:: Space Combat Proposal ::
Intro
This is my Space Combat Proposal. I have created lots of pictures, which are mock up screenshots, the best way to explain, plus good to look at. Basically, I think of my idea as taking Moo2s space combat system and making it more macro, while still retaining the micro part of it. You will be able to control individual ships and groups of ships. My idea is that players issue move and attack orders, at the same time. Then when all players have finished (clicked end), then the battle unfolds in real-time (this goes for X amount of time and then orders are issued again).
The battle starts, all players are now in the issue move orders phase, though they can switch between move or attack orders at any time. You'll notice that one of my ships is facing the wrong direction, it's just to show off this space combat proposal. Notice also that there are three planets, a minimap and various other features (stats, other ships, stars, etc).
This idea of space combat will allow the player to destroy all planets in the solar system, all in one battle. The battle would be scrollable (this is where the minimap helps) and zoomable (why not).
You will notice two things in this screenshot, the multi-coloured ring around the ship and the arrow located at the ships nose. The multi-coloured ring shows that the ship is selected and also shows four things, the ships structure (green), armour (purple), shields (blue) and systems (yellow). As you can see, this ship has lost quite a bit of armour and some structure. The arrow points in the direction of the ship.
With the ship selected, where ever you move the mouse, the ship will rotate to face the mouse, the arrow will also stay at the ships nose, while a blue line (move path) will always be between the mouse and the direction arrow. To rotate the ship (without moving), you would click on the direction arrow (holding down the button) and move the mouse left or right, the ships direction will rotate left or right. The blue line will only stretch out as far as the ships range of movement (a radius). Also, unlike Moo2, your ship can move to any point, rather than moving in square units.
Upon clicking the mouse, the first ship now has a movement path defined (the blue line).
Now to do the same for our other two ships. First we drag a selection box around them to select them both.
For a group of ships, where ever you put the mouse, a group of parallel lines will stetch out, in our case two. The selected ships will also face the mouse, no matter where you move it. These two parallel lines will stay parallel whether you move the mouse to the left or the right. To rotate these ships (without moving) you would click on one of the directional arrows (on any ship selected), hold down the mouse button and move left or right, all ships in the group will rotate left or right.
As you can see the move orders for all ships are defined by the blue paths.
A move order can be adjusted by clicking on the end of the line and moving it where ever you want, ships will rotate to face the right directions, etc.
To change between issuing attack or move orders you click on the attack phase button (as shown above). Or if you are in the attack phase click on th emove phase button, to go back to alter existing move orders.
In the attack phase, we select our ship.
By putting the mouse over an enemy (red & blue ships), it shows the enemies status (structure, armour, shields ands systems) and a red line is attached between our ship and the enemy.
Upon clicking on the enemy ship a menu of the our ships weapons appears. Lasers and missiles are listed, it is possible to fire one weapon or all. If we click away (deselecting everything) and then click back on our ship or the enemies, the weapons menu pops up again, with the settings that were setup most recently.
Now to order our other two ships to attack. If we select both of them, you will notice that the red line between our other ship and the enemy remains.
With our two ships selected, we can select the enemy ships we want to attack, how about the blue ships. Yes, this space combat system allows for battles against many enemies at once.
As we select the enemies, a menu pops up and we can choose from lasers and missiles. All relevant weapons would be listed here, so only those weapons that are in range, can be fired at a ship or planet (yes, we can attack planets), they may also be other things that decide relevance. Also all of our selected ships will spread there fire to all of the selected enemies. So if you selected one ship and then selected all enemies, that one ship would spread its fire between all enemies. If you wanted to focus on one enemy, then select one enemy.
We have now finished executing orders. We can see what the attack orders are, by the red lines running between ships. We can see what move orders have been made by going to the move phase and seeing the blue lines running between ships. To finish we click end. When all players have finished, and clicked end, the battle will unfold in real-time.
Ships will all rotate at the same time, move at the same time and fire whenever they are within range. In our example, our top most purple ship would rotate around and move along the move path, while firing at the ships it was ordered to attack. After X amount of time, real-time will be over and players will issue orders for any remaining ships.