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SPACE COMPONENT OVERVIEW.
ENVIRONMENT 1.
The environment has a polar orientation. There is true up, and a true down. Craft will automatically re-orientate to this after maneuvers. You take your hands from the controls, and your craft will automatically align. This is supposed to be very intuitive, and its a important design feature to help players navigate the environment. Players will also be able to pull up a space grid using the omni so they know exactly where they are in relationship to other areas.
ENVIRONMENT 2.
The geometry of space is roughly two dimensional in nature. While a player will have a thousand meters of vertical maneuverability space is far more massive in both length, and width. There are supposed to be three areas of space environment to play in rather then one environment per planet. The up side to this is that the space environments can be massive, and have unique environmental hazards. These environments can also contain many planets.
ENVIRONMENT 3.
The environment is far more exotic among the environments players can enjoy are small moon terrain, asteroid fields, comets, corona, ring systems, debris fields, limited atmosphere. Not true atmospheric flight your friends on the ground will never see you, but you might get to play in a small gas giants atmosphere. There are supposed to be elements of push, and gravity well. Along with elements of discharge which will make some environments difficult to navigate, and incredibly hostile to lower level players. This is supposed to make dogfighting far more engaging.
NAVIGATION 1.
The system follows the law of motion. Theoretically a player can achieve impressive velocity. The downside is once a player goes beyond the safety specs for their craft their vehicle will start to rack up damage. The faster you go beyond that the damage multiplies. This damage is caused be micro meteor collisions, and dust for those wanting the logical explanation. The upside is that players can use this danger zone to escape combat if an opponent is unwilling to take greater damage.
NAVIGATION 2.
The laws of motion mean that players will have to build up speed to get to within their safety limit. For instance a craft that lists off as have a operation ceiling of 900 kph might take 50 seconds to reach it. The better a players acceleration the faster they can reach this. Having a higher acceleration however doesn't make a player faster then other players since all players can reach great speeds. Depending on how durable their craft is.
NAVIGATION 3.
Braking has two incarnations there is manual braking, and drag. Players can manually break their craft, but when players make turns with their craft they will shed velocity. The tighter the turn the more velocity you will lose. Never do sharp turns beyond your safety ceiling. This will just destroy your craft. Turns are measured on a scale within the safety zone this will only equate to losing a set percentage of your velocity. Above your safety ceiling it will add a damage multiplier on top of what you are already garnering. The result is your craft will be destroyed. This is considered suicide.
HYPERSPACE 1.
Hyperspace engines have two rules. Rule number one is that the calculations will take two minutes to be made. Rule number two is that the engines must go through a cool down. The current consideration is for a ten minute cooldown. Once the cooldown is over calculations can commence.
HYPERSPACE 2.
Hyperspace transit will be nearly instantaneous allowing just enough time for the system to reset your avatar elsewhere. You can hyperspace anywhere even in combat as long as your drive is online, and yes a opponent can knock your drive off line. Interdictors are in consideration however.
HYPERSPACE 3.
Hyperspace navigation is easy. Pull up the omni, and use your map interface, and the mouse to indicate a sector you wish to move to. You cannot move to a sector you have not explored. Though you can obtain sector maps through other means. Allowing for new areas to be opened. Players can also make use of beacons. Players can lay beacons they can use for emergency escapes. Players can also lock onto a friends beacon. Always lay a beacon in a safe place for emergency escapes.
HYPERSPACE 4.
Like a chess board movement in hyperspace is governed by rules. Players cannot jump to an adjacent sector, or within their current sector. There will be no micro jumping. Players cannot also jump through terrain objects such as planets, or stars. There is good reason for this so that in a major battle not every player on a server can just show up. By chance a number of players will be out of range to assist in reasonable time, and the limit on short jumping prevents exploiting the mechanic in combat.
INTERFACE 1.
Players will have a choice of perspective with craft. First person, or third person. Dependant on how they like to play. The interface remains the same however. The player will have access to a radar interface, a ammunition reader, a shield gauge, a radio, a ship status meter. The layout is still early but these elements should remain.
INTERFACE 2.
Players will now have a tactical overlay. Depending on sensor suite chosen. The player can highlight, and prioritize targets. This will also allow players to see distant objects through magnification. Tactical overlays have alot of uses, but they do come at a cost to the player. The basic sensor suites will not have the capabilities, or associate costs with more advanced models.
INTERFACE 3.
System announcements. When in combat players will be informed of damage taken to the craft or of disabled functions. These will flash on the screen. Faction communications can arrive the same way. As well as group commands. Players will have to choose whether to acknowledge commands, or not. There is also a function for group prompt. Grouping is important since it not only increases your fire power but allows for greater defense by using formations to provide shielding cover. A player should never take on a bigger opponent without being part of a squadron period. Doing otherwise will get you killed. The fewer opponents in the field of battle increases NPC accuracy on those available.
SHIELDS 1.
Shields are one of two defensive systems the other system is armor. Players can have more shield generators now, and they may be very strong. The price is the more shields the more taxed the frame becomes, but most players can afford, and should have atleast two sheild generators. Shields regenerate over time. Regeneration is a feature of shield components, and is just as important as strength.
SHIELDS 2.
Regeneration is based on a curve if a players shields get very low they will provide less protection, and will regenerate at a much slower speed. So it is adviseable that players do not deplete their sheild their craft will take more damage, and ship compoenents will take money to fix at a non faction fascility, or faction points at a faction fascility.
SHIELDS 3.
Shields are very versatile players can either oscillate shields, overlap, or even converge. When a player oscillates shields that means the shields trade places one goes dormant the other goes active. While there is less defense the shields last longer. Overlap is both shield generators online at the same time one inside the other. The shields regenerate much slower, but the craft can take hits better for as long as the shields hold. Converging shield, or making a shield double forward, or double aft allows for the protection of overlap with better regeneration. The problem is that the areas not getting double protection take double the damage. Converging shields should only be used when attacking say a capital ship putting out a lot of fire.
BLASTERS 1.
Blasters are the main utility weapon, and are unlimited except for one drawback players have a blaster well with the same regeneration scale as shields. When players bleed the well low it takes longer to rebuild. When players modify their ships they should give thought to how large they want their well, and how fast in will regenerate along with how powerful the blasters are. Players who seldom hit should try to have more shots to work with.
BLASTERS 2.
Blasters like shields have three modes. Players can toggle between stutter fire, burst, spray. Stutter fire allows for players to make the greatest number of shots through the crosshairs firing one blaster mount at a time. Burst will allow the player to fire all mounts at the same time with greater power through the crosshairs. This does a number on the well. Spray allows a player to stutterfire with a wider hit zone. This makes hitting more likely be covering more real estate, but also means that the shots will be less effective.
MISSILES, MINES, COUNTERMEASURES.
Players can use all three, but they are consumed with use. So should be used sparingly. Missiles that are self guiding will be extremely expensive. Player guided missiles will be cheaper, and will require a lock on. Good sensors increase missile range. Players can also lay short lived mines after a certain time they will drift into empty space, but mines are usually far more powerful then blasters or missiles. Countermeasures can cause the loss of target acquisition. A good rule of thumb is to try and catch an opponent unawares. Counter measures will be more effective the greater the range of the attack to prevent long range missile strafing.
I will try to send you more later hopefully time permitting some more before Christmas. This is only the most basic material, and the most relevant. The really nifty part is the content. Space will have Dungeons, Battlefields, Ambushes, Racing, Blockade running. Player coordinated fleet engagements. That is really the iceing.
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