Cruiser Command concept brainstorming

[Siretu]

I am currently in a position where all the main systems of my map Cruiser command are in place and most bugs are ironed out. It is now time for me to add more content but I don't have a lot of ideas. Basically, I need all kinds of ideas for content but not new features and systems. I'm hoping you guys can help me out with some brainstorming.

Here's what I need:

• Cruiser Upgrades
• Ship Upgrades
• Ship weapons
• Abilities
• Ships

There's currently three kinds of ships(except the big battlecruiser that you start on). There's a miner, a fighter and a corvette. Basically, Corvette > Fighter > Miner. The fighter is small agile and is made to track down and intercept miners whereas corvettes are made to counter the fighters and defend the miners. I need ideas for upgrades and abilities for all of them. Abilities will be available by purchasing the corresponding item and loading it into the ship. I also need ideas for new ships.

If you suggest a weapon, make sure it has something special. Maybe it's homing? Maybe it drains energy? The more innovative it is, the better.

Thanks in advance, I'll +rep any suggestions.

 

[Kyuft]

I thought of an interesting ship idea. I do not know what to call it, but I think Scout or Scoutship is good. I was thinking that the scoutship could be always stealthed. The scoutship would be able to scout out enemies and tag them. Once a unit is tagged, it will appear on the minimap of the scouts' team for 1 minute. This would allow the team to be able to take out more enemy miners. However, you could make the Corvettes detectors. Therefore, a team would lose quickly if they did not have coordinated teamwork (corvettes protecting the miners). You could also make it so the scout is unstealthed for 5 seconds after tagging an enemy. This would add more teamwork and organisation/cooperation required for your team to win the game. You could give the miners an ability that makes them invulnerable to being tagged for 1 minute, you should give this a 2 minute cooldown. This should create the scoutships from being too game changing or OP.

-Kyuft:shades:

 

[Siretu]

That's a good idea. I'll mess around with it and see how it works out.

 

[PrisonLove]

Well since fighters are supposed to be small and agile hunter units you can have some abilities like:
Dampening Field - deflects all ballistic attacks on the fighter for a short period of time (by ballistic im thinking missiles specifically, no lasers or bullets)
Cloaking - As is
Overdrive - Fighter briefly moves very fast, but afterward moves much slower as the engines cool
Hunter Seeker Missile - As is (seems to be a good fit)

Since the Corvette seems to be a big protecting capital ship I would think some abilities would be:
Defensive matrix - Gives any allied unit a shield that absorbs X damage before breaking or lasts for Y seconds
Missile Salvo - fires an array of missiles at a target location, causing damage to everything in the area
EMP - as is, drains shields, energy, reveals cloak
Point Defense Drone - As is
Hyper Drive - Allows Corvette to cover a large distance instantly, but renders it immobile for X seconds (kind of like blink)


I had the idea in my mind taht Corvettes are big, slow, and powerful, where fighters are small, stealthy, and can deal high damage. I hope these help.

 

[Siretu]

I've been quite productive last weekend and I came up with something similar.

First of all, the Corvette is not really a big, slow and powerful ship. It's more of a medium-sized ship used to protect miners or to launch bigger assaults on enemy miners. I gave it the Dampening Field ability but with the name "Reflective Shield".

I see the Fighter more as a harassing ship. It's small and agile but not stealthy. If I add Kyuft's idea for the scout ship, I'll probably make it the stealthy ship. I also gave the Fighter an EMP ability with is a fast projectile that temporarily turns off the engine of ships hit by it. The battlecruiser is unaffected by the EMP.

I also added a ship called "Destroyer". This ship is big, slow and powerful just as you imagined the corvette. While the fighters and Corvettes aren't really able to deal any real damage to the Battlecruiser, the Destroyer will be quite dangerous. It has the "Quantum Bombardment" weapon which fires 5 slow-moving projectiles forward. They're too slow to hit a good fighter or corvette pilot but it'll deal terrible, terrible damage against the enemy Battlecruiser.

Right now it seems like I'm aiming for one unique ability for each ship(and I'm still looking for ideas for more ships. Some ideas for a boarding ship would be nice). I just need an ability for the Destroyer and I'm set. However, I still want items that grant abilities to the ships that you can use on different ship-types(Maybe a hyper drive item that you can use on both corvette and destroyer)

 

[Kyuft]

If you do make a boarding ship. you would have to make some sort of way for the battlecruiser that is being boarded, to reject the board. Also, you would have to make upgrades and new weapons for the marines.

-Kyuft:shades:

 

[PrisonLove]

I'm not sure how many units your players can control at once, but for a boarding ship I'm imagining something small, hard to hit, either no weapon or a very light weapon, but if I can get in melee range of a ship it will deal massive damage with boarding parties.

So you can have the ship have an ability where once it's in melee range it latches onto a ship and cannot be hit. it then drops off a "boarding party" and detaches. A few seconds later there is an internal explosion in the enemy ship that deal damage and disables movement and attacking for X seconds.

Idk, just a thought.

Edit: I'm running off the assumption that you only control one unit at a time. I don't know exactly how your map works.

 

[Siretu]

I'm not sure how many units your players can control at once, but for a boarding ship I'm imagining something small, hard to hit, either no weapon or a very light weapon, but if I can get in melee range of a ship it will deal massive damage with boarding parties.

So you can have the ship have an ability where once it's in melee range it latches onto a ship and cannot be hit. it then drops off a "boarding party" and detaches. A few seconds later there is an internal explosion in the enemy ship that deal damage and disables movement and attacking for X seconds.

Idk, just a thought.

Edit: I'm running off the assumption that you only control one unit at a time. I don't know exactly how your map works.

You only control one unit at a time but the main concept is the fact that you can run around on the inside of the main ship(the battlecruiser). This means that boarding will be much more advanced than that. When you board the enemy ship, you actually get into the inside in the hangar where you can run around dealing damage in various ways.

 

[PrisonLove]

Ah, I see. So then I guess the boarding ship should have some sort of stealth ability. Not necessarily cloaking, but maybe it can't be seen on the minimap or is immune to sensor towers or something like that.

 

[Kyuft]

If we do this, then I think you could do the ship upgrades differently. Instead of ordering the upgrades, you could make the marines build a building on the ship that will automatically give that upgrade. Like if you wanted the battlecruiser to have stronger weapons, you would have to build (scaled down) armories. that way, when the enemy boards, they can destroy those buildings/parts of the ship) to weaken the enemies.

-Kyuft:shades: