PBEM design thoughts wanted (again) From: ericsum@aol.com (EricSum) Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 00:00:00 +0000 Okay, I mentioned in an earlier post that I was designing and programming a space opera type PBEM. After lengthy consideration and having read the posts that people placed here, I have decided to go with the format of everyone starting on the same homeworld, and branching out from there to do as they see fit. I am in the progress of programming the "mundane" commands such as moving from system to system, buying and selling, and orbitting and such, but will soon need to program the battle engine, and here is where I am looking for input. Currently, ships can have 3 types of weapons : Long Range Missile weapons, Short Range Missile weapons, and Beam weapons. As the game progresses, various 'flavors' of these weapons can be bought or developed. In addition, ships may carry 3 basic types of fighters : Bombers, Interceptors, and Dual Role. Ships and weapons can be 'programmed' to behave differently. For instance, any bank of weapons can be set to one of the following options: Target smallest enemy ship Target largest enemy ship Target fighters Target only ships that fire on this ship Target only ships that fire at ship XXXX Random Targetting (default until player actually sets) Fighters, due to the chaotic nature of their flight, will follow preset rules: Interceptors will target enemy bomber fighters first, then dual role fighters, then other interceptors. Bombers will target a random enemy capital ship and attack it as a group. Dual Role fighters will randomly target, as a group, enemy fighters, bombers, or capital ships. The current flow that I have planned is thus: Battle initiates due to attack orders or hostile situations Long Range Weapons are fired and fighers are launched Then we loop through weapons fire and fighter dogfighting until all ships of one side of the battle have been crippled or have fled. Crippled ships remain as derelicts until someone can board them and capture them, or friendly ships can tow them back to a repair space. I want the player to have a good deal of flexibility in the combat situation without overloading them with hundreds of options and factors that they have to be aware of before a battle. As I have chosen to allow players to own multiple ships when their resources are sufficient, it is possible that large fleet battles could ensue later in the life of the game. The system I am considering (I believe) allows the players a proper mix of ease and of control. Ships will behave in battle the way that players want them to behave. Any ideas on something that YOU would like to see in a space combat routine for a PBEM would be appreciated. - Eric All Ham Classifieds http://www.geocities.com/~ericsum/ham/index.html Referenced By Up