Similar games as role models
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:33 pm
For case studies I checked out "Darkstar One" and "Freelancer". I compared them with Orxonox in various points and here what I've found out:
First a bit general information about those two games:
Freelancer (2003)
Freelancer is a space trading and combat simulation computer game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft. The game allows players to pilot a starfighter and visit many star systems. They can engage in combat with other starfighters to protect traders or engage in piracy themselves. They can also visit planets and space stations to look for jobs and to engage in commodity trade. The single-player story ties up the player, in the role of Edison Trent, in a series of missions to save the Sirius sector from a mysterious alien force. As the story progresses, restrictions on player activity are gradually released, and total freedom is granted at the story's completion. Players are given total freedom from the beginning in multiplayer mode.
Darkstar One (2006)
DarkStar One is a space simulation computer game developed by Ascaron and published by CDV.
The DarkStar One is a unique and advanced starship built by the murdered father of the player character, Kayron Jarvis. In the beginning of the storyline, Robert gives Kayron the Darkstar One some time after his father's actual death. He tells him to train with the Darkstar One alongside Arin, a friend of Robert, hence the tutorial. After the training, Robert tells Kayron about the real reason behind his father's death. His father's ship had been sabotaged by a friend of his father. Consequently, in an escort mission, Kayron's father could not control his ship and he inevitably died under enemy attack. Apparently, the Darkstar One was left for Kayron.
The player is able to travel through up to 300 solar systems in more than 20 clusters. The game consists of six races within the game universe: the Terran, the Mortok, the Raptor, the Oc'to, the Arrack, and the Thul. Each race has unique ships, weapons, space stations, and battle tactics. All of these races, except for the Thul, are part of the Galactic Union, a UN-like body formed by the Terran after the galactic war, which had left the Terran empire in ruins and had made them very vulnerable to attacks.
All information from Wikipedia
Visuals
Now obviously the graphics from DSO are a lot better than the ones from FL. While the amount of polygons in FL can be counted by hand the models from DSO look a lot better and the variety is great. Every race has it's own type of ship and they sometimes also have an organic look.
What I noticed during the game is, that the details at the ships are not really important. Huge ships are so dangerous, that you cannot go close enough to look at the details. Also many ships can only be found during combat and then you don't really have time to have a close look.
The universe on the other side is really well done. Both FL and DSO have great asteroids and use fog. The skyboxes in DSO are really nice to look at.
Orxonox falls in between. Our models we have so far are a lot better looking and have more polygons than the ones in FL. The huge variety and the advanced design in DSO is still better and we could learn from their designs and looks.
Excitement and Story
FL is fun. You're getting chased through the universe and systems. The universe is rather unstable and fleeing from stations because they're blown up is usual business. Unfortunately the random missions you have to solve are very generic. Still they're always altered a little bit, so even if you're familiar with a type of mission you can get surprised.
Scripting scenes are not that good, but exciting and really help with the story. Especially on foot where you are not allowed to walk around freely the scripted scenes are exciting and even the generic conversations add a lot to the atmosphere.
DSO has render scenes, but not very exciting ones. Why do they show the boring stuff in cool render scenes while the exciting stuff has to be experienced in the cockpit? Also the whole universe is just the same and after traveling to about 15 of the 300 systems you have seen all what's there to be seen. It gets boring quite early.
The missions are too generic. Just read the first few lines of the mission description and you know exactly what will happen, every single laser shot of each ship.
For Orxonox it will be very important that we add a lot of exciting missions and that the random missions have enough randomized parameters. Scripted scenes should occur at key moments and the really important stuff shouldn't be discussed over radio while in combat.
upgrading and ships
FL: You can be a combat pilot or a trader. The game basically gives you the possibility to choose from 3 different kinds of ships. Those ships can be equipped with weapons and several defense mechanisms.
It is fun and since the game always shows you the ships you would need, it really is fun to make missions to be able to afford the next best ship.
DSO: You have only one ship but you can upgrade it with so called artifacts. Those artifacts increase the slot number, equipment class and some plasma power. If you do not have those artifacts you cannot upgrade you're ship with the available equipment. A very harsh restriction, but that makes the game challenging. The equipment is huge and consists of many modules, but often you don't really have the choice, because there is always one version of each module which is the best.
So after getting new artifacts you just exchange your laser 2 with laser 3 and the shield class 4 is available and can be exchanged with class 5. The upgrading is not really fun.
In Orxonox it will be important to have a variety of artifacts and upgrade modules. It is absolutely useless to have modules which are just upgraded from 2 to 3 or 5 to 6 and have 10% more power, velocity or whatever rate. Each part needs advantages and disadvantages. We can learn from role play games. One typical example is two weapons with different damage and fire rate, but in the end damage per second is equal. The player can then choose if he rather wants to aim really well or just shoot many weak shots.
I hope this sensitizes you guys to improve our game style. Of course you're invited to discuss, about what I found out and ask questions or even talk about other games. Paedu talked about a certain game today. I look forward to talk about the game design with respect to other games.
First a bit general information about those two games:
Freelancer (2003)
Freelancer is a space trading and combat simulation computer game developed by Digital Anvil and published by Microsoft. The game allows players to pilot a starfighter and visit many star systems. They can engage in combat with other starfighters to protect traders or engage in piracy themselves. They can also visit planets and space stations to look for jobs and to engage in commodity trade. The single-player story ties up the player, in the role of Edison Trent, in a series of missions to save the Sirius sector from a mysterious alien force. As the story progresses, restrictions on player activity are gradually released, and total freedom is granted at the story's completion. Players are given total freedom from the beginning in multiplayer mode.
Darkstar One (2006)
DarkStar One is a space simulation computer game developed by Ascaron and published by CDV.
The DarkStar One is a unique and advanced starship built by the murdered father of the player character, Kayron Jarvis. In the beginning of the storyline, Robert gives Kayron the Darkstar One some time after his father's actual death. He tells him to train with the Darkstar One alongside Arin, a friend of Robert, hence the tutorial. After the training, Robert tells Kayron about the real reason behind his father's death. His father's ship had been sabotaged by a friend of his father. Consequently, in an escort mission, Kayron's father could not control his ship and he inevitably died under enemy attack. Apparently, the Darkstar One was left for Kayron.
The player is able to travel through up to 300 solar systems in more than 20 clusters. The game consists of six races within the game universe: the Terran, the Mortok, the Raptor, the Oc'to, the Arrack, and the Thul. Each race has unique ships, weapons, space stations, and battle tactics. All of these races, except for the Thul, are part of the Galactic Union, a UN-like body formed by the Terran after the galactic war, which had left the Terran empire in ruins and had made them very vulnerable to attacks.
All information from Wikipedia
Visuals
Now obviously the graphics from DSO are a lot better than the ones from FL. While the amount of polygons in FL can be counted by hand the models from DSO look a lot better and the variety is great. Every race has it's own type of ship and they sometimes also have an organic look.
What I noticed during the game is, that the details at the ships are not really important. Huge ships are so dangerous, that you cannot go close enough to look at the details. Also many ships can only be found during combat and then you don't really have time to have a close look.
The universe on the other side is really well done. Both FL and DSO have great asteroids and use fog. The skyboxes in DSO are really nice to look at.
Orxonox falls in between. Our models we have so far are a lot better looking and have more polygons than the ones in FL. The huge variety and the advanced design in DSO is still better and we could learn from their designs and looks.
Excitement and Story
FL is fun. You're getting chased through the universe and systems. The universe is rather unstable and fleeing from stations because they're blown up is usual business. Unfortunately the random missions you have to solve are very generic. Still they're always altered a little bit, so even if you're familiar with a type of mission you can get surprised.
Scripting scenes are not that good, but exciting and really help with the story. Especially on foot where you are not allowed to walk around freely the scripted scenes are exciting and even the generic conversations add a lot to the atmosphere.
DSO has render scenes, but not very exciting ones. Why do they show the boring stuff in cool render scenes while the exciting stuff has to be experienced in the cockpit? Also the whole universe is just the same and after traveling to about 15 of the 300 systems you have seen all what's there to be seen. It gets boring quite early.
The missions are too generic. Just read the first few lines of the mission description and you know exactly what will happen, every single laser shot of each ship.
For Orxonox it will be very important that we add a lot of exciting missions and that the random missions have enough randomized parameters. Scripted scenes should occur at key moments and the really important stuff shouldn't be discussed over radio while in combat.
upgrading and ships
FL: You can be a combat pilot or a trader. The game basically gives you the possibility to choose from 3 different kinds of ships. Those ships can be equipped with weapons and several defense mechanisms.
It is fun and since the game always shows you the ships you would need, it really is fun to make missions to be able to afford the next best ship.
DSO: You have only one ship but you can upgrade it with so called artifacts. Those artifacts increase the slot number, equipment class and some plasma power. If you do not have those artifacts you cannot upgrade you're ship with the available equipment. A very harsh restriction, but that makes the game challenging. The equipment is huge and consists of many modules, but often you don't really have the choice, because there is always one version of each module which is the best.
So after getting new artifacts you just exchange your laser 2 with laser 3 and the shield class 4 is available and can be exchanged with class 5. The upgrading is not really fun.
In Orxonox it will be important to have a variety of artifacts and upgrade modules. It is absolutely useless to have modules which are just upgraded from 2 to 3 or 5 to 6 and have 10% more power, velocity or whatever rate. Each part needs advantages and disadvantages. We can learn from role play games. One typical example is two weapons with different damage and fire rate, but in the end damage per second is equal. The player can then choose if he rather wants to aim really well or just shoot many weak shots.
I hope this sensitizes you guys to improve our game style. Of course you're invited to discuss, about what I found out and ask questions or even talk about other games. Paedu talked about a certain game today. I look forward to talk about the game design with respect to other games.