Solutions for Screenwrap

As you all know, I'm a huge defender of Star Control canon, both in terms of lore and mechanics. There are some elements of Star Control that are inalienable parts of the formula that make it great. However, I feel like Screenwrapping (ie the mechanic in which a ship leaves one side of the screen and appears on the other side relative to where they exited), is not only outdated, it's incredibly awkward mechanically.

I should note that I've been working on a Star Control/Space War-like ship combat game with a team, and I really REALLY wanted the screenwrap to work. I wanted it to be a thing, but we have the headache where we just can't make it FEEL good at all. Players end up disoriented more often than anything, and the tactics built around that just feel cheap. The wrapping planet also ended up feeling like we were watching an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon where the background is the same scene looping endlessly. A few of the solutions I'm proposing come from my personal work, others are being proposed in the SCO Discord atm.

What I plan on doing here is proposing alternatives, since it has already been confirmed by Brad that Classic Screenwrap is off the table for SC:O. This will be ordered from least FUNctional to most functional (imho).

• A) (Current solution) Arena Leash: When ships are too far away from each other, they will be leashed to a specific distance from each other, regardless of either ship's speed.
  • Pros:
    • Allows for endless battlefields in theory.
    • Makes wrapping less visible.
  • Cons:
    • Ships with long or endless ranges will always have a MASSIVE advantage over ships with melee-mid range weapons. If a fast ship with long range (Looking at the Trickster) weaponry gets to a corner, the other ship has greatly diminished chances to win.
    • Feels very arbitrary.
    • The boundaries of the arena are tactile, which they should not be in space.
• B  ) Fixed Arena: This solution would involve a finite amount of space in which to fight. If a ship leaves this area for longer than a certain amount of time, they push into hyperspace and forfeit. In SM (likely in Competitive play), this would mean that the ship is unavailable for the remainder of the battle. IE, you chose to leave, you can't just wuss out.
  • Pros:
    • Feels less arbitrary.
    • Boundaries are obvious and tangible.
    • Gives players incentive to stay within a reasonable distance of each other.
    • Easier to constrain the camera to include both players.
  • Cons:
    • Combat is no longer to the death.
    • Fast ships have to work harder to remain in the battle.
    • Battles will likely feel smaller.
    • Less space overall to work with.
    • Less comfortable to have more than one planet or other celestial body in.
• C) Fixed Arena (Spacewar style): The same as above, except the entire battle is visible at all times.
  • Pros:
    • Boundaries are obvious and tangible
    • Camera issues are non-existent.
    • Leads to more tactical gameplay.
    • Easier to synchronize for netcode.
    • Makes local multiplayer easier to design around.
  • Cons:
    • Feels significantly less like Star Control.
    • Battles will feel even smaller.
    • You probably only want one celestial body with a gravity well at all.
• D) Solo Camera: Plays exactly like Star Control with fixed Arena, except each player has their own camera. The other ship will be indicated off-screen with a ui element that includes orientation and current status. The player can then control zoom and angle however they want.
  • Pros:
    • Gives the player infinitely more agency over their game experience.
    • Battles can be as large as you want
    • Netcode for each client only has to worry about what's going on on their screen, which is then synchronized by the server (ideally).
    • Fit as many celestial bodies as you want in the battlefield.
  • Cons:
    • Feels even less like Star Control.
    • Battles could overwhelm newer players.
    • Makes for awkward local multiplayer without splitscreen (though that's an option) 
  • Alternatives: Local Multiplayer would play differently, with the battles being limited to the Spacewar-style Fixed Arenas.

 

TL;DR: Here's some suggestions for alternatives to screenwrap, since that's off the table.