| Author |
From that. To tier system. Any thots? |
Jumbat
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: August 26, 2012
Posts: 16
|  Posted: 2013-05-14 11:42
Battle Isle: DarkSpace
BlueByte's massive online space strategy game has lots of promise.
February 5, 2001
by IGN Staff
It's been ten years since the first Battle Isle game debuted. Battle Isle: DarkSpace, the sixth in the series, takes the action into a 3D world of "fast-action space combat with strategic teamwork and tactics." Although the game is rendered in amazing 3D, all the action takes place on a flat 2D plane. You'll command your ships from an old-school isometric perspective. The action also takes place exclusively online. That's right, there is no single player component of DarkSpace. This game is all about the human against human conflicts that the nogoodniks at Amnesty International seem so intent on stamping out. Thank goodness we still have the United Nations to show us the way.
We've already covered a lot of hinkfo in an interview with Richard Lyle, the game's project leader. We even thought the game was deep enough to warrant a second interview. But that wasn't enough for you, was it? Oh, no, not you. You need more, more, more. Well, here it is, you jackals. A full-on preview of Battle Isle: DarkSpace. Tell your friends.
The game will ship with three playable factions. The team hasn't released that many details about the ideologies or goals of the factions, but we do know that there will be two human factions and one alien faction to choose from. As an added bonus a fourth faction is currently undergoing development and might be added later as an update. Each faction has nine unique hull types and a number of specialized weapons. There are 25 total unique weapon systems which you can employ aboard your ships and over 50 different ship enhancements. Ship types in DarkSpace are equivalent to classes in role-playing games. Scouts are more for players interested in speed and subterfuge. Stealth craft also attract fans of underhanded tactics. Interceptors provide defense for heavy battle cruisers. Engineering ships can set up defense platforms or sensor stations to supplement player controlled orbital battle platforms. Bombers weaken planetary defenses so that transport ships can move in with ground troops.
The real goal of this game is "to give the player the feeling that they are really commanding a starship." As a result you're not actually going to be aiming or firing any of the weapons yourself. Real captains don't bother with that crap. Instead, you'll focus on broader decisions (engagement doctrines, power allocation, cooperation with other captains and such). There are different departments available for you -- engineering, communications, gunnery, etc. While these guys are carrying out your orders you can move on to other more pressing considerations.
Much of the game seems to revolve around capturing planets and forcing your enemy out of the contested system. As they lose planets, they'll have to retreat from your forces. To take a planet, you'll need a transport ship to land troops on the planet. Multi-atmospheric bombers can help degrade enemy resistance before your troops even hit the ground. Once the planet is yours, you'll receive a number of troops each turn based on the suitability of the planet. Terran planets produce many more troops than barren planets for instance. Building a barracks on the planet can double the rate at which new troops are created. A starport on your new planet will repair orbiting ships.
For the campaign game the servers will be structured and based around the scenarios. The campaign is comprised of about 60 different scenarios but any given session will only touch on maybe ten of those. The idea is to have your individual performance influence the shape of the campaign. Lots of people have promised this in the past but the developers' assertion that the "galaxy is designed to be altered directly by concerted player effort" is certainly ambitious. On the topic of ambition, the team plans to host at least 200 players on each server (although the number may rise as high as 500 before the game is released). Servers may also be linked together through warp gates in order to create a massive persistent world. To appease those of you who don't dig cooperation, the team will also set-up deathmatch servers. Clan-servers will be up to encourage long-term team play.
The game eases new players in without overwhelming them. In addition to the extensive tutorial, the game is designed to start you off easy. New players begin as ensigns, piloting small scout craft. Their responsibilities and capabilities will increase with experience. Early on your options will include running scouting missions to find out what the enemy is up to. You can also take charge of transport ships and ferry marines down to a planetary invasion. Supply ships are also needed when your forces are fighting far from a friendly planet. With each battle you'll gain prestige points and promotions. Eventually you will earn Grand Admiral status and captain your very own capital ship.
The resupply model in the game encourages strategic play. Every ship has ammo and fuel ratings that decrease as a result of combat (or even normal operation). Planets that you have garrisoned act as points of resupply for each of your ships. You'll need to supplement an attack force with a few resupply ships until you can actually capture a nearby planet. Whether this actually works with real human players is still not entirely clear, but it seems like DarkSpace has thought the matter out a little better than some other games with a similar emphasis on cooperation.
As ambitious and grand as all this sounds, there's usually one sticking point for all of these games -- namely, no one wants to work together. Whether it's Allegiance or Tribes or Rainbow Six, it seems like players have to be forced to cooperate with each other. DarkSpace is taking a neat approach to the problem by assigning larger prestige point bonuses to combat support roles. New pilots will earn more promotion points by making supply runs or scouting enemy territory. This will (hopefully) encourage a broader separation of responsibility than is normal in the gamers' world. And to make sure that things are even across the teams, DarkSpace won't simply rely on a system of numerical equality. Each of the several ranks in the game will be assigned a point value. The total point values of the ranks will be used to equalize teams. Just as an example, let's say that an Admiral is worth ten points and an Ensign is worth one point. Ten Ensigns versus one Admiral is considered a fair fight then.
The plan right now is to have three methods of communication among the players. For you 80 wpm types out there, you can use the text based chat boxes to type missions to each other. Players with a little extra room in the old bandwidth can use the in game voice communication feature. We think that most of the communication will be handled by the iconic command interface. This context sensitive system lets you communicate your orders to any team members regardless of the language they speak. In other words a request to guard a certain ship is going to be received and clearly understood by French and Latvian players alike.
DarkSpace runs on Medusa, Palestar's proprietary 3D engine. As you can see from the screenshots, the engine allows for some really spectacular visual effects. Not only are there fantastic nebulae, star fields and planets scattered across the map, the engine also handles visual ship damage, torpedo impacts and a host of other combat animations. Medusa is a C++ engine that utilizes modules to create game content. Since all of the content is stored in module form, updates and patches become much more convenient from a programming point of view. That should allow DarkSpace to be updated pretty regularly without too much trouble.
We'll have to wait until we can get our hands on a fully playable version before we can really render a judgement on whether any of this works in practice. As we've seen from Tribes, Allegiance and a bunch of other titles, an online game can quickly diverge from the intentions of the developers. Still, for many (including me) that's an advantage. A game that can evolve and change to suit the way players approach it is a rare thing. This one has a solid design behind it and we're anxious to see how it works out.
-- Steve Butts
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Orkan [OO-XII]
Grand Admiral
The Myrmidon Legion
Joined: April 22, 2010
Posts: 201
From: A Point Perfectly Computed Yet Never Repeating
| Posted: 2013-05-14 14:03
Wow! this game sounds cool! Can't wait to play it! ; P
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Orkan [OO-XII]
Grand Admiral
The Myrmidon Legion
Joined: April 22, 2010
Posts: 201
From: A Point Perfectly Computed Yet Never Repeating
| Posted: 2013-05-14 14:08
Quote:
On 2013-05-14 11:42, pangaia wrote:
quoting from the body of text...
"... Ten Ensigns versus one Admiral is considered a fair fight then...."
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Er, try Ten Admirals versus one Ensign! lol!
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Sheraton*XO*
Chief Marshal
Faster than Light
Joined: January 18, 2013
Posts: 482
From: Keel Mountains
| Posted: 2013-05-14 15:05
This seems to be an advertisement for an old game rather than a new one. The actual idea behind darkspace evolved over time but I can hardly say that I dislike the idea of the tier system. Ultimately we all have to adjust to the times.
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Twilit Keel Mountains traversed at last we met a dragon who spoke thus: \"Sheraton am I who interprets the signs.\"
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Null Pointer
Grand Admiral
Templar Knights
Joined: April 10, 2010
Posts: 148
| Posted: 2013-05-14 18:29
Still, for many (including me) that's an advantage. A game that can evolve and change to suit the way players approach it is a rare thing. This one has a solid design behind it and we're anxious to see how it works out.
-- Steve Butts
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Doran
Chief Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 29, 2003
Posts: 4032
From: The Gideon Unit
| Posted: 2013-05-14 21:03
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Sheraton*XO*
Chief Marshal
Faster than Light
Joined: January 18, 2013
Posts: 482
From: Keel Mountains
| Posted: 2013-05-14 21:51
Quote:
On 2013-05-14 21:03, Doran wrote:
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A truely fascinating commentary on the affects of time on memory and game design. I applaud your constructive criticism to this thread Doran.
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Twilit Keel Mountains traversed at last we met a dragon who spoke thus: \"Sheraton am I who interprets the signs.\"
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*FTL*Soulless
Marshal
Joined: June 25, 2010
Posts: 787
From: Dres-Kona
| Posted: 2013-05-14 23:23
[quote]On 2013-05-14 21:51, Sheraton *XO* wrote:
Quote:
On 2013-05-14 21:03, Doran wrote:
SNIP
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Never expect anything more or self from doran. Doing so you will never be disappointed by him again
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Jumbat
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: August 26, 2012
Posts: 16
| Posted: 2013-05-15 07:15
Xm i think doran miss understand the reason of this mesage idident found in this forums and yes the date was the reason for that nothing more nothing less found this intresring and sare with the comunity PS. to found funy or not pictures to unsyuere. Is abit insult for the person hou right  😔
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