As anyone who knows me, or reads this blog knows, I’ve got this thing about Space Combat (as in, I’m fascinated by it) and have often wondered what a realistic space combat simulator would look like. Well, today I got a message from John Gillespie, who has a kickstarter project to create exactly that!
The Game
This isn’t your grandpa’s space fighter. You’re not looking out a grimy cockpit window using a joystick to kill an enemy a kilometer away who flies like they’re an airplane in an atmosphere.
You are the captain of a TorchShip – powered by a Gaseous core fission / nuclear thermal reaction drive and armed with nuclear missiles, laser cannons, and a kinetic lance. You will maneuver in 3-D space in a crowded gravity well and engage hostiles at ranges of up to 20,000 kilometers.
- 3-D combat & UI – space is not flat, and neither is TorchShips.
- Newtonian physics – your ship maneuvers in 3-D space using a reaction drive.
- Damage & Systems control – detailed damage model and systems control – you’ll have to manage heat build up, fuel, and reaction mass levels.
- Weapons include your own reaction drive, kinetic lance, missiles/mines, and laser cannons.
- Procedurally generated single and multi-player campaigns against human and non-human opponents.
- Fast set up skirmish modes.
- Crew development
- Customize your ship, name and weapon/system load-out.
- FTL is used to link scenarios and battles. (yes… we know Faster Than Light travel is handwavium – but it allows us to add many more masspoint systems and environments to the combat scenarios without bogging down in multi-year transit times…)
- A rich background with hundreds of human cultures and dozens of alien races.
via TorchShips – Real 3-D Space Combat by johncarlgillespie — Kickstarter.
