Captain Forever

checkers · 09-07-2009, 04:41 AM

I found Captain Forever, by Farbs via 2d-boy. Because I'm a sucker for indie space games, I brought it.

Basically you play as a spaceship in a universe where 50% of the enemies are trying to kill you (the other 50% ignore you and drive around doing nothing), and you have to kill them first. Do you remember Flow? Like that, but less nice hand holding, and in space.

There are three building blocks: engine, block and gun:

You use these to construct your ship (drag & drop)

And then you kill stuff:

More construction.

After a few kills:

And a few more (death spitting badass yeehaw).

But there's always something that will beat the crap out of you:

The tech is somewhat interesting. In case you haven't figured it out yet, it's a flash game.
There's basic physics (mass, velocity, and simple thrust), which fit together well and doesn't do anything too silly.
AI ships are randomly built, but always seem reasonably sane. You see everything from fat trading blobs to bird-of-prey assault ships.
If you have a webcam if overlays a low res super-dull 'reflection' which is unique (and an annoying gimmick the second time onwards).

It's pretty unfinished now: the AI does nothing but fly towards you and kill you (some of them ignore you though (but if an enemy ship is shot by another enemy they attack you, which is mean!)), not many features and pretty grindy after the first 10 minutes or so, but there's definite promise. Like Ron, I have spent a happy few hours flying around amassing laser batteries and thruster grids.

VERDICT: You should buy this game to increase the chances my US$15 was not wasted. If you're a day trader you could consider this purchase an 'investment', otherwise the miniscule savings you get purchasing pre-launch shouldn't be a rational temptation at all. But did I mention this is an indie space game?

PS: stupid 4 image per post limit.

McKertis · 09-07-2009, 05:06 AM

So you cant play the game, there is no demo, there is no gameplay video, and he wants 15$, is that right or did i miss something ?

FoRmaT · 09-07-2009, 05:36 AM

You missed the part where the game's programmer yells "HA HA!" at you.

Jason Lutes · 09-07-2009, 05:39 AM

Looks neat. The ship modules remind me of the ones in in Galaxy Trucker:

checkers · 09-07-2009, 05:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by McKertis

So you cant play the game, there is no demo, there is no gameplay video, and he wants 15$, is that right or did i miss something ?

It's sure playable, it's just that what you get is more like "flash game" than "game". It's on the level of what is given for free on Kongregate for ad dollars. Here's hoping that changes!

Marcin · 09-10-2009, 04:41 PM

It was the presentation that pulled me in. That and the ASCII ship export ability.

I'm kinda impressed by the physics. You can build a totally lopsided ship, but if you balance the other side with heavier modules and place thrusters logically, it'll still work. I made a ship that makes me think of the Minmatar because I had 3 unequal thrusters and an assortment of light and heavy boxes.

Frumple · 09-10-2009, 09:40 PM

Yeah, me too! To me the concept was so well executed that I gladly paid the 15 bucks.

As a game it's a bit sparse but I love how the progression mechanic and the "ship building" are integrated together. He could do alot with that.

Marcin · 09-14-2009, 07:53 PM

I'd just like to say that I spent a ridiculous amount of time with this so far, and am a bit surprised at the lack of uptake at QT3. Yeah, it's in Flash, but it's got more things going for it than, say, any of Blurst's (of Velociraptor Safari fame) offerings. I mean, it's like Nethack + EVE! Sort of. :P

If you have any sweet ship designs, feel free to upload them here (one of my cow orkers made this). Kinda like Gratuitous Ship Battles' challenges, this lets you see how far you could get with someone else's ship design - but it also lets you build on the existing scaffolding. The 3 most recent uploads (27,28,29) are mine. I call the most recent one .... the scooper ^_^ Great for hit 'n run!

Kael · 09-14-2009, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marcin

It was the presentation that pulled me in. That and the ASCII ship export ability.

I'm kinda impressed by the physics. You can build a totally lopsided ship, but if you balance the other side with heavier modules and place thrusters logically, it'll still work. I made a ship that makes me think of the Minmatar because I had 3 unequal thrusters and an assortment of light and heavy boxes.

Why would having a lopsided ship matter in space?

Marcin · 09-14-2009, 08:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kael

Why would having a lopsided ship matter in space?

Because oddly enough, mass is mass. ;)

Marcin · 11-20-2009, 09:24 AM

This is now free, with Capt. Successor, the sequel, open to subscribers.

Links!

checkers · 11-20-2009, 09:30 AM

Jesus fuck CS is hard. I can't get anything bigger than a 5 unit charlie level ship. Anyone had more luck?

Foxstab · 11-20-2009, 09:42 AM

Very much enjoying it so far. Challenging, too.

The feature I like most about it is that I can reconfigure my entire ship's shape and turret-positioning in real time mid-combat!
I can run from an enemy, reattached my turrets backwards, and lob fire.

This is rather awesome. The retro style of menu and so on is really nice touch (may even be obligatory given limited production resources, but still nice).

Captain's Log, supplemental: it has a hostility meter for the different factions (block colour) and your reputation with them. Blow more of X ships, get in trouble with X.
And another strategic aspect is that weapons of certain colours can shoot through blocks of certain colours, but their shots will impact against blocks of different colours.
So you can't just mount any weapon you want anywhere you want facing any direction you want. You need to think it through.

Foxstab · 11-20-2009, 10:45 AM

Damn, this game is hard!

flyinj · 11-20-2009, 11:33 AM

is there any way to heal yourself?

Foxstab · 11-21-2009, 07:25 AM

The most problem I've found is that it's very hard to find a corner of space to sit in and reconfigure yourself. There's hardly any leisure time. Vastly lacking/requiring a Safe Haven Depot.

I really love the physics, though.
Having to work a ship design that actually WORKS, can't just toss thrusters everywhere, guns everywhere and then pray to god.
And how every brick has its own HP, mass and power.

I really wish this was client based with saveable positions et cetera.
It'd be a lot of fun Online vs others.

At any rate,
I've put together with my 1337 MS paintbrush skills a little composite of my last couple hours in the game.
My advice: If you meet any golf or hotel guys, turn tail and GET THE HELL OUTTA OF THERE!

Foxstab · 11-21-2009, 11:12 AM

Managed to maneuver two blue golf/foxtrot guys to shoot each other off, snagged a blue laser out of one of them and put it on top of my ship. Then managed to find a ship a minute later which was constructed in such a manner, it had very little propulsion and maneuverability, it also had its core between wings in a very exposed place.
So I maneuvered in, immobilized it, and blasted it in the soft-spot to bits.

You can actually still see how it was structured.
Unfortunately, my new-found ship lasted about the whole of one minute and twenty seconds, as I did not have time to properly complete the design, lacked severely on thrusters, could not maneuver out of danger and all the hard work went to hell.

But hey, I made it to India difficulty level! (and boy, did it sure hurt!)
I died in a very funny manner. My ship got blown up, I was reduced to one blue laser and one blue thruster, with my heart-core in the middle.
Just as I begun sprinting at REALLY HIGH SONIC VELOCITY (it went ZOOM) I had the misfortune of crossing paths with an india laser, and that was the last of it.

RSofaer · 11-21-2009, 12:04 PM

This seems to be free now. I'm assembling a foxtrot level ship, avoiding putting any golf or hotel parts on, because I'm pretty sure that's what increases the difficulty.

Foxstab · 11-21-2009, 01:16 PM

Maybe it does too...but what I know for certain is that if ANY ship above your level dies (by your hands or by fire from other ships) then the difficulty is revved up.

RSofaer · 11-22-2009, 06:33 AM

Well, I bought Captain Successor, which is pretty awesome and much more varied. It gives it more of a roguelike feel, because you're finding more things than just lasers, boosters, and the occasional prismatic laser. There are shield, LR lasers, boosters that turn, boosters that are huge, girders that are huge, ramming spikes, all kinds of stuff.

Foxstab · 11-22-2009, 07:52 AM

If Battleships forever had a skirmish mode that allowed you to ransack enemies and attach what you take from them it'd be sweet.

Oh, by the way, I just defeated the game, so to speak.
I killed a Kilo-type at the "?????" difficulty level. Boy, those things are MURDER.
After that, the kilo core goes to the center of the screen and explodes in a prismatic fashion...which does jack shit for you, rally. You then get to have free-roam of sorts where all kinds of ships are released in at random, seemingly, and no more buoys or levels.

RSofaer · 11-22-2009, 07:56 AM

Wow, nice job, I pretty much always die on India.

Foxstab · 11-22-2009, 10:48 AM

Just be a lamer and help them bastards frag themselves, then help yourself to the loot left behind.

Once you make a ship out of Kilo class objects you're pretty much dominating, provided that you know how to construct your vessel well enough.

Here's a small ship of mine that I didn't get the time to sort up properly before a bunch of Indias moved on my butt and fragged me off, so you'll need to arrange the boosters and weapons to make it work properly. I'd propose you move the middle booster to the opposite far end at the left. Then plug the laser at the far right in the middle bottom for rear cover (which, honestly, is almost never of use in the game). Your maneuverability will be limited. You'll rotate very fast when you're idle, but when thrusting you'll be very stiff.
But otherwise it'll give you an excellent starting position to build from. You can even destroy those two annoying buoys with a single hit for target practice (yep, you're that powerful now).
Just tap the url and it should give you the ship instead of the useless one you begin with.
http://www.captainforever.com/captai...inbc4fhne0uuht

Marcin · 11-22-2009, 01:11 PM

A friend of mine threw together a quick ship database; you can upload and play right from there as well:

Capt Forever Ship Archive

He'll probably have one for Capt Successor soon, too. :)

Foxstab · 11-22-2009, 01:13 PM

Well this is nice...been experimenting around and found out that:

Changing this

http://www.captainforever.com/captainforever.php?cfe=nqlbqbnbnagfnxnrun4xknn2pcmlbonathixwtouq0wc

to this

http://www.captainforever.com/captainforever.php?cfe=nqlbq6nagfnxnrun4xknn2pcmlbonathixwtouq0wc

produces you an uber spread laser that you can rape the entire game with.

Just relocate it to a more fitting position and let her rip.

XD

RSofaer · 11-22-2009, 01:35 PM

I just had a game where I rocked a Juliet, started assembling my Juliet ship, and got just destroyed by a kilo level ownage machine. It was pretty awesome.

EDIT: Heh, that's an impossible ship you made up there, Foxstab!

Foxstab · 11-22-2009, 01:41 PM

I screwed with the url trying to figure out the codex and got this.

Just break it apart and rebuild it. An alpha grider each side, above each attach a booster for improved maneuverability and the spread laser remount on top of the core.

That thing can blow up ANYTHING in the game. It has immense damage and the longest range (just a tad bit longer than a Kilo blaster). So just aim and hit spacebar. Once you get to go vs Kilos you can use it to frag them and assemble yourself a real entire ship of doom.

09-07-2009, 04:41 AM	#1
checkers Mad Chester Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Melbourne, AU Posts: 1,149	Captain Forever I found Captain Forever, by Farbs via 2d-boy. Because I'm a sucker for indie space games, I brought it. Basically you play as a spaceship in a universe where 50% of the enemies are trying to kill you (the other 50% ignore you and drive around doing nothing), and you have to kill them first. Do you remember Flow? Like that, but less nice hand holding, and in space. There are three building blocks: engine, block and gun: You use these to construct your ship (drag & drop) And then you kill stuff: More construction. After a few kills: And a few more (death spitting badass yeehaw). But there's always something that will beat the crap out of you: The tech is somewhat interesting. In case you haven't figured it out yet, it's a flash game. There's basic physics (mass, velocity, and simple thrust), which fit together well and doesn't do anything too silly. AI ships are randomly built, but always seem reasonably sane. You see everything from fat trading blobs to bird-of-prey assault ships. If you have a webcam if overlays a low res super-dull 'reflection' which is unique (and an annoying gimmick the second time onwards). It's pretty unfinished now: the AI does nothing but fly towards you and kill you (some of them ignore you though (but if an enemy ship is shot by another enemy they attack you, which is mean!)), not many features and pretty grindy after the first 10 minutes or so, but there's definite promise. Like Ron, I have spent a happy few hours flying around amassing laser batteries and thruster grids. VERDICT: You should buy this game to increase the chances my US$15 was not wasted. If you're a day trader you could consider this purchase an 'investment', otherwise the miniscule savings you get purchasing pre-launch shouldn't be a rational temptation at all. But did I mention this is an indie space game? PS: stupid 4 image per post limit.

11-20-2009, 09:42 AM	#13
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	Very much enjoying it so far. Challenging, too. The feature I like most about it is that I can reconfigure my entire ship's shape and turret-positioning in real time mid-combat! I can run from an enemy, reattached my turrets backwards, and lob fire. This is rather awesome. The retro style of menu and so on is really nice touch (may even be obligatory given limited production resources, but still nice). Captain's Log, supplemental: it has a hostility meter for the different factions (block colour) and your reputation with them. Blow more of X ships, get in trouble with X. And another strategic aspect is that weapons of certain colours can shoot through blocks of certain colours, but their shots will impact against blocks of different colours. So you can't just mount any weapon you want anywhere you want facing any direction you want. You need to think it through. Last edited by Foxstab; 11-20-2009 at 10:10 AM..

11-21-2009, 07:25 AM	#16
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	The most problem I've found is that it's very hard to find a corner of space to sit in and reconfigure yourself. There's hardly any leisure time. Vastly lacking/requiring a Safe Haven Depot. I really love the physics, though. Having to work a ship design that actually WORKS, can't just toss thrusters everywhere, guns everywhere and then pray to god. And how every brick has its own HP, mass and power. I really wish this was client based with saveable positions et cetera. It'd be a lot of fun Online vs others. At any rate, I've put together with my 1337 MS paintbrush skills a little composite of my last couple hours in the game. My advice: If you meet any golf or hotel guys, turn tail and GET THE HELL OUTTA OF THERE! Last edited by Foxstab; 11-21-2009 at 07:48 AM..

11-22-2009, 10:48 AM	#23
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	Just be a lamer and help them bastards frag themselves, then help yourself to the loot left behind. Once you make a ship out of Kilo class objects you're pretty much dominating, provided that you know how to construct your vessel well enough. Here's a small ship of mine that I didn't get the time to sort up properly before a bunch of Indias moved on my butt and fragged me off, so you'll need to arrange the boosters and weapons to make it work properly. I'd propose you move the middle booster to the opposite far end at the left. Then plug the laser at the far right in the middle bottom for rear cover (which, honestly, is almost never of use in the game). Your maneuverability will be limited. You'll rotate very fast when you're idle, but when thrusting you'll be very stiff. But otherwise it'll give you an excellent starting position to build from. You can even destroy those two annoying buoys with a single hit for target practice (yep, you're that powerful now). Just tap the url and it should give you the ship instead of the useless one you begin with. http://www.captainforever.com/captai...inbc4fhne0uuht Last edited by Foxstab; 11-22-2009 at 11:00 AM..

09-07-2009, 05:06 AM	#2
McKertis Goodluck!! Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 112	So you cant play the game, there is no demo, there is no gameplay video, and he wants 15$, is that right or did i miss something ?

09-07-2009, 05:36 AM	#3
FoRmaT Social Worker Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: I don't know where my soul is , I don't know where my home is Posts: 2,070	You missed the part where the game's programmer yells "HA HA!" at you.

09-07-2009, 05:39 AM	#4
Jason Lutes Social Worker Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Woodstock, VT Posts: 3,239	Looks neat. The ship modules remind me of the ones in in Galaxy Trucker:

09-10-2009, 04:41 PM	#6
Marcin Social Worker Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: XLive: Qorgyle; PS3: Comfy_Pants; Loc: Portland OR Posts: 3,680	It was the presentation that pulled me in. That and the ASCII ship export ability. I'm kinda impressed by the physics. You can build a totally lopsided ship, but if you balance the other side with heavier modules and place thrusters logically, it'll still work. I made a ship that makes me think of the Minmatar because I had 3 unequal thrusters and an assortment of light and heavy boxes.

09-10-2009, 09:40 PM	#7
Frumple Broad Band Join Date: May 2003 Location: Gamertag:Dethmuffin Posts: 161	Yeah, me too! To me the concept was so well executed that I gladly paid the 15 bucks. As a game it's a bit sparse but I love how the progression mechanic and the "ship building" are integrated together. He could do alot with that.

09-14-2009, 07:53 PM	#8
Marcin Social Worker Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: XLive: Qorgyle; PS3: Comfy_Pants; Loc: Portland OR Posts: 3,680	I'd just like to say that I spent a ridiculous amount of time with this so far, and am a bit surprised at the lack of uptake at QT3. Yeah, it's in Flash, but it's got more things going for it than, say, any of Blurst's (of Velociraptor Safari fame) offerings. I mean, it's like Nethack + EVE! Sort of. :P If you have any sweet ship designs, feel free to upload them here (one of my cow orkers made this). Kinda like Gratuitous Ship Battles' challenges, this lets you see how far you could get with someone else's ship design - but it also lets you build on the existing scaffolding. The 3 most recent uploads (27,28,29) are mine. I call the most recent one .... the scooper ^_^ Great for hit 'n run!

11-20-2009, 09:24 AM	#11
Marcin Social Worker Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: XLive: Qorgyle; PS3: Comfy_Pants; Loc: Portland OR Posts: 3,680	This is now free, with Capt. Successor, the sequel, open to subscribers. Links!

11-20-2009, 09:30 AM	#12
checkers Mad Chester Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Melbourne, AU Posts: 1,149	Jesus fuck CS is hard. I can't get anything bigger than a 5 unit charlie level ship. Anyone had more luck?

11-20-2009, 10:45 AM	#14
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	Damn, this game is hard!

11-20-2009, 11:33 AM	#15
flyinj Social Worker Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 4,373	is there any way to heal yourself?

11-21-2009, 11:12 AM	#17
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	Managed to maneuver two blue golf/foxtrot guys to shoot each other off, snagged a blue laser out of one of them and put it on top of my ship. Then managed to find a ship a minute later which was constructed in such a manner, it had very little propulsion and maneuverability, it also had its core between wings in a very exposed place. So I maneuvered in, immobilized it, and blasted it in the soft-spot to bits. You can actually still see how it was structured. Unfortunately, my new-found ship lasted about the whole of one minute and twenty seconds, as I did not have time to properly complete the design, lacked severely on thrusters, could not maneuver out of danger and all the hard work went to hell. But hey, I made it to India difficulty level! (and boy, did it sure hurt!) I died in a very funny manner. My ship got blown up, I was reduced to one blue laser and one blue thruster, with my heart-core in the middle. Just as I begun sprinting at REALLY HIGH SONIC VELOCITY (it went ZOOM) I had the misfortune of crossing paths with an india laser, and that was the last of it.

11-21-2009, 12:04 PM	#18
RSofaer Spinning Toe Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The tallest of all villages. Posts: 848	This seems to be free now. I'm assembling a foxtrot level ship, avoiding putting any golf or hotel parts on, because I'm pretty sure that's what increases the difficulty.

11-21-2009, 01:16 PM	#19
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	Maybe it does too...but what I know for certain is that if ANY ship above your level dies (by your hands or by fire from other ships) then the difficulty is revved up.

11-22-2009, 06:33 AM	#20
RSofaer Spinning Toe Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The tallest of all villages. Posts: 848	Well, I bought Captain Successor, which is pretty awesome and much more varied. It gives it more of a roguelike feel, because you're finding more things than just lasers, boosters, and the occasional prismatic laser. There are shield, LR lasers, boosters that turn, boosters that are huge, girders that are huge, ramming spikes, all kinds of stuff.

11-22-2009, 07:52 AM	#21
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	If Battleships forever had a skirmish mode that allowed you to ransack enemies and attach what you take from them it'd be sweet. Oh, by the way, I just defeated the game, so to speak. I killed a Kilo-type at the "?????" difficulty level. Boy, those things are MURDER. After that, the kilo core goes to the center of the screen and explodes in a prismatic fashion...which does jack shit for you, rally. You then get to have free-roam of sorts where all kinds of ships are released in at random, seemingly, and no more buoys or levels.

11-22-2009, 07:56 AM	#22
RSofaer Spinning Toe Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The tallest of all villages. Posts: 848	Wow, nice job, I pretty much always die on India.

11-22-2009, 01:11 PM	#24
Marcin Social Worker Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: XLive: Qorgyle; PS3: Comfy_Pants; Loc: Portland OR Posts: 3,680	A friend of mine threw together a quick ship database; you can upload and play right from there as well: Capt Forever Ship Archive He'll probably have one for Capt Successor soon, too. :)

11-22-2009, 01:13 PM	#25
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	Well this is nice...been experimenting around and found out that: Changing this http://www.captainforever.com/captainforever.php?cfe=nqlbqbnbnagfnxnrun4xknn2pcmlbonathixwtouq0wc to this http://www.captainforever.com/captainforever.php?cfe=nqlbq6nagfnxnrun4xknn2pcmlbonathixwtouq0wc produces you an uber spread laser that you can rape the entire game with. Just relocate it to a more fitting position and let her rip. XD

11-22-2009, 01:35 PM	#26
RSofaer Spinning Toe Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: The tallest of all villages. Posts: 848	I just had a game where I rocked a Juliet, started assembling my Juliet ship, and got just destroyed by a kilo level ownage machine. It was pretty awesome. EDIT: Heh, that's an impossible ship you made up there, Foxstab!

11-22-2009, 01:41 PM	#27
Foxstab Neo Acoustic Join Date: Oct 2005 Posts: 1,900	I screwed with the url trying to figure out the codex and got this. Just break it apart and rebuild it. An alpha grider each side, above each attach a booster for improved maneuverability and the spread laser remount on top of the core. That thing can blow up ANYTHING in the game. It has immense damage and the longest range (just a tad bit longer than a Kilo blaster). So just aim and hit spacebar. Once you get to go vs Kilos you can use it to frag them and assemble yourself a real entire ship of doom.

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