Add Ship Boarding Combat Poll

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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Should A Future X Game Allow Boarding Party Tactical/FPS Combat

Hell ya, that's an awesome idea, w00t!
64
67%
My aim sucks and I set everything on auto-turret, I'd get slaughtered in FPS combat
0
No votes
No boarding party is worth the loss of a split life!
32
33%
 
Total votes: 96

grandgnu
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Add Ship Boarding Combat Poll

Post by grandgnu » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 07:01

I was just thinking how cool it would be to have boarding parties that you would use to attack and seize control of an enemy ship. Drop into first person mode and have AI squadmates, maybe multiple teams with different objectives (sieze the bridge, seize the engine room, etc.)

It would make capturing capital ships fun and exciting, but you'd also have to have the resources to do it (i.e. you'd have to pay for crew aboard your ships)

Maybe if you lose crew (from either boarding other ships to capture them or from being boarded but defending) then your ship suffers in it's performance (don't have 100% of the crew necessary to run the ship then things begin to falter a bit)

And of course you'd also need to be able to staff and repair the captured ship so it could run at full efficiency as well. Just food for thought. Maybe some enemy crew members would surrender, or try to blow up the ship so you can't have it. Maybe you could even hire traitors/spies to sabotage enemy fleets/ships and/or perform hostile takeovers (or just supply you with info)

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Post by grandgnu » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 07:02

Oh yeah, this also applies to capturing stations as well, although they'd be more difficult than even the cap ships I think.

sq_paradox
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Post by sq_paradox » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 11:31

Appartently you have not seen any games that try to mix genres in that way ie Universal Combat, Operation Flashpoint. When developers are forced to put to game engines into one both engines suffer. and don't give me the whole it could be one engine thing, it doesn't work.

I don't disagree with the boarding idea thats great, but it would need to be mathmatically based (ie race of troops, numbers, weapons or perhaps just numbers for ease) and then played out and you would be informed of the outcome either you suceed or fail. But no FPS engine (or startegy game engine), no no no. Perhaps it could be done well but I've seen it done poorly to many times, and it would kill me to see a game as good as X2 fall to that fate. And I am an FPS gamer so dont say I just hate FPS's but I garentee you there are those that play X2 that do.

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CGrand
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Post by CGrand » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 13:05

fun yes (for some)

doable No

Operation flashpoints, losuy vehicle physicks a good example, those helicopters ughh, only flyable if you turned all the auto assists off
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ArgonTrustedLoony
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Post by ArgonTrustedLoony » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 14:14

I agree with sq_paradox, it's a really nice idea but next to impossible to implement well and although I, like sq_paradox, like FPS games many people who play sims hate them and would be really put off by having to use this method.
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Righteous
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Post by Righteous » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 14:18

hmhm i find that quite funny idea.... im fps player anyway im bad at spacegames :P mouse aim is best ...weres my Minigun!!! well yeah funny but not realiseable... combine to seperated games maybe but cant build that in one

beefsteaks
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Post by beefsteaks » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 14:21

I would LOVE to see game devs team up to make the uber game.


At the top level like a empire building space sim, then having the X2/elite economy space combat missions ect, and finally having FPS so you can do some spying, BBS rescue ect missions with your commandos :D

Then you could build a Spy Training Facility, or a Commando Training ground and send the comandoes or spies on a mission, fly them through hostile space youself to drop them in, and then take over the FPS mission and do it all yourself. Or have the option just to not do the FPSmission and the game will resolve it based on % chances as it would in a normal game :)


Thats would be awesome. Trading around space, building up an empire of planets and technology stations and facilities, and fleets of ships with comandoes and specialists, and beiong able to control all aspects yourself at any time :)


Would be a HUGE game requiring a couple of Dev teams, but I would glady pay £100 for the joy of it :D

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Post by grandgnu » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 14:32

Oooh, and then to up the ante even more, GROUND combat. That's right, land troops in hot zones on a planet to capture key installations on the surface, and then continue your effors to gain control over the entire planet.

That could wind up being a ton of micromanagement, what with your space fleets, boarding parties, ground troops, surface installations, etc. but you could also allow the game to automatically give results for certain battles and the AI could manage your factories on the ground or in space if you want, etc.

I know, it's a LOT of work, and would require huge development resources not to mention be more of a system hog than the current X2. And yes, I know that others have tried and failed, but that's no reason to stop innovation. That would be like people just continuing to believe that if someone can swim/float they are a witch, instead of moving on and advancing, learning that the ability to float does not include withcraft, etc.

Or, to put it in game terms, that would be like saying that we should never put games onto DVD because that would mean games would be larger than they are now and too much work. I give us another year or two before DVD games become the norm.

Deadweight
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Post by Deadweight » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 14:50

I agree that is a good idea but it would be a "BAD" idea having FLIGHT SIM/1st Persoon Shooter combo. Just imagine the strain that will put on your machine? :P Also having it out on a FPS

I think as some folks have suggested, marine assaults should be done mathematically. Outcome will purely depend on that. New ship designs have to at least be added on for this? Whereby a transport with heavy sheilding, slow but no weapon mounts. Something like a TP?

This could be a good way of taking over transport ships and cap ships.

Nice idea though.................COULD BE AN EXPANSION THING? :wink:

beefsteaks
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Post by beefsteaks » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 14:52

It wouldnt need to strain the machine any more at all. When going on a mission for FPS the mission simply saves your startegic game and loads an FPS engine to run the FPS misisons, at the end it saves the data in a small save file to be gathered when reloading the main game.

No need to have both games running at the same time at all.

YOu could even use to totally different engines. A team like Egosoft X2 engine making the space side and someone like ID and one of their engines making the FPS misions. That would rock :D

Righteous
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Post by Righteous » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 14:55

that would actualy work but u would have a real trouble with loading times... and after some hours and/or game progress ur cache will get in trouble

beefsteaks
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Post by beefsteaks » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 14:58

It has problems, but I'm sure between two good dev teams they could make it work. Nobody has tried it yet so I'm sure if they did they would get the time reduced ect once people start working on the problems involved.

It wouldnt be simple, but hell the best things in life never are :D

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ArgonTrustedLoony
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Post by ArgonTrustedLoony » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 15:58

While I agree such a game would be excellent, I'd certainly shell out for it, I don't think you could just suspend the sim part while you do the FPS section.

If you spent a couple of hours wandering around in FPS mode then all of your factories should still be producing money. To suspend this would seriously tick people off, unless the FPS part only lasted ten minutes or so then it would be a bit pointless in the first place to waste the development time to implement it.
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grandgnu
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Post by grandgnu » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 16:10

I agree. Time would continue. If there's a bit fleet battle taking place in your sector, you can either continue to be involved with that while you let the AI handle your boarding parties, or you lead the boarding party or ground combat efforts while the AI runs the fleet battle.

Another cool aspect would be that one of your cap ships has been disabled and enemy boarding parties are landing on it. You could divert current fleet resources to send over reinforcement troops to help defend the ship, and maybe additional engineering crews to repair it and get it back into combat, while the battle rages all around you.

grandgnu
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Post by grandgnu » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 16:17

Or perhaps instead of an FPS for ground/ship boarding combat you could have a turn-based system (although less intensive on the system, it would go against keeping everything going in real-time) where you control units similar to an X-Com: Ufo Defense type game.

reed
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Post by reed » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 16:56

i like the idea but it creates a few major problems such as:

1) eventually it would become easier to take over ships than actually spend your time saving up for one.

2) eventually X2 would become a space strategy game it would be less of a trader sim as it would take too long to do it that way and people could litterally conquer the universe (though a good idea) but this would suck all the life out of the trading part as it would focus more on combat.

all in all if you want a game that incorporates these features buy a different game not only could X2 not keep up and the amount of calculations to be done it would remove the idea of trade, think, fight, etc.

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Sleeper Service
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Post by Sleeper Service » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 17:18

PLEASE NO FPS IN X2

do you relise just how long it would take to load! You'd have to change the actuall engine then load the wapons and texures. It would also get boring after a while, becase all the ship would be the same inside.

The best way to do it would be mathematically. Say you hire a Boron crew for an Argon titan, that gives you a crew of around 300. You decide to attack a Paranid crewed Zues, a crew of around 700. Because the Boron aint great at close combat you could give thm a -20%, giving you the value 240 for your Boron crew combat stats. Then the Paranid have say a +30% because no one can beat a Paranid in single combat, this gives the Paranid crew 910 as a combat value. But you've bought your Boron crew miniture Hornet missles and gamma low energy plasma throwers (LEPTs) wich gives them a +200% combat value on the attack, their value is now 520. The Paranid however only have alpah partical accelarator rifles (PARs) which dont give any bonus on the defence, so their value is still 910. Then you decide how many of the crew you will commit to the attack say you go for 50 boron marines, they will have a value of 120. The Paranid are badly prepared and only have 100 marines in defence, althought this still gives them a value of 130 (whene defending)

The combat goes as such, each boron marine has 10hp and each Paranid has 11. The attack values are the same for the whole combat, you decide casualtys by first deciding wheter the marines hit or not. This is done by getting the accuracy values for the crews, lets say the Boron are elite and have a 50% hit value + say a 5% extra for having mini hornets. The Paranid on the other hand arent so good at aiming and only have a 30% chance of hitting. For every hit that is scored you do damage to that of the attacker's value. This is then taken away from the stacked hps of the defenders.

You could add in other stuff like armour to increse the hp of your crew, and make combat localised to a certain part of the ship. the winners of the combat could ether be told to try and sabotage the ship or to go up against the ship's remaining crew to try to cap it.

Right im off to de-geek myself.
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Post by blackflame » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 17:41

Ok, Ill get carried away a bit.

The direction you are heading is towards my ultimate dream game

1 - Online
2 - MMORPG - sort of, forget role-playing as in 'Hello, Im a warrior', just role-playing as in 'tonight I fly a fighter, tomorrow I shoot a rifle'
3 - Some people owns things, some people fly ships, some people shoot guns
4 - The ones who own things, hire people to do things - dont care really if the owners are AI, real, whatever.
5 - Groups of people get together to do the things - transport stuff, capture stuff, destroy stuff, protect stuff. This could be in space, on a planet, in a station - anywhere.
6 - Bring together those with the needed skills for each task. Could be long-term, clan-like, as in Planetside, or short-term, like a fight in Mechwarrior or XWing vs Tie Fighter.
7 - SLOWLY get better at doing things - too quick = too easy
8 - Enjoy (At least I would - combine Freelancer, X2, and Planetside)

Comments, anyone - Im not asking for anything that doesnt already exist - just link it all together!
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Post by junj.chan » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 17:45

i guess it could be done like an rpg game, just order your troops to board, then u get a report saying succesful/failed, losses, kills, blah blah blah...
like an attack in Earth 2025 if any of u have played that

grandgnu
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Post by grandgnu » Fri, 2. Apr 04, 17:59

It would not get boring because "all the ships would be the same inside"

All the exterior designs for space stations/factories and the ships are different, why would the interiors be any different? The layout of Split vs. Boron ships would be quite different, as would Teladi/Paranid/Argon/Xenon/Khaak. Some are built for function, some for comfort.

Maybe some of the troops you fight inside a ship would be able to adapt to your weaponry and maybe you wouldn't have any effect unless you THINK a way to get around their defenses (i.e. Borg from Star Trek adapting to your weapons frequencies)

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