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[notryan]

Good evening all!

I have been wanting to make a coop FTL-like game for a while.

Upon joining the game you would select an (captain, weapons, engineer, medic, and so on) and complete your job duties. Like in FTL, I'd have the captain jump to sectors and there would be events that would occur.

What has prohibited me from making this game is my inability to come up "fun tasks" for all other occupations. Sure, the goal is to keep the crew and ship alive and running. Weapons could yell at the Engineers and advise them to divert power from one system to their weapons. Mechanics could repair breaches/systems. Medics would heal the injured. But I am having a difficult time coming up with enough content for the various occupations aboard the spaceship.

I'm looking to get thoughts from those who have always wanted to play a coop spaceship management game. What would you like to do aboard the ship? Are there occupations that are a must?

[zombieonion]

-Inter-species romance options
-HR management: your military guys are not cooperating with your civilian guys too well.
-Holodeck episode

[krajzeg]

Maybe consider not forcing it? Concentrate on the occupations that are fun: the gunner who has to arm, aim and babysit the weapons, the mechanic who has to put out fires, close hull breaches and rewire half blown-up machinery, not the guy in charge of tuning the food replicators to make Earl Grey tea exactly 55 degrees C.

One thing that'll be hard with this idea is keeping the game mechanics tight enough so that the roles are not completely different mini-games asking for different skills - it's no good stitching five different games together.

One way to make it all connect would be making each role a kind of mini-FTL game: when you zoom in on the medbay, it's no longer one system, but five different ones, and as the medical officer you have to juggle them properly to heal different injuries, stabilise patients, etc. The gunner would likewise babysit each weapon separately, and they could have different "stages" required to use them depending on the type (arming, loading, locking target, etc.). Engineers would juggle their various subsystems to maintain consistent power output despite damage, and be the ones that actually redirect power when captain orders it.

Anyway, good luck! Not an easy game to make, but potentially a very cool one.