Registration Date: 29.12.2007
Posts: 56
Location: Serbia
Custom Galaxies
Imagine that at the start of a galaxy you know exactly how long the game will be? This would add a considerable amount of new tactical and double edged features, every player would have to deal with...
Here are my thoughts:
-You are approaching turn 400 (lets say) and you and your allies are ramming the galaxy, your alliance is by far the strongest. what happens? You keep on killing others, rightfully dividing them among yourselves. Game gets boring, both for you and for your opponents. You (anyone) call for an end. BUT, if you know that game finish is predefined at turn 500, you might be considering quickly taking half of your best friend's systems, rather easily, because they are undefended, yet you are safe from retalitiation, game will end.
-From the start of a game an expirienced player can evaluate his research potentials, making different decisions between attack (go for automated factory research plan) and defence (go for best shield tech r.p.). If game is about to last 1000 turns, its different tactics then if its a 400 turns one.
-Since that many threads were about limiting alliances among strong players, it is worth knowing that limiting game lenght will make them weaker and more vulnerable to sudden betray. Thus making game very interesting to the very end (which is also not the case right now), you never know what the finish will look like; you can just jump in into someone's war and make your position 2 times better in last 10 turns. Or someone can make you miserable, without chance for payback. Hence, you cannot go 100% into attack, knowing that your ally is more and more becoming your foe as game comes to an end. (because he will know your breeding and production systems, because he knows you)
-No more (sorry for saying) rather boring threads (not all, but majority) about game end. a: Let me eat a little more b: END END END a: you lost b: Its pointless, please please erwin end it; and so on.
-Ending game this way really in my deep opinion turns players off this great game. For last 2-3 or more days all that you've been doing is waint for an end to come. You are bored cos everything is decided and then vote to end.
Imagine that marathon race has same lenght, but without finish line? After a while the racers themselves decide who is a winner, mostly when they all are fed up with the race. Its just stupid (no offence to anyone) because they wouldn't know when the time has come to put the last piece of energy, final effort, take the ultimate risk (turn all your citizen into military??!!) to win or improve. All races are by far most exciting at the end! We all watched tour de France? You never know what will happen in last 300 meters! Why take that excitement from spaceciv racers?
when you complete your research tree, you get option to build a wonder which gdoubles your fame and halves everyone else fame and ends the galaxy. When you start building the wonder...everyone in galaxy gets a mail and knows what you are trying.
Will allow for a peaceful victory for the PD builders
Registration Date: 26.12.2004
Posts: 8,568
Location: Vienna, Austria
Excellent point there, banem. Fixing the end game situation is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed before we can call the game complete. There are various suggestions for an automated system, most notably TerraNova's suggestion. That together with an in-game voting system would probably fix this problem once and for all.
I also agree with your idea to have a fixed end turn right from the start. That sure would add a tactical edge to the game! So yes, once the game is complete (and we start advertising for it) we want to offer as many variants of the game as possible, and galaxies with fixed game length are definitely on my list.
Registration Date: 20.11.2007
Posts: 35
Location: Sheffield, England
what about instead of having a definite end turn then when the game gets to a certain turn (say 500) then there is a 1% chance of the game finishing. this could go up by 1% maybe every 5 turns. this would give people a rough guide on how long the game might go on but nothing is definite.
well you know erwin i was thinking, everyone has their own little twist that they want to throw into the galaxies(me to for that matter) i think i remember talking about allowing player customized galaxies in the past. perhaps you could make some sort of game design utility(in the future of course
) and players could pay for the right to make a galaxy the way they want it. just a thought on a way to generate revenue at some point in the future that will only effect those that choose to. you could still have the standard galaxies going so that no one misses out(hopefully). a few easily defined(i think) customizable options...
-starting tech levels
-starting colony ships/scouts/etc...
-starting number of planets
-number of total stars
-ratio of stars to players
-spacing of stars and shape of galaxy
-turn length(this would also be a great way to implement 'prime time' galaxies)
-method of ending the galaxy(fixed turn, terranova's formula, different voting methods, etc...)
-player rank
-private game(i actually think this is a bad idea but i am including it for completeness)
-standard building/ship speed/research options or use the 'speed galaxy' variant or maybe anything inbetween
--the strength of alliances(none at all, whether line-of-sight etc.. can be shared, fixed number of permanent member in an alliance, control of alliance mates ships, the possibilities are endless)
-reputation(rep still gets under a lot of peoples skin)
-'clan' galaxies *pauses to throw-up a little*
as you can see there are a lot of options you can give people without to much work(i think), give you a guiltless source of game revenue, and maybe be able to have players experiment with different ways to play the game. you never know they may find a way that appeals to a lot of people and make the game market itself(even more than it does now). you could probably make the price of creating a galaxy pretty steep, add a new forum area for galaxy creation and players can group together to make the galaxies they want. the more i write the more i like it. comments?
__________________ "...uncounted! He's a legend!!"
Registration Date: 29.12.2007
Posts: 56
Location: Serbia
Thread Starter
Man!!!
I love it! It sounds like this is a master plan from the very beginning, to start a forum, let people discuss what they like-don't like, what would they add-throw away, and when it comes to a point that there are millions of suggestions, just offer them to create a galaxy of their own. For a tiny sum of real money, of course.
Like you guys are trying to give us the "operating system" - anyone can create game of his own. Like a program language. If you were really charging that, you are on a very good path to become billioners.
That would counter EVERY other game on the net, in my opinion ruin it. And options are countless. Emerging variations could not be seen as same game anymore!
GUYS YOU ARE WRITING NEW "WINDOWS".
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by banem: 09.02.2008 17:36.
then i presume while signing up I will get 2 options
Join a galaxy --> Free
Host a galaxy --> $xxx
when i click join i will see
Digilis Galaxy
Zoot's Galaxy
UN's galaxy
Erwins Galaxy etc etc
I can see each galaxy specifications and join which one i like
If I click host, I get a set of editable features like size, number of people, turn length and everything listed by UN
and then I can host my galaxy with the features I like
Good Idea. Play for free.....host custom galaxy for $$$
banem- i actually think that creation of a galaxy should cost a considerable sum but multiple people can contribute. otherwise we would likely wind up with tons of user-defined galaxies.
trantor- exactly
__________________ "...uncounted! He's a legend!!"
) and players could pay for the right to make a galaxy the way they want it. just a thought on a way to generate revenue at some point in the future that will only effect those that choose to. you could still have the standard galaxies going so that no one misses out(hopefully). a few easily defined(i think) customizable options...