The future of Artemis is decided here

Hello, I just joined the forum and found out about this game last night. It looks awesome, and I'll definitely try to spread the word. I haven't played it yet but I'll be sure to check out the demo. I absolutely love the concept though and I think there's huge potential for it.

If the game gets enough support, I think more races, ship types and possibly crew positions would be awesome. Maybe carrier type ships where a player could control a star fighter.

I also think this is a perfect game for user generated content, where players might be able to make mods that recreate their favorite settings.

Firstly, I am SO FREAKING EXCITED that this game exists! Thank you for making it!

I agree with darkponzu about the potential for more ship types (playable and non-playable). There could even be a dynamic where as you accumulated more clout, you'd get the resources to upgrade your ship, or buy a new one (I am reminded of space RPGs I played in the mid-90s like Starfleet Battles and Star Control).

I wonder if you have considered making the game open-source, to allow for more collaboration.

Thanks a lot!

I'd like to steer this in a slightly different direction. I don't think a campaign system or upgrade system built into the actual server/game client would be as useful in the short term. When I found this software yesterday, the first thing I compared it to was the Battletech pods that many groups maintain out there, or the Dangerous Waters simulation in Multi-station mode.

The spirit of this simulation (in my opinion..the developer may have a different direction) is a team of people working different roles and coordinated by a captain. Upgrades and campaigns can be handled on paper outside the sim, and a simple file on the server can be used to track a ships info and equipment.

I'd rather see more complexity added to the various stations. Helm and Engineering seem to have enough to do right now. Weapons looks to be engaging enough too. Science and Comms right now could almost be a single station, but I've not yet played the game with a full crew.

I'm torn. The gamer in me wants each station to be almost a mini-game that people will need to learn. But that adds to the learning curve along with working with crewmembers and learning communication.


On a side note, instead of fighters, maybe have some ship classes feature drones, and have a drone station just used to control them. Maybe drones could be a replacement for torpedoes on ships?

Since the primary focus of the game is on combat you might want to consider expanding that part of it. For example, separate beam and torpedo into individual stations. Then, give each the ability to target specific systems or parts of the enemy ships. Maybe even give the torpedo station the ability to steer the torpedo to avoid enemy fire. Beams would no longer be automatic, just to give the player more to do.

As an added complexity, you could require a combination of science station and weapons to target these specific systems; especially for beam weapons.

Comm station doesn't seem to do a ton. Maybe add some kind of jamming ability that has an interactive component. Such as, you can only jam certain frequencies or like your listen-in ability in a wedge. The jamming may add a delay in the execution of orders on the affected ships or disrupt coordination between ships. Similarly, the comm station would need an interactive component to defeat jamming of the Artemis' systems. My apologies for not having an idea of what this "component" should be.

A truly fascinating game.

A number of friends and I actually played this over Hamachi and it worked beautifully. I was the Captain and they manned their consoles, providing updates and reports as I asked for them. It seems like a brilliant concept, but there are a few things that are really hurting it from my perspective. The whole simulation taking place on a two dimensional plane, frankly, sucks. It doesn't feel like space if I can't go up or down, or rotate in relation to another object or adjust my pitch. Adding the extra dimensions of movement (freedom) would make for more interesting and challenging scenarios.

I agree with the previous poster about perhaps making some of the stations a bit more complex/interesting with associated minigames. Weapons and Helm are certainly engaging, along with Engineering, but I can't much see the use for having two separate consoles for Science and Comms. Perhaps I have yet to play enough, because I'm not even quite certain what the Science station does yet.

In any event, I enjoy this game. The lack of three dimensional movement is a painful oversight in my opinion, and detracts from the enjoyment I and my crew got out of it, but still. This is an indie game with extraordinarily high potential. I hope you see enough success to continue upgrading and fashioning this product into a ball park hit.

Cold Fingers XT: Yes, yes, exactly!

I've gotta agree with the previous posts on work-station content. The helm and weapons stations are good, but the comm and science stations are next to useless. The engineering station seems only marginally useful...

All of your your ideas are excellent. It seems that most players want MORE complexity at each station, and I'm happy to provide that.

Mods and other user-created content is a definite possibility too. I'll want to express that in a way that also serves those who want to design and/or DM specific missions.

therealjongood, no open source for now, mebbe in the distant future.

AcidicPlague, in my experience the complexity jump from 2D to 3D is pretty steep. BUT, 3d isn't out of the question technically, and I'll keep it in mind.

2D vs 3D could simply be a selectable option when the server is started; ala game difficulty level. However, adding 3D could really complicate some of the stations, especially in terms of controls. The comm station for example; as it is now it would have to move the cone in 3D. How would you design the controls for that? Or, would you simply allow the cone to be basically 2D where it can listen in 180* arc top to bottom?

Thom, I have some concerns about your architecture and it's compatibility with the ideas being pitched. Right now you have a decent client server config, but the scheme is designed for a small group. That works as is, and modding could be confined there. But, the multiplayer requests would need a different design; a traditional star topography like how most FPS games run. That could get rather messy, and if you design this to be played over the internet (since it's ship-to-ship) then latency becomes an issue. Anyways, just thinking ahead a bit about the challenges for trying to include multiplayer. There are reasons why MMO's have a team of people that work just on the networking parts.

What about a system for intercepting and boarding another ship? You could have a pirating scenario where you aim to disable ships, board them, take their stuff and then sell the booty for cash to upgrade the ship. Yar!

I'd definitely like to see more complexity at each station, as well as tasks that require co-operation between crew-members (e.g. the tergetting system suggested above requiring both science and weapons consoles). I like the idea of each console being its own 'mini-game', although I'd be careful not to make things too abstract (The hacking in Bioshock 1 and 2 comes to mind as a bad direction to go).

I haven't played with a real crew yet, but running several consoles on my desktop was actually pretty fun, if a little impractical :)

I have to agree that 3D space has to be tops on my wishlist.

Me and some friends will be plopping down our $60 this weekend and giving this a go... the demo was great fun, so I can't wait to see it with six.

What about a system for intercepting and boarding another ship? You could have a pirating scenario where you aim to disable ships, board them, take their stuff and then sell the booty for cash to upgrade the ship. Yar!

If you board an enemy ship does that mean the computer would send out an AI controlled away team? Also, if this was bridge to bridge (PVP) and one ship boards another, would this turn into a laser tag battle?

I'd definitely like to see more complexity at each station, as well as tasks that require co-operation between crew-members (e.g. the tergetting system suggested above requiring both science and weapons consoles). I like the idea of each console being its own 'mini-game', although I'd be careful not to make things too abstract (The hacking in Bioshock 1 and 2 comes to mind as a bad direction to go).

I haven't played with a real crew yet, but running several consoles on my desktop was actually pretty fun, if a little impractical :)

I've never played Bioshock, but if the hacking is anything like System Shock (Bioshocks predecessor), then I could see something that involved useful for doing system repairs in engineering maybe?

Speaking of repairs, I had an idea. What about repair crews that had to "go around the ship" and repair "physical" systems. In this case these physical systems would be virtual obviously, and going around the ship would mean different screens. For example, if the warp core was about to overload, the engineer would dispatch a repair person to the warp core. In reality the repair person would cycle to the "warp core repair screen" on his console, and it would initiate a repair mini game. Perhaps other systems were malfunctioning due to the attack so you'd have others in the repair team work on those simultaneously.

First off, a brilliant concept. As a secondary school teacher, I will be looking to get some of my kids getting involved and playing this game in the coop fashion it is designed to work in.

I do have a few suggestions which may enhance the game play, I do completely understand this game is in its early stages but ideas worth saying none the least:

- Generally more interactivity on the stations that involves the player more at each station rather than just performing one task i.e.
- Weapons station consists of just targeting and clicking the torpedo station which isn't enough for the play to do, other tasks could include: Locking onto sub targets, Changing beam frequency's (read: reverse the polarities :) ), Different types of weapons (EM, Standard etc)


- Helm is the best station at the moment by far but should be able to :
- click on the map to move
- Evasive Manoeuvres
- Engineering looks to be quite fun in micromanaging the power distribution but could be improved by:
- Emergency repairs (perhaps with teams, limited number of repair teams, risk of teams dying, some mini game i.e. sequencing of activities to repair a critical system, actually doing something rather than clicking it
- Power management should be on sliders rather than clicks


- Science should have:
- Scanning again should involve some form of skill rather than just clicking
- Balance shields on your ship, different planes of shields etc
- Ability to scan for damage on enemy ships and pass this onto weapons
- Scan for power management of enemy ships
- Detect types of weapons being used and change shield frequencies accordingly


- Communications does seem like a funny choice at the moment but could work well as a station against Science and could:
- Work against Science of other ships to report false information


Apart from that:
- Different types of ships
- Different weapons
- Cloaking Devices
- Khan
- No Neelix.
- Basically, Star Trek.

I hope that makes at least some sense and again a great game and amazing concept, just needs a little beefing up in the actual content side.

here is a simple and yet interesting idea for comm and science stations:
the the radius/angle of the scanning cone determines range/strength of the scan/interference. the larger the angle the shorter the range and the opposite ...

also another idea for same stations:
easiest way to show a 3d projections of the cone is to have 2 dials which setup in same way but show projection in different plane
1 vertical and 1 horizontal
the idea is from X-Wing and Tie Fighter games ... in there the sensors worked the same way ...