Mission Types
Author
Hello fellow Gamedever(s),
My friend Sir Sapo and I are creating a turn-based strategy game set in space. Combat is based around fleets of ships, loosely based off WW1 and WW2 combat dynamics(such as battleships and carriers), which you will use to conduct interstellar warfare.
We are making progress, as chronicled in Sir Sapo's journal, but we seem to be in a rut in deciding mission types, and we would like to enlist the help of the numerous other creative minds out there.
Our current mission types:
Defend the Thingy: The enemy is attacking something of yours, such as a space station, and you will be able to use any static defenses as well as your ships.
Attack the Thingy(Capture?): You will attack something of the enemy's, like a space
fortress
Escort something: You are charged with defending ships, most likely planet assault ships, from an enemy fleet bent on their destruction.
Fleet Action: A scenario where you and an enemy force go at it with the simple intent to inflict maximum harm against one another.
So, have any ideas? even variations on these would be great, and anything to get us thinking would be welcome
And finally, if you need visual inspiration: Some of my artwork
I love the art, do you by any chance have any working gameplay? Im just interested in how the UI works and the capability of the engine itself. As for Missions, i could imagine a Territory type mission could be fun...
Territory:
Your empire demands many things to fuel its war and one of the great atroid fields is under attack and you need to take and hold as many of the outposts as possible. You are given a limited number of ships at first but over time more will be sent in to aid your mission. All you need to do is hold as many, or all, of the outposts until ehnforcments get there.
Good Luck.
Or maybe a Covert Ops mission, haha im not sure how you would do that until i understood the gameplay and UI.
Hope that Helps
Territory:
Your empire demands many things to fuel its war and one of the great atroid fields is under attack and you need to take and hold as many of the outposts as possible. You are given a limited number of ships at first but over time more will be sent in to aid your mission. All you need to do is hold as many, or all, of the outposts until ehnforcments get there.
Good Luck.
Or maybe a Covert Ops mission, haha im not sure how you would do that until i understood the gameplay and UI.
Hope that Helps
Deliver the Thingee: Get you ships thru to deliver some thing (on board your ships - intel, vaccines, troops, etc...) or get the ships there themselves (reinforcements) -- possibly a stealth mission (hidden movement from enemy)
Find the Thingee: Search out the other fleet/shop (picket duty, reconnaissance,
find/chase the raider...)
Raider -- mission to destroy soft/unguarded targets with a minimal force
(stealth elements, avoidance), covert delivery of operatives or rescue operation.
Quote:Original post by Dasubermechen
I love the art, do you by any chance have any working gameplay? Im just interested in how the UI works and the capability of the engine itself. As for Missions, i could imagine a Territory type mission could be fun...
Territory:
Your empire demands many things to fuel its war and one of the great atroid fields is under attack and you need to take and hold as many of the outposts as possible. You are given a limited number of ships at first but over time more will be sent in to aid your mission. All you need to do is hold as many, or all, of the outposts until ehnforcments get there.
Good Luck.
Or maybe a Covert Ops mission, haha im not sure how you would do that until i understood the gameplay and UI.
Hope that Helps
Hey, I'm teh programmer for the project (Prinz Eugn is the artist), and I really like your ideas, and thanks for the positive feedback! Anyways, we have some basic gameplay and the UI is pretty much fully functional, but I have to go right now, so I can't go into any detail at the moment. If you want to ask any specific questions regarding the engine or the game, fell free to ask me and I'll answer them as soon as I can. In any case, thanks for the kind words, rate++[grin]
Author
Since Sir Sapo is too lazy to discuss gameplay I'll try to do that, starting with a screenshot.
This is kind of a small fleet; I want later battles to have something like 5 times this number.
[Red Line- attack radius, Clear area is line of sight
Green- where you can move(error in this pic, ships next to carrier shouldn't have green under them) Asteriods are currently impassable.
White line-edge of map]
To really get a feel for it I suggest taking a look at the videos on the journal. The right menu has the 'stats' and the left has some of the specific ship options. A lot of the menu stuff is placeholding right now, sorry
Dasubermechen, I should have been more specific; we plan to have a 'strategic' aspect where you basically conquer the universe, getting more planets to produce more ships, and possibly more research. If you have any more ideas regarding that we'd be happy to hear them, too[smile]
AP-
Reconnaissance will probably be built into most of the missions, like in a Fleet Action you and the enemy start out on opposite corners of the map and must find each other; maneuver and postion will be an important aspect to gameplay.
Deliver the "thingee"(what a silly name) seems similar to escort, but reinforcement is definitely a good idea, nay, a fantastic one. You could come to the rescue of allied force, or have to fend off the enemy until reinforcements arrive. It'd be a cool twist to start a mission hopelessly screwed but then recieve enough reinforcements to basically hand them their ass on a platter.
Minimum force would be a interesting idea, we'll have to see if that's implementable.
Thanks for the input(s) and praise! [grin]I'll second Sapo's Rate Plus Plus's
This is kind of a small fleet; I want later battles to have something like 5 times this number.
[Red Line- attack radius, Clear area is line of sight
Green- where you can move(error in this pic, ships next to carrier shouldn't have green under them) Asteriods are currently impassable.
White line-edge of map]
To really get a feel for it I suggest taking a look at the videos on the journal. The right menu has the 'stats' and the left has some of the specific ship options. A lot of the menu stuff is placeholding right now, sorry
Dasubermechen, I should have been more specific; we plan to have a 'strategic' aspect where you basically conquer the universe, getting more planets to produce more ships, and possibly more research. If you have any more ideas regarding that we'd be happy to hear them, too[smile]
AP-
Reconnaissance will probably be built into most of the missions, like in a Fleet Action you and the enemy start out on opposite corners of the map and must find each other; maneuver and postion will be an important aspect to gameplay.
Deliver the "thingee"(what a silly name) seems similar to escort, but reinforcement is definitely a good idea, nay, a fantastic one. You could come to the rescue of allied force, or have to fend off the enemy until reinforcements arrive. It'd be a cool twist to start a mission hopelessly screwed but then recieve enough reinforcements to basically hand them their ass on a platter.
Minimum force would be a interesting idea, we'll have to see if that's implementable.
Thanks for the input(s) and praise! [grin]I'll second Sapo's Rate Plus Plus's
How is force construction done, or do you start each battle with limited units? Are there resources that you farm or any units of curancy used to improve your forces? What other forces are there that are playable, or just as NPCs?
I'm not sure of the gameplay dynamics, so these mightn't be useful, but here's some other ideas. Many of them are variants of the basic types you've already listed, though.
Capture: I know you've got this listed under "attack", but I think capturing is different enough to warrant a separate classification. Disable an enemy ship or station, board it with a raiding party, take it over.
Scouting/Reconnoissance: Already mentioned by the AP, but there's a number of ways this could go. Maybe you're just trying to figure out the size of the enemy fleet. Maybe you're searching a new star system for useful planets. Maybe you're IDing a friendly fleet to look for hidden spies. Or maybe you're trying to steal new technology ideas from the enemy.
Raid: similar to Attack, but rather than trying to destroy an enemy you are trying to inflict maximum damage while taking minimal losses using strike and run tactics. Also could be combined with "capture" to make it a snatch-and-grab mission for stealing resources.
Rescue: Another variant of capture. Try to take back a ship, station or a person that was captured by the enemy.
Weapons Test: The goal is to try out the fancy new ship or technology your scientists have just developed. Only really useful if you've got tech advancement. Could also trigger an enemy capture, raid or scouting mission.
Build: Construct a new base in hostile territory. Similar to "Defend", but has the additional objective of construction.
Decoy: Similar to attack, but the goal is not so much to inflict damage as to keep the enemy occupied for as long as possible while another force achieves the main mission.
Escape: Just try to get as many ships to escape as possible!
Recover: An enemy raid or attack has succeeded, but you want to recover materials or escape pods from your fleet.
Capture: I know you've got this listed under "attack", but I think capturing is different enough to warrant a separate classification. Disable an enemy ship or station, board it with a raiding party, take it over.
Scouting/Reconnoissance: Already mentioned by the AP, but there's a number of ways this could go. Maybe you're just trying to figure out the size of the enemy fleet. Maybe you're searching a new star system for useful planets. Maybe you're IDing a friendly fleet to look for hidden spies. Or maybe you're trying to steal new technology ideas from the enemy.
Raid: similar to Attack, but rather than trying to destroy an enemy you are trying to inflict maximum damage while taking minimal losses using strike and run tactics. Also could be combined with "capture" to make it a snatch-and-grab mission for stealing resources.
Rescue: Another variant of capture. Try to take back a ship, station or a person that was captured by the enemy.
Weapons Test: The goal is to try out the fancy new ship or technology your scientists have just developed. Only really useful if you've got tech advancement. Could also trigger an enemy capture, raid or scouting mission.
Build: Construct a new base in hostile territory. Similar to "Defend", but has the additional objective of construction.
Decoy: Similar to attack, but the goal is not so much to inflict damage as to keep the enemy occupied for as long as possible while another force achieves the main mission.
Escape: Just try to get as many ships to escape as possible!
Recover: An enemy raid or attack has succeeded, but you want to recover materials or escape pods from your fleet.
Author
Force construction is done at the strategic, or planetary-view level, each planet will have a different amount of creatively named "Production Points". There will be a construction screen for each planet, which will be able to make only as much as its production allows per turn on the strategic level, in addition to making new ships you can refit old ones. We may also include "Research Points"-
this stuff is inspired by Master of Orion 2, mostly.
So yes, the units you start a scenario with are the ones you have to use, unless I can arrange with Sapo a reinforcement-type thing, which I really want to do now.
There will be a single player component with enemy AI, which is what we are focusing on now, but the game structure is easily adapted for multiplay. We are testing game balance and other random stuff using a LAN at our school.
[Edit: hold on Trapper]
this stuff is inspired by Master of Orion 2, mostly.
So yes, the units you start a scenario with are the ones you have to use, unless I can arrange with Sapo a reinforcement-type thing, which I really want to do now.
There will be a single player component with enemy AI, which is what we are focusing on now, but the game structure is easily adapted for multiplay. We are testing game balance and other random stuff using a LAN at our school.
[Edit: hold on Trapper]
some more missions:
Sacrifice - Fight extremely unbalanced conditions with the purpose of delaying the enemy as long as possible. The longer you stay alive, the better. Escaping alive is optional/not an option [grin]. This would be cool if it affects next missions such as the longer you hold out, the more resources you managed to save for the next mission.
Guide Mission - Navigate through space putting marker beacons for your fleet to follow. Make sure that the area is clear of enemies, asteroid fields, etc or else the fleet might get damaged. Your craft is a small fast ship with limited marker beacons and weapons. If you find a enemy patrolled place, you might have to back track to get past fleet beacons and find another path. Have a time/fuel limit to prevent the player from just zooming all over the place.
Chase Mission - The enemy has a spy in your fleet. The spy ship is hiding within your fleet/a civilian fleet. you have to find the spy and destroy it. dunno how hard it will be to program the AI of the spy ship though. Make the spy ship look exactly like normal ships or even make it possible to change the look of the spy ship/mess up your ship ID system to make it harder to keep track of the spy ship among lots of similarly moving ships. Say only 1 or 2 of your police ships have the best sensors that can pinpoint the spy ship. Say the sensor range is a triangle shaped area from your position, direction. If the spy ship goes too far, the accuracy of the sensors diminish to force the player to chase the spy ship otherwise it might escape.The spy ship can get out of sensor range and double back to walk beside you and you wouldn't even notice unless you face in his direction.
[Edited by - yapposai on March 15, 2006 8:13:55 PM]
Sacrifice - Fight extremely unbalanced conditions with the purpose of delaying the enemy as long as possible. The longer you stay alive, the better. Escaping alive is optional/not an option [grin]. This would be cool if it affects next missions such as the longer you hold out, the more resources you managed to save for the next mission.
Guide Mission - Navigate through space putting marker beacons for your fleet to follow. Make sure that the area is clear of enemies, asteroid fields, etc or else the fleet might get damaged. Your craft is a small fast ship with limited marker beacons and weapons. If you find a enemy patrolled place, you might have to back track to get past fleet beacons and find another path. Have a time/fuel limit to prevent the player from just zooming all over the place.
Chase Mission - The enemy has a spy in your fleet. The spy ship is hiding within your fleet/a civilian fleet. you have to find the spy and destroy it. dunno how hard it will be to program the AI of the spy ship though. Make the spy ship look exactly like normal ships or even make it possible to change the look of the spy ship/mess up your ship ID system to make it harder to keep track of the spy ship among lots of similarly moving ships. Say only 1 or 2 of your police ships have the best sensors that can pinpoint the spy ship. Say the sensor range is a triangle shaped area from your position, direction. If the spy ship goes too far, the accuracy of the sensors diminish to force the player to chase the spy ship otherwise it might escape.The spy ship can get out of sensor range and double back to walk beside you and you wouldn't even notice unless you face in his direction.
[Edited by - yapposai on March 15, 2006 8:13:55 PM]
EDIT: wow, took me awhile to write that post, 3 people posted before me!
As Eugn mentioned, we are planning on having a Strategic part of the game, where instead of commanding individual ships, you would command entire fleets, and handle your "empire's" economy, such as industrializing planets and building up your fleets.
I'm pretty sure (not exactly though, Eugn keeps changing concepts on me[wink]), but once two fleets meet, the game transitions to the Tactical Map (the screen Eugn put up). At the start of the battle, you are able to place the ships the compose your fleet into any formation you would like within a certain radius of your start point on the map, and those ships are all you get for the battle, forcing players to think a bit before they move blindly into unknown territory.
As for currency, we're toying with an economic system based on the planet's you control and their level of industrialization or natural resources, which you can use to build fleets at a planet with a functioning starport.
Anyways, expect a more detailed post from Prinz Eugn telling me how I've got it all wrong.
Thanks for the interest!
[Edited by - Sir Sapo on March 15, 2006 7:14:37 PM]
Quote:Original post by Dasubermechen
How is force construction done, or do you start each battle with limited units? Are there resources that you farm or any units of curancy used to improve your forces? What other forces are there that are playable, or just as NPCs?
As Eugn mentioned, we are planning on having a Strategic part of the game, where instead of commanding individual ships, you would command entire fleets, and handle your "empire's" economy, such as industrializing planets and building up your fleets.
I'm pretty sure (not exactly though, Eugn keeps changing concepts on me[wink]), but once two fleets meet, the game transitions to the Tactical Map (the screen Eugn put up). At the start of the battle, you are able to place the ships the compose your fleet into any formation you would like within a certain radius of your start point on the map, and those ships are all you get for the battle, forcing players to think a bit before they move blindly into unknown territory.
As for currency, we're toying with an economic system based on the planet's you control and their level of industrialization or natural resources, which you can use to build fleets at a planet with a functioning starport.
Anyways, expect a more detailed post from Prinz Eugn telling me how I've got it all wrong.
Thanks for the interest!
[Edited by - Sir Sapo on March 15, 2006 7:14:37 PM]
This topic is closed to new replies.
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