Post by amitp on Oct 7, 2012 23:07:10 GMT -5
One of Rob's game design wisdom he's given me is to explore the game design space with extremes. If the existing games do it one way, do it the other way. Be extreme, learn a lot more than if you made tiny changes. So here's an extreme game idea that completely changes the “big picture” part of the game. It's based on ideas that some of you have posted. I don't expect any of these to get into the game but I think it'll lead to some good discussion. Also, there's a demo linked at the end.
Instead of working on my own project today I worked on a prototype that might better convey these ideas. Try this demo. You start with one town. We'll call it Origin. Click on adjacent tiles to put a building there (you get to choose which direction to expand the town). Click on a nearby enemy town to conquer it. Click again to upgrade. At some point it goes from just a town to a city, and it starts exerting influence more widely. Green areas are where we have buffs; purple areas are where enemies have buffs. You'd need to level up some of the towns on the frontier to boost our buff area close enough to the enemy town so that we could destroy it. Think about how people would scout ahead and find new spots to conquer. You'd look at enemy town strength, open space, etc. At times you'd need to get lots of people together to take on a powerful enemy city; at other times you'd be able to split up into separate groups and conquer enemy outposts.
Reload the demo to see a new distribution of enemy towns. Think about how that server might play out differently. Try different strategies, such as only conquering weak enemy towns, or always leveling up player towns, and see how much variation there is.
Demo limitations: I didn't try to distinguish between a “town” and a “building” but imagine some are town sockets and others are resonator sockets, and that there would be rules for where you can build. Also, there are a lot of potential tweaks to the algorithm for how influence spreads, so don't take this particular algorithm as a given. It's just meant to demonstrate the idea. For example it'd be possible to make friendly and enemy towns act differently, or to have separate influence fields for each of the resonator types. The scale of the demo map won't match what we really want. In particular, I used an equal scale for buildings and towns but you'd probably want buildings to be close to towns, and towns to be far from each other. I think the same idea works for that but I didn't try it.
Would this game be any fun? I have no idea! But my gut says that local buffs and local territory conquest would be more interesting than the global ones.
P.S. Typing this up reminded me how much I miss Markdown.
- The world is currently infinite but is meant to be played for a finite amount of time. Let's ponder making the world finite. That's not to say the players ever see a wall — they'd just “wrap around” to the other side (torus). Unchanged: “Origin” would always look like the center of the map in the same way our galaxy looks like the center of an expanding universe. It's just finite.
- There's currently a conflict between conquest (giving victory points) and winning the game (by reaching research level 10/10). Let's ponder making the activity that gives victory points (conquest) be the same as the activity that wins the game. The 10/10 research level goal would go away. Research level would go away. Labs and extractors would go away. Instead, you win the game by conquering the (finite) world. Unchanged: you earn victory points by fighting, and can redeem victory points only upon victory. It's just that you can't get victory points without advancing the game towards victory.
- The enemy buff is currently based on the distance from origin. Let's ponder making enemy buffs based on the distance and strength of enemy structures (towns and buildings). The global enemy buff would go away. And removing that buff, via research, also would go away. If you're close to a major enemy city but haven't taken out the outposts, you're in for a tough time. Those enemies are going to be strong (supplied by the city). You'd fight that city by taking out its outposts — a local activity — rather than making all enemies weaker by using research — a global activity. Unchanged: enemies get a buff as you go into the wilderness so you can't just go anywhere you want. It's just calculated differently.
- The player buffs are currently based on the number of resonators in the world. Let's ponder making player buffs based on the distance and strength of friendly structures (towns and buildings). The global player buff would go away. Resonators would act locally. If you're close to a friendly city that's pretty strong, you'll have lots of buffs. Those cities are going to be tough for enemy armadas to beat. Instead they'll go after undefended outposts. You'd level up that city's resonators so that you can fight the enemies near that city — a local activity — rather than making resonators anywhere in the world — a global activity. Unchanged: some towns just have better natural resources than others, and therefore it makes more sense to scout and find the ones with the best potential. It's just that sometimes low potential towns are in a strategic spot and you'll want to build them up anyway.
- The world expansion currently is in a radius around Origin. It's one step every time the research level increases. Let's ponder making the world expand non-uniformly, based on player activity. If Frogboffin and Sven want to explore and settle towns to the west, let's make our territory grow in the west instead of growing equally in all directions. Unchanged: players have to work to expand our side's territory; it's just that it expands in a more interesting shape.
- The world is currently uniform in all directions. There's no particular reason to scout ahead, discover what's there, and form a strategy for that part of the world. Let's ponder making the world non-uniform in density and difficulty. You'd want to go out and figure out which places are best to conquer first. Unchanged: players will scout ahead; it's just that there's more to discover.
Instead of working on my own project today I worked on a prototype that might better convey these ideas. Try this demo. You start with one town. We'll call it Origin. Click on adjacent tiles to put a building there (you get to choose which direction to expand the town). Click on a nearby enemy town to conquer it. Click again to upgrade. At some point it goes from just a town to a city, and it starts exerting influence more widely. Green areas are where we have buffs; purple areas are where enemies have buffs. You'd need to level up some of the towns on the frontier to boost our buff area close enough to the enemy town so that we could destroy it. Think about how people would scout ahead and find new spots to conquer. You'd look at enemy town strength, open space, etc. At times you'd need to get lots of people together to take on a powerful enemy city; at other times you'd be able to split up into separate groups and conquer enemy outposts.
Reload the demo to see a new distribution of enemy towns. Think about how that server might play out differently. Try different strategies, such as only conquering weak enemy towns, or always leveling up player towns, and see how much variation there is.
Demo limitations: I didn't try to distinguish between a “town” and a “building” but imagine some are town sockets and others are resonator sockets, and that there would be rules for where you can build. Also, there are a lot of potential tweaks to the algorithm for how influence spreads, so don't take this particular algorithm as a given. It's just meant to demonstrate the idea. For example it'd be possible to make friendly and enemy towns act differently, or to have separate influence fields for each of the resonator types. The scale of the demo map won't match what we really want. In particular, I used an equal scale for buildings and towns but you'd probably want buildings to be close to towns, and towns to be far from each other. I think the same idea works for that but I didn't try it.
Would this game be any fun? I have no idea! But my gut says that local buffs and local territory conquest would be more interesting than the global ones.
P.S. Typing this up reminded me how much I miss Markdown.
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I think my main uneasiness about the infinite world is that the game suddenly ends when there are so many more enemies to kill. It seems more satisfying to actually get to conquer the whole world.