Children of a Dead Earth - KSP with Space Battles

[Crazy Tom]

Greenlit on Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/f...=673559448

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Might be awfully useful for figuring out how early space battles will be fought - especially since it's supposed to support modding.

[Rynn]

Great idea, I've played a lot of KSP so a war game with a similar approach to realism is really interesting. It does seem like it's very early alpha, I worry at the moment from the video that the "realistic" warfare has some questionable baked in assumptions (most of the scenes seemed to have the ships firing at each other from very close range) but I'll certainly keep an eye out for the finished game.

[Drashner1]

Great idea, I've played a lot of KSP so a war game with a similar approach to realism is really interesting. It does seem like it's very early alpha, I worry at the moment from the video that the "realistic" warfare has some questionable baked in assumptions (most of the scenes seemed to have the ships firing at each other from very close range) but I'll certainly keep an eye out for the finished game.

This is something of an issue with most space adventures (including OA) when it comes to finding a balance between realistic distances and the audience/players being able to actually see anything (or any level of detail in what they see).

Perhaps some kind of split screen system could be used to show both vessels and the effects each has on the other. But otherwise you would seem to either be stuck with ships apparently just shooting off into the dark at something too far away to be seen (or only seen as a dot), or putting the ships all in the same screen, which puts them way too close together in most cases.

Todd

[Crazy Tom]

Based on this picture, it looks like there will be a fire control window (on the right), which in theory should be able to handle whatever range.



This image shows a wave of incoming missiles, denoted by the little red dots.

I think the images we've seen are test shots meant to look pretty rather than reflect what combat turns out like in a real game.

edit: Either that, or the stock weapons are limited in ways that mean combat at tens of kilometers is optimal.

[dofborg]

Based on this picture, it looks like there will be a fire control window (on the right), which in theory should be able to handle whatever range.



This image shows a wave of incoming missiles, denoted by the little red dots.

I think the images we've seen are test shots meant to look pretty rather than reflect what combat turns out like in a real game.

edit: Either that, or the stock weapons are limited in ways that mean combat at tens of kilometers is optimal.

The game allows you to view both your own or enemies ships, allowing you to traverse the vast distances instantly and keep the gameplay relevant and not a big black screen. That said, most engagements tend to happen below 10 km.

Why is that you might ask? Missiles can and are launched from much farther away, and you get to deal with them via PDS once they get within that 10 km range. All other weapons are easily dodged at ranges greater than that, and laser effectiveness fall off due to diffraction before 10 km.

"Baked in assumptions" within Children of a Dead Earth are pretty much constrained to provable or prototype technologies that are supported by journals or white papers. Weapons that are black box hypotheticals right now may change that in the future, but with the technology included in the game, the ranges have come out to be what they are. Also, within Tech Design if you can optimize the weaponry to overcome these ranges, more power to you!

[dofborg]

Ranges in the game are not dictated by some overarching universe controller, but are dictated by the effectiveness of your weapons. Missiles can be launched whenever you're in the neighborhood of the enemy, and it's your job to ensure they have enough delta-v to make it to the enemy, and compensate for their dodging as well. Conventional weapons and railguns/coilguns are effective at sub 10 km and lasers are also extremely limited due to diffraction. Hypothetical black box technologies may push the ranges of space combat further, but with the stuff included in game (prototyped or white-papered) most engagements happen a lot closer than you think.

For those interested in black box techs; there is modding support. And those interested in pushing the limits of our current laser and coilgun tech can do so in tech design, which is meant to find optimal solutions for space combat through the end user.

The only "baked in assumptions" are the technologies we have access or understanding to, and that our current physics textbooks are correct.

[Crazy Tom]

OK, I got into the closed beta and I've found it to be very enjoyable. It's rough around the edges, but I think it's a viable core product.

If anyone wants to get into the closed beta, I would recommend messaging eh facebook page, that's how I got in, and the dev responds quickly.

There are also the official forums, which could really use more members.