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Gameplay tweaks + ideas

 
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clayasaurus



Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 857

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 3:40 pm    Post subject: Gameplay tweaks + ideas Reply with quote

Tweaks...

1) Locate missions should be locate missions only, not having 2 destory sub missions. Jobs with more submissions should reward with more credits.

2) The fast zooming is not great. Slow zooming down a little, and make it so when done zooming, it slowly gets smaller, not getting smaller right away

3) Planets need to be bigger and need more health.




Weapon Ideas
----
- Laser weapon
- Need mines or timed nuke weapon to destory planets with, planets need more
- Long range torpedo -- moves a little bit faster than normal and is able to move very far.
- EMP bomb - destroy other ships sheilds
- mines


Gameplay ideas
---
- Ally with other ships, will make ship follow you around and mimic the player (ie you shoot planet, that ship shoots planet), you shoot ship, ally shoots ship. Give them commands (go_away, attack_this, scout_here). The AI should be able to randomly ally itself into different 'factions,' so you attack an allied gang and they all attack you. This will allow for 'massive space battles' and plus you can have fun jobs like 'destroy the Red Faction!'

- Black holes. Massive holes that no matter where you are in the universe, each one slowly tugs on you, the closer you get the more it tugs you. You can not see them, only see the things they suck in. All objects can be effected by this. If you reach 'point horizon,' there is no espace as you get sucked in and destroyed (no items will spawn)

- Suns - HUGE balls or swirling gas that eject plasma and possibly damanging solar wind and magnetic fields

- Asteroid belts

- in space, there is very little friction. Once you move, you should keep moving unless you thrust the other way.

- build your own space station, equip station with weapons to defend itself. they should be able to 'research' more advanced technology.
- nuke
- long range torpedo
- force fields
- teleporter
- supercruiser

- when destroying planet - allow planet option of "surrendering" to you so you can take it over if you want to (join your faction). This planet will generate more revenue for you as it slowly heals itself.

- planets should be able to send many many ships + have weapons to defend itself with. In real life if a planet was attacked, there would be a HUUGE war.

- talk with NPC's, maybe NPC's can assign you jobs

- long range communication (radio communication) if you planet gets attacked, depending on how far away you are is the amount of time it will take for the planets 'help' signal to get to you.

There are just some ideas that I've had.
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Phr00t



Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 203

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

YAY game play tweaks! I will eat this stuff right up! Smile

Quote:
1) Locate missions should be locate missions only, not having 2 destory sub missions.


... why?

Quote:
Jobs with more submissions should reward with more credits.


Of course.. there needs to be a reward function that calculates based on job type / difficulty too... the current reward money is a placeholder.

Quote:
2) The fast zooming is not great. Slow zooming down a little, and make it so when done zooming, it slowly gets smaller, not getting smaller right away


I believe Sequoh is on this?

Quote:
3) Planets need to be bigger and need more health.


Yep.

Quote:
- Laser weapon


Hrm... how will this work with the current collision system? I assume you mean a weapon that has infinite speed?

Quote:
- Need mines or timed nuke weapon to destory planets with, planets need more


This shouldn't be too hard... weapons with 0 speed. However, the "exploding" projectile that damages many objects will require collision check of all ships which can become expensive with many explosions... that is why I currently limit projectiles only colliding with selected targets, which works good.

Quote:
- Long range torpedo -- moves a little bit faster than normal and is able to move very far.


This is what the current torpedo should already be... however, how do you select a long-range target?

Quote:
- EMP bomb - destroy other ships sheilds


All weapons currently have shield / armor multipliers. When you buy a weapon, it could already have a 2x shield damage (and 0x armor damage), which makes it EMP.

Quote:
Ally with other ships, will make ship follow you around and mimic the player (ie you shoot planet, that ship shoots planet), you shoot ship, ally shoots ship. Give them commands (go_away, attack_this, scout_here). The AI should be able to randomly ally itself into different 'factions,' so you attack an allied gang and they all attack you. This will allow for 'massive space battles' and plus you can have fun jobs like 'destroy the Red Faction!'


This already exists 90?. The only missing part is a user interface to ally with other ships. Ships already automatically ally with you randomly, and you can then attack other factions etc. and make big space battles. I'm sure it requires a little tweaking, but all the mechanics are already there.

Quote:
- Black holes. Massive holes that no matter where you are in the universe, each one slowly tugs on you, the closer you get the more it tugs you. You can not see them, only see the things they suck in. All objects can be effected by this. If you reach 'point horizon,' there is no espace as you get sucked in and destroyed (no items will spawn)


Hrm... OK, this could be done. You probably only want 1 black hole for every few zones, so when you do an "updateObject()", you update the speed slightly (depending on distance to black hole point) in that direction.

Quote:
- Suns - HUGE balls or swirling gas that eject plasma and possibly damanging solar wind and magnetic fields


Hrm... again, this would have to be colliding with all ships / objects, and require some tweaking in universe generation so other objects are created "inside" the sun

Quote:
- Asteroid belts


Cool -- reduce the creation of "normal" space rocks and create a ring

Quote:
- in space, there is very little friction. Once you move, you should keep moving unless you thrust the other way.


There are problems with this:

- handling is going to be much more annoying
- thruster energy will be pointless: just need a little thrust to get moving, and then float the rest of the way!
- you would still need a max-speed limit on thrusters

Quote:
- build your own space station, equip station with weapons to defend itself. they should be able to 'research' more advanced technology.
- nuke
- long range torpedo
- force fields
- teleporter
- supercruiser


There is a big, but cool idea Smile Maybe someday!

Quote:
- when destroying planet - allow planet option of "surrendering" to you so you can take it over if you want to (join your faction). This planet will generate more revenue for you as it slowly heals itself.


I know planets / stations should always automatically heal themselves. Interesting idea behind this -- be allowed to "own" stations / planets and make profits off of them... cool idea!

Quote:
- planets should be able to send many many ships + have weapons to defend itself with. In real life if a planet was attacked, there would be a HUUGE war.


Very true -- this will have to be added.

Quote:
- talk with NPC's, maybe NPC's can assign you jobs


Yes yes, definetly be able to talk with NPCs. Peform space trades, like contraband? Smile

Quote:
- long range communication (radio communication) if you planet gets attacked, depending on how far away you are is the amount of time it will take for the planets 'help' signal to get to you.


Again, cool idea.

Quote:
There are just some ideas that I've had.


GREAT ideas. Many of them too that I would like to see in the game.. I am going to need your guys help to make them all a reality! Smile

Thanks
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clayasaurus



Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 857

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:

Quote:
1) Locate missions should be locate missions only, not having 2 destory sub missions.


... why?


What if you want to be a peaceful space tourist, but all the locate jobs have "destroy X" in them.

Or.. you are just starting out in a game, find a locate job, only to find out that you have to destroy things with weapons you can not buy yet. (annoying)

What is the point of labeling the job "locate" if you have to locate, protect, destroy?

Maybe just change the interface so you can see everything the job entails by looking at it, because when I accept a 'locate' job I do not want to destroy stuff.

Quote:

Hrm... how will this work with the current collision system? I assume you mean a weapon that has infinite speed?


I'll get some line/circle/box collision algorithm, then I can just draw a line from ship to wherever ship is pointing for a very long (but not quite infinite) range

Quote:

This is what the current torpedo should already be... however, how do you select a long-range target?


last for 5 minutes instead of 1 + sharper turns? I find it very easy to out-maneuver a torpedo, and if I am following a target and it gets very far away it might be fun to hit it with long range torpedos.

Quote:

Hrm... OK, this could be done. You probably only want 1 black hole for every few zones, so when you do an "updateObject()", you update the speed slightly (depending on distance to black hole point) in that direction.


Yea I think it would be fun,.. you could start a huge faction fight near a black hole in a way so that your enemies get sucked into it! Or somehow push a planet into a black hole. Maybe if you shoot at planets, they should move their positions slightly.

Quote:

There are problems with this:

- handling is going to be much more annoying
- thruster energy will be pointless: just need a little thrust to get moving, and then float the rest of the way!
- you would still need a max-speed limit on thrusters


A) Challenge Razz
B) You need thruster energy for stopping and turning, but just keep on cruising

We could otherwise greatly increase the time it takes for a ship to slow down, and allow for a 'brake' module which will simply stop you.
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Phr00t



Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 203

PostPosted: Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
What if you want to be a peaceful space tourist, but all the locate jobs have "destroy X" in them.


I want the option to be a peaceful space tourist --

the jobs are completely random... in general, there should be the same amount of peaceful and non-peaceful jobs. You really have to view the detail on the job to make sure they are all peaceful jobs (or ones you want to do) before accepting...

Quote:
last for 5 minutes instead of 1 + sharper turns? I find it very easy to out-maneuver a torpedo, and if I am following a target and it gets very far away it might be fun to hit it with long range torpedos.


OK, this should be an easy fix. Torpedos should be easy to dodge... they are designed for destroying big, slow moving things.

Quote:
A) Challenge
B) You need thruster energy for stopping and turning, but just keep on cruising


I like a challenge, but handling your ship shouldn't be a challenge..? Also, this would remove much of the need for strafer engines too (fly straight, turn sideways and fire while still floating sideways).

I don't think I want to alter the thrusting / space physics much... if you feel strongly about it, maybe make up a demo version with more 'floating' physics and see how it plays...? However, there are many other really cool ideas we all agree on that I'd like to see sooner Smile
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ChristianK



Joined: 26 Sep 2006
Posts: 159
Location: Berlin, Germany

PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 4:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

For now I'll only comment on the movement:

friction or no friction?

Personally, I love the no-friction games. However, the way it is at the moment (basically you always move into the direction you are facing and stop quickly if you stop pressing the key), the game is much more accessible to people who're not used it.

For example my girlfriend once tried Continuum/SubSpace (employs very little friction), but quickly abandoned it because she couldn't make the ship fly the way she wanted. This was her only problem really and she might have got hooked otherwise.

I propose the following, to please both sides:
Make the game mechanics use no friction. However, make a 'flight assist computer' equipment thing (should be on the newbie shuttle by default), that uses strafers and backwards thrust to make your direction vector be the same as your velocity vector and brings the ship to a halt if you stop pressing the key.
It could be switched on/off in flight and could maybe even be configurable.

It gives an edge to players who master the no-friction control, but also allows less dedicated players to fly around without actually noticing the complex maneuvering their computer does for them.

This solution is blatantly stolen from the space mmog Vendetta Online, but works very well for them - some players there even switch their computers on and off mid-dogfight and it is generally used for docking and tight maneuvering out-of-combat, I think.
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Phr00t



Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 203

PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 7:43 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK.. I think Sequoh's idea is a good compromise... there will need to be a few changes:

* AI ship control, have to make use of the no-friction world
* Increase all thruster energy consumption, to balance out players using thrusters much less

I did like SubSpace/Continuum -- I think if we go no-friction, the physics should resemble that game. They still had max-speed limits.

I think the trickiest part will be programming the AI to use no-friction?
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clayasaurus



Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 857

PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 10:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

also, what about buying 'ejection pods' for your ship, so if you die you can 'eject' and fly to a planet to buy another ship?
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Phr00t



Joined: 03 Mar 2006
Posts: 203

PostPosted: Fri Oct 13, 2006 1:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, when you currently die, you just load the last time you undocked from a planet/station. I wouldn't see why someone would want to eject and buy a new ship? It would be expensive, and you'd probably lose all your gear...
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clayasaurus



Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 857

PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

There should be a screen such as 'press space to load last save' to keep gameplay continuous, at least.

edit: ship + items are not saved , needs to be fixed

edit: Suggestion for space storms, each storm have a random radius of area it effects. the closer you get the its center the stronger and brighter the storm gets, the farther you go the weaker the storm is. I think this change will greatly improve the space storms, as you can 'outrun' them. Maybe the centerpoint of the space storm can be moving as well.
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