Homeworld RTS like controls for fleets and stations

Neon_42 · Jan 19, 2017

Give the flagship in a fleet a 'Command mode' like build mode or flight mode where they would be given a view of the sector with their ships as RTS style units. This could be accomplished by toggling build mode or flight mode, or by a specific block players could enter. The advantages of a block might be that it could be placed on stations. Players could even have access to ship abilities mapped to their hotbar.

The command mode would give players an almost topdown view of their sector. Where they could issue move, attack and defend commands to the ships in the fleet. A control set to model this off of might be something like Homeworld where they have the 3d mechanics worked out, or possibly Void Destroyer or From the Depths. which have similar mechanics.

It would make fleet battles way more interesting, as players can take the roll of an admiral , captain, or a pilot. That would fit in with Starmade's scalabilty theme but this time in terms of command not blocks, in addition to adding a new way to play in this sandbox.

Durendal5150 · Jan 21, 2017

I'd considered drawing up how this would work and suggesting it myself. I feel like in the long run it's an inevitability to include a feature of this sort. Certainly more of a long term thing, but controlling fleets in single player without it is borderline impossible.

dwwojcik · Jan 21, 2017

Neon_42 said:
Players could even have access to ship abilities mapped to their hotbar.

The hotbar (is that the right word? I assume in this mode it would use the mouse pointer not the scrollwheel) could be for fleet-wide instructions. So you could instruct all (properly equipped) ships in the fleet to, for example, turn on their radar jammers. Additionally, there should be another menu for each individual ship (right click dropdown?) to give them specific orders. So if you're winning the battle, but one of your main ships has taken heavy damage and you'd like to preserve it, you could tell that one ship and only that one to withdraw.

Neon_42 · Jan 25, 2017

dwwojcik said:
The hotbar (is that the right word? I assume in this mode it would use the mouse pointer not the scrollwheel) could be for fleet-wide instructions. So you could instruct all (properly equipped) ships in the fleet to, for example, turn on their radar jammers. Additionally, there should be another menu for each individual ship (right click dropdown?) to give them specific orders. So if you're winning the battle, but one of your main ships has taken heavy damage and you'd like to preserve it, you could tell that one ship and only that one to withdraw.

Im not sure if hot bar is the right word either, but what you describe is what Im imagining. In Star Wars Empire at war. Ships in a fleet with the same abilities were grouped together with buttons for their abilities. An individual ship could be controlled by selecting just the one ship and then selecting the ability if you didn't want to use it fleet wide. Individual buttons would need to be used for logic controlled structures too. I might draw something up if I have the time sometime soon.

Homeworld RTS like controls for fleets and stations

Neon_42

Durendal5150

dwwojcik

Neon_42