I play a lot of Sword of the Stars, and I was wondering if combat would be like that, where battles are in real time and you can sometimes even dodge projectiles, and if the battles would be real time combat, not multiple turns

flopsies wrote:
I play a lot of Sword of the Stars, and I was wondering if combat would be like that, where battles are in real time and you can sometimes even dodge projectiles, and if the battles would be real time combat, not multiple turns

Combat is indeed in real time, aesthetically they are similar to SOTS battles; however they have entirely different approaches to fleet command in battle. In ES you don't give manual orders to each ship, instead you decide strategies(or play abilities) for your fleet to use over different phases(long range, melee, etc) and then watch the combat play in real time. It's much more cinematographic and less chaotic than SOTS and, although you loose manual command, at least IMO it's a great trade off actually. If you want more info you should check out the game design threads in the corresponding sub-forum.

You set up a plan before battle, but I still hope we'll have limited way to alter things while the battle is happening (if it wasn't the case, the screenshot wouldn't show a timer while in battle. BEcause if everything is automatic, no need for a timer)

looking forward to test this out... I like cinematic space fights.. hopefully with a lot of fighter/drone actions... slow battleships fights are normally very boring



but I'm curious as how much you can plan ahead... no plan survives contact with the enemy :/

but i like being the mastermind behind the scenes and i don't want to control every ship on my own...

So its going to be like gratuitous space battles?

No Gratuitous you have no interaction with the battle once engaged...



... and no heros!

I love the concept, and I hope it will be possible to change strategy once engaged. (like: IT'S A TRAP, GTFO)

reynanuy wrote:
Combat is indeed in real time, aesthetically they are similar to SOTS battles; however they have entirely different approaches to fleet command in battle. In ES you don't give manual orders to each ship, instead you decide strategies(or play abilities) for your fleet to use over different phases(long range, melee, etc) and then watch the combat play in real time. It's much more cinematographic and less chaotic than SOTS and, although you loose manual command, at least IMO it's a great trade off actually. If you want more info you should check out the game design threads in the corresponding sub-forum.

This is the way I understood it when I started reading about this game today. I love this concept because I'm very much into combat, but I hate RTS's, so this higher level command system is very intriguing to me. It has more of a "sitting in the command chair barking orders and letting the lesser folk carry them out" feel to it. And if there is one thing I love, it's barking orders and watching people comply!

If you like seing how your orders carry, then you should try Dominions 3 or Combat Mission.