Playtesting Suggestion

from StarControl Forums

Brad mentioned on Skype that he wasn't happy with the ships right now.  This was too long to put there so I thought I'd mention this here.  This is probably because of the speed/maneuver and relative motion of the ships.

People who fly RC planes sometimes tie streamers to the tails and "dogfight" by trying to cut each other's streamers.  Imitate this.  The weapons and devices are distracting and confusing from what is by far the most important aspect of making this kind of top down arcade space combat fun.  What I call "Pattern Recognition Addiction", or in Star Control terms you would call the *Dance*.  The relative motion between the ships.  They might all be way too slow, would be my guess, or maybe they are all too fast.  Maybe they just don't move well in relation to each other, the "*Dance*".

The weapons and devices distract and confuse you from this.  Don't balance the movement in relation to the weapons, balance the weapons in relation to the movement.  Disable, or just don't push those buttons, all the weapons and devices and just play to ram each other.  Make just attempting to ram each other as fun as it can be made.

If you can't quite put your finger on why it doesn't seem as fun as it should be, it is almost certainly because of the relative motion between the objects on the screen.  This genre is all about drawing the player completely into the *Dance*.

EDIT: Oh, try to ram each other anywhere but their front;-)

 

6,375 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from StarControl Forums Top

Well, as long as the ships "feel" different, that's great! ;)

i just don't want to use the same-ship-diferent-skin thingy

Reply #2 from StarControl Forums Top


Brad mentioned on Skype that he wasn't happy with the ships right now.  This was too long to put there so I thought I'd mention this here.  This is probably because of the speed/maneuver and relative motion of the ships.

People who fly RC planes sometimes tie streamers to the tails and "dogfight" by trying to cut each other's streamers.  Imitate this.  The weapons and devices are distracting and confusing from what is by far the most important aspect of making this kind of top down arcade space combat fun.  What I call "Pattern Recognition Addiction", or in Star Control terms you would call the *Dance*.  The relative motion between the ships.  They might all be way too slow, would be my guess, or maybe they are all too fast.  Maybe they just don't move well in relation to each other, the "*Dance*".

The weapons and devices distract and confuse you from this.  Don't balance the movement in relation to the weapons, balance the weapons in relation to the movement.  Disable, or just don't push those buttons, all the weapons and devices and just play to ram each other.  Make just attempting to ram each other as fun as it can be made.

If you can't quite put your finger on why it doesn't seem as fun as it should be, it is almost certainly because of the relative motion between the objects on the screen.  This genre is all about drawing the player completely into the *Dance*.

EDIT: Oh, try to ram each other anywhere but their front;-)

 

 

I mean, yes and no. Most of the time if I won, it was because I kept my opponent outside of their optimal range while pelting them at my longer range.

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Reply #3 from StarControl Forums Top

The point is more to focus on the movement for a while and get that feeling good first and then work from there, the weapons and devices distract you from seeing/feeling that.  Later you might then further alter ships based on what they are armed with.  For example weapons that take a long time to re-amarm make players want to fight at longer range or separate in between firing.  So you might later wind up changing  things based on what a ship is.

Working out just two or three ships without firing, just trying to ram each other but not head on, will establish a speed and maneuverability envelope that feels good to work within.  The *Dance* is the hardest and most complicated part of all of this.  I should also point out that you will almost never actually succeed at raming the other ship if they are relatively equal in speed and maneuverability... that is part of the point:-)

 

Reply #4 from StarControl Forums Top

I'd like to point something out on this topic that's a double-edged sword.  Allow us to "tweak" values in any direction (ship speed, HP, weapon damage, etc) and use models from oh I dunno, gal civ III workshop to import for testing to give an idea.  the workshop items are placeholders for custom stuff to be used in modding and value changes can be used to see if some stock stuff works better with different values.  For support with these changes, the workshop models would be needed along with changed files in a .ziplog.  Allowing tweaked values might also show where there are glitches with the engine (ie too high a value causes strange behavior)