Interview with Amplitude Studios on spacesector!

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VIPznork

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i were a ninja once

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VIPznork

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19 800g2g pts

13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 10:02:00 AM

maybe difran years for difrant factions?

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Nightraid

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Nightraid

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23 300g2g pts

13 years ago

Mar 29, 2012, 6:39:26 PM

That might not work so well for the factions unaware of (or indifferent to) the endless though. The Cravers, for example, are stated to be largely indifferent to the fact that they are related to the endless, and the United Empire have only a limited understanding of the Endless. However, I'm sure it would work well for a faction that worships or otherwise has a great interest in the endless.

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Raptor

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Raptor

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13 years ago

Mar 29, 2012, 6:57:03 PM

Nightraid wrote:
That might not work so well for the factions unaware of (or indifferent to) the endless though.

I can't think of other major event of galactic scale that would be more suitable. "After Dust" sounds right, I mistook it for "Anno Domini" initially but that was cause I didn't pay enough attention

VieuxChat's suggestions "AWE" and "AS" could work but they presume the existence of a somewhat more thorough information on when these wars have taken place and when they have ended (and as Nightraid said many of the races might not possess such). That's why IMO a simple AE (After the Endless) seems more logical to be used, as it doesn't even have to be historically accurate, it could be simply a date the new races (or most of them) negotiated through diplomacy, thus making it official for everybody. An artificial date that marks the end of the Endless, "artificial" cause the end of a galactic civilization doesn't happen in a day. This initial date could be agreed upon by the new races and then used by them to synchronize their own calendars.

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Nightraid

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Nightraid

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13 years ago

Mar 29, 2012, 8:02:20 PM

Well, many races like to think of themselves as the pinnacle of nature/civilization whatever, regardless of their actual importance. Even if they would be cursory aware of the Endless it's unlikely many races would be able to grasp how much more advanced the Endless were until they made a serious effort to understand them. Most races at the beginning of settling colonies in other systems would probably take the fact that they're not around anymore as proof that they were not as great as they thought, at least until they began to understand the real potential of dust.

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Raptor

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Raptor

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13 years ago

Mar 29, 2012, 8:27:39 PM

That is true but for the lack of other event of significant importance to all the races and for the sake of creating a time-measuring system, that could be used by all, it is needed. If we have to theorize further, what would "an year" in the Endless Space universe mean? It certainly won't be the orbital period of a particular home planet of a particular race moving around its star. That would mean that the "year" of one new race to be used over the "years" of other new races, that there is a dominating race. On the contrary it is more logical to have a common system that each race will have to tune up to. That would correspond to the new races' relatively equal technological, military, etc. power. Until you have conquered them all you can't impose your UE year over them

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MODNosferatiel

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"God's in his heaven, all's right with the world." Nerv Motto, Neon Genesis Evangelion

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MODNosferatiel

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13 years ago

Mar 29, 2012, 11:11:58 PM

Just to throw the idea into the lion pit:

For the cravers AB = After Betrayal or something alike, since the endless bombed them back to the stone age.

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MODVieuxChat

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MODVieuxChat

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13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 5:22:26 AM

We should also remember that devs don't want to change history and that in gameplay terms we need a universal term. So even if all the objections are good (after all even now on earth there exists several ways of counting timae that pass), we need something simpe enough to track turns. It seems we all agree with the fact that "AD" is too earth-centric. "AWE" was just an example of an acronym that is also a word. And that way to track time should be the least common denominator between the races. The endless are that commmon denominator, even if the new races aren't aware of that. I think sometimes you have to put gameplay before realism (or coherence).

Or AST = After Space Travel.

Or instead of "After something" why not "Since ..." : SC = Since Consciousness. SDD = Since Dust Dawn.

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MODNosferatiel

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"God's in his heaven, all's right with the world." Nerv Motto, Neon Genesis Evangelion

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MODNosferatiel

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47 300g2g pts

13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 6:00:37 AM

VieuxChat wrote:
We should also remember that devs don't want to change history and that in gameplay terms we need a universal term.[...]

As far as I understand, we need one special term for each race. There doesn't seem to be a need for one universal term:

Slowhands wrote:
[...]I'm open to changing the terminology as long as we don't change the history! Besides, each faction would have its own calendar so we can open-minded with the options.

There is also no reason why there should be some kind of common calendar. Changing name, offset and even tick length of the turncounter shouldn't pose too much of a problem, on the programming side.

Each race will have a different defining point in their history that will likely be chosen as their point of reference for the calendar, on the cultural side.

Even the passage of time and therefore the units of time are relative to perception and life length. Of course here the turn length will be the penultimum, but all of this just culminates in the realization, that there is no logical argument for a common calendar setup.

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VIPSharidann

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VIPSharidann

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13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 6:18:11 AM

For me each faction can have its own calender, it adds flavor and immersion to the game.

As for a common time unit... well in gamer's terms it is called ... a turn.

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maceman

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maceman

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13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 8:25:23 AM

BoG

Beginning of Game

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Raptor

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Raptor

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13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 9:28:02 AM

maceman wrote:
BoG

Beginning of Game

I think we need a clarification on whether there is going to be a common system in addition to the calendars of the 8 factions, or not. With that clear we can focus on choosing that common system's abbreviation. Since we know nothing about the other factions' history I'm sure the devs can better than us choose their calendars basing them on the lore.

anyways in case there is going to be a common system here are the suggestions so far summed up from last 3 pages and the current one (AD) for easier reviewing:

AD (After Dust)

3003 (just an year like in Startrek)

DoD (Discovery of Dust)

AWE (After Wars of the Endless)

AS (After the Splintering)

AE (After the Endless)

AB (After Betrayal) - more suitable for the Cravers' calendar

AST (After Space Travel)

SC (Since Consciousness)

SDD (Since Dust Dawn)

BoG (Beginning of Game)

GSD (Galactic Standard Date)

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MODVieuxChat

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MODVieuxChat

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13 years ago

Mar 29, 2012, 5:36:45 PM

Slowhands wrote:
Heh heh I was waiting for your comment, znork

I'm open to changing the terminology as long as we don't change the history! Besides, each faction would have its own calendar so we can open-minded with the options.

It seems history for the available factions begins after the Splintering of the Dust Wars. So I propose AWE : After Wars of the Endless. Or just After the Splintering (AS)

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MT4K

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MT4K

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13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 10:08:20 AM

i do like bog to be honest. a bit of fun at the game's own expense can be quite a charming thing. Nobody likes a game to take itself too seriously after all :P.

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Loddfafnir

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Loddfafnir

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13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 11:54:10 AM

MT4K wrote:
i do like bog to be honest. a bit of fun at the game's own expense can be quite a charming thing. Nobody likes a game to take itself too seriously after all :P.

I disagree with you. Here we have a game with an amazing background. It would be sad to ruin all of this with a misplaced joke. Because I like serious games =)

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MT4K

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MT4K

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13 years ago

Mar 30, 2012, 12:04:13 PM

I suppose you're right. In that case hmm. If they are going for a standard date system for all the races then would it not be started from the time the agreement was made itself? so it would be something like " GSD = galactic standard date. or something like that. Not that interesting i know, but probably realistic. or even "ADA = after date-system agreement.

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Nightraid

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Nightraid

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13 years ago

Apr 12, 2012, 4:09:02 PM

Would it be possible to get this stickied? We could use this thread for future online interviews instead of creating a new thread for each new interview out there.

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Alderbranch

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Alderbranch

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13 years ago

Apr 12, 2012, 9:59:29 PM

Here is my suggestion. Its also based on a base 13 numerical system starting at 42...

SDATSAIWCBTMHATCOATHWIAEWB(EC) - Standard date and time system as it was created by the most holy Alderbranch - the creator of all that was, is and ever will be (even cheese).

To answer nightraids question: Id rather say it should be added in the FAQ under the question: What interviews have Amplitude given?

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SpaceVoyager

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SpaceVoyager

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13 years ago

Apr 19, 2012, 6:54:31 AM

Hello all.

Read the interview and I've been blown away, mostly by two passages:

Second: The battles. I have seen many space battles in strategy, but most of the time I found them confusing and not visually attractive. When I see a space battle in a game, I want to relive a scene from Star Wars or of Battlestar Galactica… and that is what we want to achieve. Beautiful and immersive battles, where you take most of your decisions before it starts and enjoy the show after!

...

So when the battle starts, in some ways a lot has already been decided. Yet the battle is computed in real time, and we are giving the players the possibility to alter the course of the battle, through strong tactical decisions.

Perhaps it is my imagination running wild but this description reads exactly what my ideas of battles in a grand strategy game should look like. Feel of an admiral instead of playing as as many captains as you have ships.