Gratuitous Space Battles

[Carl]

This looks like it might be worth a blast, sort of a football manager in
space:

http://www.positech.co.uk/gratuitousspacebattles/index.html

[Bret Ripley]

No timeframe for release and no demo, but if you pre-order the game they'll
let you in on the Beta. Maybe they should change the name to Gratuitous
Marketing Opportunity?

Bret

[Carl]

> No timeframe for release and no demo, but if you pre-order the
> game they'll
let you in on the Beta. Maybe they should change the name to Gratuitous
Marketing Opportunity?

Bret

Ooooh, you world- weary cynic! :D

[Bret Ripley]

Damn, am I that transparent? And I used to pride myself on my
near-incoherence.

I found some gameplay videos on YouTube. It looks like you design your
ships, set your formations, and then become a spectator during the battles.
I wish the developers well, but the lack of control during battles may be a
deal-breaker for a lot of folks. My guess is that designing ships and fleet
formations will appeal to micro-management types, and removing the ability
to control those assets after deployment will probably frustrate those very
same micro-management types. I hope I'm wrong.

Bret

[DarkOne]

Hi Everyone

I'm the admin for spaceSimCentral and I recently had a thread on my
site with the developer that might answer some thing too:
http://www.spacesimcentral.com/general-space-sim-chat-f10/gratuitous-space-battles-t463.html

But I can answer the question about the control. You basically setup
your fleet of ships and formations etc and when you are done the
planning phase then you watch it all unfold. I asked that question I
believe in my Q&A with the dev.

-D1-

[Bret Ripley]

Thanks for the link, D1.

The discussion thread likens this game to a "Tower Defense" game, an
analogy that occurred to me while I was watching the gameplay videos a few
days ago. However, in a tower defense game you typically get to add or
upgrade units as things play out, whereas here you are strictly a spectator
once the action starts. I think players would enjoy having /some/ control,
even if it's just warping in reinforcements or choosing when/if to deploy
limited-use assets. <shrug>

Bret

[DarkOne]

On Oct 22, 5:05 pm, Bret Ripley <rip...@gotsky.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:51:05 -0700 (PDT), DarkOne wrote:
> > On Oct 20, 6:22 pm, Bret Ripley <rip...@gotsky.com> wrote:
> >> On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:50:06 +0100, Carl wrote:
> >>>>         No timeframe for release and no demo, but if you pre-order the
> >>>> game they'll
> >>> let you in on the Beta. Maybe they should change the name to Gratuitous
> >>> Marketing Opportunity?
>
> >>> Bret
>
> >>> Ooooh, you world- weary cynic! :D
>
> >> Damn, am I that transparent? And I used to pride myself on my
> >> near-incoherence.
>
> >> I found some gameplay videos on YouTube. It looks like you design your
> >> ships, set your formations, and then become a spectator during the battles.
> >> I wish the developers well, but the lack of control during battles may be a
> >> deal-breaker for a lot of folks. My guess is that designing ships and fleet
> >> formations will appeal to micro-management types, and removing the ability
> >> to control those assets after deployment will probably frustrate those very
> >> same micro-management types. I hope I'm wrong.
>
> >> Bret
>
> > Hi Everyone
>
> > I'm the admin for spaceSimCentral and I recently had a thread on my
> > site with the developer that might answer some thing too:

> >http://www.spacesimcentral.com/general-space-sim-chat-f10/gratuitous-...

>
> > But I can answer the question about the control. You basically setup
> > your fleet of ships and formations etc and when you are done the
> > planning phase then you watch it all unfold. I asked that question I
> > believe in my Q&A with the dev.
>
> > -D1-
>
> Thanks for the link, D1.
>
> The discussion thread likens this game to a "Tower Defense" game, an
> analogy that occurred to me while I was watching the gameplay videos a few
> days ago. However, in a tower defense game you typically get to add or
> upgrade units as things play out, whereas here you are strictly a spectator
> once the action starts. I think players would enjoy having /some/ control,
> even if it's just warping in reinforcements or choosing when/if to deploy
> limited-use assets. <shrug>
>
> Bret

That was my first thoughts too, and is a bit of a turn off. I know it
is still a WIP and things can be added. But it is really a different
concept and I commend the developer for the uniqueness. Would I spend
$20 on it not sure yet until I play them demo. But when I do I will
have a nice review on this. :)

I do like tower defense games and just being able to make some small
adjustments like formations and or the ability to focus attack on
another ship would be nice.