PerfectDeath wrote:When we originally did a tech demo for this game about, 4 years ago in our first PAX you could strafe ships, they could slide around in a more fluid manner. However, it was VERY hard to micro manage when you had 6-8 ships!
However, ships could only move in one direction, we later added 4 movement directions, that worked for a few years, but now that we are optimizing our movement code we uncovered some issues we need to fix in the code itself (which you see as ships "facing the wrong direction" after giving a movement order.)
Strafing does add another dimension to combat and subsequently I agree it can make it more micro-intensive, depending on the ships and engines players choose to use. It may also decrease the need for micro in certain situations, such as when a player wants to initiate a slower advance from certain ships (single click to strafe vs clicking at intermittent times so ships advance in stages at full speed each time). Strafing or not, controlling 6 - 8 ships individually (or 6 - 8 separate groups of ships), gets pretty micro-intensive in any case in NA. Adding a command queue (as featured in Starcraft 2 and other more modern rts titles), would also help greatly in decreasing the micro-managing loads currently set on the player during battle, not to mention the automated battle system that is to be employed, which would help out a lot.
I'm aware not all players would want the game to be micro-intensive during battles, as some have openly stated and that is fair enough, but I would campaign to see at least one race be able to do so, so that the players who would enjoy such a feature, be given the option to do so. It not only adds an extra dimension to battles for those who would be interested in using it along with the increased fluidity and immersion, but could also add a bit more diversity with regards to various races in terms of style. For those who'd prefer not to have such micro-intesive battles, certain races would be more attuned to them, whilst those who do, could choose a race that would suit their playstyle better.
I've actually fought players who made use of the current battle mechanics to strafe their ships, by setting waypoints at a specific (rather close) distance from their ship positions with the click-drag (arrow-heading) command. Players such as those would welcome a strafing option. As for movement, it can be 4 basic direction speeds (forward, backward, left, right), with movement speeds changing accordingly between the 4 (relative) cardinal points, eg forward speed = 100, strafe speed = 50, so moving 45 degrees offset from heading would = 75.
Depending on how a player chooses to build his/her ships, strafing doesn't necessarily even play a big role for them in battle as they would rarely use it or have need for it - if they choose to use engines that focus more on forward speed and rotation, strafing would serve little purpose. Only if engines are used that increases strafing ability, would strafing play a more vital role in their playstyle. I've also read that one of the things the devs were looking to do, was to have battles be more about positional play, moving into a position and firing from there, almost a quasi-turn-based style if you will, with the opponent reacting and positioning to counter. Even that could be a legit style, if a player chooses to focus less on engines and rather chooses to use CP on weapons/shields/armour.
With regards to the issues you have uncovered - does that include the current feature in which ships stop before turning (even if the turn is only 5 degrees)?
