Off Topic Thread

[Xrati]

EASY is always better!!!

[jars_u]

Originally Posted by Ed Kolis

...if capital ships had little or even zero maneuverability, while fighters could zip around like crazy... would put more emphasis on the fleet formations and strategies...

I think that sounds like an excellent implementation. Would also allow firing arcs for capital ships to have meaningful repercussions for both design and combat strategies. Also if capital ships didn't "dog fight" as much as ships generally do in 4X games having a system where ship Captains are able to grant minor benefits (as sometimes seen in RTS, +1 defense, etc.) could help further tailor a players style.

[jars_u]

Originally Posted by Baron Munchausen

...does this mean we can finally have a distinction between "jump ships" and "system ships...

They were forced to eat Robin's minstrels... and there was much rejoicing.

[jars_u]

Saw Flotilla on Steam today - never heard of it or http://www.blendogames.com/ before and while it has some obvious limitations it for me is also intriguing enough to put money down on it. Thought it would be of interest to the SL thread on its own merits but also very applicable to the SL ship design/combat discussions.

Review: Flotilla, or Ender’s Game: The Game

FLOTILLA gameplay

[jars_u]

Originally Posted by Astorax

...Been playing Distant Worlds and its pretty good...

How in general terms is combat and ship design handled in Distant Worlds? From looking at some of the video online I get the impression it is a RTS - select all gaggle kind of affair. How does ship design compare to SE4?

[jars_u]

I'm curious to solicit thoughts from people who have played

Distant Worlds and Armada 2526

in general what they like or dislike (as it pertains to wanting or not wanting to see in SL) and if you feel they were worth parting with your money for (or perhaps would be when the price drops).

I haven't spent any real time playing Flotilla yet so haven't any real insights to share yet.

Thanks.

[getter77]

http://starruler.blind-mind.com/ Star Ruler

Yet another 4x dealie for Star Legacy to compete with. I find the timing of all these ambitious projects popping up one after another after stewing all this time to be quite delightful. Should be something for everybody's tastes and really give a shot in the arm to the entire genre set.

Big dev Q/A thread, where one of the staff is actually a Goon, over at SomethingAwful in the Games forum.

[jars_u]

Originally Posted by getter77

I find the timing of all these ambitious projects popping up one after another after stewing all this time to be quite delightful.

I agree - I'm glad to see the genre is alive and well. Here are a couple of other projects/recent releases that might be of interest:

Star Ruler

Thousand Parsec

Free Orion

Aphelion: Phoenix Rising

Distant Worlds

Armada 2526

Flotilla

[MarcoPolo]

Originally Posted by Ed Kolis

Oh, it is still going... sorry for the lack of updates!

This week, along with various behind-the-scenes changes/fixes/additions, there are now realistic units of distance (km, ls, au, ly), and the "mod editor" app now supports saving and loading, though you still can't edit much of anything yet!

The "realistic units of distance" probably merits a bit of explanation: Yes, a planet might have a radius of, say, 5,243 kilometers. And yes, it could be several au from the planet to its star, which might have a radius of 1,000,000 km. And the next star over, yes, that might be 5 ly away!

So how do we display everything on screen without it all being teeny tiny little sub-pixel-sized dots? :P

That's where logarithms come in Since the scale of space IS so vast, we're now using a logarithmic display scale for the zoomed-out views of objects; only VAST differences in size will be noticeable. So Jupiter will look bigger than Earth, but not that MUCH bigger, at least not until you zoom in on it (we're still maintaining the actual sizes for collision detection and zoomed-in views!)

Great news Ed Kolis! This is music to my ears. Finally a logarithmic scale system integrated with an epic space strategy game

I don't think it has ever been done before but mind you I will be completely fulfilled with such attention to detail.

Some space strategy hardcore fans are very focused on combat styles and how things will be weighed up. Being an astronomy buff as well as into military strategy and heavily into facts/figures and logistical considerations... I tend to embrace realism as well as the entertainment or X factor.

Very few people understand how vast space is. And I enjoyed the days of Elite when games of the 80s also tried to educate us by trying to create a guestimate to how our stellar neighbourhood might be.

I hope Star Legacy will have a real stellar map mode, where you can start an empire from earth, whereby all stars (at least within the 1st 100ly) are represented accurately (by that I mean distances and star types and sizes)

Here I found a clip that I think sums up astronomical scale nicely WOW
Note that the last star (biggest known to date) would put its diameter almost at the orbit of Saturn!!!

[MarcoPolo]

Originally Posted by jars_u

I'm curious to solicit thoughts from people who have played

Distant Worlds and Armada 2526

in general what they like or dislike (as it pertains to wanting or not wanting to see in SL) and if you feel they were worth parting with your money for (or perhaps would be when the price drops).

I haven't spent any real time playing Flotilla yet so haven't any real insights to share yet.

Thanks.

I am actually currently playing Armada 2526, And I must say it has a way of growing on you. But maybe because I have had so little time to figure out its nuances. I am not sure if it would hold my interest as much if I was playing it for more than a few hours every lazy Sunday or so.

However I will say this about it, it falls short of what I would call a truly immersive game universe. I am sympathetic towards its building construction and tech tree, to a point. But its weaknesses is definitely the way war is waged. Very uninspiring and short lived. I would have preferred a Sins of a Solar Empire style engine or even a 2D gratuitous space battles style (if gfx and developing an upto date engine proved too costly)

As for FreeOrion, its ok as far as 1st impressions are concerned. But its more like a game I would of played in the 90s than something I would even give a chance to today. Its very conservative and lacks any innovation or ingenuity.

I also got a copy of Lost Empire Immortals, but I have from 1st impressions deemed Armada 2526 the worthier candidate. Lost Empire just seems way too repetitive for my liking, and despite it having its unique system of planet resource building, its still quite unpalatable for me.

However Star Ruler seems worthy of a look by me. I'm not too sure about Thousand Parsec, seems dated and constrained by a tiny budget.

Here are some more stellar scales for you amusements

HERE

Stellar Scales and the Future of Planet Detection

PlanetQuest

As well as some real life star system comparisons.

5 Worlds of Kepler

Five Exoplanets

First Time Photos of Extrasolar Planets

Corot 7b

Gleise 5c