Battlestar Galactica Community Game Diaspora Has Arrived

flight model by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-04 19:50 · Score: 4, Funny

But does it have a realistic air combat physics model for space battles?

Re:flight model by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-04 19:53 · Score: 4, Funny

I hope not. Otherwise it wouldn't really be like "Battlestar Galactica".
Re:flight model by jtownatpunk.net · 2012-09-04 19:57 · Score: 4, Insightful

Trick question! You can't have an air battle in space.
Re:flight model by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-04 20:00 · Score: 4, Interesting

Trick question! You can't have an air battle in space.
Of course you can, just watch how TIE fighters and X-Wings fly in space.
Now if you want full newtonian flight dynamics Babylon 5 all the way.
Re:flight model by epyT-R · 2012-09-04 20:35 · Score: 1

if it uses the stock freespace model, then no. The fighters had afterburners, but they would slow right back down again after the burn. Also, the 'subspace' laws are a bit ambiguous.. some ships could jump anywhere, others needed to do it at the system 'jump node.'...but that was sometimes too. In one freespace2 mission, even the player had to jump from the node or he'd lose the mission. After completing most missions, the fighter would jump to return to the home ship regardless if the home ship was in-system or not.. Someone didn't think it through all the way..
Re:flight model by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-04 21:04 · Score: 1

You probably don't actually want to have a realistic combat model. Take the example of Elite, Elite 2: Frontier and Elite: Frontier First Encoutnters. The original Elite had unrealistic (but very fun) combat and flight characteristics and was enormously successful and fun to play. The sequels had true Newtonian flight mechanics (more or less) but could be massively frustrating to get to grips with and were much less successful as a result.
Re:flight model by epyT-R · 2012-09-04 21:10 · Score: 1

that's what I thought as well, but there are exceptions such as the after-mission jump in missions where the capital ship/base was in another system. I just figured the player just wasn't supposed to get that into it.
Re:flight model by rexkbh2100 · 2012-09-04 22:06 · Score: 1

Independence War. To date is the only realistic space physics I've found.
Re:flight model by JosKarith · 2012-09-04 22:17 · Score: 3, Funny

I loved Frontier. Admittedly my combat technique involved a Panther stuffed to the gills with shield generators and letting the enemies get behind me then just slamming on the brakes and watching them smash into my shields like bugs on a windscreen but hey, it was funny...

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Re:flight model by quadrox · 2012-09-05 00:09 · Score: 2

And boring as shit to play. Space combat in independence war just isn't fun. At all.
Re:flight model by 1u3hr · 2012-09-05 02:22 · Score: 4, Interesting

BSG (the show, no idea about this game) seemed to have fairly realistic space flight. The ships could spin and reverse; they didn't bank and dive. The Vipers were aerodynamic, but they also were used in atmosphere.
The landings on Galactica were a bit weird though. They came in fast and had to decelerate quickly, like fighters on an aircraft carrier deck, instead of just slowing down and drifting in slowly and safely. But arguably you don't want to waste time in combat.
They did the usual movie./TV sci-fi thing of having all the ships, including the big capital ships, engage at ranges of a few hundred metres, instead of a few million miles. And no real explanation of why they didn't just nuke each other with guided missiles instead of shooting more or less conventional guns at each other. It was basically WWII naval battles IN SPACE.
It'll be interesting to see how they do Ender's Game since that is supposedly to be filmed soon.
Re:flight model by crazyjj · 2012-09-05 02:41 · Score: 3, Informative

The landings on Galactica were a bit weird though. They came in fast and had to decelerate quickly, like fighters on an aircraft carrier deck, instead of just slowing down and drifting in slowly and safely. But arguably you don't want to waste time in combat.

They only came in "hot" during emergency landings (before jumps, dodging cylons, etc.). In the pilot, Apollo comes in for a normal non-emergency landing and he just slowed down until he stopped and planted down vertically right on the deck.

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Re:flight model by dywolf · 2012-09-05 03:20 · Score: 1

the phrase you're looking for is "dramatic license"

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Re:flight model by smooth+wombat · 2012-09-05 03:28 · Score: 1

engage at ranges of a few hundred metres, instead of a few million miles.

If you engaged at millions of miles, you would have time to maneuver and/or jump out of the way of incoming missiles. If guided missiles, as you suggested, you would have defenses set up a great distance away from your ship which would intercept the missiles.

You will note that missiles from both sides did do a small amount of maneuvering on their way in. However, that seemed to be purely for positioning. Once locked on, the missiles came straight in (though why the bottom of ships, presumably with much less to no defenses, weren't targeted more is a question left to the producers.)

Engaging at close range is the only way to insure you are hitting your target. Granted, it puts you in harm's way as well, but that's why you have counter-batteries for defense.

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Re:flight model by bungo · 2012-09-05 03:34 · Score: 2

As I recall, they didn't just nuke everything as the nuke missiles were easy to identify and shoot apart.
Given the resources to make a nuke, unless you're guaranteed of a hit, then throwing pieces of metal at high speed is probably a better option.
In the Razor episodes, they show the surprise Cylon attack on the other battlestars, and the Cylons did use nukes, since the defenses were down and the hits were almost guaranteed.

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Re:flight model by lxs · 2012-09-05 03:53 · Score: 1

I had mine revoked!
I nearly DIED of SHAME!
Re:flight model by Boronx · 2012-09-05 04:52 · Score: 1

I'm pretty sure IWar had a top speed for your ship.

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Re:flight model by 1u3hr · 2012-09-05 05:40 · Score: 1

If you engaged at millions of miles, you would have time to maneuver and/or jump out of the way of incoming missiles. If guided missiles, as you suggested, you would have defenses set up a great distance away from your ship which would intercept the missiles.
A missile should be much faster and more manouevrable than a manned craft. If it can't get through the defences, what hope does a manned craft have?

Engaging at close range is the only way to insure you are hitting your target
Yes, if you're throwing rocks. Not if you have missiles with the capabilities we had in the 1960s.
We all know that the real reason was to make it more dramatic. They wanted an excuse for hot dog piloting and heroics. There really isn't any role for a "fighter" in a space battle given any halfway consistent technology. If you have had spaceships for thousands of years, you must have missiles with automatic guidance and targeting systems that are much faster, cheaper, and more accurate than humans. Also they can send the missiles at tens of Gs that would turn a pilot into jam.
Re:flight model by allcoolnameswheretak · 2012-09-05 05:50 · Score: 2

Actually, Battlestar Galactica does have moderately realistic air combat physics for space battles.
Re:flight model by 1u3hr · 2012-09-05 06:01 · Score: 1

As I recall, they didn't just nuke everything as the nuke missiles were easy to identify and shoot apart.
Which didn't make any sense. We even saw a warhead on BSG, it fitted in a suitcase and destroyed a large ship, and damaged several others. (We can make smaller ones now, in the real world.) So you only need one to get through. Launch three and game over.
There is a reason we haven't had a big war since 1945. Nothing can stop a nuke, and if both sides have them, as WOPR deduced, both sides will be destroyed.
Re:flight model by JeffAtl · 2012-09-05 06:14 · Score: 2

The humans on BSG only had 5 nuclear warheads. BSG actually didn't have any weapons of any kind when the war started as it was being turned into a museum.
BSG was able to get to the lone surviving weapons depot but was only able to get a limited number of nukes.
Re:flight model by JeffAtl · 2012-09-05 07:17 · Score: 1

Nukes were considered to be more damaging in the BSG universe than how you portrayed them. Both cylons and humans were very concerned any time nukes entered the picture (which was rare). There was a standoff where BSG was going to launch nukes against a cylon basestar and they backed down.
Battlestars were somewhat tougher than cylonss basestars though. The basestars were quasi-organic while the battlestars were heavily armored.
In the prequal movie (The Plan), the cyclon nukes that destroyed the colonies seemed to be smaller MIRV type warheads, so cylon warheads may tend to be less powerful than Colonial ones.
Re:flight model by Bert64 · 2012-09-05 07:46 · Score: 1

Haha i loved the panther, you could just fly it around like a tank letting the shields absorb the hits while you picked off the enemies with your turrets. Mind you, most of the enemies in frontier had very weak weapons, the strongest computer generated ship i ever came up against had the 20Mw laser but most were in the 1-5 range.

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Re:flight model by JeffAtl · 2012-09-05 07:55 · Score: 1

Cool - glad I could help.
Re:flight model by slaker · 2012-09-05 11:37 · Score: 1

The Vipers carried by the Galactica lacked fly-by-wire tech, presumably so that they would not be impacted by Cylon EW. It may have been that the Cylon Fighters had some EW-related function (sensor or telemetry platform, maybe?) and carried anti-fighter weapons primarily to deal with Vipers, which were fielded primarily to deal with Cylon birds and reduce the effectiveness of Cylon EW.
What I'm saying is, they could've probably justified it.

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-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Re:flight model by slaker · 2012-09-05 12:17 · Score: 1

I seem to recall mention of something about using water as part of anti-radiological shielding.
You pretty much have to figure that anything that was meant for interstellar travel is going to have some pretty serious phlebotinum shielding to make high-energy particles a non-issue in the first place, so it's really just a matter of having armor sufficient to deal with the forces of some presumably multi-kiloton explosion.

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-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Re:flight model by Karajorma · 2012-09-05 13:02 · Score: 1

Find an Amiga or Atari ST Emulator and look for Warhead. It's a game Glyn Williams made before moving on to make I-War. It's primitive by today's standards but the gameplay is a lot of fun.
Re:flight model by Max+Littlemore · 2012-09-05 14:03 · Score: 1

Well I spent a few hours last night playing the actual game and I was impressed with the flight dynamics. At one point my viper got stuck in "glide" mode and I was thankful that I didn't have to come in hot for a landing. I hade to come in slowly and use the full 360 degrees of vertical and horizontal axis thrusters to land safely on to the deck. It took a lot of care. Very newtonian. The only thing missing is gravity.
I'm not sure if getting stuck in glide mode was a bug or the result of damage but it's nice to know that you can switch to a pure "float around and manually squirt thrusters" mode. It makes the possibilities in combat really interesting.
FYI, in case you didn't get it from the above, glide mode is effectively turning off the computer assistance in the viper.
WRT the range for engagement, it is all within hundreds of metres by the look of it, but then if that part was realistic it would kind of suck as a FPS.

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Re:flight model by kenp2002 · 2012-09-09 23:56 · Score: 1

No real space battles would happen at long distances. It would be too easy for counter-measures to be deployed at those ranges. At 1000 miles firing two missiles at opposing ships the counter-measures (either opposing missiles, flack, etc) would have several minutes to intercept and make adjustments. At a million, they'd have hours of making minor ( 1 degree) adjustments to intercept. The exception to this rule would be if laser weapons are involved. With conventional ballistics, not really an option for long range engagement. There is a funny but oddly realistic lecture in Mass Effect about shooting a projectile in space that also explains why long range engagements are not a real option. We're not even getting into gravity, plotting an accurate shot over a milion miles would have to account for every object of significant mass between the origin and target. Impractical at best.

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-=[ Who Is John Galt? ]=-

Is that the game... by c0l0 · 2012-09-04 20:14 · Score: 1

...that was (meant to be?) called Beyond the Red Line, or a different approach to making the BSG universe into an awesome space combat game?

(Downloading the source tarball right now, let's see how we get this into an unofficial Debian package...)

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Re:Is that the game... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-04 20:20 · Score: 3, Informative

According to wikipedia the majority of the developers involved in Beyond the Red Line left that project in 2008 and started Diaspora. BtRL has since been in development alongside Diaspora by those that remained. So this is sorta but not really a fork from BtRL (spiritually perhaps, but I don't know if any of the codebase / graphic resources were carried over. Both are based on the Freespace 2 engine I believe.)
Re:Is that the game... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-04 20:28 · Score: 4, Informative

I'm the team lead for Diaspora and you're pretty much correct. We ended up with many of the assets that used to be part of BtRL. We agreed not to use the name or anything that wasn't 100% made by our team members in return.
The codebases are exactly the same at the time of the split. I have no idea what they've done with theirs but we kept using the same engine.
Re:Is that the game... by Karajorma · 2012-09-04 20:47 · Score: 1

Actually nothing except the code was shared. The assets all went to one team or the other.
Re:Is that the game... by ACS+Solver · 2012-09-05 02:33 · Score: 1

I played the first BtRL demo release when it came out, and I was very impressed. I am not a fan of that gameplay genre, but the demo did a great job at capturing the BSG atmosphere and having dialogue that really fit in with the series. The soundtrack was also good, mixing newly written bits with BSG sounds.
Looking forward to downloading this.

Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by DarwinSurvivor · 2012-09-04 20:24 · Score: 2

I believe it was always open source (and yes, many people DO run their instances). The recent announcement was that they would be accepting community-written code into the main trunk.

Homeworld anyone? by aneroid · 2012-09-04 20:25 · Score: 5, Interesting

Homeworld was, for me, the first truly 'epic space battle' type game. Full 360 deg space-mapping, camera views, fighter-POVs.
It would have been a perfect fit to mod Homeworld into a BSG game for RTS.

I have played TIE Figther which would have also been great for the FPS perspective.

Looking forward to playing this.

Re:Homeworld anyone? by Sigg3.net · 2012-09-04 22:32 · Score: 1

I still play Homeworld in Wine. Works great!

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Defining Statistics and Social Research
Re:Homeworld anyone? by BlueStrat · 2012-09-05 00:17 · Score: 1

I still play Homeworld in Wine. Works great!
I'm running FreeBSD 8.1. I wonder if Diaspora will run under WINE or if it will compile & run under the Linux compatibility layer, or both/neither.
Anyone else try it under FBSD yet?
Strat

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Re:Homeworld anyone? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-05 02:32 · Score: 1

One of the engine devs here.
The linux release is source only, so feel free to try and build it on FreeBSD (I know it was compiled for Solaris at one point though). I don't recall if the engine it runs on will compile for FreeBSD or not (honestly, I don't think anyone has tried). But if you have OpenGL 2.1 or higher, OpenAL, SDL it will probably work anyway.
Re:Homeworld anyone? by Karajorma · 2012-09-05 02:39 · Score: 1

If you do get it working, be sure to tell us. We have no objection to people running it on BSD and we'd quite happily link it on the official release thread.
Re:Homeworld anyone? by SiriusStarr · 2012-09-05 06:57 · Score: 1

There is a BSG mod for Homeworld 2, though I haven't had the chance to try it yet: http://sourceforge.net/projects/hw2bsg/

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site down already by Tastecicles · 2012-09-04 20:28 · Score: 1

anyone got an alternative link?

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Operation Guillotine is in effect.

Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd... by Swifti · 2012-09-04 20:29 · Score: 5, Informative

Hey guys. Programmer from the project here. Looks like our server is being hammered so here are some links to keep you company until our sites get back up.

Our Launch Trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWt2m1xtJbw
1st Mission Preview - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7yGXHQQlps

Windows Torrent - http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Windows.exe.torrent
Mac Torrent - http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Mac.dmg.torrent
Linux Torrent - http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Linux.tar.lzma.torrent

Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by mwvdlee · 2012-09-04 20:30 · Score: 2

Diaspora, the social network, isn't bound to PHP by use of some wierdo PHP-only internal data-structures or anything is it?

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Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by Tastecicles · 2012-09-04 20:35 · Score: 1

thanky chappy!

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Operation Guillotine is in effect.

Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by LordNightwalker · 2012-09-04 20:38 · Score: 1

Same argument could be made towards Diaspora, the social network: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora

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Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by LordNightwalker · 2012-09-04 20:45 · Score: 5, Insightful

And the rabbit hole goes deeper: you may now officially criticize a computer game for using the same name as a social network, that uses the same name as a *previous* computer game: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diaspora_(computer_game) You know, you could probably have found that, had you used a search engine yourself before criticizing others for not using a search engine. ;)

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Install windows on my workstation? You crazy? Got any idea how much I paid for the damn thing?

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by Vylen · 2012-09-04 20:48 · Score: 1

Well, while the site is being hammered, I'll post this here...

Running here on a Mac, the application pops up an error window after the opening text sequence: http://puu.sh/12dax and exits.

Slashdotted by rebelwarlock · 2012-09-04 20:49 · Score: 2

Good job, guys - it's down. Now if only we could actually set fire to their servers.

Diaspora* is the best social network by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-04 20:51 · Score: 2, Funny

It's even got Battlestar Galactica Community Games!

epic was pretty epic by gl4ss · 2012-09-04 20:57 · Score: 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nycZ4BleiU

(epic was a space arcade sim game)

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world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.

Awesome! by Xelios · 2012-09-04 21:04 · Score: 5, Informative

Anyone who hasn't seen the wonderful things the Freespace 2 Open Source team has done over the years should really check it out. The game itself is $6 on GoG, and since Volition released the source code it's seen a complete overhaul for everything from AI to graphics. The classic campaigns are still there (and are well worth playing through), and there's been some really great fan campaigns released over the years too.

I'd highly recommend the Blue Planet campaign. Part 2 (War in Heaven) is especially noteworthy for really giving you the feeling of being on the losing side of a war, something you don't see very often in games. Part 1 has full voice acting, with voice acting for part 2 still in progress.

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Re:Awesome! by Adambomb · 2012-09-04 21:35 · Score: 1

ack, replying to undo cocked up moderation

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Re:Awesome! by lbbros · 2012-09-05 00:09 · Score: 1

I also recommend "Derelict", a very long and involving campaign that's IMO very much in the spirit of Freespace 2.

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Re:Awesome! by Vreejack · 2012-09-05 01:28 · Score: 1

GOG has been down for at least 24hours, with occasional uptime. Does not appear to be a publicity stunt this time.

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"Will future ages believe that such stupid bigotry ever existed!" -- Ivanhoe

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by Karajorma · 2012-09-04 21:06 · Score: 2

What resolution are you running it in? I could see that error being generated if you run in less than 1024x768.

Otherwise I'll need more data.

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-04 21:08 · Score: 1

Definitely not binaries. The Linux download has to be built from source.

What is it with stuff called Diaspora lately? by mcvos · 2012-09-04 21:11 · Score: 1

There's not just the failed social network, there's also the successful indie RPG Diaspora. And now there's also a BSG game.

It's a cool name, but somehow these things seem to happen in waves. A few years ago, everything seemed to be called "The Gathering Storm". Morphic resonance?

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by gajop · 2012-09-04 21:19 · Score: 1

Ages ago I contributed a minor patch or two for that project, glad to hear you guys are still alive and kicking :D

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by Vylen · 2012-09-04 21:29 · Score: 1

Ah right, yep - I see. I wasn't quite launching it properly :)

That all said, it looks fantastic running at 2560x1440!

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by Swifti · 2012-09-04 21:32 · Score: 1

What handle did you go by? I hope we made sure to put you in the credits. ;)

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by MojoMagic · 2012-09-04 23:07 · Score: 2

Oh wow! This looks so much better than I thought it would. Well done! ... Now, to grab that torrent.

Gamer Diaspora by finity · 2012-09-04 23:19 · Score: 2

I saw this headline and was worried about the Cheeto and Mountain Dew famines that would occur if a community of displaced Battlestar Galactica Gamers was unleashed upon this land.

Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by 0100010001010011 · 2012-09-05 00:00 · Score: 2

Diaspora was written in Ruby, so a swing and a miss.

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by Intrepid+imaginaut · 2012-09-05 00:25 · Score: 1

Epic, thanks! Will it run off a USB key by any chance?

Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-05 00:37 · Score: 1

YES! Someone out there recognizes Diaspora, the 2d space MMORPG!!! I can't say how thrilled I was to find this comment. I remember that game quite fondly, even if it was relatively short lived. I was proudly a member of Iron Shield. Diaspora is defined as a "the movement, migration, or scattering of people away from an established or ancestral homeland". The MMORPG was all about scattering form the safe zone and going farther out into space to trade your goods. Guilds defined teams. There were wars, treaties, paid peace agreements...

Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-05 01:15 · Score: 1

It doesn't use PHP at all (and never has). It's all Ruby on Rails.

Named from the score by PhrostyMcByte · 2012-09-05 01:17 · Score: 1

I don't recall an episode with the name, but the score has an excellent track called "Diaspora Oratorio".

Re:Named from the score by Karajorma · 2012-09-05 02:42 · Score: 1

We actually choose the name before we knew that track name though. It's a complete coincidence.
BSG is the story of a diaspora, and we ourselves had split from Beyond the Red Line so it seemed like the perfect name.

Next. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-09-05 01:59 · Score: 1

Now where's my Firefly game?

Re:Next. by Karajorma · 2012-09-05 02:44 · Score: 1

You have no idea how many of the Diaspora team would love to do one of those.

Slashdot effect or crappy game? by MacGyver2210 · 2012-09-05 01:59 · Score: 1

The fact that the page has been annihilated doesn't bode well for the game. If you can't handle the curiosity load for a game release on the website, you probably can't handle the player load on the game itself.

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Re:Slashdot effect or crappy game? by funtapaz · 2012-09-05 03:41 · Score: 1

It's not a browser-based game, and is still available via the following sources.

Torrents:
Windows
http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Windows.exe.torrent
Mac
http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Mac.dmg.torrent
Linux
http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Linux.tar.lzma.torrent

Direct Download:
Linux
http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.858
Mac
http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.857
Windows
http://www.freespacemods.net/download.php?view.856
and
Linux
http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Linux.tar.lzma
Mac
http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Mac.dmg
Windows
http://diaspora.fs2downloads.com/Diaspora_R1_Windows.exe
Re:Slashdot effect or crappy game? by zlives · 2012-09-05 06:01 · Score: 1

kudos

Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by MacGyver2210 · 2012-09-05 02:01 · Score: 1

It's also, you know, just a word in the English language which has been used for hundreds of years...

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If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits

Re:Not to be confused with the social network? by LordNightwalker · 2012-09-05 03:39 · Score: 1

Yes, sorry, I realize my first reply may be a little confusing if you don't bother to follow the wikipedia link. But yup, that was exactly the point I was trying to make. :)

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Install windows on my workstation? You crazy? Got any idea how much I paid for the damn thing?

Re:flight model of fantasy movie by zlives · 2012-09-05 04:11 · Score: 1

you have to compensate for the friction/drag induced by Force particles creating flight dynamics similar to air flight!!

Range of Engagement and Entertainment by internic · 2012-09-05 04:31 · Score: 1

They did the usual movie./TV sci-fi thing of having all the ships, including the big capital ships, engage at ranges of a few hundred metres, instead of a few million miles. And no real explanation of why they didn't just nuke each other with guided missiles instead of shooting more or less conventional guns at each other.

Well, clearly the short answer to why they didn't nuke each other at long distance is that it wouldn't make very interesting television. As far as I recall, BSG didn't really discuss what factors determined the tactics of space battles. If you played the game Mass Effect, I was impressed by how much detail was in the codex about space battles and how the physics and practical considerations shaped the tactics.

In that case they have FTL travel and "kinetic barriers" (i.e. shields), but they state that most engagements would occur at thousands or millions of kilometers, since the main weapons are large rail runs that fire slugs of material at very high speeds (e.g. 0.1 c) as a kinetic weapon. Then it's just a question of the speed at which a ship can fire slugs versus the speed at which it can dodge its opponents' slugs. They do, however, outline certain tactical situations where ships may be forced to engage at close range (e.g. defending a planet). The ships have very effective laser-based missile defence systems, so guided missiles are only useful in a large barrage that can overwhelm the system. They also make the very astute point that dissipating heat (generated by engines, defence, and weapons systems) may actually be one of the biggest problems in a space battle and limit the length of engagements.

Of course, when you finally see space battles in that game (and the following ones) they appear more-or-less as in your typical space opera. My impression was that they threw out all the good sci-fi they'd written about earlier because it would make for uninteresting battles, although now that I think of it they may have fit them all into those tactical exceptions.

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"You call it a new way of thinking; I call it regression to ignorance!" -- Operation Ivy

Alright by GameboyRMH · 2012-09-05 05:36 · Score: 1

The next motherfucker to name any kind of computer related thing "Diaspora" is going to be tied down and whipped with corded mice!

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"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel

Two more... by wikthemighty · 2012-09-05 05:56 · Score: 1

Evochron Mercenary

Space Combat (by Laminar Research, makers of X-Plane)

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"There are people who do not love their fellow human being, and I _hate_ people like that!" - Tom Lehrer

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by ACS+Solver · 2012-09-05 06:47 · Score: 1

Guys, please make sure next time that your default controls are at least functional :)

5 minutes after launching the game, I'm in the tutorial mission. After learning to target the other ships, I'm told to bank my Viper to align with the drone - only banking is not assigned to anything in a keyboard/mouse setup and I need to fix that myself. Or maybe this is one of those games that are supposed to be played with another input device.

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by gajop · 2012-09-05 08:31 · Score: 1

Can't recall exactly, it's probably something like my slashdot username, so "gajop" or something. But seeing as that was in my freshmen/sophomore year (some 4-5 years ago), it's probably best to forget that code I produced :).

Re:Looks Like We're Being Slashdotted and Kotaku'd by Max+Littlemore · 2012-09-05 14:14 · Score: 1

I played all the way through the tutorial and found the default controls functional with a mouse and keyboard (dammit, where did I hide that joystick???? All that bashing the mouse around sucks). The part where you have to align with the drone was the most annoying because the keypresses need to be really short.

Banking by default is assigned to numpad 7 and 9. Works for me.

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I don't therefore I'm not.

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Battlestar Galactica Community Game Diaspora Has Arrived

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