1. There will be 4 "character classes", ala Gauntlet. If I can ever get Colin Sandby/Louva to explain how the new CMP Exporter Beta is supposed to be setup to export Weapon CMPs (there wasn't any documentation on this other than an example setup with no instructions) then I might even go ahead and make custom weapon models that reflect the different roles/attributes of the weapons, along with imparting a different art style.
2. Each "level" will consist of at least three sub-areas:
A. An "arrival zone", which in most cases will be devoid of bad guys, and will contain a Shop to replenish one's supplies at, upgrade weapons, etc., etc.
B. The "dungeon", which will be a series of Zones of varying types and danger levels- everything from Zones which are practically empty of enemies and are "merely" filled with asteroids/mines to areas that are chock-full of baddies.
C. The "exit", which will consist of a Base where one can land and Bribe the exit-keeper (or whatever we call that being) into making the Gate friendly, and the aforementioned Gate. I will almost certainly make custom Gates (I built some for WOS B2- making Gates work is really no different than Bases, so it wasn't a big deal).
3. Gameplay basically revolves around making money, just like traditional FL, except in this system, money isn't being earned to gain levels and purchase equipment or new ships, but is being used to get to the next level of the Dungeons. In theory, you could never upgrade your ship/weapons and beat the game- you'd just earn enough money to pass to the next level.
Players can earn money through several means:
A. They will be able to take Missions from the Arrival base.
B. Every enemy ship will carry Gold that can be sold for cash. I may deliberately play around with this, so that on some levels of the Dungeon you earn more/less money for a unit of Gold, meaning that on some levels, you have to take Missions to earn credits quickly, and on others, you'll have to kill random bad guys.
C. I may allow for some trading. Probably not.
D. You can sell weapons and other junk you pick up as you find treasure.
So, if you're in a "party", you can all pool your money to get through the Levels together, which will make a "party" a more effective way of beating the game... but you can do it in SP (if you're good at flying and fighting, mind you).
In addition, there will be other quirks, such as the occasional End Boss Encounter (which is really quite easy to set up), a system of "elemental magic" (shield resistances vs. weapon type, of course) and each of the "character classes" will have their aforementioned bonuses and penalties, which (for the sake of clarity) I'll expand upon here:
Warriors will have 4 weapon systems hardpoints, carry the second-heaviest Shields, and mount medium-range weapons that are effective against most "elemental" types they encounter. They carry few bots/bats, however, and aren't terribly fast, but they are manueverable. Warriors can fight any type of Monster fairly well, but will have trouble against enemy Wizards.
Wizards will have 2 weapon systems hardpoints, carry the lightest Shields, and mount very powerful area-effect weapons which may or may not be guided, depending on how the game designer wants to **** players around
Wizards are very powerful backup, and can decimate a wave of enemies with a shot, but can't survive on their own very well because their weapons will take a looooong time to recharge. Wizards are the fastest class (but will not be able to outrun all Monsters).
Healers will have 2 weapon systems hardpoints, carry the heaviest shields, and mount powerful medium-range weapons which are either "holy" or "unholy" - with obvious corresponding effectiveness against a given type of enemy. Healers will have a large store of bots/bats- far larger than any other type. In theory, this makes Healers able to fight very well on their own, but they will be fairly unmanuverable and will generally need backup. Warrior/Healer combos will find that they lack long-range firepower, but can support each other very well.
Thieves will have 2 weapon systems hardpoints, and can mount specialized Thief weapons, which will generally be high-powered line-of-sight weapons with extreme accuracy/speed and a fairly low refire rate, or very short-ranged weapons with decent damage and refire. Thieves are the only class whose weapons will have enough range that they can avoid explosions from "trapped" Treasure Encounters, but with mediocre shielding, weaponry and manueverability, they're jack-of-all-trades types that will need backup to win against really heavy enemies.
Other notes:
1. I will be nerfing Cruise just like I did in WOS, because it will detract from gameplay. The relative speeds of your "party" will actually matter, and people will have to stick together in MP by staying near the slower members.
2. Monsters are a whole topic thread in and of themselves. Some day I should get enough free time to explain the various things I found out about the FL AI to people... but basically we can give Monsters a fairly large amount of "personality" if we want to. There is no practical reason, for example, that you couldn't have a different-flavored AI for every ship in the game- oh, wait, that's what DA did
Ok, so I thought their approach was a bit messy, and their results weren't cool enough to justify the work put in, but still... there are a lot've ways to approach this.
3. Yes, there will be hidden places you can find, etc., and random Treasure Zones that will occasionally give you something really kewl.
...and that's about it. Building this, at least on a testing basis, is actually not terribly hard. Building it to a professional grade is another proposition entirely- I'd like to see the next SUR exporter Beta and see whether it works well enough to get WOS B2 out the door before I tackle that large of a content-creation project again...
