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Post by sfsdfd on Aug 16, 2011 16:36:50 GMT 10
Farbs: Having spent a whole bunch of time with v0.4, and having posted a bunch of comments and read many others, I have a question for you that we haven't really asked: What's on YOUR mind?  I'm curious about what YOU think about 0.4, the general state of Jameson, and where it's headed. Care to share? |
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Post by Farbs on Aug 16, 2011 23:12:21 GMT 10
Haha, cheers. ;D
Right now I'm in a bit of a strange situation. I have a big list of features to add and fixes to make, but I think that even with all these changes made the game will still lack something. I feel like there's some giant mind blowing crotch grabbing spark of an idea that would blow this game apart, but I haven't yet found it. To use Minecraft as a metaphor, I feel like I've created the Creative game mode, but not Survival.
My plan is to keep working on the game as I have been, but to spend a little time daydreaming to see if any random ideas collide with the game design. The musical lasers and HUD reflection systems in Forever came about this way, as did the core designs for ROM CHECK FAIL and PlayPen, so I think it can work. We'll see.
Of course, if anyone has suggestions for major features or changes I'd love to hear 'em!
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Post by sfsdfd on Aug 17, 2011 3:01:11 GMT 10
My plan is to keep working on the game as I have been, but to spend a little time daydreaming to see if any random ideas collide with the game design. The musical lasers and HUD reflection systems in Forever came about this way, as did the core designs for ROM CHECK FAIL and PlayPen, so I think it can work. We'll see. Got it. (By the way, ROM CHECK FAIL is among my small list of "must keep installed on my home theater PC for showing off to guests" games!) That makes a lot of sense. Coincidentally, I'm in the "daydreaming" phase of a project as well: I've put a lot of work into a personal database project, and now that I've assembled all of the data, I'm dreaming up uses for it beyond those that I'd originally expected. So I completely understand this phase of project development. I have one observation about that "missing spark" in Jameson. For me... it's the fact that the game runs out of steam after ten hours of play. You build up your ship, liberate a mess of stations, earn enough firepower and credits that you can rebuild at will, find the beacons - and then... there's just nothing else to do. You have exactly the ship that you want; you can go everywhere, but the places that you haven't already explored (and conquered) feel very similar to where you've been, so what's the point?... There are definitely lots of ways to add longevity to this "tail end" portion of Captain Jameson - many of them are very easy, actually (e.g., rare parts, unusual ship or station types, and a garage that allows multiple ships, and the central nav point for extending the map). I'm sure many options, simple and complex, will come to mind. |
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Post by Daniel Brauer on Aug 17, 2011 5:00:35 GMT 10
I would just like to mention that the musical weapons are my favourite part of the whole series. The soundtrack to the original Captain Forever trailer was what got me to look at the game in the first place, but the musical weapons are beautifully appropriate for actual gameplay.
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Post by parcifal on Aug 17, 2011 13:00:17 GMT 10
It's true that the game runs out of steam when you've created a high level ship. But for me, I would definitely continue playing if I could buy and control stations, and compete against rival factions for control of areas of the map. A fleet of smaller ships to do my bidding, mining asteroids or something, would be awesome too. Then you could have large battles with opposing fleets!
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Post by korvash on Aug 19, 2011 4:14:09 GMT 10
It's true that the game runs out of steam when you've created a high level ship. But for me, I would definitely continue playing if I could buy and control stations, and compete against rival factions for control of areas of the map. A fleet of smaller ships to do my bidding, mining asteroids or something, would be awesome too. Then you could have large battles with opposing fleets! Yes. Oh god yes. I think there would have to be some pretty etensive work done to the games economy system, but this would be amazing |
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Post by devman on Aug 20, 2011 0:16:02 GMT 10
a Few things farbs,
To increase re-playability you could make the map generate procedurally , based on a each new login or make a link for the randomised map.
Create unique items that spawn the same chance as oxygen
- Weapons, Engines and shields with increased output.
- Unique repair, weapons with special effects.
Beam lasers, 1 shot long recharge, like shields.
More aggressive AI, the current AI is too easy, an increase player targeting.
Mining and bounties may be a way to increase the scope of the game, wormholes into hostile sectors may also add some mystery, it's a space game so they're plenty of ideas to play with, nebula, suns and such. Hexagon or polygon parts may make for more interesting ships.
Add more unique enemies and larger enemies, maybe add in space station parts to enemies.
Great game, supported 1 day after playing forever and loving Jameson. Keep up the good work mate.
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Post by korvash on Sept 3, 2011 13:31:33 GMT 10
Instances are totally the way forwards with this game. They could have their difficulty set according to your highest level ship part, and act as a 'mission' within the game. As such, it could be an idea that any parts lost/gained during the mission are temporary, and only remain off/on your ship for as long as the instance lasts. It would be nice to go into combat without having to worry about losing parts. The player could be payed and given reward part(s) for succesfully completing the instance and whatever objectives are within that.
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Post by swender on Sept 27, 2011 8:43:58 GMT 10
One thing that would add a lot is missions and permanent upgrades from completing them. The upgrades can be small things--an increase in the number of steps you can zoom out, a small increase in fire speed for your base weapon, etc.
Another idea: I want to have my own base that will auto-defend itself from attackers. You bring back ship parts and build up defenses. If you're worried about people using it to store ship parts, you could make anything attached to it for more than a minute or so turn into a base part permanently.
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Post by Farbs on Sept 27, 2011 19:11:33 GMT 10
Building up star bases would be very cool, I agree. It's nowhere on my immediate plans but it's somewhere on my list of stuff I'd love to do some day.
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Post by bostonboy2021 on Oct 6, 2011 17:10:09 GMT 10
loosing a well built ship to me is rather drive killing... would love to see a respawn from last launch system put in place for when you die/browser errors. i get the whole you're dead you're dead theme carrying from captain forever onward, but jameson feels so much larger than that with the stations and all. all the functionality i desired to see in successor has happened except a way to resume without total loss after death. on a side note another idea i had would be to be able to make, and switch in between a 2nd ship.
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Post by Farbs on Oct 7, 2011 9:26:50 GMT 10
Thanks for the comment, bostonboy2021.
One of my goals with Jameson is to create something akin to a soft roguelike, ie a game with permadeath where the death of a player character is significant but doesn't wipe out all of your progress. In Jameson your progress is embodied by the following:
* Station unlocks
* Modules in warehouses
* Banked credits
* Knowledge of the sector
* Your ship
* Credits on hand
When you die you lose the final two, but the other four forms of progress remain intact. I usually find I can build a new ship up to level in ~1/10th the time it took to reach that level in the first place. I need to remember to bank credits and store modules of course, and in 0.5 the warehouse storage capacities will be raised from 3-5 to 15, which should help even more.
0.5 will also include three sectors of varying size. I suspect we'll find that smaller maps allow us to level more quickly.
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tajin
Alpha Rank
Posts: 3
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Post by tajin on Oct 25, 2011 22:10:09 GMT 10
I feel like there's some giant mind blowing crotch grabbing spark of an idea that would blow this game apart, but I haven't yet found it. That immediately makes me think of one thing: Multiplayer  Certainly a pain to implement... but damn, I would love that. |
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Post by Captain Michaela Nul'dolaer on Aug 24, 2014 20:40:42 GMT 10
Should this be locked? I don't see the point of having this up.
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