I had forgotten about this, you guys should read this. It will cost you a whole $6 for all three books. Three books written for sci-fi writers by "super genius" Ken Burnside of the SFB Staff. Objects In Motion, Condition Zulu, & The Hot Equation were written to teach sci-fi writers and game designers about the realities of space combat. The Hot Equation was nominated for the 2015 Hugo Award. http://www.adastra
Another SFB player:-) It's not so much room to run as it is the relative speeds of the weapons and targets. Ground units are essentially motionless compared to projectiles or missiles. Fighters are closer to the speeds of projectiles and missiles, and space ships move even faster in relation too the weapons.
If Paul and Fred are reading these forums, I would suggest too them that they have nothing to worry about in terms of SCO being far more massive than what I imagine they intend too make. As a huge fan of their games, I would see their far smaller and less modable continuation of the original story and game as the "classic" continuation and SCO as the "big budget massive explosion of Star Control". Very different, and both good in their own way. SCO might be far more massive,
It didn't really work all that well in SC2. It worked well for some matchups, but not others. Super Melee was fun, and I had spent many hours playing it in SC1 with both my brother and best friend. But Subspace was much, much better. I think SC2 was the best computer game ever made, but I think people like me who say this are thinking more of the amazing story and the general structure of the entire game than they are of the Super Melee. And it won't really wor
Yes... and "stalemate" = "broken". And there is no way to break that stalemate. If you are chasing me and I lay a mine, it is a weapon approaching you at high speed. If you lay a mine, it is meaningless and simply left behind. If I launch a missile at you it has a double-rate of closure, if you launch a missile at me it has a long slow uphill climb to reach me. These are just the two most obvious examples. What we call the Kaufman Retrograde is about a 3-
Public perception is almost everything these days. Without getting political... it really could have a detrimental effect on your reputation if you allow such a perception to solidify.
All I know is what has been stated publicly, of course, and I am not some fanatical Stardock "fanboy". I like Brad's games, and Paul & Fred's games equally... and there are very few computer game designers that I actually admire. I almost couldn't believe that Stardock would simply not use the original aliens just out of an understanding and respect for someone else's "ownership" of a universe they created regardless of what the contracts actually say. I can't imagine
After watching a You Tube video of people playing online, and seeing how bad they were at this (no offense;-), I figured I would be fine playing online even being crippled without a gamepad. It was 9AM of a Friday morning and I don't think anyone else was online. The things I noticed is that there is no chat room or lobby and there should be (maybe coming later), and that there didn't seem to be anywhere to enter a name to use in Fleet Battles. I don't want my name to be aut
I noticed there is a newer version than the last time I played it. The gravity is working a lot better now, but still isn't serving its purpose. The whole point of the slingshot is to give the slower ships a means of catching up too, or escaping from, faster ships. The planet isn't acting like a magnet anymore, but it is also still not slingshoting you to a high enough speed to be very relevant. This might just be because there are no slow ships, the slowest is "medium
I don't want to repeat things I've been saying for the last two years. You should read my earlier posts here to understand the true nature of the situation. What I am saying is based on about 40 years of actual experience with this subject that comes from a table-top game called Star Fleet Battles, and in this case a concept we call the Kaufman Retrograde. It is counter-intuitive and most people have a problem with it at first. You like using real world military exampl
It is definitely possible to automate a game too the point that the player doesn't have enough involvement, or take too much decision making out of it. As SVC would say, "You always have to leave the player the option of making a mistake". For Star Control, I like Rhonin's suggestion. It's as if the crew knows to run a basic scan of the planet to get the basic information, and then you as the captain can order a more comprehensive scan. The three scans happen on thei
Asteroids are the traditional "walls in space" within this genre. It's an arcade game, not a starship simulator. I had suggested a "hyperspace bubble" as an alternative, an "interdiction field", but that is limiting in some ways as well. If we made real warships in space, most of their weapons would be facing backwards. If we have equal ships except that your weapons face forwards and mine face backwards, you almost can't win that fight. The barrier is needed b
I hadn't even noticed that they hadn't named the ships yet. They should all have some type of name that has some kind of meaning related to the lore of the species. You don't want a militaristic ADC/G-1701 Eluder , that doesn't fit the SC universe, but some type of name really does add a lot more than most might imagine that it does on a psychological level.
One of the advantages of the barrier is exactly what you were pointing out, any other method limits ship design by the needs of the map. The "tournament barrier" allows for the widest range of ship designs to function within it. There is no truly great answer to this problem that anyone has ever come up with. But you don't want "realism". Realism is the faster ship being in complete control of the situation. Realism is most weapons facing aft, or ships that fly
I was just providing the simplest possible way of creating the "living galaxy" they say they want to have. There isn't a simpler method than this, not if you want it to live up too the concept of a "living galaxy". I am already aware that they may be too late in the process to do it this way, but then again maybe not. This is "board game simple" and can easily be done on a table top. I do understand the "complexities of software development" at a basic level, but of co
It's not as much as you think it is. Not every ship out there has to have an AI "attached" too it, some are still just the type of "background" AI ships that you would have doing it the way that most people would and just having them on an endless loop through a few destinations. Just like the planets, and black holes, etcs, those ship can be thought of as a part of the "passive map". Any AI Object you choose to attach an NWD AI is like an NPC in an RPG. Or, said anoth
The Ur Quan Dreadnought is already available in the Steam workshop. I would imagine that it won't be long at all before the players have provided all of the ships of the original games to be used in Fleet Battles.
Yes, it does feel more free even though it really isn't. It is still an "end of the line" for the faster ship, in a way, but can still be "gamed" to bad effect. "Dancing on the edge of the neutral zone", in Star Trek terms. It works, just not as well as an arena. In open space speed rules, and even a slight speed advantage means that ship has complete control over the situation. Exchanges of fire take place only when and where the faster ship chooses.&nbs
Anything at all. Anything you can imagine can be fit somewhere within the order of precedence of one of the three categories. And an unlimited number of new instructions might wind up being placed into them, which could keep an AI Object busy for quite a long time. It is a very simple system that is actually infinitely capable. This, operating with Avalon Hill's phased turns, had been an emerging science in the last days before computers began to become a thing th
The wrap around map of SC2 is a type of barrier, and the last thing it feels like when you teleport from one side to the other is "natural". It does feel as though you have more freedom, but it also feels strange and doesn't work anywhere near as well as a barrier/wall/arena. You have to do something to make it work as a game, an open map with no containment doesn't work for a lot of different reasons.
I thought I would explain “Needs, Wants, & Desires” within the context of Star Control in a little more detail. This is at the foundation of how Will Wright's games work, and it is very obvious that he learned this from a book called “Designing Games & Simulations” which, in the 1980's, was one of the only books that existed related to game design. It is much more obvious in Sim City then it is in Spore, but is also there in Spore.</
Drax, the current BETA map is just one map. The one they decided to use for the initial BETA release. It is intentionally a "boxing ring". If you remove the planet, this is the "serious dueling arena". The map can be much bigger than this and still achieve it's primary goal of forcing faster ships to fight. Even twice as big as it is now, you couldn't run away for so long that it would annoy the slower player. Much bigger than that and the barrier would sta
Brad has said several times that the primary reason for that was to not interfere with Paul & Fred's ability to continue their own universe, and their own story. He also mentioned that he feels as though it is their story, they created it, and in his mind they own it no matter what the law might technically say. He owns it, and could have used it all, but chose not too because Paul & Fred were a big influence on him going into game design. I have the impression that
I also watched the "Living World" video. What is old is new again. This is ultimately where what I call "Rube" comes from, that's one thing that it does. I thought I would mention that the simple way of creating a "Living World" is to use what used to be called "Needs, Wants, & Desires" as the AI for the "living entities" within the world. Modern gamers recognize this form of AI as "Will Wright's style". So the "background living entities" of your "living wor
It more takes an unbeatable advantage from the faster ships than it does give the slower ships any kind of advantage. Without some form of barrier (I think of the wrap around screen as just another type of barrier), the faster ship can choose to never fight if it doesn't want too.