flails OMG that would be so amazing, Quaro. I think I just came. No lie.
Dreamshadow, good call! I was also thinking of the early mission in Freespace 2 where you approach this fuckoff huge asteroid and it turns out to be a big ship in disguise! Loved that one.
I wonder if it might be a good idea to have the main screen display information from each screen to give the captain an overall picture, he just has to shout out orders and coordinate everything.
You could also do things like say the comms guy who is watching all the stuff fly by can pipe relevant information out to the main screen picture to give the captain info or sort of ‘draw’ him a picture of what is going on.
I feel like the way this is set up right now the helm and weapons position seem to have the most gameplay. From the instructions it looks like you are still playing a turning shooting style game.
I remember reading some of the star wars books and some of the compelling battles they had on it centered around directional shields. I think with big capitol ships like this, you wouldn’t really be maneuvering around trying to stay in fire arcs, and you would think there would be multiple batteries that were omni directional.
One of the tactics in the large capitol ship fights in the books was that as a shield went down on one side, the capitol ship would start a roll as their shields went down on one side to put the full strength shield in the direction of the damage giving their weakened shields time to recharge.
Also since you are supposed to have like 5 guys running this thing, and it is supposed to be a huge ship, there needs to be more weapons besides just phasers and torpedos.
Some weapons should be omni directional, others with firing arcs. There should be a mega shit ton amount of batteries firing at incoming fighters as well as enemy ships.
This would give the engineering guy more to do, allocating repairs, reporting damage, shunting energy.
The weapons guy, who is prioritizing targets for different batteries and weapon types, managing fire sequences and deciding which weapons should be fired.
The helmsmen, rather than playing ‘turn and shoot’ would now be more concerned with where he is sitting in relation to other ships, what angle they are from him, where damage is coming in from, and where his multiple fire arcs are pointed.
IE there are 2 ships off to his left, one to the right, port side shields are going down, but his photon torpedos are stuck aligned to the right due to damage. The start a roll to port, engineering focusing on bringing up the port shields and repairing batteries, neglecting the photon torpoedos as the starbord side of the ship will be facing the bigger targets and don’t need their alignment fixed.
The captain is orchestrating this whole procedure, telling them to begin a port side roll, telling the engineer to focus on port shields and batteries, maybe pumping energy into the photon’s for a big burst as the weapons firearcs come in line with the port side ships.
In the sensor room, you could make that more interesting by inventing some ‘rules’ for how sensors work. You could have them jam specific weapon types, have multiple ways of scanning for ships that might make them more or less visible. Have stealth ships where you might have to scan in a wide swath of area and have to look for ‘holes’ in sensor sweeps rather then actual objects.
Have the sensor guy be able to take an active part in the battle by having to maintain extreme situational awareness, to detect enemies warping in, or just being able to run cover disrupting weapon locks and assisting in the ships weapon locks as well.
I guess what you would want is to make each station in itself a high level position where you actively make decisions about each part of the ship. The idea is that there are still a fuck ton of crew members scurrying about, so the captain makes high level decisions about EVERYTHING, each station makes high level decisions about its specialty. Then you tie everything together to bring the captain an informative view up on main screen, and make sure each station’s role is vital in another station’s role, and you have a really engaging game for each person, not just helm and weapons.
And really this is the place to make your ship overly complex, and throw a lot of stimulus at the players. In a single player game it would be insane to manage so many simultaneous tasks, but with 5/6 people doing it, you can really throw the whole library at them.
You could even expand for new positions, introduce small fighters, have a central command of the fighter wings, directing their attacks and maneuvers and repairs.
Really you could just keep going with this thing. Right now it seems like sensors and comms are a stretch for interesting things to do, and engineering’s job seems like it would be active, but somewhat boring.
Anyway, this thing is a pretty amazing idea, but it would be pretty hard to find people to play it with out the internet for most of us. Look forward to reading about its development, none the less.
I’m slowly putting together a group here in LA – have three folks so far – so I can’t wait to try this. I agree that this will hopefully evolve into something amazing, but based on the impressions here and what I’ve seen elsewhere, this could just be the beginning of what can and should morph into the game we all think it could and should be. :)
They need someone with a few million bucks in venture capital to build a “Starship Center” a la the old Battletech Centers, with multiple bridges running graphically updated versions of this.
Each station could be a modified Windows Surface, and there would be a large viewscreen and raised captain’s chair.
Each bridge room could compete with each other in teams or free-for-all, and an overview of the battle would broadcast on screens for spectators outside of the bridge rooms to watch, complete with camera views of each respective bridge.
Charge teams per-match or for reserved blocks of time.
Dealt = spot on
I can see this thing becoming HUGE at Conventions-- if Thom really wanted to get it out there, buy a small booth at a Con, set up a convincing bridge environment in a room somewhere to play during the length of the con in 15-30 minute intervals, and watch the money roll in. Heck, a lot of Star Trek fans would probably help him set it up, decorate it, or even run it in return for a few free copies and some tickets to play.
Anyone remember Omnitrend’s Rules of Engagement games? Hooked up with the Breach games for boarding missions?
The guys talking about RoE on the first page probably remember it. ;)
Loved the Rules of Engagement games. I still have my copy of RoE2 around somewhere. Boarding ships with Breach was a joy.
I think I have you beat. For no particular reason, the ROE Fleet Operations Manual has been sitting on my nightstand for about a month now.
Pfft, I still have both my Fleet Operations Manual and, if I recall, the campaign or scenario manual as well from RoE 2 as well. :P
Sure, but do you have them on your nightstand, as if you’re probably going to read them in the near future?
No, but I do have the Janes Longbow 2 manual on my nightstand, if that helps. ;)
Maybe if we were talking about a helicopter bridge simulator.
Fine, I’ll get my RoE2 manual, my Klingon Academy Manual, my Independence War manual and my Bridge Commander manual and put them all on my nightstand, and will fondle them gently before going to sleep, careful to avoid paper cuts.
Version 1.1 was released yesterday with a lot of nice tweaks, and support for multiple bridges.
OoooOOOooooo
All this game needs is crew vs crew and a webcam support for communications between crews.
Agreed. And comms officer controlling hailing and putting the captain up on the main screen!