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George Posts: 5
8/6/2016
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Here are some suggestions I have for game development. I will try to update this as I play and place my priorities in top down order.
-I'd suggest vetting players and limiting general access to the engine to people who can stay active and communicate reports. In game communication needs to be enhanced.
-Turn ticks which take longer (1hr) but crunch more data and allow for easier chaining between simple tasks such as loading cargo then rolling out within a single turn. A turn should be considered an earth day or some defined span of time which is the basis of movement and order process speeds. Squares should also have a defined length of space.
-I'd suggest a generally larger GUI (there are so many problems with the current UI I'm sure you are aware of). The game should be based for 16:9 PC browsers, but accessible with lower resolutions. This could provide larger planetary surfaces and starmaps. Things seem a little crushed to me here.
-Currently, there seems to be tunnel vision for resource and unit development while basic UI and time/distance scaling are not being improved. If anything resources and units should be halved in number in order to allow easier future tweaking of less types/classes. Simplicity in design allows for perfection while MMOs which make to many add-ons in one area too quickly bog themselves in faults due too conflicting modules. Each section (GUI, research, diplomacy, resources, buildings, units, etc.) should be upgraded in coordinance with all other branches of the engine to keep everything constantly in general development and equalised.
I think a proper release state for this engine would be one which allows new player creation on a protected and somewhat resourcefully infinite Earth. While user domains are contested within Sol. Solar travel could be left for future development. A basic research tree with effective traits is needed. Diplomatic communications are currently non-functional. Unit and building development should be based on resource costs and secondarly credits. Credits should be used for resource exchange mostly. Since you are interested in playtesting your own engine the Dev team and his lead testers/funders should be the planetary lords and stay within your domain policing the game state. A.I. (terran federation) could be left out entirely as long as moderators stayed active.
Anyhow that is my first draft of this post and I'll try to clean it up later as I learn more about the engine development and current designs.
Version 1.1
edited by George on 8/6/2016
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Doctor Dread Administrator Posts: 1478
8/6/2016
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George wrote:
Here are some suggestions I have for game development. I will try to update this as I play and place my priorities in top down order.
-I'd suggest vetting players and limiting general access to the engine to people who can stay active and communicate reports. In game communication needs to be enhanced.
-Turn ticks which take longer (1hr) but crunch more data and allow for easier chaining between simple tasks such as loading cargo then rolling out within a single turn. A turn should be considered an earth day or some defined span of time which is the basis of movement and order process speeds. Squares should also have a defined length of space.
-I'd suggest a generally larger GUI (there are so many problems with the current UI I'm sure you are aware of). The game should be based for 16:9 PC browsers, but accessible with lower resolutions. This could provide larger planetary surfaces and starmaps. Things seem a little crushed to me here.
-Currently, there seems to be tunnel vision for resource and unit development while basic UI and time/distance scaling are not being improved. If anything resources and units should be halved in number in order to allow easier future tweaking of less types/classes. Simplicity in design allows for perfection while MMOs which make to many add-ons in one area too quickly bog themselves in faults due too conflicting modules. Each section (GUI, research, diplomacy, resources, buildings, units, etc.) should be upgraded in coordinance with all other branches of the engine to keep everything constantly in general development and equalised.
I think a proper release state for this engine would be one which allows new player creation on a protected and somewhat resourcefully infinite Earth. While user domains are contested within Sol. Solar travel could be left for future development. A basic research tree with effective traits is needed. Diplomatic communications are currently non-functional. Unit and building development should be based on resource costs and secondarly credits. Credits should be used for resource exchange mostly. Since you are interested in playtesting your own engine the Dev team and his lead testers/funders should be the planetary lords and stay within your domain policing the game state. A.I. (terran federation) could be left out entirely as long as moderators stayed active.
Anyhow that is my first draft of this post and I'll try to clean it up later as I learn more about the engine development and current designs.
Version 1.1
edited by George on 8/6/2016
Generally speaking. We're still working on the overall game mechanic itself. This is actually the first time a bunch of players are in the game at once. A lot of thing have changed since an Alpha test a couple months ago already. All the "Quality of Life" changes such as the interface, better communications etc. is a lower priority but definitely not ignored.
1) We already had a limited Alpha where only 20-30 players were playing for a couple of months. It hammered out a lot of problems. Now that we opened it up to a new chunk of 100 players we're see other issues. It's difficult to so how tis game pays out with a small number of people. Hopefully during this beta we'll make a lot of positive changes.
2) Most people are complaining that the turns need to take 2-5 minutes! =) A turn based on an hour isn't necessary. The system is capable of running smaller turns. 5 minutes was about as low as I think we can take it because the game turn itself can potentially take 1 minute to run under heavy load. We plan to test the game under heavy load when it stops changing and see what a good number would be. If I made turns an hour and transports just teleported from place to place it would take away all the board game aspects of moving things around. People attack your transports along the way. You can watch people heading in certain directions and such. This isn't a tick game where you send a fleet off somewhere and it is just THERE once a timer is up. I don't know wha tyou mean by squares having a defined length of space, I f I made the galaxy to scale it wouldn't be practical.
3 The UI was based on a laptop running 1300 resolution 3-4 years ago when it was first started =) If we can make a Mobile version of the game then we can open up the normal version. Those would be two very different looking versions of the interface mind you Right now the UI is workable on a mobile as well as desktop.
4) The game is a very simple trading game. You mine different resources and sell them to cities You can combine them into other things and sell that also. That's actually the entire game. That's the part that needs to work well first. The majority of players actually like doing just that and nothing else. Combat and the event system, while varied and fun in their own way, are just things that affect the trading game. As long as you keep any other feature or change revolving around the game itself, which is moving resourcing and trading, it's not bloat. I agree with simplicity of design and there maybe to many products to deal with, we already lowered it once and we may lower it again. The reason why there 150 products in this game is so nearly every player can be a big player in his own little niche on that particular planet. The prices and more importantly the events that eventually show up will make a small player with the right product more important for a short time than the biggest player on the planet. If there were 10 products total, there would be 20 huge players controlling a slave army of smaller players like in every other game.
The "game" is outside of Sol system. Sol system is really just the safe noob zone to try out the game for free. You can always have a safe footing in the game in Sol. If you don't like it no problem, if you do like it them eventually you'll go paid account and leave Sol system entirely, that's the business model.
I cannot base unit and building development on resources. This s a production and trading game, buy low sell high, not a army building game. Things like Metal and Polymer make sense for ships and structures but Pesticides, Police Stations and Furniture do not. Part of the fun is getting into a type of product you have fun doing and the game events will try to complement your style of fun, all products are worth the same. For example if you think Contraband is cool then there is going to be events involving contraband that are terrorist attacks, riots and drug deals. If you 're into Clothing then events will be based around fame, style and personal politics. One of the features we want to add is events that are initiated by players who spend a pile of some product. You can take a pile of 1000 Hacking devices and stat a Hacking style event, or spend a pile of Supercomputers and start some kind of Skynet or supervirus event.
I like your feedback George! Don't think I'm being controversial or anything =)
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