And I've been playing the space games your industry has been making all my life
WHICH games? Be specific.
Yes, you have tried them
To clarify, I wasn't talking about me, or anyone here specifically. I was talking about devs who won't talk about what they've worked on because they aren't allowed to by way of non-disclosure agreements.
How do you know someone hasn't secretly already pitched what you're suggesting and tried it out, only to find that it didn't work? When a project is cancelled, most companies with the resources to attempt what you want to do will deny all knowledge of the project's existence. This is especially true if the project was never announced in the first place. How do you know a project like yours hasn't been pitched, and was cancelled before it was ever announced? There's no way you can conclusively prove that this hasn't happened.
Those of us who have been in the industry for even a few years have probably worked on at least one title that got cancelled before it was announced.
You MOST DEFINITELY have not worked on a game that was planning the future and having the AI base it's decisions on the future.
Not explicitly, but that's probably what I would have ended up with when I got around to the AI. Though, my original intent was to have the game be player vs. player. Introducing light-speed delays into the sensor simulation kind of made that difficult, though. What I was more referring to was the notion of having movement prediction be a central game mechanic. In the system I was playing with, players would set "burn points" along their trajectory where their engines would fire, and allow players to see potential trajectory changes by manipulating the burn points ahead of time. Weapon launches and other maneuvers would work similarly - a lot of maneuvering would consist of planning on strings of specific maneuvers, then executing them. As with real-life spacecraft, most of the time spaceships would coast without their engines firing.
It's not a big leap of inspiration to jump to having the AI look at the player's burn plan, though I wouldn't have gone with it myself because I wanted my AIs to actually fight me, not simulate fighting me. :)
I know you think that you understand space combat as well as a member of the SFB Staff, but you don't. It really is that simple.
The dripping condescension is really not necessary. This is a discussion forum where when we think someone doesn't understand something, we explain that something to them instead of dismissing their ideas and rambling about how they don't just understand us. :)
You also asked industry insiders for opinions and perspectives. I am giving them.
You simply don't have the required knowledge base to even understand that what you are seeing in that VR Star Trek game video is not combat.
My point was more that the Star Trek VR addresses your "feels as real as Star Trek." Are you forgetting that Star Trek's spaceships DO move like "garbage scows", and in general Star Trek's space battles are nothing like what real world space combat would be? No spacecraft would ever get close enough to be within visual range, as they do in Star Trek, without getting blown away. Space is not an ocean. There wouldn't be dogfights in space, either. Spacecraft don't move like airplanes.
Show me a twisting, turning dogfight. You can't. Because you can't do that. If you could, we'd all be playing space ship games where the ships actually fight back.
What about this one? Or this one? I don't know about you, but the last time I played Elite: Dangerous, I got blown out of the sky by an AI bot that was very definitely fighting back. Sure, this isn't "realistic" space combat... but then, "realistic" space combat wouldn't have "dogfights" in the first place, because that's not how real spacecraft move in space.
Where, exactly, is it that you learned how space ship combat works? You went to Star Fleet Academy, maybe? What, exactly, is the source of your knowledge of this? Do you believe you were born with it? Your piloted a real space ship? Where does your knowledge of the subject come from? What is it that makes you think you are an expert in this subject? Where did you learn it, and what did you learn? I can tell you don't understand space combat, it's obvious from this post and the video you posted. Where is it that your knowledge of the subject comes from... or are you just making wild guesses and assuming they must be right? Because that is what it sounds like too me, someone who it is known is an expert in this subject.
Among other things, I have read science-fiction novels, studied a little astrophysics, and have been a space nut since a young age. I used to play Orbiter Spaceflight Simulator, which is how I know how real spacecraft maneuver.
Atomic Rockets has proven helpful, as well. You're again being a bit condescending, here. Your group is not the only one to have studied these questions.
This is really straying away from what I was hoping to find out. I really would like to know if anyone out there can think of any way I could actually wind up getting to make my games without having to find a way to raise millions of dollars to do it. Because I know I can't do that.
At the scope you're claiming to be able to build? Probably not. You could certainly build prototypes and try to raise funds based on those. Or build a smaller fragment of the overall picture and sell that, then continuously develop it over the multiple years it would take.
