Strata Nova

[iWasAdam]

This is a concept fork of Derrons' game 'Genus Prime'

What I liked the general concept of the strategy, the planets, etc and being able to send out things that you had no control over.

So here is a sort of thought-spam reworking looking at different aspects. feel free to comment, suggest, etc. the look it very basic as it is the game I would like to focus on.
So here is the first image


the big yellow thing is the sun - which always sits at the center.
the yellow marks are the population - this automatically increases
the wide grey outline is the limit of travel

I've removed the multiple selection, as it sort of complicates things. but in essence each planet has 4 core things: food, power, research, travel plus population

the population has a max, and wont grow beyond the max. my thought here was when the max was reached you then have a point/s you can add to one of the core things.

So the first step would be to pick your 'home planet'

[Derron]

if the population reaches max - and you gain a "point to spent" you have to consider the amount of population to "cut".
If you cut too few, a big planet (with big population max) will give you point after point (as it wont get conquered too fast).

I had "food" (or some kind of directly-required-by-population-thing too). So my thoughts on this: food defines how "wealthy" the population is. Once the food is not enough (empty - eg the population eats every X cycles/seconds) the people starve. Starving means: population decreases, loyality decreases and with loyalty decrease eg the "planetary defense" wont eg. refill slower / shoot less often / ...
So satisfying your population results in a higher moral, better fertility (starving people give a f*** to f***), better defense, ...
Also Research Point generation can be directly connected to the populations loyality (or "happiness"). In Genus Prime I planned a bit to have the RP production be connected to "free" population units. So if you have eg. 20 missile slots then only the "population - 20" amount of people can do research. This adds to every other "job" people on a planet could have.

But bare in mind that this adds kind of complexity which does not fit to a more or less fast paced "action strategy game". This is more for the "tinker, optimize, plan ahead, ..." type of games.

Same for upgraded ships (transporters, destroyers, ...).


PS: As I did not have the time to add asteroids or other "interstellar objects": hope you add such accidental events (asteroids striving planets to destroy them, decrease population - or at least move their position a bit).


PPS: I just had another cool idea - dunno how to implement it "control" wise - but it might be interesting if the planets actually rotate around the sun. This can be done in a slow paced way so that a mouse user still can easily catch up.
So why to do such a thing? Imagine that some planets rotate faster than others around the sun (really?!!?). This means that some planet's distances to other planets differs - and so sometimes a planet is in ship reach, and sometimes not.
This could add another strategy element.


bye
Ron

[iWasAdam]

food linked to population growth - good thought

I know that the 4 bases covered everything, but I just wasn't sure how it would all fit together...

[iWasAdam]

yep, this sort of idea:

[Derron]

Overlapping planets (see orange and gray) might result in selection issues (if bigger planet is on top). So maybe keep it "top down" and the distance big enough to never collide ?

Exception is if it becomes a 3D game.


bye
Ron

[Derron]

Just another small idea to throw in: moons and belts/rings.

Moons could also orbit (non selectable) around planets and contain planetary defense. o
Or they indicate a higher ship range (the moon is used for the slingshot effect or so?)

Belts could increase production of something (so more an "indicator").


They are only basic ideas and maybe they already increase complexity/variety too much. Just wanted to do a bit brainstorming ;-)


bye
Ron

[iWasAdam]

the moons idea is very interesting - but I think that is getting just a bit more complex at this stage.

selection is not an issue. it seems to work very well.

I've now added planets that are within travel distance:


as planets move, these lines appear when in proximity. Of course the planets are all moving, so you will have to make adjustments.

[Xerra]

Really curious to see where you guys end up going with this. Derrons game took a couple of go's to work out what I was doing when I first got it going but, once you get it, it's a really clever game. Considering it's only a small project it will be interesting to see a bigger game design based on it.

[Derron]

@Xerra
You needed multiple games to gasp what you need to do? Thats what I meant with being "blind" as developer - you think everything is self-explanatory by just looking at it. One of the reasons why I started to add tooltips to icons in TVTower. Think other parts in a game should receive some kind of "quick help" system too. Hit "F1" and the game stops + some tooltips to areas appear to explain what is there and what can you do with it. Hit F1 again and the help is gone + the game resumed.

Also interesting is, that in the "crash video" of Qube it already looked as if he was pretty used to this gameplay + controls. Looked very experienced.

Already am excited to get your feedback (and maybe also some of the others). Of course I would like to read that you (and others) liked it - as creating something which is enjoyed by others is a pretty cool reward for me as developer.


@ Strata
We - or most probably _I_ - should not push too many new ideas towards IWasAdam as the prototype might else do not longer _evolve_ but _mutate into something which Adam then no longer wants to develop further.
Seems at least as if he settled already to the scifi-theme with planets.

Some talk here already made me fill an old envelope (free paper notes ;-)) with sketches and rough ideas for an fantasy/medieval trading sim utilizing this "send and no further control" principle.


bye
Ron

[iWasAdam]

Second bit of the ui being worked on, this replicates the planet population, so at a glance you know what is going on.

When the population if 'full', then research can start and research points will appear. You can spend research points increase the 4 main blocks: food, power, research, travel (i'll do this bit next)

[3DzForMe]

.   Already am excited to get your feedback (and maybe also some of the others). Of course I would like to read that you (and others) liked it - as creating something which is enjoyed by others is a pretty cool reward for me as developer.     

I was intrigued and amazed at the gameplay after sending stuff out from your planets that you'd no control over. The shear fluidity of the gameplay hit me straight away and has defo got legs.

Being a fan of homeworld and the like this game stands out for uniqueness that grabs you from the off.

Testament to it is Iwasadam moving the idea forwards already....kool and the gang!

[iWasAdam]

agreed.
What I am finding is relating everything to everything else. so research is related to population and food and... etc

There is a time/strategy element as the planets rotate, so you will need to decide how you build up 4 core things. then decide how to use them.

I'm trying to do a bit of balancing as I go. And also looking at how systems with little travel would work. In that respect you would need to do research to enable travel

I'm using travel as a word to get from one place to another - this could be trade, or conquest, or raiding, or attack - not thought too hard on that one

[iWasAdam]

Some initial testing is working well.

My thoughts now turn to travel.
to travel you need a ship, a ship is constructed from research points, and lets compress things to (sortof):
2 = freighter
3 = shortrange fighter
5 = longrange fighter
10 = cruiser with 3 shortrange fighters

[Derron]

so you plan to either:
- set a production type which is produced until you select another one

or
- have to select a planet
- click on a button to produce a certain ship
- (fleet builts up without target)
- select a target to start the fleet maneuvre
?


bye
Ron

[iWasAdam]

yep, it's per planet 

so 'currently' you select a planet, allocate research points, etc

in general operation you leave the planets to themselves as you are dealing with 'your' planet. Thus research points build up.
One a certain level of points has been reached, the planet will begin to allocate them itself - not yet written

I've now added the ability to set a homeworld (once 5 research points have amassed)


in this case the planet Ver has been made the homeworld - the planet gets an icon and the text underneath it