Gratuitous Space Battles

Oh nice find here Pinback. I will add a link to the link page and watch some of the videos tonight. Work blocks youtube 🙁 now how counter productive is that.... don't they know I have something to do?

2D doesn't matter much their art style is nice and from the screenshots looks to be entertaining. These two FAQ entries pretty much cover the overall game concept:

Looks like a lot of fun.

I will have to download the demo when it comes out.I think I have one of there other games in my

collection.

Just watched these videos and it does look fun 🙂 I will probably contact the developer and see if we can get a Q&A and maybe an early beta for us to preview... and give some feedback on. But love the tower defense aspect and the scale of the battles look great and the ship models are good too.

Hi, I'm the guy developing Gratuitous Space Battles, if anyone wants to know anything specific about the game, feel free to ask.

Thanks for dropping in Cliffski

Without having played GSB yet and just going off of what I have read and seen. Have a few questions...

1. I see that you now have a mod section in your forums. What can you mod in GSB and is there an editor?

2. Will you introducing nebula, asteroids, space debris as factors in the battles? Maybe have the nebula be either helpful because ships cannot lock on unless they are close or the other way around you cannot target. Or any other fun tricks you can do with nebula. Using asteroids and space debris as blockades where they do damage to ships and broken ships can still explode causing damage.

3. It looks like you do all the pre-planning for the battles before hand and just sit back and watch what happens. If you noticed a huge flaw in your plans can you adjust plans once they have been ordered?

4. Goes giving orders get granular meaning. You tell a squad of fighters to only go after a missile battery on a capitol ship. Or does it just engage the capitol ship until either are destroyed?

5. I always ask this on many games. Do your plan to have GSB on any consoles/mobile devices (particularly the PS3)?

6. If I pre-order GSB now, that gives me access to the beta currently ongoing and to the full game when released correct? Do you plan on releasing expansions or small content upgrades in the future? And would those be free to download?

7. Does explosions or the concussion of large stations and ships being destroyed kill the attacking enemy as well if they are to close?

8. I noticed most of the action is from a top down perspective. Are there different camera angles?

9. What games influenced the gameplay and style of GSB? If you had to gauge how far you are in development what % of completeness are you?

10. I think I read on your blog that you are a one man show. How long has the development cycle been for GSB and do you also do all your own ship modules?

Cannot wait to get a better look at this game Cliffski, thanks for answering some of these questions and glad to have ya in the community. With the size of the community that i see is growing behind GSB I will probably dedicate an area here for the game as well for people to upload there mods and other things to get the word spread about this great addition to the space genre of games 🙂

-D1-

Modding:

Everything in the game is either text files or sprites, so a determined modder can change almost anything. There are already people adding in new spaceship hulls, new space backdrops, weapons and all sorts of similar things. There is not an editor at the moment, but there may be one at some future stage.

Nebula:

There are nebulas in the game that affect certain ship capabilities, such as missions where shields are reduced to 25% strength, or where weapons ranges or ship speeds are affected.

Planning:

There is no mid-game orders or changes of plan, mainly to facilitate the asynchronous multiplayer challenge system, which lets you send your space fleet to another player for them to play against.

Orders:

Orders are not for specific targets or ships, but just classes of ship, so you say things like "engage enemy fighters at a max range of 400 meters, with 39% priority"

Its too early to tell if the game will get ported to other platforms. Maybe 😀

Expansions:

I'm sure eventually there will be scope for doing add-ons or sequels, but right now the aim is just to get as much content and flexibility into the initial release of the game. I wouldn't rule out paid-for expansions in future through.

Explosions:

There are not any area of effect weapons yet, but these are quite likely to be added during the beta.

2D:

The game is entirely 2D, the ships themselves are 3D models that have been rendered into 2D images.

Influences:

A bit of starfleet command maybe (I was a huge player of the starfleet battles pen and paper game). I'm maybe at 90-95% of completion of the game

Dev:

I do all the modules yup :D. The game has taken about a year full time.

Cheers!

Cliffski

I have noticed in the forums a few threads that mention mission difficulty and unlockable features.

1. On mission difficulty, will there be different AI levels of difficulty? Currently if you played it on normal/base level of difficulty. Roughly how many hours would it take a newb to complete all the missions in GSB?

2. Unlockables had mixed feelings in the forums. But I like the idea personally, but maybe not have the unlockables be normal in-game items. Have them be special upgrades, ships or weapons you can use later in later missions or in MP play.

Besides the addition of AOE weapons in GSB. Will GSB eventually add in damage from explosions/shockwaves done from enemy or your ships exploding causing damage to all ships? This would provide some extra realism that you would have to account for while planning.

Cliffski do you think we'll see the GSB demo before Xmas?

There is a new patch out yesterday which adds area of effect damage to the explosions when a frigate or cruiser finally blows up.

There should be a demo before Christmas, definitely.

Just found this site, long-time spacesim fan, and found this thread, and I felt I had to emphasize that cliffski is one of the best indie devs out there IMO, Cliff, I bought two of your previous games, Democracy 1 and 2, and loved'em both, bought GSB about a week ago after having followed it since it was first announced, and so far, my impression is 100% positive, it's a great game IMO, and a great concept.

It's also a great concept IMO that can be very fleshed out in future sequels(or expansions).

Now, whilst there are definitely some balance issues in the beta, I feel like most others of the beta-players, that this is definitely something that will be sorted simply by giving Cliff the feedback he needs, which is yet another reason as to why I love the fact that you(Cliff) are doing an open-beta for paying customers, it's a great way to make your loyal consumers feel like they're actually helping and being a part of the development process!

Personally my fav thing in GSB so far has been designing the fighters, and trying to beat as many scenarios as possible using ONLY fighters(no frigates etc), it's hard but it's so fun to watch several hundred of these things flying around shooting at these huge beasts.

What's also surprising is they can kick a surprisingly large amount of ass, especially if you manage to cut off a ship from the others(and from fighter escort), the larger ships seem very vulnerable to fighters if they don't have fighter coverage themselves!

oh well, I rant on, sorry!

Welcome btw Gargantou to SSC.

I think you just sold me on GSB. I will look to purchasing it at the end of the month and give it a try and make a new area on the site for it. Need to give this game a bit more exposure and i'll do my part.

I like the AOE effects Cliffski said was going into the game and the balancing issues being noted for being addressed. When GSB gets released it should be pretty solid. I can also make a download are for GSB and people can upload their mods here as well if they want. I will post something on GSB forums soon to offer it up for everyone.

Cheers for the support everyone, balancing a game like GSB is a nightmare. Ship designers are so devious 😀

Cliffski if you need a download mirror or a place to have your communities mods stored just let me know and I'll create an area for you. Have plenty of storage space got to use it up somehow 🙂

Well the demo has been released so go and download it http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspa ... /demo.html and let us know what you think?

*cough* *cough* GSB as a part of a 4X turn based strategy space game like Moo2 *cough**cough*

*cough*

*cough*

I have to go to the doc, i might have "MOO2 lung" cancer, because of the lack of a worthy sucessor to Moo2.

No where in these posts does GSB get compared to a 4x game. GSB isn't a 4x game at all it is a RTS which is different. You might want to look in the 4x section for games similar to MOO2

Is GBS going to get it's own section here or what? 😀

I've only got the demo, but I like it. Some friends of mine from Jumpgate have played GBS and talk about it some. They think Frigates are so under powered they are useless, but not I. Now I've only got the demo so I can not buy any upgrades and can only play the first tree missions. But I can beat those three missions on expert difficulty using only Frigates with a LOT left over. On the third mission, I do it with 90% of my fleet left over!

What is your take on the game and ships?

I use:

Federation Fox Frigate Hull

Power Ger II

2x Crew Module (I)

4x Shield Gen II

4x Frigate Torpedo

Federation Fox Frigate Hull

Power Ger II

2x Crew Module (I)

4x Shield Gen II

4x Anti-Fighter Missile Launcher

I don't really like using zero engines, but it works on these demo missions really well.

I'm still trying a pure Fighter build on the first level, but haven't pulled it off yet. I only have 2 Fighters to pick from though.

I have played the demo a bit and I know some ships die very quickly in the beginnings because they are faster ships and don't wait up for the rest of your fleet so they get pummeled.

I know I would like to hear more sounds of the battles instead of zooming in on an area to hear the action.

And I know this is supposed to be an order driven game, but I would like to be able to point out specific targets or weapon systems to destroy (kinda like in Nexus).

On an area just for GSB I could make one if there is more a want for it and I would gladly host a download area for the mods if people want one and people want to upload them 🙂

The graphics look awesome. I'm not a fan of the tower defense genre at all, but with graphics like that and the ship customization this could be fun as an RTS.

Perhaps i wasn't clear enough.

What about the GSB as a battle system of a 4X space game?

One can dream 🙂

I agree it would be great to have a 4x space game using GSB, if done right it could quite possible be the best thing ever.

Looks like there is going to be a scenario editor in GSB soon. Cliffski is hoping to get it into patch v1.28

Here is a pic of it

Bought the game, well worth it.

It's a good game in the sense of tactics; some ships are better in some spatial environs, upgrades are made available as you advance, heck, you can build your own ships with hulls provided. Set 'em up and cut 'em loose.

The modding community seems really active and I'm anticipating more ships and scenarios via this community.

Here is a preview video of The Swarm Expansion Pack the Gratuitous Space Battles. I like the some of the new ships and those explosions are great.

[gametrailers] http://www.gametrailers.com/video/the-swarm-gratuitous-space/65285 [/gametrailers]

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Bit annoying I could never get the game to work.