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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

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Author Topic: Mobile Space Strategy/Exploration Game. UI/Retreat (Video 5/4)  (Read 10565 times)

Verrius

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Most Recent Video


Older videos:

The combat system has been settled as a strategic system, thanks for the feedback everyone.
Working on refining some things before focusing on the map layer.

Gonna be keeping a journal of the progress with some videos for you guys, for those of you who are interested. Feel free to Please leave feedback.

Sproginator

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2013, 08:09:51 AM »

Urm, I like the way Beat Hazard Ultra does it, You can move your joysticks easily just by dragging your finger, It's very well done
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Axiege

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2013, 08:11:13 AM »

Good touch screen games need to be designed around the control scheme. You can't really have a great game that is making due with the controls. The best way to do it though would be buttons/sticks on the screen if you're going for that type of game, but a strictly strategic one where you're just directing the ships would easier to putt off well imo

Verrius

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2013, 08:18:25 AM »

Right now I'm pretty much in two minds, between the strategy and the twin stick shooter.

I was thinking, in either case, that the combat and "world map" would need to be separate, like Starsector, purely because of the limitations of screen size and hardware.

In the case of the shooter, you would control your ship alongside AI controlled allies. The camera would focus on you, and there would be two virtual sticks to control you in an arcade style.

In the case of the strategy, I've had a couple ideas. One way, would be to have ships set into fleets, and they move together as a fleet. You control their movement, but they acquire targets on their own. The other is touching and moving ships individually, although I can imagine it would be rather dicey. In the former idea, ships are very small. In the latter, they are much larger.

Sproginator

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #4 on: April 16, 2013, 08:25:18 AM »

IPad game or? :D
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Verrius

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #5 on: April 16, 2013, 08:34:37 AM »

It would have to be Android, as I don't have an iAnything :p
Probably just a dollar game if anything.   I just need to do something

I would do PC, but I'm not sure how the best way to do that would be, I want to make a quick playing game for those short moments of boredom, while still being a fun space game.

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2013, 08:35:52 AM »

*** android XD, Apple FTW ;P

(Waits for Android fanboys)
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hadesian

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2013, 08:40:48 AM »

Honestly touch screens are so limited in control schemes that you'll basically have to spend a lot of your computing power to run background stuff that performs otherwise manual tasks - it's why, for one, a lot of phone games are very much press this button and a lot happens and for two why most games that aren't really social come out on tablets instead, since they have far more screen space and therefore work better with more advanced controls. I find using virtual sticks horrible honestly, though there are some control methods I like, one is the gyroscopic tilt function, that always works well in my opinion (you can use this for rotation) and tap this now tap that. You have to basically make it so that the person doesn't have to hold something down or so and you fix screen size as a problem etc.
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Changes as of May 24, 2013
  • Reinvented Starsector.
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Verrius

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2013, 09:05:50 AM »

Xareh pretty much sums up all of the problems. I too hate virtual sticks. Tilt is alright, but I'd much prefer a controller.

The screen size is also a huge deal. I could go tablet, but I'd much like to try a phone game. I did some thinking, and I think I've decided what I'd like to try. I might whip together a video if anything comes of it.

I start a lot of projects on my own that never amount to much of anything, primarily because I get other ideas and try to do something different. The good thing is I learn a lot quickly, but I never finish any projects. By talking about it, hopefully I'll gather more motivation :p.

Wyvern

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2013, 09:47:57 AM »

The best control scheme I've seen for this sort of thing had the player avatar (vehicle, whatever) simply follow where the player touched on the screen, automatically attacking or taking other basic actions as appropriate to where it was, with a small sidebar with buttons for special actions.
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Gothars

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #10 on: April 16, 2013, 10:41:46 AM »

The best control scheme I've seen for this sort of thing had the player avatar (vehicle, whatever) simply follow where the player touched on the screen, automatically attacking or taking other basic actions as appropriate to where it was, with a small sidebar with buttons for special actions.

That would always be my preffered control method for tablets, too.
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The game was completed 8 years ago and we get a free expansion every year.

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Sproginator

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2013, 10:51:00 AM »

The best control scheme I've seen for this sort of thing had the player avatar (vehicle, whatever) simply follow where the player touched on the screen, automatically attacking or taking other basic actions as appropriate to where it was, with a small sidebar with buttons for special actions.

That would always be my preffered control method for tablets, too.

Agreed :D
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Cycerin

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #12 on: April 16, 2013, 07:31:25 PM »

Space Miner: Space Ore Bust did 2d space games for touchscreen well. That game rules.
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Verrius

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2013, 07:40:51 PM »

I've got a video processing that will display what my current idea for combat is, I'd like some feedback if at all possible!

Some notes:
* I wouldn't even call this an "alpha." I whipped this up TODAY, mostly to see what people would think about it.
* This is purely a combat system, there would be exploration involved. Eerily like the way Starsector works.
* The graphics are programmer art. I could do okay-ish sprites, like Shadow Order, but I would get tired and probably give up.
* It's built to be easily adapted for other platforms. I want something to play on the go however, so I will be focusing on the phone.

How it would work:
* Once you engage, you can deploy a certain number of ships. Yours are on bottom, theirs are on top.
* It is grid based, to make it easy to select the ships and locations with your fat fingers.
* The ships use their weapons automatically. Weapons would have different traits and paths. These Light Machine Guns only shoot in one direction, but picture dumb missiles being launched from the sides of the ship, and shooting straight upwards after floating off to the side of the ship, weapons facing different directions, homing missiles, point defense, ships dedicated to blocking shots, etc. etc.
* Fleet size will probably be rather limited to encourage fast battles. It is a PHONE game after all. Probably have multiple fleets though.
* I want ships to also have special abilities and whatnot. Probably have some RPG elements in there, like customizing the ships in some way.

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Re: Top-down exploration/combat game, for a touch screen.
« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2013, 07:43:41 PM »

Sounds like fun!
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A person who's never made a mistake, never tried anything new
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As long as we don't quit, we haven't failed
- Jamie Fristrom (Programmer for Spiderman2 & Lead Developer for Energy Hook)
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