While I'm a big fan of turn-based play, it would feel way too kludgey, IMHO, to stick in the middle of an otherwise real-time game so go with Option 2.
Agreed! If you are going to make the combat detailed enough to micromanage, make the combat turn-based so we can micromanage it. If combat is going to be simpler (nothing wrong with that!), it would be a waste to slow down the game's pace with turn-based combat!
Re: IAP Think of a very traditional model, with more of an emphasis on free more than DLC. We want to have free missions, species and new areas as well as ships etc. More robust expansions, like AWAY TEAMS or PIRATES or high level stuff will be around $1-$2, for the people that want to keep exploring the universe. We never want to make anyone feel slighted, so if our feedback from the community is the game was too short, or jut want more, we will release more. If everyone is really happy with the initial release, we will focus more on big content updates. Just look at the content updates this way - your paying for our time. We spend a month putting together a new system, new enemies, new missions and its really awesome, it may be $1 to get.
Option 1 seems superior. You say it breaking pacing, I say it adds variety and compells gameplay. Option 2 seems much less interactive, more casual. From the description it sounds like you guys want to use option 1, so here's the validation. From option 2 narrative doctor is "...Never to be seen again..." it would be nice if the doctor showed back up leading an army of space crabs to get revenge on he fleet that abandoned him, fans appreciate that sort of continuity.
I like this idea! Maybe you could make some of these odd encounters into random events that include crewmembers/people that you've previously encountered! The basic encounter would always be the same, but there would different names and references!
...anything you can do to incorporate marauding giant mutant space crabs would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I understand if option 2 makes it more seamless, but after looking at the first scenario, i have to go with option 1.
I'm leaning with Option 1, I always like turn based options where possible. It also allows me for a greater degree of control (I guess potentially could lose less resources, men... etc as supposed to leaving it to the AI) Another point worth considering that iOS games are something that can be picked up to play and drop at a moments notice... turn based strategy allows for that whereas real time wouldn't.
I personally prefer option 1, as long as it doesnt drag the game on too long. It adds a strategic element to the game, and I feel that for this game, real time would be too hectic.
I vote option #1. Those screenshots of turn-based combat looked like WAY too much fun to take out. Please!
I would prefer Option 1. I love TBS as long as it is done right and isn't too tedious. I am so psyched for this game.
Sorry if this has been asked before...but there's 50 pages to look through Will there be an iPad version of this game? Cheers!
Regarding your options, it might be strange but I would actually just prefer neither. Part of what made me love Game Dev Story and Kairsoft in general is that most of the action is actually automated and that the choices you make affect the outcomes in mostly indirect ways. Basically, if I've done my diligence to properly prepare my crew, they should be able to handle a fight without me having to command them. Commanding them is more intensive and much less accessible if the options exceed a few discrete choices (like asking them to repair or fight, for example or a crew member volunteers for a suicide mission to save the ship and you just approve or disprove).
I'm liking option 1 because it sounds like my kind of fun (lifelong UFO fan) and I thin kif you're using TBS for the away stuff you may as well integrate it into the game properly, but what seems odd is picking the team of 5 and starting in the bridge. Why can't we start with the whole ship and the whole crew, all scattered around the ship at their duty stations wherever they happen to be and armed with whatever they're holding at the time? Our security officers are armed to the teeth but are down in the boarding shuttles getting ready to launch, and have to run back up to the hallway to get to them, while poor Larry can still be standing there when they appear next to him and he's only holding a spanner. Our bridge Crew are closer and have sidearms, but they're busy flying the ship - if we pull them away from their duty stations then when the turn based bit is over we won't be able to manouvre for the next 30 seconds while the crew gets back to where they belong. We've got the enemy outnumbered, but our people are scattered, underarmed and busy. Because we've effectively got eyes scattered all over the ship, the fog of war won't be quite so obscuring, and it shouldn't take long to find our enemies - assuming they're not hiding on purpose to sabotage something later. The tension should be much greater, cos there's all the people we've spent the last six hours upgrading standing around unarmed, there's a bunch of evil alien wossnames in the corridor and we don't know why they're here - maybe they're the aforementioned kidnapping squad, maybe two guys with a bomb here to sabotage the reactor, maybe it's an entire war party intent on taking over the whole ship room by room. That way when Larry gets taken away to begin his career as a space crab overlord the guilt will be entirely ours and won't feel like an unfair blow from nowhere - if only the captain had dashed out into the corridor we might have saved him. Adds a nice range of potential researchable upgrades, too - sidearms for the entire crew, weapons lockers on walls, cctv cameras to reduce fog, sensors to detect where they arrived and so on. Would be a whole lot of work if you were doing it from scratch, but if you've got the turn based engine already then I think it would work really well. Breaks up the action, but I don't think that's such a bad thing. The thing that really made UFO work is the contrast, in my opinion. After a really long city defense mission you'd be aching for the geoscape, and then after twenty minutes research you're aching to get back into the field with your new toys. One other thing - do we get to board them back? Sounds like we'd be missing out on all the fun, otherwise.
TheGribble "The thing that really made UFO work is the contrast, in my opinion. After a really long city defense mission you'd be aching for the geoscape, and then after twenty minutes research you're aching to get back into the field with your new toys." I couldn't have said it better myself.
I'm assuming each crew member would have a sidearm, so I'm sincerely hoping that none of the crew members would be dealing with any enemies with a spanner (though I can understand that some may be more proficient with arms than others - which would cost more when recruiting them or take longer to train or take more resources for more advanced training). I can understand not starting with the whole crew, but having the choice of selecting a few (or all crew members) at the beginning of the battle, maybe? Taking into account that if you use all crew members, the fight may be shorter but your ship ends up in limbo (which is not ideal) - so it's all about balancing the crew members you have (crush the enemy with overwhelming force and risk being hit again? Or draw out the battle but manage to manuever and avoid more potential damage to the ship?) I agree with having more advantages (regarding the CCTV or additional weapons cache around the ship), at the end of the day we're on home turf so it's normal we have more advantage than the crew that has boarded. However, perhaps the entry point can be random so we can't predict where the enemy may enter? Just to perhaps expand on some of the story line, some of your crew gets captured and you have a set amount of time to chase after them, or lose them forever? Or maybe that was the objective to start with because the boarding crew knows that it was futile to come up against us? A "smash-and-grab" job, so to speak, may that be weapons or human resources? Final point - When not in combat it would be cool if you can dictate the general direction (but not micro-manage) of their training? That way we don't over complicate the game, and we don't live the lives of each individual crew member (that's where it may get tedious) I'm aware I went off on a tangent a little, so for those who haven't read my earlier post, I'm with Option 1, but wanted to expand on previous comments.
