| Author |
Long term goals... |
Faustus
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 2748
From: Austin, Texas
|  Posted: 2002-07-19 13:35
K... many people have asked, here are some of my thoughts on where we are heading with DarkSpace...
Firstly, I have put ALOT of thought into making DarkSpace more first-person (i.e. get out of ship, walk on planet, etc). However, this ideal would put us in direct conflict with other MM games, they simply have more resources and would look better at this time (i.e. E&B). This doesn't mean this won't ever happen, it just means until I have more resources at Palestar (i.e. artists, programmers), I'm going to avoid heading that direction as much as possible.
Thus DarkSpace is heading towards more strategy game-play....
This means, player built space stations, diplomatic-political system ... which will require much more in-depth planet histories, technologies, political attributes, and more.
Eventually, as a fleet admiral you would still jump into a star ship when you go in-game, but instead of ship-to-ship combat, you would be creating missions, goals for your fleet/faction, managing planets, buying off senators, and establishing trade routes. This all ofcourse, would be your choice, if you still prefer to go head-to-head in combat, you still can, but you will simply have more options and responsbility with your rank in-game.
On that note, there are two other very real possibilities for the action junkies I'm considering....
Firstly, I've been putting alot of thought into either a Tribes or RTS engine that could be used to resolve ground combat. I think this would become a seperate client/lobby, the server's list would in-fact be ground conflicts occuring in the Metaverse. You would pick a conflict (i.e. server), join and go into battle either first person, or controlling multiple units (i.e. command and conquere). I'd love to get feedback on this subject, most likely I will head the direction of Tribes/Battlezone for this engine/gameplay.
Secondly, is fighter combat. Currently as you know fighters are not much more than missiles, that come back to you (usually not). A new lobby/client would be used, working just like the ground combat, would allow you to join into a server and take control of an existing fighter in the metaverse.
Anyway, the last thing I will do is break this existing gameplay to implement any of these features. Feedback is always welcome, and I hope this gives you all an ideal of what your helping make possible by subscribing to DarkSpace.
-Richard
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Reven
Admiral
Joined: August 25, 2001
Posts: 138
From: England; UK
| Posted: 2002-07-19 13:43
as always I CANT WAIT!!!!!.
i would love to see a RTS type game for planet capping, same with the fighters.
it will add ALOT more in-depth action into the gaming experience.
its always good to hear whats coming up in the future.
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Gideon
Cadet
Joined: September 14, 2001
Posts: 4604
From: Oregon, USA
| Posted: 2002-07-19 13:59
I think that expanding this game into a multi client platform is great. However, there is one major problem:
The action for all ground forces and fighters would be dependant on the players using the capitol ships. We will need constant action involving each type of play (FPS, Fighters, etc.), or players will wind up sitting in their lobbies waiting for action.
Perhaps when we have alot more players this will be possible.
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Faustus
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 2748
From: Austin, Texas
| Posted: 2002-07-19 16:22
I don't think this would be a real problem except possibily with the fighters...
This could easily be solved, by having seperate servers (apart from the MV) which provide constant action..
Just another thought...If we went with an RTS model for the ground combat, then those servers could in fact get hosted on the clients machine... plus the network load would be quite a bit smaller.
-Richard
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Zurai {RIP R33}
Cadet
Joined: December 28, 2001
Posts: 835
From: Orlando, FL
| Posted: 2002-07-19 16:33
A few thoughts...
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| However, this ideal would put us in direct conflict with other MM games, they simply have more resources and would look better at this time (i.e. E&B). |
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This would also put you in DIRECT conflict with the Battlecruiser series by Derek Smart (another small-team job that made it to the big time - you might want to do research on it if you havn't already). The newest BC is going to let you command the battle cruiser, but also land on the ground and fight as a marine, be a fighter pilot, trade at starports, and even walk around every section of your ship. I suggest you keep it to just strategy and try not to make it too simulation-ish 
Quote:
| which will require much more in-depth planet histories, technologies, political attributes, and more. |
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I'm sure there are plenty of players (myself included) who would love to have a chance helping you create those in-depth histories and such. Personally it sounds like a dream job 
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| Firstly, I've been putting alot of thought into either a Tribes or RTS engine that could be used to resolve ground combat. |
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I'm of two minds on this. On one hand, I'd really rather the game stayed a strategy game, as opposed to having FPS elements. On the other hand, having an FPS module to it would potentially drastically increase your user base.
Quote:
| Secondly, is fighter combat. Currently as you know fighters are not much more than missiles, that come back to you (usually not). A new lobby/client would be used, working just like the ground combat, would allow you to join into a server and take control of an existing fighter in the metaverse. |
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This might work better if you did it as giving the player control of a fighter and assigning 2 or 3 AI fighters to be his wingmen, unless of course the whole squadron is full of human pilots.
Quote:
| Anyway, the last thing I will do is break this existing gameplay to implement any of these features. Feedback is always welcome, and I hope this gives you all an ideal of what your helping make possible by subscribing to DarkSpace. |
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One potential flaw I can see is that a human-controlled battle of fighter squadron is going to seriously out-perform any AI-controlled one. Thus, there's going to be a lot of luck involved in getting humans to help you. For instance, an extremely good FPS player could probably take one or two infantry and demolish 16 AI infantry, whereas the AI in the same situation would lose horribly. Similar concerns with fighters - if you attract good fighter sim players, you're going to have a few VERY effective fighters going around demolishing capital ships.
Anyway, they all do sound like good ideas. Lots of thought will need to go into them, but when isn't that true?
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SkyLander
Admiral
Galactic Navy
Joined: August 31, 2001
Posts: 560
| Posted: 2002-07-19 17:16
I'm with everyone else in that if you going to implement these we seriously need more players to be able to make these ideas effective. Because right now with the amount of poeple everyone is just going to go whereever it is more fun.
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Deleted
Admiral
Joined:
Posts: 0
| Posted: 2002-07-19 18:27
All these ideas sound great....
...I think that one of Darkspaces great stength is the tactical level combat. It also has great strategy level gaming, which I would love to see expanded. For whatver reason, it seems like most MMPG's put a lot of work and focus into the FPS perspective.....and I agree, it's been done. I think there are many many gamers out there, including me, who really like gaming beyond first person that Darkspace can attract.
my 2 cents...
-S
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ChiggenWingz
Cadet
Joined: May 13, 2002
Posts: 185
From: Sydney Australia
| Posted: 2002-07-20 07:51
I've been giving the fighter idea a lot of thought for a while now, and how to make it much more adventurous.
Firstly, is how to beat the 100% accurate point defense on ships. For a while now I've always thought it would be a lot cooler if ya heard a quick charge sound and like a targeting beam that would shoot out to ya fighter, it would only prolly scratch the paint job, but in about 1sec (1sec is a long time when it comes to gaming (well the games im use to playing)) the beam would go full power and blow up ya ship. So as a fighter, after the beam hits you, you have to perform a quick maneuver to get out of the way of the beam before it goes full power. Also have the beam have about 1 sec lag when it tracks a target, meaning its fast enough to hit cap ships and drill a nice hole thought them, but a fighter thats zipping in and out could avoid it.
I'm guessing as a fighter pilot it would be very fast gameplay, where split second timing will be a major part of it, and I can that would appeal to alot of gamers that prefer hard action over a stratergy type of game play. Plus I love the quickness in game, eg Armagetron (Tron Light Cycle Game)
[ This Message was edited by: novaphoenix on 2002-07-21 08:56 ]
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Deleted
Cadet
Joined:
Posts: 0
| Posted: 2002-07-20 08:00
Faustus when u do implement these new feature how about a free Beta test?? XD lol.. well i like the idea of ground combat and using the T2 engine but my question is can i bring a frigate on to the planet or will be it fighters and ground vehicles only?? either your idea sounds great .. if this does ever happen u will be dominating the mmorpg games lol.
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Praetorian
Admiral
Joined: July 27, 2001
Posts: 543
From: Edmonton, Alta, Canada
| Posted: 2002-07-21 07:10
I don't know where to begin on the logistical nightmare you're trying to unleash on yourself
But I LOVE the ideas Faust
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Creeper
Cadet
Joined: September 15, 2001
Posts: 243
From: New Orleans
| Posted: 2002-07-24 08:33
boy that would be sweet Faustus.
The current space strategy/combat game tied together with a FPS/Action conflicts on the ground dpending on the real time events of the strat/combat game. With an option to fly a space flight sim as a fighter pilot. I have always liked the idea of higher ranking players setting the goals/commandng the fleet action. Tie this all in with your idea to combine scenario stye play with the MV, w00t somthing exciting and engaging for most stlyes of PC gamer, and you have a unique format for doing so.
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Deleted
Cadet
Joined:
Posts: 0
| Posted: 2002-07-24 11:56
*wets himself with excitment*
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Chromix
Cadet
Joined: June 29, 2001
Posts: 3052
| Posted: 2002-07-24 12:03
For ground combat I´d prefer RTS or "Half-RTS" in which units would have a certain amount of actions they could perform per round ( a rounds duration could be 10 seconds ), this would allow effective use of units that´d allow the player to do more than simpy click & destroy, or for control of multiple units.
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Deleted
Cadet
Joined:
Posts: 0
| Posted: 2002-07-26 12:59
well ive got to say that, even tho i unsubscribed to DS. I always enjoy stopping by and looking at those kind of posts.
Personally with that u open a huge amount of players. The FPS guys, the RTS guys and the sim guys.
Im a sim guy and ive got to tell ya that, if u do get to have ground combat and fighter combat all in one game. This is gonna kill any other mmorpg out there, no matter what.
So far i like the T2 engine, for playing T2 and having fun with the shrikes and transports, it has potential for this game, lot of different type of action possible. As for the battlezone engine, it does work well too on the strategic part, me likes.
One of my main concern i had was about the way u said it would be devided. 1 sever for fighters, 1 server for ground combat. Im not sure i quite understand how it would work out. How would it interact with the other servers. Would a server popup when say i drop troops on a planet? would a server popup when i launch a fighter???
Also, would i be able to see the other ships around. U know, when ure flying fighters and u have some huge ass cap ship nearby fighting the other enemy cap ship while ur trying to shoot the nmy's fighters or disable some weapons on the other cap ship. If ur on the ground and u look up, would u see the dread in orbit??? would u see them trying to bomb you down to hell???
Stuff, like that. If there is good interaction between each type, then ive got to say that ull have a unike game and im sure ull have a zillion people wanting to play it.
Hmm i hope its not just a dream to me but if it does come true, perfect game would be for me and a lot of my friends!
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Gideon
Cadet
Joined: September 14, 2001
Posts: 4604
From: Oregon, USA
| Posted: 2002-07-27 15:25
Okay, some thoughts:
The troop sim should be a First Person Shooter. That way people who want constant action rather than strategy can play this, and the Fleet Game can drift towards strategy more without upsetting our action oriented players.
Players are not part of the regular military. They are some sort of futuristic special forces. They can fight in large army style enguagements, if nesseary.
When not in these kind of actions, they can get missions from the Fleet Admirals (or whomever) for some kind of covert mission. The player would be flown to the planet, conduct the mission, and get out. Since no planets are being conquored during this, there wouldn't be major disruptions to the MV.
However, here is where we can drop the need making a buildable unit for spying or sabotage. Send in the players! They can sabotage individual instillations, assasinate important leaders, get intellegence on the enemy location or technology, rescue hostages, and even more. Since these are covert missions, players would be arriving in AI controlled transports for secrecy. This removes dependance on player controlled ships for transit. Also, counter missions could be spawned for the opposing faction. That way it could come to player vs player, with AI thrown in on either or both sides if nessesary. Successful and failed missions would be posted automatically in the news for factions, to let players have a sense of accomplishment.
I think with this setup players could be integrated in the MV constantly, but also have a constant stream of activities to conduct.
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