I'm Sure people give you tons of bad ideas all the time, but this isn't just another bad idea, this is a bad Lord Xia idea!!!
I was playing GalCiv2 the other night and thinking about what was really fun about that game and what I like in games in general. I like to build things. And the Ship builder in that game gives me endless amounts of fun.
Where these thoughts led me, is this. A GalCiv game where you are not a nation, but a business. A corporation. You build Ships, weapons, etc. Maybe you start as a junk yard, just finding old derelict and rebuilding them or retrofitting them, then maybe you could go on missions to find rare alien technology or maybe you could unearth an old Arnor ship. You could sell these ships, or use them for your own good. You could set up trade with the Civilizations in the game, maybe make black market deals, or even fund pirates and criminals on the side. You could branch out, be a galactic corporation, maybe you have your own security force. There could also be "Champions" they would be things like experts, pilots, designers, etc. You would be in competition with other corporations to get gov contracts, and you would have to use corporate spies to get info on them or sabotage their creations, or steal their technology.
Brad, make this game so I can play it please! Oh, and you should hire me to sit around, eat cheetos in my undies, be fat, and come up with brilliant ideas!
The key difficulty around this is the evaluation of the ships you are making. If you are selling them coming up with a suitable pricing model will be difficult, (you want to make cool ships but the boring ones sell much better).
The sims was originally a house designer - they only originally put the people in so that you could evaluate the houses. Building ships would be similar. Now thats an idea "Sims in Spaaaaace!"
SPI, (Simulations Publications, INC - pre- PC/apple games) had a game where you ran 'businesses' in the local space near the SOL system. It played on a 3d hex map with all the stars, realistically located, within, I think around 50 Light years. It included trade missions, warehousing complexes, playing the stock/commdities market. building up your holdings, spys, sabotage, etc. Was a fun game. It cries for a PC version....
Right. Maybe if you get a contract, the Civ or entity you are working with will give you a framework with to build, they want this size, this type of look, and must meet these specs for this price, and if you can make it better and cheaper per unit, you get a bonus.
And, maybe the game could have a way to judge how good a ship "looks", not just preforms to certain groups. Each race would like a different style, different types of weapons and armor. Also, maybe they have only researched laser weapons, and now they are being attacked by a force that has strong shields, please design and build us some missile ships! OR, we could use spies to recognise this is happening, and contact them to make a deal. There are all types of things possible with this idea, I think.
Maybe your support of of side of a conflict would sway power in the region, or maybe you could secretly support both sides, raising prices.
The general idea is good. I like it! One of the old reviews of the first Galactic Civilizations I called it Traders to the Stars. Galciv 2 could be reworked to do this. Maybe after Fallen Enchantress.
I can see a market for a pure builder trader game.
Atlantis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_PbeM had a really simple way of issuing orders to units which could automate them. Perhaps some way to combine this in would lead to a "first contact" type space exploration and building game.
It would still be good to rewrite atlantis so it was more easily modable and ran on a sensible platform, and had a reasonable user interface and then do a total conversion.
Starship Tycoon.... I like it! Maybe as your company grows you can start to use lobbyists to influence the decisions of the civilization governments to a larger degree?
Lord Xia that job is already filled, it's called the U.S. Congress
it can be called ... Galactic Civ Tycoon...
Congress requires you to be a charismatic wind bag with people backing you with deep pockets.
I'd buy this game in a heartbeat, especially if the ship-design part was robust and meaningful.
The thing you are talking about makes me think of the East India Company, which started as a trading business with India and China and became a powerful entity which owned ships and had its own private wars with other corporations of the same kind.
A RTS came out not too long ago called "East India Company", no idea if it's any good, I think it was on the lines of Total War.
Game Idea for Brad (Stardock): How about Master of Orion IV in a couple of years. I think this is a complete no-brainer. Huge fan base, huge crave, no marketing need.
I eard some time ago that Stardock acquired the Master of Orion rights from Atari, is that right?
I think that was Star Control, and they did not get it (or maybe they tried for both that and MoO?).
Really I think mentioning old classics for comparison with a new game is a HUGE mistake, as it will likely not be those games and people will dispise it.
The key to a great builder game is to have good ways for the player to measure how well they are doing.
The three that best apply are:
- Profit Margine (duh)
- Competetors
- Chance of Failer (either bankrupcy or your side looses the war and the victors are not pleased with you)
A better idea than *just* a ship builder would be a corprate sim game is space (with military gear manufacturing being one of the main ones), where building ships is one of the opcupations. Something like a cross between The Guild and Impressions Games' The Prince, in space. And each type of corperation other than one or two basic ones could be an expansion pack.
It was Master of Magic but Ataris lawyers destroyed the deal with ridicoulous demands that if a part of the game is made somewhere else, then Stardock has to have personell there to check that children aren't working there....but the dealbreaker was that Atari wanted to own Stardocks work on Master of Magic and that was just not possible.
Then Brad said: "100.000$ for the license"
Atari said: "No" <--- LOL WTF?!?! It's like offering 1.000$ for an old CRT monitor from someones basement but the guy with the monitor refusing to sell for some strange reason!
....I truly wonder how they could say no to that deal....AND if every hotshot at Atari knew about the deal....the beancounters surely would have liked it....100.000$ for an ancient IP that todays gamers have never heard of!
I'm thinking of sending an e-mail to Atari asking them why they didn't agree to it....it's like they believe they can sell it for MORE(!), OR let someone else try to make a game out of their ancient IPs while having ALL the power over the created work.
I'd just like to see Galciv open sourced. You have an idea, you staff it, you implement it. I personally want to mod the planetary tiles.
I personally would like this thing called combat to be added to GalCiv2.
Only if it is added to Civilizations, after all it is meant to be Civilizations in space. Till then there is Sword of the Stars.
I'm well aware of Sword of the Stars. I currently have it and all the expansions installed. I cannot say the same for GalCivII Ultimate.
I was pretty sure you did have SotS, the point was that GalCiv is meant to be something else entirely.
Put yourself in the head of the guy who has to actually do the changes: "combat" is not an easy thing to add. I want to muck around with the planet tiles and give the planets more variety and character. I want more asteroids and make them more important. I want to give tiny hulls a fortification bonus in asteroids. It's much easier stuff to implement.
I had something in mind like the East India Company. And playwise, something like Pirates! There are big nations out there and you could adopt several roles, and ally yourself with any or none of the major powers. You could have bases. You would deal with all types of groups, search for rare Precursor technology, design and build ships for selling and to use for your own gain and profit.
And if you go the corporate route, you could advertise your ships! Maybe a mediocre ship could get good sales from a great ad campaign? So many ideas...
Wow, this doesn't sound half as bad as I expected.
Actually, it sounds pretty good.
It would have some RPG elements too. You would design your CEO(for lack of better name right now) with certain roles. Maybe he is the true business man, or maybe he's a pirate, or maybe he's a tech genius, or maybe a super mechanic and can fix and repair any old derelict? He would then build a crew, like in Pirates. Eventually, he would delegate some bases or ships to his subordinates.
You have to get materials to build your new ship. Maybe in the beginning all you can do is retrofit or fix old, broken down ships. But later on, you are designing all new ships, how do you get tthe material? Maybe you buy a mine? Or maybe you send prospectors out to find an asteroid you can claim, or maybe you raid colonies or freighters for it? Each approach has it's pros and cons.
I think there are a number of things that could be done. I'm thinking a cross between Pirates, Space Rangers, GalCiv, and a pony.
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