A ground based combat add on for the campaign would be good - firstly you have to defeat the space fleet protecting the planet, then subdue the ground forces.
Also, I have always thought that having a time based scenario would be fun. For example, holding off the attacking forces for X amount of time, after which the reinforcements arrive.
This could be extended to escort duties - protecting Ship X while it tries to make a hasty exit. That would go well in the campaign where you protect transporter (the transport ships in the Praetorian mod would be a great fit in this scenario) craft ferrying supplies or the ground attack forces to a planet, or perhaps a delivery of a new Dreadnought to a far flung outpost. It could be either time based, or have a goal of reaching a certain point on the map to win. This adds another dimension to the (very fun) but sometimes one dimensional goal of battering the other side until they have nothing left.
I’m afraid that GSB will not get any important upgrade for a while, if ever. But i really like your suggestion, and will love to possibly see something like that in GSB 2!
IMHO,
Ground ops can be accommodate in GSB2 for Clan playmode.
The clan can accumulate fleet from it’s member to “guard duty” or “garrison mode”. Each clan member, can assign some of it’s fleet for that duty. But, once allocated, that part of the fleet cannot be used to attack other planets until the member withdraw it from guard duty.
Here’s what I thikn of Clan playmode (related to ground ops, etc):
Each player has it’s own home planet and develop it.
Each player then can start trying to conquer neutral planet or other player’s.
Players can create ally, neutral, or enemy.
Once a player has enough planets, say… 8 or 10 planets, he can establish a clan. He can get other player to join his clan.
Benefit of joining a clan: extra bonus from common resources build e.g. naval academy, etc, protection from other members, and most importantly of course the joy of clan war! ^^
Clan war involves capturing/destroying other space station or planet, and ultimately the clan headquarter (obviously it would be the home planet of the clan founder). Each clan member allocate some/all it’s fleet for the war, and during the period it cannot be used for personal use, so he must really decide how much he wants to support the clan’s effort.
If a clan lost a war, the consequences could be several:
Easy: the clan keeps it’s home planet, but all resources got reset to very low numbers. And the clan is placed in protection mode for some time, say 1 week for it gather strength.
Hard: the home planet becomes the winner’s and the clan leader gets exiled to a neutral planet or traveling the stars till it finds a free planet.
Area of consideration:
A single race for a clan or free membership from all races.
A single race guarantees unique clan capabilities and weaknesses.
Mixed races membership offers a rich battle experience.
Now this is important:
Ability to playback battles. I don’t know if it’s possible or not. But to be able to see battles playback is very nice for players to see what his/her fleet was doing during those battles. What are the weaknesses / strength / tactics, etc.
Ability to post battles video directly to youtube would be super awesome! This will promote GSB tremendously. I’m sure of it ^^
It’s a good idea with one major flaw - the game is about gratuitous SPACE battles
I think ground ops would be cool but much harder to code for, basically Cliffski would have to add GTB as a meta-game with different sprites. Additionally, with a bunch of ground troops, tanks, artillery batteries etc, the game would have a ridiculously bloated amount of modules, weapons and machines of war, slowing gameplay and hurting the experience for everyone (even those players who do not want ground combat) - and it would also would make modding all the more difficult.
On the other hand, a game that could LINK to GSB but be it’s own ground fighting game like GTB but in the future would be perfect.
That’s what I meant but didn’t state it very clearly. At the start of the campaign, it could be an option whether to have space battles only or space battles with ground ops.
