I understand the decision that uber made regarding space combat. Here is a thing that is bother me. Is it possible for it to be modded in? Theoretically speaking of course.
i have no idea how things will work. it depends on two things, how does air combat work, and how do asteroids work. assuming there is no actual "Space Terrain" the air combat layer could possabily be messed around with, you could get a sudo space map in by making invisable planets. the big question is how do asteroids work. we know from the mockup video that the overall intention is smacking these things into the planet of our choice, but we also saw two other things, you can build structures on asteroids, and missile bases can reach up and try to distroy asteroids before they hit. assuming asteroids could be posisitioned where we want them, ie orbit or near other celestial bodies. theoretically you could put missile silos on these and create a sort of battlemoon to stomp your enemies. but we dont know yet how the game interprets space.
I think it will certainly be a very difficult mod to implement right at release, based on what's been said about the planned gameplay, there doesn't seem to be any way to interract with things moving between planets, like in the instance of a KEW, you don't steer it through space, you simply select a target location and the course is plotted automatically. Long term, who knows, Uber is commited to making a powerful engine that strongly supports modding, but right now the primary concern is gettign PA out the door, a lot of the extra stuff for the engine is likely to come post release. Mike
Keep in mind that the idea behind modding isn't to leave you guys hanging. We are going to dedicate support to modding the game and actually make engine changes based on community need. Welcome to the modern era of software development. More of this when I do my next blog post on PA as a platform.
um, no i cant imagine PA being modded for homeworld. its way too much of a strech. strike suit zero is a better candadate for a homeworld mod than PA. even total conversion mods use the developed systems of the original program. it be like doing a total conversion mod to make super mario brothers using tetris as your starting point.
I could see it happening. Units of movement would have to be configured for space in a way more complex than intercept lines and orbital paths, and incorporate some use of space flight like looting space stations or some sort of resource gain, possibly the ability to re-enter a planet as a flight unit. Really with modding, mostly anything is possible if one is ready to really work at it. For the record this is all speculations. I could be wrong about any of the above being possible. I don't really know the engine capabilities.
i hope so, ideally id like to see a mod that blends ground action and orbital space craft action ala empire at war complete with troop transports and ground troop landings, that'd be great
Some form of space battle could be implemented by having a planet with a very small or nonexistent core and a very high atmosphere/orbital region. If you then allow the players to specify the flying height of aerial/orbital units, you basically have a space battle inside a sphere. You would only need to create an input system like the one in homeworld and have it translate to a position on the sphere and a flying height. (Simple vector math) I mean this as a way to allow modders to do it, not for the initial release.
The thing to remember for these mods is how you develop this interface is actually going to be the hardest part. We're talking about a 3D space, so clicks do not directly translate as nicely, and a Homeworld esq system only works when there are no orbits (moving to an arbitrary point in space is not enough information to define an orbit). This UI issue is part of the reason this is not being included as it effectively results in two games, one designed for space, one designed for ground. I'm not saying this makes it impossible, but I am trying to say this issue needs to be tackled head on. My suggestion is actually you wouldn't allow arbitrary movement of ships. You have 2 options to get to any visible target. 1) Match orbit, as it sounds, you try to essentially orbit with the target around the star/planet/etc, could be "within some range". 2) Intercept, you try to physically hit the target (or pass close enough to fire a shot), this would be faster, as you don't need to match speed and such, but only last briefly, think of what an anti-satellite missile works. I think most other commands would be variations on this. Is it restricting? Yes, but it's much easier to present to the user than asking them to set up orbits themselves.
