Procedural space game with trading/crafting/modular ship design

[Guest]

Space Privateers! Great name! Modularity of ships sounds like a great idea however you decide to do it, I would be interested in seeing what you come up with in that regard, Heat Signature looks cool but I would be equally interested in seeing a heap of ships that look similar and have different load outs in terms of weapons, systems and equipment. At the moment I am actually between tablets lol next one will probably be an ipad of some description though. Micro managment in FTL is great isnt it? And its funny you mention Xcom (huge fan) as they have a similar feel in terms of game play, small mistakes escilate quickly in both games and seeing things unfold sucks you right into the game world so much you suddenly realized you forgot to eat.A combination of Xcom and FTL might well my version of space sim heaven actually haha Yes I think your crew should have skill trees too, maybe you can even make them randomly like Xcom? Then you decide what function they will perform on your ship, or what console they will stand at FTL style to apply their skill bonus too (engines, weapons ect)Turn based would be interesting too, I would be happy to play either way  Actually if its turn based then maybe you could add boarding mechanics to it as well and invade other ships during combat? That would make it well worth it! In my opinion I would rather the time and energy that went into PVP be used instead to make the NPC's and world immersion better, thats what I really live for in a game. I want to log off from my own world when I play and get sucked into thinking Im actually commanding a spaceship, going on adventures and leading my crew into mysterious parts of the universe from the comfort of my swivel chair. Thats just what Im after anyway, Im sure everyone is different. Actually it would be interesting to see some stats on what space gamers like more single or multiplayer. Of course if you make it multiplayer and its still fully immersive then win/win right!

[SpacePrivateers]

Thanks. It's very motivating to get such kind of incredible feedback. Haven't actually expected this. Currently I work on some kind of a small design document to summarize everything a bit. FTL looks awesome, I completely missed that gem! Boarding of other ships is on my list, yes. And I will stick with different ship types like in FTL which can be equipped and enhanced modular but which are not completely random like in Heat Signature. I think that mixture of somehow turn based and real time like it's done in FTL is a good way to do it. I'll set up a small page and will blog a bit about the game and how it proceeds. Of course I will keep you up to date here as well! edit: Page: http://www.spaceprivateers.com[/url]

[Guest]

haha no problem! just passionate about space sim games, especially traders and also space 2D games, so glad to help you come up with ideas! great idea Boarding of other ships is on my listWahoo! I am excited about this game already and there is nothing to even look at yet lol FTL is so fun. Thats also why i was thinking you could make that the basis of the combat, all you do in that game is fight ship after ship but you can do it for hours and hours and not get bored with it. They must have gotten the balance just right. I like the sound of your idea for the ships, that sounds perfect to me, as does the mix of turn based and real time. like i said Im already excited to see these concepts in your game! Blogs are awesome, I follow a bunch of dev blogs already and I will follow yours for sure, will be great to watch your game start from the ground up! so cool, its a real thing now, it has a website! and you even got the right name for it, well done with that btw look forward to seeing how your first mock up goes

[SpacePrivateers]

Haha oh well. Having a website doesn't mean it's real. Wish it would be that easy. Oh wait, NOT. But yeah, thanks so much again. I've carried parts of this idea for years of my life already and so it will become something I put my heart into.  Regarding boarding: Yes, always wanted this. I like rogue like games so this is a must have for me. Loved X-Com the days back as well (played the first, original one). I think I'll even start with doing something that your ship is docked to a station and you can walk there and buy and sell stuff. Might be a good start. About that name, well yes, I had this in mind quite a while already.  Oh and by the way, actually there is really a chance that this will become a real game. I've already released some so I'm not that kind of guy who just talks, even though I love that part too! HA!

[Guest]

I could tell you have been thinking about it for a while so I am picturing good things will come of this!  re: boardingI think thats a great idea, starting at a station and shopping around for supplies. In fact its how one of my favorite rouge likes starts! (have you ever seen a game called Prospector RL?) maybe you can also find abandoned and downed ships and board them too, just like stations. If you could use that boarding / station mechanic for exploring derelict ships in space then that would be so fun!I can think of like a dozen different short stories to accompany a derelict craft too, that would be great for the RPG elements of it, working out what happened to them from log entries and what items are in each room.Were everyone taken by aliens? Did the crew try to fight off space crazed cannibals and fail? Did slavers take the crew and scuttle the ship? Did a mysterious anomaly turn them all to dust because they only had low grade shields? Maybe the captain went rouge and vented the atmosphere so he could make off with a near priceless cargo they were carrying or maybe the ship was just so low on fuel after running from pirates that they literally couldnt get back to a station to fix the damage they received. These could made for some interesting and creepy side missions or just points of interest on your way too and from other places. Im the kind of guy thats always wanted to try but only knows very basic coding so just talks about it instead lolGlad to hear you have experience though, this makes me even more interested in what you come up with!

[SpacePrivateers]

Yes I have this in my mind as well. Abandoned ships and stations, mysterious things here and there. I think I'll definitely come back to you on this and if you like you really could help with the story line and some of this stuff. I might set up some kind of an internal forum and invite your there to not spoil too much of this stuff, right? That way I could provide you with prototypes here and there.  If anyone else is interested as well, just let me know but probably it's just too early for most of you to step in. Not you stephanzgreat, you have no choice, resistance is futile! lol Beside that I basically know how the battle part could work now but still scratch my head about traveling. The way it develops I don't think it makes sense to move the ship like in any arcade shooter but just to set targets and time passes by. Maybe even some time shrinking mechanism like in Elite/Frontier would be a good thing. BTW: May I ask where you're from? I'm from Germany, an evil Kraut, you know?

[Guest]

Excellent! great minds think alike in regards to abandoned space ships and stations it seems hahaYes I would be happy to help with any story stuff or other missions, quests, NPC's ect  At the moment I am trying to become a writer (just in my spare time) and Im working on my first novel thats in this same kind of an adventure scifi setting, so Im getting my mind used to generating lots of random story stuff of this type. It shouldnt be too hard to make up things for your game too while my mind is floating around among the scif clouds all day. Plus its all good practice for me so assimilate away! lol hmm travelling is something you spend a lot of time doing in a space sim and also in any RPG ish world so yes it would be good make that bit interesting. I need to have a think about that for a bit before I can give my opinion / ideas on a good mechanic for it.. oh no an evil kraut! hahaha cool :DIm from Australia, land of the endless beach.. that you mostly cant swim at because of all of the wildlife thats trying to bite you, sting you, poison you, or all three also yeah that would be great to do an internal forum type thing, especially to see prototype stuff! also I can give you my email if that helps too (I assume I can put it in a post or something? I really need to look at the forum rules for this place come to mention it lol)

[SpacePrivateers]

I've send you a message here over this forum.

[SpacePrivateers]

Just wanted to show you a quick shot of artwork. This will be one of the ships I will use for testing first. Looks a lot like FTL I know. Well, nothing wrong with that as the game itself will be different. There are quite some sections there. Front of the ship the sensors followed by piloting, rear all that engine stuff. On the left and right weapons. Reactor in the middle with some locks in front. This is not by all mean any graphics for a possibly finished game, it's just something to work with.

[SpacePrivateers]

Hi there, I've just set up the universe which will be made of sectors like in Elite/Frontier. Each sector has a size of 10 light years. There will be 10,000 sectors in x and y, which will lead to a size of the whole system of 100,000 light years squared. Every sector will have up to 9 systems. Each system will have a star and with 5% probability a double star. Every star will have up to 7 planets plus moons, asteroids and so on... All in all this will lead up to 900 million solar systems, all procedural generated. Names will be generated as well. That screen shows the overview map with the current systems around your position including the range of your engine (green circle). This is still very rough but I think a good point to start with (and actually already works! yeah!)

[SpacePrivateers]

Here's a new ingame screen. You might notice that hex grid in the middle which pops up when you are in some kind of a "situation", let it be combat or something interesting. So you will move your ship turn based, attack, research and so on.A small nice gimmick is that every crew member has some kind of a bio monitor. Looks nice in real. :DStill some placeholder graphics though... oh and when you want to interact with your ship it's zoomed in![/url] for a larger screen...