Gravity and Ballistic Weapons

Differentiating beams from ballistics might be a nice way to increase unit diversity and tactics.

Though it does make some units excel on certain planets and make them ineffective on others. If that's a design goal for PA, then go for it. If not, then maybe shy away from that.

Solution: make big guns capable of shooting across the map inaccurate as hell to make it hard to tell what they did.... wait a minute....

I feel like PA should trend towards consistency over realism or physics. I would rather it look silly and have it be consistent than be modified by gravity.

With only a few planet sizes (say, big planet, Earth-sized, moon-sized, asteroid), variable gravity would be more interesting, in addition to feel far more correct. And if there are meant to be specialized units for moons or asteroids, it would be logical to go with this.
Same thing with atmospheric density/absence.

But please, no bending lasers. We're not talking about fights at the surface of a neutron star. (Or are we?)

I don't think gravity based off of planet size is a bad thing at all. Look at Angry Birds - everyone have been trained how to deal with for a while now.

I say at least give the option for gravity to change based off the mass of the object.

Not a lot of grand strategy, unit management, and economic planning involved in Angry Birds.
Leaving you with plenty of attention to devote to the specifics of the local gravity.

are you saying laser beams will go through ground on small planets? :?:

From a practical game balance standpoint gravity for projectile will behave the same on all planets, resulting in the same firing arcs and projectiles velocity.

From an awesomeness standpoint, you would actually implement correct gravity^^

"sigh"

Has no-one even considered the simple fact that all planets will act as if they have identical gravity? At the very least in terms of shooting.

this whole "Ah I see! Range that automatically adapts to a gravity value" is most laughably not the simple solution.

Reign in your dreams people, you will just end up disappointed.

I think identical gravity sounds good because otherwise there would be a set of units for use on low gravity planets and a different set of units for use on high gravity planets.

This.
Espescially if you play on a huge map with huge gravity. Imagine long range artillery firing only 5 metre away

First off, Nice seeing some of the old TA Modding Heavyweights here, Loved DRUH, remember working with Forsaken on some AI that we were using with it.

I think instead of fixed gravity, we should probably have three levels of it. as shown in the demonstration video, one gravity for planets, one for moons, one for asteriods (near zero). This helps define what units can escape each class of gravity well, as well as gives enough tiers to avoid gravity being either all or none. Also gives the player something to expect.

This makes more sense then fixed gravity and is easier to get used to. It may be a good focus for how basic game maps are made.

Unrelated to that:
Making gravity scale with planet size (and just planet size) is just stupid. It should be an option for the planet creator.

Whatever they go with, I just hope it's perfectly moddable. I can just see people making neutron-star-like planets where local arty is pretty much impossible, but arty coming from space hits like a mega-nuke. I would love to see that.

*bows* Wow I haven't heard DRUH mentioned in so long I almost forgot I wrote it! :shock: Guess the thousand or so hours into Supcom:ATW sort of eclipsed that. :mrgreen: I do anticipate as ambitious a project based on PA too, for anyone who may be interested.

Ok back to the subject at hand - If ballistics range is affected by gravity, then I think perhaps incremental gravity effects might be better from a gameplay point of view. Making it highly variable will cause players to not be able to properly use their ballistic units because its anybody's guess how far they will shoot. 3 levels is probably best, with the highest gravity perhaps being like earth-norm. I don't think players would enjoy a game where ballistics fired shorter than their designated range.

But I keep coming back to the concept that ballistic weapon ranges should be fixed. Not affected by gravity, but have gravity affect the firing arc of the weapon. Its difficult to decide to be honest, how this would affect gameplay, without actually trying it out. I have a suspicion that Uber is going to opt for ballistics being unaffected by gravity, because that option would produce the most consistent and predictable ballistic unit behavior.

Whatever they choose, I do hope its entirely moddable though, like shinseitom said.

It comes down to awesome over simulation, and I want strategic gameplay! I want player choices to greatly affect battle outcomes. I want to be able to devastate a players poor selection of an invasion force if I have a well planned asteroid defense force. Lasers should suck on asteroids, that adds depth and strategic consequences. Players planning to expand to an asteroid will have to decide if they should invest in missile units now as they'll be key in holding a later planned asteroid settlement. I would love to see players specialize play styles. One player might create a super specialized orbital force that builds a massive invasion force from safety of a gas giants orbit, while another might specialize with a asteroid force that plays strong defenses and subterfuge while cranking up resources for slinging asteroid bombs.

Diverse strategic gameplay is awesome.