Instead of the stop on a dime, turn on a dime style of movement. I feel space combat is more fun when it feels like naval combat. plus I think its easier to differentiate ship types if you include turning radius, acceleration/deceleration, that sort of thing into their stats. It wouldn't have to be any extra burden on the player if you could figure out a way to show possible moves with arrows on the map (like football plays). the length of the vector and the curvature of any turns you want to perform would factor in current speed, maneuverability, etc. I'm remembering a board game from long ago called Silent Death that had this sort of movement system and it wasn't tedious at all to use, even by hand. with a computer doing all the work it should be very easy to get the 'feel' of your ship. Anyhow, I realize its probably far too late in the development to consider something like this, but I wanted to throw it out there anyway.
If it were more a game without a grid, it might make more sense then, or even in a RTS -- but with hexes fixed as they are, this game acts more like a board game with pieces than a game with 'physics' like Homeworld. I know what you mean regarding Silent Death, and believe me if I had the $$ and programmer resources, the ships would move like you describe. In fact, back when I was first describing the movements of the ships and how I wanted them animated to the artists/programmers, I would describe how the Battlestar Galactica (older series) would bank and move as the way I would want to see the ships perform. There has been a lot more improvements in the movement since the game first went out of alpha (movements were more stiff, chess-like), but things that you or I would like isn't possible with the assets I have at my disposal (micro indie game with 2 programmers and 2 artists).
keep it in mind for Space Wars 2. btw you're like the first person ive run into who has ever heard of Silent Death. You must be old.
Yes, I used to play Starship Tactical Combat Simulator and Star Fleet Battles back in high school in the late 80's...
Not to detract from this game, but perhaps you might be interested in Star Citizen when it releases. Both are space/sci-fi online multiplayer that involve both PvP and PvE (and potentially so much more), but totally different style of game and world to play in. The big difference being that Space Wars is a much slower paced 'think to win' TBS kind of game based off of an old table-top (2D gameplay with 3D objects) and SC... well you can't really win that game, but it's based on 6DoF in a persistent 3D universe, and your ability to pilot a ship, control all of its systems including weapons and aim + thinking all while tracking a dozen nearby targets or more. SC has physics with a measure of fudging. SW isn't that kind of game and SC has over $120M in crowd funding + has seen over 250 employees.
in case anyone out there is googling silent death, it was originally made by iron crown enterprises. there were a couple expansions and a 'next mellenium' edition. the company went bankrupt (I think) but someone bought the rights to SD and made an online game with the same name. I have no idea what the online game was like (didn't look the same to me). I'm referring to the old miniatures game (specifically the simplified movement rules). if anyone can find a pdf of the old rules plz post a link because I cant seem to find one anywhere.
