Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Inquisitor on April 15, 2005, 09:13:34 am
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Can someone point me to the threads that say things like:
I wish the space game i just played had blah?
Trying to get a handle around what the "ideal" space game might look like, and searching doesn't seem to provide useful results :)
Thanks in advance!
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Originally posted by Inquisitor
Trying to get a handle around what the "ideal" space game might look like
Something like this:
(http://img27.exs.cx/img27/8052/crovmed2fn.png)
(http://img27.exs.cx/img27/424/artemis20tl.png)
Kudos to Falcon for the Awesome screenies.
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have you EVER heard of AA?
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If you do a search in the General FS forum Inq, I started a thread a while ago that had quite a long list of "FS3 wishlist" items. Some of them were obviously FS only but I'm sure some of them could be applied to any game.
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Alcoholics Anonymous?
Anti Aliasing?
Anti Aircraft?
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the second
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LOL I know ;)
In my experience actually, AA takes a lot more resource than the visual improvement really gives. It's nice if your card can handle it, but like the shaders on slightly lower end DX9 cards, it usually makes a lot of speed impact if you turn the feature off.
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I know there have been comparisons in the past between things like freelancer, x2, fs2, iw2, etc, but searching for those terms seems to give me an unwieldy number of results.
Ok, try a different tack: More than just gfx coolness, things like physics, story, number of factions, number of ships, weapons variety, moddability, etc.
We had quite a few "discussions" just trying to find some seminal ones.
Additionally, if peopel could point me to their favorite ORIGINAL ship designs and models, and the modellers that made them, that would be keen...
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Heh, I've been toying around with ideas for how I would like to see a Space Combat game for years, I'll have to upload the docs and give you a link, it might give a few ideas, it might not :)
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okhay ... id say EVE but so you can actually pilot your own ship with a stick not by clicking in space :) oh and so that shots that miss theyr target actually MISS :)
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Originally posted by Inquisitor
Can someone point me to the threads that say things like:
I wish the space game i just played had blah?
Trying to get a handle around what the "ideal" space game might look like, and searching doesn't seem to provide useful results :)
Thanks in advance!
Planning on starting a spacesim project? If so, I know a few folks who could help out on music, ships, etc.
Are you looking at making an open ended trading game, or a military sim?
If a military one, I have some old documents from when I was working with Crytek on a spacesim they cancelled. (not profitable enough in their mind compared to what FarCry would do) Crytek doesn't own the copyrights on them, so if you're interested I can forward it. It's pretty old, but some of the ideas could be useful.
If an open-ended one, as some of the folks here know, I've been working on a 2d space combat/trading game. It's done save for adding in a more windows-like GUI, some final balance testing, and finding a publisher. I've been tossing ideas around about a 3d version of the game using the Torque Shader Engine.
PM me if you want further information on either of these.
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A wishlist:
Dark, gritty, military atmosphere.
Storyline both on a personal level (contact with wingmates, make it hurt when you loose a wingmate), and large scale politics.
Fighter/capship model somewhat like FS2, but with player-flyable gunships.
Inteligent AI.
Proper background texts. (Lasers are lightspeed FFS).
Attention to detail
Star/nebulascapes like LS did them.
Moddability taken as far as possible.
Weapons variety is nice, but there should be plenty of reason to vary. Purpose build guns, and perhaps shortages.
I think the old cliche of 3 major factions works quite well, but within each faction there should be struggle for more power as well.
As for physics I'm not sure, I've never played a newtonian space sim, so I cannot judge.
These are just idea's I scribbled down, I'll think about this a bit longer.
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http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26955.0.html
Grug started that thread a while ago, it might give some pointers?
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We are toying with a space sim idea, I am just trawling for interesting ideas.
You guys are all space sim experts in my mind, so, your opinions count :)
Ace: I wouldn't mind seeing stuff, mostly just at the idea stage now, and prefer public domain type stuff, ideas and conversations. Don't want stuff you aren't comfortable sharing publically, as I am very intellectual property aware, and wouldn't want any semblance of impropriety.
There are a few TGE and TSE games in development by other groups. It's a good engine. We know it, we like it, we'll probably use it for the foreseeable future.
Anyway, right now just looking ta possibilities. So I would appreciate any and all stuff as above :)
I like gritty and military focused, I think my ideal space game would have that as well.
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here's the space/trading thread from a bit back:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,27166.0.html
I think some sort of base building/capture/destruction mechanism in a free-form game would be awesome, especially if the universe in huge. That would also make for some nice trading opportunities if you can build a base close enough to some minable resources or if its near a trading hub.
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I will say that one of the main appeals of FS2, is the fact that gameplay never slowed down in game. Take Homeworld, it was basically designed for computers more advanced than the ones it was being played on, so huge battles caused a lot of slowdowns on my old computer, though, admittedly, very little on my new one. Doom 3 drives me nuts, as should any game that requires a 'Normal and an 'In battle' FPS listing :/
So, from an engine point of view, I personally find that important ;)
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OK, well, now that I've had my fun... :D
My ideal space sime would have several things that FS2 does not:
More races. FS2 has too few, SW has too many. ST has a decent balance if you ignore all the minor ones and focus on the major players in the series. There should be major and minor races with whom the character can ineract with, all with defined (note: that doesn't neccesarily mean unified) agendas and a suitably detailed backstory. They should also have unique technology - who else was slightly irritated that the Shivans went from all but beamless to a fully beam and flak armed fleet (including on beamless FS1 era ships) at _exactly_ the same time as the GTVA? Don;t even get me started on the identical ship classes/sizes/uses, and the fact that the Shivans use GTVA bombs (though I realize this was probably just for simplicity, it really was sloppy work on Vs part)
Lots of (consistent) background canon. One thing I dislike intensely about FS2 is the horrendously obvious absence of anything like a major, unified work of background canon. It looks as if much of the stuff was just written at random, forgotton, altered, or made to sound cool. Compare something like Warcraft's universe (and yes, I know it's not a sci fi, but the point sands) - there was so much canon that never even came close to being referenced in game, especially before WC3 and WoW.
More ship/weapon variety, and a reason to change. In FS2, once you get the Kayser, Harpoon, Treb and Maxim, it's all over as far as weapons choices go. I mean, the morning star, leech, EMP missile etc. are all good in theory, but honestly, who uses them? Same with ships - if you look at the stats, it's disappointing how similar the Myrmy, Herc 2 and Perseus really are in performance. Properly differentiated fighters with noticable performance differences, and a wide variety of weapons with distinct, applicable uses. Also, the ships unavailable to the player should be made more diverse as well. I mean, despite FS2 being an essentially capitalist future society, with (presumably) dozens of competing companies making both military and civillian designs, there are 2 terran transports in the game, about 3 freighters and a dozen or so fighters. I mean, there's more diversity than that in todays world, I assume diversity'd be even greater in tomorrows. Show that to me.
Objectives other than blowing things up. Pretty self explanatory really. FS2 does a good job, but it'd be nice to have at least a few more distinct mission types.
Visual diversity. Let me know when I'm flying a heavy bomber as opposed to a recon fighter. Slap me in the face with it. Diferent HUD, cockpit view with variable cockpits, varied weapon emplacements etc.
More environments. I realize space doesn;t give you many options and that ground missions in a non dedicasted simulator are probably going to be nightmares, but flying always against stars is never going to cut the mustard. FS2 had, IMO, the bare minimum Asteroid fields, nebulae and open space missions - ideally it would have had others, like large asteroid (think ESB sized) and planetary missions.
There's probably more, but, well, I can't really put exactly what I want into words because, being the annoying yet pliable consumer that I am, I probably don;t really know. And, if anyone ever implemented my ideas, the game would probably need to be distributed on multiple DVDs and/or small hard drives. But, err...yeah.
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I couldn't agree more with you. :D
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Originally posted by Inquisitor
Ace: I wouldn't mind seeing stuff, mostly just at the idea stage now, and prefer public domain type stuff, ideas and conversations. Don't want stuff you aren't comfortable sharing publically, as I am very intellectual property aware, and wouldn't want any semblance of impropriety.
I do own the IP to the old design docs. They are actually versions I was working on as a side thing while Tane "Zer0" Piper was working on the official design document for the project, Silent Space. I was going to propose my document because his design was too ambitious, even after trying to size it down, but the plug was pulled before I was finished. So I completed it on my own time, hoping that maybe someday parts would be usable.
Anyway, there's no special reason to not upload the file and post a link:
http://www.savant-online.net/files/republic_dd_v033.doc
53 pages long. I kept doing some small tweaks on it from '00-'02.
I don't believe I mention any story elements in the document, but it is effectively a corporate war in the mid 22nd century. Most of the technology is about on the same level as Earth the B5 universe, save the absence of FTL. Icarus Corporation attempts to break off from the Republic of Sol due to their discovery of FTL, and the player is with the Republic forces fighting a small but technologically superior foe.
Rimscape uses RPAs and similar technology, so in the back of my mind "The Republic" deals with the events prior to the exodus which leads to the various powers in Rimscape.
Rimscape can be played here:
http://www.gamelizard.com/webstart/rimscape.jnlp
This is how the new GUI is looking, the icons will need to be revamped by an icon artist though:
http://www.savant-online.net/graphics/rs_images/rs_newgui_credits.png
http://www.savant-online.net/graphics/rs_images/rs_newgui_trade.png
The status bars in this image are going to be tweaked, this was just an experiment:
http://www.savant-online.net/graphics/rs_images/rs_newgui_main.png
If anyone knows any icon artists who might be interested, please contact me :)
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All kinds of food for thought, thanks guys, keep it coming if you think of something :)
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...Geomod... :nervous:
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Well, I've always said, if you are going to have big ships, make them part of the terrain, rather than simply scenery, have pipes you can duck under, buildings/towers you can flip sideways and skim between, corridors you can fly through etc. I'd love to have a battle around a station where the station plays more of a role than simply 'decoration'.
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Descent meets Freespace?
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Yep sort of, but with elements of the Death Star reactor/surface run thrown in, I love the exhilleration of that scene, trying to shake off fighters that are behind you by outflying them and forcing them to crash into the structures etc ;)
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Flipside makes a great point, there. But collisions would have to be handled better than in FS2.
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which can be fixed in SCP in the near future. :D
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I have had consiterations on posable ways to improve at least the look of large objects, one idea I had was to have geometry built into the BSP tree so at each node you could add more detail, but I couldn't think of a good way to get model formats to work for it.
if FSO had improved physics, and an AI prone to skimming the surface of large objects (rather than crashing into them at full speed) I think things could get more interesting.
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The biggest problem with space-sims, IMHO, is exactly the same problem as was in way old school NES and SNES era RPGs. The pallette swap.
Now, I consider Freespace 2 the absolute god of space sims - but in essence, it really only has 4 (maybe 2) weapon types, of which 2 (maybe 1) are available to the player.
It has bolt-type weapons (blob cannons and every primarily a player has access to) which simply shoot a projectile straight. Missile type weapons, which are in essence bolt weapons which home in. Flak weapons, which are in essence bolt weapons which burst and do area affects at a certain range. And beam weapons, which even I can't catergorize as a version of bolt weapons.
Take you're average FPS. A pistol and a shotgun may be very similar, but in practice, they're used very differently. As is a sniper rifle and an SMG. Space sims in general, though, limit you to primaries (and even in freespace 2, all primaries are essentially the same weapon with slightly more damage when you hit, like an old school NES imp vs. Red Imp). They're more damaging versions of the same weapon which are used exactly the same way.
Same sims could learn a lot from Descent in this manner. The three way cannon didn't function like the gatling cannon - you had to adapt techniques to use the two of them. Three way was best close up, gatling made for excellent long range attacks because of it's essentially instant hit velocity - but you had to use control cause it knocked enemies around too. And the charge up plasma cannon behaved differently. Whatever weapon you had on, you altered your tactics to fit that weapon. FS2 - well, I'd rathed have kayser then a subach, but when you get right down to it, kayser or subach, I'm using exactly the same attack patterns and techniques to get it to hit.
Give me wave motion cannons, ballistic cannons that hit instantly but knock your enemy around. TIE-fighter style tractor beams. Make the mauler device from MOO2 a weapon, very very wide "No need to aim" but eats energy like a mofo and has a short range. Give me energy torpedos and missiles, weapons which travel in large conic sections, seekers, non-seekers, feignters, special purpose weapons. But make me THINK before I shoot. A kayser isn't a subach, and I shouldn't be able to say "Kayser, subach, Prometheus-S, Prometheus-R, they're all exactly the same". Give me spread guns and flamethrowers and laser and crush weapons and make me feel like my super laser isn't a palette swap of my stupid useless laser. And I'll buy your game.
But, then, if we're talking really far out. Give me that. Then let me dock with other ships, and take them over Buck Rogers: Countdown to doomsday style. In a pure FPS doom 3 game. Give me Mechwarrior: Mercs customizability but the living economy of X2: The threat. Let me get a combat mission at every space port if I want to, or make a fortune trading space-crack to aliens. Give me a deep plot, money AND a barter system, slave trading if I'm feeling real evil, research and development if I set up a base. Let me hire engineers to modify my weapons, and develop them to where they can use 14 different modules to make my laser to a super laser, but also let me hire researchers to create the new superweapon.
Give me a hot alien chick to romance and wierd aliens to talk with or blow up if I feel like. Let me disembark and explore alien ruins for schematics for the matter wave disruptor, mark 14, then let me trader if for 14 heavy lasers and a nubile young maiden.
Give me the best of Master of Orion 2, Doom 3, Freespace 2, Mechwarrior Mercenaries, Metroid Prime, Star Control 2 and Planescape:torment and I'll buy your game.
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Problem is that if you get too deeply involved with the 'universe' you'll end up with BC3000AD, jack of all trades, master of none. Computers aren't 'quite' up to that level yet, it was like when I started that discussion about trading games, the trick is getting people to think a lot more is going on than really is ;)
As far as the skimming over surfaces of ships is concerned, can I just add that a Perseus travelling at 120m/s (500+ kph), when colliding with a capital ship should not, in my opinion, go doiiing!
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Originally posted by phatosealpha
Give me the best of Master of Orion 2, Doom 3, Freespace 2, Mechwarrior Mercenaries, Metroid Prime, Star Control 2 and Planescape:torment and I'll buy your game.
Why have I got a horrible feeling that someone said that to Derek Smart once and BattleCruiser Millenium was the result? :p
Flipside is correct. It's going to be very hard to do all that in any reasonable time frame. Either you end up with a game which is completely obsolete as soon as it come out or you rush and end up with BC3000AD.
Personally I'd aim a little lower. A lot of people are going for I-War EOC or Freelancer style open universes. I agree wholeheartedly on that. I want an open universe where anything can happen at any time.
Don't make the mistake both of the above games made though.
1) Never force the player to trade or be a merc. First time through the game I want to complete the game. Not spend ages improving my reputation/elite rating/bank balance just so I can play the next mission. And who ever came up with the Freelancer "You must be level 20 to purchase this weapon" needs shooting. It's ridiculous that someone with millions in the bank can't buy a weapon just because of some arbitrary rank.
2) Don't make the universe revolve around the player. If instead of taking that urgent mission I decide to swan around gas mining the universe should have moved on by the time I get back. Both EOC and Freelancer suffered from this although Freelance did eventually reach a point where you had no choice but to play the critical missions.
3) Respect the fact that your customers have a life. What pissed me off about EOC to the point where I stopped playing it and what was a major annoyance in Freelancer was the fact that an enormous amount of playing time was spent simply travelling from A to B. In the final mission of EOC I played I would spend 9 minutes travelling to a destination only to get blown up 30 seconds after the action started. After this happened the 6th time I actually timed it, decided that I'd wasted an entire hour of my life doing nothing but travelling from A to B and promptly uninstalled the game.
The words great game and mind numbing tedium do NOT go together in my mind :D If it's getting to the point where the player is picking up a magazine during the travelling sections then you need to include a time advance function (don't make it manual either! It should automatically take you from the second that you click auto-pilot and then drop you back into the game [with an optional pause screen telling you where you are and why the autopilot is cancelling] as soon as the action starts).
Same goes for forcing the player to watch the same cutscenes over and over again before every launch. Allow the player to turn a cutscene off after he's seen it a definable number of times.
4) If only I can save mankind why aren't you helping? If the Imperial Navy/rich benifactor/pirate leader thinks you're the only man for the job make sure that the player isn't being sent out in a ricketty old fighter held together with duct tape and chewing gum. If the player isn't in the military then he should be given everything that it is possible to give him for that mission. Of course the employer could demand it back after the mission is over. If the game is set in a military enviroment then it's a little more forgivable but still rather odd to see an entire task force do nothing while 3 wings fly of to battle the ancient evil. Freelancer actually got this one largely correct. The Order sell your their top fighter at an incredibly cheap price simply because they need you.
5) Let the player be evil..... If the player wants to slave trade, cary out piracy, blow up friendly stations let him. There are much better ways of handling the problem than the indestrutable stations we see in other games. If after the game has finished the player decides he personally wants to visit every star system in the game and destroy every single space station let him try.
6) ...but with great power comes great responsibility If I do decide to be evil I should pay a permanent price. None of that pay $1000 credits and we'll forget about multiple murders. Minor infractions should require a fine yes. All stations could order ships to put there safeties on when approaching so that the accidental "whoops I fired a nuke at you" defence can't be used.
If I blow up a station in a system then news about me being wanted should spread outwards at the speed at which information moves in the game.
Piracy should be possible but make it so that if someone does get away you're in big trouble. Good jamming equipment should be a must for any pirate. It also shouldn't be a matter of just walking into the store on any planet to pick it up.
It should be possible to gain a full pardon only if I do something very heroic. Otherwise the only way out is to visit the cloners on Rigel 7 and get myself tranfered into a new body. Of course I may find that my new identiy can't access all my old bank accounts (even if they haven't already be frozen!).
7) Make it moddable I think that FRED is the main reason the community is still here. Without it most of us would probably have packed up and left years ago because we'd have played all the missions enough time to need a break. Make sure the modding system is as simple to use as can be and that it comes with good instructions. I don't have time to write you a FAQ too :p
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Can I just add to that :-
One thing that winds me up is the idea that in the Future pirates will carry little identifiers onboard so that traders can know they are pirates and IFF them as such before they fire a single shot. Certainly, for known pirate groups etc, that's fine, but in the case of a freelancer, you shouldn't know their intent towards you until they display it.
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Everyone here seems to be focusing on combat or trading space sims.
To test the waters a bit:
How would you feel about an action-adventure spacesim? Like Star Controll II or Lightspeed?
The player is in control of a self-sufficient starship (like the Mothership in Homeworld) and explores say an accurately modeled globular cluster.
It would be overall a sandbox game, with factions that you can interact with.
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Originally posted by Flipside
Can I just add to that :-
One thing that winds me up is the idea that in the Future pirates will carry little identifiers onboard so that traders can know they are pirates and IFF them as such before they fire a single shot. Certainly, for known pirate groups etc, that's fine, but in the case of a freelancer, you shouldn't know their intent towards you until they display it.
I think that's a case of gameplay over realism... although whether anyone developer has actually considered that ambiguity as an option is an interesting question.
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Originally posted by Flipside
Problem is that if you get too deeply involved with the 'universe' you'll end up with BC3000AD, jack of all trades, master of none. Computers aren't 'quite' up to that level yet, it was like when I started that discussion about trading games, the trick is getting people to think a lot more is going on than really is ;)
As far as the skimming over surfaces of ships is concerned, can I just add that a Perseus travelling at 120m/s (500+ kph), when colliding with a capital ship should not, in my opinion, go doiiing!
Oh, of course. I doubt anyone will every actually try to make the game, and if they did budget and time restrictions would most certainly mean the parts of it generally suck. But since we were playing what if and all, why not.
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Originally posted by Ace
Everyone here seems to be focusing on combat or trading space sims.
To test the waters a bit:
How would you feel about an action-adventure spacesim? Like Star Controll II or Lightspeed?
The player is in control of a self-sufficient starship (like the Mothership in Homeworld) and explores say an accurately modeled globular cluster.
It would be overall a sandbox game, with factions that you can interact with.
I've never played either of those games to be honest, but it sounds kind of interesting, I'll have to try and find out more.
An a side-note : I always though that a MMORPG based on the Homeworld style of gameplay would kick ass ;)
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I doubt anyone will every actually try to make the game, and if they did budget and time restrictions would most certainly mean the parts of it generally suck.
So long as people realize that :)
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Anything/anyone else?
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Originally posted by Inquisitor
Anything/anyone else?
Nope.
Guess you'll have to make my game then. Ah well...
:D
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Guess I need to book mark this :)
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If it's not too late to pitch in, I'd like to add that it should have a really, really good story behind it as well as good implementation.
Few space sims that I have seen thus far actually have gotten both right. Heck, few games in general that I have seen get it right :p
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It is never too late to pitch in :)
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In that case, can I mention (or possibly gripe about) voice acting?
To my mind most voice acting, particuarly in military organisations, is too 'relaxed'... I've listened to engagement tapes an example is...
'The is Delta, target has been been confirmed, ETA 3 minutes, request permission to engage'
'Understood Delta, you are go for engagement, I repeat, go for engagement, weapons pod 1 only.'
'Understood, weapons pod one is live, approach angle 14", airspeed 320 knots.... I have radar contact at Angels 120.'
'Roger Delta, proceed with mission, you have twin Harrier backup'
'I feel better already'.
Voice acting can, in my opinon, make or break a game ;)
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Ever play Hegemonia: Legions of Iron? That was a fun game but holy mother of god, the voice acting was a crime against humanity.
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LOL Yes, I have, and I agree, that's a wonderful example pf how a great game narrowly missed out on being another Homeworld simply because the voice acting wasn't as good ;)
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Hegemonia was never in the running to be another homeworld, as the gameplay was too empire-driven but the graphics centered around spacecraft combat. Never mind the fact that the only strategy you could ever use was "build more/better ships than your enemy" instead of any semblence of tactics. However, the voicing was absolutely horrible, without question.
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I actually meant as in a milestone in Space-combat games, such as X-Wing, Wing Commander, Freespace, Homeworld etc. ;)
But yes, that still doesn't change the voice acting :D
Edit : Hang on, forget what I just said, I was thinking of Nexus :nervous:
Haegemonia had nice explosions, but the voice acting was utterly utterly terrible ;)
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Anyway, about what you suggested, that kind of chatter is great in theory, but requires a lot of time, a ton of resources (distro size, memory allotments, code, mission scripting, etc) than is practical in any game. Homeworld had it pretty close in its battle chatter, and IMO Freespace is pretty good about it too. Though I always got the feeling that Alpha 1 was on some general channel for most of the game, rather than the proper ship-to-ship command channel. The death wails and taunts of every ship in WC, as well as the generally informal merc-style transmissions from your command ship (i.e. the player was as important to the ship as its captain, which isn't at all realistic), are sort of the counter example to proper military battle chatter.
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Yep, it's really more a question of how the standard lines are said, Freespace 2 wasn't bad, and command did tell pilots to stop chatting, Homeworld battle chatter was good, really it's just a case of saying X instead of Y, if you see what I mean?
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Oh I know. It's just that the specifics of what you posted require a lot more chatter than the one-liners used in most games. And quite frankly, the one liners are all you need for immersion, without resorting to completely cold military lingo. Also remember, what you're talking about is airstrike chatter rather than dogfight chatter, which is inherently very different. The flyboy's life isn't so much on the line when he's strafing a tank as when he's being chased around by a hostile fighter or missile.
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This would only apply to an open-universe game, but here are some other ideas:
Another thing i'd like to see is non-static bases. Basically in FL and IW2, the bases stay the same throughout the game. Perhaps if a base is experiencing an influx of traffic, additional docking structures, such as docking bays for small ships and large mooring masts for warships/container ships, may be needed. Additional module types may include:
- Habitation Dome - Allows for additional colonists/visitors
- Hydroponics Dome - Allows for production of basic foodstuffs
- Defense Station - Allows for coordinating defense, adds additional weapons to other modules
- Smelter/Metalworks - for processing mined material to be used in factories
- Gas Distillery - same as Smelter, but for gases
- Basic Goods Factory - for manufacturing basic consumer goods
- Industrial Factory - for manufacturing heavy-industrial goods like steel beams, hull plating, construction equipment (trade item)
- High-Tech Factory - for manufacturing electronics, and other high tech items
- Weapons Factory - for manufacturing weapons and small combat vehicles, such as fighters, bombers, small transports, ground combat vehicles (trade item) and various utility vehciles
- Shipyard - for manufacturing container ships and warships.
If you're not going for a static economic model, then you may not want the bases the player has visited to automatically update the player on daily price changes. The player can always hire someone to check the prices and report back every 10 minutes/RTB/large price change. It also may be of use to have bases signal to the world that they're in need of some good or having a X% off sale in order to increase business.
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I always thought it would be kind of nice if you could get 'Hulls' with podpoints, and then pick and choose the features you wanted. The tech/power level of the hulls could be used to control the kind of features available, and you could slowly buy larger and larger hulls. Also, every ship would then look individual depending on the type of pods that are fitted ;) So a Factory is really just a huge hulls with a load of processing and production pods attached to it :)
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It must have killer music.
Really, it must. That's one of the things that sticks in my mind about Homeworld, and to a lesser extent Homeworld 2 (strange as it sounds, I looked forward to battling the Keepers, because the Progenitor battletrack is awesome...did they ever release an HW2 soundtrack?), about Freelancer, FS1 and FS2.
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The Leviticus track. Fs2. Awesome.
But the ideal space combat sim must also have really, really big capital ships for you to gaze at and go, "Wow, that's a really, really big capital ship, not some bloated fighter."
The one thing about Fs2 that really bugs me is how the cruisers are only slightly larger than heavy bombers.
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Actually, a B52 has a wingspan of 56m which is about one third to a half the length of a US Destroyer, so if anything, the distance has increased between large bomber and small capship in Freespace :)
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Originally posted by ngtm1r
It must have killer music.
You can always program in an mp3/ogg player like someone did for IW2.
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Or Freespace 2 :nervous:
Well, that's with soundtrack support, but I doubt a straight player would be too hard (ie playlist functionality)
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well now you're going to have to implement it since you suggested it :p
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We actually have a custom soundtrack ogg player/manager in Lore.
That was a big player request.
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You part of the Lore team?
Hey, can you hook me up with a free copy...? :p
So what is this exactly, market research for the next game?
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I would rather you buy a copy, we're indie, not EA, we need every sale we can get.
I can give you 5 bucks off though ;)
Yes, we're considering a space game. What better place to ask than the space game experts ;)
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Custom soundtrack capablity is good, but for truly killer music, it really has to be made for the game and the situations it will be used in.
I can't imagine anything working nearly as well for fighting off hordes of Swarmers in Homeworld as the Kadeshi Battletrack does. The same goes for the vast majority of the music from that game, and from Freelancer.