Really liking the progress on this.
I downloaded Space Squadron a few weeks back and I really like it. It reminded me of a table top strategy game called Full Thrust.
I've been reading a series of novels called The Lost Fleet by Jack Campbell. In them they have these massive space battles and it seems that it's the positioning of the spaceships that is the tactical element and not the shooting itself. They're a decent read and they might give you some ideas.
I've not read every post in this thread so applogies if some of these have been mentioned:
The player has to actively use counter measures, such as:
- decoys to lure homeing missiles away (these would be range dependant so the further away they are from a missile the less effect they have
- "scatter gun" to shoot missiles down
In full thrust, each ship has a number of targeting computers. For each targeting computer the ship can "target" an opposing ship and then fire as many weapons at the target as they have. The player would then have to choose which enemy ships to shoot at.
Give some spaceships mine laying capabilities.
The spaceship equivalent of a flash bang (disrupts sensors for a brief period of time).
The spaceship equivalent of a chaff grenade (blocks line of sight).
Quote: "There's no real benefit to dog fighting or doing high speed passes because you will just hit different bits of armour and not hit the component you want to, or at higher speeds you just miss completely as currently the turrets don't 'lead' the target."
Maybe what you need is a mix of weapons that are better for different speeds and ranges. For instance, you could have a "scatter gun" (mentioned this again but they also get use in The Lost Fleet novels) that allows you to score hits at short ranges but high speeds, but each shot does relatively little damage. You could then have a "sniper gun" that's good at long range but low speeds.
Just out of interest, for projectile weapons (I'm thinking the space ship equivalent of a bullet) are you using the relative speed of the project and target ship? So for instance, if you go head on into a "bullet" it does more damage then if you hit it side on?
I don't know if any of these are helpful. If I can think of anything else I let you know.
one of these days I'll come up with a better signature
