Hi guys,
As most of you know BFG Armada has been announce for PC. I've taken the time to draft a few opinions on the mechanics of the game in a not to serious way. You can read it bellow or go directly to my website for the content:
Link:
link
After about 20 minutes of running around the house doing Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone 1 and 2 for the youngsters) impressions of "Yes!" and hollering "BFG Armada coming on PC" i sat back at my desk to actually think about the press release. Getting to decipher what the devs are telling you can prove daunting sometimes and the info provided is always more optimistic then what the game will actually deliver. But based on the above i think the conclusions are quite simple:
It will be a Real Time Strategy (so not a Turn Based masterpiece for the ones that enjoy a good coffee and 30 minute turns). What is interesting is that they don't tell us anything about the resources used in the game. You could actively harvest resources like in Homeworld or (and i think this is where they are going with it) you will receive a certain ammount of "gold" after each mission and you will use that to repair/replenish the fleet and add more ships to it.
Imperial, Chaos, Eldar and Orks will be the races appearing in the game. That's a good array of baddies and honestly i am quite glad to see Orks thrown in there for good measure. Based on the 4 races i can already tell you the story: The Imperials defend against the Chaos invasion. They need to go recover some ancient artifact from a very dangerous location where they meet Orks and Eldar. The Eldar at first fight the imps but they end up as allies (since they're Eldar and they hate Chaos and hey, that's the Hollywood recipe). The Imperials get to the artifact, discover it's an like a super ancient piece of technology that can make their ships go faster/shoot harder/produce more ice cream for the mess-hall and then they whoop the spiky gits for good. Mark my words! A nice surprise would be the appearance of the Black Fortresses (which can be also the pivotal point of Imperial search).
The range of ships available will span all the way from frigates to battleships. I would not delude myself thinking the fleets will be massive. I think Battleship is thrown there just for artistic impression. Cruisers will probably be the workhorses and you will probably get 1 Battleship (or maybe 2 if you're a good boy) to act as the centerpiece of your armada.
It will have individual ship customization. This one is an interesting point. The easiest interpretation is that if you're gearing your ship for attack it will hit harder and the same for defensive systems. This means that you will be able to define your playing style (or your fleet's style) based on your personal feeling and interpretation of the skills/modules available. My guess is that we will probably see some gimmick missions where a fully tanked out battleship is required to soak damage from an otherwise unbeatable enemy.
Each ship will have special abilities/powers based on customization. Well, this one i could have seen coming from afar. It's what adds spice and excitement to a regular RTS battle. Personal guess: Nova cannon will be a special power for capital ships. This also makes me think that launching attack wings will also be a cooldown special power for carriers and it will act exactly as ordnance (meaning the torpedoes/bombers/fighters will be easily disposable and replaceable).
Crew get experience after each battle. I think this will be the strong point of the game. If done right the leveling system for ships that take part in battle after battle can be a game changer if you are good at managing your resources and conserving your forces. It is also a feature that strengthens my opinion that the game will not see massive fleets and that the focus will be on a small to medium sized force that has to survive battle after battle and accumulate allot of experience. It also has the advantage to make the user more emotionally attached to the game (as the ships he is commanding in missing 15 have been with him from the beginning of the campaign).
These are my predictions for this awesome game and while we wait for its release all we can do is continue to drool over the ingame pictures provided.
