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[TolyK]

OPEN SPACE: Star Fleet.

Most of you might be guessing where this is going.
It's not that way.

(**PLEASE NOTE: THIS GAME IS CURRENTLY IN THE PLANNING PHASE AND MAY STAY THAT WAY FOR A WHILE. DON'T EXPECT IT IN A YEAR OR TWO.**)[/i]

It's the 27th (?) century and humans have spread over the galaxy. Hyper-atomic motors are yet to be seen, but sustainable nuclear fusion and electronic-powered space engines have allowed near-light speed travel. Technology levels have risen since the leap in the 21st century, but basic weapons have remained the same.

Early in colonial expansion planetary governments claimed dominance of star systems and clusters, bringing on tensions which slowly increased over time.

Now, these tensions have boiled over.

*****

This is going to be an online 3D FPS/Simulation of a fighter game. There will be "normal" weapons, such as machineguns, automatic cannons, rockets. there will also be high-tech weapons, such as lasers and railguns/gauss, that are actually not terribly "good".

Armor will be very high, survivability is very high, tactics must be used well.

The spaceships themselves can be highly customized. if any of you have played a MechWarrior game, you know basically what I mean.
Weapons can be mounted only in special locations, such as high-energy-consuming weapons (*cough*lasers*cough*) can only be mounted in spots with contacts and wiring for such high energy draw.
Energy, reactor/fuselage/cabin heat, ammo, etc. are taken into account here.

"Flight" physics will be taken into account, so no instant 100 throttle.

This is actually basically a mix of MMORPG, FPS, and Simulator.

Thoughts?

[MrWiggles]

If its 600 years in the future, why is Nuclear Fission still being used? Where are the Fusion Reactors or anti-mater reactors?

If its NLS, then interstellar travel is still an LSD crack fueled dream. The distances are still just to great to make it meaningful or practical. Certainly, not for any common place travel.

How come in 600 years Railguns and Gauss weapons aren't still very good? Most of their issues should go away with the introduction of room temp super conductors.

Why are the laser High Energy Consuming? High Energy Consuming, is relative to how much energy can be generated, if you can accelerate to NLS (I'm taking it as the most energy consuming activity), are firing laser really that energy consuming?
---
Please define tactics.
What is it simulating?
Please define Flight Physics.

[Makrond]

My thoughts?


What experience, if any, have you had in game design, software design or programming in general? Have you ever written netcode before? What is your budget? Will the development team just be you, or are you looking for people to help you? Do you have a detailed design document either written down somewhere or in your brain in such a way that it can easily be written down somewhere? You say not to expect it in a couple years - can you give me a rough guide of how long you intend to spend on things like backstory, gameplay design, storyboarding, etc etc?

[Captain Mayday]

Alright, I see a lot of these kinds of topics getting posted about projects that, unsurprisingly, never make it into existence.
Despite this, I'm still going to post on the assumption that you are actually serious about this. Please understand that the following criticisms are intended to be constructive. I don't want to come off as sounding like I'm stating that your idea is dumb.

1. The Setting
Honestly the setting seems incredibly bland. "Humans spread throughout the galaxy, now they're fighting each other" is just about as generic as "Humans spread throughout the galaxy, now they're fighting each other as well as a new alien race."
In all seriousness, the galaxy is big. Really big. Enormously huge, even. In 600 years I doubt we could even populate an appreciable fraction of it. I understand that large settings are 'in' these days, but the only way I can see you being able to fill this is by procedurally generating the vast majority of it, thus creating bland 'everywhere is basically the same as everywhere else' that exists in real space, but rarely exists in fictional space.
In short: Setting needs a lot of work to be interesting. I suggest you check out some of the fiction writer's resource aids on the web, they should be of help in laying out your setting properly.

2. So... this is going to be like EVE Online? Except your spaceship works more like a mech from mechwarrior? This is how I'm reading this.
I'll break this apart a bit at a time.
MMO - Hard to do! To properly run an MMO of the caliber you are suggesting takes a lot of startup capital.  I'm not even going to go into the fact that you really need a team of people to get this kind of thing off the ground to begin with... although...
Coders - Are you the only one? What about modellers, texturers, sound-effects guys, and so on? If you're going to make this work, you need a team of people. I don't want to sound like an asshole here but if you're running a project here, your best bet is to have something to show off before telling people about your idea and making promises. People will be more inclined to join your project if they can see there is a main driving force behind it, and that stuff is going to actually get done.
You also need a plan.
The Plan - A project plan that is. You need to write it up, in detail. This means details about how each aspect of the game will function, details about every object that's going to be in the game. It's basically an enormous to-do list stapled onto the back of a detailed game concept. By having a plan like this, and sticking to it, you minimise the prospect of feature creep - a real danger on any project.
Gameplay - You need to determine how the game is intended to play. Are you going to go a route similar to EVE and allow players to establish their own factions? Or will you have existing factions like governments and semi-detached groups like pirates available? The game currently sounds like you intend it to be heavily combat based, so you need to figure out reasons for folks to fight each other.
You say that tactics will be very important, and that survivability and armor will both be very high and weapons are going to be rubbish. If tactics are important, what do the latter promise except to possibly draw out conflicts? Speaking of which, in space (which is empty), what kind of tactics are you suggesting be used?

I'm sure that I've missed some stuff that others may pick up on, but the sum of my suggestions is: Right now all you've got a very general outline for a game, with a very generalised plot. If you're going to move ahead with the project, you need to improve all of the above (at least), or it just won't work.

[TolyK]

*NOTE: THIS THREAD IS MOSTLY TO GATHER IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS FROM THE COMMUNITY. AND CONCERNS ABOUT THE GAME TOO.*

Nuclear fission is not being used. See here:

Hyper-atomic motors are yet to be seen, but sustainable nuclear fusion and electronic-powered space engines have allowed near-light speed travel.

Yeah, I guess "jumps" would be impossible... gotta rethink that.

Gauss/railgun: they are good, but not one-hit-kill weapons.

It's high energy comparing to KE(kinetic energy)/ballistic (a.k.a. ammo-based, non-accelerated) weapons.
There is enough for jumps, but continuous use of lasers will take some energy away. The problem is that you can't jump after firing laz0rz too long.
---
Tactics are real-time maneuvers and positioning of units. You've gotta say, "Okay I'll hit his turret to take it out" or "Cockpit is wide open, let's go for that!"

It's simulating space conditions, such as actual acceleration, intertia, kickback from large KE weapons, etc.
*****

What experience, if any, have you had in game design, software design or programming in general?
Medium, medium-low, medium.
Have you ever written netcode before?
Nope, but I have a friend who can do it.
What is your budget?
This might sound funny, but as close to $0 as possible. For graphics we're probably going to use OpenGL, though if looks bad it does the job and works on basically all systems.
Will the development team just be you, or are you looking for people to help you?
I've got friends.
Do you have a detailed design document either written down somewhere or in your brain in such a way that it can easily be written down somewhere?
It's in my head, I'm writing it down. It's actually partly based off the Battletech universe...
You say not to expect it in a couple years - can you give me a rough guide of how long you intend to spend on things like backstory, gameplay design, storyboarding, etc etc?
A while. I'm wanting to hone my skills a bit, and we're gonna start building the planet database for the game now because it's gonna be pretty big.

answers in bold in the quote above

Alright, I see a lot of these kinds of topics getting posted about projects that, unsurprisingly, never make it into existence. Yeah, that stuff sucks. I really hope this won't end this way...
Despite this, I'm still going to post on the assumption that you are actually serious about this. Please understand that the following criticisms are intended to be constructive. I don't want to come off as sounding like I'm stating that your idea is dumb. No offense taken. Why else would I be posting here?

1. The Setting
Honestly the setting seems incredibly bland. I wrote it generic 'cause I haven't gotten it out of my head yet. I've left out major details too. "Humans spread throughout the galaxy, now they're fighting each other" is just about as generic as "Humans spread throughout the galaxy, now they're fighting each other as well as a new alien race." Yah.
In all seriousness, the galaxy is big. Really big. Enormously huge, even. In 600 years I doubt we could even populate an appreciable fraction of it. I understand that large settings are 'in' these days, but the only way I can see you being able to fill this is by procedurally generating the vast majority of it, thus creating bland 'everywhere is basically the same as everywhere else' that exists in real space, but rarely exists in fictional space. Actually there are going to be few habitable planets. Just like in real life. People continue to expand, but the fight for resources has started already.
In short: Setting needs a lot of work to be interesting. I suggest you check out some of the fiction writer's resource aids on the web, they should be of help in laying out your setting properly.

I've read loads of Asimov. Very good actually. Basically, I've got an idea and haven't worked out words and symbols for it.

2. So... this is going to be like EVE Online? Except your spaceship works more like a mech from mechwarrior? This is how I'm reading this.
Kinda.
I'll break this apart a bit at a time.
MMO - Hard to do! To properly run an MMO of the caliber you are suggesting takes a lot of startup capital.  I'm not even going to go into the fact that you really need a team of people to get this kind of thing off the ground to begin with... although...
Yeah, it's hard. Maybe not MMO at first, but some player vs player game because AI writing really sucks 

Coders - Are you the only one? What about modellers, texturers, sound-effects guys, and so on? If you're going to make this work, you need a team of people. I don't want to sound like an asshole here but if you're running a project here, your best bet is to have something to show off before telling people about your idea and making promises. People will be more inclined to join your project if they can see there is a main driving force behind it, and that stuff is going to actually get done.
As I said, group of friends so far. We're in the deep planning stage. We've got some of those positions down.

You also need a plan.
The Plan - A project plan that is. You need to write it up, in detail. This means details about how each aspect of the game will function, details about every object that's going to be in the game. It's basically an enormous to-do list stapled onto the back of a detailed game concept. By having a plan like this, and sticking to it, you minimise the prospect of feature creep - a real danger on any project.
That is definately true. I've seen some projects just murdered by that.
...
Which is why I'm making this kind of a list right now in the planning stage.

Gameplay - You need to determine how the game is intended to play. Are you going to go a route similar to EVE and allow players to establish their own factions? No, unless there's popular demand. Or will you have existing factions like governments and semi-detached groups like pirates available? Yes. Quite a few governments actually, several of whom are allied. There will be lots of conflicts, not "Good" and "evil" at all. Plus mercenaries and pirates to balance it out. The game currently sounds like you intend it to be heavily combat based, so you need to figure out reasons for folks to fight each other. That has already gone partially in. It's partially beliefs, partially resources, partially just defense, some going for money, some for the "greater good", and so on. Just like the real, current world.

You say that tactics will be very important, and that survivability and armor will both be very high and weapons are going to be rubbish. If tactics are important, what do the latter promise except to possibly draw out conflicts? Speaking of which, in space (which is empty), what kind of tactics are you suggesting be used?
It doesn't make sense for people to send a weapon of (mass) destruction which can easily be destroyed itself? Just "pew-pew" and it goes "kaboom"? Or would you try and protect your asset and give it maximum armor?
Tactics, such as general ones (hit-and-run) and game-specific (hiding in asteroid fields to prevent easy detection, for example) will give one side the upper hand. Coordination is absolutely necessary. Consider this scenario:
A (coordinated) : Focus-fires on a carrier to deal most damage.
B (uncoordinated) : Tries to swat every "fly" that comes, every man for himself
Obviously A would win this encounter due to correct movement. The increased armor levels allow more enjoyability of the game for poorer pilots and keep factions alive longer. Insanely stupid mistakes will still kill you (hey anyone out there? *ambushed in plain sight*), and smaller mistakes will still make you lose in the end (getting armor repaired, losing a strategic location, etc.)

Space is nearly empty, but around pockets of "civilized" space there is still debris, particles, planetoids, etc. In places with cover, you use that. In truly empty space, formation ("high-armor shielders in front!"), movement, and weapons loadouts will factor.


I'm sure that I've missed some stuff that others may pick up on, but the sum of my suggestions is: Right now all you've got a very general outline for a game, with a very generalised plot. If you're going to move ahead with the project, you need to improve all of the above (at least), or it just won't work.
... and we are still in the planning phase

Yes, we're still planning. We want as many ideas and suggestions as possible.
This isn't all about money either

[Captain Mayday]

I'm glad to see you've got more going on that the opening post suggested then.

The design document is definitely the most important thing you'll have going on right now, then. It will let you know how much stuff there is to do, and it will let you manage the project much better.
Be sure to divide it up into stages, so that the work doesn't seem overwhelming. That way you'll have a sense of progression in your work. It's also a good way to establish a timeline for the project, so at no point will you be putting the cart before the horse.

[TolyK]

Thanks for the support.