Thread: Wishlist High level design thoughts
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Old December 15th, 2010, 12:44 AM

pydna pydna is offline
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Default Re: High level design thoughts

I've been away for a while her I am again.

I've tried to give these musings a little structure but really they are just popping out of my head.

Thinking about high game design I guess first and foremost what I like to see is there is NO perfect path to power. That is there should be multiples strategies involving economics, race design, research, military power (possibly more).

Economies - These could be a pure resource model, measured in cash resources and minerals mined. Could be an information economy, players can gain resources by trading information on other empires or technology?

Race Design - Definitely customising a players race is a must, things like Temperature, Gravity, Radiation, Atmosphere preference etc. Are important, does the race trade off research capabilities for economic growth? Or does the player go for a race that can live on a wide number of worlds but has slow population growth? The possibilities should be many but again their shouldn't be one perfect solution.

Research - I'd like to some sort of tech tree, also I'd like to tech trading between species...either through trade or conquest.

Military Combat - I think battles should not be realtime...or if they are groups of ships should be issued orders/tactics before the battle commences. Again tactics should have some bearing on the outcome of a battle.

Technology combined with tactics should give victory, but there should be some cross over. Smart tactics and average tech should be a match for dumb tactics and slightly better tech. If you want more examples I go into detail but then it wouldn't be high level.

Personally I think crew experience would count for very little in space combat, especially if your turn cycle is yearly the average crew turnover would be every 4 - 5 years. But really I don't care so long as it doesn't become a crutch for poor player tactics.

Ship Design - One my personal bugbears is classifying ships. We all fall back to wet water navy designations (I'm guilty of it too). Really, why is a destroyer called a destroyer...because wet water times it was designed for torpedo runs against Battleships. Cruisers were built to deal with the destroyers etc etc

What I would love to see is a modular system (a friend of mine and I designed one as a pen and paper test bed). But bascially each HULL is a collection of boxes the players clip together in a designer, each box can contain ship items. Obviously the more boxes you need the bigger the ships become.

It's a simple idea that could yield complex outcomes and total player flexibility, with players coming up with designs (and counter designs) that the developers didn't forsee.

Anyway enough ranting, I'm sure you guys will develop a great game. Here's hoping.
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