Idea for Battles

For what's not in 'Top Priority Game Design'. Post your ideas, visions, suggestions for the game, rules, modifications, etc.

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Morphious
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Idea for Battles

#1 Post by Morphious »

Years ago, when me and my friend first discovered moo2, we had (what I think) is a good idea for the space/tactical combat.
How about you get a finite amount of time at the end of each turn to fight the battles, like 10 turns for example. When this time is up the battle doesn't end, but you have to wait for next turn. This would enable reinforcements to arrive and could make for some great, long-term fights.

M

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skdiw
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#2 Post by skdiw »

The idea was out before. I had the idea that for hyper-space interception, the combat will only last two turns.

Plus I imagine we will have an upper limit anyway just in case of stalemate or something retarded happens like moo3 crap early engines with puny weapons that it takes 5 minutes to resolve a dumb battle between 2 scouts.
:mrgreen:

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utilae
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Re: Idea for Battles

#3 Post by utilae »

Morphious wrote:Years ago, when me and my friend first discovered moo2, we had (what I think) is a good idea for the space/tactical combat.
How about you get a finite amount of time at the end of each turn to fight the battles, like 10 turns for example. When this time is up the battle doesn't end, but you have to wait for next turn. This would enable reinforcements to arrive and could make for some great, long-term fights.

M
I, among others came up with a similar idea. Basically the battle would go for like 5 mins (whatever time is best) and once time runs out the battle is halted and continued on the next turn, from where it was halted.

Look around in the brainstorming thread, you may find the discussions.

Impaler
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#4 Post by Impaler »

Actualy it was I who first sugjested this (realy it was I sware)

Let me elaborate a bit on Utilae's post as I am familar with what he poroposes but he has a tendency to leave out some important details that can easily get you confused (we argued over it for about 10 pages so trust me you dont want to read that thread)

The combat woud be turn based and function much like the game Combat Mission based on Simultanois turn exicution (similar to how the Galaxy map works). Their is a paused/frozen phase inwhich you issue orders to your ships. Then you press an Execute button and stuff gets exicuted for a short standardized period of time say 20-30 seconds, durring this time you cant give orders (or atleast you cant pause to give orders). When the time is up the combat freezes again for another round. When Utilae says that combat would last "5 minutes" he means 5 minutes worth of exicuting phase time which would be roughly 10-20 turns and it would always be a consistent number of turns too. In single player you have an unlimited amount of time to give orders before you exicutes, in multi-player the ordering phase would most likly be under a time limit that is determined by setting you select at the start of the game.

My proposal which runs parralel to what Utilae sugjests is for their to be a thing called "Fractional ETA". When ships move from system to system the time it takes is expressed in turns AND 2 decimal places of turns such as 3.45 or 2.98 or 6.27. These fractions translate directly into turns in the combat phase of the game. 100 combat turns are equivalent to a normal Galactic game turn. At the end of Combat turn 100 the combat map and everything on it gets saved and loaded for the next turn. As ships enter the battle they get placed at the edge of the map on the apropirate turn. So if a ship was sent as reinforcments to a system that has a battle in it and the ETA was .34 turns then the reinforcments get added on the 34th turn of the combat.
Fear is the Mind Killer - Frank Herbert -Dune

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utilae
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#5 Post by utilae »

Hey, that explains things more. :)

I was wondering, how complex fractional ETA would be to the player?

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skdiw
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#6 Post by skdiw »

Fractional wha?
:mrgreen:

Ablaze
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#7 Post by Ablaze »

ETA is an abbrevation for Estimated Time of Arrival. In this case it’s a perfect estimate.. but this is still an apt abbreviation in this context.
Time flies like the wind, fruit flies like bananas.

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skdiw
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#8 Post by skdiw »

I was just joking.

But how is fractional ETA calculated? Can you order that I want all my fleet to arrive at the same time? Or go in combat and retreat in nearby space then come back .24 turns latter? It seems kinda complicated. Does it add a significant value to combat to justify the added complexity?
:mrgreen:

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Krikkitone
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#9 Post by Krikkitone »

Best way would probably have to be with standing fleet orders..you could create a fleet, that is 'tied together' in terms of interstelar travel. You could also have a 'wait for all reinforcements' before attacking type of order.

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utilae
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#10 Post by utilae »

Impaler is saying that the turns within combat are like 'sub turns' of a turn within managing your empire.

So in space combat you would see both: the combat turns and the empire turns (galactic turns as Impaler calls it).
eg in space combat the current turn may be displayed as:
34 (space combat turn)
as well as:
0.34 (galactic turn)

This is all to determine when exactly reinforcements arrive. Though, it may be too complex to be used.

krum
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#11 Post by krum »

No, it wouldn't be at all. Say a fleet can move as slow as half its max speed. Then you get to choose a moment for all fleets that you selected to arrive. Next to each one its maximum and minimum travel time are displayed. You choose a time of arrival scrolling some SLIDER :D. The fleets that can't arrive at the currently selected time are shaded as you move the slider.

P.S. Maybe you should also be able to divide them in strike groups arriving at different times in the same screen. And also group them in one fleet even though they aren't at the same place.

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