[font="Times New Roman"]…oh, and also, I urge you to make a game design which entails ships fighting at close proximity. I mean, take the game Infinity: Quest for Earth – all those beautiful graphics, but you never actually see that in game because the ships you are shooting at are just dots in the distance. I think that’s a strange design decision, sacrificing both graphics and gameplay for pointless realism.[/font]

Yeah, as much as it hurts the everything-must-be-scientifically-accurate part of my brain, ships will be fighting within visual range. It helps that the inspiration (the battleflett gothic tabletop game) is styled after Age of Sail tactics (in Spaaaaaaace!) with broadsides, close range brawls, and boarding actions.

Right now I'm pondering on dropping the 3rd dimension which would greatly simplify things (I'm no 3D modeler) and allow for an easier interface to control multiple ships.

Right now I'm pondering on dropping the 3rd dimension which would greatly simplify things (I'm no 3D modeler) and allow for an easier interface to control multiple ships.

[font="Times New Roman"]If you want to drop the 3[sup]rd[/sup] dimension to simplify controls, have you considered doing something which takes place in the sky, like in the cartoon Skyland, and like a lot of steampunk stuff? The controls in that case would be like for an oceangoing battleship, but just with “up” and “down” added.[/font]

[quote name='ShawnCowles' timestamp='1304081588' post='4804409']
Right now I'm pondering on dropping the 3rd dimension which would greatly simplify things (I'm no 3D modeler) and allow for an easier interface to control multiple ships.

[font="Times New Roman"]If you want to drop the 3[sup]rd[/sup] dimension to simplify controls, have you considered doing something which takes place in the sky, like in the cartoon Skyland, and like a lot of steampunk stuff? The controls in that case would be like for an oceangoing battleship, but just with “up” and “down” added.[/font]
[/quote]

Well, the thing is, these space ships are already designed to behave like oceangoing battleships with a 3rd dimension. I'm just trying to be practical since I'm the only one on the design team. Even with a versitile engine to run with, 3D is inherently harder than 2D. I could always expand to 3D later once I have more support.