New Space Sim in the works

[GreyViper]

DarkOne: yes, we have a name
GreyViper: Boh_havoc told me the explosion is not yet animated. We'll try to combine his shaderwork with my particle explosion soon, maybe this week if we find the time. So atm. there's no flash version yet. For the gameplay: We will rely on more feedback from all of you to make it really fun. But, trust me, fun and usability are gonna be our main goals.
trinijoy: that sound great, thank you! We'll keep you posted.

-the programmer

Thank you for answer Germanunkol, from my point of view I like where this project is going. Reminds me of Freelancer, which isn't a bad thing. One thing tough, would it be possible to implement capship battles similar to ones in FreeSpace 2 on this engine?

 

[Germanunkol]

DarkOne, sorry, I won't tell yet. Once we have the logo and everything set ingame, we'll show you .

We do have many game modes planned, yes. I don't know about the capship mode though. I've never played it before, but it sounds like you'd be able to play the larger ships as well, and I don't think we'll do that. The larger ships will be there to protect from the enemy team, not to play yourself. However, while reading up on "capship" mode, I read about cloaking devices somewhere and I got the idea of putting those into the game. We may do that, for more tactical options.

Maybe I'm getting it wrong though and capship battles are the ones where you land on the enemy ship and try to take over control? It would be possible with the engine, but it's not planned.

 

[Tigerhawk]

Maybe I'm getting it wrong though and capship battles are the ones where you land on the enemy ship and try to take over control? It would be possible with the engine, but it's not planned.

No, you got it right the first time, though depends on your perception. The latter sounds like you'd be switching to a first-person shooter mode to storm the ship, and I don't imagine the specific engine you're running would allow that.

 

[Germanunkol]

The engine (3dgamestudio, see 3dgamstudio.com) would allow first person shooters, in fact I'd say that more fps games have been made with it than space sims. But landing isn't planned, and, as I said, the capship mode sounds fun but is too much on the strategy side, and we want more of a fast (more or less tactical) space shooter.
Thank you for all the input nonetheless, we'll keep you posted!

 

[Germanunkol]

Added a new weapon type: It's a "tactical weapon" as we call it atm (we still need to think of names later) which does little damage but deactivates the target's weapons for 3 seconds (maybe we'll change the duration when we get to balancing this game)

Now a request: Does anyone have favourite weapon effects? I'm running out of ideas of what types of weapons to create. So far, we have this tactical weapon, 2 glowing projectile weapons and one "ray gun" (WIP, a long ray from the gun to the target) which is an instant hit and does damage depending on the distance.
If you have any ideas, maybe you could post them with a screenshot or a link to a video?
We still need around 3 types of weapons...

 

[Germanunkol]

I finished another weapon Type: The "Tactical" Canon.
It does relatively small damage but it blocks the target's weapons for around 3 seconds (duration may be changed when we get to balancing the game) so the hit enemy can't shoot.
Screen:
http://www6.picfront.org/picture/XEUCeKjsQf8/img/2009_07_07-10_37_45.png

A request to all of you: I'm running out of ideas for weapons. Currently we have 2 disruptor (projectile) guns and 2 beam/ray/laser guns, whatever you want to call it, plus this tactical weapon.
Since many of you have experience with space games/movies, I'm asking if any of you have any favourite weapons that we could take as refference to create more weapons. Screens or links to movies of the effect would be great. Anyone?

 

[Germanunkol]

http://www6.picfront.org/picture/XEUCeKjsQf8/img/2009_07_07-10_37_45.png
Tactical weapon is finished.

Does anyone have any ideas for weapons (buyable as upgrades) we could add? Any favourite gun types from games/movies? Preferably with a screenshot or movie of the effect and a description of what it does?
So far we have:
2 Projectile canons
2 Beam/ray/laser guns (instant hit)
1 "Tactical" gun that does little damage but disables the opponent's guns for around 3 seconds (subject to change when we get to balancing the game) when he's hit.

 

[Aginor]

http://www6.picfront.org/picture/XEUCeKjsQf8/img/2009_07_07-10_37_45.png
Tactical weapon is finished.

Does anyone have any ideas for weapons (buyable as upgrades) we could add? Any favourite gun types from games/movies? Preferably with a screenshot or movie of the effect and a description of what it does?
So far we have:
2 Projectile canons
2 Beam/ray/laser guns (instant hit)
1 "Tactical" gun that does little damage but disables the opponent's guns for around 3 seconds (subject to change when we get to balancing the game) when he's hit.

Perhaps some kind of space mine. It could either harm the enemy or just slow him down. or two kinds of mines, each for one of these purposes.
The slowing down efecct could also be a missile.

something that blocks sensors (prevents from locking on, especially rockets) could be interesting.

 

[Germanunkol]

I'm very sorry for posting three times. I didn't know it took a while until the post gets posted. If a Mod wants to, he can remove the 15:26 and 20:10 posts.

A space mine is already in there. It gets activated when players get too close. It's fun to drop some of them when someone's chasing you . The slowing down is a good idea though, it would make it easier for someone to chase his opponent down.

I'll look into the sensor-blocking as well. Thank you!

 

[QuailPilot]

How about a swarming type of missile?

 

[ViolentAJ]

Wow. That looks awesome. I want to get into game design too, but I know almost nothing about 3d. I only know how to make Flash games and I could probably throw together some 2d game in Java, C, C++, D, or C# if I took the time. Great work guys.

 

[webtax]

it would be nice to have swarming missiles like robotech (or macross) , i know lots of people lovesthem to the death

i think taking the good things of Freespace 2 is a good idea, i think that is probably the best space gameplay i played. Well, story was pretty good too.

One thing i liked A LOT in FS2 is the size of capital ships... i always hope that when new space-sim games are annouced they include that...
The Beams where spectacular too.

 

[ViolentAJ]

Yeah. I loved the beams and ship sizes in FreeSpace2. I didn't care for the ship designations though (cruisers in FS2 would actually be corvettes, Corvettes the destroyers, and destroyers the cruisers most likely). The mod scene is pretty lively too.

The swarming Macross-style missiles are always awesome too. I loved them in the FS series and in Prophecy. I've always wanted to play a GOOD Macross game (besides the SHMUPS that they had on nES and SNES..

 

[daragman]

new guy, weapons, modes

hi guys,

new to the forum here.
I've been google-ing my A$$ off looking for new sapce sims and found this... Great!

I've played numerous space sims but here's a quick history of my faves: Privateer, WCIII and WCIV and freelancer.
playin' Darkstar One at the moment but just as a qucik fix, don't have much time otherwise i'd gice the X universe a try.

About this project: NICE! looking forward to the completion.

Looks very nice, not the best ever [yet ], but i actually like it a bit old-school.
including the interface, graphically this project to me is a cross between freelancer and darkstar one. (you may disagree but that's all i have as reference at the moment)

weapons: remember the mass-driver in the WC universe? Not really my fav so IMO you can leave something like that out, but the 'railgun' (from WCIV i think) with the yellow bullets was sweet and sounded cool as well. (although yellow was never really my color)

modes: looks like great online fun but any consideration at all about storyline/single plater mode???

again, great work so far!

 

[Germanunkol]

Thank you for the input!

I have changed a few things, one of them being the way you aim: when a target is selected the ship actually uses the mouse pointer to aim, not some place in the middle of the screen, because that turned out not to work well (it was hard to aim).

Also, I added swarm missiles and a lightning gun, but I'm not satisfied with the effect for the latter.

I will probably start on coding the game Modes tomorrow, right now only Deathmatch is done.

I'm planning on having a playable alpha towards the end of the month, which I'll test with a view friends. Depending on how that goes, we may work towards a public beta.

Edit: please ignore the horrible artifacts on the background image, I was trying to mess with the color and I messed it all up instead. Never mess with your artists art if you're supposed to be the coder. Never ever.

 

[QuailPilot]

So now that you have the mouse used for aiming, you could put in a "Lancer" type of weapon which only fires straight, but does massive amounts of damage, and has a slow recharge time.

 

[Michelle D]

Is there a cockpit view?

 

[Germanunkol]

Again, thanks for the feedback! I think that's a big part of what keeps us going...

Cockpit view: Well, I think boh_havoc really wants one
It's not planned as a real feature atm, but it would probably be almost no work to implement, so you never know. The most work would be with boh_havoc, cause he'd have to make models for the cockpit-view. I like the third person camera right now though, it's pretty 'intense' (I think) when you see your engine-trails burning blue when the thrusters are activated and such...

The lancer weapon is a great Idea also. As it's a different type of weapon, I might add it to the "specials" menu (which still has some space). I can already imagine beams from all the 4 weapon slots on the ships connecting together to make one large beam that pushes straight forward and through pretty much everything...

I'll try it when I find the time.

-Our website's nearing completion, we're still trying to create a suitable header image.

 

[|BoH_Havoc|]

Cockpit view: Well, I think boh_havoc really wants one

You bet i want one. A real 3D cockpit with nifty HUDs and refraction on the windshield n'stuff If i ever find the time, i will definately create one, but there is too much other stuff that's needed to be done first.
So yeah, if i can convince Germanunkol and broozar, there will be a cockpit view

I can already imagine beams from all the 4 weapon slots on the ships connecting together to make one large beam that pushes straight forward and through pretty much everything...

That's a nice idea, you should give it a try someday

 

[|BoH_Havoc|]

Germanunkol and myself just had a little match...man did he kick my *ss! Those new wingmen and swarm missiles sure are deadly.

Apart from that i really enjoyed firing away a whole load of missiles at him (i think one time there were 12 of them, forming a deadly cloud ). I didn't hit him too often, but it was much fun watching all the small missiles swarming around while my wingmen tried to shoot him down.

But in the end he either shot me down, i ended up crashing into an asteroid (almost had him, then an asteroid came into my sight and...WHAM! i was blown into pieces) or i accidentially flew into the sun and melted.

Well i have to say, this game is fun already and i'm looking forward to the day we are able to give you a demo or at least a beta version to toy around with


Good job Germanunkol, you did a fantastic job so far!