[joek]

I got the idea from two old games I remember (but don't remember the names).

One was an arcade space game (kinda like Asteroids but you shot enemy ships and such) where you could play two-player mode where one player controled the ship and the other player the weapons.

The other one as an old Atari game. It was something (set in the future) where you had to shoot robots while saving humans. In one-player mode you would shoot and move in the same direction; but in two-player mode one person would control where you went and the other person controlled where you shot. It was really fun, and me and my brother would get up early so that we could play before going to school.  

With a PC space sim I don't know how easy it would be to have two players at the computer(especially since space sims aren't that popular right now)... so that's where I thought you might need two joysticks.

Joe.

[wEvil]

tyrian you're thinking of  



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 http://www.wevil.co.uk  - how NOT to do a website

[joek]

Thought of a few more ideas...

Rather than asteroids textured to look like comets... how about actual comet fields. As you destroy the comets, they shatter into clouds of gas (like mini-nebulas). They would eventually dissipate, but very slowly so that while you're playing you can shoot up a bunch of comets and create clouds of gas and debris (mini-nebulas) to hide and dogfight in and out of.

This is idea is just to resurrect what I know X-Wing had (I don't know about others). The game had a (like) flight recorder where you could, after playing the mission and having the recorder on, you could go back an rewatch the mission/battle from any ship's viewpoint (even an floating camera you could fly around the battle with), and you could pause and rewind the mission to see what else was happening. (Could also be used to see where such fighters came from and what they did so when you replay the mission you can expect those events).

This next idea is an adaption of Descent's ability to record demo movies. It would be great if the game engine had to ability to record the game action (from your playing viewpoint) and export it into a movie file (like screenshots but a real movie). Then you could create your own trailers just like the FS ones--but create them right from the game.

Joe.

[Shrike]

Here's an evil thought.

what if for the 'big engine' ships the drive was coded so it didn't have an engine wash, but was instead a real fusion trail.... IE like being at groud zero of a low-kt nuke.  Obviously if you're dealing with the insanely high firepower values of FS, that's kind of useless.

[wEvil]

a fusion plume would break ANYTHING into its' consituent elements  

good thinking, watson!

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[Shrike]

*kicks this thread up again*

[Grey Wolf]

How about this: Everything's adjustable (Mechcommander), but w/ weapon hardpoints. For instance, you could switch from having average sensors and engines, to really good engines and weaker sensors (maybe target lock takes longer). Perhaps as you earn rank, more options are available. Or perhaps some sort of credit system. It would really throw a wrench into the works, so if you found, say, an Artemis, at long range, you wouldn't know whether it was faster, more maneuverable, tougher, or had a bigger payload. It would be pretty interesting, especially for MP.

[The Claw]

Going back to the starfury bit, I reckon it'd be cool if you could use special shortcuts to perform maneuvers - like F would make the fighter cut it's engines and spin through 180 degrees (so it's going in the same direction but flying backwards).
 I'd also like the whole begin able to move in three dimensions.
 Here's an example of what you could do:
 Hit the hard up key, which makes the craft jink upwards violently, hit the 180 deg. key and zoom off in the other direct etc.
 Also, the effects of G forces on the pilot to a certain extent, so when you are make REALLY hard maneuvers, there is the chance you might black out (maybe a AI would control it until consiousness is regained, or maybe not, it might depend on the craft).
 On the control front, why not use what the starfuries are meant to use: a combination of hand movements (keyboard+joystick) and voice commands (like "Engage afterburners on my mark... MARK!"-sinclair, battle of the line, B5  )
 Also I would like to see planetary flying, where if your craft is not atmosphere capable you plumet, but even if it is, it becomes much less maneuverable.
 Basically: Maneuverability, the ability to go practically anywhere (also multiple jumps per mission could be useful), big Beam weaponry and others - like the Siege cannon from Cataclysm (which I might be able to make in Freespace  ).

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Chickens? Where? Where BOOM!!
 Folks... we have a very special guest for you tonight... I would likje to introduce:
 MR HORN :-Linkin Park
 Project coordinator of Alternate Reality: The Chickens Cometh and A... errr... team member of The Perfect Storm.

[aldo_14]

New weapons- Limpet Mines

You fire one and it attaches to a capships hull, waits 5 secs and explodes, making a big hole.  And accompanying vapour effects to show the escaping oxygen.

[Falcon X]

Basically right now space sims are similar to flight sims in a dark background.  The only differences is everything is floating, you can stop, and you don't have to worry about crashing into land. (only ships for those flight impaired)

Right now we are not really sure how newtonian physics would apply because once you enter a solar system you have to deal with all the different forces of gravity.  It would be a pain.  But I like joe's idea about how you should have a computer deal with it.  But here's the catch, we would not be used to that, because you would be changing positions constantly and there wouldn't be any fluid motion, I think this is why develeopers are afraid to use those physics.