Besiege

[paranoidray]

Just released 0.9.2
( sf.net seems to have trouble showing the new file, wait until tomorrow then, or check out the source code )

Version 0.9.2 News:

1. Added the first 3 levels, balance is currently off though.
2. LevelEditor allows moving planets now ! ( double click adds a new planet )
3. LevelEditor setting name and radius works now !
4. Added a configuration application: fullscreen, niceSky, sound, etc.
5. Added beautiful contrails to the ships ( Thanks Obi )
6. Added name tags to the planets ( BMText is awesome )
7. Added the beginnings of a money system
8. Added two research options ( more fire power and faster ship construction )
9. Added a game menu when pressing ESC
10. Ships fly through planets less
11. Fixed the bug, where the red would attack an attacking planet instead of defending.
12. Double click moves camera to planet now, removed fight camera for now
13. reliably show winning/loosing dialogs
14. stop loosing planet from producing new ships ( was annoying )
15. New FinalWinningDialog
16. computer is very strong, so I doubled his spawning time for now. Research helps too.

[ThomasVeil]

Nice update. The trails look great.
I've bought Eufloria the other day - which was a mistake. Your game is much more fun already. I like the higher pace.
But you'll run in the same issues: Whoever gets the most planets first will win. The first minute decides, after that its just a waiting game (and the waiting was really annoying).
I think games like Command and Conquer and Warcraft work similar - but set it off by making production more complicated. How about introducing a harvesting resource - like clouds that give you the funds to produce ships - whereas the planets are the production site.
The advantage would also be more complex level design - you can control the computer power by giving him more or less resources. And players would need more strategy by concentrating to fight over the resources.

And one big thing I was praying for in Eurfloria was constant transport lines - to set that outer planets always send their ships to a certain other planet. So that I don't have to go through all planets repeatedly.

I still had a bug where planets could not be taken over. Ships would circle them, then attack the center from time to time. Fly into the center - out again.

[obi]

I still had a bug where planets could not be taken over. Ships would circle them, then attack the center from time to time. Fly into the center - out again.

I noticed the same thing. Might have something to do with new ships spawning at planets under attack. I had my ships circling a planet that wasn't mine and enemy ships spawning and circling the same planet . I think they started attacking only if I tried to move my ships to another planet.

Maybe have a state for planets under attack so they can't produce any ships while under attack?

[paranoidray]

Thanks guys for testing and the great feedback !

I think my "invader" counting method is seriously flawed.
I will fix it next, it's super annyoing.

I like the idea about the resources.
And the auto move is much needed, I agree !

I'm sorry you are disappointed with Eufloria, I think of it as a great visual experience
more than a real fun game. I think they made great graphics, I really like infinite zoom
like with Supreme Commander and Sins of a Solar Emipre. ( Well with Eufloria
it's the super close zoom I like with out blurring at all )

I have started to play SoaSE again recently for inspiration and came to realize,
it's pretty much the game I wanted to write.
It has resources, auto way points, tax, population, science, differnt ships, defences, and much more.
It was a bit depressing to realize this.
I want to play more to see what works and what doesen't.

Maybe I can be a mini SoaSE with some twists of my own...

[paranoidray]

Also, could you provide me with some feedback on the camera controls and how I could improve them ?

I am pretty unhappy so far and close to scrap my rotating camera for a simple first person shooter control...

[oskar]

Nice little improvements

The tempo feels better now, less waiting. or maybe thats just me having learned to not wait. ^^

Something which gives better feedback when a planet builds a new ship would be nice, maybe some type of particles and maybe a small sound to celebrate the event.

Getting a camera right is always a hard problem, I havnt been able to set up a decent camera anywhere with less than maybe 20 iterations unless I knew it was going to be a standard camera of some sort and that is usually not the case. Im guessing a standard "free flight fps" camera such as the one you'll usually use within a terrain editor should work reasonably well.

An interesting game mechanic to play with could be to have some variations on the planets, perhaps things like space stations which only can be taken from the neutral planets but they are scuttled by the enemy if you successfully attack one of the red space stations.

[ThomasVeil]

The camera controls are nice and intuitive - didn't see any problems. Maybe you could try around: you dont really need the up/down rotation, since its 2D gameplay anyways. The simpler the be better for casual users. The camera could also try to follow the actions more - like when I move a lot of ships, the camera follows it or so.

Eufloria has a lot of bad design choices IMO, but indeed, it looks nice. Now playing it more, it kinda gets better. Sins of a Solar Empire made me curious before, maybe I will get it. I think though, there is enough room to get different enough. Maybe add a cap on ship production per planet. You could add that planets have to get lifted (like in the Uplift books) - or take other more unusual ideas from sci-fi books.
Talk to ya soon

[obi]

Personally I would probably have another solution then dragging from one planet to another, because it takes to much time. I want something instant.

I would probably have small GUI icons at the top of the screen for every planet. Planets should be fast selectable with button 1-9.
So attack with my force from one planet to another would be something like pressing 1 then left clicking another planet. After pressing one and moving the mouse around the path lines between planet would be shown so I can see how the force will fly.

This way I could just keep my mouse still over a planet and klick 1,lmb,2,lmb,3,lmb to send all my forces from planet 1,2, and 3.

At some point you will probably want to have groups to, so you could send parts of all troops at one planet to attack another. Before groups you could do something simple like pressing 1 selects all troops at planet 1. pressing 1,1 selects 75%, 1,2 50% and 1,3 25%.
So if I want so attack with 50% of the troops circling planet 1. You click 1,2,lmb

If you want to get even more control you could add an attack command with a.

So attacking planet 2 with 50% of the troops from planet 1 you could press 1,2,lmb or 1,2,a,2. Now you don't even have to use the mouse to click on the planet, so moving the mouse to planet 2 and clicking it would be the same as pressing a,2. You would get more control over the fights and add more skill to the game

Instead of auto spawning ships. Have the resource/income add up and let the player buy mobile ships or stationary planetary defense drones. The defense drones should ofc be stronger than ships but only be able to circle a planet. This way you could buy and place defense drones at important planets(higher income planets and choke point planets).

Regarding the camera, I would probably have the ability to toggle between an action cam and an overview cam. The action cam could be some kind of movable camera which can focus on planets and fights like you have now. The overview cam would have all planets in view and maybe just rotate around an axis perpendicular to the planetary plane.

When it come to performance, you will probably have to only use trails on close ships or do some group trails for big bunches of ships and maybe shorter trails. I played one long game on the last level and there was a wast amount of ships which hit performance, might be due to all the lines drawn.

That's my 5 cents

[MrCoder]

Ported over my old TrailMesh. Might be of for some trail things. See TrailExample...

[paranoidray]

Thanks Rickard !

Very cool indeed, I noticed a visual artefact at the end of the trail, somewhat taking
away the impression it's a contrail.