Game Idea For Shrapnel

[Atrocities]

RTS 4x Earth Based Conquest Game.

I have played nearly every RTS Earth combat game out, and what I have discovered is that I don’t really like them. What I want in a game about Earth is what I get in SEIV. To that end, I have looked for games that would provide it and have to find one. Most deal with unit combat over a small area.

The Civ series are good game, but they lack the game features and feel that I want.

The closes I have come to finding what I wanted were Axis & Allies and Risk both by Microprose. But those games were so limited in their scope and scale that they weren’t a real games at all, but more of a short-term hour-long game.

What I would love to see, and if possible, is a 4x game such as SEIV mixed together with a game like Axis & Allies. So in other words, its a game with about 20 opponent located around the world (Earth) who build up armies, fleets, aircraft, and infrastructure much the same way that it is done in SEIV except that it is based on Earth. They expand their influence by exploring the globe and exploiting the natural resources. They can wage war and exterminate their enemies or make alliance. Build cities (much like planets) and develop them by building facilities and infrastructure.

Basically put a World Conquest game that incorporates all the features of 4x gaming.

[Atilla the Pun]

Check out Civilizaition:Called to Power from Activision. It should be in the bargin bin if you can find it at all. It's as programable as SEIV (from what I know of SEIV). Called to Power 2 is also as programmable but may not support multiplayer as well as the first one.

Check the Apolyton Civilization Site (http://apolyton.net/forums) CTP and CTP2 forums for more info.

AtP

[capnq]

Just to save people a little search time, the title is Civilization: Call to Power.

[Gillissie]

Atrocities,

I have also dreamed of such a game, and have considered making it myself. As a matter of fact, I once did on my Amiga years ago, but it was all text-based. But the ideas were all there. Civ 3 was close, but still very primitive considering the source.

[Atrocities]

Caqnq you miss the point. The civ series do not offer the kind of game play that I am talking about. Go play Axis and Allies the imagine that game on a grand scale such as SEIV with more types of Ships, tanks, troops, facilities, etc.

[Jmenschenfresser]

Back when I was in high school, I made a boardgame from scratch just on this subject. Had lots of units...they weren't customizable in the SE4 sense, but anything could be added. Cities, factories, etc etc.

Even made a board that was 120x120. Took forever to color in.

And after all that work, I never even played it once, as I knew of no one with the same interests in strategy gaming.

I'd also like to see such a game, Atrocities. I'd even like to see a hybrid of SE4 type and what are proposing. Ah well...

[Atrocities]

Ya know, its the game we maved and never played that eat at us. I developed two games, one a RPG Forum game. The other was an RPG World conquest game. Neither ever were played yet they could have been.

If I could program, and had the time and interest to stay with such a project, I would have 3 games that would be made.

You know all the Dungen games and such? Well update them to modern times. Keep the RPG as quests and such, but the players get weapons such as M-16, Colt 45's, etc.

I could not think of anything more fun than to have 6 people in my party walking through a dungen wasting a bunch of dead beat dead guys with sords. LOL.. Seriously, most of the UNIT games that are out are RTS and not RPG. The market his whole un-tapped right now.

[capnq]

Caqnq you miss the point <font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No, you missed mine. I wasn't commenting on your idea at all; I was just correcting the error in AtP's recommendation, in case anyone else wants to check C:CtP out.

[Atilla the Pun]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
Caqnq you miss the point. The civ series do not offer the kind of game play that I am talking about. Go play Axis and Allies the imagine that game on a grand scale such as SEIV with more types of Ships, tanks, troops, facilities, etc.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Cap'nQ was kind enough to point out my misnaming of the game. The game Civilization:Call to Power, and it's sequel Call to Power 2 are both Civ-like games that are as moddable (is that a word?) as SEIV. Since I have recently seen CTP2 at Sam's Club for $9.95 US I would highly recommend getting it. If you don't like (even after d/l'ing the excellent mods from the Apolyton site and/or learning the scripting language (SLIC) and making your own mods) you're still out less than $10. And I'd be willing to bet you'll get more fun out of that $10 than you got out of the $50 you spent on Civ3.

Edit: Note to self, learn to spell...

[ May 31, 2002, 05:50: Message edited by: Atilla the Pun ]

[Atilla the Pun]

Atrocities,
You might also want to check out Clash of Civilizations, a freelance project currently under development. The BBS for CoC (http://apolyton.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&forumid=32&x=9&y=10) is on Apolyton and they'll have links to the CoC Web page. There is a demo, it requires the Java Runtime Engine (JRE) from Sun. They have a link on the CoC page to that as well. This is NOT just another Civ clone.

AtP

[Instar]

What I want would be a world domination game too... but make sure there are nukes involved... lots and lots of nukes, like cold war stuff... mmmm
nukes

[Atilla the Pun]

Here (http://cullivan.com/coc/frame/index.shtml) is the Web page for Clash of Civilizations.

AtP

[Gillissie]

I just tried the demo for a game called "SuperPower". It's very impressive, and may be very close to what Atrocities is seeking. For me, though, there is too much micro-management.

Oh yeah, for InStar, there are nukes!

The developer's site is www.golemlabs.com (http://www.golemlabs.com)

[ May 24, 2002, 07:00: Message edited by: Gillissie ]

[Mephisto]

BUt I heard the AI is quite lacking. Here is an articel about it:

http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/zones/reviews/pc/apr02/superpower.html

And for our Space Horse fans http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif :
http://www.gamesdomain.com/gdreview/depart/may02/strategy1.html

[Richard]

Thanks for the link there on Space HoRSE http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif .

Yeah I know the guys who did SuperPower from when it was called Defcon for many years. I even talked to those guys about publishing but they wanted retail, unfourtanetly I doubt they make any money now. To be honest Dreamcatcher did themselves, and GolemLabs, a disservice by letting the game go out in it's current state. A publishers job is to make sure a game is READY to go into the public, not to sign a deal and then rush it out. We're a small indie and we require AT LEAST a month of hard core QA from our own testers before we let a game out into public consumption, that obviously wasn't done here. it's a shame because the concept is promising.

BTW how serious are these Civilization folks? This is a hobby project right?

[Nebraskan]

Originally posted by Atrocities:
RTS 4x Earth Based Conquest Game.
What I would love to see, and if possible, is a 4x game such as SEIV mixed together with a game like Axis & Allies. So in other words, its a game with about 20 opponent located around the world (Earth) who build up armies, fleets, aircraft, and infrastructure much the same way that it is done in SEIV except that it is based on Earth. They expand their influence by exploring the globe and exploiting the natural resources. They can wage war and exterminate their enemies or make alliance. Build cities (much like planets) and develop them by building facilities and infrastructure.

Basically put a World Conquest game that incorporates all the features of 4x gaming.<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Atrocities, I play a game that is like what you describe but not RTS. It is a TBS game called Imperialism 2. It is also only single player and takes place between 1500 and 1900 on Earth, sorry no nukes.

[Instar]

Well, I read in PCGamer that Superpower was sucky... otherwise I would buy it
nukes are the most fun if you ask me... few games have them
Napalm is a rare find in games too... too much 'Nam connection though. To many sensibilities offended.

[tesco samoa]

I played that imperialism 2 game.

I did not like it.

Mind you i am not a fan of civ type games.

[Richard]

Imp and Imp 2 are liked sugar coated crack flakes to me http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif . Those are two of my favorite games.

[tesco samoa]

I don't know why I never liked those types of games?

Guess I like space games or something.

Also war games.

I Own both of the games. They just sit there.

I tried and tried to play them but I just did not like them.

[Taz-in-Space]

Just checked out the superpower site. While the game sounds interesting, a 122Mb download on a 56K Modem is not in the cards for me! Especially one that only gives you 20 turns. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[Atilla the Pun]

Originally posted by Richard:
BTW how serious are these Civilization folks? This is a hobby project right?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Serious? Yeah, I think they're pretty serious. The whole thing seems like an ad hoc project to me, but their "model supervisors" (I forget what they call them) stay pretty constant. They have 2 or three coders and they make slow but steady progress. They're planning to release it as shareware with profits going to to the developers in keeping with how much they input to the project. I'm (fearfully) watching for hurt feelings and possibly worse when it gets released, but the project looks waaaay cool. I don't even understand their econ model and I've played the Demo 6 several times. Of course there may be issues with the economic model, it's supposed to function at three levels, Empire wide, Province, and Square (or Tile, I forget).

Anyway, I digressed (what are the odds of THAT happening, do ya think? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif ), if you're thinking about offering to publish for them watch them for a bit. I like what I've seen so far.

AtP

[ May 31, 2002, 05:59: Message edited by: Atilla the Pun ]

[Atilla the Pun]

Richard,
If you're looking for other "lost sheep" that might need a publisher you might also check out http://www.xoftware.com/ . They make Xpace, another entertaining interstellar 4x game with some interesting twists. That game hasn't made it out of beta, nor had an update in over a year tho', so I don't know what the status is on it.

AtP

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Richard:


BTW how serious are these Civilization folks? This is a hobby project right?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I never heard of this 'Clash of Civilizations' game, but there's an 'Open Source' Civ clone out there. FreeCiv is at www.freeciv.org (http://www.freeciv.org) and it's about as good as Civ II except for the graphics. 'Free' and 'Open Source' projects have a problem with achieving the same sort of 'polished' appearance as most commercial projects. But if you're smart enough to know the difference between gameplay and marketting gimmicks you'll find FreeCiv plays quite well. And there are binaries for Win32! Nifty. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ June 07, 2002, 01:30: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

[Atilla the Pun]

Originally posted by Baron Munchausen:
I never heard of this 'Clash of Civilizations' game,...<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You can get info on Clash on the CoC Website (http://cullivan.com/coc/frame/index.shtml). Do check it out, it's very different.

AtP