Fractal Softworks Forum
Starsector => Suggestions => Topic started by: Gothars on March 31, 2012, 12:18:31 PM
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Starfarer is already a great game, but obviously theres still much room for improvements. One problem that I find is that there are not enough possibilities to make your spaceship unique. It's good that you can name and equip them, but there are always many very similar ships in the system. But in order to become emotionally attached to your vessels they have to be unique.
So I thought a Diablo-style item system would be great to individualize your ships (and fun in itself). Those improved items would not even have to be that much better (that would screw up balancing), just make them rare so they feel very special (in that they would be very different from the diablo-style, where you absolutely need improved items).
I case somebody is not familiar with that kind of system: You could find or buy normal items with randomly generated improvements. Every improvement is associated with a pre- or suffix alongside the name. An item could have two improvements, the combination and the actual values of the improvements should be randomized.
For example there could be:
Chaingun (normal stats)
Fine tuned Chaingun (better precision)
Fine tuned Chaingun of improved cooling (better precision, faster fire rate)
Maybe the same system could even be applied to ships.
What do you think?
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Oh god no. All that does is encourage a lot of senseless grinding, and then what Yahtzee calls 'pants comparing'.
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Well that is certainly not all it would cause. I think finding special items after a great fight or somehow finding them in the depths of the galaxy via exploring could be a very motivating reward. I personally don't care for "pants comparing", but if people like it let them do it, it doesn't subtract anything from the game for those who don't like it.
Besides, right now theres not much more to do then "senseless grinding" anyway. If new gameplay mechanics like trade and exploration are added they could provide those rewards too, so no reason to shift the players attention to grinding.
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No thanks all that will do is clutter inventory, you get better weapons through levels and hull upgrades, no need for random loot, which is the root of all evil.
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I think that should only apply to salvaged weapons, where the weapon is damaged (as it would be, you blew the ship to a molten husk, after all), so its performance won't be quite as good until you get it repaired.
So you get Mr. Tachyon Lance from an unlucky Paragon, let's say. Now, we all know the base stats of this beast, but when salvaged, it may be x,y or z% worse in whatever attribute until you get it fixed, just like with a salvaged ship.
Now, that's by no means a perfect system, but in my opinion, I think it's a good way to get some randomisation in with mass-produced ship equipment and makes sure that you aren't fielding inferior kit forever
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Well that is certainly not all it would cause. I think finding special items after a great fight or somehow finding them in the depths of the galaxy via exploring could be a very motivating reward. I personally don't care for "pants comparing", but if people like it let them do it, it doesn't subtract anything from the game for those who don't like it.
Besides, right now theres not much more to do then "senseless grinding" anyway. If new gameplay mechanics like trade and exploration are added they could provide those rewards too, so no reason to shift the players attention to grinding.
I think there would be great items in the galaxy that you have to find because the lore states that many blueprints were hidden by their owners.
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Oh god no. All that does is encourage a lot of senseless grinding, and then what Yahtzee calls 'pants comparing'.
^^^ This
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i dunno, eventually theres going to be building and leveling stats, this feature could be coming.
the plot may allow for this to happen, thoes blueprint design chips from before the fall were fiddled with in some cases.
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Screw Diablo.
Worked awesome for Space Rangers. I'd love to see something like that here. If not equipment, I was thinking the similar, but with ships.
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Surely the "emotional attachment" thing with the finished game will come from the officers assigned to each ship? It's not there yet because officers haven't been implemented, but I'm sure that's the idea of the whole officers with varied skills thing.
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Surely the "emotional attachment" thing with the finished game will come from the officers assigned to each ship? It's not there yet because officers haven't been implemented, but I'm sure that's the idea of the whole officers with varied skills thing.
Well, the attachment with the officers will be just that, attachment with the officers. To like the ship the ship has to be special.
Just think of likeable ships like the Serenity (Firefly) or the Millennium Falcon. If those were just run-of-the-mill ships seen everywhere on screen, it would be hard to feel about them at all.
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we should incorperate the herodric cube too...
Bonus prank call video xD
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoammckI08E (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoammckI08E)
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Surely the "emotional attachment" thing with the finished game will come from the officers assigned to each ship? It's not there yet because officers haven't been implemented, but I'm sure that's the idea of the whole officers with varied skills thing.
Well, the attachment with the officers will be just that, attachment with the officers. To like the ship the ship has to be special.
Just think of likeable ships like the Serenity (Firefly) or the Millennium Falcon. If those were just run-of-the-mill ships seen everywhere on screen, it would be hard to feel about them at all.
Were those not just run of the mill ships?
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My vote for ship personality?
- Enemy Kill list w/ what ship, where, when.
- Damage and repair history
- History of officers in command/crew loss/crew promoted/crew transfered
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Surely the "emotional attachment" thing with the finished game will come from the officers assigned to each ship? It's not there yet because officers haven't been implemented, but I'm sure that's the idea of the whole officers with varied skills thing.
Well, the attachment with the officers will be just that, attachment with the officers. To like the ship the ship has to be special.
Just think of likeable ships like the Serenity (Firefly) or the Millennium Falcon. If those were just run-of-the-mill ships seen everywhere on screen, it would be hard to feel about them at all.
This is a fair point, but I don't think Diablo style loot is the way to achieve a sense of uniqueness. Checking whether every single battery on your Conquest battlecruiser is better than the floating bits of detritus in space after a battle is not a sense of uniqueness, it's a sense of tedium.
I think having 'unique named ships' show up in the vein of EV Nova, or rare, extremely hard to find ships with unique sprites, or personalized paint schemes and increased base OP or engine values (through character engineering skill)-- would be a better way.
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Surely the "emotional attachment" thing with the finished game will come from the officers assigned to each ship? It's not there yet because officers haven't been implemented, but I'm sure that's the idea of the whole officers with varied skills thing.
Well, the attachment with the officers will be just that, attachment with the officers. To like the ship the ship has to be special.
Just think of likeable ships like the Serenity (Firefly) or the Millennium Falcon. If those were just run-of-the-mill ships seen everywhere on screen, it would be hard to feel about them at all.
This is a fair point, but I don't think Diablo style loot is the way to achieve a sense of uniqueness. Checking whether every single battery on your Conquest battlecruiser is better than the floating bits of detritus in space after a battle is not a sense of uniqueness, it's a sense of tedium.
I think having 'unique named ships' show up in the vein of EV Nova, or rare, extremely hard to find ships with unique sprites, or personalized paint schemes and increased base OP or engine values (through character engineering skill)-- would be a better way.
Or how about faction unique version of ships, I think that would be better as opposed to a diablo loot system.
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That's also a good idea.
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How about a compromise.. Instead of just "random" loot, instead have modifiers (egos if you have played rougelikes) for weapons or ships... For instance, in the game I am thinking of you could have a dagger, or a sharp dagger. Sharp being the modifier that applies a small amount of extra damage...
So we could have a MG, or a Heavy Barrel MG, which increases range and accuracy, but decreases fire rate.. That sort of system would add a lot of item diversity without any one type being inherently better... Though it would add a lot of clutter...
Not saying something like this should be implemented, just throwing it out there as a option.
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Eh... I really don't like the idea of having modifiers on weapons. The balance is tricky enough as it is. If the effects are small, then why bother adding the complication to the game? If the effects are large and the balance isn't perfect, then players will really really want a particular one - then the situation hasn't been changed at all other than a bunch of inferior weapons cluttering up inventory.
I think that being able to find ships that are better than a normal blueprint - extra OP would be an easy way to do this - would be a nice way to add uniqueness to the game. Finding and repairing the hulk of the legendary onslaught Odin (35 extra -10% - OP) would be nice in my book.
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Some unique ships would make more since as there will be a lot less of them than weapon types... Plus more OP or slightly better stats would be pretty fun..
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These ideas have all been tossed around before. I think they are all needless, though.