 hours ago, G'th said:

they are my own creations

 

[Cytauri]

On 3/15/2024 at 12:52 PM, G'th said:

So they are my own creations, and aren't a part of the original OPM. They will be included in Ad Astra however, as the idea is for the entire system to be more analogous to the real Solar System while maintaining the Kerbalized aesthetic. Hence the silly puns in "Mic" and "Ike", aka Mike and Ike, and Knut and Wal, or, "Wal Knut". 

And yeah, Gilly and Bop were relocated to further that. As Venus has no real moons of consequence, neither will Eve, and so on. 

You should do a binary system and name them Ro and Bil. 

 

[dylsh]

This looks truly amazing. Great work so far!

[Noobly]

I really hope to see this going forward! Love the idea.

If you need testers or something, i would love it!

[Cytauri]

._.