More Momentum, Auto-Tracking Turrets, Jump Drives

[shepard1707]

First off, I'd just like to say that this game is exactly the sort of thing I've been hoping to see made, and I love it already and the direction it's headed in. Weather or not any of the things I suggest here are added, I feel I'll enjoy this game a great deal.


That said, here are some things that I think would help draw me and other players in all the more.

• More Momentum: Specifically, I'm referring to the way ships coast along when you aren't providing thrust. I feel like my ship slows down much too quickly for me when I stop thrusting. Not only is Newtonian flight just a lot more fun (IMO), but it also would present new challenges. When a ship's destroyed and a cargo container dropped, it might drift quite a ways before it can be grabbed. You'd have to chase down these containers, making proper use of the grapple actually a bit more fun. It also makes certain maneuvers more viable.
• Auto-Tracking Turrets: To put it simply, if I had to choose between fine control of my ship's maneuvering, or fine control of my ship's weapons, I would choose maneuvering every time. As it is, I often find myself loosing track of what direction my ship is facing because I'm too busy trying to keep my cursor pointed at the enemy. Much like we have 'follow the cursor' mode for flight control, I'd like to see a mode that detaches the cursor and has turrets automatically try to follow whatever ship is targeted. In this mode, the fire buttons would be put somewhere on the keyboard, and clicking would instead target the ship you've clicked on. If I don't have to worry about pointing my guns the right direction, I can instead worry about pointing my SHIP in the right direction. Again, this would probably be best as a simple additional mode (And, of course, would be limited by the targeting radius).
• Jump Drives: I've seen this suggested elsewhere, but I thought I'd present a slightly different take on the idea. In my mind, while the Gates provide travel over any distance between any two linked gates, the Jump Drive would provide only a limited jump distance, but anywhere within that radius. Additionally, it should be super power hungry, leaving the ship vulnerable while it's charging, and eating a fair amount of fuel in the process, regardless of whatever other resources it might need. Something like this might be fun for multilayer if/when crafting and player stations are implemented, with the odd system being completely unreachable by gate, and requiring a jump drive to reach, until players build a gate themselves.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the matter. Like I said, either way, this game looks fantastic, and I've had a blast playing it. Keep up the great work, guys.

[Lurler]

Welcome to the forums!

I can comment on that.

1. We've investigated full momentum for the game starting from very early development and it just turned out in the contrary what one may think. It was less fun and only made troubles. Chasing after the crates as well... there isn't much fun in that, that's for sure

2. That feature is in the plans. We would like to introduce some form of automatic turrets system. Either as a switch for all weapon mounts of a separate mount, or a combination of that. We haven't yet planned for a particular implementation, but it is something we would like to do in the future if we can.

3. We actually want to have a slightly different system - something like "acceleration gates" that would allow you to quickly travel inside the system.

[shepard1707]

1: I can understand that. It may very well be a bit of my personal experience with the Escape Velocity games that colors my opinions on momentum in such games. I do somewhat wonder if that is something that could be modified to personal preference? Or if it's something a bit more set within the code.

2: The ability to have gimballed/turreted weapons tracking on a target, while the player determines when they fire, is mainly what I mean, just to be totally clear. As I said, I like to have far more direct control of my ship and it's manuevers, so anything that frees up my attention from my weapon arcs is a boon.

3: I was referring to an inter-system jump drive. I don't know if the game engine would be compatible with such an idea, but I thought I'd throw the thought out there.

And thanks for replying to my suggestions! It always improves my trust in a game when the devs look at stuff like this, weather or not they implement any of it.

[Lurler]

1. Yes, you can actually make a mod that would introduce full momentum. And it's actually so easy as just editing couple of numbers.

2. Yeah, that's the idea. You lock a target, and then your turrets automatically track the enemy themselves.

3. You mean "inside" systems? Then that's also what I meant as well. Acceleration gates inside a system to make for a faster travel.

Sure, no problem. I'm always glad to see new players joining the forums And yes, even if a particular suggestion isn't implemented it still gives us idea of what players think and want that really helps us in making decisions about development of particular features or even in general.

[shepard1707]

You know what just dawned on me about the mention of 'acceleration gates'?

There's another game universe with an inscrutible alien enemy, jump gates, RPG elements, cruise engines, and fast travel gateways for in-system travel.


Freelancer.


And I'm VERY Okay with this.

[Lurler]

Hm, Freelancer?
It was so long ago, that I don't even remember it having acceleration gates or anything of that sort
Maybe I should replay it...

[shepard1707]

The Trade Lanes were the method of travel within a star system. Cruise engines could carry you along, but it was quite a ways by cruise engines alone. Trade Lanes could carry you from one end of a system to the other in mere minutes (compared to tens of minutes for the cruise engine).

Which makes me wonder . . .

Might there ever be, say, unmarked 'jump holes'? Naturally forming jump gates, effectively? They'd certainly add a nice element of exploration.

And speaking of exploration, will you ever be 'hiding' the galaxy map at any point? Requiring players to explore it on their own or to buy maps from stations and (maybe later) planets?

[Lurler]

Might there ever be, say, unmarked 'jump holes'? Naturally forming jump gates, effectively? They'd certainly add a nice element of exploration.

Yes, but not exactly like that. We wanted to have "dimensional" anomalies that would take you to a special "holes in space", or however you want to call it. Basically portals to some secret locations that are not accessible otherwise. And inside we will have something special. But that's just plans for the future, definitely now for the current release or even before final version at all.

And speaking of exploration, will you ever be 'hiding' the galaxy map at any point? Requiring players to explore it on their own or to buy maps from stations and (maybe later) planets?

Yes, we plan to add an option to introduce a kind of "fog of war". Basically you will see the whole map, but you won't see details about a particular space system until you visit it at least once.