A Better Air Game
Posted: 01 Sep 2018, 23:41
I ve been contemplating for a while Air for nearly all spring games there is.
And i think it would be good to have a Air only game to push the sorry state of affairs Air game is mostly in.
Air suffers from:
1) Non-Determinism
Air Units battling never lead to a predictable outcome, dependent on the skills of the player. One can load the dice, by sending in a thousand throws, but the result is always down to "luck". Luck being, the Units Behavior, controlled by the Set Values, its potential MidAir Collissions, LowRes-Heigthmap and its given orders- interacting at high speed with the rest of the game.
2) Lack of Control
Air is more difficult to controll by its very nature. It takes part in a 3d space, whether the controls threat it as such or not.
Air can only be microed decently for slow units.
Air Defenses are for fast Units only viable on full automatic. So Air turns into a strange mixture of a 2Dimensional Tank battle without terrain, and some hyper-fast "The Settlers" where commands are just a indication of Priority of Destruction if you make it this far. For the purpose of this essay, these praerie-"hover"-tanks with wings do not exist.
None of this is really challenging- or actually interesting.
3) Visuals & Gameplay clash
Fast jets, swarming droneships, the Air Game is dominated by the visuals of every movie ever made, showing air Units (Jet Planes, Space Ships). We also sub-consciously expect heroics - individuals units attacking with outstanding maneuvers or sacrificing themselves to slam into larger units.
Those Visuals are a target, but also a obstacle. They lure gamedesigners away from what could be archived.
They also force us to either give up on control consistency (Priorty TargetSettings vs actual Micro).
All these problems would affect naval Units too where it not for physics.
4)SumaSumarum
As a result of this, Air is basically shunned and deprecated for most Spring-games. Its used when the pathing is broken, the map is horrible or the Ships dont get through. Its even less beloved by gamedesigners atm then naval units. It still survives ingame due to the visual appeal and nostalgia.
The Plan:
So i imagined a purified Air-Game, basically a GameDev Mod whose only purpose is to push the Air Game as a concept onwards.
The Units:
Stationary:
- One Unit Factory.
- Two Defense Turrets - one with precise large Damage in small Area. One with imprecise small Damage in large Area.
Mobile:
- Fast (Light Armoured / One Directional Mobility)
- Medium (Medium Amoured / Dual Directional Mobility)
- Slow (Highly Amoured / Multi Directional Mobile)
- Stationary ( Non Amoured / Non-Mobile)
All three Unit Types come in two Variations- one is a Distributed Drone Swarm- the other one fused together "Heroe" Unit.
Drones can change theire Nature by going through the Stationary Stage for the Transformation.
Drones ways suicide attack.
Controlls:
Each Speed Category has a separate Set of Controls.
High Speed Units: Have pre drawn Spline Paths, who continue to exist even after a Unit ceased to be.
Medium Speed: Close to the traditional Air-Tank Controls.
Slow Speed: Something similar to the homeworld approach, allowing for Greater Arcs.
Anyone any additional ideas?
And i think it would be good to have a Air only game to push the sorry state of affairs Air game is mostly in.
Air suffers from:
1) Non-Determinism
Air Units battling never lead to a predictable outcome, dependent on the skills of the player. One can load the dice, by sending in a thousand throws, but the result is always down to "luck". Luck being, the Units Behavior, controlled by the Set Values, its potential MidAir Collissions, LowRes-Heigthmap and its given orders- interacting at high speed with the rest of the game.
2) Lack of Control
Air is more difficult to controll by its very nature. It takes part in a 3d space, whether the controls threat it as such or not.
Air can only be microed decently for slow units.
Air Defenses are for fast Units only viable on full automatic. So Air turns into a strange mixture of a 2Dimensional Tank battle without terrain, and some hyper-fast "The Settlers" where commands are just a indication of Priority of Destruction if you make it this far. For the purpose of this essay, these praerie-"hover"-tanks with wings do not exist.
None of this is really challenging- or actually interesting.
3) Visuals & Gameplay clash
Fast jets, swarming droneships, the Air Game is dominated by the visuals of every movie ever made, showing air Units (Jet Planes, Space Ships). We also sub-consciously expect heroics - individuals units attacking with outstanding maneuvers or sacrificing themselves to slam into larger units.
Those Visuals are a target, but also a obstacle. They lure gamedesigners away from what could be archived.
They also force us to either give up on control consistency (Priorty TargetSettings vs actual Micro).
All these problems would affect naval Units too where it not for physics.
4)SumaSumarum
As a result of this, Air is basically shunned and deprecated for most Spring-games. Its used when the pathing is broken, the map is horrible or the Ships dont get through. Its even less beloved by gamedesigners atm then naval units. It still survives ingame due to the visual appeal and nostalgia.
The Plan:
So i imagined a purified Air-Game, basically a GameDev Mod whose only purpose is to push the Air Game as a concept onwards.
The Units:
Stationary:
- One Unit Factory.
- Two Defense Turrets - one with precise large Damage in small Area. One with imprecise small Damage in large Area.
Mobile:
- Fast (Light Armoured / One Directional Mobility)
- Medium (Medium Amoured / Dual Directional Mobility)
- Slow (Highly Amoured / Multi Directional Mobile)
- Stationary ( Non Amoured / Non-Mobile)
All three Unit Types come in two Variations- one is a Distributed Drone Swarm- the other one fused together "Heroe" Unit.
Drones can change theire Nature by going through the Stationary Stage for the Transformation.
Drones ways suicide attack.
Controlls:
Each Speed Category has a separate Set of Controls.
High Speed Units: Have pre drawn Spline Paths, who continue to exist even after a Unit ceased to be.
Medium Speed: Close to the traditional Air-Tank Controls.
Slow Speed: Something similar to the homeworld approach, allowing for Greater Arcs.
Anyone any additional ideas?