Human Ship Design,

I said I would draw up some concepts, and I have been working on them. (Though, my abilities with art seem to have left me somewhere along the way :X)

Then I realised my scanner doesn't work. As a quick alternative..

Imagine something somewhat like this for the humans. This would most closely resemble a Class 3 ship, a carrier. Imagine hangar openings and runways up top. Ship design fairly similiar, though. The second human army has a much more sleek approach to ship design, incorporating various alien artefacts, and creating something much more.. Covenent looking, I suppose. Though not without it's sharp bits. Mostly, the second human army will have ships that appear as skeletal frames of the normal human ships, but with outer hulls replaced by smooth, flowing sections of armor. Material names and army names can be discussed later, when I lay down the campaign story a bit more. (Most of the story is already thought out, I just need to fill in the details.)

Finally, the third species, entirely alien in design, well, mostly, (they aren't really aliens.) are first and foremost organic. With some of the units a blend of human technology (and various other alien bits) and flesh.

To sum up, the design of the first human army is heavy and powerful. The second army is more specialized.. Not as powerful all around, but with plenty of enhanced, interesting twists. The third army, when unlocked, has the greatest potential for power, overall, and greatest potential for speed. But the catch is that they will prove weak to certain tactics. Effectively, the first army will be able to tough things out for the most part, the second army can just be sneaky and unleash some interesting moves to save their asses, and the third army is an all or nothing sort of deal. Whether you're going fast, or powerful, or both, you will want to stunt your opponents ability to adapt to your strategy. This would suggest that they're rushers, but your strategy could very well be to turtle. But doing so would make you a rather weak offensive. Effectively, the most adaptable army, but the greatest risk.

I'll work out more of the mechanics as I make some charts and lists of units and whatnot, just get some ideas grounded. But we won't really have to worry about the third army, as they only show up later in campaign, anyhow. Though we could certainly get some concept renders or something done of them. I'll see if I can fudge together some low poly models or something of some of the designs. Primarily work will be on the two human armies. The third army can be added in later.

I'm really tired and worn out, though. So take this all as preliminary planning. Any suggestions? Also, would you prefer to work on the fantasy version instead, and plan this as a possible mod? I'm really open to doing either, and perhaps never even doing the other if it doesn't work out like that. Thoughts? :X

-Mataro

It's all up in the air at the moment but here are my thoughts....

This is Sci-fi or fantasy?
If it's sci-fi and the game is heavy on strategic intel then incorperate that not merely as an aspect of game play, but as a mechanism as well.

Example:

Team A uses cloaking devices on there ships. These cloaking devices have a a certain range of frequencies that they are detectable on. The better the device the smaller the range of frequencies.
Also, the larger the ship the more energy output, the easier it is to detect a ship using cloaking.

Team A tries to disperse their ships so energy fields don't overlap (which causes a frequency on Team B's scanner to rise in priority).

Other tactics might include dispersed frequencies (i.e. the detectable frequency range is not linear from one point to another, i.e. frequency 65hz-69hz, instead, 63hz, 65hz, 41hz, etc), manuevaring around objects (i.e. mountaintops, thunderstorms) to block signals, etc.

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As for the materials, this is a little early but one of the materials, a fuel, could be "Maezynge"
It was a spaceship fuel from a short-story I wrote way back when. In the story it had arrived to earth via massive asteroid, the impact of which hailed the dawning of a new age, and the closing of another. Not sure of the story your planning, but it's just an idea. Essentially Maezygne can be processed into a triangular matrix of atoms. When a charge is applied at one end, a proton/neutron pair is expelled from the matrices but trapped in a magnetic field that is inherent in maezynge-matrices; at which point the intense magnetic field (at the planc legnth) seperates the neutron and proton. The neutron is expelled, and the proton fuses with a electron from the original charge, releasing photons as it melds back into the maezynge-matrice.

If thats two heavy on detail, lets just say that it can produce nuclear-level power, without all the nuclear mess

I really like the idea for the cloaking. Though it'll take some work to really achieve. And yes, fuel is indeed a consideration. Most every ship will have to refuel, minus ships with reactors on board. (Using Maezynge would certainly be a good excuse not to have a meltdown every time a Cruiser goes down :X)

Essentially, most if not all class 3 vessels will have a reactor on board of some sort. Maezynge, mostly, but some of the more antiquated vessels will still have nuclear reactors. Class 1 and 2, Fighter and Frigate, vessels will be carrying conventional fuels for the most part, save a few Frigates that will serve as refueling stations for other ships. Though, only being able to refuel a few fighters at a time, or another Frigate. This will all be refined, of course. But any vessel requiring fuel will calculate where the nearest refueling vessel is, and abort orders to automatically return and refuel when it's running low. After refueling (And possibly restocking on special weaponry), it will continue it's prior orders. Although, ordering your men to fight until they crash will be possible, it will have penalties aside the obvious loss of a ship. Morale penalties, mostly.

As for living vessels, such as the third races primary Fighter class unit (a sort of flying demon hammer head shark with a with an arching scythe instead of the head which it uses to ram enemy vessels) will never need refueling, but instead, will require food. The food will be produced by the larger ships, like the other armies, but the penalties for not feeding them will be different. Instead of just running low on food, their health will slowly decay as nutrition levels run low, eventually killing them, of course. However, the third race will suffer no morale penalties whatsoever.

Finally, on the topic of morale, loss of certain flagship cruisers will strike a blow to morale levels, however, loss of unmanned ships such as those flown remotely will have no effect on morale levels. Morale will also decrease a great deal if you lose a great many ships at one time. (Such as if the enemy rushed a convoying fleet and overtook it, providing a great chance for your enemy (or his allies) to attack you.) Morale will not change damage levels, because that wouldn't make sense. Instead, morale affects the accuracy of units, as well as their abilities to dodge enemy fire. Last but not least, it is possible to have positive morale values, increasing the accuracy and evasion levels of your units.

Hero units will also be available, but not int he traditional sense. Though different armies will have their different heroes, heroes must be "achieved", and not purchased. Lets say human army A has three heroes for fighter class ships, and three for frigates, and three for cruisers. The three for fighter class are, say, Jack, John, and Dan. (The real ones will have better names, don't worry :X) Each of these heroes will need certain requirements to be met. Lets say Jack's requirements is to have survived 5 encounters, destroyed 10 enemy aircraft total, and assisted in the desctruction of 1 Cruiser class ship. Should these requirements be met, whatever Fighter achieved this task would be "promoted". That is, a message would be displayed to the player, something like "One of your Fighter's pilots is been hailed a hero!". The fighter would then, instead of being called it's normal ship class name, would be called the hero's name. Heroes will have effects based on classes. Fighters would have a huge increase in morale when fighting along side a fighter Hero, frigates, alongside a Frigate Hero, and everything, along side a Cruiser hero. Exact increases in abilities will depend on the hero itself, that is, Jack, John, and Dan will have different requirements, and thus give different bonuses. Jack in particular would grant a near invulnerable status, having incredibly high evasion levels, very high accuracy levels, and a very much increased ability to strike critical hits. (As well as his own glowy aura to seperate him from the rest :X) Enemy fighters fighting your fighters while Jack his assisting them will suffer a heavy morale penalty. As the heroes score more and more kills, they will increase even more in ability, but also make a target of themselves. A hero, for instance, who's "maxed" their level would draw a lot of enemy fire. Cruiser personnel seeing an enemy's champion might be so filled with fear and hate that they abandon their orders and fire upon the fighter, instead of say upon the enemy cruiser you told them to. The fighter would only be able to sustain a bit of fire, so it would be relying on it's high evasion levels to keep it airborne. Finally, once a hero has been earned, it cannot be earned again, should it die along the way. Last but not least, if you can somehow manage to earn every hero, you'll be crowned a hero as the commander, granting your entire force a massive morale boost, and pretty much meaning you win. Of course, getting every hero and keeping them alive at the same time to achieve that is more luck than anything. It will be a extraordinarily rare, almost unseen occurance.

Phew. That's all for now. Thoughts? xD