What is this piece of CRAP.....!

[Corporate Dog]

Originally posted by milo:

quote:

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I'm guessing the 2D movement was a DESIGN consideration

Yes, of course it was.

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... as opposed to a lack of programming skill or resources, which the first poster seemed to imply. I was on your side with that statement.

However, just providing the player with some kind of pitch control would not be sufficient. Just off the top of my head, the game would also need:

Believe me, I fully understand and appreciate all the other functions that would be needed to bring 3D movement into the game (AI is certainly a very large consideration). I'm not coming into this discussion as a player, but as a programmer myself.

Still, I feel that just producing the game that they produced was half the battle right there.

All that would result in a huge change of emphasis in the way Starfury plays. The game would become less goal-oriented, and more process-oriented. It would also become more difficult, especially for people who have a hard time solving spacial puzzles.

Very true. It WOULD have been a completely different game. That isn't necessarily a bad thing... first person shooters are difficult for me, but that doesn't mean they're poorly designed.

I think some of us were coming from the angle of "Wow. It's Elite with capitol-class ships, a third-person view, and more strategic considerations."

From a super-tactical point of view, yes, that's exactly what it is. You've got a mostly freeform trading game with ship-to-ship combat, and vessel design.

From a tactical viewpoint, that's not what we got at all. Spacial "puzzles" were a key part of Elite, but they aren't quite there in Starfury (or at least not in a 3D environment).

Take a look at 'Star Trek: Bridge Commander'. I think the gameplay could've been improved significantly in that title by streamlining and simplifying all of the combat/control options, and that's sort of what I expected out of Starfury.

In spite of that, I felt that Bridge Commander managed to provide a game with an EXTREMELY strategic/tactical feel in three dimensions. In that game, it FELT like you were piloting a capitol ship.

I've seriously considered building a "Car Wars" mod for Starfury. That's how generic the 2D movement feels to me (and, on the flipside, shows how flexible the modability feature is).

Regards,
Corporate Dog