Finally a spacecraft that flies like spacecraft, need single player

[wjayson1981]

I am glad that someone finally come up with space combat sims that look like spacecraft rather than aircraft:
- without air intake
- separate weapon pods where guns & missiles are shielded in tube
- visible directional thrusters (maneuver) , reverse thruster (slow down or brake)
- large enough to carry fuel, mount engines, directional thrusters, life support system, weapons, etc.

I somehow need single player for this and if not, option for bots. I'll buy this if there's single player for solo play and the game focus on warfare rather than space trading & mining. Could be ideal replacement for Wing Commander.

[Zopto]

Bots do exist that you can play with right now, but they aren't the best (at least in my opinion). They aren't the main focus right now and are due for an overhaul at some point.

[Fernando Z]

Hey Jay,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I shared your post with Hunternet's 3D artist and he really liked it:

"I appreciate the comment, pretty much exactly what I was thinking when building them"

He is a mechanical engineer and works with military aircraft and his experience comes through in his designs. He is also among our best pilots in game. I believe that's a big plus when it comes to his designs and I'm glad you picked up on it :)!

The bots are fun to practice with but once you get decent at the game you'll have to push yourself harder to keep them challenging. I have my hands full in other areas of the game but they will be getting upgrades.

The core of the game is starfighter-class combat but there is also salvage and plans for asteroid mining. The economy will be a war economy to help your side manufacture the ships, weapons, and carriers needed to take on the enemy.

o7
Fernando

[wjayson1981]

Originally posted by Fernando Z:

Hey Jay,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I shared your post with Hunternet's 3D artist and he really liked it:

"I appreciate the comment, pretty much exactly what I was thinking when building them"

He is a mechanical engineer and works with military aircraft and his experience comes through in his designs. He is also among our best pilots in game. I believe that's a big plus when it comes to his designs and I'm glad you picked up on it :)!

The bots are fun to practice with but once you get decent at the game you'll have to push yourself harder to keep them challenging. I have my hands full in other areas of the game but they will be getting upgrades.

The core of the game is starfighter-class combat but there is also salvage and plans for asteroid mining. The economy will be a war economy to help your side manufacture the ships, weapons, and carriers needed to take on the enemy.

o7
Fernando

Great, that explains how he managed to come up with feasible and realistic spacecraft. Usually only those into engineering and aircraft would think of this knowing how propulsion works in reality. Looking forward to get this game, everyone needed successor to Wing Commander and I hope this would be it.

Thanks for your help and thank him for creating this game.

Edit: additional comment:

I have been thinking of future spacecraft to have dual flight sticks for the additional vector for flying sideway left/right, vertical upward/downward, cross movement X (NW, SW, NE, SE) whereas there'll be 3 pedals (replacing throttle) where left pedal for down thrust, right pedal for up thrust while middle pedal for reverse thruster (slow down, brake, reverse)

After this game becomes successful, wish I could get DLC to fly corvette, frigate, destroyer too. Just charge us space combat sims fans for season pass or early access to ease the burden.

[wjayson1981]

Originally posted by Zopto:

Bots do exist that you can play with right now, but they aren't the best (at least in my opinion). They aren't the main focus right now and are due for an overhaul at some point.

Thanks for your reply too.

[Fernando Z]

Thanks Jay, the initial scope needs to be fixed so I can get it out the door but I'd love to keep building upon it :)

[wjayson1981]

Originally posted by Fernando Z:

Thanks Jay, the initial scope needs to be fixed so I can get it out the door but I'd love to keep building upon it :)

Looking forward for this game to be posted for sale on steam. Until then.

[Fernando Z]

Thank you Jay, I'm looking forward to the day we are ready for the broader audience here on Steam :)! It's going to be an very exciting day :D

[wjayson1981]

Originally posted by Fernando Z:

Thank you Jay, I'm looking forward to the day we are ready for the broader audience here on Steam :)! It's going to be an very exciting day :D

It sure is, I just ordered the Thrustmaster T16000M complete with throttle & rudder pedals hoping to use it for this game. I currently have the Logitech Wingman 3D Extreme, do I get to set dual stick? If yes, then I can try to set the rudder pedal for controlling throttle instead. Set the left stick T16000M for directional thrusters left right up while the right stick Logitech WIngman 3D for yaw, pitch, roll. Many still don't know the existence of your new game. Maybe you need to come up with more new videos on YouTube soon

[Fernando Z]

Hey Jay, congrats on the new HOTAS :)! Yes, you can mix and match as many devices as you like. So you could combine that with your Logi stick and fly in a HOSAS configuration.

You are right about that. There is still a lot of work to be done in order to get the word out. I will release more YouTube videos and updates on Steam as progress continues to be made. There will also be a significant ramp up in time and money invested in promotion before the Steam Early Access release.

Have a Merry Christmas, and I hope to fly with you in the New Year o7

[wjayson1981]

Originally posted by Fernando Z:

Hey Jay, congrats on the new HOTAS :)! Yes, you can mix and match as many devices as you like. So you could combine that with your Logi stick and fly in a HOSAS configuration.

You are right about that. There is still a lot of work to be done in order to get the word out. I will release more YouTube videos and updates on Steam as progress continues to be made. There will also be a significant ramp up in time and money invested in promotion before the Steam Early Access release.

Have a Merry Christmas, and I hope to fly with you in the New Year o7

Merry Christmas Fernando. Good to hear that, Looking forward to watch new videos from you on YouTube.

I'll buy this game as soon as I see it on Steam. Make sure there's at least skirmish with bots available. I have been waiting to play realistic spacecraft combat sims for long.

Who or what will we fight against? Human or alien military forces? Will there be Chiggs like alien spacecraft from Space Above & Beyond? Do you intend to add alien spacecraft that is organic or insectoid like? If Insectoid, will they come with moveable actuators that serve like muscles to change direction & maneuver like sea creatures?

[Fernando Z]

Merry Christmas Jay :)

There are currently three factions planned, two human playable factions and one not playable alien faction. I love Space Above & Beyond, such a classic, I recently watched the whole series from the start!

For the alien faction we haven't decided on their exact nature. But most likely it will be bio-mechanical. The plan is for it to be quite alien from the human factions and not a humanoid alien race like you would see in Star Trek or Star Wars.

[wjayson1981]

Originally posted by Fernando Z:

Merry Christmas Jay :)

There are currently three factions planned, two human playable factions and one not playable alien faction. I love Space Above & Beyond, such a classic, I recently watched the whole series from the start!

For the alien faction we haven't decided on their exact nature. But most likely it will be bio-mechanical. The plan is for it to be quite alien from the human factions and not a humanoid alien race like you would see in Star Trek or Star Wars.

Since they cancelled Space Above & Beyond, your game could give us SA&B fans an imaginative continuation of that series but with added realism. Perhaps you could make the alien faction playable as DLC later where you could make additional profit to fund your development. Remember the episode where Nathan and his squad mates flown the stolen Chiggy's spacecraft to alien's planet for Doolittle style surprise strike? Maybe you could make the alien spacecraft cockpit in riding position similar to Chiggy's organic fighter. Battlestar Galactica Cylon raider has similar cockpit configuration as seen in 1 episode where Starbucks flown a stolen Cylon raider.

Non-humanoid alien = inverted legs and hands, ceph like creatures or martians from 1952 War of the World?

What sort of alien spacecraft design that you would come up with?
- Manta ray with organic surface
- or Insectoid anthropod bugs like with moveable armature where it could extend & point its arms at targeted ships

How alien spacecraft manuever?
- maneuver via directional thrusters (less artwork & function required)
- or moveable armature/actuator that gives it bendable vertabrae like our waist and back as if they swim in space or fly like large bee or hornet that could move its various parts while flying sort of insect like mech in space.

Countermeasures against missiles in space, apart from ECM, would you prefer
- decoy like chaff/flare
- fire shtora, arena, trophy style explosive debris that detonates near incoming missile
- laser defenses that shoot at incoming missiles
- CIWS that fires magnetic rail powered gatling gun at incoming missiles

[Fernando Z]

Hi Jay, the piloting an alien ship episodes in SA&B and Galactica were two of my favorite moments in both those series :)! Would be really cool to eventually realize something similar in Hunternet. Nothing is set in stone at this stage, but once we start working on the alien faction we will start posting updates here on the steam page. Things will get more concrete as we start running our first experiments and we see what works well and what fits within our development resources and game execution resources. Thanks again for the feedback :)

[wjayson1981]

Originally posted by Fernando Z:

Hi Jay, the piloting an alien ship episodes in SA&B and Galactica were two of my favorite moments in both those series :)! Would be really cool to eventually realize something similar in Hunternet. Nothing is set in stone at this stage, but once we start working on the alien faction we will start posting updates here on the steam page. Things will get more concrete as we start running our first experiments and we see what works well and what fits within our development resources and game execution resources. Thanks again for the feedback :)

Everyone would want to see their favorite sci-fi being made into realistic video game especially unconventional ones would attract fans. An alien being sitting in spherical cockpit in gyroscope magnetic field linked to outer separate fuselage housing compartments for main power cell, aux power unit, directional thrusters, main engines, reverse thrusters, phasers, magnetic charged rail powered tube with rotary launcher that loads the missiles. Future missile fuel is mainly to power its directional thrusters for maneuvering while the magnetic charged rail powered tube would propel the missile at very high speed making it more of a bullet that could maneuver towards moving target guided via image recognition super zoom scope camera + super long range laser targeting pod for calculating distance, trajectory in dual or triple seeker/guidance system.

You could fix the flaws and limitation due to cost from sci-fi series & movies. For example, Battlestar Galactica made the viper small being barely 20ft long mainly because of space, budget and camera angle constraints. SA&B made the cockpit capsule being separated from fuselage for refuelling when docked in Saratoga for the same reason, they didn't want to build large gigantic hanger bigger than USS Saratoga aircraft carrier just to house the few Hammerhead squadrons.

For now focus on just 2 factions having at least 2-4 different fighters to fly from with lively carriers and destroyer class ships. People wanted more military and combat actions to keep the game fun. Don't focus on too many galaxies like Elite Dangerous which made the game dull and boring as we spent much time flying towards frameshift drive then have to fly further and jump in and out again. Use autopilot skip like Wing Commander to cut short travel time spending more time in seeing combat action or friendly ships.

[Fernando Z]

I think we have similar ideas, one of my main design priorities is making great use of player time and keeping the persistent universe nice and dense :) Thanks again for sharing your thoughts Jay :)