So this forum is also about brainstorming, or so the description would have me believe! I don't see much of that here, so I'm going to try.
As some of you may know, I released a map a while ago called VoidCraft. It's a battleships type affair where you customise hardpoints on a larger chassis and shoot other people's creations. The map was in it's very early stages and I had to take it down, despite it's success, because as much as I love mapping, real life and other things were stealing me away.
But this thread isn't about VoidCraft. I just want to ask the community an open ended question. Both as a bit of fun and as a source of potential ideas for both myself and anyone creating a map of similar specifications.
What makes an epic space game?
This can be anything. Certain weapons, certain playstyles, what makes the battles feel epic, what makes the experience feel epic, anything.
I think a good space game has exploration and lots of random elements. Not knowing what may jump out of hyperspace or pop out of an asteroid kinda stuff...
Also massive customization is lots of fun. Tooling engines, shields, hull, weapons, that's the sort of stuff when i think of a good space game. A good damage system also helps breath life into the game, shields going down, engines blowing out.
There's tons of potential for unique fun space gameplay elements. You can try some of 'em out in the map i made, which i too was pulled away from early ;)
Personally, I like explosions, good music tracks, cool superweapons, and the scale has to be just right. Starbattle is OK, just not amazing. If only there was a spacebattle with a City of Tempest feel :) I love the idea of a third person shooter space game. Imagine a viking taking of INSIDE a battlecruiser. Space battles need turrets, and lots of them. if there is empty randomness anywhere, it was done wrong. I like yours, but you really should have made the flagship's range longer.
I think a good space game has exploration and lots of random elements. Not knowing what may jump out of hyperspace or pop out of an asteroid kinda stuff...
Also massive customization is lots of fun. Tooling engines, shields, hull, weapons, that's the sort of stuff when i think of a good space game. A good damage system also helps breath life into the game, shields going down, engines blowing out.
There's tons of potential for unique fun space gameplay elements. You can try some of 'em out in the map i made, which i too was pulled away from early ;)
Oh I love explosions. I think exploration is a difficult one to pin down in a game like sc2, there's only so much joy to be had in exploring one, tiny map. I think any successful space genre game will have to have a large element of random map generation.
I seriously must have spent more time tinkering with the scale of things more than anything else. Making space feel vast but not boring, making the capital ships seem huge by comparison but tiny compared to space, making the fighters look convincingly tiny while making their models visible. I agree wholeheartedly with this, scale is what keeps me up at night! Making space not feel empty is another huge one, one I've been wrestling with a lot and found no real solution.
- Lots of customization.
- Powerful abilities that needs the player to use them properly in order to impact the enemy, for example linear attacks or slow seeking nukes.
- Meteorites, black holes, ... that makes you interact with the enviroment.
- ...
-like everyone else says: utter and complete customization
-giant spaceships with giant guns =D
-lazer beams
-mini fleets
-superior use of tactics over button mashing
When I see space battles I see you're one ship, part of the huge fleet. War is going on everywhere and you somehow are surviving through all this only to encounter your opponent and it becomes who can outmaneuver who and who gets the final shot off. I also imagine battles kind of like Star Wars Ep III because that was probably the first space warfare I ever saw.
Lots of AI players to control the other fighters to keep a war going on with all hell breaking loose. The ships are about the same with few customizations and the better pilot wins.
Also Sins of the Solar Empire is another game I look at when I think space battle.
The average SC2 Player has an apm of 80. could think about 2 different things (micro macro) at the same time.
Could excute a build perfectly, with the exact timing.
Abaut void craft i must say, your skill with attachment was OP.
But the game is too easy, I need an apm of 10 for that.
Just farm and upgrade is not enough, and u can't OWN noobs in a OP way.
There is no pro in that game, and noobs will not become pros. Because they never get owned.
I only play games, where I got owned in the first 5 times.
Even if a player is pro, he should never have 100% chance to win.
Because he will give up and play othr player.
This question is hard as " how to make a popular game" ...
The average SC2 Player has an apm of 80. could think about 2 different
things (micro macro) at the same time. Could excute a build perfectly,
with the exact timing.
Abaut void craft i must say, your skill with attachment was OP. But the
game is too easy, I need an apm of 10 for that.
Just farm and upgrade is not enough, and u can't OWN noobs in a OP way.
There is no pro in that game, and noobs will not become pros. Because
they never get owned.
I only play games, where I got owned in the first 5 times. Even if a
player is pro, he should never have 100% chance to win.
Because he will give up and play othr player.
This question is hard as " how to make a popular game" ...
LOTS of projectiles at once (standard missiles, bullets + flashy ones. Just LOTS of them)
Big explosions
Massive amounts of fighters per ship. There should be one capital ship and at least 100 fighters with it, might be a bit too much for a map, but i think 30 per ship should be fine. There just has to be a swarm of fighters
Collisions. Asteroid, other ships, whatever
Smaller ships to accompany the large ones
Hyperspace/warp jumps
space "weather" like things: Nebulas, electric storms, black holes...
I think that's most of it. Now, for voidcraft in particular, remember that chat we had when you first had the idea? before we filmed that vid? I think that would make it a really great space game. Catch me on skype if you want to discuss it again or me to remind you what that was. I might have some ideas that i didnt mention before... Also, as i always tell you, if you want a hand with that map, i'll help.
I personally like scale. Start small, and become HUGE.
Customization is also great.
I must say, that VoidCraft video makes me want to scrap my project and start a space game like it :D looked epic
From a more practical/technical side of things, am I the only one here who somehow believes dynamic map generation and huge universes are still possible within the SC2 engine?
Eiviyn, you say there's only so much joy in exploring one tiny SC2 map. I agree. What if you could pack several hundreds, or even thousands, or smaller blocks within the same space?
See, this is the advantage of space games. They're modular (or easy to make so) by nature. All you need is one big "empty" area made of just that, space, and then place objects within it (stars, stations, asteroids, planets, ships, nebulae, etc.). What I'm thinking is that you could just divide one giant map into subsections, and have the contents of those subsections and their relative positions saved somewhere until you actually need to display or access that section, where you just load it and place its contents on a pre-arranged visualizing area. Thus, you still have a map that is technically 256x256 or even smaller in SC2's terms, but can have the game take place over a virtual playing field that would be the equivalent of a map exponentially larger without losing any control over scale.
Has this already been thoroughly studied and dismissed as unfeasible before? Has no one ever really thought about doing things this way? My current tests leave me fairly optimistic about this, so if there's some issue I don't see I'd appreciate it being brought up, considering that any future mapping projects I might have will most likely depend on this kind of systems.
So this forum is also about brainstorming, or so the description would have me believe! I don't see much of that here, so I'm going to try.
As some of you may know, I released a map a while ago called VoidCraft. It's a battleships type affair where you customise hardpoints on a larger chassis and shoot other people's creations. The map was in it's very early stages and I had to take it down, despite it's success, because as much as I love mapping, real life and other things were stealing me away.
But this thread isn't about VoidCraft. I just want to ask the community an open ended question. Both as a bit of fun and as a source of potential ideas for both myself and anyone creating a map of similar specifications.
What makes an epic space game?
This can be anything. Certain weapons, certain playstyles, what makes the battles feel epic, what makes the experience feel epic, anything.
Thank you for your time!
If only you could compete with space battle : (
I think a good space game has exploration and lots of random elements. Not knowing what may jump out of hyperspace or pop out of an asteroid kinda stuff...
Also massive customization is lots of fun. Tooling engines, shields, hull, weapons, that's the sort of stuff when i think of a good space game. A good damage system also helps breath life into the game, shields going down, engines blowing out.
There's tons of potential for unique fun space gameplay elements. You can try some of 'em out in the map i made, which i too was pulled away from early ;)
Personally, I like explosions, good music tracks, cool superweapons, and the scale has to be just right. Starbattle is OK, just not amazing. If only there was a spacebattle with a City of Tempest feel :) I love the idea of a third person shooter space game. Imagine a viking taking of INSIDE a battlecruiser. Space battles need turrets, and lots of them. if there is empty randomness anywhere, it was done wrong. I like yours, but you really should have made the flagship's range longer.
THIS
was pretty epic when i played it xD
just think lost viking with lots of freedom and abbilities xp
with the laggless wasd movements this could turn pretty neat
Don't need to compete to create a quality map!
Oh I love explosions. I think exploration is a difficult one to pin down in a game like sc2, there's only so much joy to be had in exploring one, tiny map. I think any successful space genre game will have to have a large element of random map generation.
I've always been huge on customisation.
I seriously must have spent more time tinkering with the scale of things more than anything else. Making space feel vast but not boring, making the capital ships seem huge by comparison but tiny compared to space, making the fighters look convincingly tiny while making their models visible. I agree wholeheartedly with this, scale is what keeps me up at night! Making space not feel empty is another huge one, one I've been wrestling with a lot and found no real solution.
Thanks for the posts!
space game needs more speed more pew pew more technique(like subspace continuum) i really dont like the slow fat ships style xp
- Lots of customization.
- Powerful abilities that needs the player to use them properly in order to impact the enemy, for example linear attacks or slow seeking nukes.
- Meteorites, black holes, ... that makes you interact with the enviroment.
- ...
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Curse PremiumI'm a huge fan of massive Warship v. Warship gameplay
-like everyone else says: utter and complete customization
-giant spaceships with giant guns =D
-lazer beams
-mini fleets
-superior use of tactics over button mashing
@PirateArcade | I make games | Ask me things on Discord
Homeworld 1 + World in Conflict = Epic Quick Deathmatch Tactical Strategy Game In Space
Homeworld 2 + Sins of the Solar Empire = Epic Strategy Game In Space
Starcraft 2/Homeworld 2 + Allegiance + Free Space 2 = Epic RTS/FPS/TPS Hybrid
When I see space battles I see you're one ship, part of the huge fleet. War is going on everywhere and you somehow are surviving through all this only to encounter your opponent and it becomes who can outmaneuver who and who gets the final shot off. I also imagine battles kind of like Star Wars Ep III because that was probably the first space warfare I ever saw.
Lots of AI players to control the other fighters to keep a war going on with all hell breaking loose. The ships are about the same with few customizations and the better pilot wins.
Also Sins of the Solar Empire is another game I look at when I think space battle.
The average SC2 Player has an apm of 80. could think about 2 different things (micro macro) at the same time. Could excute a build perfectly, with the exact timing.
Abaut void craft i must say, your skill with attachment was OP. But the game is too easy, I need an apm of 10 for that.
Just farm and upgrade is not enough, and u can't OWN noobs in a OP way. There is no pro in that game, and noobs will not become pros. Because they never get owned.
I only play games, where I got owned in the first 5 times. Even if a player is pro, he should never have 100% chance to win.
Because he will give up and play othr player.
This question is hard as " how to make a popular game" ...
Everything that is Freespace 2, and a few concepts from other games like EVE online, etc
Add different dificiulties then :)
If blizzard allow multiplayer map switch. U can make some warpholes :D
@Reaper872: Go If this is a coop or single player why not. But single player and coop games dont live long
My list of things for space games in general:
I think that's most of it. Now, for voidcraft in particular, remember that chat we had when you first had the idea? before we filmed that vid? I think that would make it a really great space game. Catch me on skype if you want to discuss it again or me to remind you what that was. I might have some ideas that i didnt mention before... Also, as i always tell you, if you want a hand with that map, i'll help.
Oh yea, and this:
Everything is fully customizable and "open" and battles looks like in howeworld 2.,
My map aims that.
@avogatro: Go No max map bound limit would be enough too:D
I personally like scale. Start small, and become HUGE. Customization is also great. I must say, that VoidCraft video makes me want to scrap my project and start a space game like it :D looked epic
From a more practical/technical side of things, am I the only one here who somehow believes dynamic map generation and huge universes are still possible within the SC2 engine?
Eiviyn, you say there's only so much joy in exploring one tiny SC2 map. I agree. What if you could pack several hundreds, or even thousands, or smaller blocks within the same space?
See, this is the advantage of space games. They're modular (or easy to make so) by nature. All you need is one big "empty" area made of just that, space, and then place objects within it (stars, stations, asteroids, planets, ships, nebulae, etc.). What I'm thinking is that you could just divide one giant map into subsections, and have the contents of those subsections and their relative positions saved somewhere until you actually need to display or access that section, where you just load it and place its contents on a pre-arranged visualizing area. Thus, you still have a map that is technically 256x256 or even smaller in SC2's terms, but can have the game take place over a virtual playing field that would be the equivalent of a map exponentially larger without losing any control over scale.
Has this already been thoroughly studied and dismissed as unfeasible before? Has no one ever really thought about doing things this way? My current tests leave me fairly optimistic about this, so if there's some issue I don't see I'd appreciate it being brought up, considering that any future mapping projects I might have will most likely depend on this kind of systems.
@DaFranker: Go Actually I think too its possible. But would cost lots of trigger space.