Auto aiming, Auto shooting...

[Southern Wind]

SPAZ 1 was top view shooting game. Spaz2 has automatic combat system. Only thing I have to do is just moving the ship. The ship will aim and shoot automatically. I can turn off the automatic mode. And I understand why SPaz2 has automatic mode. Weapon range is too long and if I want to fight manualy, I probably can not aim properly with top-view camera. Then I have to use first-view mode which is very different and harming the identity of SPAZ.

Building the ship and real time tactical factor are quite fun, but I thing there should be something that is like classic top-view shooting game.

[Sinjen Blackstar]

you can manually aim for specific parts. Anytime you manually aim and fire you take over from automated seamlessly.

[alveolate]

you can actually change your zoom out all the way and it becomes effectively top down again.

[Joe Coffee]

I like aiming and shooting manually. It seems so satisfying turning your starting feeble little ship into a more powerful platform of death over time and effort. It is rewarding to blast pieces off your enemy's ship and making your adversary regret picking a fight with you when it shoulda ran. Kinda takes trolling to a space art form. =3

[Blorf]

Battlewagon mode is there for a few reasons...

#1 it lets you shoot in multiple directions at once. So while you can still aim and shoot at specific parts (and should) while it is active, guns that cannot get a firing solution on your target are freed up to fire at strike craft of other ships. We think this is highly useful

#2 it prevents player control overload. There is a lot to manage in SPAZ 2 in combat, between tactical positioning, throwing stuff with the tractor, boosting shields, and using afterburners. When we also add 20+ guns to the mix on a ship, managing all the weapon groups yourself to fire at the right time is a lot to expect from players. Battlewagon is smart and fires the right weapons at the right time where possible. This allows you effectively manage multiple weapons at once with a single left mouse click and aim.

#3 it can be configured. More advanced users can tailor battle wagon mode to only fire the weapons that they want to have automated, but fire the rest themselves. This is a nice bridge into using the weapon groups system which I will talk about next.

The entire weapon system tries to be intelligent, even outside battlewagon mode. If a laser can't reach the target you are painting for example, it won't fire as to not waste power. If a gun cannot rotate to hit your target, it also won't fire. Power waste is kept to a minimum and we hope simulates having some semi intelligent crew member pulling the trigger on each gun when you give the order to fire (left click)

So outside of battlewagon mode we have a highly configurable weapon group system. The player who is uber enough to manage firing the weapon groups on their own at the right time will be more efficient with their power usage and thus put out significantly more firepower against enemy ships at the right time. This will become very apparent when the vs multiplayer comes online. The combat system was built so everyone could be competent out of the box, making their personal ship design choices as important as their twitch combat skill, but someone who both designs their ship well AND is able to manage their weapons effectively will come out on top.

As a side note, SPAZ 1 also had auto turret mode, it was just in the tactics panel instead of being selectable live as it is now. Also, in top down mode we allow you to zoom out incredibly far with the mouse wheel (much farther than in spaz 1) so if you want to shoot long range and do not like 3rd person, you can effectively stay in top down forever. You can even right click in top down mode to go into sniper mode as needed to pick apart ships.

[Soulsphere]

EDIT 2: My comment isn't especially useful now that I know there is an option to display the distance of enemy ships, but I'm leaving it as is so that the rest of the comments make sense.

The one aspect that I dislike about Space Pirates and Zombies 2 is the fact that you have no idea whether or not your weapons are in range (though please correct me if I'm wrong and missed any HUD indicators for that). The lack of range indicating makes it difficult to know when it's best to fire, which pretty much forces you (or at least me) to use battlewagon mode at all times. I would love to see some sort of indicator to show when my weapons are in range of the targeted ship, if that's not too much trouble.

Granted, I can use battlewagon mode and let the ship fire itself, but that does take away a bit from the fun of the game. Though perhaps I can gain a certain amount of experience with the weapons in the game and gauge when I need to fire. But if I ever change weapons I'd need to figure out the range all over again.

I have only played the demo so far, and that was a while back, so maybe there is an easy way to know when I need to fire. I'll have to look into the demo again and see if I missed something.

EDIT: I don't recall if weapons come with a range value in their descriptions, but if they do then the developers could probably easily add a range indicator above the targetting reticle to show how far away the target is. Then you would know when your weapons are in range, assuming that you looked at their maximum range values.

[gussmed]

Weapons do have very visible range values in their descriptions.

I’m perfectly happy with battewagon mode myself. There’s enough to worry about without being focused on manually firing the weapons. Particularly since I frequently have hostile strike craft on the port side while I’m focusing on a mothership to starboard.

[Soulsphere]

Originally posted by gussmed:

Weapons do have very visible range values in their descriptions.

I’m perfectly happy with battewagon mode myself. There’s enough to worry about without being focused on manually firing the weapons. Particularly since I frequently have hostile strike craft on the port side while I’m focusing on a mothership to starboard.

That's true, you do need battlewagon mode at least as far as letting you ship's A.I. fire at multiple targets (since you can't shoot at everything in range).

[Bozobub]

You can select always-on display of target range in the options. This only works on locked targets (so your whole HUD isn't flooded with digits) ^^'.

Balltewagon mode also lets you manually target at any time, btw; just left-click.

If you want TRUE top-down play, just hit "C" to toggle 2D/3D play. You'll probably have to zoom wa-a-ay out, though - lol.

[Soulsphere]

Originally posted by Bozobub:

You can select always-on display of target range in the options. This only works on locked targets (so your whole HUD isn't flooded with digits) ^^'.

Balltewagon mode also lets you manually target at any time, btw; just left-click.

If you want TRUE top-down play, just hit "C" to toggle 2D/3D play. You'll probably have to zoom wa-a-ay out, though - lol.

That's really good to know, thank you.

Yeah, I know you can manually fire when in battlewagon mode, but thanks for the info. anyway.

Zooming out would probably make the ships far too small to see anything properly. But, yes, that's one option if I'm crazy enough to try it.

[Bozobub]

Not as small as you may think, perhaps, at least on a decent-sized monitor; it's not terribly different from SPAZ, except you can zoom out MUCH farther if/when desired. But yeah, kinda small. Flight also has a significantly different "feel", as well, because you can SEE the way you slide in turns (there's more physics going on than may be initially apparent).

And you're quite welcome.