So I've been away for many months, my job sent me over seas. I haven't had a lot of time to do anything I originally planned, but I've been working on a project smaller in scheme. I decided a few months back that A Game of Kings shouldn't go unfinished. So, I started from scratch working on a new A Game of Kings.

While I was away I had my laptop and played some old SNES games. One of the games I played was Utopia, and I played many other strategy games out there that I could find to get some ideas from each one.

So this is how the current design plays out;

You start out on your own map. Each player has his own city map. It's your city map and they can't build on it. You can build much like in sim city. Except you don't build "plots" of land, instead you build a unique building like warcraft and you upgrade that building. Building upgrades are indefinate, as in technology never ends. The point? So that you don't reach stalemates, and also so the game can continue to create it's own content as it goes along.

So you start off building this large city which is quite a complicated experience, and you make diplomatic relations with each other city trying to secure trade routes. Why? Well you are only given a limited amount of resources. So you depend on others a lot. When invaded, the enemy will not be able to control the units they send, and only will be able to select the x/y coordinates it sends the units. So basically, they can select north, south, east, etc... and then the units will naturally think on their own and invade the city. The attacker will not be able to see anything that goes on, nor what damage he does. In this way it's much like playing battleship. In fact one of the elements is identical to it; there's a godly power that blasts a target x/y area of an enemys map with a lightning bolt. No telling if it hits anything. There will be some ways to tell; like scouts can reveal small portions of an enemy map, and as they advance further you will eventually be able to get very detailed reports; population, money, food, etc...

Anyway, the whole idea is it's a bluffing game. It's mixing risk, battleship, and poker into one strategy game. You're guessing, and you're bluffing, and you're also strategizing on your actual forces. So there's a degree of control, and a degree that's out of your control.

The lowdown:

I'm limiting actual moveable units on board per player to 30; to limit lag and to prevent issues with swarming. Forcing players to pick the units they send wisely.

I'm limiting resources per player to force them to have to trade, even if their goal is world domination. This is causing people to trick, and deceive.

I will give bonus's and benefits to those who dare attack others, and also for successful defenses.

Two players may be able to attack at the same time, but no game run alliances are allowed and enemy units will attack each other, even if both players have a truce.

If a player has scouts, they will get a warning before enemy forces arrive. The alloted time given to place defensive units will vary depending on the scouts abilities.

It's just a rough summary, but I'm just curious of first impressions of the barebone system so far.