eleazar wrote:
I'm rather dubious about having a damage model where individual components take damage. With only a few seconds per turn, i imagine it would be quite hard for the player to quickly evaluate the health of multiple ships.
It can be done if each component has 'health' within a group. Eg 'Weapon' Components make up the weapon health meter. 'Defensive' Components make up the 'Defense' Meter. So you could have X Meters per ship shown as a health bar. And then have group wide health bars (the total).
eleazar wrote:
Can someone provide an example of a non turn-based game fleet game that successfully implements such a system?
No. And why a real time system? Combat is going to be like KOTOR, part real time part turn based, aka phased time, aka simultanious turn based.
Moriarty wrote:
So at the risk of re-entering the Role discussion (that I didn't read), I'll just say that Stars/Slots are very role oriented. You can only do what the game designers want/forsaw. And do you really want to trust the FO designers?
heh
Sigh @ being forbidden to talk about role stuff
This is true that slots is role orientated. You can avoid it though if you allow multiple components per slot and multiple component types in slot and then have X slots of X size each. Or just have one slot of total size. Of course at this point you might as well have a list system.
Moriarty wrote:
Lists let you design any type of ship from a simple base-hull. But they require more effort on the part of the player.
Yes, they are awesome.
Moriarty wrote:
With any system, I think a way to auto-equip basic stuff (shields, armour, engines) to the best tech level available would make sense. It'd be even more helpful with a slots system.
I agree. Why should we drag each chunk of armour into the right slot, when we can just choose from a drop box, Adamantium Armour and then maybe click check boxes to say front, rear, back, etc. The option for no armour or older tech armour should be available.
I could see how it might be important to put some components in twice, eg weapons, and shields if they increased strength with the more you have. Otherwise, just the simplest system should be used.
Overall I can think of the following questions that need to be answered in order to choose slots/list/grid:
*Multiple Ship Sections?
eg External / Internal / Deck 1, 2, etc.
*Component Space Usage Range?
eg 4 space (lasers) to 150 space (reinforced armour), or 1 space for all components or 1-4 space, etc.
*Component Restrictions for Space Sections?
eg Generic Slot allows any component. Weapons Slot only allows weapons. Internal Space Section only allows systems. External Space Section only allows weapons. Only one Component Type per slot.
*Tracking of Component Health?
eg Health bar to determine damage to engines, weapons, etc.
*Component Facings?
eg Restriction on Component Facings (Slots) or The ability to choose component facings, for weapons, shields, armour, etc.
*Quick Selection Systems?
eg Latest Armour automatically chosen (like Moo2) and changeable by player or player selects or drags in every single component and part.
*Method of choosing Components?
eg Drag & Drop (Slots/Grid), Drop Box (List/Slots), Pop Up Window (List/Slots), etc
*Hard Points?
eg Hard Points such as a Slot represent matching coordinates on the ships 3d model for display of components or creation of 'bullets'. Ability of the player to position these hard points, otherwise deal with where they already are.