Octopus Overlords

A new Star Wars space sim?



October 2!

Looks like it's.... multiplayer only?

Droid dating sim, you say?

Looks bad. Nothing more than a 5 v 5 multiplayer game. They just CANNOT make a good Star Wars game these days. All they have to do it look back at the ones from the 90s like Tie Fighter to see how to make a good game. But noooo.

The hint at power management in the video gives me hope that this will be more complex than the Star Wars Battlefront 2 flying, which was already pretty fun despite being so simplified.

I do also really hope there are more game modes than just 5v5 multiplayer.

Ooh some promising details from engadget:

• takes place after ROTJ
• both single player campaign and multiplayer
• single player campaign swaps between New Republic pilot and Empire pilot
• campaign pilots are 'customizable'
• can divert power between ship systems
• cosmetics and gameplay modifiers that EA says "you can earn through gameplay alone"
• cross-play between systems?
• VR support on PC and PS4

wonderpug wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:07 pm Ooh some promising details from engadget:

• takes place after ROTJ
• both single player campaign and multiplayer
• can divert power between ship systems

That's a little better.

[*]single player campaign swaps between New Republic pilot and Empire pilot

Hey guys, Halo 2 called, they want their Arbiter back.

Surely they won't build this engine and then *not* use it for the sequel to X-Wing/Tie Fighter people have dreamed of for 20 years...

Right?

Its EA.

Ok, EXCITED.

It does have hands on throttle-and-stick (HOTAS) support although I can't imagine who will be using that on a PS4. Also, not much info about that single player campaign but they do mention you have teammates which could be very fun. The multiplayer doesn't sound so bad. Its 5v5 and has a mode called Fleet Battles or something like that. Each team tries to take out the other team's main ship. I have to imagine there will be AI ships to fill the space. What I hope is a tactical battle where you choose where to position your Main ship during the tactical briefing and hopefully there are asteroid and nebulae to help mask you attack run. Sorry, Im sure I am letting my imagination get the better of me but if you can set waypoints for your team mates, coordinate attacks, scanning radius it could be insanely fun.

OFFICIALLY HOLDING MY BREATH!!

Ok, that trailer really rocks.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:35 am Looks bad. Nothing more than a 5 v 5 multiplayer game. They just CANNOT make a good Star Wars game these days. All they have to do it look back at the ones from the 90s like Tie Fighter to see how to make a good game. But noooo.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order has a bone to pick with you.

Grifman wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2020 1:28 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 11:35 am Looks bad. Nothing more than a 5 v 5 multiplayer game. They just CANNOT make a good Star Wars game these days. All they have to do it look back at the ones from the 90s like Tie Fighter to see how to make a good game. But noooo.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order has a bone to pick with you.

Indeed.

Waiting to see some actual game play.

Fallen Order looked bad to me too. Ill never be trying it. Not for me...if I wanted Tomb Raider Id play Tomb Raider. Dont like the characters, gameplay, or story that Ive seen.

Squadrons being only $40 ($36 with EA Access) ups the pre-order temptation for me.

Alternatively, that suggests to me this really, really tilts towards being a MP game and whatever SP content is included is very limited. Also, if this was titled "Dave's Space Shoot 'em Up" and you were flying generic space ships without a Disney license, the game would be $20.

Smoove_B wrote: ↑Wed Jun 17, 2020 3:52 pm Alternatively, that suggests to me this really, really tilts towards being a MP game and whatever SP content is included is very limited. Also, if this was titled "Dave's Space Shoot 'em Up" and you were flying generic space ships without a Disney license, the game would be $20.

I'm expecting this to essentially be Star Wars Battlegrounds 2: In Space.

I'm somewhat interested, depending on what the single player content is. If the ends up being entirely MP focused with a short, dull SP campaign tacked on (like SWBF2), then I'll skip it.

Seems pretty neat. Hopefully the components you can get to alter your ships aren’t just linear upgrades but actual strategic options that change how your ship flies/fights.

Ok that gameplay trailer has me a bit more hyped for this. Seems like there's enough single player stuff to chew on for someone who still has PTSD dating back to 1997 (X-wing vs. Tie Fighter).

I'm in after watching that. Looks very cool.

Looked like any 5v5 game to me with Star Wars tacked on to sell it. Still a pass.

It's funny, watching these trailers has made me newly bummed that I didn't get a New Republic story from the new Star Wars trilogy, and instead got a weird reboot of the OT.

The new trailer elicited a very cautious 'hell yeah' from me.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 10:25 am It's funny, watching these trailers has made me newly bummed that I didn't get a New Republic story from the new Star Wars trilogy, and instead got a weird reboot of the OT.

That is really weird. It's one more side-effect to EA having the only license for making SW games. Well, aside from the Lego games, there's been a distinct lack of games set within the sequel trilogy, and I don't feel Battlefront counts. They had a new trilogy to set games in, yet they didn't take advantage of that. It would at least have been nice to have games flesh out the movies a bit. That wasn't at all the case with the OT and PT where we got plenty of games. And yet, here we go again with games set within the OT. It's like they're in terms of narrative, unable to move on from that.

Anyway, this game seems to be the perfect opportunity for some co-op. It would be really great if you could play the singleplayer campaign with friends.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:31 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 10:25 am It's funny, watching these trailers has made me newly bummed that I didn't get a New Republic story from the new Star Wars trilogy, and instead got a weird reboot of the OT.

That is really weird. It's one more side-effect to EA having the only license for making SW games. Well, aside from the Lego games, there's been a distinct lack of games set within the sequel trilogy, and I don't feel Battlefront counts. They had a new trilogy to set games in, yet they didn't take advantage of that. It would at least have been nice to have games flesh out the movies a bit. That wasn't at all the case with the OT and PT where we got plenty of games. And yet, here we go again with games set within the OT. It's like they're in terms of narrative, unable to move on from that.

This isn't within the OT - it takes place between Jedi and Force Awakens, so it's the New Republic vs. the Imperial Remnant. I doubt that we'll get much big picture story from this game, but that's something that I'd want to see more of - the New Republic era.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:35 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:31 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 10:25 am It's funny, watching these trailers has made me newly bummed that I didn't get a New Republic story from the new Star Wars trilogy, and instead got a weird reboot of the OT.

That is really weird. It's one more side-effect to EA having the only license for making SW games. Well, aside from the Lego games, there's been a distinct lack of games set within the sequel trilogy, and I don't feel Battlefront counts. They had a new trilogy to set games in, yet they didn't take advantage of that. It would at least have been nice to have games flesh out the movies a bit. That wasn't at all the case with the OT and PT where we got plenty of games. And yet, here we go again with games set within the OT. It's like they're in terms of narrative, unable to move on from that.

This isn't within the OT - it takes place between Jedi and Force Awakens, so it's the New Republic vs. the Imperial Remnant. I doubt that we'll get much big picture story from this game, but that's something that I'd want to see more of - the New Republic era.

Oh Ok, I read 'takes place after ROTJ' as still being set within the OT rather than them doing anything taking place in the new movies.

Rumpy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:42 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:35 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:31 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 10:25 am It's funny, watching these trailers has made me newly bummed that I didn't get a New Republic story from the new Star Wars trilogy, and instead got a weird reboot of the OT.

That is really weird. It's one more side-effect to EA having the only license for making SW games. Well, aside from the Lego games, there's been a distinct lack of games set within the sequel trilogy, and I don't feel Battlefront counts. They had a new trilogy to set games in, yet they didn't take advantage of that. It would at least have been nice to have games flesh out the movies a bit. That wasn't at all the case with the OT and PT where we got plenty of games. And yet, here we go again with games set within the OT. It's like they're in terms of narrative, unable to move on from that.

This isn't within the OT - it takes place between Jedi and Force Awakens, so it's the New Republic vs. the Imperial Remnant. I doubt that we'll get much big picture story from this game, but that's something that I'd want to see more of - the New Republic era.

Oh Ok, I read 'takes place after ROTJ' as still being set within the OT rather than them doing anything taking place in the new movies.

It's not in the new movies either. Since it's between 6 and 7, it's between the trilogies.

After that new trailer, I'm in.

The implication that the single-player campaign is substantial (rather than just training) sold me.

Looks beautiful. I hope there is a difficulty level for small chidren otherwise I am sure this will be far too difficult for me.

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:51 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:42 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:35 pm

Rumpy wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 1:31 pm

El Guapo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 10:25 am It's funny, watching these trailers has made me newly bummed that I didn't get a New Republic story from the new Star Wars trilogy, and instead got a weird reboot of the OT.

That is really weird. It's one more side-effect to EA having the only license for making SW games. Well, aside from the Lego games, there's been a distinct lack of games set within the sequel trilogy, and I don't feel Battlefront counts. They had a new trilogy to set games in, yet they didn't take advantage of that. It would at least have been nice to have games flesh out the movies a bit. That wasn't at all the case with the OT and PT where we got plenty of games. And yet, here we go again with games set within the OT. It's like they're in terms of narrative, unable to move on from that.

This isn't within the OT - it takes place between Jedi and Force Awakens, so it's the New Republic vs. the Imperial Remnant. I doubt that we'll get much big picture story from this game, but that's something that I'd want to see more of - the New Republic era.

Oh Ok, I read 'takes place after ROTJ' as still being set within the OT rather than them doing anything taking place in the new movies.

It's not in the new movies either. Since it's between 6 and 7, it's between the trilogies.

Yeah, I know. I meant purely in terms of technology, though in terms of technology, it didn't progress very much in the new movies. I'm hoping they get a chance to show something new in the game, being that this is going to be a thematic bridge.

Star Wars
Spaceships
Dogfighting
I’ve been waiting for this since FreeSpace.

I’ll take a squad vs squad game. Having talked with Volition about the challenges of keeping a multiplayer apace game synced in FreeSpace 2, a 5 v 5 squad game is enough.

And I’ve always thought the old Wing Commander Armada would translate well online.

Funny you mention Armada as thats what I felt this was.

I suppose I could watch the gameplay trailer again, but I'm lazy and I'll just ask: is it clear that single-player campaign missions aren't limited to a small number of AI ships? Are we sure they'll have significantly more than the 5 v 5 fighters of the multiplayer game?

If so, there seems no reason this engine can't support a full sequel to the X-Wing/Tie Fighter experience.

It’s not the engine but the internet code. The problem with space sims is there is no geometry you can use to optimize network load. Packets have to track everything.

Zarathud wrote: ↑Mon Jun 22, 2020 9:40 am It’s not the engine but the internet code. The problem with space sims is there is no geometry you can use to optimize network load. Packets have to track everything.

What kind of data could they possibly need to send over? You know each in-game object's geometry, so all you really need is x-y-z coordinates and a directional vector for facing, and a flag saying "I fired 1-4 lasers at this time stamp", and occasionally a game state checksum or something. I mean, yeah, that all has to be real-time, but if the AI-controlled unit behavior, laser speeds, missile behavior and damage are deterministic (meaning it will give the same solution every time it's makes a decision), you can probably get away with computing most of that stuff on the client.

But yeah, I agree that eventually there's enough stuff flying around that you start hitting lag and sync issues, so 5v5 is probably the limit they hit during testing. I'm sure the single player campaign will support actual epic battles, and will hopefully be fun. I'll leave getting space-teabagged by "left nutz" and "right nutz" to younger people.

Holman wrote: ↑Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:35 pm I suppose I could watch the gameplay trailer again, but I'm lazy and I'll just ask: is it clear that single-player campaign missions aren't limited to a small number of AI ships? Are we sure they'll have significantly more than the 5 v 5 fighters of the multiplayer game?

FYI it's not just going to be 10 ships flying around in multiplayer. They've said there will be some number of AI ships added to the mix to make the battles more populated.