Imagine huge, hulking battleships, supercruisers, and dreadnaughts slugging it out in the icy depths of space. Any ideas for gameplay come to mind (that you want to share?
)
I''m looking for ideas / feedback for capital ships in space. I''m leaning toward a more action / arcade rather than sim feel, but I''m not totally opposed to sim elements (if they''re cool
) Ideas for weapons, controls, rules, anything very appreciated.
Here''s what I''m thinking so far:
The view''s 2D top down with 3D ships. Full 3D might be more realistic, but doesn''t quite fit the vision (or my skills, unfortunately). The ship sits in the center of the screen, slowly turns 360'' and you can zoom in and out.
I think the three cool elements to cap ships are firing of weapons,
manuevering, and some lightweight systems management.
The firing works like this: Ships are composed of Major and Minor Batteries. You can target individual ships with Major Batteries. Once targetted, the Battery will fire until the ship is destroyed. You can group up to 10 Batteries (1-0 on keyboard) much the same way you group RTS units. (Batteries will probably top out at 10 anyway)
Minor batteries are used for point defense against missiles. I''m not sure if they should fire automaticly, so that you can focus on major batteries, or be user triggered. One type of gameplay I''m leaning towards is the "missile command" idea: you fire as many anti-missile rockets toward clusters of incoming missiles as possible, hoping to detonate groups. It could lead to frantic, fun gameplay, or could be a carpal tunnel clickfest... not sure about this one.
Since cap ships are dang slow, manuevering should be a strategic consideration. If it''s not too frustrating, turning rate, acceleration, and momentum should all be factors. Since a CS would be slow to turn, bringing fixed weapons to bear could be an interesting challenge. I''m thinking fixed Major Batteries would have some advantage over turrets, to create this strategy. Also, you could turn to hide wounds from enemy fire.
Finally, I''m thinking that power management should be an issue. You have a main power bar at the top of the screen. Reactors replenish it, and Batteries and Shields drain it. Since weapons fire continuously until stopped, firing all batteries at once would quickly drain your power supply. This becomes a strategy decision. You can also outfit your ship with weaker Batteries, or fewer Batteries and more Reactors instead, or by turning off Shields or other power hungry devices.
Since the game scales, I''m shooting for a style of play that meshes with a top down fighter shooter. The Fighter would be pure arcade, quick and manueverable. The next step would be a Corvette, a mesh between fighter and capital ship. You''d eventually get to fly the awesome Dreadnaught with it''s ten hulking turrets, but I want the gameplay to echo that of the fighter.
Thx for any ideas!
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Just waiting for the mothership...
