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[Flare]

About customizing ships - refer to my previous post. In short, you can choose weapons and hull mods (such as engine/reactor/shield upgrades). And you get to pick a couple of officers for the ship. You can't actually design a new hull, unless you draw one and mod it in.

About that, how far are you going to let people mod this?

[alexm]

Interesting game. How complex is the damage model in combat? Can a single engine blow off a ship, reducing the speed? Can life support go down, leaving a nearly intact derelict, etc?

There's location-based armor (can see it on the schematics on the HUD in the video, and it's status is reflected by damage decals on the ship's hull). Being able to blow up weapons etc I'm still undecided on - it sounds like great fun, but the details of how it plays out are tricky. To your last point, ships mostly do leave behind derelicts already - your ability to salvage/repair those effectively will likely depend on a skill.  It takes a good deal more damage to actually destroy a ship than it does to take it out of commission.  These disabled hulks float around in battle, providing impromptu terrain.

Albeit, from experience... 'other' AI tend to have unlimited money or some such crutch popping out of nowhere to help them along...

I'll just say that I hate when the AI does that as much as you do.

When you say you have to assign administrators, how much veto power will you have when they make the, inevitable, opposite choice to what you want to do?

I love the more power = less control concept. In some games you have to capture/build as much bases and possible, and it makes all the pretty and lovely (in the beginning) micromanagement into a terrible routine. However if the micromanagement is limited with the growth of your "empire" and turns into a macromanagement at some point, it's awesome.

Also I hope that there will be a chance to "win" it by not growing too large too, sometimes I want to play a conquer and plunder type of game, and sometimes I want to play a "my home is my fortress" game type.

Yes, that's exactly where I'm coming from.  I love MoO2 for example, but optimal colony management becomes a nightmare past a certain point... and turning on auto-build can be a bit aggravating when it doesn't do the right stuff.  I'm hoping that by making it impossible to micro-manage beyond a certain point, that feeling will go away - you can't take over, so you're not being suboptimal - and the AI's decisions will just become part of the cost of growing bigger. And you can always fire them

What a "win" means is still up in the air and will be for quite some time.

Oh that would be completely within your power to do. I do a lot of work with steam (the company I work for uses them) and it's basically up to the developer. You could quite easily charge through your site and provide steam valid keys for all your sales although they would probably get a little miffed after a while, but they allow people to buy through both steam and not steam and still have the product activated with them.

Thank you for the info - that's great!

Will there be carrier vessels?

Will traveling long distance involve using jumpgates or creating artificial jumpholes?

Oh, yes, there will be carriers. In fact, they already exist, and are very powerful. Rather, they make fighters very powerful.

Re: traveling - that may be a late-game high tech option, but overall, no.

About that, how far are you going to let people mod this?

New ships and weapons, certainly. A different star map. Most likely AI and custom weapon behavior. It also really depends on what people actually want to do with it.


Thank you for your support, guys - it's really cool to see all the interest!

[inteuniso]

Don't go with "Conquer the Galaxy" as being the only win condition, if you please. I would prefer Retirement as an option. Also, if you were a bounty hunter or Pirate hunter, perhaps have a sting against you and kill you?

Go by the "Losing is Fun" mantra. If you build up too big of a faction, make sure it is extremely hard to keep it from falling apart. If you kill a lot of pirates, make sure they unite to hunt you down. There are so many loss conditions, that they could be just as fun as win conditions.

[Taricus]

Posting to watch.

[Mofouler]

This game seriously has me in its clutches. Next pay check im deff preordering. Some questions though will other ai make outpost and form Empires? Like for instance are there different factions or races? Or is everyone human?

[BuriBuriZaemon]

Thanks Alex for the answers. I will definitely pre-order this. I will bombard you with more questions because I am curious by nature. 

I am wondering what plan do you have for support vessels. Will there be electronic warfare (i.e. jamming device rendering the supported fleet invisible from radar until a certain distance or electromagnetic discharge to temporarily disable enemy's targeting systems or engines)? What about repair and salvage vessels to fix your damaged capital ships on the go?

Does the ships require fuel (energy cells?), food ration, or ammunition (missiles and ballistic weapons need restocking) to run? If they do, will there be resupply vessels?

Actually I am getting all these ideas from Sword of the Stars. Not sure if you have played it before but it allows the player to custom-design their spacecrafts too.

[alexm]

Don't go with "Conquer the Galaxy" as being the only win condition, if you please. I would prefer Retirement as an option. Also, if you were a bounty hunter or Pirate hunter, perhaps have a sting against you and kill you?

Go by the "Losing is Fun" mantra. If you build up too big of a faction, make sure it is extremely hard to keep it from falling apart. If you kill a lot of pirates, make sure they unite to hunt you down. There are so many loss conditions, that they could be just as fun as win conditions.

We're thinking along the same lines, here.  In fact, the whole sector is in a downward spiral, giving the entire game an overarching "losing is fun" theme.  Rather, losing better be fun, since I expect a majority of games to end with a total collapse of civilization - so if that's not a fun process, that would be a problem

Some questions though will other ai make outpost and form Empires? Like for instance are there different factions or races? Or is everyone human?

The are many different AI factions, (almost) all human. They start out with significant holdings, and are in conflict with each other frequently, providing you with ample opportunity to exploit the shifting political landscape. The most prominent among those is the Hegemony, a stodgy bureaucracy in a steady decline, that nonetheless holds a significant portion of the core worlds and fields some of the largest (if not technologically impressive) fleets in the sector.  You, on the other hand, start out with a single ship.

Thanks Alex for the answers. I will definitely pre-order this. I will bombard you with more questions because I am curious by nature. 

Fire away

I am wondering what plan do you have for support vessels. Will there be electronic warfare (i.e. jamming device rendering the supported fleet invisible from radar until a certain distance or electromagnetic discharge to temporarily disable enemy's targeting systems or engines)? What about repair and salvage vessels to fix your damaged capital ships on the go?

Does the ships require fuel (energy cells?), food ration, or ammunition (missiles and ballistic weapons need restocking) to run? If they do, will there be resupply vessels?

Actually I am getting all these ideas from Sword of the Stars. Not sure if you have played it before but it allows the player to custom-design their spacecrafts too.

Haven't played Sword of the Stars.

A "Construcion Rig" is in the works - it's a ship that can either repair ships mid-battle, or just lets you perform more effective repairs while away from an outpost. There are some plans for electronic warfare type stuff and cloaking, but I don't want to say too much about it now.

Ships will need fuel and supplies. Supplies will be abstracted to a certain point (so you're not actually forced to do the job of a logistics officer for a large fleet!). As far as supply ships, every ship can carry some cargo, but freighters can carry a good deal more for their size, and there will be tankers (for fuel) as well. A large fleet with combat-focused ships will need to have some freighters and tankers if it's to get very far, while a smaller fleet with more versatile ships can get along without those.

[Gabeux]

Ha, I get away from my PC for some days and the dev comes here and give all this nice info 

Thanks for the replies alexm, I'm looking forward to preordering too.
I'm also liking what you guys are planning.

I just wanted to ask how far the game get's into the RTS/Building part.
You can make your faction, but will this mean there will be civilian/independent trading ships flying around in your sectors/planets/outposts, and AI military ships built by your administrators?

I'm not sure if this is in the scope for the game, I just wanted to know how the player-faction part will play out. But maybe it's too early to ask, heh.

[Flare]

Don't go with "Conquer the Galaxy" as being the only win condition, if you please. I would prefer Retirement as an option. Also, if you were a bounty hunter or Pirate hunter, perhaps have a sting against you and kill you?

Go by the "Losing is Fun" mantra. If you build up too big of a faction, make sure it is extremely hard to keep it from falling apart. If you kill a lot of pirates, make sure they unite to hunt you down. There are so many loss conditions, that they could be just as fun as win conditions.

We're thinking along the same lines, here.  In fact, the whole sector is in a downward spiral, giving the entire game an overarching "losing is fun" theme.  Rather, losing better be fun, since I expect a majority of games to end with a total collapse of civilization - so if that's not a fun process, that would be a problem

Are you planning anything once everything inevitably falls apart that the game at that point begins a process of rebuilding? Kinda like an ingame late game part reset?

A "Construcion Rig" is in the works - it's a ship that can either repair ships mid-battle, or just lets you perform more effective repairs while away from an outpost. There are some plans for electronic warfare type stuff and cloaking, but I don't want to say too much about it now.

Any mobile factories for those of us who have womb envy ?

[Mofouler]

That sounds amazing. Will there be diplomatic options with these factions aswell. For instance lets Hedgemoney is against *Insert faction name here* and I decide to attack the faction that hedgemoney hates? Will they start to have a more friendly attitude towards me. Also you mentioned missions. Will the rewards be only money based or will ships be used as rewards? Also how do you get other ships? Do you build them at your outpost or are they bought from other factions?

[alexm]

Are you planning anything once everything inevitably falls apart that the game at that point begins a process of rebuilding? Kinda like an ingame late game part reset?
Any mobile factories for those of us who have womb envy ?

That's a very interesting idea. Going to be quite some time before it gets to to that point, but... hmm.  Re: mobile factories - maybe The idea is all kinds of cool, but probably not core enough to end up high on the priority list.

That sounds amazing. Will there be diplomatic options with these factions aswell. For instance lets Hedgemoney is against *Insert faction name here* and I decide to attack the faction that hedgemoney hates? Will they start to have a more friendly attitude towards me. Also you mentioned missions. Will the rewards be only money based or will ships be used as rewards? Also how do you get other ships? Do you build them at your outpost or are they bought from other factions?

No specifics on diplomacy yet, except that I do want it to be an axis you can use to influence the world. All these higher-level ideas we've been talking about are going to be viewed through the lens of "does it help make the world more malleable by the player".

For ships, the idea is that you can both buy and make them.  Likely buy in the early game, and make later as you get the capacity to do that - if you even choose to go that far down the industrial route.

I just wanted to ask how far the game get's into the RTS/Building part.
You can make your faction, but will this mean there will be civilian/independent trading ships flying around in your sectors/planets/outposts, and AI military ships built by your administrators?

I'm not sure if this is in the scope for the game, I just wanted to know how the player-faction part will play out. But maybe it's too early to ask, heh.

That's the plan, but yeah, it's a bit early. To put it in perspective, as I think I mentioned before, the first version coming out is focused entirely on combat. So, very little about the higher-level game is actually set in stone.

[Desdichado]

There's location-based armor (can see it on the schematics on the HUD in the video, and it's status is reflected by damage decals on the ship's hull). Being able to blow up weapons etc I'm still undecided on - it sounds like great fun, but the details of how it plays out are tricky.

Disabling engines, guns, shield generators and other external and internal systems individually adds quite a bit to a game like this. GSB, for example, or that Stars Wars game. Hope you consider it. It's always fun to focus on blasting the engines of a fleeing freighter and board it, or take down the shield generator of a capital ship, heh.

About that, how far are you going to let people mod this?

New ships and weapons, certainly. A different star map. Most likely AI and custom weapon behavior. It also really depends on what people actually want to do with it.

Good call on modding the AI. AI quality can make or break a single-player game like this. Player tweaks can help with that. 


Can you damage a foe's infrastructure so badly that he forgets tech advances? EFS allowed this loss of research when destroying labs, and it was quite fun to bomb rivals back to the stone age.

[Mkombat]

You guys are way better at asking questions, posting to keep my eye on it though. My friend and I may be preordering this soon.

[Mofouler]

Yeah I have to agree this guy really is an honest Dev by answering all our questions.

Back to more questions and this one may not be ingame yet. But I remember you saying defensive fleets. Now will players be able to build defensive structures such as static defense? Maybe turrents that sit in space around your assets.
And how far will the outpost building actually go. Will it go into colonies? and having to supply it with resources and management? Or is just only mining operations?

[BuriBuriZaemon]

AlexM, Sword of the Stars is a turn-based 4X game similar to GalCiv and the likes but it is much more focused on ship customization and combat (the planet management aspect is very streamlined). The vessels in this game have a lot of different roles, which would I feel should work as well in the real-time environment Starfarer offers. I would suggest to find some videos on YouTube to get an idea of the game's features and various ship roles. Who knows it might lead to new ideas to be integrated into your current ones.