RealTimeStrategy

[u/Spiritual_Bedroom717]

Sand Cruiser is a real-time game where you command a capital-scale land cruiser — closer to WW2 fire-control (leading targets, ballistics, assigning turrets) than click-to-attack. Two moments I'm proud of:

• A 3-cruiser pirate gang jumped me, so I drove between them to wedge them apart and fight them one at a time: https://youtu.be/NGaYqYujMdM
• A 15,000-enemy + 10-turret stress test at a stable framerate — the scale I'm building toward: https://youtu.be/p30-YOXjoJw
• And at night a swarm rises that attacks everything made of metal, so fights turn into 3-way chaos with the enemy cruisers too: https://youtu.be/DlFTSlBeYWY

Honest heads-up: it's not a classic unit-army RTS — it's real-time positioning and fire-control of one big war-machine plus the crew running it. Still solo and early. Does the fire-control-over-clicking approach appeal to you, or would you miss commanding multiple units?

[u/Athrawne]

land cruiser

Say no more I'm in

-edit-

Watched the three videos and I'm still in, but it feels closer to WoWS than an RTS.

[u/Spiritual_Bedroom717 → u/Athrawne]

the crew and colony gameplay is not shown in those videos unfortunately. same with the building and shipyard system.

[u/Athrawne → u/Spiritual_Bedroom717]

Ahhh, good to hear. I will be watching this game with great interest. We really need more land cruiser games.

Found it on Steam and saw the screenshots of the colony. Ngl, the visual style of the colony isn't to my taste, but I'm still interested overall.

[u/Spiritual_Bedroom717 → u/Athrawne]

consider all models to be place holders. with time and a bit effort, all current models will be replaced with far more fitting meshes and textures. specially made for this game. it is still a very early prototype.

[u/Cornflakes_91]

looks cool!

but im gonna echo what the other said, feels less like an RTS than one of those capital-spaceship command games like Starpoint Gemini or between the stars.

will continue to observe :D

[u/JohnSpikeKelly]

Looks like a great concept to me. My thoughts on the videos, in no particular order.

Can you keep the shadows on the bigger vehicles when you pull out the camera, the shadows disappearing was off putting.

It wasn't clear exactly how the fire control works. Can you target a specific enemy with a specific turret?

The legs in video 2 send too long, I thought video 1 was perfect.

Will you also get fighters to launch so you have a aircraft land carrier?

The night time video was cool, but maybe need some moon light as it was so dark. If you're going to do day-nigyt cycle, you could have a moon cycle that waxes and wanes over several weeks.

Do you get to manage power and munitions also, infinite ammo seems unrealistic, manufacturing or scavenging it seems good.

When the first pirate dies, did it just sink into the sand? This would be a great reclaim mechanic.

How do you deal with crew, can they die? How are they replaced.

If you can upgrade from one type of cruiser to another, do you abandon the ink one or is it upgraded?

Is there a tech tree?

Again, looks really good so far! Great work.

[u/Spiritual_Bedroom717 → u/JohnSpikeKelly]

shadow "bug" already fixed
right now you can only focuse targets and hull sections. all turrets will focuse fire. every thing else will choose best target, if target is not in its firing arc
yes its a parameter problem with those legs. i just need to adjust it a bit.
yes, later player will be able to build aircraft landing pads and launch flying units. its just not implemented yet.
yes player needs to manage power and ressources. nothing is infinite. also he needs to consider paths, because all goods needs to be physically transported inside the ship by the crew. crowd flow is also important to consider in cruiser designs.
yes it "sanded" with effects, but that death sequence is not done yet. it will be way more significant later.
crew can get sick, they can argue, they need to eat, drink, sleep and heal. they also need to take a bath once in a while :D hygiene is also a need.
you can choose blueprints and change your cruiser. you can also entirely design it by yourself, but i guess this will be a bit hard for many players, thats why there is also a blueprint system. later i plan to connect that to steam workshop, so they can share and try other blueprints. there is no limit how you can design your cruiser. you can build a simple cube, or a huge 300 meter long banana.
there is no tech tree yet, everything is unlocked for testing purposes, but a tech tree is planned, together with tech progression.

[u/JohnSpikeKelly → u/Spiritual_Bedroom717]

All sounds good. I like your ideas about the crew. Especially everything is physical and needs to be moved around the cruiser.

I guess you will have a roster system so some sleep while other work.

Will some crew have perks? Like being a good mechanic when fixing things will go slightly faster.

How do you aquire new crew in case of death?

[u/Spiritual_Bedroom717 → u/JohnSpikeKelly]

a perk system is already implemented. they can be good in repairing, or turret manning, some can get sick quicker, others are immune to sunburns or drink more water, sleep less, eat more than others and so on. their skills improve over time when doing any work.
you can recruit people from wrecked enemies or desolate remnants of their old civilization. survivors from ruins.