Nebulous Fleet Command: space rts, physics, lan, multiplayer, z axis

[Destraex]

I still think this game needs some serious work on more than a simple "1000" points per side and go play fishes in a fish tank style combat to be successful for multiplayer PVE or PVP. The combat mechanics are great in pure terms. But it's not that interesting or realistic really to play under a points system. That's why RTS games usually allow re-enforcements and some sort of strategic base building or purchase element.

Homeworld had factory ships and resource mining
Steel Division 2 - A deck system and points tick per minute to purchase units

If these sorts of things are not in an RTS. The fights become fairly boring fairly quickly no matter how detailed the combat system is. Because every fight is the same and every time you fight you know exactly how many points the enemy has left on the field. The fight also becomes fairly pointless as you are fighting over nothing for nothing. The game becomes like a tech demo with combat mechanics for combat mechanics sake.

I know a campaign is coming but that is single player.

[GDS_Starfury]

I havent played it but I think its still early days.
a lot of the bullet points you bring up could be applied to Close Combat.  known points to spend, single map combat with no context.
however campaigns and custom campaigns and maps added years of playability and depth.
if the skeleton is solid then modders with polish the shit out of it.

[CaptainKoloth]

I havent played it but I think its still early days.
a lot of the bullet points you bring up could be applied to Close Combat.  known points to spend, single map combat with no context.
however campaigns and custom campaigns and maps added years of playability and depth.
if the skeleton is solid then modders with polish the shit out of it.

Is the game even moddable?

[Jarhead0331]

I havent played it but I think its still early days.
a lot of the bullet points you bring up could be applied to Close Combat.  known points to spend, single map combat with no context.
however campaigns and custom campaigns and maps added years of playability and depth.
if the skeleton is solid then modders with polish the shit out of it.

Is the game even moddable?

Yes. Very. It has workshop support.

[CaptainKoloth]

I havent played it but I think its still early days.
a lot of the bullet points you bring up could be applied to Close Combat.  known points to spend, single map combat with no context.
however campaigns and custom campaigns and maps added years of playability and depth.
if the skeleton is solid then modders with polish the shit out of it.

Is the game even moddable?

Yes. Very. It has workshop support.

That's great! That's generally the difference in my book between whether a great game is an experience people fondly remember 20 years later, or whether they're PLAYING it 20 years later.

[Gusington]

^Kind of like Sins of a Solar Empire...that game has legs!

[CaptainKoloth]

^Kind of like Sins of a Solar Empire...that game has legs!

Perfect example. There are still mods in active development. And they're freaking awesome. Some of them (e.g. Armada III, Thrawn's Revenge) are in my opinion head and shoulders above any commercially released space startegy games coming out today. And it's just a bunch of extremely talented fans doing a passion project for free.

Some others that are very moddable and very much alive for it: Civ IV, Hearts of Iron IV, X Wing Alliance, Freespace 2. One that's totally dead for lack of it: House of the Dying Sun.

[Gusington]

I still fire up Freespace 2  mods!

[Sigwolf]

I still fire up Freespace 2  mods!

Battlestar Galactica Deadlock has since helped scratch the itch, but the BSG: Diaspora mod for Freespace 2 held a long reign as the best BSG game ever made.

[GDS_Starfury]

Homeworld BSG was very very fun.
this will be a very different game in a year.

[JasonPratt]

Rimmy and his friends did a multiplayer match against random players recently, posted on the 18th I think.

The missile spam stealth attack still works! -- sort of. Most missiles didn't get through the strong defensive spoofing. Also, the shooter forgot the "bravely run away" part of the tactic. ;)

[solops]

With the last two big updates - Modular Missiles and Mod Support - this game looks like it may be turning into a real monster. It may be the best game in my library that I have not played! The devs say the next step is moving from fleet battles to conquest. My, my.

[Destraex]

Yeah. The interface is a monster as well from the 3D perspective. They need cube based movement in the zoomed out instruments view. For those that do not know, like in homeworld, you press space bar to go to a large scale radar view. But I still have huge problems with perspective. I guess it just has not clicked for me yet.
I mean I can handle it most of the time and for simple things it's fine, but often if I want to go nuts with waypoints for missiles and move them around asteroids and such.... well I can sit their for 5 minutes trying to get the interface to puit the missile waypoint where I want it to go.

But damn the game is so lovely. It really gives me the feeling I had when I first played homeworld. The feeling I doubt homeworld3 will give me, because I am not really expecting a "new" experience from a sequel like homeworld3 is. This game though, this has stuff to learn! New stuff that is interesting just because it's deeper than homeworld.

Shame though that their will be no in game RTS economy like homeworld had. This is more like a small scale Eugen game, combat only. Except you built the ships from the ground up. Closest facsimile would be ultimate admiral dreadnoughts I think. BSG Deadlock is awesome BUT was very limited in scope compared to Nebulous. Deadlock is defo the easier of the two.

[Pete Dero]

I mean I can handle it most of the time and for simple things it's fine, but often if I want to go nuts with waypoints for missiles and move them around asteroids and such.... well I can sit their for 5 minutes trying to get the interface to puit the missile waypoint where I want it to go.

Glad I'm not alone.

[Destraex]

Yeah I see a fair few people don't like the 3D interface GUI. But you know devs, they probably spent years trying to get what they thought was the perfect solution worked out and now want to stick to it. Even if a lot of people are having trouble with it. If I crack the code I will let you know. But currently I can only say that holding CTRL and shortening the distance line with the mouse makes things a helluva lot easier to orient.