Spacenoth: New Year's Alpha released!

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irrevenant
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Post by irrevenant »

catwhowalksbyhimself wrote:I still think it best to allow ALL ships to land, but not necessarily very quickly or very fast.
How about we say some factions have capital ships that can land and others don't?
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Post by catwhowalksbyhimself »

Maybe. But I'm concerned about a player with many ships getting into a situation where he loses all his planets and has no income, and no way of capturing any more planets.

That is just not cool.
Themba
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suggestions

Post by Themba »

I think that weapons like rockets, missiles, and torpedoes could be made into spacenoth's version of "archery" and weapons like chain guns and lasers into "melee". That would be a little less confusing than the way it is organized now.
Also, perhaps rockets, missiles, and torpedoes could have a limited number of ammo to offset their potential power/accuracy, you would have to land on a planet or station to resupply. I can see that being controversial though so that is just an idea for thought.

For more terrain types, nebulas could be a good one. Perhaps one of the alien races or even the pirates prefer nebulas and gain defense and movement bonuses in them similiar to the elves in wesnoth's forests.

Maybe the traits could be changed a little. Right now I assume that traits like charged and fast are based on the spaceship. Since most ships would be built the same, why not base the traits on the pilots. For example reflexes could replace fast, and mechanics could replace regeneration. Pilots might all be trained the same but they would also bring innate traits to the table that others wouldn't have.

I also think that for capital ships if you aren't going to have them be able to land on planets they would need to have dropships that could land. Like the Carrier idea someone mentioned earlier where large ships could transport smaller ones. Or, you could just explain Capital ships ability to flag planets by saying that they just orbit the planet and they release atmospheric dropships from orbit to control the planet. This is supposed to be a larger scale after all, the small dropships don't necessarily have to be shown.
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Post by catwhowalksbyhimself »

I also think that for capital ships if you aren't going to have them be able to land on planets they would need to have dropships that could land. Like the Carrier idea someone mentioned earlier where large ships could transport smaller ones. Or, you could just explain Capital ships ability to flag planets by saying that they just orbit the planet and they release atmospheric dropships from orbit to control the planet. This is supposed to be a larger scale after all, the small dropships don't necessarily have to be shown.
I don't think there is a need to explain it or justify it at all. This would be done for purely gameplay purposes after all. Trying to explain it would just make it look ridiculous.
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irrevenant
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Post by irrevenant »

catwhowalksbyhimself wrote:Maybe. But I'm concerned about a player with many ships getting into a situation where he loses all his planets and has no income, and no way of capturing any more planets.
That is just not cool.
If he has many ships and he's chosen to not have any that can capture a planet, that's a serious tactical error on his behalf and, IMO, he deserves to lose.
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Post by catwhowalksbyhimself »

That depends on two factors.

1. How many ships are actually able to land on a planet.

2. If he had the ships he needed, but they just got all destroyed.

Still, there's no reason why you can't test it both ways, and see what works.
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Post by Legowarrior »

I've tried out the demo several times, and I like the concept. But I think that if you are going to do larger scale, like battleships and fighter squadrons, then leveling should be minimized in Spacenoth. Instead of large changes, give minor boosts, and don't heal life. So, maybe take out the upgrade tree for ships.
That being said, I think levels would work out well for the capital ships because they would be stronger, and require more upkeep. Just have certain ships start at higher levels, so that it reflects the upkeep, and the Experience units get for killing them.
Level 1 troops could be fighter squandrons and converts
Level 2 could be Bombers and elite Fighters, and small frigates
Level 3 could be Destroyers and Light Cruisers
Level 4 could be Heavy Cruisers and Battleships
And if you include level 5, those could be Dreadnoughts.
Anyway, I would suggest no more then one upgrade for a unit, and that would be for normal and then an Elite Version. Also, you should be capable of getting all the units in the very beginning, to make up for the lack of level. Those are just my 2 cents.
Keep up the great work.
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Post by catwhowalksbyhimself »

I don't know, I rather like those things the way they are.
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Post by Legowarrior »

Yeah, but there making three versions of the game, a Fighter based one, a capital ship one, with Fighter Squandrons, and a Land Based one. This is for the Capital Ships based one. The fighter squandron one is cool though. How do you make mapes for it, is my question.
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Post by rubber.piggy »

catwhowalksbyhimself wrote:I don't think there is a need to explain it or justify it at all. This would be done for purely gameplay purposes after all. Trying to explain it would just make it look ridiculous.
Why? I agree it's done for game play purposes, but that doesn't mean you can't explain it. Capital ships may not be able to land on a planet but they can certainly dock with a structure attached to the planet and they can certainly send out shuttles/troop carriers to seize the planet on the ground while docked/orbitting.

my 2c

EDIT: i'm not suggesting that these things have to be represented by game mechanics, but it can be explained that way.
"If at first you don't suceed, redefine sucess." - Anon
rulerofthewest
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Post by rulerofthewest »

Eleazar wrote:
Maeglin Dubh wrote:Terrain types are a work in progress.
Might i suggest asteroids be divided into 2 types of terrain, the current type and "dense asteroids"? "Desnse Asteroids" would provide more defense for some ships, and completely block the passage of larger, less manuverable ships.

Also you could have "deep" and "shallow" gravity wells. These would be regions surrounding planets where movement would be slowed, and defence decreased. Unfortunately gravity is invisible, so you'ld have to arbitrarily choose a couple colors. (explain this as a function of the ships HUDs) This would logically lead to 2 (or 3) types of planetary "villages", small 1 hex planets that don't have the gravitational movement penalty, and the multi-hex planets with a movement penalty.

You could also include stars with dangerous radiations fields, but that's more a campaign thing.
I like the idea to make gravity tiles also orbit tiles where you have to stop and you can shoot at it but if you destroy it you blow up the planet the orbit tiles are around. :)
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Post by rulerofthewest »

Legowarrior wrote:I've tried out the demo several times, and I like the concept. But I think that if you are going to do larger scale, like battleships and fighter squadrons, then leveling should be minimized in Spacenoth. Instead of large changes, give minor boosts, and don't heal life. So, maybe take out the upgrade tree for ships.
That being said, I think levels would work out well for the capital ships because they would be stronger, and require more upkeep. Just have certain ships start at higher levels, so that it reflects the upkeep, and the Experience units get for killing them.
Level 1 troops could be fighter squandrons and converts
Level 2 could be Bombers and elite Fighters, and small frigates
Level 3 could be Destroyers and Light Cruisers
Level 4 could be Heavy Cruisers and Battleships
And if you include level 5, those could be Dreadnoughts.
Anyway, I would suggest no more then one upgrade for a unit, and that would be for normal and then an Elite Version. Also, you should be capable of getting all the units in the very beginning, to make up for the lack of level. Those are just my 2 cents.
Keep up the great work.
The fighter squandrons should be able to ether level up into a bomber or a Star Trek like starship.
The master,rulerofthewest
Legowarrior
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Post by Legowarrior »

But why should they level up into new ships at all?
It would seem that if they do level up, maybe into an elite form of the same fighter, but then what would you do about ships of the line.
Should ships of the line, like Destroyers, suddenly become Battleships, or Cruisers.
All I'm saying, is although it fits smoothly for a fanatasy setting, or a setting based upon individuals, it doesn't seem to go smoothly in the sort of sci fi theme that Spacenoth seems to be going for. A lack on Continuity.
catwhowalksbyhimself
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Post by catwhowalksbyhimself »

Why? I agree it's done for game play purposes, but that doesn't mean you can't explain it. Capital ships may not be able to land on a planet but they can certainly dock with a structure attached to the planet and they can certainly send out shuttles/troop carriers to seize the planet on the ground while docked/orbitting.
Because it's not necessary and would distract from gameplay. Just leave it be and people will fill in the gaps with their imagination. Unless it comes up as part of a campaign story, there's no reason whatsoever to even bring it up within context of the game. If you want to speculate on how that works, fine, just so long as it does.

I mean, when you play Starcraft, do the game designers try to explain how tanks can be built in a few minutes time? Or where the unless supply of soldiers comes from? Or why they never run out of ammo. Trying to do so would only make the game look ridiculous. Instead, they just leave it be. Only the Protoss have an explanation, and that's because it's a part of their supertechnological theme.
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zookeeper
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Post by zookeeper »

Ships "leveling up" into another kinds of ships sounds simply bad (as well as getting full heal and all that). It doesn't make sense and I don't see any reason to do it that way, either. I'd very much suggest taking a risk and thinking outside the box a bit more on this one.

That said, I don't really care much myself.
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