At this point in development (Just after the release of Dev 9.2b) I honestly feel like (when looking back) this game is near completion. Simply a few more bug fixes and this game would be decent enough to stand the test of time. But then again, this game could always use more. And this post has more alright. I doubt I'm even going to be able to fit everything into a single post. I'll try. So this is a rough idea dump that I hope to God can be useful in some form to Zark. I'd like to stress that. ROUGH. Some of these ideas I know only the basic concept of and I'll leave to your interpretation. Well lets get started shall we?
TECH TREE
The way airships is designed It just begs for a tech tree in my opinion. Some people have spoken about THE CONCEPT but it seems none have really taken the time (Except possibly Zark) To really think about what could be ON the tech tree so I made a rough (Cough) Draft. To start you would have 4 branches, Although their could definitely be more. AERONAUTICS, LOGISTICS, WEAPONRY, and
ENERGY.I like the idea of starting research on any of these branches with a couple of starting techs that then shape more into two separate sub-braches so that's how I'm going to describe it. So, the first branch, Aeronautics would focus on anything that let's things fly. You would probably start with something like small suspendium chamber with the tree ending by diverging into biplanes and huge suspendium chamber. Simple right? Logistics would refer to making anything on a ship more efficient. It would also incorporate robotics. So now we come to our first hurdle. I haven't the faintest idea in what way the logistics tree would start with. So help me out on that one. ALTHOUGH I do like the idea of the tree ending in either Worker Clanks or Crab mines (Little clockwork drones that crawl into ships or below tracks and detonate). Choosing to use the technology for either your benefit or the downfall of the enemy interests me so I like it. Next up is Weaponry which is such a broad term I nearly didn't use it but I guess its out there if anyone has a better name. It would apply to the ballistic equipment used to deliver rounds in to the enemy (I.E. Guns). The tree would probably start with some basic upgrades (Replacing grapeshot with canister round maybe?) and most likely end in either submachine guns for your marines or siege batteries. And finally energy. I have only a vague concept of where this ONE could lead but I like the idea of this tree representing your scientists desperate attempts to harness electricity and could possibly end with tesla rods in one sub-branch. Remember, I am desperately looking for help and ideas for these concepts. But if you had to slog through these poorly organized ideas, rejoice! My next concept ties right in to this one and should be a lot better displayed. Don't get high expectations though.
GOVERNMENT SYSTEM
Yep, you read that right folks, I, Respawn, have just made myself look like an idiot by going beyond the concept that the nation you play as is some sort of vague totalitarian state. But wait! There's more! I even made a list of all the possible government types!
So this system would function by the addition of ANOTHER couple of things: Resources! The 3 main being Gold, Manpower, and Morale. Gold is self explanatory, Manpower being the amount of personnel ready to be recruited for the war effort, and morale being like the "Happiness meter" Mentioned so often. There no real way to SPEND this unlike the other two (Which building/training anything would cost you). It works on this principle: You see it go up, that means LESS desertion, revolts, and routing. It goes down then the opposite occurs. There would also be 3 other ACTUAL resources (Iron, Wood, and Suspendium) But we wont go in-depth when it comes to those except to say you would probably need to spend them to build ships. Oh, and I was considering a fourth resource, Energy which MIGHT be spent to start research on anything but I'll leave that one to reader discretion. So now we come to what is actually government types which are as follows:
DEMOCRACY: More Gold. Simply it. Gotta love the free economy right? Democratic militaries would probably be fielding more expensive ships.
FASCIST: A faster research speed is permitted by this one. Also with that sweet, sweet, secret police to boot, you can expect that highly confidential research to stay hidden. Fascist Armies would most likely include highly experimental technology.
COMMUNIST: With all those conscripts, why not the extra manpower? Communist armed forces would include more numerous but smaller ships.
MONARCHY: The starting faction! A lot more morale is included with this government type along with a lot less routing (For the king!)
so those are the governments. What do you think? Did I mention I need all the help I can get?
THE END (OF THE FIRST PART!)
I'll leave this first part as it is, but I'm coming back in a few weeks or so to finish part 2! What joy! Like I said, anyone whatsoever can come and give feedback (Or their own opinion!) I'd also love for Zark to see it! Well, I've got to get going!
Well it's a well thought of plan but it would require Conquest to last longer. The only thing I find viable for change would be the government bonuses/penalties.
Some kind of tech tree is quite likely to happen in dev 10. But here's some background:
The original purpose of the per-city bonuses was to give players a different set of available technologies each playthrough. So you would adapt your designs to fit what you had available. From what I can tell, at least some players really dislike this, though. They have their favourite designs, and they want to use them. If they can't rely on a module existing in a game, they'll just make their standard designs do without it.
A tech tree would obviously solve this, but it would also make each game play-through more like the previous one. I don't know what proportions of players actually dislike the random tech subset thing - it's possible most like it or don't mind, and there's only a vocal minority that does not.
So I have a bunch of sketches for a nice tech tree that incorporates the various bonuses and modules, and makes sense and would be fun to play. I would still like to offer at least an option to have more variance in the tech, so perhaps I'd do an option that's "randomly prune the tree of half of the techs" or something.
Personally, I really think that having fixed opening strategies makes strategy games boring. But I guess it also makes them more predictable, and hence more enjoyable in a way?
Government System
It's kind of similar to what the coat of arms bonuses already do.
Resources
Another thing I've considered. It depends on whether adding more resources apart from cash creates more interesting decisions or just more complex ones.
I appreciate the consideration for everything but honestly, the government system was also supposed to be useful for diplomacy. (I.E. Cities are more likely to ally with others of the same government)
Oh, and I'm not saying you couldn't have the per-city bonus AND the tech tree. I'd imagine captured techs would appear on the tree but wouldn't allow the continuation of the research on said tree. (I mean, you did just find the technology in a city. You haven't really studied the properties leading up to said technology) Oh, and lets say I find a technology that's mid-tree but I still haven't reached that tech level. Then you can simply skip said technology.
Air Admiral
At this point in development (Just after the release of Dev 9.2b) I honestly feel like (when looking back) this game is near completion. Simply a few more bug fixes and this game would be decent enough to stand the test of time. But then again, this game could always use more. And this post has more alright. I doubt I'm even going to be able to fit everything into a single post. I'll try. So this is a rough idea dump that I hope to God can be useful in some form to Zark. I'd like to stress that. ROUGH. Some of these ideas I know only the basic concept of and I'll leave to your interpretation. Well lets get started shall we?
TECH TREE
The way airships is designed It just begs for a tech tree in my opinion. Some people have spoken about THE CONCEPT but it seems none have really taken the time (Except possibly Zark) To really think about what could be ON the tech tree so I made a rough (Cough) Draft. To start you would have 4 branches, Although their could definitely be more. AERONAUTICS, LOGISTICS, WEAPONRY, and ENERGY.I like the idea of starting research on any of these branches with a couple of starting techs that then shape more into two separate sub-braches so that's how I'm going to describe it. So, the first branch, Aeronautics would focus on anything that let's things fly. You would probably start with something like small suspendium chamber with the tree ending by diverging into biplanes and huge suspendium chamber. Simple right? Logistics would refer to making anything on a ship more efficient. It would also incorporate robotics. So now we come to our first hurdle. I haven't the faintest idea in what way the logistics tree would start with. So help me out on that one. ALTHOUGH I do like the idea of the tree ending in either Worker Clanks or Crab mines (Little clockwork drones that crawl into ships or below tracks and detonate). Choosing to use the technology for either your benefit or the downfall of the enemy interests me so I like it. Next up is Weaponry which is such a broad term I nearly didn't use it but I guess its out there if anyone has a better name. It would apply to the ballistic equipment used to deliver rounds in to the enemy (I.E. Guns). The tree would probably start with some basic upgrades (Replacing grapeshot with canister round maybe?) and most likely end in either submachine guns for your marines or siege batteries. And finally energy. I have only a vague concept of where this ONE could lead but I like the idea of this tree representing your scientists desperate attempts to harness electricity and could possibly end with tesla rods in one sub-branch. Remember, I am desperately looking for help and ideas for these concepts. But if you had to slog through these poorly organized ideas, rejoice! My next concept ties right in to this one and should be a lot better displayed. Don't get high expectations though.
GOVERNMENT SYSTEM
Yep, you read that right folks, I, Respawn, have just made myself look like an idiot by going beyond the concept that the nation you play as is some sort of vague totalitarian state. But wait! There's more! I even made a list of all the possible government types!
So this system would function by the addition of ANOTHER couple of things: Resources! The 3 main being Gold, Manpower, and Morale. Gold is self explanatory, Manpower being the amount of personnel ready to be recruited for the war effort, and morale being like the "Happiness meter" Mentioned so often. There no real way to SPEND this unlike the other two (Which building/training anything would cost you). It works on this principle: You see it go up, that means LESS desertion, revolts, and routing. It goes down then the opposite occurs. There would also be 3 other ACTUAL resources (Iron, Wood, and Suspendium) But we wont go in-depth when it comes to those except to say you would probably need to spend them to build ships. Oh, and I was considering a fourth resource, Energy which MIGHT be spent to start research on anything but I'll leave that one to reader discretion. So now we come to what is actually government types which are as follows:
DEMOCRACY: More Gold. Simply it. Gotta love the free economy right? Democratic militaries would probably be fielding more expensive ships.
FASCIST: A faster research speed is permitted by this one. Also with that sweet, sweet, secret police to boot, you can expect that highly confidential research to stay hidden. Fascist Armies would most likely include highly experimental technology.
COMMUNIST: With all those conscripts, why not the extra manpower? Communist armed forces would include more numerous but smaller ships.
MONARCHY: The starting faction! A lot more morale is included with this government type along with a lot less routing (For the king!)
so those are the governments. What do you think? Did I mention I need all the help I can get?
THE END (OF THE FIRST PART!)
I'll leave this first part as it is, but I'm coming back in a few weeks or so to finish part 2! What joy! Like I said, anyone whatsoever can come and give feedback (Or their own opinion!) I'd also love for Zark to see it! Well, I've got to get going!
Air Admiral
Also, Zark can you edit the title so it says "Fixed" instead of "Fixe"? Thanks!
Commodore
Make this happen pls
Air Admiral
What do like about it?
Commodore
Well it's a well thought of plan but it would require Conquest to last longer. The only thing I find viable for change would be the government bonuses/penalties.
Air Admiral
I definitely wish the game was more methodical. I'll talk about it in the next post.
Air Admiral
Anyone interested in giving their thoughts at all?
Commodore
All are really strong ideas to make singleplayer better, being able to choose what ideology is huge.
Air Admiral
Oy Zark! Seeing as your online at the moment, what would your opinion be?
Commodore
my thoughts currently: yes to everything, but adapted to my "world war mode" concept i posted on the expansion thread.
Aerial Emperor
"Fixed" is fixed! Will read the thread and comment. :)
Air Admiral
Er, was the above considered the comment part?
Aerial Emperor
No I just forgot to actually write out the comment, I only thought it. I will write out the comment soon. (TM)
Aerial Emperor
Right!
Tech Tree
Some kind of tech tree is quite likely to happen in dev 10. But here's some background:
The original purpose of the per-city bonuses was to give players a different set of available technologies each playthrough. So you would adapt your designs to fit what you had available. From what I can tell, at least some players really dislike this, though. They have their favourite designs, and they want to use them. If they can't rely on a module existing in a game, they'll just make their standard designs do without it.
A tech tree would obviously solve this, but it would also make each game play-through more like the previous one. I don't know what proportions of players actually dislike the random tech subset thing - it's possible most like it or don't mind, and there's only a vocal minority that does not.
So I have a bunch of sketches for a nice tech tree that incorporates the various bonuses and modules, and makes sense and would be fun to play. I would still like to offer at least an option to have more variance in the tech, so perhaps I'd do an option that's "randomly prune the tree of half of the techs" or something.
Personally, I really think that having fixed opening strategies makes strategy games boring. But I guess it also makes them more predictable, and hence more enjoyable in a way?
Government System
It's kind of similar to what the coat of arms bonuses already do.
Resources
Another thing I've considered. It depends on whether adding more resources apart from cash creates more interesting decisions or just more complex ones.
Commodore
maybe give the player a tech tree, but not the ai, still specific ai that make specific machines based off of specific weapons?
Air Admiral
I appreciate the consideration for everything but honestly, the government system was also supposed to be useful for diplomacy. (I.E. Cities are more likely to ally with others of the same government)
Air Admiral
Oh, and I'm not saying you couldn't have the per-city bonus AND the tech tree. I'd imagine captured techs would appear on the tree but wouldn't allow the continuation of the research on said tree. (I mean, you did just find the technology in a city. You haven't really studied the properties leading up to said technology) Oh, and lets say I find a technology that's mid-tree but I still haven't reached that tech level. Then you can simply skip said technology.