Reach for the Stars fleet engagement - combat system with great potential
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Reach for the Stars is one of the less successful 4X game released two years ago. It has a very linear research tree that focus on planet improvement and ship / ship systems only. There is no non-military victory conditions. There are four types of buildings on 5 tiers to be researched and built on each planet: population, research, production, and infantry trainning, so there are not much options to go for while building colonial improvements. Focus of the game is to get as much production out of each planet, and use those productions to build as many research centers, and research / build the most powerful ships in the greatest number possible to beat the AI. All these lead to the unique feature of Reach for the Stars: fleet strategic engagement
It goes like this: any ships in orbit of a planet (unlike GalCiv, where all the ships in orbit around different planets in a system are displayed together) can be organized into fleets. Each fleet has a total attack / defense value attached to itself. In combat, the player can adjust the distance of engagement, fleet position / formation to gain advantages. The system is very limited, because the player and the AI each keep guessing on which of the 4 possible formations the other will use. Certain formations have defense bonus, some with offensive bonus and designed to be the counter of another. Once the setting for the current fleet turn is set (range, formation, etc), the two fleets engage and all ships fire on the other fleet's formation with a hail of lasers / particle / torpedo / missiles. It has been awhile since I played the game, but each of the above mentioned weapon system has their strength and weakness. Laser is good for mid range attack, with damage reduced
However if the system is improved to be a hybrid of GalCiv / RFtS, where the fleet commander (player) can direct all fires from the fleet on a specific zone of the enemy fleet formation in real time each turn (once the settings are defined, the fleet attack at each other for several rounds real time), such as directing all fires of the Battleships onto a quadrants of the enemy fleet, decimating their support vessles and small combat ships in one or two vollies then deal with their main vessles the next. In Reach for the Stars, the above is not implemented. IF GalCiv 2 implements that feature, it would really distinguish itself from the rest of 4X crowd and maybe draw buyers who are typically from the Homeworld / Freespace base. Myself is loyal Freespace 1 and 2 fan. I didn't get Master of Orions 2 because the extensive micromanagment it has (it felt like work!), I didn't play Civ 1, I played SMAC but not entirely satisfied with the combat system and the lack of Space combat because of the flexibility it offers.
Anybody else had experiences with the Reach for the Stars combat system? Do you think with improvements on more user control, a more flexible formation system (or user defined), and real time combat within each round once the orders are defined and issued, would that make a 4X game more appealing?
It goes like this: any ships in orbit of a planet (unlike GalCiv, where all the ships in orbit around different planets in a system are displayed together) can be organized into fleets. Each fleet has a total attack / defense value attached to itself. In combat, the player can adjust the distance of engagement, fleet position / formation to gain advantages. The system is very limited, because the player and the AI each keep guessing on which of the 4 possible formations the other will use. Certain formations have defense bonus, some with offensive bonus and designed to be the counter of another. Once the setting for the current fleet turn is set (range, formation, etc), the two fleets engage and all ships fire on the other fleet's formation with a hail of lasers / particle / torpedo / missiles. It has been awhile since I played the game, but each of the above mentioned weapon system has their strength and weakness. Laser is good for mid range attack, with damage reduced
However if the system is improved to be a hybrid of GalCiv / RFtS, where the fleet commander (player) can direct all fires from the fleet on a specific zone of the enemy fleet formation in real time each turn (once the settings are defined, the fleet attack at each other for several rounds real time), such as directing all fires of the Battleships onto a quadrants of the enemy fleet, decimating their support vessles and small combat ships in one or two vollies then deal with their main vessles the next. In Reach for the Stars, the above is not implemented. IF GalCiv 2 implements that feature, it would really distinguish itself from the rest of 4X crowd and maybe draw buyers who are typically from the Homeworld / Freespace base. Myself is loyal Freespace 1 and 2 fan. I didn't get Master of Orions 2 because the extensive micromanagment it has (it felt like work!), I didn't play Civ 1, I played SMAC but not entirely satisfied with the combat system and the lack of Space combat because of the flexibility it offers.
Anybody else had experiences with the Reach for the Stars combat system? Do you think with improvements on more user control, a more flexible formation system (or user defined), and real time combat within each round once the orders are defined and issued, would that make a 4X game more appealing?
