Random events
In Beta 5 the only events which can occur in game are the direct consequences of some game actions performed either by yourself or other players. There is no surprise nor anything linked with the universe itself. Introducing alien factions controlled by the game itself is one way to improve the game dynamics. Another way is to introduce random events.
These events occur randomly in the course of the game and affect game parameters on a scale wide enough not to advantage or disadvantage too much particular players. The frequency at which random events occur will have to be precisely defined, however it will be devised so that everyone is affected by a random event every now and then in any case.
Random events are defined by an effect, an application range and a duration. For instance, one such event could be a disease reducing population growth in a layer of the universe for a week. Several categories of random events have been devised so far.
Spatial phenomena such as ion storms, meteor showers or electromagnetic waves affect the behaviour of fleets, ships, communication and detection systems. Economic events affect planets’ production, resources and research. These include for instance economic booms or depressions, strikes, piracy or research boosts. Population-related events include epidemics, food shortages or religious holidays. Species-specific events affect various species-related parameters or occur on a per-species basis. Some affect all species, such as periods of xenophobia. Others affect the relations between two species, such as territorial disputes. The last ones are specific to one species, such as a breeding or hibernation cycle.
Various ranges for the application of random events have already been defined. These ranges can first of all be based on geography: an area of a layer, a layer, a set of layers or the whole universe. They can also be depend on species: one particular species, a set of species, all species. Finally the range can be have specific conditions, for instance all planets with an happiness level below a particular value or all mixed population planets, etc.
What do you think of this random events principle? Do you think it could add some dynamics to the game?
Do you consider the proposed application ranges are adequate?
Can you think of other random event categories?
What kind of events would you suggest?
Cyliis:
The ranges are adequate, but I fear that if the “randomness” accidentally repeatedly targets the same people, or alliance people could begin to think that there is favoritism at work. Not all, but I think many of these things sound like something that could be triggered by the players’ actions. Xenophobia, for example. I’m not sure that anything should be entirely random unless it’s on a universal level.
April 23, 2008, 4:33 pmTSeeker:
@Cyliis,
April 25, 2008, 1:31 pmThe randomness will be tightly controlled to prevent events of the same “value” (that is “good”, “bad” or “neutral” event) from happening in the same area. This means for example that if you fall victim to a meteor shower, you’re sure the next thing that’ll happen to you isn’t bad for you, or that nothing will happen to you in quite a while.
Making all local events something that depends on a player’s / on players’ actions wouldn’t make sense for many things, and so would transforming some local events into universal events. It wouldn’t be logical if a meteor shower hit simultaneously in X different galaxies… So we’d end up having only a few events.
Regarding Xenophobia, no, it can be triggered because of random events totally out of an empire’s control; you know how this works … A bunch of guys from species A does something “evil” to some guys from species B, which is followed by resentment from species B towards species A, which only feeds itself as species A starts going “Why would I bother? They hate me anyways” … and so on.
Yuckwitte:
You say species wide ‘random events’ like breeding cycle right? Wouldnt that be not ‘random’ but rather reoccuring? For example, to have a realistic breeding cycle, one would have to have a ‘calender’, so that every, however long the breeding cycle is, X happens to Y race of people. And for that too work, it would not really be random.
What about a sort of ‘Mecca’ where lots of one species come too every X number of days? I mean, it could be like a homeworld or something just something that everyone comes too…
I know I didnt really suggest any ‘Random’ events but I think that a lot of the events you suggested aren’t really ‘Random’ and merely time period base.
May 6, 2008, 12:51 pmTSeeker:
@Yuckwitte,
Obviously some species have a regular breeding cycle; however, the random event that was named thus referred to a very … productive … breeding cycle, one in which the amount of individuals born out of it was greater than what anyone could have anticipated or lasted longer (or both).
I don’t understand your Mecca suggestion. Please explain.
May 7, 2008, 7:37 amYuckwitte:
Well, every year Muslims from all over the world go to mecca? (this is just an example…)
So why not aliens going to a homeworld or something, or a holy planet or something?
May 7, 2008, 7:58 amTSeeker:
Oh, of course … I guess I shouldn’t read/reply to comments after a 4h “night”. The problem with it is that it’s really systematic, so a regular pilgrimage wouldn’t work; however, what could work as a “random” event is an exceptional such pilgrimage. Of course, the population wouldn’t really go away, it’d just stay there and be useless for some time.
May 7, 2008, 8:03 amYuckwitte:
On that note… The such exceptional thingy could be an alignment of some moons or planets or something…
May 7, 2008, 8:21 amYuckwitte:
And this would mean some festival of being lazy and eating Chips… Damn I love religion
May 7, 2008, 9:10 amju:
You have to keep in mind the “large” scale side of things. An alignment of moons would only affect one player, and it is “bad” because it would be unfair.
June 15, 2008, 12:13 pm