Gameplay mechanics; observations

[Jonathon Fuller]

Hello guys, again love this project so very much.

But I just wanted to convey some gameplay observations I've noticed, that I think are at the very least interesting from a "games as mechanics" prospect.

1. Icons on the radar screens change the "situational awareness" SA of the player

The radar on the XW series was based on a color and intensity IFF simple dot, they changed in relation to distance and vessel size. You might think that was because of limited resolution and that was probably true originally, but even XVT and XWA kept this years later.

This allowed the player to have only a vague understanding of their surroundings. This increased as they where able to understand the mechanics more; A new player could understand that an enemy was in front or behind them, while a more experienced player could get more information, like size and distance.

With an Icon based system everyone knows exactly what ships are surrounding them. This removes the need for constant SA management as a mechanic and removing a sense of unknown and fear.

Much in the same way a fighter planes radar system is very limited in what it can tell you. Bad guys... that way... 3 of them.

I believe XWA kept this system for this reason, as to not over power the player.

2. Lighting changes the way you interact with enemies

This one is sorta both easy to explain and hard to fix (probably)

As you'd know none of the XW series has the level of sophisticated lighting tech that you guys have access too, heck Xwing almost doesn't have lighting at all... sorta

I've noticed that with the addition of a proper lighting system it has fundamentally changed how I interact with all ships but mostly the ties. If they are not in direct sunlight the are effectively invisible. This drives me to use the CMV much more then in the original.

I've looked carefully at SWBF 2 and I believe that they encountered the same problem. I think that they have added a small global ambient light to all craft to make them visible,

I know that this is not realistic but mechanically when the Ties are so hard to see that the player has to stare at the CMV and radar for most of the time, then what is the point of the effort put into the models and light engine.

Well these are just some points of been thinking about, I hope I haven't sounded too whiny, as I really love what you guys have done. Even if you disagree with my observations I'll still play the hell outta this project when completed.

Best wishes

Jayjay

[Justagai]

Thank you for the feedback. I'd like to address the issues you posted.

1. Though icons take away the "unknown" and "fear" of the situation, one can easily see the situation in the original game by pressing the "m" key. The map would be brought up and one can see each and every ship type, their IFF and their distances. It also had the benefit of pausing the game which eases stress on the player. So having icons doesn't really take away from the original. I find that it enhances it. We are however introducing an option that will allow the player to have the dots instead, possibly in the next build that is released.

2. The lighting on the ships are being fixed by our graphics team. We do not intend to keep it the way it currently is.

I look forward to any additional feedback you may have.

[Raffaello Grani]

Also, a new option to switch between ship icons and dots on the radar scopes has recently been introduced. https://bitbucket.org/xwvmteam/xwvm-lfs/commits/b05f80308ccfec1e94c2f30d3d647ea63c4ac943

[Justagai]

The link says "accessed denied".

[Jonathon Fuller]

Fantastic news on both points, you guys really are making a quality product here.

Yeah I did forget about the originals map system could be used that way, I guess because it inflight menu system was so... unintuitive and flow breaking, it was erased from my memory.

I think we can agree their implementation was limited by the technology.

[Jonathon Fuller]

All points addressed by developers.