109 replies to this topic

[nitrogenfingers]

I've had an idea for a game I think will work well in CC. I've named it Capital Defense: Battles in the Short Arm, and I think it has great potential. However,
- It's massive
- It requires some nice graphics
- It's going to take awhile
- It needs refinement.

I've posted the high concept, with the major game play features and a bit of the setting. Here's a short version, and the longer one is in captions below:

The Short Version


The player commands a Hulker, or a "Class A Space-Based Vehicle", and commands what can become a small fleet. Hulkers are capital vessels, with large cargo bays, multiple weapon platforms, as well as room for expansions like FTL drives, hangers and other weapons. They can also hire other freight ships to form a convoy, and purchase fighter craft to rest beneath her wings for combat engagements.

The player always sees action from the first person. He sits at a console on his ship and makes commands from there. He has access to a large number of menus, and is also able to travel to other parts of the ship to set commands and orders. Commands the player manages include navigation to various regions, communication with other vessels, commanding ship behaviour in battle (various divisions like turret focus, shield positions, deployment of crates etc.), trading, money management and so on. Inspiration comes from games like Sid Meier's Pirates! and Escape Velocity, with an emphasis on tactical combat, resource and ship management.

More Detail

Spoiler

Game play is open-ended. The player has a free universe to explore, a galactic map that they can fill through exploration, planets and space stations to trade with and purchase new equipment (or even new hulkers). The player must manage his money by raiding other ships, selling and buying cargo, and taking on delivery and bounty missions. A series of story missions may be made available- these will also be open ended.

Combat is designed to be a dynamic experience that is more predicated on wit and tactics than quick trigger fingers. The player will have a number of weapons available at his disposal, and how and when he choses to use them will change the way the game plays. Firing short range cruiser missiles will be a waste if the ships are out of range. Broadside turrets will not be able to fire if the ship is facing the wrong way. Countermeasures can be used to lure or even redirect enemy missiles and shields will need to be carefully managed to defend the right parts of the ship. And this doesn't even touch on crates, and their management, or defending your cargo ships from front-line bombardment. All these things will be manageable from an overlevel interface, in which commands are quickly given to various departments of the ship- engines, generator, batteries, ordinance and ECM, with a series of displays and tactical overlays, as well as "on the ground" information about each area of the ship being reported on. Damage to any area of the ship can cause various levels of failures ranging from lost engine power to cargo damage and eventual destruction of the ship itself- this is also true for your opponents (Crates of course, are either alive or dead).

When a vessel is sufficiently damaged (on either side) to be considered "disabled"- no power and no engines is the requirement for this, the player or enemy may choose to begin a boarding action. Here combat changes again, to a tactical battle for the ship. The player is able to maintain a small standing force of men on board the ship- these are then sent to fight in a real-time battle for the ship, by attacking and securing various areas and eventually capturing or killing the captain on the bridge. Repelling a capture attempt forces an end to the engagement, while a successful one allows a ransom, earning a great prize for the opposing side (some missions will also require a board to succeed).

Your ship will also need to be effectively manned, and crew members can be hired on planets and space stations. The more crew you have, the more you will need to pay in wages, but being short handed will mean your ship operates sub-optimally, in and out of combat.

Out of combat, the player is also able to try his hand at trading. Various systems will produce goods, and others will consume them- the player is able to make trading trips from one area to another to buy and sell various goods. Learning and operating trade routes is a critical skill in earning money. Prices can fluctuate from place to place, so monitoring prices in different systems is wise (a stock exchange upgrade for your hulker can do this). In addition to this, watching the local news will inform the player to events like shortage or surplus that may lead to radically different prices. To increase the player's cargo space they can hire transporters to work in a convoy- however they demand a high salary so should only be used for big trading runs.

Upgrading the user's ship is a personal choice, depending on their play style. Battle-oriented commanders may choose to use excess space purchasing extra guns, while the commander with ransom on his mind might fit that space with barracks to house additional troops and ship-hands. Trader commanders might instead fit it with cargo space, or additional batteries to power shields and weapons. The choice of weapons also allows commanders to make tactical choices in engagements- some may choose to use weapons that do core damage in the hopes of destroying their enemies, others may choose weapons that soften their opponent or damage critical systems to make the fight easier, and others still may take a more defensive role to engagement, preferring to knock out enemy fighters and disable enemy projectiles in the hope of coming out of each battle with as little damage as possible. Customization should be flexible, to match each player's own combat style.

Should a story be developed, the player will have a choice from one of several races to choose from, ranging a human from the imperial and oppressive United Earth Colonial Government, a Klegarthan from the submissive but staunch Occupied Kist, a Man of Mestor from the fiercely independent Mestor Systems, a Lepol the ancient, rich and decaying Deston Cest, a Benuin from the enigmatic Mad Clouds or a Servant from K-007. Each race has "preconceptions" with other races and varying levels of friendliness or hostility that influence the way they percieve you. Campaign missions done at the behest of various governments will lead to a series of story missions, based around differing objectives and resulting in changes to each individual faction, your standing within them and ownership of various systems.

I've yet to make much of a start on this because it's already clear this is going to be big, and it may take some time, especially with my other projects on the boil. So I'm posting it now with the hopes that some of you guys might be excited by the idea and have some ideas of your own on how to make it more interesting, or better still you might be a skilled programmer with some free time willing to lend a hand.

Either way looking for feedback. I'll post some concept art as dev goes on, and will move this to the program section when something playable has been released.

NF

[ikke009]

Sounds great, it makes me think a bit of Star control 2, though I don't think that's quite what you're going for.. I would love to lend a hand on this project, would that I had more time on my hands with school and various other projects of mine own. I'll make sure to post any good ideas I get!

[Exerro]

I really want to make a game i just haven't had any ideas yet...this sounds great i hope i can help
I just left for half term as well so i should have a lot of free time on my hands
Also, i love sid meiers pirates its one of my favorite games so if this is anything like it ill be stuck on it for hours

[GravityScore]

Holy crap nitro............ This is one freaking massive game.

This would be so fun to code Mind if I join in?

I made an outline of sorts of the features of the game based on your finer detail. You can add/subtract things if you want.

Spoiler

Captial Defence
- Hulker
- Mercenaries
  - 3 teirs, each with different damage to reload speed ratios
  - Heavy, with massive damage and really long reload
  - Light, with small damage, short reload
  - Medium, with medium damage, medium reload
- Freighters
  - 3 tiers, each of different sizes
  - Chose what to place where
  - Items cause freighters to weigh more, and become slower, forcing you to travel slower, and be slower to move/fire in combat
  - Can carry pathetic, cheap weapons
- Weapons
  - Long range Missiles
  - Short range
- Transport/Power
  - Sheild Batteries (3 teirs)
  - Fuel
  - Warp drives (faster to travel long distances)
  - Thrusters (faster to move around enemies)
  - Fine control thrusters (for presision in combat, leading to more accurate aiming)
- Defence
  - Sheilds
  - Anti-missile missiles
  - Flares
  - Cargo doors (security)
  - Distress signals (signaling distress ships to come help)
- Cargo
  - Under Trade Section


- Travel/Missions
- Galaxies/Travel
  - Multiple Galaxies
   - Xenox
   - Radex
   - Lumini
   - Optiex
   - Desegine
  - Stars
   - Resources
   - Dangers
  - Planets
   - People
   - Trade
   - Upgrades
   - Fuel
  - Manned Stations
   - Mercenaries
   - Personel
   - Fuel
- Storyline options
  - Government Conspiracy
  - Lost ship needing rescue
  - Favourite: Missing planet full of rare resources worth HUGE amounts of money. Stolen by rich pirates using a new government designed planetary mover


- Combat
- Pirates
  - Wanting resources/cargo, personel, mercenaries
  - Will attempt to attack cargo
  - Crappy ships, sometimes with hugely powerful stolen weapons
- Corrupt Government Vehicles
  - Wanting to send you to intergalactic jail
  - Will attempt to surround you and force you into the jail mothership
  - Highly secure
  - Valuable cargo
  - Massive defense systems
  - Pathetic to medium weapons
- Bounty Hunters
  - Wanting to destroy you
  - Will attempt to kill you
  - Massively customised ships
  - Largely varying weapon power to sheild strength ratio


- Trade
- Cargo (colors based on available CC colours)
  - Food
  - Water
  - Gold
  - Ruby
  - Saphire
  - Dark Matter (fuel)
- Personel
  - Pilots
  - Missilemen
  - Machine Gunmen
  - Cannonmen
  - Mechanics
  - Medics
  - Kamikaze 1 time use men
- Hulkers
  - Class E hulker (default, worst)
  - Classes D, C, B, A (best)
- Mercenaries/Freighters
  - Kamikaze 1 time use
  - Heavy (heavy damage, long reload time)
  - Light (low damage, fast reload time)
  - Tracer
  - Blackhole (1 time use, smashes into enemy creating massive blackhole. Yeah, you should get out of there quickly. Teleports you to another galaxy?)

Damn it screwed my indenting up...

[nitrogenfingers]

I've done a little concept art for how this game might look.


Here's a picture of what the battle overview might look like. It shows the player in an engagement with another hulker on the starboard side. The player has chosen to move his hulker forwards to better line up his batteries to attack the enemy. Below, the status of various systems is displayed with coloured lights.


This is what a report on system status might look like. This keeps track of how much damage has been done in each region, and how many crew hands each section is short (should probably show a total as well). This player has suffered some ancillary damage to the power generator and the engines have been knocked offline with concentrated fire.


The player is able to redistribute power to his shields here. The total shield strength is displayed, as well as how much is going to each part of the ship. The player has chosen to more carefully defend the starboard (probably to avoid further power damage, leaving slightly below average shielding to the aft and completely exposing the port side. The enemy's relative position is displayed, so the player knows roughly where best to defend.

[bjornir90]

Wow ... This looks amazing ! However are you sure for the first person ? A computercraft's screen is very small so fort fake 3D for the first personn this will be near impossible ....

[Exerro]

Will it be realtime and how 3d will it be? I think if its 1st person realtime 3d with loads of complex ships flying around then the screen will just look like a mess...maybe aerial view is a better way like ftl?
All the pics look amazing though

[GravityScore]

awsumben13, on 18 February 2013 - 03:43 AM, said:

Will it be realtime and how 3d will it be? I think if its 1st person realtime 3d with loads of complex ships flying around then the screen will just look like a mess...maybe aerial view is a better way like ftl?
All the pics look amazing though

bjornir90, on 18 February 2013 - 03:38 AM, said:

Wow ... This looks amazing ! However are you sure for the first person ? A computercraft's screen is very small so fort fake 3D for the first personn this will be near impossible ....

I agree that the 3D view will be kind of hard. I like the idea of using an aerial view (like FTL) though.

[nitrogenfingers]

I chose first person because the aerial overhead view wouldn't really do justice to what it's like to captain a massive capital ship. It's unlikely the player will jump behind the controls and start flying the thing around in 3D space- they'll mostly be watching tactical overlays during battle, and sitting in front of the viewscreen watching space go by, occasionally answering comm messages, ordering the crew about and generally just being a captain. I chose Pirates as an example inspiration because I don't imagine this game being like most space combat games, with WWII-inspired dogfighting mechanics. You'll probably never even see your opponent, as they're too far away, just as in ship-to-ship battles on the Spanish Main it wasn't until you wanted to board your enemy that you caught much of a glint of the ship up close. I imagine it being more like... Battlestar Galactica for example, with the captain and XO in the CIC, watching the action and communicating with the crew while maneuvering the ship and launching vipers.
I've not played FTL but I think I'm going for quite a different game. Combat will be more like a game of chess from how I see it. Incidentally, those overlays probably will be 2D and overhead.

[nitrogenfingers]

Oh and I quite liked your list GravityScore Fire me a PM or something and we'll talk about it.

[Exerro]

When can we start? It sounds like a great game my only suggestions are having an unlimited randomly generating galaxy where there are no limits...like minecraft but the blocks are solar systems and planet colonisation where you can build walls and buildings that get you extra resources etc... :l

[Leo Verto]

Wow, mind blown again, you sir are the most amazing member of this community!

[Bubba]

This sounds and looks awesome. I have a few questions though:
- What might the ship controls be like? Type coordinates into a menu or click and drag?
- Would this be a multiplayer game?
- If singleplayer, how in-depth are you thinking the "AI" will be?

And a suggestion:
To keep in line with ComputerCraft (or just for the sheer "coolness" of it), I think that additionally to the menus there should be a console which allows you to enter the same commands that you would do with multiple GUIs otherwise. I'm faster at typing on a keyboard than clicking about an interface, and really advanced players would be able to visualize the battle in their head. Perhaps there should also be a system query lookup in the console to allow everything to be managed from it if you want.

Are you programming this by yourself or with a dev-group? If the latter, I would love to help. I wouldn't always have the time to what with school and everything, but even being a small part of the project would be awesome.

[nitrogenfingers]

Bubba, on 18 February 2013 - 05:43 AM, said:

This sounds and looks awesome. I have a few questions though:
- What might the ship controls be like? Type coordinates into a menu or click and drag?

I expect most interactions will be through a series of graphical menus. The screenshots above are all mouse driven- clicking to select a location to move to, or selecting a section of the ship to query (later to target for enemies), or to increase shield levels at different areas. Rather than all being textual I hope pictographic representations will be available, so perhaps having a small map of the hsip that can be selected to choose where to move to, rather than just selecting a textual "move" option, and moving there. I want the player to feel very much as though he is not just something hovering above a ship but is actually in it, running things from the inside.

Bubba, on 18 February 2013 - 05:43 AM, said:

- Would this be a multiplayer game?

The core of the game will be single player, but I see no reason why a multiplayer shouldn't exist. Granted there will be so much ability to customize your play style, I think it would be really cool to take the hulker you've created in single player and pit it against your friends.

Bubba, on 18 February 2013 - 05:43 AM, said:

- If singleplayer, how in-depth are you thinking the "AI" will be?

Rather like the player, enemies will have a lot of different hulkers available. I expect they will have a series of behaviours, ranging from defensive to aggressive that will modify their tactics in battles. I can imagine they will eventually get quite complex, but I'm not one to shrink from a challenge

I like your idea of having a console where the user can create custom queries- I've always been a fan of providing multiple interface methods to suit the user, and that fits the bill nicely. My one concern is as this will be a real-time tactical game, most console output will not be presented in real-time, so the user may find himself relying on out-of-date information if he's forgotten to check frequently enough for positions etc.

As for how this is made, I'm really not sure. History has demonstrated I'm not a good group manager. I think I submitted the topic hoping that I could get a bit of feedback from the community as to whether or not this is a game you'd all like to play (and feedback has been good, thanks everyone), and if some talented and motivated programmer did want to help out they could contact me and we could come to some sort of an arrangement. As this is a very large, technical and very challenging project I'd need to verify people who want to help out are suitable; that is
- They have some free time to meet and work on it
- They have worked on games before, or have some portfolio of projects
- They have something they can bring to the project, ideas or technical info or something.
I guess send me a message on the forums or youtube or something if you're interested.

[Tiin57]

Would you mind if I used this idea, but made it in Java, developed the concept some more, and gave you credit for the idea?

[nitrogenfingers]

Yes I would mind! Don't suppose I can really stop you though, but I posted the idea hoping people would provide feedback and help me make it, rather than take it and do it themselves.

[Dlcruz129]

nitrogenfingers, on 18 February 2013 - 12:26 PM, said:

Yes I would mind! Don't suppose I can really stop you though, but I posted the idea hoping people would provide feedback and help me make it, rather than take it and do it themselves.

That's a valid argument, however he offers no competition, as his is written in Java. Just my two cents.

Edit: Meh, back on topic: Good luck! I look forward to another one of your amazing programs Nitro!

[Bubba]

nitrogenfingers, on 18 February 2013 - 11:40 AM, said:

I like your idea of having a console where the user can create custom queries- I've always been a fan of providing multiple interface methods to suit the user, and that fits the bill nicely. My one concern is as this will be a real-time tactical game, most console output will not be presented in real-time, so the user may find himself relying on out-of-date information if he's forgotten to check frequently enough for positions etc.

My thought is that you could have it one of two ways:
1. A chat like system which outputs new events above the user input text box. You could filter the amount of things which are shown in the settings or through a command, or even capture only specific data with a command.

2. A split screen. One side with the console, the other side with new info on it.

[nitrogenfingers]

I like both ideas- so much in fact I've combined them:

[Tiin57]

nitrogenfingers, on 18 February 2013 - 12:26 PM, said:

Yes I would mind! Don't suppose I can really stop you though, but I posted the idea hoping people would provide feedback and help me make it, rather than take it and do it themselves.

Right. Well, I can't help, me being crap at Lua, but I will respect your wishes.