What is happening now?

I have hit a roadblock. I had been making tremendous progress towards actually testing a small version of the game with some friends, and in writing up the final code for the communications aspect of the game, i have determined it to be "un-fun".

By restricting the communications to e-mail, it feels very work-like, with static reports and multiple choice questions. To make it more interactive would require a significant web design element, and there are a ton of web-browser based games out there, most of which are not good, or fun. Or I could write a client side application to handle the flow of data, but then this is just a Client/Server game, in addition I don't think i have the artistic ability to make an enjoyable full blown game.

I am setting the project aside for now, and see if I have any epiphanies on how to make this a viable, fun game.

Space Battles

More progress is being made!

I am actively working on the Battle Engine,a nd how Space battles between players will take place. I do not want to do the Moo2 Approach to Non-Strategic battles, because that is borring. Nor can I afford to do the Strategic battle option either, due to schedule problems and timing for players not located in the same time-zone. This area is where I will be building the most Role-playing style into the game.

Ships will be controlled via Fleets, and Captains. The longer a captain or Fleet Admiral in in place the better they will be at leading. Some specials will be selectable by the players at certain levels of experience. These specials may provide the captain with certain battle benefits, or even technological discoveries.

Battles will be fought via AI, and an advanced battle equation. Simple number advantages will not guarantee a win. The battles will have detailed Battle reports sent to the players that will list out the action in as much detail as the player would like. These reports will be similar to a truncated log of the actual communication that would have taken place across the fleet involved in the battle.

New Engine

The game engine has been completely re-written in .net. There are now multiple components to the game engine including the server, the e-mail interpreter, and the game database.

I will be focusing on the e-mail interpreter for testing game dynamics, and overall functionality of the game. Once the e-mail interpreter is in place for the working game I will be adding browser based control as well.

Currently basic empire control is in place and working via the e-mail interpreter using stock races.

Currently working on:
Technology tree
Integrating research into the empire control

Currently theorizing:
Combat dynamics, and fleet control.

Comments

Is this game still progressing?

Short answer, Yes.

Long answer, Not as fast as I would have liked it to be progressing. I have less time to work on it than I originally envisioned.

I have set the version for the Galaxy creation code, and will not be making any more revisions to it going forward until after at least the first beta testing. The current Galaxy uses a parameter/scripting approach to creation of galactic objects, so little to no code revisions will be required to add new or unique galactic objects.

I am playing with the races, and it looks like I am going to take a roleplaying style approach to the creation of races. Instead of picking a race and having it preselected to have certain benifits, you will select a base race type that will set livibility of planet types, and then using a point system you will be able to pick racial modifiers such as faster research, subterrainian, etc.

I am also testing multiple types of e-mail processing techniques to make responding to changes easy for users.

I will continue to update this site as time allows, and updates are significant enough to post.

What is happening

I am actively working on the design portion of this game. I have gone back to the pre-build phase to lay-out exactly what my goals for this game are. I am in the brainstorm phase right now coming up with technologies, planet types, buildings, Race types etc.

I am trying to keep the overall goal of the game to hit the following statement:

"To design a game that is fun and addicting, for few to many players per game, yet keeping time investment requirements from each player to a minimum."

I am trying to build a game engine that addresses many of the problems I see in the Multiplayer games I play. These main problems are:

• Real-time games - It is difficult to get a lot of players into a game at the same time for hours on end. Differences in schedules, Time Zones etc. make playing large scale strategy games hard to organize.
• Play-by-email games - These games are easily derailed by a single player slacking on playing their turn and forwarding it on, or can be killed by a player dropping out.
• Play-by-email games - Slow games have very little interest built up. When playing 2 to 4 turns a month, it is hard to keep a good level of interest in the game.
• MMOGs - If you don't have a lot of time to dedicate to the game it is hard to keep up with other players who may be dedicating 8 hours a day to playing.

I am re-focusing my effort on the design of a game that will keep people interested and involved, but is not intrusive. The players can do as little as reply to email to keep their race active. I want to also use some Role Playing elements to keep interest and involvement high.

I am working on the details of such a game right now, but would like any suggestions that anyone might have. Please feel free to post in the Comments section if you are so inclined to help with this project.

Comments

Galaxy Creation Rebuilt

I have rebuilt the Galaxy Creation Engine, it can now build a random galaxy bassed off of grey-scale images as a template. Thus, allowing larger galaxies to be shaped in spirals, circles, or whatever.

The future plan is to allow the galaxy to be further modified with images, to encourage placement of certain types of stars to be in certain areas. i.e. mineral rich systems would be more likely found in the center of the galaxy, or wherever the image showed.

Comments

No Current Title

Since the change from being a remake to being an independant game, i no longer have a title for this project. once I come up with one i will post it.

Comments

Vacation

I am heading off to the Beautiful Oregon Coast for the 4th of July, so no progress will be made until late next week.

Example Galaxy

Here is an example of the Galaxy report:

This is assuming that you could see the entire galaxy. i know the graphics are crude, but those can be easily changed for better graphics at a later point in time. This galaxy is fully custimizable as the code stands now. The following parameters are easily changed:

Total number of stars
Minimum diustance between stars
Number of Nebulae
Number of Worm Holes
Occurance chance of all the types of systems including Back holes (Right now Red stars are the most prolific)
Size of Galaxy (this setting does not change the size of the graphic, just the distances between edges. Currently the map is a 30 Parsec square.)

Also I have the Homeworld creation code done and Gravity levels, Artifacts, Mineral Richness, and size are all implemented in the code.

Comments

Homeworld Woes

Creating the Homeworlds is proving to be a more difficult task than I had invisioned. Keeping track of star type, Homeworld Type, special Homeworld Modifiers, Wormholes, and nearby neighbors is making the code a little more difficult than other functions. I have the selection criteria done, but am currently working on implementing the Race Special Attributes.

Comments

No Current Progress

Things are moving, but I have nothing to report today.

Solar Systems Created

I now have Planets orbiting stars, with a basic system report showing planets, types, sizes, and mineral abundance.

So with that I need to create home planets, but for that I need races, so races is my next step. For now I am going to work on just the base Moo2 races, and later (read after Alpha testing) add custom races and planed new options to help enhance the Universe.

Forum setup

Please visit the Forum to comment on news topics, or to discuss other attributes of the game.

Get to the Forum through the link on the right or here:

http://www.chatbear.com/board.plm?b=5715&v=flatold

Galaxy Created

I have succesfully created the galaxy.

Currently containing 50 Stars, Multiple Wormholes, and 1 nebulae (well any number of them, but only 1 cheesy graphic). Each star also has planets (For those that can have planets). I have a basic map already created for the Galaxy and am currently working on the System map to show the planet layout for any given star.

Creation of Developer Blog for Moo2 Remake

I know the title sucks, but so far so does the game. one doesn't exist so far.

I will use this space to keep an update list of what has been done in this project.