What to do while in space

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Re: What to do while in space

Post by klauss »

greenfreedom10 wrote:Oh, and we also already have a configurable game speed that would have its own effect on a dynamic economy/universe.
(In the mix: game speed + time compression + SPEC)
Game speed is totally broken - it has lots of unwanted effects.
Like that of breaking dialogues.

I'd ditch it.
Just MHO.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by travists »

Can it be fixed? Sounds like the kinda thing to slow the game down on too fast of a computer or try to help a slower computer run it.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by klauss »

Actually, game speed was intended as a difficulty setting - totally misguided if you ask me.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by greenfreedom10 »

klauss wrote: Game speed is totally broken - it has lots of unwanted effects.
Like that of breaking dialogues.
Time compression might introduce some issues as well…
klauss wrote:I'd ditch it.
Hmm. What about this?
  1. Make the game speed static (not configurable) and realistically slow
  2. Add an in-game time compression of maybe 1x to 3x
  3. Slow down SPEC
The way VegaStrike is now, I prefer the "relaxed" speed for action (it seems more realistic to me) but "moderate" speed for travel. This way would allow faster action whenever the player wants it.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by klauss »

@greenfreedom10: I like that. Though I'd crank up time compression a bit, but experience will tell how much we can push it.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by Deus Siddis »

greenfreedom10 wrote: Anyway that's probably enough from me, you know that my vote goes to Deus Siddis' hazards/exploration/internal improvements instead! :)
Later on I want to expand on the details of all those features listed earlier, for further discussion.

But first there's another tangential factor we should consider. The rate of player advancement; notably mission pay and trading profit versus ships and upgrade prices. Whereas something like time compression makes the world (the things out of the player's hands) change faster, this makes the player and his influence change faster.

If you get further along in the game per trip or per mission, things should feel less monotonous even though nothing has directly changed to travel. Ultimately you want a rough equation that maintains this pace as the player works to increase his wealth, power and relations. That is you want low, medium and high hanging fruit for the player. Currently the game only offers low, very high and extremely high priced ships, low and medium priced upgrades and low pay missions (and few benefits from positive faction relations, though this is another topic).

A really good thing about this is the fact it almost purely a balance issue; no new features need to be implemented for this boost. Trial and error work will be needed of course, but much of this should be doable by content creators and testers.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by travists »

Part of that does require additional features, though ones that are presently being talked about. In that missions should more accurately be compensated for their profit and/or difficulty. Hauling weapons to the front lines should pay more than lugging consumer goods in-system. Hunting down a lone pirate in a relatively safe system pays less than wiping out a flight group behind enemy lines. As for ships and upgrades, most defiantly there should be some more mid-range stuff! Part of the mid-range stuff could be more customizable ships. but even reworking the price structure would help.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by greenfreedom10 »

Deus Siddis wrote:… there's another tangential factor we should consider. The rate of player advancement; notably mission pay and trading profit versus ships and upgrade prices. Whereas something like time compression makes the world (the things out of the player's hands) change faster, this makes the player and his influence change faster.
One thing to consider is that realistically, one lone ship (especially early in the game) will not have a significant influence on the universe. A player should find it necessary to voluntarily seek safe systems and "low-hanging fruit", or meet a quick end.

Later, on fringe systems, an experienced and well-armed pioneer might be able to affect some changes in a small radius.

I don't care for the idea of adjusting AI equipment/abilities based on player profile, if that is still true in VegaStrike.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by travists »

YES!! Start the player in a safer place, but do NOT have a sliding NPC difficulty! That's a big plus to realism too. It's a rough galaxy out there, if you overreach you die.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by Deus Siddis »

greenfreedom10 wrote: I don't care for the idea of adjusting AI equipment/abilities based on player profile, if that is still true in VegaStrike.
I'd recommend starting a new topic on the subject, focused on finding out if this feature is still active, and if so, putting forward that it needs to be removed. Such is (or was) a very contrived and actually imbalancing game mechanic.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by greenfreedom10 »

greenfreedom10 wrote:I don't care for the idea of adjusting AI equipment/abilities based on player profile
Deus Siddis wrote:I'd recommend starting a new topic on the subject
Done.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by travists »

Looks like the "remove scaling difficulty" thread is mostly down to formalities. Any one ready to continue here?
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by Deus Siddis »

Features to make space interesting:

Fields.

Asteroid, debris and mine fields. Besides other "units" these are the only physical objects you can interact with in space and the only detailed passive environment there. The only spaceborne equivalent to mountains, rivers, trees, silt traps and the many other features of terrestrial navigation.

They provide collision hazards (and victims thereof to be aided or preyed upon), cover from direct attack, cover from detection, mining and salvage, a credible destination (IOW not like the factories floating in deep, deep space) and scenery.

The three types are very similar in features but with some differences between them. Asteroid belts are randomly placed, static, permanent, enormous and sparse in both obstacles and resources. On the opposite end of the spectrum, mine fields are intentionally placed, dynamic, temporary and very dense (by design) obstacles and resources (at least from the player's mercenary and scavenger perspective). Debris fields are in between, they are the accidental side effect of intentional placements, like large stations, mining operations and battles, they come and go slowly, and are moderately dense with obstacles and valuables alike.

Nebulae.

Nebulae are the closest thing to interesting or bad weather in space. While they are normally very sparse clouds of star stuff I *think* they become hotter and denser close to stars (the environment the game takes place in).

They obscure your detection ability and reduce its range and possibly accuracy. While they might be a source of reaction mass for your thrusters they also may inhibit the power of your spec drive. And since they span entire solar systems, only jump points can get you out of one (eventually). For the reasons listed above, nebulae are also destinations, even if only for those who want to seek stealth in space and those that are seeking them.

Nebulae would vary mostly by how many systems they encompass and how dense/hot they are.

Suns (ordinary), Magnetars and Black Holes.

Each of these influences the system around it, but at closer distances it becomes an environment in its own right, with all the dangers and treasures that naturally follows.

At medium range they offer energy, scientific opportunities and the occasional or regular hazardous solar flare. At close range, a slow build up of heat and damage, subsequent temporary escape from thinner skinned attackers and the assurance that enemies may only attack you from half as many directions, but the same goes for your routes of escape from said enemies. At very close range, a quick death.

Suns produce enormous light, which means an enormous source of energy and probably the only chance to produce any useful quantities of antimatter. They are also the least hazardous. Black holes produce no light, in fact they subtract it. This makes for an awesomely shocking change of aesthetics from normal systems. It also makes them only valuable for research and disposing of. . . anything. (Including those godly-powerful ancient-alien-technology anythings). Magnetar are similar, but maybe destructive at greater ranges and to a lesser extent. Both black holes and magnetars are very rare, no more than one of each in the game might be reasonable.

Ambushers Versus Pursuers

The environments listed above are good turf for ambushes, be they by a military, pirate, lunatic or personal enemy. You enter an asteroid field and suddenly multiple power ups and liftoffs are detected from nearby asteroids-- pirates were lying in wait. You are traveling through a dense nebula when suddenly a minefield appears ahead, you stop, but then aera fighters appear immediately at your flanks and interceptors cut you off from the nearest jump point.

On the other hand, if you are already being pursued, a more complex and obscuring environment might be your best chance at losing a more powerful attacker you can't outrun in open space.

But first, we need to have ambushes and pursuits in the game to begin with. In 0.5.0 getting surprise attacked or intercepted basically never happens. Which makes tactical use of the environments of space pointless. Bushwhacking and getting bushwhacked, intercepting and getting intercepted, should both happen and have interesting mechanics and strategies associated with them. Good navigation then becomes essential to not only dealing with real enemies, but accounting for the ever present possibility of enemies.

Exploration

Space is big and old. Things are hidden in its vastness. Things are protected by the environments listed above. After much time spent exploring, simply encountering these "things" is pure magic. Without warning, seeing something rare and special float into view in the silent darkness. We need exploration to make a more engaging game and then we need treasures (rewards) to make more engaging exploration.

Unexplored solar systems, derelicts, salvageable scrap, mining and colonization opportunities, alien artifacts, undiscovered alien species, theoretical (or unimagined) anomalies. Features that fill out the game play of exploring and directly exploiting the resources of space (instead of playing star taxi).

You explore a previously uncharted system, and find within it a deuterium rich ocean world, titanium rich asteroid belt and an ancient alien satellite. You collect the satellite, sell it, use the money to buy colonization equipment and settle the ocean world, where you harvest and sell deuterium. Now you set up mines on the asteroid belt. Then in an adjacent system you discover a derelict scout ship from a yet unencountered alien species; you haul it back to your colony for repairs and give it to your wingman to pilot. Fast forward a year and the same new alien species is at war with the human confederation over territorial expansion rights. After a great battle between the two, you salvage millions of credits worth of scrap and technological secrets which you sell to both sides.

Vessel Internals.

Inspection and/or repair of ship systems, both internally and EVA. Replace damaged modules with backup components, whilst following safety procedures and getting the job finished ASAP; the game does not stop while you are working and vulnerable.

Explore the competencies and emotional limitations of your individual crew members through social and practical interactions and assign them tasks on the ship accordingly.

Encounter friendly, neutral and hostile stowaways; simple lifeforms or cunning sentient species (humans, klkk, aera, etc.). They may turn out to be (assuming you hold your fire long enough to find out) anything from a nuisance to a real threat, to a potential recruit, to a plot fixer.

Fight off hostile boarders (or board hostile ships and stations.)

Use in flight time to handle longer term planning. Write logs and notes and draw up flight plans and backup strategies. Try to decipher codes, messages or devices you have intercepted or stolen.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by klauss »

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Re: What to do while in space

Post by travists »

Fields: sounds great! nothing much to add.

Nebulae: Sounds good, there are gas mines right? Those, I would think, should be in or near Nebulae. Also, how about a gas collector upgrade to then sell the gasses?

Suns: Makes sense. Perhaps special shields can provide better protection from a star's atmosphere, thus allowing someone to hide for good or ill?

Exploration:
1: To truly explore, an unknown jump-point should not have it's destination named, nor have the outlet listed in the nav screen.
2: There should be science addons for sensors: mapping, field dynamics, planetary composition, etc
3: Are all unknown derelicts truly non-operational, or could the computers still be operational. Tractor-ing you in for an unintended docking, or firing upon you for no apparent reason?
4: Is every defunct vessel of alien origin, or are there sleeper ships from the pre-jump/spec days that got lost?

Vessel Internals: Systems and crew management should be BIG In addition to system failures and repairs, I think power management works well. Think of it as overclocking your processor. If care is taken you trade more heat generation for boosted power. If you do to much for to long serious damage can result. Then again, what's a burned out shield generator and half melted thrusters if it gets you away from hostels with your cargo intact?
Crewing issues can, and do, take up several threads...

Now for my addition, FTL/long range communication:

Sending/receiving SOS messages:
If you are in trouble, you can call for help. Pirates just live for distressed fisshies to splash about too. Send one and help may arrive, but so too may more harm. If you pick one up you can choose to help or finish them off! Perhaps you can call for a tow if you run out of fuel?

News flash:
Major events can't wait until you land for you to find out about them. If disaster strikes, or a system changes hands, there should be a report right way.

Trade deals:
It may be possible to broker a better price if you have a buyer lined up rather than selling on the open market.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by Deus Siddis »

klauss wrote:@Deus siddis: wikified magnificent post
Thanks, glad you like it!

I wonder if someday we'll see this on the road map page. :wink:

travists wrote: Nebulae: Sounds good, there are gas mines right? Those, I would think, should be in or near Nebulae. Also, how about a gas collector upgrade to then sell the gasses?
I don't know if there are any Nebulae dense enough to be an economical resource in themselves. Otherwise gas mines would only go around gas giants (which get extremely dense). Another possibility is that maybe strongly charged nebulae might be a source of energy?

It would be interesting to hear from people who know more about this subject, to get an idea for what Nebulae can be like close to stars, especially in regards to how dense, hot and valuable in any way they could (or could not) be.
Suns: Makes sense. Perhaps special shields can provide better protection from a star's atmosphere, thus allowing someone to hide for good or ill?
Essentially; there should be special adaptions that can be made to last longer or closer to a sun. This could add interesting tactical and strategic complexity. For example certain strike missions against solar-hardened stations or vessels might involve attacking the anti-solar adaptions they depend on (radiators, ceramic, tungsten/molybdenum and electromagnetic shielding) before your own ships succumb to the environment (or are shot apart or a combination of the two).

There could be natural differences between different types of ship, as far as how much sun they can take. A strike craft might not last long but could get out quick, while a warship would have the opposite situation. A large transport on the other hand would be screwed both ways (unless specially outfitted or designed).
Exploration:
1: To truly explore, an unknown jump-point should not have it's destination named, nor have the outlet listed in the nav screen.
Further, if your sensors didn't have practically unlimited range, you might have to find the jump point first.
3: Are all unknown derelicts truly non-operational, or could the computers still be operational. Tractor-ing you in for an unintended docking, or firing upon you for no apparent reason?
The statuses of derelicts would be highly variable.

In approaching or boarding one, caution is highly advisable. This goes doubly so for oddly decorated derelicts filled with thousands of eggs.
4: Is every defunct vessel of alien origin, or are there sleeper ships from the pre-jump/spec days that got lost?
Origins and ages would also be highly variable. But naturally I would imagine more domestic and recent relics near core systems and more exotic and potentially ancient relics near and beyond fringe systems.
I think power management works well. Think of it as overclocking your processor. If care is taken you trade more heat generation for boosted power. If you do to much for to long serious damage can result. Then again, what's a burned out shield generator and half melted thrusters if it gets you away from hostels with your cargo intact?
Crewing issues can, and do, take up several threads...
The things is though that there's no shortage of fun and engaging things that can be done during combat, and combat is the main or only scenario where tough micromanagement choices would make sense.

Space navigation is where we need more engaging complexity.
Now for my addition, FTL/long range communication:
Sending/receiving SOS messages:
If you are in trouble, you can call for help. Pirates just live for distressed fisshies to splash about too. Send one and help may arrive, but so too may more harm. If you pick one up you can choose to help or finish them off! Perhaps you can call for a tow if you run out of fuel?
Intelligent distress calls would be especially good with game perks built into them, like a greater relations boost for saving a vessel when you were not under contract to or being hired by the one you saved to escort him for a longer run. Similar buddy system messages would be good, like reports from fellow privateers of nearby pirate sightings or 'suspicion' broadcasts like "something's not right at the jump to 17-AR", which could as easily be true as could be bullshit.
News flash:
Major events can't wait until you land for you to find out about them. If disaster strikes, or a system changes hands, there should be a report right way.
I think the opposite direction would actually be better- long range communications beyond neighboring systems should be harder and harder to come by and more and more outdated the farther away it comes from. If you want to know something for sure, as it happens, you need to go to the source. You are an explorer, you don't read the news, you write it.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by travists »

Deus Siddis wrote:
Suns: Makes sense. Perhaps special shields can provide better protection from a star's atmosphere, thus allowing someone to hide for good or ill?
Essentially; there should be special adaptions that can be made to last longer or closer to a sun. This could add interesting tactical and strategic complexity. For example certain strike missions against solar-hardened stations or vessels might involve attacking the anti-solar adaptions they depend on (radiators, ceramic, tungsten/molybdenum and electromagnetic shielding) before your own ships succumb to the environment (or are shot apart or a combination of the two).

There could be natural differences between different types of ship, as far as how much sun they can take. A strike craft might not last long but could get out quick, while a warship would have the opposite situation. A large transport on the other hand would be screwed both ways (unless specially outfitted or designed).
You do tend to be a bit more eloquent in expressing thoughts than I. That is basically what I was thinking!
Deus Siddis wrote:
Exploration:
1: To truly explore, an unknown jump-point should not have it's destination named, nor have the outlet listed in the nav screen.
Further, if your sensors didn't have practically unlimited range, you might have to find the jump point first.
YEP!! Unknown jumppoint *(no maps + basic sensors) = very bad, turn around now!
Deus Siddis wrote: Intelligent distress calls would be especially good with game perks built into them, like a greater relations boost for saving a vessel when you were not under contract to or being hired by the one you saved to escort him for a longer run. Similar buddy system messages would be good, like reports from fellow privateers of nearby pirate sightings or 'suspicion' broadcasts like "something's not right at the jump to 17-AR", which could as easily be true as could be bullshit.
News flash:
Major events can't wait until you land for you to find out about them. If disaster strikes, or a system changes hands, there should be a report right way.
I think the opposite direction would actually be better- long range communications beyond neighboring systems should be harder and harder to come by and more and more outdated the farther away it comes from. If you want to know something for sure, as it happens, you need to go to the source. You are an explorer, you don't read the news, you write it.
This has ramifications for on planet news too, how fast does news travel? Two systems per day? does the importance of the news affect the speed? (eg. galaxy shattering events are rushed out as fast as the couriers can fly?)
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by Deus Siddis »

travists wrote:
Deus Siddis wrote: Essentially; there should be special adaptions that can be made to last longer or closer to a sun. . .
You do tend to be a bit more eloquent in expressing thoughts than I. That is basically what I was thinking!
At some point when the game features a number of diverse and fully detailed environments, the idea of picking or equipping ships for handling certain environments over others could be an interesting game mechanic. More relevantly, it would also add to the complexity of navigation, since depending on your particular ship's capabilities, you would take routes through or near favorable environments and avoid those where you would be at a disadvantage. Different factions might be better or worse off in different environments as well. For example you might stay clear of asteroid and debris fields when pirates are about or nebulae near aera territory, because you know those factions dominate those respective environments.

The environmental adaptions might be reused from existing ship systems for the sake of elegance. Say, point defense and armor offer protection in fields, shielding against radiation and particle weapons could double as protection in near solar and fiercer nebular environments, powerful peripheral thrusters offer vital flexibility in high gravity atmospheric environments, etc.
This has ramifications for on planet news too, how fast does news travel? Two systems per day? does the importance of the news affect the speed? (eg. galaxy shattering events are rushed out as fast as the couriers can fly?)
Probably numerous factors would affect the speed (and maximum range) of news travel.

Importance of the topic being communicated certainly should be one of them.

Another would be available communication infrastructure. A young, backwater colony might not get reliable news less than a few months old. The same thing for an area far from any relay stations or similar technology. And by the same token, the destruction of com infrastructure should affect the news reports and subsequently the AI's awareness of situations and coordination within a faction.

There is also the idea of classified, encrypted information. This would flow just like news, except that it would be more valuable, secret stuff that you have to decode (and then hide that you know it, unless you want potentially big trouble with whatever faction had produced it).

As mentioned earlier, the work of deciphering this stuff would be a good "interior space" activity during long flights. Secrets might be coded in such a way that you are only be able to decrypt parts of the messages, leaving the player to try to fill in the blanks and connect the dots. There could be embedded disinformation as well; a dozen working and logical translations, but only one is real information, the rest are decoys. By piecing together and comparing various messages of various origins and combining it with information acquired through direct observation and character interactions, the player could eventually come to see the undercurrent of what is really happening. And then take advantage of it.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by travists »

Deus Siddis wrote: Asteroid, debris and mine fields. Besides other "units" these are the only physical objects you can interact with in space and the only detailed passive environment there. The only spaceborne equivalent to mountains, rivers, trees, silt traps and the many other features of terrestrial navigation.
I have encountered an asteroid field. Also, this is mostly placing lower poly objects in an area. I think this is the easiest one to tackle. What needs to happen to get this running?
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by Deus Siddis »

travists wrote: I have encountered an asteroid field. Also, this is mostly placing lower poly objects in an area. I think this is the easiest one to tackle. What needs to happen to get this running?
Well asteroid fields, like all of those things I listed, is actually a compound feature. It's a grouping of complimentary individual engine features that together creates a solid experience and game mechanic. So for actual implementation, it might be better to break it down into a list of independent programming tasks.

I think such a list might look like this (klauss and safemode basically know for sure though):

1) Fully refactor unit class or break asteroid into its own class or create new asteroid code from scratch.
2) Write new dynamic asteroid belt spawning code (to create a ring of asteroids orbiting a distance from the sun).
3) SPEC is affected by distance from individual asteroids or the complex (flattened torus) belt shape times density.
4) Visible dust and micrometeorite collisions.
6) Spawn special bases, mining/salvage operations and lost/forgotten relics within fields.
7) AIs handle asteroid belts with strategic intelligence (when to go or build there).
8) AIs handle asteroid belts with tactical intelligence (what to do while in there).

The above would probably best be implemented in that order. Debris and Mine fields would largely reuse the above features too, methinks.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by travists »

Sounds reasonable to me. I really think lower polly would be best for all but the largest of asteroids, because there are likely to be hundreds if not thousands of them visible at any given time. A bonus to a toroid asteroid belt is that it can be scaled for use as planetary rings. Talk about a navigation hazard! The basic mechanic can certainly be reused for all fields, but content and shape would differ.

The most logical method of placing a minefield would be to release the mines out the back of your minelayer while traveling perpendicular to the path you want to mine. Therefore, minefields would be cylindrical. Though, a splatter pattern may be achieved by deploying a mine package at the center of an area and the mines spread out from there. I am not finding much in the wiki about mines (in this sense), but how they work in Wing Commander is that they are either magnetic, or have limited tracking and maneuvering capabilities. Thus clustering around ships foolish enough to enter the field.

The mutual gravity of debris numerous enough to keep from drifting apart immediately should pull it into a rough sphere. There would need to be a "space salvage" cargo item similar to recycled electronics, and perhaps the occasional working cannon or other upgrade. A twist to the debris field is a "ship's graveyard". The wiki references a nano-plage that disrupts tech, could there be some kind of generator or natural phenomenon that can disable ships, leaving you without sensors and on maneuvering jet/RCS thruster power to find enough functioning parts to get out of there!
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by klauss »

travists wrote:A twist to the debris field is a "ship's graveyard". The wiki references a nano-plage that disrupts tech, could there be some kind of generator or natural phenomenon that can disable ships, leaving you without sensors and on maneuvering jet/RCS thruster power to find enough functioning parts to get out of there!
That sounds like fun.
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by Rattan »

A lot of these ideas sound really neat for possibilities of things that can happen while enroute from one location to another. I've thought more than once that the game could use a bit more activity on the sometimes long hauls.

I'm not a fan of things like time compression, for the most part. When I play VegaStrike, I'm mostly looking to fly around in space. If I take off from a planet with a heavily loaded plowshare, I expect it to take me a while to get to where I'm going, even if it is in-system. If the flight is over in a minute or something like that, then it loses all illusion of feeling real and the game changes into something that would be maybe better played on a spreadsheet than needing good graphics, Frame rates and sound.

I've never seen Vegastrike as being like an arcade game, where it would be an action packed 5 min to entice a player to spend another coin to play again as they try for a high score. It's about long journeys to far-away places. It doesn't really bother me if it takes twenty minutes or half an hour hour to make a big cargo run. When you're on course and doing a haul, listen to some music or do a bit of light reading, make a snack, or whatever. Keeping an ear out for alerts and messages, checking the view to see if there's anything of interest or that looks suspicious while the clock ticks away is part of the game.

Not to say that that it wouldn't be very cool to have more going on. Maybe checking status of engines or something and there could be some adjustment needed there now and then (more often when damaged or if it's been a long time since you've had the ship serviced), an SOS where you have to decide if it's worth it to respond and if you'll have to dump cargo to be able to get up enough speed to get there in time, some mysterious unknown type of signal that may or may not be a part of some new adventure.. It could be really good.

But I see the scenery and the spaceflight "model" as strong points of Vegastrike as a game. Moving the game along too fast wastes the effect. I didn't start playing this game to just get rich fast or collect all the biggest ships. I agree in viewing it as a space sim with some sci-fi/fantasy elements. If it takes a few minutes to get to a bounty hunting target or more minutes to do a cargo run, that should be a good thing. Things get fast enough when you get into a fight. LOL
greenfreedom10
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by greenfreedom10 »

Yes, Rattan! I agree with your comments about realistic time simulation. And I have spoken against time compression for those reasons, and consequently as an unnecessary feature that complicates time management in game code. But as an extra feature, I am not adamant against it with the current game speeds removed.

Also, when playing VegaStrike, the simulation itself is fun (like you say "flying around in space"), rather than simply upgrade-upgrade-upgrade, like many other games (RPG levelup-levelup-levelup). I think this is a significant success in game design!
Deus Siddis
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Re: What to do while in space

Post by Deus Siddis »

There's fairly easy ways fix or improve the things you folks are bringing up and more:


Balance change:
* Decrease thruster and RCS accelerations by say 10 fold, remove auto aim. (Upgrades less important, human skill more important.)

Counter balancing changes:
* Increase SPEC velocity modifier by say 10 fold. (Travel time the same, but more actual flying, less auto-piloting.)
* Decrease station and heavy vessel scale 10 fold. (Acceleration looks and feels just as fast outside of dogfights.)
* Increase universe simulation change rate. (Time compression unnecessary.)

* Decrease cargo hold volumes. (Overladen transports no longer slow and uncontrollable.)

Counter-counter balancing change:
* Increase trade item price divergences. (Trade is just as profitable with less payload.)


Balance change:
Make SPEC deep space proximity-interception possible again.

Counter balancing changes:
* Traffic sparser again. (Travel not excessively interrupted by NPC flybys).
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