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Well, I'm from Denmark , so perhaps I've been especially aware of this incident, but that's not the reason I comment on it. When I see how split the western world is on the issue of a free press and personal freedom of expression, I guess I feel obligated to make a stand for it. It seems some people don't realize, that without a free press our culture will be discontinued. I'm shocked that some seem willing to "sell it" just to calm down some fanatics and appease their self-appointed leaders. They must grow up, culturally, to paraphrase Squinky, if anybody is ever going to trust them at a political negtiation.

Just like the muslims are offended by the cartoons, a lot of other people are seriously offended by Sharia Laws, tyranny in general, and the lack of respect of human rights. But when we take action, it's in the form of fleeing, making statements or drawing cartoons, not by violent action. I think the trade embargos against Denmark is a sad, but at least lawful and civilized response for those offended by the cartoons, much like I wouldn't personally want to shop where I suspected I wasn't respected. But don't be naive, though many are offended, the protests are staged mainly for political reasons, and a lot of lies have been spread about these cartoons and the motives behind them. Don't forget that muslims all over the middle east are being kept in the dark by their leaders, who deny them a free press and means to educate themselves about anything that doesn't fit the agenda. That's why they can so easily be mobilised when the one and only "authority" demands it. I agree that Bush and the west in general have caused a lot of hatred and anger in the region, but I refuse to listen to those who want even more of exactly that. Violence is bad and should be monopolized by the state.

note: minor edit to clarify point

Using space as a game background, is reason enough to make it visually interesting, so I think you made the right choice.

Space is infinite, right, so who knows what it looks like? I think that towards the center of a galaxy, dust and nebulae will actually be visible. Earth is on the outer rim of our galaxy, but the Milky Way can still be seen as a somewhat denser white belt across the sky.

Of course there was Douglas Adams, who was convinced that from some far away point in space, all the stars would line up on the sky to form a very rude word. I'd take his word, if anyone's, on the matter.

I agree with Ali that capitalism and protestantism have been linked in very convincing ways.

Max Weber was the first to write about it, argueing that, according to Luther, man was a born sinner and condemned to hell, salvation being only possible through a personal effort. And still, one could never be sure to go to heaven. This is similar to working off an endless debt, which, in short, leads to captitalism and the notion that hoarding riches is a goal in itself (whereas for instance the catholics had a much more relaxed view on wealth - spenders, rather than hoarders). I think the "time-is-money"-paradigm is still very much visible in the christian world as opposed to other parts, and being non-religious myself, I'm not sure I can deny my cultural heritage in this respect.

About militant islam, I think it has a lot to do with the Islamic countries' tradition of political leadership. When some are violently outraged by cartoons, it's only because they've learned that this would be the reaction of their leaders towards themselves if they dared break the rules. And their leaders have kept them comfortably unaware that freedom of expression is a human right in other parts of the world. Hopefully this conflict will screw up that plan.

The good thing about freedom of speech is that when radical opinions are expressed openly, everyone can see how lame they are - they aren't surrounded by secrecy and "swear-on-your-life-to-join-the-club" rituals that are probably half the attraction to many young people.

When some (religious or other) dogma is demanding self-censorship of me, I think the trouble is already there, and it's no longer a matter of getting into or not.

Conflict is what the free press and our tradition of political debate/parlamentarism is about - avoiding it is a quick surrender to whoever threatens to become offended, imagine a future like that...

Guess it won some award for being 100% free and stable

http://www.softpedia.com/progClean/The-Gimp-Clean-5446.html

Ok, well. I don't think there are any constraints on how you can use it. You can even download the source and make your own build. I've had it for some time, and there haven't been any "Upgrade Now" or "Become a registered user" pop-ups so far, if that's what you worry about.

"The GIMP" ia a free Photshop-clone with many of the same features.

http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/

I also made a program that could draw stars in AGS a while back. Here's how far I got. I wanted the light from the different stars to overlap and enhance itself, which was a bit of a problem considering the amount of color values that would have to be stored and remembered.



MSPaint is very slow and unhandy for painting stars (although it can be done beautifully if you have the discipline/patience). If you can get your hand on 3d Studio Max somewhere, there's a great tutorial on making stars, nebulae and planets included (at least in version 6). This is the title-screen for the AGS-game I'm working on. It was made using that tutorial.



Also, to give AGS the final word, here's a shot from within the game. It has multiple "rooms" like this with huge scrollable backgrounds that are dynamically painted on entrance. Basically, AGS paints them by painting stars and nebula-sprites on top of each other on the whole area, each with a random transparency setting. The picture is a bit dark, I know, but it's no problemÃ,  in full-screen mode. If you wonder about the vertical green bars in the scene, they are animated during gameplay, as to scan space from the player spaceship's position. They scan the scene and trail the green radar "bleeps" that can also be seen.



Note: You just posted your last update while I was typing this - it's freaky, but you're getting there ;-)

Edit: Just noted that Haddas was behind the last update - should have guessed. 

I've worked a bit with max, and depending on what version you are using, you might look through the extensive tutorial and user reference. I think there are lists of common values in there (like the refraction level of glass as compared to water or diamonds and such). There aren't any magic numbers, because the values depend on the renderer you assign. For instance, if you use the built-in alternative mental-ray renderer, you get a whole new set of options regarding materials.

Also, 3dsmax7 comes with a whole library of so-called Architectural materials, which are preset, with maps and values that make them look like realistic walls, floors, brickwork, celinings, fences etc. It's useful for most realistic scenarios, but hey - even when the matrials are correct, it's up to you to set the corrects lighting, which isn't always simple. 3dsmax7 (maybe also in version 6), for this reason, simulates lightbulbs with different real-life properties (Watt), as well as sunlight and positioning of your scene on real-world coordinates to simulate angle of light at the time of day. Given all those variables, in my experience I haven't found any way around experimenting with the settings and doing tons of test-renderings.

Ok, I'd like to try the level editor once combat is in a place.

About the networking: I did some simple socket things in java before, and will probably be able to make the small program you mention - granted that it's a fun project with no big security issues. (Although if someone reading this has done that a thousand times before, I suggest you let them at it). The fact that the game is turn based, and the pre-existing turn-files, eliminate most of the more complicated issues with synchronization etc. Also, do you need direct connection only, or some kind of visible online portal where players meet to connect?

I think it's a cool idea - although maybe a minute is a bit too long for the action sequences imho, especially in those (hopefully rare) cases where nothing really unexpected or funny happens from the orders given.

In games where the action is hands-off/AI-controlled, I often get a feeling that the computer is having more fun than me, and I think every player would be secretly dreaming of actually controlling one of the characters through the action-sequences. Maybe that could be made part of the strategic choices in the freeze state - which of the team members to control for the next thirty seconds of real-time action.

I definately think this should be an online game, so teams from all over the world could compete against each other online, and that the design could allow for some level of user customization (own graphics etc.)

I also want to point out a game, "Soldat", which is something of the like - a one man project as far as I know, but really popularÃ,  - and free, btw.
http://www.soldat.pl/screens.html

I'm curious about the progress of your tool development. Promise to keep us updated on it. I think I'd like to design a level for this when the time comes - there are some links to previous projects in my signature, let me know if you need more details.

Next: Something less stupid...

Next: Banana Amoebae

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Code: ags

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Next: An American girlscout

I bet you will need the Random-function :-)

Please be more specific. What parts have you already done, and what parts can't you figure out?

Hey SteveMcCrea, that's pretty cool. I always wanted to learn this kind of math and physics, but I never had any formal introduction - do you know of any good books? I considered buying "Physics for Game Developers" from the O'Reilly's series, but I'm wondering if it's too high level for someone who took language courses and philosophy instead of math and physics in high school. Do you know that book, or any other good introductions?

Suspicion is out
still one more thing I must do
it's like a present

I think you're right about The Longest Journey, on the other hand IÃ,  think most games of this type will be developed in a full 3d environment with fixed-angel camera in the future, because it really isn't that hard to do the almost static real-time 3d rendering. With a fixed camera, the light-sources can be fixed and the textures baked beforehand. Look at what can be done with the editor for Neverwinter Nights for instance. http://aurora-toolset.iqnaut.net/

If you're interested in this, perhaps also check out Virtools, a 3d game engine that I know supports this type of games (as well as other 3d games). http://www.virtools.com/