For a while, I've wanted to develop a game similar to BOTF, but I never really had the time to work on it. I finally decided to force the issue by registering for a video game design course with a few of my friends. I spent the last couple weeks breaks during the end of winter break getting a head start on the code base to make the project more managable during the semester. The game can't be Trek-based for copyright reasons, but if BOTF2 were to become vaporware, I'd be willing to sponsor a conversion. It'd really only be a matter of adding new artwork and changing some XML files. The game is designed to be multiplayer (it still supports single-player), but there's no way we'll have time to implement tactical combat before the end of the semester, so combat will be simulated in the original release (like "Auto" in BOTF). That said, I'd like to eventually add a 3D combat engine.

Most of the code I've written at this point consists of fundamental game classes (which aren't likely to change much) and the client/server network cores. I'm in the process of writing the game proposal/design document, and there are a few matters that I'm still not sure about. I thought I'd get some opinions from the BOTF2 community, since you guys are pretty much experts by now.

I get the feeling this thread will fill up quickly, so please do not reply unless you have a pertinent suggestion about one of the gameplay elements below. Any other comments or questions, feel free to drop me a PM. Thanks!

First, I'm not sure how I want to limit ship range. I've considered the system in the BOTF2 design, which requires ships to be occasionally refueled with deuterium. Although this would be an interesting and fun change at first, I tend to think that it has the potential to become annoying and make the game less fun to play in the long run. It would also complicate matters if a fleet becomes immobile because of one ship running out of fuel, in which case the player would have to check *all* the ships individually to see which one is out of fuel. I've weighed several alternatives carefully in a desperate attempt to find something better than the BOTF system (3 levels of ship range), but I keep returning to the same conclusion: it's the easiest for the player if there's some fixed range per ship/fleet that won't change or require micromanagement. I'd like to hear any other alternatives that you guys think would work.

Second is the topic of resources. I want to logically separate planetary infrastructure from resource gathering. As it stands, I have the same basic 5-category production system as BOTF: agriculture, industry, energy, research, intelligence. I like the BOTF2 idea of having special structures to mine or generate resources such as dilithium and personnel. I've been considering "raw materials" (ore, etc) as a resource that would be required to build ships and planetary structures. I'm afraid, though, that this will become a nuisance and detract from the other strategic elements of the game. Plus, production is already limited by the number of systems and factories you control, as well as your cash flow. Do you think the need for additional construction resources is a good idea? Any alternate suggestions?

Third is the subject of terraforming. I've been considering the approach used in the FreeOrion project, which is that every race has an "environmental preference" that reflects the type of planet on which that race would thrive the best. For humans, this would be Terran (class M). FreeOrion uses a "wheel" of different environments. The relative environment of a planet is determined by its distance on the wheel from a race's environmental preference. A distance of one would be "Good", two would be "Adequate", three would be "Inhospitable", and four or more would be "Uninhabitable". The lower the environment rating, the more production efficiency suffers. This makes sense and adds to the strategy of finding suitable planets for your own race. It also leaves me wondering if there actually needs to be any "terraforming" process. I've considered a system like in MOO2, where special structures late in the tech tree allow you to terraform a system that you have already colonized, effectively moving that planet's environment one step closer to your preference (i.e. Barren --> Desert). This is the topic of which I'm the most unsure. I'd like to hear any suggestions. Perhaps there are some other games out there that take a totally different approach altogether that I'm unaware of...

There are a couple more topics, but I'll just post these for now. I look forward to what everyone has to say.

Cheers,
Mike

You could also make it like the following for fuel:

If you don't have any deuterium resources, you simply can only move one sector each turn.


About your resource problem, i understand it. It's just that there are different kind of players here. Some will like it, some will not. I guess it more depends on what you prefer.

For terraforming:

It depends how far you want to go with this. Do you want this to be like Orion? Or as simple as BOTF? I think that you should consider when playing with Tholian that Volcanic planets are nicer then terran. Somehow you have to incorpotate, possible inside a array, all the different stats for the races for each type of planet. You then have to program for each race wether they have to terraform something or not.

Good ideas... hmm..

One of the old-school space strategy gamws was called "Spaceward Ho!" and it was designed for mac's initially. The game had a very simple and elegant model for planetary characteristcs that included two variables: GRAVITY and TEMPERATURE. Each player/race had a randomly generated preference for certain gravity and temperature. You could devote resources to terrforming a planet, but only TEMPERATURE could be changed...

This meant that while every planet could be improved, some planets were definitely better than others. One person's paradise was another persons wasteland. There were threshold values for GRAVITY whereby, if the GRAVITY was far enough from your preferred value, the planet would never become profitable/sel-supporting...

Maybe you could try something like this?

~panic

The additional resources for building stuff is a BOTF2 idea, and, to my knowledge, they are planned to be necessary for the construction of both buildings and starships. Having personnel is also a BOTF2 idea, and you'll have to allocate personnel to starships, intel, etc.

This then allows the different races to have unique structures that can increase the amount of resources or personnel they gain per turn.

Quite a long time ago, we came up with the idea of having resource harvesters that would gather Asteroids to increase the amounts of resources available in a system. Asteroids would be a planetary object that would be visible as an Asteroid belt on the system map, at the bottom of the screen. (I'm not sure if this has been implemented or not, but I think it has - and if it hasn't i'll scweem and scweem and scweem until i'm shick coz I made an entire thread on the idea and people liked it. )

If you want to read about it, it's in my "System-Wide Dome Construction Project" thread:

http://www.botfii.armadafleetcommand.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=314&start=0

That thread also contains an idea to have Planetary Domes - essentially they would be a first step to completely colonising a system, if you either haven't got the time to terraform the rest of an already colonised system, or that it would allow you to colonise the Moons in the system. (Since these won't be terraformable)

It might be worth it if you read the thread, coz you might get some ideas from it. Ablout half-way through though, we (I) went off-thread as usual.

When you get there, just skip a page or two, coz we do eventually go back to thread.

I mentioned about different races having different planetary preferences in my very first post on the site. Obviously this won't be in BOTF2 - Or Rebirth of the Federation as I called it back then - but you might find people's reactions to the idea interesting:

http://www.botfii.armadafleetcommand.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=281&postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=0

For the combat system, you might want to get in contact with Jigalypuff. He's currently developing his own 3D-combat Star Trek game, so he may be able to give you some pointers or even help with your game.

And finally, for the movement of ships, Iwulff's idea is a good compromise. You could just say the ship has reverted to using impulse engines. You could even make it so the ship moves, but only at a rate of one sector every 5 turns or something, to make it more realistic.

If you don't like that idea, you could go to the original BOTF2 idea, which is having cargo/resupply ships in the game, so that if you did have a ship stranded somewhere, you could dispatch a cargo/resupply vessel to refuel it. It would need an escort for protection, of course...

The idea of having ships without fuel move slowly is interesting, but I think it would be confusing to see a ship or fleet that has a clear destination but doesn't seem to be going anywhere after a couple turns. I met with my development team last night and we decided to stick with preset ship ranges for now. We're also planning to keep the raw materials as a resource, at least for the time being. We can always set all objects' raw materials cost to zero and remove it from the UI if we scrap the idea later. The resource system we have in mind is pretty much what the evil mattress suggested--in fact, I borrowed the idea directly from BOTF2. One special collection structure per resource per empire (one generic for minor races), with the exception of personnel, who are generated automatically. Each empire will have a special structure to increase recruitment (like some sort of academy), and minor races might have special structures to increase the rate at which their controlling empire accumulates or harvests resources.

On the subject of planets and terraforming... we decided to keep the wheel of environmental preferences, but to not make any planets uninhabitable (other than gas giants). The idea is that once a planet's environment is far enough away from the ideal for a given race, then they would basically have to live in domes anyway. That logic allows us to treat all planets with "terrible" conditions the same and allow any species to colonize any planet, with production penalties for sub-optimal environments. I think I'll keep the idea of localized terraforming projects at more advanced technology levels--it makes more sense to me than terraforming with a colony ship, but there's no reason we can't add that functionality later.

As for the combat system, that will be the most... er... "ghetto-rigged" part of the game, as it will eventually be thrown out in favor of a 3D tactical combat system. But since we won't possibly have time to code that this semester, the automated combat will serve as a stand-in. I've been wanting to develop this game for quite a while, and I have pages upon pages of notes and ideas. I definitely plan on continuing development of the game once the semester is over, so I'm sure I'll continue to seek out suggests for the foreseeable future. I may also seek out some people to do some alpha testing later in the semester, so that I can test the multiplayer network load against people across the world, with dial-up modems, etc. It'll give you something to do until BOTF2 comes out .