Tribes Like Game
by Bensam123 · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 02/20/2006 (7:00 pm) · 10 replies
Well the other night (saturday) I read up on Tribalwar about the possbility of a new Tribes game in the making (which I now know isn't true), but I ended up not being able to sleep because of just such a possbility. I spent the next three hours tossing and turning in bed while ideas of what such a game could have in store and came up with some pretty unique stuff. The proceeding is what I thought up for your entertainment.
What I came up with is a Tribes like game that combines two gametype elements and involves a totally new aspect.
People get bored of games because they get repetive. It ends up being the samething time and time again. RTS's have moved to remove this aspect by having enviroments randomly generated. For instance AoE3 has maps that are randomly generated but under certain guidelines. A user can pick a certain type of map and he generally gets it. Everything is regenerated from the ground up but there will always be a certain percentage of mountains/water/hills, the number starting spots, the number of gold mines/berrybushes/animals, and forest. It adds a totally unique aspect to the game as you can't just play it like a machine, you have to adept and change things. You can't figure out that if you do this here, then this will happen. This is a double-edged sword though. Even though it makes things unique and different each time there never will be a 'really good map' to play on. Making gameplay unique and different pulls the user in and makes them want to play more because they know it won't be the same and that refreshing aspect lets users play for longer. This all leads up to something I'll get to in a sec.
Tribes is about war in space. About war between clans, not just limited to one planet. However just like every other sci-fi space shooter it is limited to one generic setting. Even though it's the future you don't see a single space-ship or any epic space battles.
How do people get there? If by ship where are the ships? Wouldn't the ships also take part in combat? How do they get to the surface? How do they get to space? Wouldn't both of them fit hand in hand? These are all questions that I aimed to answer, and I did.
Tribes isn't just about a few armors, the ability to fly and the unique futuristic weapons. It reaches far, far beyond the scope of the the average FPS just like most Sci-Fi shooters could.
Some of the newer games have realized this and have started taking on a multi-level approach, mainly the Starwars games. They have both space and ground battles. It doesn't really make the game unique, it just involves more then one setting. The user goes from map to map and doesn't relate either one to one another. Hes just like 'hmmm... I'm in space' or 'Hmmm... I'm on the ground'. There isn't a connection between the two. Now the next step for the sci-fi genere is to incorperate both space and ground into a seamless enviorment.
However other Sci-Fi shooters don't have something Tribes has. The ability to fly around in armors. This would make for a new zero-g space fights. Since you have the ability to fly already, why not fly around in space?
CTF has been a long standing gametype. Everyone plays it and likes it but when you really ask yourself what are you doing, you go 'huh I'm taking the enemies flag to my own so we can win...?'. It has no goal or groundful purpose. However if you put some backing behind it, lets say two clans are having a dispute over territory and they will fix it with a fight for flags it carries meaning that wasn't there. More depth. Now what happens when you combine them?
You have a randomly generated setting, two battleships, one planet based landing area and a whole lot of combat.
What I came up with is a Tribes like game that combines two gametype elements and involves a totally new aspect.
People get bored of games because they get repetive. It ends up being the samething time and time again. RTS's have moved to remove this aspect by having enviroments randomly generated. For instance AoE3 has maps that are randomly generated but under certain guidelines. A user can pick a certain type of map and he generally gets it. Everything is regenerated from the ground up but there will always be a certain percentage of mountains/water/hills, the number starting spots, the number of gold mines/berrybushes/animals, and forest. It adds a totally unique aspect to the game as you can't just play it like a machine, you have to adept and change things. You can't figure out that if you do this here, then this will happen. This is a double-edged sword though. Even though it makes things unique and different each time there never will be a 'really good map' to play on. Making gameplay unique and different pulls the user in and makes them want to play more because they know it won't be the same and that refreshing aspect lets users play for longer. This all leads up to something I'll get to in a sec.
Tribes is about war in space. About war between clans, not just limited to one planet. However just like every other sci-fi space shooter it is limited to one generic setting. Even though it's the future you don't see a single space-ship or any epic space battles.
How do people get there? If by ship where are the ships? Wouldn't the ships also take part in combat? How do they get to the surface? How do they get to space? Wouldn't both of them fit hand in hand? These are all questions that I aimed to answer, and I did.
Tribes isn't just about a few armors, the ability to fly and the unique futuristic weapons. It reaches far, far beyond the scope of the the average FPS just like most Sci-Fi shooters could.
Some of the newer games have realized this and have started taking on a multi-level approach, mainly the Starwars games. They have both space and ground battles. It doesn't really make the game unique, it just involves more then one setting. The user goes from map to map and doesn't relate either one to one another. Hes just like 'hmmm... I'm in space' or 'Hmmm... I'm on the ground'. There isn't a connection between the two. Now the next step for the sci-fi genere is to incorperate both space and ground into a seamless enviorment.
However other Sci-Fi shooters don't have something Tribes has. The ability to fly around in armors. This would make for a new zero-g space fights. Since you have the ability to fly already, why not fly around in space?
CTF has been a long standing gametype. Everyone plays it and likes it but when you really ask yourself what are you doing, you go 'huh I'm taking the enemies flag to my own so we can win...?'. It has no goal or groundful purpose. However if you put some backing behind it, lets say two clans are having a dispute over territory and they will fix it with a fight for flags it carries meaning that wasn't there. More depth. Now what happens when you combine them?
You have a randomly generated setting, two battleships, one planet based landing area and a whole lot of combat.
About the author
#2
The transportation room would function as a way for soldiers to get to the surface. It would involve X number of pods (depending on the server max and how many people are playing, so you can add a reinforcement factor to the game). Once inside the pod people would be 'rentry armored up' and shot to landing site on the planet. Upon reaching a certain distance above the ground their armor would jet (to slow the decent) to a safe speed then eject allowing the player to jet safely to the ground.
Both battleship based vehicle and personal entry would render them immune to damage until either they touch down or their armor is ejected.
There is more then one way to get down to the ground though. 'Flying' vehicles always have the ability to enter the atmosphere and exit it with enough thrust but personal are a different story. If you attempt to enter the atmosphere (depending on the planet, if there is one) you'll either burn up or splatter on the ground. Rentry packs could be purchased at each teams inventory allowing you to manualy reenter the atmosphere. The pack only works once and coats you with something shiny (really whatever you want). You can choose where exactly you want to go upon entering the atmosphere but it's also a double edged sword. While you get to choose where you want to go (right to the enemies flag if you want) you won't be immune to damage. This means if there is a guy smoking a cigarette outside with a missile launcher and he sees a giant flaming fireball (which he will). He'll explodise you before you ever reach the surface. This adds strategy while using this pack. A well cordinated team effort will result with a overwhelming amount of people all entering the same area. You won't be able to shoot them all down. The pack in itself will protect you from the heat of rentry and the impact damage (it should be a sight to see. A giant fireball through the atmosphere and then a crater where ever it lands). You should have the oportunity to disengage the pack early to prevent missile lock ons but you would be bound to take extreme damage if you survive.
Leaving the planets surface on the other hand is a bit trickier. Once ground based vehicles are there, they aren't leaving but players can. A single use jet pack should be made available. It would provide enough boost for you to leave the atmosphere or crater into a mountain across the map. Once again you turn into a giant fireball that screams 'missile launcher shoot me down'. For balancing purposes you probably wouldn't want to let users carry a flag with the pack. Such a pack would give a talented user a great advantage.
As was said aircraft have the ability to leave the planets surface at any time, a transport would also suffice.
The winner of a map would be determined on a few factors. Either who caps the most or who is left alive. The randomly generated map would either come with a set of flags or a uber battleship destroyer installation. This makes for either siege or CTF with the added element of a battleship. Once a battleship is destroyed there is no place to respawn. All that is left is to hunt down the remaining players which shouldn't be hard with a good sensor net or cap the flags. This gives players one last card to play. If your on a siege planet, it's just stealthly seeking the control room and bringing their ship down. If it's a CTF cap their flag and hope you can make it to yours alive.
When you die you would stay in first person, the screen would fade out and it would fade back in with you inside a pod just as when the map started.
This is already ontop of a Ribes like enviroment. You wouldn't even need to add new weapons/packs/armors to the game as it stands (weapons are pretty maxed out as is, there is only so many ways to kill someone, besides the few unique entry packs). An entirely new game is made by broadening the scope of it. It's a given that newer games would have really good graphics/sound (some games are just that).
Sum it up:
-Seemless space/ground combat
-A interactive base ship
-Unique ground/space entry methods
-Semi-predetermined reinforcements
-Balance between ground and space superiority
I had a dream... and this was it. Feel free to change, use, or give feedback.
02/20/2006 (7:01 pm)
The vehicle bay would serve two purposes. One is creating ships that fly and the other is creating ground vehicles. If a flying vehicle is selected it would be made and the user poped inside. They would be then free to exit the bay to space where they can either take part in space battle or enter the planets atmosphere and go down to take part in the ground battles. If a ground based vehicle was made (such as a tank or a hoverbike of sorts) the user would be poped inside, boarded up and shot down to the earths surface (drop pod like). It would hit the ground in a pre-designated area close to their teams main base. (Landing sites would be generated with each map.) The transportation room would function as a way for soldiers to get to the surface. It would involve X number of pods (depending on the server max and how many people are playing, so you can add a reinforcement factor to the game). Once inside the pod people would be 'rentry armored up' and shot to landing site on the planet. Upon reaching a certain distance above the ground their armor would jet (to slow the decent) to a safe speed then eject allowing the player to jet safely to the ground.
Both battleship based vehicle and personal entry would render them immune to damage until either they touch down or their armor is ejected.
There is more then one way to get down to the ground though. 'Flying' vehicles always have the ability to enter the atmosphere and exit it with enough thrust but personal are a different story. If you attempt to enter the atmosphere (depending on the planet, if there is one) you'll either burn up or splatter on the ground. Rentry packs could be purchased at each teams inventory allowing you to manualy reenter the atmosphere. The pack only works once and coats you with something shiny (really whatever you want). You can choose where exactly you want to go upon entering the atmosphere but it's also a double edged sword. While you get to choose where you want to go (right to the enemies flag if you want) you won't be immune to damage. This means if there is a guy smoking a cigarette outside with a missile launcher and he sees a giant flaming fireball (which he will). He'll explodise you before you ever reach the surface. This adds strategy while using this pack. A well cordinated team effort will result with a overwhelming amount of people all entering the same area. You won't be able to shoot them all down. The pack in itself will protect you from the heat of rentry and the impact damage (it should be a sight to see. A giant fireball through the atmosphere and then a crater where ever it lands). You should have the oportunity to disengage the pack early to prevent missile lock ons but you would be bound to take extreme damage if you survive.
Leaving the planets surface on the other hand is a bit trickier. Once ground based vehicles are there, they aren't leaving but players can. A single use jet pack should be made available. It would provide enough boost for you to leave the atmosphere or crater into a mountain across the map. Once again you turn into a giant fireball that screams 'missile launcher shoot me down'. For balancing purposes you probably wouldn't want to let users carry a flag with the pack. Such a pack would give a talented user a great advantage.
As was said aircraft have the ability to leave the planets surface at any time, a transport would also suffice.
The winner of a map would be determined on a few factors. Either who caps the most or who is left alive. The randomly generated map would either come with a set of flags or a uber battleship destroyer installation. This makes for either siege or CTF with the added element of a battleship. Once a battleship is destroyed there is no place to respawn. All that is left is to hunt down the remaining players which shouldn't be hard with a good sensor net or cap the flags. This gives players one last card to play. If your on a siege planet, it's just stealthly seeking the control room and bringing their ship down. If it's a CTF cap their flag and hope you can make it to yours alive.
When you die you would stay in first person, the screen would fade out and it would fade back in with you inside a pod just as when the map started.
This is already ontop of a Ribes like enviroment. You wouldn't even need to add new weapons/packs/armors to the game as it stands (weapons are pretty maxed out as is, there is only so many ways to kill someone, besides the few unique entry packs). An entirely new game is made by broadening the scope of it. It's a given that newer games would have really good graphics/sound (some games are just that).
Sum it up:
-Seemless space/ground combat
-A interactive base ship
-Unique ground/space entry methods
-Semi-predetermined reinforcements
-Balance between ground and space superiority
I had a dream... and this was it. Feel free to change, use, or give feedback.
#3
A bit more info on some topics.
Random map generation isn't exactly the right wording for it. I described it the right way but if you just think about random map generation you think ground up rebuilding of every single map, that isn't the case. The best way to describe it is a midi. Each midi doesn't really contain the song itself but the info of what should be played by the sound card. Each map would have a certain 'construction plan' that it follows. All that is really generated is the plan and everything else would be already available and pre-made. The ships aren't randomly generated, terrain 'sets' would be pre-made and so would be the buildings that take place on them. Just the order/combinations would be randomized to get it a new feeling. So really its a half-premade / half-randomly generated map. Some elements can be randomly generated while other 'bigger elements' can't and would apply to the midi. If you play Age of Empire 3 you should know what I'm talking about if not you should really play the game cause it's good.
Things such as planets (ships/buildings/ruins/stars(sun)/foilage/etc.) would be pre-made but would appear randomly at different spots with each generation of the map. Space should be extremely easy to generate because it doesn't have that much to it. Anomalies (meteors/spacedust/gas clouds/etc.), stars in the background, and possibly random debris. The ground wouldn't need to be highely detailed. Too much scenery takes away from the actual gameplay as you end up combating your enviroment almost more so then people and since alot would be randomly generated you wouldn't expect big fancy maps.
The design of this idea isn't to change what Ribes really but be a overlay and compliment it. Everything that is Ribes can exist in such a eviroment, this just changes things up a bit. It's more like a supergametype then an entirely new game.
03/03/2006 (4:41 pm)
I would've atleast expected something like sounds cool, crappy idea or even a sarcastic good luck with that, but not even one reply (not even a flame) is quite discouraging. *sigh*A bit more info on some topics.
Random map generation isn't exactly the right wording for it. I described it the right way but if you just think about random map generation you think ground up rebuilding of every single map, that isn't the case. The best way to describe it is a midi. Each midi doesn't really contain the song itself but the info of what should be played by the sound card. Each map would have a certain 'construction plan' that it follows. All that is really generated is the plan and everything else would be already available and pre-made. The ships aren't randomly generated, terrain 'sets' would be pre-made and so would be the buildings that take place on them. Just the order/combinations would be randomized to get it a new feeling. So really its a half-premade / half-randomly generated map. Some elements can be randomly generated while other 'bigger elements' can't and would apply to the midi. If you play Age of Empire 3 you should know what I'm talking about if not you should really play the game cause it's good.
Things such as planets (ships/buildings/ruins/stars(sun)/foilage/etc.) would be pre-made but would appear randomly at different spots with each generation of the map. Space should be extremely easy to generate because it doesn't have that much to it. Anomalies (meteors/spacedust/gas clouds/etc.), stars in the background, and possibly random debris. The ground wouldn't need to be highely detailed. Too much scenery takes away from the actual gameplay as you end up combating your enviroment almost more so then people and since alot would be randomly generated you wouldn't expect big fancy maps.
The design of this idea isn't to change what Ribes really but be a overlay and compliment it. Everything that is Ribes can exist in such a eviroment, this just changes things up a bit. It's more like a supergametype then an entirely new game.
#4
as for the rest (i'm getting the feeling you enjoyed T2 base), It sounds like a MMORPG/Shooter with maybe some RTS elements thrown in (the random generations). And it could probably work (but not under the tribes name [not that it would be since VUG owns it]). there are a couple games (Neocron & Gunz:the duel) that are similiar.
I think though when you try to make the game more epic or 'real' you have to label it RPG (whereas tribes was action : which your typical action junky doesnt want to wait around to kill things). Plus you need a dev team to keep working on it . Or, make it as a single player game with co-op play. (* i think what ppl like about MP though, is that the enemy isnt as stagnant as AI... but at the same time AI arent a bunch of d*(ks :p)
03/11/2006 (4:29 am)
I like the randomly generated maps (to a degree) . running the same routes over and over does get repetative, but at the same time you'd want to be able to practice the map a few times before match day.as for the rest (i'm getting the feeling you enjoyed T2 base), It sounds like a MMORPG/Shooter with maybe some RTS elements thrown in (the random generations). And it could probably work (but not under the tribes name [not that it would be since VUG owns it]). there are a couple games (Neocron & Gunz:the duel) that are similiar.
I think though when you try to make the game more epic or 'real' you have to label it RPG (whereas tribes was action : which your typical action junky doesnt want to wait around to kill things). Plus you need a dev team to keep working on it . Or, make it as a single player game with co-op play. (* i think what ppl like about MP though, is that the enemy isnt as stagnant as AI... but at the same time AI arent a bunch of d*(ks :p)
#5
All great ideas. If you were a writer I'd say your material would make for a great action novel. Making a game with the scope your talking about would be a monster though. My advise to you would be start a design doc. Iron out all the aesthetic and technical details and when you're happy with the end product hire a concept artist to develop your ideas into images. With a well-defined design doc adorned with concepts you'll be able to attract talent.
As for actually making the game I would probably start with the battelship combat. There was a guy who posted some details about writting code that allowed players to move about on a ship that was itself moving on water. I think the idea was to make the ship a container that allowed any object linked to it to move around within its boundries. I'm sure you could adapt that to a space environment.
The coolest thing I spotted in you post, Bensam, was the battleship combat. You're description immediately made me think of the old-style naval combat where ships exchanged broadsides. That type of combat opens the door to slow manuvering, because the ships are so big, but also the tactics of outmanuvering your opponent, shifting ballast and keeping your onboard systems running as long as you can during a fire-fight. Those things alone would make for a great tactical game.
03/11/2006 (5:05 am)
Don't you just love inspiration? Sounds like your muse got a hold of you and slapped you around a bit.All great ideas. If you were a writer I'd say your material would make for a great action novel. Making a game with the scope your talking about would be a monster though. My advise to you would be start a design doc. Iron out all the aesthetic and technical details and when you're happy with the end product hire a concept artist to develop your ideas into images. With a well-defined design doc adorned with concepts you'll be able to attract talent.
As for actually making the game I would probably start with the battelship combat. There was a guy who posted some details about writting code that allowed players to move about on a ship that was itself moving on water. I think the idea was to make the ship a container that allowed any object linked to it to move around within its boundries. I'm sure you could adapt that to a space environment.
The coolest thing I spotted in you post, Bensam, was the battleship combat. You're description immediately made me think of the old-style naval combat where ships exchanged broadsides. That type of combat opens the door to slow manuvering, because the ships are so big, but also the tactics of outmanuvering your opponent, shifting ballast and keeping your onboard systems running as long as you can during a fire-fight. Those things alone would make for a great tactical game.
#6
03/11/2006 (6:31 am)
It would be cool if the whole community worked on a tribes type game.
#7
03/11/2006 (7:00 am)
It would be cool if the whole community worked on a tribes type game.
#8
Yea I realize I should've organized it better but it struck me at the time they started talking about Legions so I pounded it out and hoped for the best.
I designed it with some fundamental of naval battles (I've always loved crews of sometype making large things happen, I had another idea for WW2 style squadron sim but that isn't relevent to this). There would be the occasional broadside but there would also be battles always taking place inbetween the ships as one team trys to get onboard the other, bombs the enemy ship or is out intercepting. As the bships take action to get the jump on one another, the locations of the battles always change and make for different settings. It's very dynamic so it doesn't get repetive, but the bships themselves and the idea of sitting on the ground always remains the same so it appeals to more then one type of person.
Tribes was just a example to get a standardised feel for how combat would work with this. In truth you could do this with pretty much any Sci-Fi type space shooter. It just meshes better with a Tribes-Like game. The whole reason I brought this up here though is because of the TSE/TGE (for the amazing netcode). The battles would be massive and push servers beyond what are available today. On average the would be occupied by 128/256/384 depending on limitations for 'epic' style battles. Although I have many ideas for how to scale the battles down (destroyers/frigates instead of battleships) they would be best as epic excursions.
There won't be waiting around to kill things. Battles should almost always be taking place between ships and on the ground. There is really no where else to be besides between the ships or between the bases on the ground so there really isn't waiting for anything.
"My advise to you would be start a design doc. Iron out all the aesthetic and technical details and when you're happy with the end product hire a concept artist to develop your ideas into images."
So a design doc would be all enclusive elements of a game written down?
BTW I realize this idea thread has attracted many other Ribes/Legions wishlists and I apologize for that. It wasn't my original intent but is what happened. I was just trying to field this idea and this seemed like the best place to do it.
Fun do you know what happens when the entire community works on a Tribes like game? A T:V is born and jesus cries tears of blood.
03/14/2006 (1:42 pm)
Thats better, thanks for the input. Yea I realize I should've organized it better but it struck me at the time they started talking about Legions so I pounded it out and hoped for the best.
I designed it with some fundamental of naval battles (I've always loved crews of sometype making large things happen, I had another idea for WW2 style squadron sim but that isn't relevent to this). There would be the occasional broadside but there would also be battles always taking place inbetween the ships as one team trys to get onboard the other, bombs the enemy ship or is out intercepting. As the bships take action to get the jump on one another, the locations of the battles always change and make for different settings. It's very dynamic so it doesn't get repetive, but the bships themselves and the idea of sitting on the ground always remains the same so it appeals to more then one type of person.
Tribes was just a example to get a standardised feel for how combat would work with this. In truth you could do this with pretty much any Sci-Fi type space shooter. It just meshes better with a Tribes-Like game. The whole reason I brought this up here though is because of the TSE/TGE (for the amazing netcode). The battles would be massive and push servers beyond what are available today. On average the would be occupied by 128/256/384 depending on limitations for 'epic' style battles. Although I have many ideas for how to scale the battles down (destroyers/frigates instead of battleships) they would be best as epic excursions.
There won't be waiting around to kill things. Battles should almost always be taking place between ships and on the ground. There is really no where else to be besides between the ships or between the bases on the ground so there really isn't waiting for anything.
"My advise to you would be start a design doc. Iron out all the aesthetic and technical details and when you're happy with the end product hire a concept artist to develop your ideas into images."
So a design doc would be all enclusive elements of a game written down?
BTW I realize this idea thread has attracted many other Ribes/Legions wishlists and I apologize for that. It wasn't my original intent but is what happened. I was just trying to field this idea and this seemed like the best place to do it.
Fun do you know what happens when the entire community works on a Tribes like game? A T:V is born and jesus cries tears of blood.
#9
Looks like the guys over Dynamix didn't consider using Torque to make the game at the time, even Tribes being able to do it all.
03/14/2006 (3:43 pm)
There's a Tribes Game called Tribes: the revenge, with a very cool single player story line - i had the chance to play it, and when i saw all those coll features in-game i thought: "WOW... torque scripts!!!!", but the fact is that the sequel of Tribes was coded using the UNREAL 2 engine, mixed with HAVOCK system for gravity effects...Looks like the guys over Dynamix didn't consider using Torque to make the game at the time, even Tribes being able to do it all.
#10
Random Coder: We really should use the Torque engine for this game...
Director: All our carriers would be over!
Random Coder: But all the other games in the series used it and they turned out quite well...
Director: Fine, we can use it but the blame falls on you...
Random Coder: .....
Director: I hear this Unreal thinger is somewhat like Ribes, lets use that...
Random Coder: w00t.
03/15/2006 (3:01 am)
LOL, they would be heretics. I wasn't any part of what happened but I was another one that read the story and then saw tech-support go from sweet to non-existant in a day.Random Coder: We really should use the Torque engine for this game...
Director: All our carriers would be over!
Random Coder: But all the other games in the series used it and they turned out quite well...
Director: Fine, we can use it but the blame falls on you...
Random Coder: .....
Director: I hear this Unreal thinger is somewhat like Ribes, lets use that...
Random Coder: w00t.
Bensam123
Adding the warmup gives meaning to the battle ahead, the randomly generated star/planets/anomolies will give the refreshing feel of a new battle. The battleships will represent what your tied to and give it even more meaning. The same old enemy.
The battleships should be more then just places to respawn. They also represent your lively hood, they should be designed to feel alive. Each battleship should be given a certain number of HPs (depends on the server time limit or flag cap). The main guns (different for each ship but big, cannon/lasergun/missile salvos) will be timed to fire a certain number of times each map also based on the time limit/flag cap. They will do the most damage out of anything to each ship but they're uncontrolable to players. They should act like real guns and accordingly have accuracy/damage/range. They will be designed to fire at random parts on a enemy ship. Each blast that hits will have different impacts on the ship. Gravity/space ship spawn bays/weapons systems/ground re-entry/the ability to outfit yourself at inventory stations/engines/etc. After all your on a working ship, stuff like that is bound to go wrong. The ability to repair these systems would be given to users but not to repair overall hitpoints. this makes interacting with the ship imperative to the survival of the team, it also acts to draw users to their enviroment and feel something for it.
The helm is controllable. Based on some sort of rank or first-come-first-serve. The ships will be free to fly around a huge cube shaped battlefield which doesn't just encompass space, but also extends to the surface. Ships would be unable to leave this area VIA some sort of limiter (fuel, punishment to the driver, HP deductions or just bumping into a imaginary wall). This makes manveuring your ship one of the most important aspects, it also adds the feeling that the ship is once again alive. To maintain realism each pilot would be able to crash into the other battleship, little space ships (which would just explode), manveur or even enter the planets atmosphere which if not dont correctly would cost your team its ship.
Just like RL battleships they would have intermediate systems. Gun batteries, defense systems, pretty much anything you can think of but you can't add too many or they will take away from the real aspect of the game.
The inside of each ship would be made up of key areas. Engine room, helm, a cryo bay (respawn areas), a vehicle bay, a inventory room and a ground transportation room. Systems that would get destroyed during the attack would be randomized to different parts of the ship not just one area so you have to run around (or fly) looking for the area to repair.
Operations of the ship itself would be limited to engine and helm. Cryo would be spawn with one way forcefields (to prevent rape). Inventory would be where you get out fitted.