Hey guys - I just uploaded the first pass of the overhaul of the command ship upgrades and abilities. They are available as part of the story/mission game play and eventually will be available in custom maps created via the battle editor as well.
As some examples:
You can use the "Tractor Beam" ability on an enemy ship to pull it closer to you, then blast it away with an upgraded main gun.
You can use "Azu's Gambit" to trick enemy ships to focus their fire on the command ship and use "Return to Sender" to return incoming missiles back to their mommas.
You can lay down a "Radiation Field", and then quickly thrust backwards using "Withdraw" so as to take minimal damage from it. And why not lay down some missile mines while you are at it?
Once you are at a safe distance, use "Rapid Repair" which quickly repairs damage, but leaves the command ship extremely vulnerable to weapons fire.
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The goal of command ship upgrades is that they fit the "theme" of the command ship - a lot of the abilities are based on controlling the enemy or the battle. Another goal of these abilities is to provide synergy with other abilities like the examples I listed above.
The main goal - as always - is to give you the player a cool and unique experience. Command ship upgrades/abilities strengthen the play style that likes to focus on piloting the command ship.
So the first pass might be imbalanced, lacking sound and visual fx, some upgrades/abilities might be too weak, some might be too strong. I'd prefer them to be too strong rather than too weak so that they aren't a waste of time. Keeping that in mind I'm looking for feedback from you guys. Adding in these abilities is actually very easy, the more challenging part is merging them with the game play/story and balance of the game.
What's next on the horizon? Next up is overhauling the way that the abilities are presented, instead of a list have a "sort of a" action bar like interface for them. After that I'm going to work on adding many alternate fire options for ships - to strengthen the - "piloting other ships" aspect of the game.
As always thanks for your support.
Paul