So, about that gamepad support...

[Psykechan]

Back almost two years ago gamepad support was "near the top of the todo list". With SPAZ2 on the way should I take it that the original SPAZ will have its todo list be relegated to "..." forever?

If so, that's a shame, and it means that I won't be purchasing SPAZ2... even if it promises gamepad support... and blackjack... and unicorns...

[Morphic]

引用自 GTX2GvO：

I never felt the movement system in SPAZ1 was weird or anything.
Kinda even liked it that way. :D:

I do understand that not everybody would agree with me. :spazdunno:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who immediately liked SPAZ1 controls. The way it felt to me was the movement was reticle relative. Pressing forward, makes you go towards the reticle etc. For some reason it made me feel like I was piloting a Warthog from Halo in space...

I hope I like the SPAZ 2 controls.

[Blorf]

I think you will in the end since we probably share a similar control sensibility. I once thought the SPAZ 1 controls were ideal, but now have totally adopted screen relative and it makes a ton of sense to me now. The huge benefit is being able to concentrate on where you are firing instead of watching your ships facing to figure out how you will move. I experimented with a post it over my ship while I played and I piloted totally fine, while being able to focus on the reticule and enemy which contain all the useful battle info.

In the end with the controls, the goal should be not to notice them at all I figure. So only concentrating on the idea of I want to move left, is better than translating I want to move left into some other motion depending on ship facing.

[Zeropoint101]

引用自 blorf：

In the end with the controls, the goal should be not to notice them at all I figure. So only concentrating on the idea of I want to move left, is better than translating I want to move left into some other motion depending on ship facing.

So what you're saying is.. we can control the ships with *our minds* in SPAZ 2. That sounds most excellent! I will spread the word. "It's like Xbox Kinect but without standing up or moving!"

[Psykechan]

blorf, since you like screen relative control, why was it not an option for SPAZ1?

I'm not saying that you need to reconfigure everything for it; if the ship is pointing to the right and the player moves right, it would move faster than if the ship was pointing to the left and the player moves right. Gamers would have to grasp that concept but I think it would be easier than the current setup. Most FPS's have the player move slower when they are walking backwards and that's arguably screen relative control.

[Blorf]

Back when we wrote SPAZ 1, screen relative control didn't seem like the way to go and I built everything around reticule relative controls (allowing things like strafing which I thought was cool since it played like a top down FPS)

Since then though many of my design ideas have evolved due to tonnes of contact on the forums with players. I actually get quite a lot out of these interactions on the forums :)

We have no plans to rewrite the flight system for SPAZ 1 so it will stay reticule relative forever, but going forward into SAPZ 2 and beyond we will be screen relative, unless some forum post convinces me otherwise :)

[Air Bear]

So uh... can you strafe in SPAZ2?

[Psykechan]

I believe the answer is yes. You can strafe but movement is screen relative instead of ship relative. Pushing left moves you to the left side of the screen (or rather moves the entire screen to the right, but I digress) instead of pushing left moving you to the left of your ship, wherever your ship is heading.

BTW, blorf, if you ever want my input just let me know. You can consider me a dissatisfied but still friendly customer that may hate the game, but not the player... er developer. This point of view may not be something that you usually get outside of internal testing. :)

For SPAZ2, why not give the players the option of using screen relative or ship relative control? I feel pretty strongly that players will like screen relative better but escpecially since SPAZ1 used ship relative, give the players the choice.

You should also focus more on teaching the player more; not a huge tutorial mode, or lots of hand holding, but more than just info pop-ups... but that's another discussion.

[Blorf]

In SPAZ 2 strafing has been replaced with boosting and taking cover. It is managing the lead point the enemy needs to shoot at to hit you. If you are good at it, you can avoid projectiles fairly consistently. It reminds me a lot of managing my lag point in the good ol days of mechwarrior 2 mercenaries :)

With our new shooting mechanics, reticule relative motion no longer makes sense. The ship no longer rotates toward the reticule at all. The great side effect of this is the ability to have nice broadside shots like in proper naval battles. We fully support fly one way and shoot the other now (like a tank)

As for the usability of the controls, currently both my 4 year old and 75 year old dad can fly effectively in SPAZ 2. We are going for an easy to learn hard to master system this time. So now anyone should be able to fly, but being an ace will require a tonne of finesse.

[Zeropoint101]

引用自 Psykechan：

I believe the answer is yes. You can strafe but movement is screen relative instead of ship relative. Pushing left moves you to the left side of the screen (or rather moves the entire screen to the right, but I digress) instead of pushing left moving you to the left of your ship, wherever your ship is heading.

BTW, blorf, if you ever want my input just let me know. You can consider me a dissatisfied but still friendly customer that may hate the game, but not the player... er developer. This point of view may not be something that you usually get outside of internal testing. :)

For SPAZ2, why not give the players the option of using screen relative or ship relative control? I feel pretty strongly that players will like screen relative better but escpecially since SPAZ1 used ship relative, give the players the choice.

You should also focus more on teaching the player more; not a huge tutorial mode, or lots of hand holding, but more than just info pop-ups... but that's another discussion.

Mind boggling..

[Zeropoint101]

引用自 blorf：

We are going for an easy to learn hard to master system this time. So now anyone should be able to fly, but being an ace will require a tonne of finesse.

Just to throw this in, I think one of the reasons I love SPAZ 1 so much is that it truly is challenging(also that you have the choice to make it super easy and just blow the hell out of things when/if you want to). Not just in choosing your loadout for each ship, combination of loadouts, and general strategy of your fleet, but the movement itself is very precise and requires a LOT of hand/eye coordination to really get good. When you say you're going for an easy to learn, hard to master system "this time", it just excites me more for SPAZ 2 considering how well done the challenge was/is in the first one.

[harryridgwell]

No one siad gamepads were perfect - they are just another option that can used ,in some games thay are better in others worse SPAZ seems to be one it could work for those that prefer them.

[Morphic]

引用自 blorf：

In SPAZ 2 strafing has been replaced with boosting and taking cover. It is managing the lead point the enemy needs to shoot at to hit you. If you are good at it, you can avoid projectiles fairly consistently. It reminds me a lot of managing my lag point in the good ol days of mechwarrior 2 mercenaries :)

That sounds great! Now with the boosting... will it be something akin to Armored Core? I'm hoping there will be a "Quick Boost" option that eats a ton of energy to give you a burst of speed in a specified direction.

I don't think I can keep reading into these tidbits much longer, I'm getting more excited for SPAZ 2.

[Blorf]

Currently boosting uses tonnes of power from the reactor but you can keep it up for as long as your capacitor still has juice (if your reactor can't produce enough power to cover the boost, the capacitor will drain the difference) once totally drained, no boost.

Boosting also severely inhibits your ability to aim. It acts very much like running in an FPS.

Boosting is great of evasion and ramming, with smaller ships it is also good for covering a lot of ground quickly. With larger ships that is less desirable because draining their huge capacitors takes a while to refill.

[Blorf]

Being able to constantly boost, though cool, is not a win button in combat either since what keeps you alive is changes in speed and direction, not moving faster in the same direction. I use both boost, stabilizers (brakes) and course changes to remain fairly safe from long range cannons. Then wait for the enemy's volley to pass and their capacitor to be low, then I move in for the kill.

[Zeropoint101]

So I looked around on the site and couldn't find anything.. is there any sort of general idea of a release date yet? And do you need beta testers? <--- serious question