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General Discussion / Re: Starfarer and Steam.
« on: January 12, 2012, 06:27:18 PM »
Amazingly, I already have Starfarer on Steam!
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General Discussion / Re: Rock Paper Shotgun unearths fantastic Space Game, Fans Rejoice ...
« on: January 12, 2012, 06:22:36 PM »
I'm another person who bought after seeing this game. Already I've gotten my value out of it. Can't wait for the next release.
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Suggestions / Re: Automatic venting?
« on: January 10, 2012, 07:57:26 PM »im sorry but i wouldnt want it venting out of my will...what if i dont want to or im in a situation where i need my small PD weapons or fighter killers...that would become a disaster and i would lose the feeling of control in the game
I was thinking it would be configurable the same way auto-weapons are: if you don't want it, turn it off.
A flux/hull overlay is already in the dev build, though I'm thinking of supplementing (or replacing) it with something more graphical - perhaps brief electrical arc flashes when the ship is getting close to overload, so you don't have to watch the bar so closely.
Oh awesome. Can't we have both? I'd worry that the arcs would be too hard to distinguish in a tough firefight. A visually distinct overlay is hard to misjudge.
I actually did try something very similar early on. It really does sound great - but actually implementing any of those things in an intuitive and satisfying way is *hard*. If you fail to convey that something is happening (weapon misfired!) and why it's happening (flux too high!), it's going to look like a bug. That's what it looked like to me, while I full well knew what was actually going on. So, not saying that it can't be done - it probably can - but it's a lot more of a minefield than what it seems, and there's huge downside for getting it wrong.
I remember Sid Meier saying he learned from playtesting Civ that when 'improbable' things happen to players - e.g. losing a battle they are a 10:1 favourite to win - then the players naturally assume there's a bug, or things are 'unrealistic'. If you've tried it before and it didn't work, then, for sure, learn from the experience!
As far as the "realism" of it, I actually think it's sensible. There are fail-safes - you can't overload just from firing your weapons. The only real way to overload is to have your shields up while taking fire. So, venting when flux is high isn't even saving you from a potential overload unless your shields are up, too - and given that there might be a torpedo coming in, that's a decision best left to the captain.
In general, automatically doing something that takes a great deal of control away from the player seems like a bad idea on principle.
Ah, I didn't know about that fail-safe. In that case, there's actually not much difference between the systems. If I wasn't clear enough before though, I was intending it to be a toggle: turn it on or off depending on what the situation warrants.
But yeah: if you give me a good, clear overlay (even if optional!), consider the request withdrawn.
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Suggestions / Re: Automatic venting?
« on: January 10, 2012, 05:42:14 AM »How do you handle a variable size red-zone and make it easy for the player to interact with it, in the heat of battle? Considering each fight within a battle is multi-dimensional as it is?
New players might be hamstrung almost as bad by the constant flux-venting, coupled with potentially terrible timing that this might give - it could be frustrating. The better solution is to teach them the importance of the game mechanic with progressively difficult battles, or something cleverer.
I like the simplicity of the current overload system, and if you coupled your suggestion with weapon strikes disabling systems (as will happen in the next version) I would be slightly concerned for the players understanding of 'what the hell is going on' when fighting (was that a strike or an overload? Why is the world collapsing around me? What have I done!).
The redzone just acts as a small safety buffer. You get a bit more reaction time in exchange for increased risk. The exact 'curve' of the risk could vary. I'd say your complaint about the 'heat of the battle' applies just as readily to the current situation, where you can be easily overloaded if you aren't 'watching the dial' like a hawk, and new players will always need to grow into an unfamiliar concept. Certainly new players will still have to manually vent in calmer intervals.
Actually, I stumbled into this idea because I was a bit frustrated with the fact I had to keep checking the bottom-right corner every half-second to ensure I wasn't 'in danger'. The optimal venting strategy in a heated fire-fight, of course, is to build up your flux to as-close-to-maximum-as possible, then disengage and vent, but that of course bears the risk of quickly overloading should a single extra shot hit your shields or you forget to disengage your automatic point defences, or whatever.
I'd gladly settle for something like a flux overlay on my ship itself to make it easier to see where I'm at, but I figured this suggestion might be more interesting, and make a bit more sense.
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Suggestions / Automatic venting?
« on: January 09, 2012, 07:06:40 PM »
First off, let me say: even in this "alpha" state, the game is amazing. I was a huge EV Nova fan years ago, and have been sadly seeking a modern equivalent (preferably something with less grinding). I tried SPAZ and GSB and even Space Empires V, but none really captured the fun of galactic exploration and fast-paced combat which made EV so charming. So far, Starfarer's combat mechanics blow EV Nova out of the water. What you have planned for the future is likewise drool-inducing.
There is tiny niggle I have with it, though. In the distant future where mankind has built massive, technological marvels - spaceships- which are no doubt designed, planned, constructed, managed, and run by incredibly advanced computer systems, it hasn't occured to anyone in the universe that it might be valuable to put in a computer system that automatically vents heat to prevent the - no doubt expensive - technological marvel from frizzing out in the middle of a do-or-die battle? Heck, even our puny modern-day PCs have circuit breakers that will shut down a system that gets too hot. (You certainly wouldn't want nuclear power reactors built without those!)
Of course, if we can be a bit meta about it, managing flux is a core tactical element of the combat mechanic. An auto-vent system would just encourage laziness and make the "overload" situation (which we want to avoid) completely moot. But there is a way around it: probability! As an electrical system becomes more and more overloaded and overheated, the probablity of failure grows rapidly; it's not just a simple binary where the system breaks at a certain exact temperature, but a slow build-up of probability.
The system I'm proposing then, is to replace the 'hard' flux limit in a ship with something like a redline; when your ship goes past the redline, the probablity of individual system breaking down starts to grow: your engines might sputter, weapons misfire, shields flicker. As you continue to push your luck, eventually the whole thing will just go kerplunk (probably not permanently, but for a few moments at least). To avoid this, you could turn on auto-vent, which will always vent all flux the second your ship hits the redline. This keeps your equipment safe, but has disadvantages: perhaps you'll be stopped from landing that final killing blow, or perhaps a few torpedos which you would have otherwise prefered impact upon your shields (or be shot by point-defense) are now allowed to pass through to your ship. It's likely a veteran captain would probably never cede control of such a vital tactical asset to a computer, but a greenhorn might want to pay more attention to just getting his aim right. Overall, I think this system is a bit more realistic and offers new strategic considerations while still maintaining the core tactical skill requirements of flux management
Whaddaya think?
There is tiny niggle I have with it, though. In the distant future where mankind has built massive, technological marvels - spaceships- which are no doubt designed, planned, constructed, managed, and run by incredibly advanced computer systems, it hasn't occured to anyone in the universe that it might be valuable to put in a computer system that automatically vents heat to prevent the - no doubt expensive - technological marvel from frizzing out in the middle of a do-or-die battle? Heck, even our puny modern-day PCs have circuit breakers that will shut down a system that gets too hot. (You certainly wouldn't want nuclear power reactors built without those!)
Of course, if we can be a bit meta about it, managing flux is a core tactical element of the combat mechanic. An auto-vent system would just encourage laziness and make the "overload" situation (which we want to avoid) completely moot. But there is a way around it: probability! As an electrical system becomes more and more overloaded and overheated, the probablity of failure grows rapidly; it's not just a simple binary where the system breaks at a certain exact temperature, but a slow build-up of probability.
The system I'm proposing then, is to replace the 'hard' flux limit in a ship with something like a redline; when your ship goes past the redline, the probablity of individual system breaking down starts to grow: your engines might sputter, weapons misfire, shields flicker. As you continue to push your luck, eventually the whole thing will just go kerplunk (probably not permanently, but for a few moments at least). To avoid this, you could turn on auto-vent, which will always vent all flux the second your ship hits the redline. This keeps your equipment safe, but has disadvantages: perhaps you'll be stopped from landing that final killing blow, or perhaps a few torpedos which you would have otherwise prefered impact upon your shields (or be shot by point-defense) are now allowed to pass through to your ship. It's likely a veteran captain would probably never cede control of such a vital tactical asset to a computer, but a greenhorn might want to pay more attention to just getting his aim right. Overall, I think this system is a bit more realistic and offers new strategic considerations while still maintaining the core tactical skill requirements of flux management
Whaddaya think?
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