[POLL] Combat ship physics style. What is planned? What do you prefer?

Voted.  I'm open to varying arena physics based on the environment, so maybe sometimes its inertia driven, sometimes its arcade assisted, and sometimes its something else, depending on where the battle is taking place.

I care more about not dying after winning a fight because I inadvertently bumped into the planet afterwards. 

I've withheld my vote. I'm not sure what the distinctions are: in SC2 the combat was inertia driven to my understanding (meaning you could accelerate into one direction, then turn around and fly "backward" while shooting at pursuers).

^ Dang, you're right. SC2 does have inertia in combat even though it looks and feels very arcade'y...

The distinctions are simple - you have to hold thrust button to go in arcade style. As soon as you release it the "assisted breaking" kicks in and stops your ship. Realistic = inertia, gravity etc. Exactly like you described.

You can vote now.

All you are really talking about is an inertialess drive like the Airlou had in SC2.  In these games the design of the ships is very simple.  You have thrust, turn rate, and top speed.  Most ships have inertia, but you might have one like the Airlou that does not and stops when you let off the thrust.

Something similar that I have been wondering is if they will have reverse thrust or not.  I think it is better with reverse thrust, with top speed limited to 50% in reverse.  You don't have to have reverse thrust, I think it is much better with reverse thrust... but limit the top speed in reverse to 50% of forward speed (that pesky retrograde issue again...).  Reverse thrust allows for fine speed control and "emergemcy breaking" and just has a much better feel too it than having to rotate 180 degrees if you want to "thrust stop" or slow down.

^ You're right, Arilou had that with their ship. That's basically the question. Do you want to have inertia in your SC battles or not. 1,2 ships that "defy" it are fine by me. But who knows, maybe SD decides to go full arcade.

It's exceedingly unlikely that SD decide to go "full arcade" (never go full arcade bro!). SD love the original as much as we do. Inertia-based combat is going to be the norm.

Each ship's behaviors will be unique. That includes some of the movement mechanics as well. 

Hi, I just watched a trailer for Endless Space (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UVw2uAEty4). Will the combat for the new Star Control game be something like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UVw2uAEty4

Oh baby, an actual top down space shooter.  I'll be playing this next week:-)

In the video you posted he said it is a successor game to "Escape Velocity".  Subspace/Continuum that I have mentioned here before was not a commercial game and never intended to be released as one.  Escape Velocity was someone elses attempt to make a commercial game like Subspace.  It wasn't very good, but this Endless Sky looks interesting.

As for the earlier subject...

Being "retired" from game design I have no problem "giving away" things I once thought of as "my best ideas".  For example, making space hockey "on a pinball machine table".  10 years ago I never would have told anyone about that, today... I'd be thrilled to see some of this stuff actually used somewhere so I might as well tell them to people who might actually use them.  This subject reminds me of another formerly "secret great idea"...

The "HyperSkip" drive.  This is essentially a drive system and a cloaking device all rolled into one.  Like a dolphin swimming near the surface and occasionally jumping out of the water to breath, a ship with a "hyperskip drive" effectively fades in and out of existence as it moves.  Like dashes and dots, it "dashes" a distance "cloaked", and then it "dots" out of cloak for a much shorter distance than when it is cloaked.  It can only fire when it is visible, and is hit normally when cloaked if weapons hit it.

What makes this so cool as an top down arcade ship is that there is a pattern to how this ship fights, using it's cloaked periods to make unseen direction changes and time it so you are ready to shoot when you are able to.  It feels to the player like "coming up for air" every time they shoot.

Your ships are probably already worked out, but if you were thinking of adding more in the future you might try a "hyperskip drive", it would make for a very unique ship that has a specific pattern and rhythm to how it fights.

If you had played Xenon 2 you would have seen that skill being used in a similar manner way back from 1989.

It does not cloak but for all purposes it does the same thing.

If I remember correctly you could "dive" into the background and avoid enemies and enemy fire and come back after a certain time or by command.

Haha... talking about Xenon 2 I can still hear the tunes in my head...... daaadaadd-ta da da da da TA dadadada TA.

That sounds similar, except with the hyperskip drive you have no control over it other than to stop moving in which case you would not be cloaked.  The ship would "skip" in and out of normal space (it isn't really cloaking, it just has the same effect) 2 or 3 times in the time it took to charge the weapon.  So to use the ship most efficiently the player develops a rhythm of how he moves based on the relative position of the ships and when the weapon will be ready to fire again.  You use the periods of invisibility to change directions unseen, always planning to be pointing at the enemy to shoot at them when you "come up" armed.  You can learn to be tricky with it, and use the moments of being visible to fool the enemy into thinking you are doing one thing when you are actually doing another that looks similar from the brief moments he gets to see you.

This would be an "aces ship".  One that many players dislike and think of as kind of weak but is actually very powerful in the right hands.

would be nice if there was an option to turn off and on physical based acceleration.  Would be nice if the option was available for both. Especially in melee. 

^ I think that would be impossible, 'cause ship design depends on it. That's what Vaelzad mentioned in his post. Even planet gravity won't affect some of the ships.

That's true.

Some ships main advantage may be the fact that they are not affected by inertia.

And big ships with more firepower and health may be affected by inertia much more strongly.

So toggling inertia off would only benefit those ships that are heavily penalized with greater susceptibility to inertia.

Unless that is the whole point of your request is to fly humongous death stars like Arilou skiffs....