Preserved Topic: Ozonia Ad Astra (strategy)

This thread is spun off from this one:

*ozonia* ad astra, home made

as people seemed to get the wrong idea about what TP was aiming at (which is now being discussed in this thread) but the ideas they were coming up with (for something like an improved version of SST) was an excellent one - but I would say that as I was pondering ways to improve the game

I'll drop my thoughts for extra things in here later.

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Ok a quick sketch of things I'd like to see (I'm sure some of these have also been mentioned before):

1. Deeper personal characterisation - choosing the type of species (reptile, avian, cephalopod, feline, cetation, canine, silica-based, vegetable, more exotic [like robotic, bacterial], etc.) and naming your planets. It would make you more invovled and allow you to actually play more of a role (being informed that 'The birthing pools of Lotar are filled with the bodies of your dying spawn' or 'the nesting cliffs of Trine are aflame' is more invovling than planet 12345 has been connquered).

2. More logical ship progress - the strategy in SST is really to grab a freighter and then pos. later upgrade to a battleship which makes no sense. So a light warship could be upgraded to more fancy types of warship, etc.

3. Elements not explained at the start of the game - certain things only get revealed as the game progresses. By its nature it would be difficult to explain here

4. More options on actions - you arrive at a planet and get the options to: set up trade, open diplomatic relations, enslave the population, steal their technology or conquer the planet.

5. Playing a race and not a ship so you can develop different types of ships for a fleet. As well as point 2 I'd like to see a capital ship so you can attach other ships to it and it makes deploying fleets easier.

6. Give ships basic defence lasers and then assign them weapon slots - the bigger more evil weapons (like mass drivers o throw asteriods at a planet) should require a lot of weapon slots and have other deficits like not being good for ship to ship so you couldn't have a fleet of them but build a fleet to protect a few - pos. might reuire some stats like ship-to-ship: -25; ship-to-planet: +100 or something.

7. The basic unit being a solar system with different planets - only some with habitable planets, etc. as this will affect ones strategy as things develop.

8. The ability to develop different sciences/departments - astrophysics, archaeology (digging up artfeacts from earlier more advanced species), espionage, etc. as you develop more points for each section more things become available.

9. Develop a good back story first which will pos. affect the game play (or elements of it).

10. Only have one galaxy (with lots of solar systems) but start only in one arm and as more people sign up.

11. Find a better way of restricting things (that fuel thing while clever is annoying). Pos. have things based more on turns.

12. Actions build up good, evil or neutral points which might feed into other things later in the game as things develop (see point 3).

And I'm sure I've missed out some other stuff too but that should be something to chew over.

[edit and I was right:

13. Add an element of chance into combat - not so much that a little fighter could take out a massive destroyer but as it stands SST combat is a matter of doing some quick sums to make sure you are more powerful than a foe and then attacking them. With some chance it will mean you'd better be really sure of what you are doing before you attack someone.

14. Make the game opened - players cn decide when to call things quits. The nature of winning and loosing should be more nebulous with the emphasis being only the playing. Actually winning SST is crude as LF has pointed out.

and more I'm sure..........]

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Could also have that some planets are only habitable by a couple of species. Not everyone has to rely on oxygen to breath, but might need bigger quantaties of helium for example. This would also open for more cooperation as those who rely on oxygen can trade helium with helium-based creatures since they might not need...


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"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"

I tried to get into SST a bit ago, back when the initial thread was up and running, but things just didn't click for me. Maybe I chose an incorrect option, but it pretty much felt like it plopped me into the middle of something that I was totally unexpecting. However, from what I've heard from others and from what Emps stated above, this sounds to be quite interesting.

If I could suggest anything, it'd be an easier way to get people into the game and up to speed with what they should be doing. A little documentation never hurt anyone, right?

Great ideas, I'll be keeping an eye on this project!

njuice42 Cell # 551
icq 957255

Veneficuz: Now that is an interesting idea - it brings into play the idea of terraforming. Now there is a psychological blow - not only does someone take your planet buts converts the methane atmosphere to a chlorine-based one!! Ouch. I had given terraforming a thought because it would be possible to make some planets habitable, etc. but that certainly adds a whole new dimension!!

njuice42: Yeah I thought about that. I think a good back story to help put things in context will help as will knowing that you are starting out in your own system. It should be a shallower learning curve building scouts to explore systems outside of your own, building up orbital defences, building construction yards in space so you can have bigger ships that it would be impossible to make from the planet, etc.

Hopefully descriptive depth will help and more of a management aspect will help

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Not to be a wet blanket, but this thread strikes me as academic. You're right, I did misunderstand TP's original intent, but now that I know what he's aiming at I think we'd probably accomplish more if we all got behind the same cart. I know that there are some of us who might prefer a more strategy-based game (like me), but it seems a bit counter-productive to divide our efforts among two separate projects, especially when one has far more support than the other.

Then again, it's not like I'm going to be able to contribute all that much on the technical/graphical end, anyway. I guess I'm just here to bust balls. Can I be the official ball-buster?

Suho1004: Thats up to the inmates to decide - what I saw in the other thread was a lot of people talking about strategy while TP was talking about an arcade game hence the threads. If people want to pick up this ball and run with it then so be it if not then thats not a problem

TP already has a pretty clear idea of things and the skills and enthusiasm to get most of the coding done pretty quickly (I've seen him at work trust me). Obviously he'll need input and help with the graphics and generally discussion but I'd imagine he could drive things through quite quickly. We'll see

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

I agree with Suho. If we are to finish any of these projects, within a reasonable amount of time, I think we should focus on one of them, not seperate our efforts between them. I'm personally more in favour of a strategy-game, but it looks like the arcade has more support...

But we can manage to do both games all the better

If we finish the arcade version first, we could use parts of that as the 'figthing module' in the strategy game...

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"There are 10 kinds of people; those who know binary, those who don't and those who start counting at zero"


[This message has been edited by Veneficuz (edited 03-23-2003).]

The winking has begun...

I'm not against a strategy version, of course, and I wasn't suggesting that we shut this discussion down. I was (or at least I was trying to) suggest that we get behind one project for the time being. There's nothing wrong with having two discussions, but having two separate projects just means diluting the limited energy and time inmates have to spend on the project.

V's idea is plausible. Perhaps we can decide on one direction for starters and then spin-off the other version if and when a good base engine is developed. Actually, I'm not too well-versed in this sort of thing, so I could be way off the mark...

Veneficuz: I'm unsure if there will be much we can scavenge from the other game (as they will be such different beasts) but we'll see - its a good idea though and if we just scavenge ideas then thats a bonus

Suho1004: I didn't think you were suggesting we shut this one down - lack of interest would just make it fade away into a dusty memory

My main thinking was that as I've seen TP code from up close (although from a safe distance!! ) and as a strategy game will take a lot fiddling and discussion, etc., etc. I'd imagine even if we start now the arcade version will be pretty much done before very much has been done here

And winking!! What winking??

Hmmmmmmmm I'm only on 5 winks and I think the limit is 6 so

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Emps

FAQs: Emperor

Emps, you got something in your eye.

I'm with Suho, I'd like to see a definate strategy game, all kinds of politics and trickery to be had can only spell out fun. Has anyone here played (and, moreover, enjoyed) Koei's Romance of the Three Kingdoms games? (That's the... third time I've brought them up in threads now) Let's get generals, rewards, economy, war training, technology trades/upgrades/discoveries going on... a centralized version of the U.N. (much akin to the political game posted elsewhere) with represenatives, alliances, backstabbing, treaties!

... I'm frothing again, excuse the puddles. I'll be in the back with tape on my glasses and a pocket protector...

njuice42 Cell # 551
icq 957255