Dear Players,
In developer spotlight posts, we discuss the detail and ideas behind Carrier Command 2.
In this post, we discuss the damage control station and power management system in Carrier Command 2.
In the original game, vehicles could receive damage to a specific component of a vehicle that would effect the behaviour of that vehicle in a specific way. In the remake, we have designed main carrier damage in a similar way, so that the carrier takes damage (by weapons, collision, etc) at a specific location. For example, a hit to the tower could disable radar, while damage to a specific CIWS would disable that turret.
The damage status of the carrier is displayed on a screen on the bridge, showing the health of the various sub-systems, as well as the overall health of the hull. While the hull health is the critical health bar that ultimately decides if your carrier is destroyed, damage to sub-systems can leave you exposed and vulnerable.
Damage can be repaired, but it takes time and costs power (both of which are likely under short supply if you are under attack). Sub-systems will only work when fully repaired.
Power is a valuable commodity in Carrier Command 2. The main power unit on the carrier is responsible for supplying all systems, including propulsion. Just having a system active has a small power cost, and while it is possible to power all systems at once, it ultimately leaves less power available for propulsion. Turning systems off to get a little more speed may seem attractive, but may leave you radar blind or vulnerable to missile attack. Likewise, to fortify with full battle-readiness, the manoeuvring speed will be limited.
While not the first example of a power system, my favourite example is the 1997 Lucasarts game, X-Wing vs TIE Fighter. In this game, you could balance your power between weapons, shields, and engines, and continually rebalance as your desired play style changed. It was possible to leave power at the default state, but you could express your play style and optimize your ship by tweaking the power balance as you saw fit. Carrier Command 2 aims to achieve a similar balance. It isn't something that new players need worry about, but the player can choose to optimize the ship for it's current role and strategy, or just turn systems off to quickly repair the most important damaged systems.
We hope you find this post interesting, and we have plenty more to share in coming weeks. There are some particular elements in the game (such as procedural world generation, weather simulation, AI and pathfinding) that I really want to share, but they probably deserve a video, and we are so busy getting the last parts of the game finished. I expect we will find the time for videos around release.
As always, we look forward to your thoughts and feedback. Let us know what you think and what you want to hear about next!
Much love <3,
The Carrier Command Developers