[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!

[Black Wolf]

Originally posted by Inquisitor

Trying to get a handle around what the "ideal" space game might look like

Something like this:




Kudos to Falcon for the Awesome screenies.

[Ashrak]

have you EVER heard of AA?

[Fineus]

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.

[Flipside]

Alcoholics Anonymous?

Anti Aliasing?

Anti Aircraft?

[Ashrak]

the second

[Flipside]

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.

[Inquisitor]

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...

[Flipside]

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

[Ashrak]

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

[Ace]

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.

[kasperl]

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.

[Flipside]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,26955.0.html

Grug started that thread a while ago, it might give some pointers?

[Inquisitor]

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.

[phreak]

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.

[Flipside]

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

[Black Wolf]

OK, well, now that I've had my fun...

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.

[Primus]

I couldn't agree more with you.

[Ace]

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

[Inquisitor]

All kinds of food for thought, thanks guys, keep it coming if you think of something