Got the beta and I quite enjoy the game, but I predict not getting much longevity out of it in the current state. A few basic things that would add a bunch to game longevity:
1 More ship classes, Corvettes, Battlecruisers, Destroyers, Battleships, possibly bombers.
2 Kinetic weapons, the only ones I’m seeing is missiles. What about Railguns, Gauss cannons, possibly even varieties of Railguns/Gauss Cannons that fire buckshot for increased shield disruption but less armor penetration. They would use less energy than energy weapons but be heavier.
3 Random mission generator, would pretty much make the game last at least twice as long.
Another gripe is the game doesn’t feel properly balanced yet, I need to play more to figure out the specifics but some games I have to give up because a few ships can’t take out a Cruisers shields one round but another round they can. Otherwise I’m enjoying this game and already in a day got my $20 worth out of it.
I’m sure Cliff will say this, but do remember that it’s in beta. Suggestions are good, but you have to expect things like bugs and balance issues. Also, look into the Challenges for longetivity.
Yeah I was just quickly listing what I noticed would go well into the game right now. I know it’s a beta, the reason I bought it was to help out because GSB looks very promising and hope my 2 cents would go into helping the game out.
this game does not have railguns (they r cool) and only one type of blaster, sadly. Also, i would love to see some sniping weapons that are not missiles!
I agree… about the railguns/kinetic energy weapons. Big Pounders with massive slugs flying at the enemy are hugely gratuitous.
I also like the idea of the long range sniping weapon… like a nuetron beam or something that had a huge range, but only did light shield damage, it would be a good support weapon to leave in the back. Of course I can foresee engineless frigates covered in these weapons sitting like turrets on the back end of the board, carving up shields while Railgun equipped monsters charge in to pound through the armor. Both would be susceptible to fighters though and I imagine the really big rail guns would have poor targeting and might not hit frigates that well. Frigates with beams or plasma might dice them up nicely.
I’ll second both the sniping weapons and railguns. Railguns ARE cool. And artillery is common in military deployments: keep the big guns in the back and put fodder in front to keep them safe. That should be quite doable: just make the big guns use so much power that you can’t afford shields.
The kinetic weapons they would be perfect sniping weapons. In space they would not lose momentum and retain their energy until they hit a gravity field that slows it down by pulling it, like a planet. Hence Railguns would go further than lasers as lasers get less focused as distance increases, but aiming is a problem as they go slower than the speed of light which ends up having more range less accuracy, likely more damage. A short range shotgun munition loaded railgun would be a perfect anti-fighter compliment to the normal ones, or even add the possibility to switch the ammunition with the same guns. I think these would fit real nice in the game.
About my feel of game balance, I just think everything lives too long. Megaton missiles still take dozens of hits to knock down a large enemy cruiser, the game might benefit by simply doubling the damage of every weapon. Cruisers would take only a few good torpedo hits, fighters get burnt in 1 or 2 hits pending on armor, etc. My personal opinion.
And artillery is common in military deployments: keep the big guns in the back and put fodder in front to keep them safe. That should be quite doable: just make the big guns use so much power that you can’t afford shields.