[Cyborg17]

So, I'm a big fan of turn based strategy games.  But Freespace doesn't seem to have a turn based mod yet.  Now I'm not saying that I have enough time or even the equipment to do this, but if I made a TBS mod with scripting and released a few mini campaigns would you guys play it?

It would be similar to risk. Each system would be divided into a grid of sectors that you would have to scout and clear enemies from.  Large ships would have maximum jump ranges, depending on their size. Limited reinforcements would be given every turn. Like a fighter wing or two.  Each species would also have their own special abilities, like greater jump ranges, higher reinforcements, etc. I might even try for a random encounter generator.

I haven't put any work into it yet, except planning.  I just want to gauge interest before really trying anything. (Assuming I can get a good enough computer to try anything...)

So, what do you guys think?

[Lorric]

It would interest me.

[Lepanto]

If this project would actually get finished, I'd play it. As it is, it seems like a really ambitious endeavor; you might want to try something more manageable first.

[Dragon]

Well, FS engine doesn't seem suited for that sort of thing. Real time with regular pauses, maybe, but pure turn-based games usually work very differently to real-time ones. It'd be much better to use real time with automatic pauses, which should be doable with RTS script and SEXPs/pause script. At least for me, using turn-based mechanics in a real-time game (think KOTOR) or the other way around just seems unnatural and weird. I was never a fan of turn-based games anyway, besides tactical ones (UFO:AI, ARMA Tactics, stuff like that).

[Admiral MS]

I would play it! I really like turn based strategy games.

Though from a technical point of view I'm not so enthusiastic about it. Dragon pretty much said it already. The engine is in no way helping you to get anything turn based done properly. With my RTS script I'm probably close to what you want to achieve in terms of interface and controls (some of the other input/presentation related scripts like the system viewer should be very useful as well). The difference is that in my case the game can handle most things itself - after all it is about ships fighting in real time. I don't know your exact plan so maybe you can make it work without too many problems...

[Mongoose]

It feels like it'd be much easier to take some sort of pre-existing moddable turn-based strategy engine (if such a thing exists) and then apply FS's ships and mechanics to it.  In fact I feel like someone was trying to do something like that in the past.

[rhettro]

It feels like it'd be much easier to take some sort of pre-existing moddable turn-based strategy engine (if such a thing exists) and then apply FS's ships and mechanics to it.

I was thinking the same thing. Then I remembered Project Revolution which was a mod for Warcraft 3 (not World of Warcraft) for a 3D version of Star Craft Brood Wars. http://www.wc3c.net/revolution/index.php

I'm no programmer, but I think that would be a better place to start from.

[Dragon]

IIRC, Warcraft 3 is also real-time. I don't know of a TBS that would be suited for FS, but then, I don't play much TBSes. There probably exists such a game, but I wouldn't know about it. Anyway, on FS engine the best you can hope for is a KOTOR-esque hybrid, with standardized fire and movement rates and some sort of pause script. But if it's anything like KOTOR, it'll be rather clunky, especially for a space combat game.

[X3N0-Life-Form]

To be fair, I think a TBS game would be much more doable in either War 3 or SC 2 than FSO. For starters, I think it's pretty trivial to freeze all units in a given map. Then you could probably hack together a way to give delayed orders until the player presses a "next-turn" button. In fact, I might have seen turn based custom maps in Warcraft 3, or at least maps that incorporated some sort of turn component.

...

Damn, now I want to fire up the editor and see how doable it would be ... must resist!

[Cyborg17]

I don't think it would be as hard to freeze as all that.  Sexps are pretty powerful.  You can force the ships to stay in an orientation, lock all their turrets, keep them from taking any more damage, increase time compression (like for the screenshot script), or move them really far away from each other.  My plan is to represent them with icons, and maybe give the player the choice to personally command one of the skirmishes or battles that would take place during the turn.  It could be nice to actually freeze all objects in the engine, but it's not necessary.

The bigger point of it was for you to feel like a Petrarch or a Bosh or a Steel, managing the strategy for whole fleets, weighing losses against strategic gains, holding a system to protect civilians.  I also would love for us to be able to play "what ifs" and from the opposing side without having to create a 5 mission campaign that will probably never get finished.  Neo Terra victorious?  Why not!  Let's pretend we're Bosh for a few hours and see if we could have won as the rebellion in Epsilon Pegasi!

My less ambitious project is in a hard drive in a computer I can't currently turn on, and I'm kind of waiting for the ability to get a new computer before I try to get the data from the old and try to finish.  It was actually something like 75% of the way finished, with most of the remaining work being aesthetics and polishing.

And honestly, no, I haven't written anything in the scripting language, but it looks even easier than Excel VBA, which I work with at my job, and I think I have a solid chance at being able to pull this off.  It just would take some time.

[Dragon]

You'd probably be better off doing this in real time. FS is just better suited for that, and IMO, this would actually give a better, smoother gameplay than going turn-based. I find turn-based combat clunky and very un-immersive. Galactic/system map could be turn based, DOW-style, but if you're doing that, you're pretty much confined to writing it from ground up in LUA, since none of this sort of functionality has ever existed in FS.

[Mobius]

It feels like it'd be much easier to take some sort of pre-existing moddable turn-based strategy engine (if such a thing exists) and then apply FS's ships and mechanics to it.  In fact I feel like someone was trying to do something like that in the past.

This. Look for a game or mod that enables TBS, it could be a very good chance to bring new people here on HLP!

[Cyborg17]

You'd probably be better off doing this in real time. FS is just better suited for that, and IMO, this would actually give a better, smoother gameplay than going turn-based. I find turn-based combat clunky and very un-immersive. Galactic/system map could be turn based, DOW-style, but if you're doing that, you're pretty much confined to writing it from ground up in LUA, since none of this sort of functionality has ever existed in FS.

Yeah, I'm going the system map route.  I figured I would have to build it from the ground up.  I'm willing to consider doing it for two reasons.  1. It would be a good exercise in learning and practicing a new program language. 2. I can basically do whatever mechanics I want.  And if I start it, I plan to do a couple different layers of strategy.  But actually acquiring a sufficient computer is a prerequisite.  Right now it's not within reach, but hopefully within a few months I can get one.

EDIT:  I also don't want to mod another game because I would have to learn a lot about modding that game and then be forced to use their game mechanics.

[Dragon]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=87372.0
If you're going that route, Axem is you man. You'd have to script stuff from ground up, but his mod can help you with the interface (maybe you could even cooperate). If you strip turn-based mechanics to DOW-level (little stuff besides movement, bare-bones "campaign" AI), this could turn into a fun dynamic campaign. Especially if capship AI would get improved (as otherwise you're looking into an awful lot of scripting, but FRED and LUA).

[SypheDMar]

Aardwolf once created a simple TBS game with a FreeSpace theme. It was on Game Warden.

[Colonol Dekker]

Haven't you played Windmills yet?

[Cyborg17]

I played it about two years ago.  I remember it being closer to real time strategy.

Btw, I was able to recover most of my mod files, for the mod that I mentioned earlier in this thread.  I lost the most recent iteration of the missions, but I think I'm going to finish it before I put in a serious attempt at this project.

[Droid803]

Someone was working on an RTS script and it looked pretty awesome.
Perhaps a fusion of using the RTS script and some sort of system-map TBS could result in some cool Empire at War esque galactic conquest thing, where you move fleets around turn-based, and then fight real-time battles with them from either top-down command, or fly in them yourself!

[Cyborg17]

Someone was working on an RTS script and it looked pretty awesome.
Perhaps a fusion of using the RTS script and some sort of system-map TBS could result in some cool Empire at War esque galactic conquest thing, where you move fleets around turn-based, and then fight real-time battles with them from either top-down command, or fly in them yourself!

Something like that would be the best scenario, and it would probably be really fun. It might be feasible to even have control over a few different battles at once.  Who knows? But I would definitely have an option for the player to say no to in-battle control, letting chance or the AI to take over.

The current iteration of the cap-ship command script seems a little daunting.  Maybe control over one ship, like your command ship is feasible.  Dynamic control of different capships in mission sounds like quite a challenge. I really won't know anything until I get started, and it could be some time before I do.