A Stellar Game Mechanic ;)

Discussion in 'Mechanics' started by Justincase, Jan 8, 2016.

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Which orientation would be better for the battle phase?

  1. Horizontal

  2. Verticle

  3. 360%

Results are only viewable after voting.
  1. Justincase

    Justincase Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I have been enjoying Starbound for quite some time now and the last major update had some fun and interesting features. Although I am unaware of what the next update will entail, I believe this is a good time to introduce an idea I've been working on for some time now.

    Well, what is it then?
    http://imgur.com/mPcnnuI











    Yep, you guessed it! Ship Encounters!

    Before you say this is a bad idea, hear me out.

    The idea is that as you travel from planet to planet there would be a chance to encounter traveling ships, friendly or hostile. The types are Quest Ships, Trading Ships and Enemy Ships. Quests Ships are what you'd expect, ships that require you to do anything from getting parts for a stranded civilian ship to defeating a pirate ship and returning it's goods. Hopefully if this is implemented, there would be more quest types. Next are trading ships. These ships will sell ship parts of course: metal-plating,guns, shield modules, upgraded boosters and more. Last but not least the enemy ships would have a chance to attack when you travel. But of course you will have a cloaking device to avoid detection from the beginning. Once you repair the ftl, you can deactivate it.

    As for the combat it's self, I would propose it would be a horizontal, next gen galaga with Starbound graphics, live action of course. You would have a shield ability, 1-3 weapon type slots with energy costs, and a chargeable ultimate attack for each race (all purchasable and unlock able from the trading ship). You may move up, down, forwards backwards and dodge into the background for a very short time. The goal is simple, destroy the enemy ship. The higher the tier, the better the goods. Once the ship crashes, you may go to the crash site located on the ship interface and take the spoils, but there's a catch. You must explore and loot within the time limit (once you get there) and the ship will explode without a trace(Explosion timer could be random or tiered). And when the player looses? You retreat at the last second, but your ship is a bit banged up as a reminder. You can have it repaired by the penguin in the outpost or buy ship plating from trading ships.

    If this is implemented, and i hope it is, I would like the outpost to have a wanted board with boss level outlaws in different locations in the universe. Maybe even a tiered system with unlocking up to 5-star outlaws that, when turned in reward you with large pixel bounties and high-end ship parts.

    And that's just about it! Sorry if its a bit lengthy but I believe this would be a great addition to the ship tiers we have now. I hope you liked my idea, and if you didn't, id like to know why in the comments. ;)
     
    Arra likes this.
  2. Ariskelis

    Ariskelis Ketchup Robot

    This would be fun, but likely wouldn't be added til after 1.0. I swear I saw the dev team comment on this, somewhere, sometime, in a galaxy far, far away, a long time ago.. xD
    How would the tier of the ship be calculated? The tier of the planet you're going to? Of the one you're leaving? Averaged between the two? Random AF? Within 1-2 tiers of your current ship tier? (I feel like this one would make the universe feel too revolved around you tho. completely random would make it the most realistic, but unfair at times.) OOH, maybe add a screen before you enter battle, giving you *basic* scans of the enemy ship, and letting you decide whether to attack or to avoid them. With a chance of failing, of course. :DD
     
    Gilligan Lanley likes this.
  3. lazarus78

    lazarus78 The Waste of Time

    Ship battles/encounters have been suggested before and were mentioned as a possible feature post 1.0 release. Its not in their immediate plans, but its not out of the question either.
     
    Justincase likes this.
  4. Justincase

    Justincase Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    I would say you unlock enemy tiers as your ship upgrades, so you can't be obliterated by pirate veterans on tier 1. This is the most realistic because a puny ship wouldn't be worth their time, then again it would be easier.....
     
  5. schwarzwolf

    schwarzwolf Void-Bound Voyager

    Haven't posted for some time, but i was thinking about some ideas how to implement it aswell. So my suggestions. ^^

    First for the question, i choosed horizontal. Its seems to be more native to the game engine, but looking at the result, i think thats already known. The game showing best, how a good combat system might work is Interstellaria. If it should become as complex is another question. If the player should have the ability to move the ship while combat or simply give simple orders like avoid, attack, retreat is another question. I personally would be fine with the native look in orbit and then seeing bursts of energie hitting the own ship and beeing fired on the enemy ship. If your character sits in his control chair, the game could aswell blend in a monitor, where you can click on the different orders and see an simple display with some information of the enemy ship in space, how it will be hitted and how it is shooting back.

    So my first suggestion would be to include different ship systems. Stations you can build in your ship whith different costs and different volume. Like power generator, shield generator, weapon station, other engines, etc. Different turrets might be able aswell possible, where you can install them. Depending on energy or projectile, an armory might be intresting aswell. Player would purchase or craft this systemes and place them on the ship. This would give the possibility to equipt the ship differently. As i seached for a thread about Space Combat to dump my crap, i noticed a thread already discribing this very nice. :D
    http://community.playstarbound.com/...grades-modules-and-procedural-mission.105140/
    For crew, well systems should work aswell without crew but having some crew stations should highly increase the abilities. So you could have some NPCs on your ship manning the battlestations.

    I personally would suggest to have the battles only above planets. This might aswell add some simplification about the reason of combat and would work aswell without redesigning the whole navigation system. Things i would see here would be:
    - Pirate base on the planet (sending ship in orbit to intercept you)
    - Advanced Villages or Cities (ship wouldn't possible attack you, but even if its peaceful, you might be able to attack it yourself)
    - You might do some hostile action on the planet, then it might aswell lead to an attack of the locals on your ship. You will be noticed and if youre on the surface or use a mobile teleporter you will be able to beam up to battle she enemy. If you aren't able to, your ship will crashland and you will have to fix it.
    - A ship might aswell be around a random planet in rare circumstances, if you arrive there. This ship might attack, simply ignore you, ask for trading, offer quests, or even withdraw. Of course you should be able to attack it if you want.
    (Having ships entering the orbit, when the player is already there and attacking the player ship, might be a bit to annoying, when the player is down on the planet and even mining. One of the reason i suggested the random encounters only, when the player is entering the orbit.)

    In the battle you would try to evade, transfer power from systems and possible try to get away. Dependent on the ship size and energy output, it would be easier or more difficult to retreat. I am aswell the opinion, that a smaller ship should have it easier to get away. The enemy ship might aswell try to escape, if its to badly damaged. The losing ship will crash land, if its critically damaged. What could happen, when your ship will loose:
    - Your ship will crash land on the planet on an terrain area, where it can be placed on. Possible it will even dent the ground in this area.
    - The ship is damaged. Intresting here could be a ressource like the core fragments. Only problem is, it isn't everywhere. There must be a way, that the player will be able to get his ship running again, independent from the area he goes down.
    - After the player acquired the ressources he needed, he can use them to repair the ship again similar to the first mission. After this, the ship could start again. It should be of course possible to get more of the ressources and stock them on the ship. So for the next crash landing, you might still have some of the ressources left. Buying the stuff at the outpost to have it on stock for the case of a crash, should of course work aswell and would avoid to have digging you into the core.
    (The player should have to do something, to get the ship fixed up again, but he always should have the possibility to do it, without getting into a deadlock)

    Different possibilities would be, that the ship will get internal damage blowing different parts of the inventory (not the main locker), or that it will be destroyed by crashing and the player has to beam out, or he might be killed. But this should only be possible by additional difficulty settings. So if the player don't want to, the ship should crashland, but the ship in general and the interior is then invulnerable.

    If an enemy ship goes down, the player might visit its crash side and even find some enemy crew standing around there to protect it. He then can kill the crew and possible mine his way into the enemy ship and then start to clear out the ship. It might be aswell possible, that the enemy ship might repair itself after some time. So if the player wouldn't be fast enough, it might start again and flee.

    For further gameplay, the ability to build hangars on the surface of a planet or a station in orbit might be nice aswell. As example NPC planets with higher developed cities might have hangars or even a station in orbit. It should be possible to attack them directly, leading to a difficult combat, or even infiltrate them. That the player should build a base in orbit in later game could aswell add to this. As example assaults on the own colonies could come from pirates attacking the bases. Dependent on the ressources on the planet. The player might build turrets how now to face the landed pirates, or they might build hangars on the surface or a station in orbit, who would directly fight the incoming ship, to prevent the landing of the pirates.
     
  6. kley2101

    kley2101 Scruffy Nerf-Herder

    The mecanics could be like the interstellaria game, its a vertical real time strategy combat. You have to manage you crew position at the same time that you fight the enemie, or the enemies. I think that could be a nice solution.
     
  7. Xelot

    Xelot Phantasmal Quasar

    Wow, Interstellaria style combat fits really well, hope this or any other ship battle system is going to be implemented in the game.
     

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