quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
Be sure that you avoid making these overrides into "brain teasers".
Yes, the puzzles that will exist in the game will arise out of changes in the relationships of environmental componeents (such as, "this conduit''s leaking radiation, how do I get past?")
To work, the mini-games will have to generally require the same skills, so that once the player masters one, they will be familiar how the others work. I''d hate for them to have to pull out the manual for each one, especially if there were alot.
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You might even want a mini-game rather than a twitch system to control things like shooting missiles at other ships.
You might be right, although there''s nothing as satisfying as firing your own weapons and blasting that pesky enemy to dust. However, as ships become larger and more complex, combat needs to become more manageable. So this might work for larger ships even if I didn''t do it for the smaller, "piloted" ones.
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With all these manual overrides and different activities, will it be possible to play this game with just the main character, without a crew at all? The player could do all the skill tests, and probably keep a cargo shuttle running, ar man a fighter, and handle things like nabbing bounty heads or salvaging wreckage all by himself.
Yes, that''s a central part of the plan. You grow only as big as you want to. You stay one-man by using automation (AI & bots) or ancient artifacts (to eventually give a fighter the strength of a battleship). You want to play the entire game as one character, ala Fallout, that''s fine by me. You just won''t get the benefit of hireling contacts, engineering miracles and special projects-- but then you won''t have to deal with Johnson going insane or Davies and Rho duking it out in the reactor room.
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FOr what it''s worth, I think that would be an incredible range of gameplay, letting the player be a one-man enterprise or operating a small (or large) corporation.
I see you starting the game with a battered old one-seat surplus shuttle and 20k refugee''s stipend. You can buy cargo and/or a light weapon and start playing, a couple of probes for an immediate RTS feel, or put down your shuttle and your cash on a leased freighter that needs both a crew and to turn a profit to make the payments.
If the crew dynamics and interior maps work out the way I want, you can also simply cash everything in and buy a shop or building of some sort, which will simply duplicate the many forms of ship-based gameplay without extra dev work (it''s a ship that doesn''t move, essentially). Then you can run Quark''s Diner & Fine Smuggled Weapons if you so please.
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Just waiting for the mothership...