Ship Designing

I cannot give you all the details, but believe me you've never seen a game where the design of your own units is so free (ingame). There are a LOT of parts available to customize your ship. And you can stack parts (like wings) on other parts (to create double wings), you can put lights on your ships, antenna's, really about everything. I was really amazed when I first started designing my ships. I never expected it to be this much fun and give the player so much freedom.

I think even with the smallest hulls over a billion designs are possible. And with the bonuspak, even more part become available.

bonus pack? hope i get it with the game;)
I LOVE DESIGNING! its so fun and you never know what kind of design will show up:P

Like in Imperium Galactica and Space Empires you only Mounted Weapons and Engines.. not the design on the ship or where the engine would be.

I LOVE this game... most likley to cost me my sociallife for atleast 2 month

c thats the good thing about not haveing a strong social life when a good game comes out u dont lose too much

Yup designing the ships is fun

would anyone care to show us their creations?

When the game hits retail we'll be opening the library section where players can upload their designs for everyone to use...In the meantime I'll try and round up some of the designs made while we were play-testing in the office.

 

Can i make a Borg CUBE???

What's the biggest hull available?

Can i make a Borg CUBE???

Not with the designs available so far......

will there be part of the game alowing the player to use the ship creation engine. so they can create outside of playing a game. As if all the technologies were available and just import them as would a saved ship from an older game?

Dangit, I wanted to make a Cube or sphere! O well there are thousands of other possibilities.

Dangit, I wanted to make a Cube or sphere! O well there are thousands of other possibilities.

And you never know what they might add after the release!

wow not bad i think some players need ..oh no spend 2 h only to creat them first ship but i am not realy shure of to be free to put the engiens where i wont or waepons it look like more that you can put "structure" on "hardpoints" they don't take realy place or cost something but is only to look good i misunderstand this case or i am right in my opinon?

Yes. You can put lots of structures on mount points (hardpoints) that are purely a structure (no cost). Then you can out ship components (engines, weapons, etc) that do cost on the new structure, and/or put even more structures on it.

that means realy i can place evrything of "real" shipcomponents where i want? means i can nearly built Enterprice Souveran-Class or a Warbirt? But do the weapon in battle view realy shut from this pointet weapon in the pictures , sreenshuts is dosen't look like this...i am very intresstet to see how it works in the game...and i hope for the future that STARDOCK will impliment the possibillity to choice battletactic's before the fight beginns or better to act in the battle self that you can retreat holt possision or even crash into the enemie ship...

and i hope for the future that STARDOCK will impliment the possibillity to choice battletactic's before the fight beginns or better to act in the battle self that you can retreat holt possision or even crash into the enemie ship...

Well, I don't really see the point of changing default battle tactics. Since the only thing you can do is doing damage, I don't realy see the point of changing the current behavior: concentrate fire on the most lethal and most vulnerable target. There is no possible retreat, so it is a battle to death: the battle ends with one side being destroyed.

And Stardock has been very clear on the following fact: there is no tactical battle. So you CAN'T influence the outcome of a battle.

You don't see the need? Ähm sorry stategie and tactics are based on to do the right thing in the right moment only to take out the easyest targed is nothing and don't will let you win normaly you can destroy the dangerest target because the athers will not harm you. You think reatreat is not tactic or statrgical? lol this is also the essence of battel reatreat in the right moment pull away the fleed from base an repair possibilyties take them out piece per piece so you can destroy a entire battlefleed of big ships while they are slowly ...perhaps stardock don't want this system because of prog-probs i am not a pc-creak but don't say you don't see the point. that makes Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Napoleon and G.J.Cesar opsolet and sorry it is not thrue

I have a thought on this, now that I have had a second cup of coffee.

How many of you win through any of the four ways to win either Galactic Civilizations 1 and/or 2 (B/G) on a consistent basis on or above the intelligent level? Not very damn many I would suspect.

Why is that, well Frogboy sums it up. Stardock is known worldwide for their extremely capable artificial intelligences. The same AI that is or has run the battle sequence a couple of million times faster than a human could or in my case a Kat could. So given this why would you want to have singular control, besides the fact that you might be able to make a descision that would get you spayed that much faster or harder.

So given that if the player got to do tactical combat so would the AI. The code would be written that the AI could learn from repeated encounters from the player, especially since we all have encoded in ourselves over time that we respond to specific scenerios in generally the same way or pattern, the AI would have a much easier job providing a smack down over time. So basically even on easier settings, the AI would learn how to smack your bottom eventually, unless you make the AI brain dead to the point that the player can conqueor the AI increadibly fast... but wheres the challenge in that? The challenge is afterall... what we are playing for correct?

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

Now unto ship design.

For some dog-eared reason I keep pointing the weapons in a forward facing direction yet use the free-cam to watch the battle scenerios. I have even caught myself placing weapons that could only be fired if I was (in reality) I was pointing my entire ship in the exact direction the opponent is in. Personally I am thinking this is a poor design on my part, no matter how cool it looks when your checking out the final product before adding it to the list of ships for building.

So I have taken a new look at how I place weapons, instead of just dropping them on the hull I now add a pylon, it gives the weapon height and also gives an atmosphere that the weapon is free to rotate, pretty much like modern naval weaponry today.

No little detail is to small, although I have to admit, even though I am a design ship freak, I miss stuff. Thats what overhauls if there fore though. After overhaul I get a StrayKat Mk 2 version with addons/new weapons/engines/defenses that looks similar to the StrayKat Mk 1.5 but definitely a much nicer looking ship and more efficient killer.

I like the way that the design program additionally integrates the pieces togeather on ship forming also, seamless.

Anywho. I feel the design factor is totally freaking awesome.

W/R
Suralle Straykat
Kat Lord @ Large

You don't see the need? Ähm sorry stategie and tactics are based on to do the right thing in the right moment only to take out the easyest targed is nothing and don't will let you win normaly you can destroy the dangerest target because the athers will not harm you. You think reatreat is not tactic or statrgical? lol this is also the essence of battel reatreat in the right moment pull away the fleed from base an repair possibilyties take them out piece per piece so you can destroy a entire battlefleed of big ships while they are slowly ...perhaps stardock don't want this system because of prog-probs i am not a pc-creak but don't say you don't see the point. that makes Hannibal, Alexander the Great, Napoleon and G.J.Cesar opsolet and sorry it is not thrue

Sorry, I haven't said that I don't see the need. I have said:

Well, I don't really see the point of changing default battle tactics. Since the only thing you can do is doing damage, I don't realy see the point of changing the current behavior: concentrate fire on the most lethal and most vulnerable target. There is no possible retreat, so it is a battle to death: the battle ends with one side being destroyed.

BTW, since it is a space combat, your are considered to be in range to damage the opponent. And there isn't any battle formation: you can fire at all ships. So you don't have to come close to your target. There isn't any obstacle that can protect you. Basically, the ships don't need to move to hit their target and the range hasn't any effect.

As you said:

Ähm sorry stategie and tactics are based on to do the right thing in the right moment only to take out the easyest targed is nothing and don't will let you win normaly you can destroy the dangerest target because the athers will not harm you.

The key point in GC2 ship battle is that the other side will always harm you when it will be their turn to fire. So for GC2 battle, there is really no point in changing the default behavior:

concentrate fire on the most lethal and most vulnerable target

Tactics: It is Frogboy's opinion that a tactical layer is just a crutch for players so that players won't have to use their brains to do strategy. The reason for this is that players invariably find the exploits in the tactical layer, and then use them. For instance, in Acsendancy, you get Large hulls, and fill them up with the passive damage absorders, leaving just enough room for an engine, power plant, and a weapon. Then, you can fight all the tactical battles you want to, and never lose because your ships are never damaged. In MoO1, you get repulsors and a 2 tile reach weapon, and you'll win 99% of all your battles with zero damage, because your repulsors would push the AI ships out of 1 tile reach weapons, and the AI almost never made ships with 2 tile reach. 1 lone ship in MoO1 can hold off a mega armada (a fleet of 6 stacks of 999 ships) forever, and always win. In the first Total War, all you had to do was take 1 light cav unit, and run it from corner to corner, and you'd always win because the AI could never catch you. Any game with a tactical level of combat has numerous exploits. It's not a function of using tactics to beat the AI, its a function of maximizing the exploits to win.

Second, before the invention of the gatling gun, 99% of all casualties were inflicted when the opposing force tried to retreat. Alexander, Hannibal, Ceaser, Nepolean, none of them ever willingly retreated, because they knew that to retreat was to lose all their forces. There are a few occasions where a feinted retreat was called for, and that led into an ambush, but retreating from an on-going battle was not an actual tactic. They retreated before their opponents could engage them unitl they were willing, or forced, to fight.

Third, the "game setting" doesn't allow for opposing fleets to retreat. They don't just instantly warp away from one another (unlike in say, Star Trek or Star Wars). It's much more of an amphibious assault--- you know, a one way trip for the attacker. They either win (carve out a beachead), or they die trying. There is no retreat for this situation. However, once your fleet has attacked, if your fleet still has moves left, you can then withdrawl on the strategic map, rotate out the damaged units, rotate in new replacements, and then get ready to deploy back to the fight.

I don't miss tac combat, but the ship design stuff sounds awesome... Is still remember how much fun I had with Star Trek Starship Creator. Man, that was cool. I always wished for something like that in a strategy game. I really missed that in GalCiv I. I can't wait to try this. It's already my favourite feature...

Ship pieces are in .X format too so anyone familiar with 3D Studio or Maya or whatever can make their own parts and submit them.  They're pretty easy to create.

But we plant to keep releasing more pieces ourselves and eventually a program that lets you export your creations into some standard format that you could convert them into other formats so that you could insert them into a web page or a spec manual. Sort of like how you can export your movies in The Movies, we want people to be able to take their ship designs and export them for use outside the game.

BTW, your weapons do shoot from wherever you place them.

i like the current system, but ill continue to try to come up with ideas.

like a rare event where a previously thought destroyed ship is suddenly seen limping into port. weeks after the battle it fell in, and requiring extensive repairs. and an exparence loss from casualties....