Daftpanzer
canonically ambiguous
Tributes and respects to Swirly Lights Yonder and GalaxyNES among many others
Shining in the Darkness
Link to video.
Hello! some reading this may recognise me from NES forum, which I joined way back in 2005 or so. I always loved modding my own games, with varying levels of success. I have to say, I'm genuinely happy to see IoT picking up where NES left off. Now I'm feeling the itch to get back into forum gaming. And I have an idea which I think could actually work.
Now, originally, I was going to ask if there is room for a space empires game on this forum. However, I see that question has been answered
So instead I'll ask, is there room for another space game?
There are some big differences between my game and Immac's. The game I'm planning is ALL alien. NO humans. It'll be set in an isolated bunch of stars (I'm thinking, part of a spiral arm that was ripped away during a collision between two galaxies - while it slowly spirals back to merge with the new supergalaxy, it has a mix of star types and enough fuel to keep making new stars for a while). I understand this will not appeal to everyone.
NO forerunners or ancients - YOU will be those ancients, you will set the story. You are the very first civilizations to awaken. Perhaps you will one day play as descendant races in a new age of the galaxy. Basically, its a blank canvas. If there are to be cycles of growth and destruction/ascension into another dimension, you will decide.
The pace of the game may be somewhat faster, in terms of progression of technology etc.
It will be somewhat 'gamey'. I want it to be fun, and not to get bogged down in attempts to justify itself with hard science. But still, it needs to be grounded. You're going to need to deal with economic realities, and simulated citizens with needs and wants.
ECONOMICS
Here's the economic model as it currently stands:
It may look complicated, hopefully not too much. Basically, I wanted to A: introduce interesting choices about how and where to develop, not just 'grow more eco' each turn, and B: I wanted to make trade more interesting... Instead of 'two players sign treaty, get X-EP trade bonus out of thin air', I wanted to make trade a genuine *trade* - so that if one player conquers it all, he/she gets all the pie, with no missing pieces.
Now behold, the Economic Point shall be your unit of productive wealthiness, and you shall know it as the EP. You will gain a base rate of EP from your most developed systems, and further EP from fuelling them with resources, gathered from your colonies or mining fleets. You shall not profit from reaping more resources than you actually need - except if you work out a trade with another player. You shall gain further EP when your different types of developed worlds are able to trade with each other (or those of another player).
You have a choice of three main types of economic engine, you get to start with one of them as your homeworld:
Industrial World - focused on raw industrial might. The machines have taken over, crushing nature in their wake. You will be going into space to look for new sources of minerals to feed the ever-hungry machines. Fortunately, minerals should be the most abundant resource you will come across. Industrial worlds can also spawn many spaceships at a time thanks to their production capacity.
Metropolis World - focused on light industry and services. A huge centre of population, with billions of beings. Again, nature has most likely given way to this urban sprawl, but some surface farming may still be possible. Most likely, you will be going into space looking for sources of Food, and also for places of escape and relaxation from the megacities, places to rediscover something wild and pure - we might call this mysterious quality 'Zen' (as outrageously inappropriate as that is, I'm going with it for now
). Metropolis worlds are cultural powerhouses that can influence other races, and can also spawn many Troops, Diplomats and/or other agents at a time, thanks to their huge manpower. They can also be difficult places to govern effectively, being prone to riots and rebellion.
Laboratory World - Science and academia has triumphed, and this world is ruled by sprawling technological institutions, country-sized universities, and radioactive testing grounds, everything focused on high-tech industry. Eccentricity gets you ahead! Most likely, you will be going into space looking for oddities to investigate - like unusual minerals and materials, or particular alien life forms to study. Naturally, researching new technologies will be somewhat easier.
In addition, there is the Fortress World - a sprawling mass of military installations, underground bunkers and missile silos. This world can survive bombardment by a large enemy fleet, and gives a large bonus to any allied defenders in the vicinity. Your first choice for continuity of government and C&C. But Fortress Worlds do not contribute any EP, so are not really a good starting choice for any except the most paranoid civilizations, or those who plan to just sit and observe history unfold.
So what do you do with all this EP? Well, you have to pay to colonise new systems - and if the environment is hostile, there can be a flat extra cost (like +2EP for all buildings) OR a cost multiplier, that will make it very costly to build the high-end developments. Generally, as you see from the chart above, the resource colonies cost far less than the developments that actually convert that into EP.
UNITS
You can, of course, build what we will call 'units': build more Exploration Ships to survey more stars simultaneously, build Troops to guard and maintain order (and invade other planets), build warp-capable Missiles to strike enemy planets and fleets, build Star Fighters to attack enemies in space and on the ground, build Warships to control space and conduct bombardments and/or invasions, build massive Bombs to devastate enemy worlds, build static Defence Guns to protect your own worlds, build Diplomats to improve relations and make formal in-game treaties, build Freighters to trade with other players or do some space mining... And perhaps a long list of UU's and increasingly-fearsome superweapons that players will invent. Most default things will cost 1EP to build, and most will cost 1EP a turn to maintain - simple!
Also simple shall be fleet command and unit movement - given the time frame of each turn (X number of years) fleets will be able to travel all around the galaxy in that time. However, the 'safe' range will be shown on the map, emanating from your settled systems - going beyond this radius will incur increasing risk of mishaps and disasters; being stranded in deep space with no fuel and a broken FTL drive is every space-farer's nightmare!
I'll also take relative initiative into account - IE, expect an opponent to be ready and waiting, if you're attacking with ships from the other side of your empire. For that reason, position of units at the start of a turn will still be important.
STATS
Sample stats, 5 turns into a test game, look like this (being unlucky with some costly systems to develop, and then rushing into a war at first contact) - again, hopefully not too complicated?:
EXPLORATION
Exploration should be one of the most fun parts of the game. Each system will have one major planet of interest, so I'll really be able to go into detail about the terrain, climate, and wildlife (if any), which will all be constructed based on a few different dice rolls. There may well be other sentient life forms at a pre-warp level of technology, giving you the whole dilemma of if/how to interact with them. Or there may be other mysterious life forms and geological oddities unique to that system. Who knows what is out there!
Many stars on the map will be just be part of the background to begin with - the action takes place around a few systems of interest, which may change throughout the course of the game. Likewise, we'll assume these systems have one major planet where the action takes place, representing other inhabited moons / planets. This will make large empires much more playable (and make things much easier to update!).
To begin with, you'll be able to see nearby star systems of interest, and telescopes will have detected signs of life or abundant minerals (or both). But you won't know any more than that until you send an Exploration Ship (or a UU with similar abilities).
Surveying a system will take a whole turn. Then you'll get a detailed report about the local planet of interest, including potential for colonisation (and associated costs) and any hazards to watch out for. Some things may take longer to investigate, so it will be up to you to stay for another turn to get more info, or to move your exploration ships on to another system.
AUTO-COLONISING: to speed the game up, you can allocate a certain amount of EP for immediate colonisation when exploring new star system(s). Of course, you can set conditions on this (like only colonise if X amount of profit can be gained, etc). This way you can colonise a system the same turn that it is explored, without waiting for the update and the following turn.
RESARCH, TECHNOLOGY and PROTOTYPE UNITS
Rather than having a pre-planned tech tree that may be of little interest to players, I'd rather let players set the agenda. I want to treat techs like special projects / wonders you may have seen in other forum games. That is, you will set out the goal - improved spaceship weapons, spaceship defences, more EP income, higher morale, more cultural influence, more trade goods - and then you can pick from a selection of project proposals that you get back, knowing roughly how much EP and how many turns will be needed.
Tech projects will generally be expensive - nothing less than 5EP, increasing throughout the game - and they should have a big impact, to avoid cluttering the game with lots of miscellaneous techs. There will also be an element of chance and risk involved - the project may run into complications, meaning more time and more EP is needed - such that you may end up cancelling a troublesome project altogether. To get the ball rolling, you'll start the game with some project proposals relating to your race's traits.
If you want to design a new unit, similarly, we'll treat that as a project with some risks involved. You don't need any new technologies to design a new unit, as the default unit list leaves plenty of room to expand upon. Ideally, you'll complete a prototype unit and then decide if you want to mass produce it or not - prototypes can have unexpected quirks (good and bad), such that you may want a complete redesign. But if you really need a new unit urgently in large numbers, you can throw large amounts of EP at it and hope for the best!
Completed techs and unit designs can of course be traded with other players, or you can at least make it easier for them - it may still take some EP and some time for other players to digest the new technology for themselves. For this reason, it may be easier simply to buy and sell completed units.
ADVANCED RULES:
OFFICIAL UNIT/BUILDING LISTS:
----------
So I think I'll dump this here for now... What I'd welcome is any feedback/suggestions, any expressions of interest... maybe even some ideas for unique alien races if anyone wants to start posting them - with a view to starting at a near-future, fusion-powered level of technology. Bonus points for truly original, non-humanoid races (but of course, I'd like to see a few good old humanoids as well - even one gratuitously human-like race could be allowed ).
Thanks and feel free to post
Shining in the Darkness
Link to video.
Hello! some reading this may recognise me from NES forum, which I joined way back in 2005 or so. I always loved modding my own games, with varying levels of success. I have to say, I'm genuinely happy to see IoT picking up where NES left off. Now I'm feeling the itch to get back into forum gaming. And I have an idea which I think could actually work.
Now, originally, I was going to ask if there is room for a space empires game on this forum. However, I see that question has been answered
So instead I'll ask, is there room for another space game?There are some big differences between my game and Immac's. The game I'm planning is ALL alien. NO humans. It'll be set in an isolated bunch of stars (I'm thinking, part of a spiral arm that was ripped away during a collision between two galaxies - while it slowly spirals back to merge with the new supergalaxy, it has a mix of star types and enough fuel to keep making new stars for a while). I understand this will not appeal to everyone.
NO forerunners or ancients - YOU will be those ancients, you will set the story. You are the very first civilizations to awaken. Perhaps you will one day play as descendant races in a new age of the galaxy. Basically, its a blank canvas. If there are to be cycles of growth and destruction/ascension into another dimension, you will decide.
The pace of the game may be somewhat faster, in terms of progression of technology etc.
It will be somewhat 'gamey'. I want it to be fun, and not to get bogged down in attempts to justify itself with hard science. But still, it needs to be grounded. You're going to need to deal with economic realities, and simulated citizens with needs and wants.
ECONOMICS
Here's the economic model as it currently stands:
It may look complicated, hopefully not too much. Basically, I wanted to A: introduce interesting choices about how and where to develop, not just 'grow more eco' each turn, and B: I wanted to make trade more interesting... Instead of 'two players sign treaty, get X-EP trade bonus out of thin air', I wanted to make trade a genuine *trade* - so that if one player conquers it all, he/she gets all the pie, with no missing pieces.
Now behold, the Economic Point shall be your unit of productive wealthiness, and you shall know it as the EP. You will gain a base rate of EP from your most developed systems, and further EP from fuelling them with resources, gathered from your colonies or mining fleets. You shall not profit from reaping more resources than you actually need - except if you work out a trade with another player. You shall gain further EP when your different types of developed worlds are able to trade with each other (or those of another player).
You have a choice of three main types of economic engine, you get to start with one of them as your homeworld:
Industrial World - focused on raw industrial might. The machines have taken over, crushing nature in their wake. You will be going into space to look for new sources of minerals to feed the ever-hungry machines. Fortunately, minerals should be the most abundant resource you will come across. Industrial worlds can also spawn many spaceships at a time thanks to their production capacity.
Metropolis World - focused on light industry and services. A huge centre of population, with billions of beings. Again, nature has most likely given way to this urban sprawl, but some surface farming may still be possible. Most likely, you will be going into space looking for sources of Food, and also for places of escape and relaxation from the megacities, places to rediscover something wild and pure - we might call this mysterious quality 'Zen' (as outrageously inappropriate as that is, I'm going with it for now
). Metropolis worlds are cultural powerhouses that can influence other races, and can also spawn many Troops, Diplomats and/or other agents at a time, thanks to their huge manpower. They can also be difficult places to govern effectively, being prone to riots and rebellion.Laboratory World - Science and academia has triumphed, and this world is ruled by sprawling technological institutions, country-sized universities, and radioactive testing grounds, everything focused on high-tech industry. Eccentricity gets you ahead! Most likely, you will be going into space looking for oddities to investigate - like unusual minerals and materials, or particular alien life forms to study. Naturally, researching new technologies will be somewhat easier.
In addition, there is the Fortress World - a sprawling mass of military installations, underground bunkers and missile silos. This world can survive bombardment by a large enemy fleet, and gives a large bonus to any allied defenders in the vicinity. Your first choice for continuity of government and C&C. But Fortress Worlds do not contribute any EP, so are not really a good starting choice for any except the most paranoid civilizations, or those who plan to just sit and observe history unfold.
So what do you do with all this EP? Well, you have to pay to colonise new systems - and if the environment is hostile, there can be a flat extra cost (like +2EP for all buildings) OR a cost multiplier, that will make it very costly to build the high-end developments. Generally, as you see from the chart above, the resource colonies cost far less than the developments that actually convert that into EP.
UNITS
You can, of course, build what we will call 'units': build more Exploration Ships to survey more stars simultaneously, build Troops to guard and maintain order (and invade other planets), build warp-capable Missiles to strike enemy planets and fleets, build Star Fighters to attack enemies in space and on the ground, build Warships to control space and conduct bombardments and/or invasions, build massive Bombs to devastate enemy worlds, build static Defence Guns to protect your own worlds, build Diplomats to improve relations and make formal in-game treaties, build Freighters to trade with other players or do some space mining... And perhaps a long list of UU's and increasingly-fearsome superweapons that players will invent. Most default things will cost 1EP to build, and most will cost 1EP a turn to maintain - simple!
Also simple shall be fleet command and unit movement - given the time frame of each turn (X number of years) fleets will be able to travel all around the galaxy in that time. However, the 'safe' range will be shown on the map, emanating from your settled systems - going beyond this radius will incur increasing risk of mishaps and disasters; being stranded in deep space with no fuel and a broken FTL drive is every space-farer's nightmare!
I'll also take relative initiative into account - IE, expect an opponent to be ready and waiting, if you're attacking with ships from the other side of your empire. For that reason, position of units at the start of a turn will still be important.
STATS
Sample stats, 5 turns into a test game, look like this (being unlucky with some costly systems to develop, and then rushing into a war at first contact) - again, hopefully not too complicated?:
EXPLORATION
Exploration should be one of the most fun parts of the game. Each system will have one major planet of interest, so I'll really be able to go into detail about the terrain, climate, and wildlife (if any), which will all be constructed based on a few different dice rolls. There may well be other sentient life forms at a pre-warp level of technology, giving you the whole dilemma of if/how to interact with them. Or there may be other mysterious life forms and geological oddities unique to that system. Who knows what is out there!
Many stars on the map will be just be part of the background to begin with - the action takes place around a few systems of interest, which may change throughout the course of the game. Likewise, we'll assume these systems have one major planet where the action takes place, representing other inhabited moons / planets. This will make large empires much more playable (and make things much easier to update!).
To begin with, you'll be able to see nearby star systems of interest, and telescopes will have detected signs of life or abundant minerals (or both). But you won't know any more than that until you send an Exploration Ship (or a UU with similar abilities).
Surveying a system will take a whole turn. Then you'll get a detailed report about the local planet of interest, including potential for colonisation (and associated costs) and any hazards to watch out for. Some things may take longer to investigate, so it will be up to you to stay for another turn to get more info, or to move your exploration ships on to another system.
AUTO-COLONISING: to speed the game up, you can allocate a certain amount of EP for immediate colonisation when exploring new star system(s). Of course, you can set conditions on this (like only colonise if X amount of profit can be gained, etc). This way you can colonise a system the same turn that it is explored, without waiting for the update and the following turn.
RESARCH, TECHNOLOGY and PROTOTYPE UNITS
Rather than having a pre-planned tech tree that may be of little interest to players, I'd rather let players set the agenda. I want to treat techs like special projects / wonders you may have seen in other forum games. That is, you will set out the goal - improved spaceship weapons, spaceship defences, more EP income, higher morale, more cultural influence, more trade goods - and then you can pick from a selection of project proposals that you get back, knowing roughly how much EP and how many turns will be needed.
Tech projects will generally be expensive - nothing less than 5EP, increasing throughout the game - and they should have a big impact, to avoid cluttering the game with lots of miscellaneous techs. There will also be an element of chance and risk involved - the project may run into complications, meaning more time and more EP is needed - such that you may end up cancelling a troublesome project altogether. To get the ball rolling, you'll start the game with some project proposals relating to your race's traits.
If you want to design a new unit, similarly, we'll treat that as a project with some risks involved. You don't need any new technologies to design a new unit, as the default unit list leaves plenty of room to expand upon. Ideally, you'll complete a prototype unit and then decide if you want to mass produce it or not - prototypes can have unexpected quirks (good and bad), such that you may want a complete redesign. But if you really need a new unit urgently in large numbers, you can throw large amounts of EP at it and hope for the best!
Completed techs and unit designs can of course be traded with other players, or you can at least make it easier for them - it may still take some EP and some time for other players to digest the new technology for themselves. For this reason, it may be easier simply to buy and sell completed units.
ADVANCED RULES:
Spoiler Advanced Rules :
OFFICIAL UNIT/BUILDING LISTS:
Spoiler Official Planetary Building List :
Spoiler Official Unit List :
----------
So I think I'll dump this here for now... What I'd welcome is any feedback/suggestions, any expressions of interest... maybe even some ideas for unique alien races if anyone wants to start posting them - with a view to starting at a near-future, fusion-powered level of technology. Bonus points for truly original, non-humanoid races (but of course, I'd like to see a few good old humanoids as well - even one gratuitously human-like race could be allowed
).Thanks and feel free to post
