What is Infinity: Battlescape?

Battlescape
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To over-simplify it, Battlescape will be an arena shooter.

However, that doesn’t quite describe it. Partially because exactly what Battlescape will be depends on how much funding the developers get in the upcoming KickStarter.

If they only get the bare-minimum they need, that will lead to a more-or-less World of Tanks-esque experience, with short, instanced matches in defined arenas called “battlscapes”, which would likely feature some degree of procedural generation.

However, the game that the developers would like to make is a bit more complicated, and would require a higher level of funding.

That could still technically be classified as an arena shooter, but rather than World of Tanks, a better analogue would be a DayZ with more emphasis on open combat and fortification than on stealth and survival. The instanced “battlescapes” would expand into a 1:1 scale, procedurally generated solar system, with players moving seamlessly from one end to the other, and battles occurring where the two teams happen to meet.

Matches in this case would be days or weeks in length, and revolve around a campaign of skirmishes, rather than individual battles that are over in 15 minutes. During these matches, players will be able to build and place various stations and resource depots, and likely stationary defenses for both, for re-spawning purposes and getting bigger and better ships as the match goes on.

Instead of ending after a pre-defined interval of time, a match would only end after one team was no longer able to re-spawn, probably by having no stations to do so from.

In addition, there would be a single-player “exploration mode”, allowing players to view and explore the Battlescape solar system without fear of getting shot.

If you’re asking about Infinity the MMO, that’s completely different. That is a sandbox rpg spacesim, and is what the I-Novae team ultimately hope to make. It’s intended to have the sort of gameplay you would associate with such a title: mining, manufacturing, exploring, empire building, etc., etc…

While they won’t skimp on Battlescape itself, it’s intended to be a full game in its own right and will be treated as such, IB is intended to be a combination of practice and launchpad for the Infinity MMO.

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@TerranAmbass summed it up pretty good but to provide you a high level list of goals we would like to achieve with the game :

  1. Players will pilot spacecraft from small scouts/fighters up to large, capital class cruisers
  2. We want to capture the cinematic feel of the massive space battles in movies/shows such as Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. Imagine zooming through and around a large space station as you evade enemy fighters while it’s being bombarded by a fleet of enemy capital ships. To that end we’re hoping to have 200+ players per server.
  3. There will be a rudimentary resource system. Each team will have some amount of factories that generate resources every “tick”. You can use these resources to buy better ships and equipment or even build infrastructure like space stations, bases, or additional factories.
  4. The game ends when one team can no longer respawn due to all of its spawn points being destroyed or running out of resources because all of its factories have been destroyed
  5. The game will come with a virtual marketplace where players can buy new skins and mods that are generated by other members of the community
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Thanks for clearing that up! Can’t wait for the kickstarter because I’ll definitely back it :slight_smile:

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It’ll be awesome no matter what happens.

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The game ends when one team can no longer respawn due to all of its spawn points being destroyed or running out of resources because all of its factories have been destroyed

Wait … what ?!

This is not a mmo ? a casual game ?
I thought it was a game like Eve or SC or Elite ? i say that, i say nothing, but i waited for a very long Infinity, i don’t know if i’m wrong of game

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That sounds as if you waited 2 years ago, then stopped waiting and now expecting that it’s done.
To make the game development feasible, they realized, that they need a company consisting of many people and with enough money available. To get in this status, they decided, to start a kickstarter rebuilding the game play which was already shown in the combat prototype, just this time featuring the procedural engine and polishing it up.

The ultimate Infinity game is not dead, but it was ‘postponed’ until it gets feasible to get it finished. I personally think, that’s a very good decision to ensure that the initial idea will not be vaporware.

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On another note, I remember this idea to have an offline mode too. Is that still a go?

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Yeah we’re planning on having an offline exploration mode.

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Im surprised the I:B page on the website still doesn’t have anything but a logo.

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Updating/building that page will be one of the last things we do before launching the KS.

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I understand that details are still not set in stone, but having nothing but a logo is a big mistake. There should be at least a quick description of what is the game, plus a nod to the incoming kickstarter. Right now people have to dig in the forums for info, but most people probably just leave first.

I was just checking, and I couldn’t find any information at all about battlescape in the site. It is really hard to dig in an learn about it.

IMO one of those 3 “slides” that show up when you enter the site should always point to the battlescape page, with the description of the ideal I:BS, a Q3 kickstarter estimate, plus screenshots of ships and links to the engine video and screenshots. Also, a neat idea would be a place to put your email so you would be warned when the kickstarter is about to begin.

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Those are all excellent suggestions. I guess the real question is getting the website up now more important than getting the KS itself finished? If my time is shifted to finishing the website that is less time I’ll be able to devote to actually finishing the KS. Ultimately both have to be done before we actually launch the KS so it’s just a matter of what gets done first.

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Truth. If I were in your position, I would consider the website first. The KS gets done when it gets done. Every time someone goes to the main page and leaves is a potential backer lost. My two cents.

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It’s easy to justify from the outside looking in.

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Hmm, that’s really not much to do on the website. If the update would take one day, the kickstarter should be rather be one day late with people knowing about it, than one day early and many ppl who could have known don’t knowing.

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I really don’t think editing the page to fit a small description would take a day. It would take a few hours at most.

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I’m going for yes. People checking in not wanting to go any deeper may just stop at the first page. Farm that job out. I’m sure there are people here who could do a good job.

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It’s going to take a lot more than one day.

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How long it would take to do it doesn’t really matter, considering it will eventually have to be done before the KS anyway.

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Putting together the website could take a couple hrs, or a couple weeks. It depends on if your content to display on page is ready, you style sheet is to your liking, are there functions or links to say kick starter and mailing list, and is the page then integrated to run on mobile devices. It’s a lot of work to make an actual website. I made a star wars fan website in school with three guys. It took couple weeks but it wasn’t the best and was behind schedule to what we aimed for on our final.