On the concept side of things...

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Code Crank Call
Posts: 25
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:51 pm

On the concept side of things...

Post by Code Crank Call »

As a sucessful game desighner who has been doing so for some odd years in his spare time, I find a very important side of content creation and game creation in general is concept work. In other words, defining what you want your game or mod to achieve at large, what the general feel of the content will be, how it will balance into existing content, and how you will make it interesting and fun; a more cerebral side of development.
If any of you have any experience in this sort of thing, how do you apply it into starshatter? Do you ever draw preliminary sketches of content (ships, buildings... ships?) Do you ever brainstorm or write down notes on how you want it to develop overall? How do you paln?

cheers, and let's hope for some furtive disgussion!
So where's the obligatory game video with topgun music?
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wdboyd
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Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2005 9:52 pm
Location: Ohio U.S.A

RE: On the concept side of things...

Post by wdboyd »

ORIGINAL: Code Crank Call

I find a very important side of content creation and game creation in general is concept work. In other words, defining what you want your game or mod to achieve at large, what the general feel of the content will be, how it will balance into existing content, and how you will make it interesting and fun; a more cerebral side of development.
If any of you have any experience in this sort of thing, how do you apply it into starshatter? Do you ever draw preliminary sketches of content (ships, buildings... ships?) Do you ever brainstorm or write down notes on how you want it to develop overall? How do you paln?

Concept work? Yes, in any mod there is or should be a basic concept. Not just that, but a different concept. Don't misunderstand, there is nothing wrong with creating a mod that uses the Starshatter game engine to create, or more correctely re-create Star Trek, Babylon 5 or Star Wars etc. . If those milieu are where ones interest lies... go for it. But, to be frank, there is actually nothing original in such recreations, except for the fact that such mods use Starshatter to display such milieu.

For me personally, I decided to use a game element, the Brotherhood of Iron, that is sparingly represented in Starshatter, as the antogonist for my original Cartel elements. I also set my confrontation within the timeline of the games dynamic campaign.

As for game mod balance, I kept focused upon it. I made my ships basically within the games stock parameters. Where I diverged or changed things was in my weapons. In Starshatter, torpedos are almost useless. The game sees them as drones and can thereby shoot them out of space before they can do any damage. This was the game creators intent. I wanted to change that without completely unbalancing combat. I added cruise type anti-ship missiles. They are a threat to any craft. Since their original creation, my missiles have been toned down a lot. They now do much less damage but remain a potent weapon. I even allowed my mods antagonist to both have access to such weapons.

As to making my mod interesting and fun... well, I added voice sound files to liven things up. It is my attempt at creating player immersion in the missons I create. I would like to have more interaction between the player and the AI antagonist. This is definately lacking in Starshatter. Within the games limitation, I try to create interesting and challenging missions along with introducing new craft for the discerning player to fly or shoot to smithereens.

Notes... yes, I normally have a general outline of things I want to do and present. I seldom stick to it though. I keep adding and tweaking things. Still, it keeps me basically on track mod wise.

Starshatter is basically a spaceborne tactical battle simulation. Gettting more out of it than its original intent is the modders challenge and reward. I'd like to have a comm screen where the AI antagonist show up with verbal digs and have player responses for them. That would be neat but it isn't currently possible with the information we modders have available. Perhaps, one day, we will have the games source code made available to us.... then, watch out.

All in all, modding is its own reward and fun, despite any frustration experienced in the process.
"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils!"
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