Project Discussion: Abiotika Factions

[A Viking Yeti]

Yeah... I don't really use IM's though. Maybe private messages?

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Well... I kinda' quit working on it for a while. I've been working alot lately and have had a fairly full plate in general (moved to a different apartment and such). In any case, I picked it back up again and, in programming terms, have made leaps and bounds with the game. Visually, not all that much has been added yet. Empirically, I revamped a good portion of the code (specifically the graphics engine), and got rid of a severe memory leak that I had recently created. I did get planets to orbit, and I've started working on the settlements system (AF equivalent of Civ3's cities, but more complicated).

I've decided multi-factioned owned stations is impractical and illogical. I highly doubt to warring races would be able to maintain a functional space station whilst fighting within it (plasma rifle to the hull, anyone?). Instead, they'll be under absolute ownership with the option to either invade them (via 'ground' assault... Zero-G foot unit warfare, weird), or just destroy them entirely. Planetary colonies and asteroid colonies, however, will be multi-ownership (potentially... With the possibility to declare land ownership; i.e. no trespassing declaration giving the right to declare war on anyone who would).

Anywho, some screenies below. Following that, I'd like to get some suggestions on a few issues I'm dealing with as far as conceptual design goes.

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Oh, before I start with the Q&A, an update on resource consumption. The particular map featured in the screenshot requires about 30MB RAM and takes less than 20 seconds on my processor to display. Scrolling, done via click and drag on the minimap or the numberpad's directional keys, is seemless.

Anywho...

The first question is about the graphics... I plan to make a mod featuring a totally different graphic set, with tiles almost the same size as those in Civ3. However, for those that like the smaller graphics, such as myself, should I have some sort of indicator for stars and planets? Like, possibly a small circle or dot or something in the tile? And, if so, should I just draw this onto the tiles themselves, or use a hardcoded function to do it (of course you'd be able to turn this off, if you'd like)?

Second is conceptual... Should population growth be controllable, AI, or a combination of both? I'm leaning toward the third. I have various types of settlements that you can build, ranging from mining platforms, to comm. arrays, to regional planetary colonization. Should a mining colony, for instance, have the ability to, with a number of sufficient factors, become a small orbital colony, with high mineral and productive output?

Third, and last, is also conceptual... I know I'm adding revolt and revolution to the game. Each settlement is divided into 3 classes: upper, middle, and lower, each with a certain portion of the wealth. Also, theological, ideological, and racial distribution will varying accross the your empire and within individual settlements themselves. As a population's unhappiness increases (due to any number of factors: racial differentiation, religious persecution, poverty, ideological differences from the current government, et cetera), their unrest state will increase. Minor unrest will cause production decreases and such, whilst major unrest (revolt) will cause total shut down of the city and possibly guerilla activity. Revolution will cause the settlement (and surrounding sufficiently unhappy settlements) to break away, forming their own nation based on regional beliefs. The question is, how easy should it be for this to happen? Should it happen only to colonies many star systems away, or the next one over, or in the home system, or even on the same planet? Also, how powerful and, especially, how unified should the new faction be? Several turns of complete anarchy? Several new factions or one, unified revolutionary group...

Any ideas would help, and I should have the basics for the settlements system up in a few days or so. New screenies then too!

 

[Quinzy]

I can't wait! Yay, amazing work you've done mate!

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Thanks! Any suggestions on the questions posed, perhaps?

 

[Quinzy]

Firstly, make as many variations of the interface as you please. You can't have too many options

Then I'd go for a combo of AI and controllable.

And lastly, revolution should be a factor of corruption, distance and enthicities, and should happen at any distance from the home system

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Another question: should resources be depletable? Like a uranium deposit going dry? Would this just be annoying?

 

[Steph]

It should be deplatable.

But perhaps increase the reserve when you discover new techs.

Like

Uranium deposite : reserve = 5000.

When you have "Uranium mining level 1", you can get the first 1000, then you need level 2 to get the next 1000..

Alternatively, you can have a minimum level for the exploitation

Like a mine with 2000 units can be mined at level 1, but a mine with 5000 units in deep ocean will require level 2 before it can be discovered and exploited

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Heh... Deep ocean? Playing Civ too much maybe?

Anywho, I was kinda thinking along those lines. Like, a uranium deposit would have one amount (say, 5000 'units' or uranium), and each uranium-using unit or improvement would require 5 units a piece. Then, and a tech like 'improved fission' or 'clean fission', the cost of producing a unit or improvement using uranium would go down by a certain number of units. My fear is off dead systems... Like, much later in the game, all resources in most systems would be depleted, and construction on anything would be useless. Maybe matter manipulation tech or some, near the end of the tech trees, that eliminates resource needs or allows an improvement that pumps out all resources types in a certain quantity a turn. IDK, just some thoughts.

 

[Steph]

Heh... Deep ocean? Playing Civ too much maybe?

Not at all... But you can have systems with planet where Deep Oceans make it harder to mine resources

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I realized that before I set up the settlements, I should probably finish the more basic stuff. Like resources for instance. They are depletable, stockable, and only represented with letters at the moment. You can tell the game the probability for a certain one to appear (i.e. putting in 9 gives it about a 10% probability of appearence). You can also tell them what terrain they're aloud on (debris type, any terrain, just asteroid, just planet, et cetera). Regular tiles will only contain one resource, planets may hold multiple types. The resources I've added by default are (and of course you change, add, or delete these):

Hydrogen Gas
Halogen Gas
Iron Ore
Gold Ore
Uranium Ore
Carbon Deposit
Hydrocarbon Deposit
Diamond Deposit
Silicon Deposit
Biological Matter
Xeno-Virus

Most are self-explanatory. Biological matter is basically that require for plant growth or food production. Xeno-virus is an indigenous antigenic life-form capable of utilizing alien species as hosts. I may remove these, haven't decided. If there's anything you'd like to see added, feel free to suggest it.

EDIT: I also added extended information to the tile info display (top left corner). Now displays star type, tile type, tile owner, planet type, resource type, and resource quantity. Can be turned off by choice.

Screenies, or course:

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of interest in this project. Oh well... In any case, I've decided to once again push back the addition of settlements. I'm adding factions and species first. Here's how species are going to work... They'll have some misc properties (radiation resistance, habitable preferences, et al), and then each will have a mind structure, bioform, and build method. Mind structure is basically social organization in reference to the individual's thought patterns; bioform is physiological structure; build method is how they, as a species, go about building structures. The three previous categories all affect the properties of the species (psychological, commercial, productive, military, population growth rates, et cetera). They are as follows:

Mind Structures:
-individualist
-social
-empathic
-collective
-hive
-unification

Bioforms:
-transdimensional/hyperspatial
-ethereal
-endoskeletal
-exoskeletal
-siliconic
-mechanical

Build Methods:
-energetic
-biological
-parasitic
-synthetic/mechanical

All of these are moddable, of course, and I'm totally open to suggestions (if anyone is still paying attention, ).

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Another update on my progress. I've added species and their loading functions and such. Still have to add factions before they actually do anything, but it was a lot of coding, so I felt justified in giving an update, .

A few explanations... Hive, unitarian, and collective lock the political system the factions within that species are using. Synthetic building methods are the only ones that require resources, but build much better ships and such. Parasitic build method is quite a bit different than anything else; you (or the AI) must wait until a ship comes into contact with you, then you automatically take control of the ship. Upon reentering the host species system and contacting one of their planets/stations, any ships stationed their are subsequently infected. In this way, parasitic organism lie dormant until a viable host presents itself, then spreads like wildfire.

The races I've added are:

Terrans (Humans)
Mrayv (Greys)
Koraqv (Little Green Men)
The Parasites (Think Aliens)
Talisk-sti' (Lizardmen!)
Necronon (Re-Animation Bacteria)
t383-42 (The Machines)
The Hive (Bugs... Big Bugs)

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Well... If anyone's still paying attention, I added faction loading functions and such. Settlements are next in line.

 

[Quinzy]

Maybe add in the cliché crystalline race too?

 

[aaglo]

Silicoids of master of orion? That'd be nice

 

[Quinzy]

Yeah, they're the ones!

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I was thinking about it. That's why siliconic is listed under the bioforms... Not sure though.