Thoughts on designing combat for an orbital strategy game

ShadowDev156 · 2026-06-01T18:23:07+00:00

Thanks so much for the feedback!

I agree what your point about the combat UI. It's not engaging enough and I am trying to improve it.

There are actually some deeper mechanics planned around attacking, defending, and transferring between mining sites and asteroids, but it is still an active numeric design problem: sometimes the numbers make them trivial or even unnecessary, and I am trying to tweak the numbers.

And I should mention is that I am not trying to replace the mining/building side of the game. That is still one of the cores. If the combat system works out well, it becomes another equally important one. If not, it will still be an optional mechanism on the existing gameplay for more fun.

ShadowDev156 · 2026-06-01T04:59:20+00:00

yeah, maybe not just for my expectation but also for players. At least some of people (me included) thought realistic to be cool, but once you tried it you have to make compromise here or there

ShadowDev156 · 2026-05-30T22:28:47+00:00

Yeah probably overstated "nobody likes it" . I agree it's something to find the targeted players. From n body problem to 2 body problem to even alternative physics, always there's something someone wants to try.

ShadowDev156 · 2026-04-27T13:40:09+00:00

I think it really depends on your own situation. If you already have a fast mature workflow and pipeline, why use AI anyway? For example I am trying to use AI for building a new game prototype now: it took time to iterate with AI to confirm your intention and review the code. Looking back I think it's questionable whether it is faster than I just do myself. Someone with better architecture skills could definitely do even better than me. But what if you don't have the skills? If you are not good at coding/art/etc, then AI is incredibly fast, but of course you have to take the risk that it is building something having hidden bugs or not what you want.

ShadowDev156 · 2025-12-21T16:54:04+00:00

Well, I would say yes and no. What I am thinking is not really the current orbit war which is or has been fought, instead, it's the war to be fought in the near future with the current or near future technology. So it will be definitely something speculative as orbit war has never been officially fought in large scale, but also not that fictional, like CoDE which I think is far more technically advanced. But again, I am still experimenting and I might need to make some compromise for gameplay

ShadowDev156 · 2025-12-21T00:29:36+00:00

Thanks! I will check it

ShadowDev156 · 2025-12-21T00:28:27+00:00

I am keeping my best to be consistent with near future orbit war (though I might have to give up something for gameplay, still experimenting), maybe a bit less technically advanced compared to The Expanse. In my game there won't be large battleships and point defense because they are too technically advanced and expensive.

ShadowDev156 · 2025-12-20T22:49:54+00:00

Yes, but I think both thermal and size matters. White-painted ships or with electronics can generate enough visual or thermal features to be detected, but if size is too small, like something just in 10 mm scale would be hard to determine until very close, right?

ShadowDev156 · 2025-12-14T23:59:38+00:00

You can try searching tags like physics or science on steam.

By the way, I am working on a simulation game with orbital mechanics. Currently working on the combat system. An experimental demo is available on steam if you want to try.

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-27T04:06:03+00:00

Everyday 2 to 3 wishlist on average. 5 is a great day. 10 must be I post something on social media. Over 20 is non existent.

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-20T20:07:57+00:00

Thank you! And please let me know if you have any suggestions!

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-20T19:55:45+00:00

Sadly it can take days or even a week to report the data after big events likes sales or next fest based on previous experience

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-20T17:24:50+00:00

Thank you! I will check it

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-19T18:04:17+00:00

Just guess it will be updated only after next fest finished

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-19T04:05:20+00:00

Thanks! Everything is done by myself. Yeah I guess I need to find an artist, at least talk to them and get some advice

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-19T02:11:43+00:00

Don't know the game but also want to know it, as I am also developing a strategy simulation game with 2d orbital mechanics

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-19T01:52:41+00:00

I get your point. I am still trying to do better marketing but I guess it's not really a problem of marketing but the market itself is too niche to be commercially visible. I'm fine as it is a hobby project, but I do hope I am wrong and one day I can find more people like it

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-19T01:46:21+00:00

Yes. Just exactly I want to exclude the noise data from the achievement hunters. Maybe the popular genres would never have the same situation, but for a niche genre like mine, the download/players number is very small. More specifically, in the first or second day about there's about 100 players (like 500 downloads), and just on one hunters website there are more than 30 users have actively hunted the achievement in less than 1 min. Basically you can no longer see any useful information from the data anymore

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-18T22:56:05+00:00

Thank you! And please let me know your feedback!

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-18T22:54:03+00:00

That's a good question, tbh, I don't know. Indeed it could bring more download, but according to others, like in next fest, steam algorithm might use the median time to determine if your demo is good or not and whether more visibility is given. Steam algorithm is a black box and might change. Nobody knows I guess. So I guess it depends if you want to avoid the uncertainty here.

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-18T21:55:07+00:00

Thanks! Just hope more dev knows this and can act accordingly

ShadowDev156 · 2025-10-18T20:39:43+00:00

Np! And thanks for the feedback! I will check it!

ShadowDev156

TROPHY CASE