The Idea of having them has allready been made but here's my take how it could look like. I would suggest a top down realtime space battle with nice background and maybe some floating stars and planets. What i envisioned is to maybe (depends on how space ships are made) to give players the ability to choose from predesigned space ships or even let them create their own version from nothing more than blocks and material. Let's say you could make a space ship out of pure wood you'd be very sorry in a space battle because it's rather poor ability to take damage while using something rare as material could protect it far better but would be harder to get. Making a space ship out of blocks may sound not as very much but with some block displacement it could look like really funny to see ships blast eachother into pieces Also depending on the material and size of ships you could give the player a certain amount of "slots" to place offensive and defensive stuff on the ship and stuff like engines, planet scanners or whatever you like. How about using something like steamworks to download user created space ships that pop up as blueprints in your game and with the proper amount of meterials/blocks/resources you could craft those designs. Such a mechanic would als involve the community and such would benefit the game. I would even go this far as to suggest that this system could be used for user created content in general where complete buildings could be downloaded and used in your game while having to craft them from blueprints with the proper resources needed. Found a cool machine or house...just costs you 50 wood, 24 iron, 6 gold, ... to craft it. How about giving the game logical switches and wires to add logic and behaviour to various objects. Players could craft their own mechanical devices and make a blueprint out of them. A bit of R&D here for the player and they could share it with the community. Think of an automated factory for penguin breeding ....to supply your galactic army
I am afraid this isn't going to work in the same way you will intend, but for all purposes there probably won't be 'space battles' unfortunately. At best you can fly very far away from the planet you are and engage in attacking enemies there. This is because when you want to travel from planet to planet you will just type in a coordinate(seed) that will lead you to that planet. I am also not sure about how this game could go from a side-scroller to top-down shooter when you enter a ship?
That wouldn't be a problem. It could just be a calculation if a battle happens between transition or not. Top down also isn't any different than a side-scroller in terms of both being 2D and you have the same axis present. You could do much but it depends on how far you would go to do something. The idea behind my thread is just an idea and if something will be done isn't up to me. Sometimes Ideas can bring forth many solutions or even better ideas and that's why i'm making them
I agree partially with you in this last post, Alpha, but I think he means something like a random encounter such as found in games like Pokemon and Final Fantasy. For every number of coordinates you travel, you have an x% chance of a random encounter, running off variables like population, alignment, (location from government?) etc. And it really isn't much different. Lose Gravity, and space exploration isn't much different than side scrolling. The screen scrolls in the direction you pilot, just like in the direction you walk/jump/fall on land. I've been sort of hoping that small-scale space exploration will be possible. For example, a 1x1 parsec area is not home to only one planet, but likely a solar system or two. I would think it would look something like this... This is a screenshot of Starport: Galactic Empires. I assume exploration would work like this on a similar scale. You want to go to a certain coordinate, your ship goes there through wormholes. Though this EXACT system can't be expected (I personally hate this style of travel), I think something similar would work well, allowing you to explore small areas of space. Naturally not all planets will be explorable and there will likely be fewer than in the screenshot, but I think you understand what I'm getting at. I think, contrary to EaglePryde, that encounters would be infrequent mobs that spawn in space, and may be friendly, neutral, or hostile, as on land. Also, the setup may be more square than round. I'm probably rambling again. You all have good points, this is just my two cents.
This could also be done but i really wanted to start small with suggestions because i really have no clue how they want to make a Starmap. A Starmap can be like this or just a bunch of circles connected together, where every circle is a planet. It really depends. If the game get's a more open navigation method where you can move your ship around a solar system and just jump from one to another than something what you presented with this picture would fit but somehow i doubt it. I assume that it will be a very simplified Star Map. We'll have to wait and see where it goes.
I don't think switching perspectives from side scroll to top down is the best idea. It creates a visual disconnect and means you can do things like ships landing on planets or interacting with other elements. Though i understand why you would want top down. Spaceships don't look as good from the side. I actually did a little mock up of how this might work. The idea is your building the ship up from these ship parts. (Most parts are 4x8 blocks) They connect at the green marks there and have both a inside and outside so you can walk around inside the ship or fly the ship around space. (That is actually done by having two ships. One is just a really complex vehicle, the other is a map. Depending on weather you are inside or outside the ship you see one or the other.)
From what I understand of what the devs have said is that space is near negligible and you can only travel to different planets by using the star map. I hope this isn't the case as space battles are awesome, but that is how I interpret what they said. Personally, I would have players travel through space manually (though there would be jump drives,etc.) and the star map would just be a map. Though I guess it would get a little messy with the dimensions which is where your idea of making the game become a top-down, in which case I guess the devs have a point.
If you want to keep a left-and-right system, piloting a ship like in "RPG Shooter: Starwish" might work. It'd be a little awkward at first, but if that is the cost of space, I would pay gladly. It's not quite sci-fi without space... I really don't care if it takes several updates past the release, I just want space travel.
i think going from sidescroll to top down is to much on the engine, you should try to redesign space combat to work in a side scroller.
Anyone ever played a cannon game? Like Toss the Turtle, Burrito Bison or (closer to what I'm getting at,) Learn to Fly and Flight? Perhaps left and right flying and the ability to aim up and down by flying in that direction could work. I'd assume turning around would cause an animation similar to a Himmelman turn, or just a spin so the ship doesn't wind up flying upside-down whenever you go left.
I was thinking of a side-scroller shooter too for flying, as well as the turning. I hope at least we can fly in some spaceships at the very least.
Firstly bump More importantly, I think that this can really be implemented now knowing that there are actual spaces in between planets that are just empty space. It could work simply by coming into an area that is just space and you end up top-down. You can leave your space station and fly around in your spaceship, engage in fights or group together with some friends for whatever reason. This idea would be an excellent addition for the game.
