I'm going to keep this as straight-forward as possible, because I know that's what you guys like.

I would like to see a game where you will inevitably lose but the road towards it will always be fun. An example of a game like this would be Dwarf Fortress, but seeing as how that game is a rogue-like and mostly obscure, I don't see it ever becoming big enough or ever making a profit (Not that this is the creator's goal but still.)

The point of the game is to survive inside of a bio-dome as a colonist with the highest function, a captain so to speak. You don't have an actual physical body however. You're more of an all-seeing eye that is able to command other colonists in certain ways. Each time a new game starts, a random type of planet or other body of mass in space is used. Each planet or other mass will be slightly different from the other in several ways. Examples are:

1: Distance from the sun if there even is a sun.
2: Atmosphere if there even is one. Could potentially be hazardous in many ways due to diseases, chemicals in the atmosphere and other deadlies.
3: Local life forms or life forms from space that attack the bio-dome.
4: Gravity. The bio-dome itself has an artificial inside gravity but everything outside is entirely dependent on the planet. Going outside on a planet with incredibly high gravity could crush your colonists without any protection.

The crew members each have a function that they perform throughout the game. There are crew members who take care of the plants, the cooking, maintenance, etc. Each crew member however gets random traits to give them individuality much like creatures in Dwarf Fortress. Certain crew members are braver than others and will be more likely to engage a threat or react appropriately to a hazard.

If the bio-dome is breached in any way, that atmosphere of the planet starts creeping in or, if you're on a planet that doesn't even have an atmosphere, air starts getting sucked out and things start to become really bad.

Slowly over time, certain crew members will have their thought processes corrupted. Sometimes these can be detected and dealt with by brigging them, but there are those that are so sneaky that you won't notice what they're up to until it's too late (Like trying to sabotage the hull of the bio-dome.)

Other dangers could include the bio-dome's computer systems or "A.I." so to speak malfunctions and starts acting irresponsible and dangerous to the crew members. It could open doors for people and then have them smash shut before they manage to walk through. To deal with that, you'd have to reset the A.I. but that in itself would be hard.

Crew members can be ordered to do certain things like reporting to certain locations or dealing with certain situations. When nothing is up however, they will continue to go on their daily basis just keeping the bio-dome at peak efficiency.

You lose the game as soon as the bio-dome is either destroyed beyond functionality or all your crew members die.

So to me that sounds like a sims game in space where everyone will die at the end. I think you are missing key elements which games like Dwarf Fortress or other rogue-likes have to keep the player interested because as it stands I would find it rather tedious to play a game where you have to just maintain a bio-dome till it dies.

The way dwarf fortress does it is by having it set up that, whilst you might inevitably lose, each time you play you make a larger fortress, get into more wars explore more underground. They reward the player for persevering through multiple fortresses and testing their new strategies. Where as I see your game being more related to reactive gaming rather than active gaming. The player will react to a bad event such as a leak or a crew member going crazy, rather than having an active chance at stopping those from happening.

So to me that sounds like a sims game in space where everyone will die at the end. I think you are missing key elements which games like Dwarf Fortress or other rogue-likes have to keep the player interested because as it stands I would find it rather tedious to play a game where you have to just maintain a bio-dome till it dies.

The way dwarf fortress does it is by having it set up that, whilst you might inevitably lose, each time you play you make a larger fortress, get into more wars explore more underground. They reward the player for persevering through multiple fortresses and testing their new strategies. Where as I see your game being more related to reactive gaming rather than active gaming. The player will react to a bad event such as a leak or a crew member going crazy, rather than having an active chance at stopping those from happening.

To be honest, the most fun I have in Dwarf Fortress is when I die to a stupid mistake (Digging into magma) or just something that was unstoppable for me at that present time (stealthed ambush when I had no traps.) I find the idea of having a gigantic fortress that has been worked on for years in-game time less realistic, especially when we're considering that a bio-dome (If it will even be a bio-dome. It might as well be something like a manned space station.) is very vulnerable to just about anything.

Though there could always be the settings where you change the factor of certain things happening, all the way down to 0 if some people prefer to have more of a simulation/building experience.

Obviously planets and masses will be explorable. Some planets would even have safe atmospheres to breathe in from the beginning, while others need suits of some kind. Could make it so that if there ARE resources able to be gathered on the planet, you will start with less initial resources.

[quote name='GoodVibes' timestamp='1305419099' post='4810897']
Slowly over time, certain crew members will have their thought processes corrupted. Sometimes these can be detected and dealt with by brigging them, but there are those that are so sneaky that you won't notice what they're up to until it's too late (Like trying to sabotage the hull of the bio-dome.)

This suggestion gets into modelling the player's ignorance, or failure to pay attention to detail, which is probably not a good thing. Leave the player to fail on their own merits, then they are losing. I don't want to play a game where I suddenly and randomly die, hardy har har har. No, what I want from losing is a learning experience, where I realize why I failed and what to watch out for next time.
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Everything right now is a rough sketch and should not be taken as any type of final decision.

Besides. Players will be able to alter the chances of something happening. That and the fact that someone who has been corrupted will act quite differently from how they usually act.

Also, your feedback could use some improvement. You take things as if they are final right away and the whole "hardy har har har" thing you have going for you isn't a particularly nice trait either.

Either way. Thanks for the input.