posted on May 26th, 2003, 5:50 pm
Even more than the bizarre special weapons, my biggest frusteration with Aramda II was the flimsiness of the ships.
Things that added to the feeling of mass:
> multiple systems that could be independently disabled
> repair capabilities
> attack formations (can't wait until those are back!)
> AI (such as retreating when damaged)
Things that distracted from the feeliing of mass:
> Graphics, including ship models, damaged ships modeling, firing, and ship explosions
> Sounds (torp's need a bigger boom, voice aknowledgements of orders sound like overacting kids, not captains)
> Huge swarms of ships (of course, the game is called Armada!)
> Too many of the most powerful ships
> AI, especially around use of special weapons
> Too much use of pulse weapons
> Too few automated support ships (love the shuttles flying around the stations)
> Borg Cubes seemingly made of stiff construction paper!
> Speed of ship construction
> Low cost of ship construction
> Ease of ship destruction
> lack of shuttles in ships, and escape pods
> Speed (too fast) of large ships
> One special power per ship
> Defeated by little turrets
> lack of ability to shift power from one system to another (i.e. it would be cool if retreating ships lost ability to fire, putting all energy into engines, outrunning pursuers).
What else makes the ships seem big, and ships seem small?
