Missiles (and more)
In a lot of space games, one of the key ideas of missiles is that while they do a lot of damage; they’re also vulnerable to a lot of countermeasures. Flares, outrunning them, or even shooting them down. And in contrast, there are some space games where missiles are generally one of the best options you have, limited only by supply. For VERZ, we want missiles to be more of the former: yes, they will do a lot of damage – but only if they hit. Which, generally, they will – unless you do something about them. And we plan for there to be a lot for you to do about them.
But the first step on that journey is making missiles something you can fire – and fire at.
Missiles are already a few of the things we want them to be: they’re very strong weapons, assuming they hit. But you can shoot them down; and we will add more options in the future, like chaff, flares, and EMPs. They also critically have a delay between when you fire them and when they hit – which means at least one more round for your enemy to shoot at you. And our long-term goal for missiles is to play more into that: missiles are strong weapons with strong counterplay. Use them well, at the right time, and they can destroy enemies very quickly. Use them poorly, and you waste resources and your own options.
Missiles, right now, get the basics done. When you use your “launch missile” attack, a new “ship” is created in combat on your side – the missile. On the next round, it attacks, and if it hits it deals (a lot of) damage to the target you fired it at. However, if it takes enough damage to get destroyed before it attacks (and basically every weapon fires before the missile attacks – and only a few NPCs aren’t capable of taking them out in one shot; like the Scavenger Beetle: a weak pirate), it doesn’t get to make an attack. And, hit or miss, it only gets one attack: it destroys itself as part of the attack.
And More
Except that the above systems aren’t only useful for missiles. Creating ships in combat can be used for a lot of other things, including mines, combat drones, and so on. Like the Space Fly Queen:
This NPC enemy isn’t particularly dangerous on her own. She has a lot of Armor and Hull, but doesn’t do a lot of damage. She’s not particularly dangerous.
On her own…
Because in addition to her minor attacks, she spawns two Space Flies.
Every round.
And while space flies aren’t very powerful, they add up. Which turns the space fly queen from a minor enemy with a lot of health into an enemy that you can probably kill – but whose brood will kill you in response.
Going forward
What we have right now is a proof of concept, but I leave it to your imagination of what kinds of things are possible. Drone launchers – both NPC enemies that launch waves of drones at you, and also automated drone defenses of your buildings or trade ships – are definitely in the plans. Mines and minefields will be a thing. And we’re considering other options as well. This last month of development has moved all of these things from ideas we have into things we can make.
The other thing we’re working on is the countermeasures. Right now, the only option you have when a missile comes at you is to shoot it – or to hope it doesn’t hit. Making a wide range of anti-missile options is important; both with different costs, but also with different strengths and weaknesses.