I think his game offers the best way to visualise and control ships. Granted it’s a 2D game, but i feel like the turret and shield controls are really good and would be amazing to see that translated into IB with the same augmented-reality-style firing cones and ranges. Same goes for AI-controlled turret options and controls.
I’m sceptical on how well that would work when you add another dimension. Fun game, haven’t played it in a while.
1 Like
I just imagined capital ship gameplay would be similar to World of Warships.
It’s nice to find other fans of Starsector 
. I was under the assumption that capital ships would be controlled in a similar way to EVE online.
I haven’t played it in a long time. Maybe 6 months or a year? How is it going these days? Can we actually trade or is it still just going around shooting until you get the biggest fleet/ship?
I never got to the stage of controlling large capital ships in EVE, though I assume the control interface remains largely the same, but its movement controls are primarily based around interacting with targets (warp to, orbit around, etc.). I know you can click arbitrarily in space to set a vector but its not very accurate and doesn’t really suit EVE’s style of gameplay (in my experience).
Granted I haven’t played World of Warships either, but it seems like more of an input-based system whereby you set a speed and heading and the ship continues in that direction until another order is given. I think that would work perfectly for I:B, just with the added third dimension. You could easily change direction by orbiting the camera around and clicking to set the vector at your crosshair.
Using EVE rather than World of Warships as a reference for weapon systems makes sense as you wouldn’t be broadsiding other ships and installations with fixed guns (I realise WWII ships’ guns aren’t fixed, but I hope you get my meaning), unless a ship had a fixed rail gun similar to MACs in Halo. In other words, ships would have to be fired upon by targeting them and activating weapons rather than using your mouse to move a crosshair and just click to fire.
Weapons in Starsector can also be set to automatic and crew skill will affect accuracy. Also PD guns target missiles and targets first. You can also set weapon groups to fire independently. I rarely fire the weapons manually in that game, taking over only in specific situations to make sure i hit the targets (or hit them in the right place, such as engines).
I would prefer the large destroyers had controls similar to the ships in eve, but maybe with the option to control them manually.
Capital ship warfare and weapon and system controls in these ships like eve would be awesome too.
Another cool idea would be carriers acting like mobile spawn units. That would give them real purpose. A group of players could warp to an enemy station and disembark from the carrier. Obviously the other group would then spawns in the station.
Both groups then fight till their ticket count is depleted (carrier/station runs out of energy to recharge the shields of the fighters), the group that lasts longer wins/keeps control over the station (station generates credits/ressources).
The double click in space is really odd thing in my opinion.
What I would prefer would be, instead of controlling the thrusters with the transversal controls of a fighter, you control the flight assist.
The mouse is free and can click on ships ect. the WASDEQFR (Whatever) control the direction pointer of the flight assist. So when you press W the pointer goes up, A it goes left, Scroll wheel changes target speed. Transversal control can still be granted with a (mode switch) key or by using additional input devices.
Additional there should be stuff like orbit, follow that do more advanced stuff, but you always retain the ability to make small correction, fight the computer, and then let it do its thing again.
That’s already the plan. They said that at several points. Pretty similar to how you described it.
2 Likes
I’m not quite sure what @Playbenni was describing, but in the old forums we discussed the idea of having carriers being mobile spawn points such that they carried a fixed number of ships. Burn those ships and the carrier needs to return to base for more. I would definitely want to retain the limited resource aspect.
In Infinity:Battlescape, I could see a carrier pilot arriving at a facility to collect up 18 Daggers, 6 Thumpers and 2 Bolters. That’s all the room the carrier has. Of course, those aren’t actual ships, just spawn slots for ships of those types and the carrier pilot is just choosing ship types and numbers that players can spawn at his ship. When players spawn, they can spawn out of the carrier and draw down on those ship types. The exact Dagger that a player spawns into would be determined by their own setup. That is, any carrier that has an unused Dagger slot could spawn any Dagger.
If a player returns a compatible ship to the carrier, they can get refunded the resources that went into their ship - minus damaged or destroyed parts. The carrier gets a full spawn back - delayed by damage or destroyed parts. So if I get a Dagger from a carrier, I fly out and do whatever I do with a Dagger. If I’m at 50% damage when I get back, I’m refunded only 50% of the Dagger’s resources, and the Dagger slot on the Carrier will only be available after X seconds, to reflect the damage to the Dagger.
One step farther is to say that carriers carry X tons of spare parts for repairs. When that Dagger is returned, getting the spawn back consumes some of those parts. When there are no more repair parts on the carrier, the carrier cannot recharge any of its spawns, though ships can still be returned to the carrier.
Destroying a carrier costs the carrier ship and the repair parts. No ships that are ‘onboard’ the carrier are lost.
Another variation allows carriers to change the onboard ships in the field.
Suppose I configure my carrier to have only small Daggers. I fly out into the field. Players spawn a bunch of Daggers from my carrier, freeing up room in my hangar. Somebody comes along later with a damaged Bolter. I can let him onboard. He gets refunded the appropriate resources and I now have a damaged Bolter spawn. I can then repair that spawn or not as I see fit. Of course, if I don’t repair it nobody can use it.
One more variation: ejecting spawns. If I have full spawns, I can eject them to make room for an incoming ship. Either they are completely lost or I can convert them into repair parts (if it has room). Conversion takes a little time and is lossy, but it would be better than throwing away a complete spawn. Spawns burn carrier resources and a carrier pilot doesn’t want to just throw them away. Carriers might also be able to arbitrarily reconfigure their spawns in the field (swap 3 Daggers for 1 Bolter), but I’d argue against that because it flies in the face of the fiction of a carrier having ships onboard when it leaves dock.
An MMO-style carrier would involve players putting their actual ship on the carrier, allowing them (and only them) to spawn into it any time they want, and flying it around anywhere they want. But if the carrier goes down, so do all the player ships on it.
You didn’t elaborate why those unused spawn possibilities shouldn’t be destroyed. After all the Carrier did load them up when he disembarked and would need to reload them if he ran out, Why should destroying the carrier magically teleport those loaded spawn slots back into the team funds?
I’m looking for the quote where I-Novae explained their carrier plans a little more detailed.
The spawn slots are certainly lost. The ships ‘onboard’ are not (thus the quotes). I didn’t want anyone thinking that their personal resources were being lost if they were somehow associated with the lost carrier. That’s the “MMO option” at the end.
1 Like
Has the idea of using cap. ships as platforms for highly cooperative gameplay been explored? I’m likening the idea to how Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator works…each officer mans a station that is imperative to effective operation of a capital ship.
I remember playing a game called Core Exiles a long, long time ago. Early 2000’s but I didn’t play very much.
I’m a big fan of such gameplay, but INS doesn’t have anywhere near the resources needed for such a game.
1 Like
Trying to make it work but there’s no server browser or anything, cant start a solo game, cant do anything 