Tiny Schools of Ships

from StarControl Forums

NOTE: I support the idea that in SC, you control one ship. I'm not recommending this to be changed.

 

What makes a ship a ship? Could we potentially have a "ship" comprised of multiple 1 or 2 crew fighters? Will the engine handle that?

The individual ships could either fly around in a swarm pattern (think gnat clouds) or in a more organized pattern (think schools of fish or flocks of birds). Regardless, the "ship" would still fly like a single normal ship. You wouldn't be able to control individual ships.

(A good example of this would be the old Atari game Combat. One game mode gave you had a squadron of 4 airplanes, with each plane being able to shoot. All 4 planes were locked in a square formation.)

Here are some thoughts on how this formation of ships would work using SC2 as a reference...

  • Hitting the formation with a projectile might only hit one of the ships, depending on the projectile. (A Spathi pellet would hit one ship. An Ilwrathi plasma cloud could hit multiple ships. The Umgah cone would devastate a formation.)
  • Hitting the formation with a sustained laser (think Chmrr or Vux) would hit one ship, burn through it, and possibly hit ones behind it.
  • Since the formation's guns are tied to individual ships, more ships = more firepower. As the formation lost ships, the firepower would drop. 
  • Possible ability: The formation can change flight direction quickly and start flying left or right or even do a 180° flip and fly backwards.
  • Possible ability: The formation could spread out to fly around obstacles/planets or to avoid projectiles.
  • Possible ability: The formation could change shape to better focus the individual ships' guns or to have a spreading shot.
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Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

It doesn't even have to be a formation of small ships. Imagine a hive-like alien race where you can talk to the queen - but the "ships" are actual insectoid space-capable drones that fly in formation.

 

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top

Aside: I used a swarm tactic to easily defeat the Guardian in MOO2 early in the game.  Built a cheap fleet of about 20 skiffs each armed with 2 missiles.  While the Guardian with its mega gun could only kill 2 of my ships over 2 turns, I was able to launch 40 missiles in that time.

Swarm mechanics can be deadly and OP'd if allowed.  This is moot if we're only talking about a handful of ships per side though.

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Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

Quoting HenriHakl, reply 1

It doesn't even have to be a formation of small ships. Imagine a hive-like alien race where you can talk to the queen - but the "ships" are actual insectoid space-capable drones that fly in formation.

That works too. It would be akin to the Chmrr+Zapsats or the Exquivan+Barriers.

Quoting GnarlyFurtardo, reply 2

Aside: I used a swarm tactic to easily defeat the Guardian in MOO2 early in the game.  Built a cheap fleet of about 20 skiffs each armed with 2 missiles.  While the Guardian with its mega gun could only kill 2 of my ships over 2 turns, I was able to launch 40 missiles in that time.

Swarm mechanics can be deadly and OP'd if allowed.  This is moot if we're only talking about a handful of ships per side though.

Tiny ships equipped with with armored Emission Guidance missiles ("ass$%&*er missiles" as I called them in my teenage years) would tear the space lobster apart. I ALWAYS took that technology in a game of MoO2.

Back to SCR, though... Even if we had a squadron of 8 ships, that's 8 damage per shot. In SC2, that's a decent amount of crew damage to dish out. A squadron/school/formation/swarm would be a strong starter but weak finisher.