Tactical game

[Iain]

What are the chances of VS becoming a tactical game on top of what it currently is (ie, one can choose either).
When I say a tactical game, I mean a game where one can take command of a fleet and use it to do battle at a fleet level with an opponent.

[klauss]

Isn't piArmada something like that?
Perhaps you should check it out.

[Shark]

Being able to temporarily "step outside" your ship (purely visual) and issue orders to your wingmen would be nice.

[Iain]

Isn't piArmada something like that?
Perhaps you should check it out.

Something like that, except with Vega Strike and not turn based. I think it could be done by rewriting the current wingman AI and by assigning a large fleet as your wingmen. I would love to be able to issue a command to a fleet of cloaked Kahans to tell them to come up behind a fleet of Vitiks, decloak, and let loose a nice volley of torps.

[Beowulf]

You mean like Homeworld?

[Shark]

Some other "tactical" games that feature third-person ship controls include:

1) Imperium Galactica series.
2) Nexus: The Jupiter Incident (originally intended a sequel to #1).
3) Star Wolves series (the one who I think VS should most closely model in terms of concept).
4) I believe Microsoft's Allegiance has a mix of third- and first-person gameplay depending on which role you choose (commander, fighter, etc.).

These games are also fun, so I would support such a feature.

There are several options on how the feature could be made available to players:

1) The feature is globally turned on/off by the mod designer.
2) The feature is enabled/disabled depending on the class of ship being piloted.
3) The player has the option to switch in/out of third-/first-person view at any time.
4) The feature is reserved for players who have achieved a certain rank within the game.
5) The feature is reserved for players who have installed certain equipment.
6) The feature is reserved for players who have assumed specific combat "roles", ala Allegiance.
7) A very limited form of the feature could be implemented, whereby players only have access to the most basic of controls (such as long range sensors or route planning). Further, turning on SPEC could automatically switch players to this viewpoint.

These options aren't necessarily mutually exclusive; i.e. they could be mixed and matched in various ways.

Further, this feature could be augmented with the addition of RPG characteristics, such as stats or proficiencies in certain areas (as in the Star Wolves series).

[Deus Siddis]

Much of the code and unit design is already there to do this, it is just a matter of improving it so that acquiring and using a fleet is more straightforward.

Already hired escorts and cargo escorts will fight on your side, but hired escorts are expensive and temporary and cargo escorts require a mothership with enough payload capacity and tractor beams to manually pull them in (which is not exactly a very user-friendly or micromanagment-light way of having your birds return to the nest).

Fortunately all that is needed to really improve player fleet gameplay is:

1) Ships the player has bought beyond his flagship automatically fly with him as escorts.

2) Improved upgrades interface where all ships in the fleet are listed and can be selected and then parts of them can be added/removed, all from the same screen.

2) Simple commander interface whereby player can issue orders to individual or all escorts to follow him, search and destroy hostile targets, attack his selected target, flee to safety or rearm and repair.