I just uploaded version 1.11, and with it comes a new gameplay mode for GSB:
Survival Mode
There is one new scenario (at the bottom of the list) and it is part of the new mode. Basically, survival differs from normal (hereafter called ‘skirmish’) in that there are endless waves of enemies sent to attack your fleet. You can no longer ‘win’ the game, you can just beat your high score for lasting as long as possible, with a score kept in terms of the hitpoint values of all the enemy ships you managed to destroy.
You will notice that the enemy no longer has a score and hitpoint total, that has been replaced with an indicator of the total destruction you have inflicted on the enemy. The enemy comes at you in waves, triggered either by the near destruction of the previous wave, or some duration where no ship has been destroyed (to prevent stalemates).
Also, you will notice that the enemy ships now come at you from various different angles :D.
Once the battle ends, you get to post your score to a global high score table for that mission, which replaces the current difficulty options on the choose mission screen. I’ll add a web interface for viewing this table soon.
I welcome feedback on this new mode. I think this could rejuvenate the ‘late game’, because one of the big problems with GSb is that you can create a fleet tailored for exactly what the enemy brings to the battle. Now, there are different enemies in different waves, so you cannot just equip your fleet to be an anti-fighter fleet, or an anti-plasma fleet, because who knows what is in the next wave? Hopefully you will have to put together an ‘all-rounder’ fleet that can fight off a number of different waves of enemy ship.
I like the sound of this, I’ve just updated to 1.11 so I’m off to give it a go.
This mechanic also lends itself to Campaign play, with modification…start with a Battlegroup and see if you can get through a number of Missions with it…reinforcements via a wave…
I had this exact same thought this very morning. I didn’t post the idea because I’ve only played for a couple of days and I thought it was probably implemented already.
(I have other ideas related to this and what I understand the challenges to be, which I’ll post once I see both functionalities. )
I deployed 6 tractor anti fighter frigates. They got raped. They had 2 armor, 2 shields. How is that? Please fix survival mode as some fighters seem to be impossible to kill.
does GSB have any protection from cheats? especially memory manipulation? and did you consider mods? what about ability to post to highscores ONLY AND ONLY if all game data files have correct md5 hash (that is single change to original game files causes incorrect hash)?
It was not that hard. And no, no cheating, no mods. Basically, I used heavily shielded cruisers to destroy the enemy frigates and cruisers, with enough armor and repair capability to survive the fighters. I engaged the fighters with 2 squads of my own fighters armed with lasers. I armed my cruisers with plasma and beam lasers, and focused on destroying their frigates first.
I also tried it with an extra squad of fighters and one cruiser less, which was somewhat less successful, since it resulted in 5000 less score, although that was still more than 100.000.
This is a great idea, Cliff. It adds a whole new dimension to strategy: instead of making a fleet for the current situation, you need to make a well-rounded fleet that can survive anything. It also makes for a nice way to try different strategies and see what works, since your final score basically tells you your survival ability and you don’t know what’s coming at you ahead of time.
There is some basic checks, you can’t just post anything and have it show up. BUT
There is now way the game can be easily moddable and 100% cheat-free, without an entire developer dedicated to just doing anti-cheat for the 0.01% of players who would be sad enough to try and cheat the game, and I’d rather dedicate the resources to better game play and features. Basically you need an on-line account to post scores at all. if anyone looks like they are cheating I can get their fleet and run it myself to verify that. If they are cheating, I can just ban their account :D. So don’t cheat
This is an awesome feature! As if this game didn’t have enough replay-ability already…
The best thing is that with a fleet with armor/repair and shields you really get the feeling of survival. When the shields get up to max 50% after a particularly heavy attack, and the poor nanorepair module starts welding the armor pieces back together again you think “ok, this ship won’t hold much longer” - and then it just keeps going for five-six more waves!
Another possibility is to verify the scores server-side. Assuming it doesn’t take too much horsepower to simulate the battle and find the final score, you can run it with a known-good ruleset and use those scores.
Alternatively, as oddis alluded to, you could set a no-mods policy on challenges and check file contents. That might be a headache, though, as on-going balancing occurs.
The top scores in the high score list is currently getting cluttered by the same players, the top 7 consists of 3 players at the moment. Would it be possible to change the high-score list so that only the highest score of every player is displayed?
where is fun?