Hey all. More brainstorming on the dynamic, changing empires (or kingdoms or nations) concept and am curious what you think: An empire is made up of areas, NPCs, and objects. Areas are maps/levels. Areas can have other areas attached or imbedded. Each area has attributes. These are things like population, crime, army strength, etc. Attributes can be modified by NPCs, objects, and the player. The actions the player can take == how these are attribs are modified. Example: Decrease a population by poisoning the water supply, increase the wealth of church by donating coins, etc. As the player adventures, the empires are are making alliances, declaring war, invading each other, etc, etc. Real AI isn''t used to solve this (too expensive); instead, we cheat and use random rolls and stuff. Smoke and mirrors, but the player isn''t be cheated so they shouldn''t care. This should give better control of what''s happening in the game. Players can get in on the empire action. The AI leaders of an empire should be able to communicate their desires to the player. This creates quests. (This needs a function to compute difficulty with reward.) Who gives you what quests is based on your reputation. Your reputation is earned by accomplishing quests. What''s left? Need to figure out what goals the AI empires have. Then, how they can fulfill them. I''m stuck on figuring out when they should do one thing or another (build or fight? fish, cut bait? ). There''s prolly a ton of stuff I''m forgetting... ... man, I''m dreaming of being able to play a character right in the middle of all this!!!! -------------------- Just waiting for the mothership...

quote:Original post by Paul Cunningham

If the economy is large enough then the players input would not be significant enough to warrant very noticable changes. So in order for the player/characters actions to effect the economy in any noticable way then maybe his/her actions should have a domino effect of somekind. Like, as the player gains more levels/status then people look up to him/her and start doing similar things. With this sort of NPC help then the players actions could (more understandingly) would have some sort of effect on Empire economies?! Well thats just one way to do it i presume

The idea that as your character grows his influence grows is central to my design. It''s the thing that made me realize I''m not working on a pure CRPG. In a pure CRPG, your growth is more "horizontal," in the direction of the story, and rarely do you grow "vertically," and wind up influencing an entire game world. (The story says you do, but you really don''t. I mean, honestly, the townsfolk claim that you saved the realm, but there was never really an invasion coming ).



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Just waiting for the mothership...

quote:Original post by Paul Cunningham

Sound''s like a very hard Game Design you''re working on there. You sure you''re not biting off more than you can chew?!

Oh, I know I''m biting of more than I can chew. I''ve been designing this for awhile (uh, like 2 years). Only recently have I gotten serious and started to code it. I figure I''ll either crash and burn and learn a lot in the process, or make a kicka$$ shareware / freeware game that Starflight and Sentinel Worlds fans would enjoy (the few of us geezers left, anyway )

It was either that, or go work on something I''m not passionate about...

quote: I really don''t know how you will do it but best of luck to you, sincerly

Maybe this is why I''ve been getting so few replies. Maybe I''ll get more feedback once people see what the heck it is I''m talking about... (gotta get that website up...)



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Just waiting for the mothership...

Well, as soon as I type up some of my old notes, I''ll give you some of my ideas. I think you might like them
Just one quick thought though. Fractals.

It''s funny to observe that a village is like a region, is like a continent, is like a planet, etc ... maybe if you can spot this "hierarchy", you could come up with something nice.

If you take things in the order they appear as well, I believe this can help.
Take the planet, describe it, mountains, forests, rivers, etc etc. Then build tribes, make them wander, settle, grow, build roads, and so on.

I know, I am vague, but maybe you understand what I am trying to tell you

Anyway, more later.

youpla :-P

quote:Original post by ahw

Well, as soon as I type up some of my old notes, I''ll give you some of my ideas. I think you might like them
Just one quick thought though. Fractals.

Thanks, I will absolutely appreciate any help I can get. Fractals are an EXCELLENT idea. For a science fiction game, they''re one of the best ways to get a ton of territory. They''re also a genius way of getting a lot for a little (heh--comparitively speaking) bit of work.

I''m trying to understand them better now. By the way, have you taken a look at this site? It''s for pen & paper games, but it has me drooling over CRPG possibilities:

http://www.logicrucible.com/




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Just waiting for the mothership...

On a side note....

All hail Sentinel Worlds and Starflight! Those games were super cool.

Later,
Eck

quote:Original post by Eck

On a side note....

All hail Sentinel Worlds and Starflight! Those games were super cool.

Man, it warms my heart to hear that. Thx! I really want to see these two games combined. Imagine being able to exit your terrain vehicle on all those planets... or being able to board enemy ships... lots of possibilities here...



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Just waiting for the mothership...