still there :)

Heya guys, just a little heads up to say that we are STILL ALIVE and still working on TG ;) We had lots of things to do on the side, not always related to the game , but we are still on it and will publish more dev diaries and update soon! Meanwhile, have a great summer!

design diary 10: about weapons

 

Now that our spaceships are flying properly, what about some shooting?

Again it is all about iterations, So let's start with the basics first.

The game will have three main weapon families ( for now ) with their own advantages and disadvantages.

The Pulse Beams, the Torpedoes and the Laser Beams.

Think rock/ paper / cisor but a liiiitle more complex

Depending on distance, ship specs ( hard points/turrets ) and environment , those weapons will give you the upper hand or become a challenge.

How weapons works:

They are all energy based, as energy management will be a big part of the game.
 

Pulse beams are fast paced medium range weapons, can be shot directly where you are pointing at or lock on target ( turrets )

Pulse beams can intercept and explode torpedoes.

They are the no brainer weapons really. no high avantages or disadvantages.

 

Torpedoes are slow loading long range weapons. They are plasma energy balls that explode on impact and destination point . 

You can shoot the straight to the direction you are pointing at or they can be directed on target ( hard point and turrets ) They then behave like a missile for a short a certain period of time before exploding.

All explosions create a range of area  damage effect than runs for a certain amount of time too. That's the important bit of these weapons as they will lead to lots of different kind of strategies: firing torpedoes in straight line ahead of the target, using them as ( powerfull ) flares to destroy other torpedoes and so on

those explosions can intercept Pulse beams, not lasers. Torpedoes explode on any contact and dont know about friendly fire.
 

Laser beams: short ranged weapon and highly destructive on concentrated targets.
Goes through any kind of obstacles delivering damage all the way.That's its biggest advantage, no more hiding behind asteroids there.
It is also very demanding in energy, long to reload, but deliver a long blast of pure energy lasting from 2 to 3 seconds. Laser beam users will tend to use more offensive strategies, running into the melee fast, delivering the shots and then fying away fast to take time for power up

and to resume the different advantages and disadvantages between them:
So for range we get: Torpedoes>Pulse beams>Lasers
for energy use we have : Lasers> Torpedoes>Pulse Beams
for destructing power: Lasers>Torpedoes>Pulse Beams

For reload time: Lasers>Torpedoes>Pulse Beams ( the higher values the longer it takes to reload, not always a good thing)
Lasers and Pulse beams can destroy Torpedoes
Lasers goes through Torpedoes explosions while Pulse beams are blocked by it

We will of course have other kind tools to spice up the game a little more like mines ( come in wide range of behaviors and effects )
energy scramblers, cloaking devices and drones... and more!

 

Design Diary 09: Cruisers and Battlecruisers

While my teammate is working on the first weapon settings, I continue to scale up the Uman fleet.
This week is the Cruiser week!
Those ship will have a different game tactic approach.
I like to think of space games more like second world war naval battles.
Till now we presented you the fighters, who have more a plane/dogfight behavior.
Cruisers and BattleCruiser classes are behaving more like boats. They are slow, heavily armored and loaded with weapons. So they'll compensate with pure fire power, targeting anything around them with a nice variety of turrets.
Should be fun to engage or control!

Design Diary 08: Light fighters video and spaceship controls

And here's a new video about spaceships and control, we finally managed to get where we wanted to, so we can now move on the next stage... Shooting!
Here is the link to the video, enjoy! Space_Fighters_Tannhauser_Gates

Design Diary 07: Heavy fighters, design and modularity

You might have noticed already, the specific designs of the TG spaceships have a heavy LEGO influence.
Part of it must come from my own childhood obviously. Another reason is that there is some beauty about the minimalism and constraints of those small plastic boxes.
Constraints helps to create better designs. all ships in TG tend to follow those rules.
 Basic shapes put together to create a more complex one.
 Repetitivity in the elements, and reusability of the same elements from one ship to another allows to decline the ships for multiple usage while keeping a sense of uniformity and scale.
 For now the ships showcased on this blog are all coming from one of the races you'll encounter in TG.
This is the Uman fleet, closer to our design standards.
Later new blocks will be used for another race, creating a rythme, a silhouette that will be instantly recognisable. Cant wait to get started on this!
Meanwhile, here come the Heavy Fighter!

Design Diary 06: Slogs are making their first appearance!

Slogs are distant cousins of Jabba the Hut.
They are very good mathematicians and make fine navigators and technicians, exceptional at getting infos too ...if you pay the price!
They are greedy, and tough business men, very dangerous traders on the black market. When a Sloug wants something, you'd better give him fast or you are in for long lasting trouble.They have the cash, good relationship and the means... not always nice peoples.

Design Diary 05: interface first pass

When it comes to User Interface ( UI ) or simply Interface, there is just one way to do it: iterations iterations iterations. Interface is what makes the game accessible and enjoyable. You don't want to swamp the players into a one hour tutorial to make him understand how it works. He needs to understand it right away and learn its deeper complexities on the go. One rule that I want to follow is: the simpler the better, and once you get a mechanic, repeat it all over the place to make sure that when the player is comfortable with one system, he is comfortable with the whole thing.
So here is the first pass, basically the excercice was to put in there all what I needed to put to see how it goes.

Second pass has more refining already. I tried to make sure that there was no right click needed to interact with the system and the game. Spaceship management is on the bottom left, Cargo management on top left, Contacts and target management on top right and navigation management  on bottom right.Those are the full expanded menus to see the worst case scenario.

Designing in photoshop those interfaces helps also to think the whole interaction loop altogether and from A to Z . Visual  and design are one and same thing.Still need to figure out that dialog interface tho ;)