Wrong Turn

ID:86278
 
Nov 25 2009, 11:07 am
Keywords: design, motivation
After putting a significant portion of Monday and Tuesday into the idea of putting the players into drop ships and having them land, I have to say I don't like the resulting game at all.
Photobucket

Placeholder graphics of how my dropships would have looked. I've landed on grasslands, you can see the light green area around it is actually where you can build, and the dropship itself is the square in the middle. Arrayed on the dropship are some components - the player could customize a 3x3 bank of how their dropship was built.

The main reason why is that it was a wholly unnecessary limitation. I already had given the players the ability to pretty much stake out several plots of land and freely build upon these lands. Enter the dropship, suddenly they can only build on where the dropship is, and now they have to go through this whole rigmarole of recalling their colonists, taking off back into orbit, and landing again just so they can manage an adjacent plot.

I might be able to just re-work the dropship concept, but just as likely I might just go back to the original concept of giving the players vehicles that move across the planet's surface instead.
Nov 25 2009, 9:09 pm (Edited on Nov 25 2009, 9:22 pm)
Well the dropship sounds cool, but the limitations seem to go against the ideas you've been blogging about. Maybe you should just turn it into a secondary structure used for far-off expansion?

Then again, it does offer an interesting break in the usual accumulation game model. For some reason, it brings to mind the feeling of finishing a level in an RTS, cutting through the enemy forces with your massive army, only start again with a small base camp in the next level. Obviously, building and establishing a reliable source of resources is a large part of a such a game, but it seems... disillusioning (if that's even a word) to just clear the playing field.

But at the same time, you're allowing for progressive evolution of the players' buildings and units, so the draw of "if I move and take advantage of the resources in this area, I can finally get [x] add-on for my [y]!".

Sorry, I'm being of no help :P

Good luck with whatever direction you end up going in :)

(Incidentally, I saw post of yours on the escapist forums. Made me laugh, because I read about one topic there weekly.)
Nov 25 2009, 9:54 pm
I am sorry that this question has nothing to do with your post.

May I ask, what is the basic gist of the game? I have seen countless post, and they are interesting, but I have no clue what the "big picture" is.
Nov 25 2009, 10:02 pm (Edited on Nov 25 2009, 10:18 pm)
Well the dropship sounds cool, but the limitations seem to go against the ideas you've been blogging about. Maybe you should just turn it into a secondary structure used for far-off expansion?
Sorry, I'm being of no help :P

Nah, I appreciate the brainstorming. These are definately the same kinds of thoughts going through my own head right now: can I salvage the dropship and use it for something else? Would the game be better or worse off without it?

(Incidentally, I saw post of yours on the escapist forums. Made me laugh, because I read about one topic there weekly.)

Suffice to say, the Escapist Forums are probably where I'm at when I'm procrastinating too much to either code or play a game. If you see me active on a thread there, feel free to justly chastise me for misusing time I could be using in development - at times, I tend to forget. ;)

May I ask, what is the basic gist of the game? I have seen countless post, and they are interesting, but I have no clue what the "big picture" is.

Just as it's a tough question to verbally frame, it's a tough question to verbally frame an answer to. However, I think I can explain it if I mention a bit of the philosophy behind it:

Basically, I'm going for a multiplayer persistant environment where the players actually institute meaningful change beyond simply advancing their characters.

Yes, I'm aware that there's a good reason why developers typically don't do this, but I'm experimenting to see if I can't just circumvent those usual fears with good design.

That said, the setting I've chosen on (which actually has a lot less to do with the game mechanic than one might think) is a Sci-Fi scenario where we have a planet being colonized. I'm thinking the players will be able to choose to be a colonist, a raider, or an alien native creature. And it plays out like that.

Another interesting thing is that even though I have a "persistent" environment, it will be possible to "win" or "lose." It won't, however, be easy, and will require a persistent scope mental picture to see a campaign through.

Now that the outside game is established, I'm working my way inward into the bare-faced mechanics of what the players will be doing. I can come up with a means rather easily, but coming up with what I feel would be the right means is tricky amongst much cognitive dissonance.
Nov 26 2009, 8:59 am
Couldn't the drop ship just deploy ground vehicles and temporarily serve as a "lesser" base while you build up elsewhere?

A drop ship suggests small transport vs colony ship.

If the drop ship were just a transport, you could continue to use it throughout the game for moving vehicles and resources around faster.

Why limit them to the immediate area. If they choose to land there and then build a tower far away, that is a design choice they will pay for in distance and in defensive challenges.

The 3x3 thing is a neat idea. Could you not deploy a vehicle out of the transport that does the same thing? I guess it would be a bit like C&C.

ts


Nov 26 2009, 10:01 am
The original idea of the dropship probably came from my Battletech days, where the dropship really is a redeployable base of sorts whose primary purpose is to put vehicles on the field.

The idea of making a dropship be the colony builder was the new part but, having experimented with that idea, I don't like nailing the players down. Even if I let the dropship expand out pretty far away from itself, it's just a hassle to have to take off and land every time you want to get some building done.

Maybe I could still do it, the only question is if it would actually be better than what I'm currently leaning towards, which is having the Terrans pilot a ground vehicle which is essentially a mobile factory.