Kavik_Kang

I'll give an example of the difference between the space ship games you know, and how it actually works based on real-world navies. Using SFB as an example, if a casual SFB player winds up playing someone like me one of the big differences will often be fleet composition. The casual player will take all front line combat ships in the mistaken belief that is the most powerful force that they can create. As many of the biggest, most durable, best damage producing hulls they ca

IBN: I am always the first to say that a proffesional editor would make my story three times better than it is now. Like anyone else, I am not an expert at everything. My field is game and simulation design. I also know a lot about history, the military and, of course, imaginary space ships. Grammar and composition are not really my thing. As a writer I get by. There are mistakes I know I make and continue to make out of habit. I often type conjunctio

With the SCII mothership the only "game in it" is upgrading the ship itself. And that really just creates a problem, that the mothership quickly becomes the only ship you ever need to use. As far as the ships that it carries, there is no game there. And no dynamic. It can just carry different kinds of combat ships, and more of them than you even need. And that's it. Having a fleet composition to the ships you carry adds a whole new layer to what is really y

Think about how the mothership works without this. There is no game too it, no dynamic too it, and with a pure carrier build you almost certainly have a lot more ships than you ever need. This turns the mothership into it's own little game within the game. And the strategic support ships are also story ships. In DLC/expansion you might even have "guest ships" over the course of the game. A pirate would be a particularly good one, because he can do things you don'

Yes, Cuorebrave, I get why that struck you as an obvious point, but there really is more too it than the obvious fact that the “general tactical support” ships can also work in supermelee. But they don't work very well, not nearly as well as race-specific ones would work in supermelee. The most common mistake aspiring game designers make is what I call the “Glorious Vision”. In this case, many will have a “Glorious Vision” of all

I should also point out something I have just been assuming without saying. Brad seems to be saying that there will be what I call the "Nintendo Ice Hockey Balance" were most or all races have a little guy, a medium guy, and a fat guy. The hangar modules that service the ships would match this in terms of "space". There would be a single-space hangar bay for the little guy ships, a hangar bay that takes 1.5 "spaces" of the ship for the medium guy ships, and hangar bays for f

That's because the idea of "passives" is what led me to this. "Super Melee Passives" could be similar too this, or race specific where each species has a variant of their smallest ship that eliminates or mitigates a racial weakness of their ships. I don't really like the "gamey" idea of "passives". What "passives" actually are within a fleet of ships are th

I've been writing game design documents my whole life. I was repetitive on purpose in this because my experience told me that if I wasn't that point would not get across. This wasn't written as a specific design specifically because it doesn't go over well to present specific game rules in a discussion like this, it is left open to interpretation on purpose otherwise you come off as seeming to say "it must be done exactly this way", which is not the case. This was intentiona

Just to try and improve the mood here, we are celebrating over here because WZJB-FM has asked my brother for permission to begin playing one of his songs on their radio station! I guess that makes They Killed Fritz an actual band now! :-) This is the song they will be playing... I don't even know what state this radio station is in, haha! https://re

"Don't listen to the gaming goobers, they don't even know what they want." - John Olsen That refers to the majority of gamers who are not capable of envisioning how a game will function, and are therefore not qualified to be giving advice about making them. You clearly fall into this category. Maybe you are useful as a fiction guy, like Josh Spencer, but you've proven too me now that you are one of John's gaming goobers and aren't capable of understanding how things will w

Ok... Could do a lot for this game. Oh well...

There's Kang's Crickets again... This is the only way I know when people like something I've done. When there is total silence, you know it must be good! Just like the PDU story, nobody will say a single word about it... so it must be pretty good;-) I've started calling this effect "Kang's Crickets", total silence is the best response that can be hoped for in today's world!

A little more about the strategic support ships... Generally, the strategic support ships “support” the story and strategy side of the game, and the tactical support ships “support” the arcade side of the game. The uses of the tactical support ships is obvious. You can do a lot, anything you can imagine and that you have the resources to do, with the strategic support ships. They can be used within the sto

OK, I am having too much fun working out my version of the mothership for SCO. So here is the rest of it. There are probably only 4 or 5 ships that become obsolete in the in the mid-late game. So I am going with six examples. Many modern games make the mistake of not having enough options available to the player, and it is easy to “have everything”. This is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make in a game. One

Another good support ship for SCO would be "Power Transfer" (Offensive EW) that enhances energy recharge rate. You could also have "strategic support" ships like a Hospital Ship. These kinds of support ships would provide additional options to the player in the adventure/strategic side of the game. If you have the Hospital Ship, for example, there would be better and more rewarding options available too you in quests/encounters where that strategic support ship was relevant.

I vote for The Creature That Ate Sheboygan III. I already put the planet in the game, so all they need now is the monster and a really funny story to go with it. Haha!

[quote who="HenriHakl" reply="9" id="3684807"] Somewhat unrelated, but I agree with the assessment that gaming now is not gaming back in StarControl 2 days. I think the core of the issue is that as a 1v1 game it is not complex enough to have lasting appeal. Ideally you'd want SC:O SuperMelee to be picked up as a professional esport. For that to happen there needs to be both audience appeal as well as a deep enough gaming experience. 1v1 games that made that are things like Qu

What a coincidence, a perfect thread for this after being knocked off internet for the last week:-) So, since I am bored and temporarily with no internet as I write this, and nearly homeless even though about two years ago I accidentally discovered the E=MC2-like fundamental basis of what would be some of the most futuristic technologies on this planet (which Steve Cole deserves half of the credit for)... and it's all so shocking

I like Gildon's idea of it being race specific added into this, too. So you get a bonus for having a "wingman" and carrying two of one type of ship. This also helps with balance as only the same species ships get the "wingman bonus". So you don't need to worry about the Scyrve bonus being too powerful when applied to the humans, for example. It also allows you to make up for deficiencies of a ship/species. So maybe the Human ship alone has a lot of difficul

Instead of just using game terminology they could use real-world military terminology for variants. Just saying "passives" reminds the player that it is a game. So the Scryve example could be a "Leader" variant. A smaller ship might be an EW (electronic warfare) variant and provide some form of defensive bonus. They should come up with an appropriate sounding variant name for each passive support ability, and not just call it "passives". Also, the mothers

I would think that the danger of "scope creep" is doing a lot of work for little real gain. This is the opposite of that, this is a force multiplier in many ways. It greatly increases the variety of ships in the game and it greatly enhances the immersion of the player. The universe seems incomplete if every species only has one kind of ship. And it is not a ton of work because you are just adding two thematically similar ships for each ship that already exists. M

You could do it that way, but then they will all seem like pretty much the same ship just with different speed, maneuverability and health. They would also run into a problem with weapons and systems. For example, a big slow ship that can barely turn is going to be pretty useless with the weak weapon of a fast and agile ship. Usually each species would have a theme too it. So the DaNoth (close enough:-) has a theme of gravitic technology, so all of the ships of it's cl

I have no idea how it is being used. It can be used for progression, but the basic idea is that the races each have entire "fleets" of ships and not just one kind of ship like in Star Control. Like a Battleship, Cruiser, and Destroyer. It can be used, really, any way that you might be able to imagine using it. Maybe you get destroyers early in the game, cruisers later... and the battleships are "special" that exist in various ways but your mothership can't carry those.

That is a very long answer, haha... Much to long give here. I have two blogs that explain that. http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/MarcMichalik/787769/ https://www.gamedev.net/blogs/blog/2315-pirate-dawn-universe/ I had actually come back to this thread because my last post here made me think of something I

I think this is a huge deal, it was the highlight of this month's update too me. Having at least three classes of ships for each of the major races is just such a huge deal in so many ways. It's going to make the game feel much bigger, more realistic, and have a lot more variety. It's a "force multiplier" effect on the content an, an illusion that is far more than the sum of it's parts. It really is a big deal. I love it!