DESIGN: Buildings / Build Queues / Infrastructure

Past public reviews and discussions.
Locked
Message
Author
PowerCrazy
Creative Contributor
Posts: 383
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2003 2:35 am
Location: Texas

#121 Post by PowerCrazy »

Satyagraha wrote:balancing would be easier if we had a fixed size, and personally i wouldn´t miss the feature to choose the size much.
As the self-appointed number cruncher and balancer I say not to concern yourself with difficulty of balancing various game mechanics. Just as programming difficulties in of itself is not a reason to totally dismiss an idea, balance issues aren't either.

These special buildings, once decided what they are, will be looked at from many critical angles and the extent of their "powers" will be examined carefully to ensure playability.

Also galaxy size is certainly in as it would almost not be a 4X game with out it. :)
Aquitaine is my Hero.... ;)

Rapunzel
Pupating Mass
Posts: 99
Joined: Tue Apr 27, 2004 3:11 pm
Location: Germany

#122 Post by Rapunzel »

Impaler wrote:I think that anything we can think up that cant fit under Focus COULD fit under a Planetary Protocall.
To me that sound as if we get all that buildings back again and loose all the benefit of focus, because we then will have to go through each world to decide on what to build next, or if has build enough of "Protocall X"
This sounds as if a Protocall is just something like a Building, just called different and rebuildable.

I would defenatly favour very rare special buiuldings. Not all would have to be unique or quite like wonders. This way Shipyards could easily be Buildings, since they ought to be rare.

I was convinced, that some natural defence would be sufficient for Planets and that buildings should have nothing to do with that, at least not on the great scale. Still there could be some rare Buildings that enhace Combat, or fight themselfe, but they should be very powerfull AND expansive, so that they are not build very often. :wink:

Defending a System can be done by placing stuff (like Starbases, Systemships, Mines, Satelites, etc.) on the Systemlevel.
Dieser Text basiert ausschließlich auf frei erfundener Interpunktion und Orthographie. Jegliche Uebereinstimmungen mit geltenden Regelungen sind rein zufaellig und wurden nicht beabsichtigt.

Aquitaine
Lead Designer Emeritus
Posts: 761
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:54 pm
Location: Austin, TX

#123 Post by Aquitaine »

<spelling nazi>

the word is 'protocol.'

</spelling nazi>.
Surprise and Terror! I am greeted by the smooth and hostile face of our old enemy, the Hootmans! No... the Huge-glands, no, I remember, the Hunams!

Aquitaine
Lead Designer Emeritus
Posts: 761
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2003 1:54 pm
Location: Austin, TX

#124 Post by Aquitaine »

A quick request:

This thread is getting pretty large, so if you could do me a favor, it'd be great:

Go back through and look at your arguments; summarize exactly what you're proposing into a clear and coherent, er, proposal, highlighting what you think are important differences between other suggestions that have been made.

This is what I do with these threads anyway, but on a topic as large and significant as this one, we stand a better chance of getting complete, accurate proposals if you wrap up your own suggestions than if I try to decipher the details from all over the thread while I'm doing the same with everyone else's idea.

I should be finishing this thread and starting the public review next week sometime, after I get back in town.
Surprise and Terror! I am greeted by the smooth and hostile face of our old enemy, the Hootmans! No... the Huge-glands, no, I remember, the Hunams!

Impaler
Creative Contributor
Posts: 1060
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2003 12:40 am
Location: Tucson, Arizona USA

#125 Post by Impaler »

Repunzel:

I think the "Protocol" would just be a Binary choice for the planet, its either on or off. It has no effect on the planets Focus. So you just need to desided "this planet should have Protocol X" and go hit the check box for it.

Shipyards would probably better handeled as a stestem level Satalite, Planets would be able to build smaller hulls based on their Gravity levels modified by your Engine tec level and perhaps Infastructure (lower gravity alsows a larger ship to launch from the surface). Also I think we might want to make Planetary Shields an Orbital Improvment you place next to the planet and which projects a directional shield (heck why not put them in rows through out the system to create "walls").

What are the things were trying to do with "buildings", let me elaborate on my ideas.

Buildings take time and Resorces to make
Buildings do something interesting for the planet
Buildings can be "scraped" for quick cash
Buildings have upkeep costs
Buildings can be captured or destroyed from orbit or blown up by spies
Buildings are Tec dependent and add flavor to the game

We should try to achive these goals in what ever system we use.

One idea might be to have several additional Focus areas that cover defence and Manufacturing? I am starting to feel the original Focus areas arnt enough. If focus is expanded a bit they it can completly eliminate the need for buildings but in its present form its not flexible enough to do so and thus the total complexity is high as we have Focus AND buildings. I think a slightly more complex Focus system could stand alone and thus achive a decresse in total complexity. In essense the use of KISS focus areas only keeps things simple if its pushing out something complex.
Fear is the Mind Killer - Frank Herbert -Dune

User avatar
skdiw
Creative Contributor
Posts: 643
Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2003 2:17 am

#126 Post by skdiw »

Okay here is my proposal:

General

There gonna be buildings and infrastructures. Buildings are what you specify, infrastructures are abstracts build by focus. All infrastructures are build automatically with very little, if any, user control. Example of infrastructure might be farms to make food; remaining others are minerals, industry, and research like we passed the bill for focus.

Defense

Simple natural defense falls into infrastructures. Your defense ability is porportional to the development of that planet so more development = more free "natural defense." Additional Defense can be build on a particular planet by a button that double existing or planned defense infrastructures. You automatically get new defense infrastructures with new techs. So say your newly planet will have 1 battery and 1 missile base, if you researched fighter hanger, you get that added on to your defense automatically. If you wanted more defense in that planet, you click on the double button say 3 times, that planet will automatically queue up 8 batteries, 8 missile bases, and 8 fighter hangers. Maintainence can be 3^n clicks - 1, so it outpaces the amount of defense.

Nautral defense also includes ground force, though I'm not sure on this part since it might invlove other parts of the game that we haven't discuss yet like unrest or sending extra forces to keep conquered aliens under control. For the time being, I'll assume the same machanics as I just proposed so you get groud troops only with natural defense + any doublings.

Buildings

For each planet you can specify focus (primary and secondary) and to build buildings. When you specify a focus, the computer will automatically build you infrastructures that adds some benefits to your empire. For example, if you specify farm, that planet will build the latest infrastructures that adds food to your empire. In each planet, you can also build buildings. Only a few buildings are available and they have powerful benefits and have additional effects if certain conditions have been met. You can only have 1 or 2 such buildings of a specific building in your empire at any given time. Say you have a choice of supercomputers building, weather controller building, and galatic resort building. You can only have 1 or 2 each in your empire. So you can build supercomputers in one planet and galatic resort building in another planet or on the same planet, but you can't build supercomputers in every planet. In addition, if you place the buildings in a system adjacent to another system with a building or some other condition that has been satisfy like event triggered, some additonal effects may occur or just more benefits. You can relocate buildings you have build to another planet if you wish.

Shipyards falls into buildings.

I wanted to build these buildings at star system lvl. However, some problems arises say a hostile force dwell a planet in your system. There needs to be some accountability as to what excatly controls supercomputers. How do the enemy get rid of it or gain control of it. If it's a structure out in space, how do the enemy attack it. I assume a planet will be responsible for it so I said planets in the previous two paragraphs. In terms of build queue, because it's so easy and the player only have do deal a few at any point of them game, builds can be done at the star system lvl. Players simply chose which building he wants at a selected star system and then select wich planet will be controlling it.

Techs

Intrastructures are automatically upgraded when techs improves efficiency of them. Say all that refitting costs and time are factored into research when you spend rp and time researching them. In terms of gameplay, we really don't need additional costs and time after you research a tech once spend resources aquiring the tech. If automatic free ugrades are too weird for ppl to accept, then we can say it takes 10 turns for colonies to refit or something arbitrary and simple.

Techs will also allow more infrastures to be build. I don't think we want a primitive colony develops just as fast as a highly advanced one. If tech only merely improves your output by making infrastures more effectively, then give the same pop cap planet and growth rate, a tech 10 colony will develop just as fast as tech 50 colony, which seems a little strange.

Misc

The 1 or 2 buildings doens't have to be hardwired. You can restrict it by cost so that additional buildings beyone the 1st supercomputer computer costs extra, and the next costs even more. So in a larger galaxy, you might be able to afford multiple supercomputers, but not in every planet.

Since we just recently tacked on money, I'm not sure wether money is gonna be a focus or not, or just some bottomline taxation of planets total production of the four resources, or however it's gonna work, it falls under infrastructure category.

As for resource allocation of planet for construction of buildings and infrastructures, I'm not quite sure about it yet. For the moment I'm in favor for some simple fixed allocation like how we decided the % allocation for primary and secondary focus. Each newly colonised planet will have some default production to get things going and solve the rush build-out-of-nothing problem. A planet will allocate its industry equally for construction of terraforms, buildings, defense, ships, but not focus infurstructures...otherwise its going to contribte to empire stockpile. Maintenence can be money or industry or whatever.

Compare and Contrast Proposals

The goal is to cut down the amount of micro needed. We don't want to deal with mundane stuff like infrastructures. We should let focus build the basic infrastructure for us. Buildings and combo effects is more intersting and more managable since you only have to deal with a handful of them at any point of the game. Their effects can be easier tailored to a player's strat as well as open up doors for modders.

Some sort of natural defense should be built in because I'm sure you've all experienced stupid enemy scout destroying planets that took you 100 turns to build.
Last edited by skdiw on Wed May 12, 2004 7:38 am, edited 6 times in total.
:mrgreen:

User avatar
Krikkitone
Creative Contributor
Posts: 1559
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 6:52 pm

#127 Post by Krikkitone »

Building proposal

I agree with differentiating 'Buildings' special/rare from infrastructures.. build almost everywhere or large fraction of empire.

With regards to 'infrastructures' (good name), to keep them balanced throughout the game, I think that most of them should be Very simple.

Essentially for each unit of 'infrastructure' of a particular type you get one unit of its type output modified by environmental/racial bonuses..RARELY technology. The only Limit on the number of 'infrastructures' a planet could have would be based on population.

Technology in general wouldn't allow new types of 'infrastructures' it would just allow more per population unit.

Focus (combined with population and tech level) would determine the 'Target Level' of a particular 'infrastructure'.

'Infrastructures' would be built until they reached their Target Level and scrapped if they were above the target level.

The max investment would depend on the current 'infrastructure' available. so that most planets would be building their infrastructure WHILE doing something else.

This allows
1. building up your planet to have a cost
2. population to not merely be 'free production' but near useless without investment resources into corresponding 'infrastructures'
3. Changing Focus to take Time and Resources Based on how far you were from that Focus already (and how developed you were)

There could be some 'non-generic' Infrastructures that would allow significant improvements, but I would avoid those because of their scale dependent nature.

And with respect to the other subject


Defenses would come in two ways

1. Immobile ships...treated as such.. This would primarily rely on a Planetary 'Defenses' rating which would have a player defined meaning (ie all planets of Rating 6 should have 4 Megalith BattleStations and 10 Carrier Starbases and 30 Crusher Troops..where the Megalith and Carrier and Troops are player defined ships* Note: I feel that Ground Troops should be treated as ships..ie assume you have the transports to move them, and the only combat they participate in is Ground Combat)
These are Not buildings, but the Rating Can be designated on the player screen so that a planet will try and get those forces.

2. Civil Defense.. 'special' buildings OR settings* that defend a population against bombardment/collateral damage more than their tech level normally does. (This Could be part of the planetary 'Defenses' Rating, but would be different in that they would be Buildings or a Setting on a planet Not ships) *For example: Reinforced Construction =x2 Collateral Damage HP for a x5 increase in Maintenance cost.
Settings are probably best for this, but some things like planetary shields might be best as buildings (since you have one shield for the whole planet.)



Essentially, Focus would be the 'Output' of the planet (Money, Food, Minerals, Research, Industry). determining which 'Infrastructures' get built.

There would then be another system determining how much 'Input' a planet got ie Terraforming, Defense, Happiness, Infrastructures, anything that is done to some degree on all planets.

Special Buildings would be a special Case to allow you to modify particular planets for particular needs (Shipyards, Capitals/various Coordinating Centers, Ancient Artifact Research Centers, etc.)


Building Queue Proposal

A Central Imperial 'Master Queue' that allocates all of the 5 resources to Projects which have a certain resource cost and a maximum resource investment per turn. (This is primarily to handle multi resource projects)

The Master Queue is best accessed by 5 Sub queues, one for each resource that contain a list of all the projects used by that resource in the same order they are in in the master queue. (Moving or Adding of objects into a Sub Queue is duplicated in the master queue)

The way resources are 'processed' is they are pooled and then each project in the queue is considered and if there are still the resources that it requires made available, then the resources are added to that projects total investment up to the maximum per turn investment.

The bottom project on the Queue is some type of a sink, something semi-useful that excess resources of each type can do, either stockpile, or convert to a stockpilable resource or something that has an unlimited maximum investment.

Projects listed in the Queue UI can actually be (in a game sense) massive lists of Projects
So
[Terraform] at [All Worlds]

Would be what the player would see, and enter, but in Game Terms, it would be

[Terraform] at [Planet 1]
[Terraform] at [Planet 2]
etc.

And
[Infrastructure] at [Capital]

Would be what the player would see, and enter, but in Game Terms, it would be

[Infrastructure levels up to 10% Target] at [Capital]
[Infrastructure levels up to 30% Target] at [Capital]
[Infrastructure levels up to 60% Target] at [Capital]
[Infrastructure levels up to Target] at [Capital]
This allowing the ability to concentrate Development funds in less developed Levels of Infrastructure.

You would NOT be able to target a particular Type of Economic infrastructure because that is controlled from Focus.


Some projects (Technologies, spies, etc.) wouldn't have a Location
Some would produce Repeat projects which would either continue indefinitely as long as production was maintained(build [repeat][Mark I ship] at [Capital]) or until they reached some type of maximum [Infrastructure] at [Capital].

If they reached some type of Maximum they would still remain there, but probably greyed out in some way to indicate current inactivity.. since a tech breakthrough or population increase might be made and Capital might now be able to invest more in Infrastructure.


[Maintenance] type projects would always be farther up the queue than the corresponding [Construction] project (how much farther would be for the player to change if they wished if the [Maintenance] is not listed then it is assumed to be part of the [Construction] Project with [Maintenance] getting resources first)
Most of them would by default be top priorities (as feeding people and keeping your existing fleets around is useful).


The biggest advantage I think this proposal has is it's an
Imperial Level (reduces Micromanagement)
Queue (the most efficient way to get multiple things done if their required resources are interchangable) ie get one done midway through, the rest done later.


To account for Planetary level queues, they should also be a way of accessing the Main queue. (ie a planeary queue shows all the projects that apply to that planet and subtracting, adding, or moving them there subtracts, adds, or moves the projects in the master queue.) In the same way as the 5 'Resource specific queues'.


With regards to a Master Imperial Build Queue applied to individual planets requiring programming language UI... if we have any more than ~20 planets, we are going to need a 'programming language method' for management to prevent it being either mind numbing Micro or stupid unengaging Auto. The key is to keep the programming language simple.. and that can be done by having a fairly simple list of things to spend resources on.

Terraforming
Infrastructures
Defense
Buildings (ie special)
Spies+InterEmpire actions
Technologies
'Happiness', politics/Social change
Ships

Some of these would be Empire wide (Techs, Social Change, Spies) or limited to a very few specific worlds (Ships, special Buildings). Others would be done on a wide variety of worlds of a particular class, (Terraforming, Infrastructures, Defense, possibly 'Happiness' spending) For those, we Need some type of a 'programming type language'. The key is making the gameplay decision relatively simple in those matters. The alternative is to make the gameplay decision so simple ie MOO2 autofactories that you might as well eliminate it.

For those a few key gameplay decisions that I think should definitely be preserved Ie things the player should choose to be able to vary.
1. Rates of Infrastructure development based on current 'level of development' and Focus.
2. Levels of defense based on strategic position and economic value

Ones that would be nice to preserve player choice, but would seem to be mostly automatable
1. Rate of Terraforming based on population and Environment
2. Amount of local 'Happpiness' spending based on 'sociopolitical' situation



Pre v. Post placement
This has arisen in some of the Build queue proposals and I Seriously believe that a project with a location should be 'placed' at the time it is begun rather than the time it is finished. For two reasons
1. Simplifies decisions (both decisions at same time)
2. Allows the conditions at the project's location to influence its build cost/rate.
Last edited by Krikkitone on Wed May 12, 2004 5:17 pm, edited 5 times in total.

User avatar
utilae
Cosmic Dragon
Posts: 2175
Joined: Fri Jun 27, 2003 12:37 am
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

#128 Post by utilae »

My Proposal:

We have three focuses:
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary

These focuses determine what non-special buildings you build. So they determine what economic (farms, factories, etc) and defense (missile base, laser battery) buildings are built.

Special buildings, such as spacestations, minefields, other interesting and original buildings are built via the build queue.

When selecting an option in either primary, secondary or tertiary they options are:
Farming
Industry
Research
Trade
Morale/Recreation
Defense

(maybe there are more I'm not thinking of and maybe some options need renaming)

For Defense I was thinking we have four types of defense buildings:
Ground-to-Ground defenses
eg. turret - kills ground troops
Ground-to-Space defenses
eg. laser battery - kills ships
Space-to-Space defenses
eg. space station
-each of these would be built via a focus. I am not sure how yet, but my best idea is to have three defense options instead of one in the list of options that you could choose.
eg.
Farming
Industry
Research
Trade
Morale/Recreation
Defense (Ground-to-Ground)
Defense (Ground-to-Space)
Defense (Space-to-Space)

So you would pick Defense (Ground-to-Space) and it would build things such as missile bases, laser batteries, etc. You would not have specific control, but at least you can say whwther it is ground to ground, ground to space, etc.

and

Special (eg Planet shield)
-Special defenses will be buildable in the build queue, cause there would be few of them, unlike the others.
--------------
Also, we need some kind of feedback, the ratios of building types. So I would like to see the ratio of building types in the current turn and then you have a thing where you can enter a turn in the future and get the ratio of building types in the future. This would help with understanding how the focus is going to work. Cause some people do have problems understanding these kind of things, they needed explaining about the dev plans in Moo3.

Satyagraha
Space Kraken
Posts: 195
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 4:11 pm
Location: Austria

#129 Post by Satyagraha »

summary of stuff that hasn´t been mentioned yet:

In addition to free, but weak natural defenses players can build starbases for defense. Starbases are configured exactly like ships (drag&drop of weapons & components). They are carrying everything that is important for combat (weapons, detection, repair docks...), while planets build everything that is important for economy, environments, efficency etc.

all starbases are also displayed on the galaxy map. together with fleeticons they will give a good overview of what is most important during wartimes.

Impaler
Creative Contributor
Posts: 1060
Joined: Sun Jun 29, 2003 12:40 am
Location: Tucson, Arizona USA

#130 Post by Impaler »

Interesting stuff here, I think we can develop a good system out of the ideas proposed so far.

I think their is potential for my old Idea on Biosphere to slip in here as a form of Infastructure, basicaly it would be the "housing" infastructure for supporting the population (in ways other then food). Rather then being dependent on population though its dependent on planet type (Ocean, Barren, Inferno). The amount of Bio would then determin growth rate and happyness, it could also act as the Polution control mechanism, we say that polution destroyes Biosphere each turn so you must spend here each turn to prevent a loss, additonal spending grows Biosphere. I am asuming here then that terraforming is used only to CHANGE the planets type and remove negative specials (if we have such a thing).

I like the idea of have Defence as a Focus area, though Idealy I would like to have as few types as possible. Ground Defence (bunkers and stuff that helps in a ground battle) would be in, Space Defences (missle bateries and laser Bateries) also sounds good, Fighter Defences might be another option though it might be possible to put them at the system level.

ShipYards, Space Stations and Planetary Shields would go at the system level and would be located on the tactical Map. Simply place a ring of Sheild Generator Satalites around the planet to make a planetary sheild now you dont need to worry about how the planets settings affect sheilds.

I am incressingly leaning towards a system ware the Focus is based on Slider bars like classic Moo, I think it gives the player the best control over the planet without the hassle of a build quee. Settings would be

Orbital - Production used for ship, space station, minefield building
Industry - Build up industrial Infastructure
Mining - make and upkeep mining infastructure
Farming - make and upkeep farming Infastructure
Ground - make and upkeep ground defence
Space - make and upkeep space bateries (missle and beam)
Terraforming - changing the planets environment type
Bioforming - incresse planets population capacity and clean polution

Production alocated to each Focus area is used FIRST to maintain the Infastructure, if theirs not enough to do this then Infastructure is automaticaly scraped for cash and used to pay the remaing maintance costs. If on the other hand their is an excess beyond Maintance then new Infastructure is created. Eventualy an equilibrium is created.
Fear is the Mind Killer - Frank Herbert -Dune

drek
Designer Emeritus
Posts: 935
Joined: Thu Jun 26, 2003 8:07 am

#131 Post by drek »

Impaler:
No sliders. This has been discussed to death.

imho, Aq and others have already throughly proven that my idea of having Defense as a focus is unworkable.

-----------
Basic Tenets of What I feel should be apart of the build system:

1: Infrastructure. Either simple or as per Krikkitone's description

2: A few Wonder-esque buildings, that combo together like M:TG cards. Structures should be expensive to build and maintain. Real estate should be scarce.

3: No special casing defense. Fleets of ships (and immobile ships, ie Starbases) form the basis of defense. A few buildings would also be of defensive type, but would share all the properties of the buildings described above.

If additional ground based defensive units are desired, they should wait for ground combat before being decided upon. Many of the ideas suggested for ground defenses don't follow the general paradigm of buildings, and so should not be treated as buildings for the purpose of the roadmap.

noelte
Juggernaut
Posts: 872
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2003 12:42 pm
Location: Germany, Berlin

#132 Post by noelte »

I just want to add my suggestion on handle building planet defences (i already did it, but we are asked to sum)

I would suggest that every planet can build different defences (as in moo2)

one missle base
one beam defence
one fighter defence
one shield

those items wouldn't eat up planet slots.

Binding defences to infrastructure is a bad idea imo. As already said, this way core planets gets heavy defences while border planets which should have heavy defences don't have defences at all (except ships)

Planets should also be allowed to build some star bases (restricted by number or over all hull size)

I also think, that former border planet which are now core planet should reduce their defences to avoid unnecessary maintains

Daveybaby
Small Juggernaut
Posts: 724
Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2003 11:07 am
Location: Hastings, UK

#133 Post by Daveybaby »

Summary of my opinions:

Buildings are a No-no. IMO they completely destroy all of the good work youve done in simplifying colony management down to primary/secondary focus, and head straight back into Moo2 micromanagement territory.

Everything i'm reading about buildings in this thread just makes me want to scream "Feature creep into micromanagement hell!!!!" Every time i see the word "build queue" in this context i realise that some people just want Moo2 all over again.

I can see an argument for having a (small) number of planets which have specialist buildings (e.g. shipyards) but they should NOT be something which every planet has - they should be exceptions rather than the rule. If a player is going to have to micromanage buildings, then they should only ever have to do it for a handful of planets at most.

System/Planetary defences : Should NOT be a focus option - defence should be completely independent of what the planet is actually doing. What is the point in building lots of defences on (say) a key farming world if youve got to move its focus off of farming in order to do it?

Similarly, it should NOT just be based on the infrastructure level of the planet. Often the planets with the most infrastructure are the ones that are least in need of defences (i.e. theyre your core systems sitting nice and safe miles from any enemies) and vice versa.

Just let the player set an independent defence level (say, range 1-5) for a system, and then the planet goes off and builds up the appropriate level of defence.
The COW Project : You have a spy in your midst.

Satyagraha
Space Kraken
Posts: 195
Joined: Fri Mar 19, 2004 4:11 pm
Location: Austria

#134 Post by Satyagraha »

Daveybaby wrote:it should NOT just be based on the infrastructure level of the planet. Often the planets with the most infrastructure are the ones that are least in need of defences (i.e. theyre your core systems sitting nice and safe miles from any enemies) and vice versa.
this is exactly why i like it ;) you will need your fleets to defend your frontier and there will be lots of skirmish and no stalemates. but if you fuck up and your fleet gets crushed badly, it doesn´t mean instant loss. it gives players time for comebacks and prevents turtling at the same time. and if it´s really essential to defend a certain system at the frontier, you can still invest an amount of resouces in special defenses that don´t rely on infrastructure.

Underling
Space Squid
Posts: 72
Joined: Thu Nov 20, 2003 3:09 pm
Location: New Jersey

#135 Post by Underling »

OK, I'm trying to rebuild a post from the week that was lost in the host change., Here goes....

Buildings

Very few in number, and great in effect. Some Buildings should be on the order of Civilization/SMAC style wonders- unique buildings with empire wide effects, while others should be able to be duplicated (on a small scale) with more localized effects. Shipyards would be a good example of this type of building.

The buildings that are not unique should become geometrically more expensive to build/maintain to provide a "soft cap" on numbers that would scale with empire/galaxy size.

Overall, a player should not have to make more than one build decision every few rounds.

infrastructure

Abstract all focus related buildings. This has been expressed enough times that I don't feel the need to explain. Whoever first forwarded this idea deserves a Big Huzzah!

Defense should under no circumstances be a focus. Stick with the main four, please.

Build que

OK, I think it was tzlaine who suggested an empire wide build que? The PP of your planets would be totaled, a % infrastructure (player sets value) and maintenance (game sets value) would be siphoned off leaving the remainder to be applied to the empire build que. Once a building is "finished", a player can pay a fee to place it in a system of their choice. The fee would be based off of the level of development of the planet and its focus (formulas could be developed later). This would allow the player to handle all production and building from a centralized empire wide screen with no need of ever visiting local build ques (would they even be needed? hmm...)

recap:

Few buildings with great effects (quality vs. quantity)
Empire wide build que
Build then place (finidh the building, then pick a system to house it)
Abstracted infrastructure (farming, mining, research and industry)
No sliders


That should be most of it. I'll add an addendum if I realize I missed anything major.

The 'Ling

Locked