While I had considered posting about fleet strategies and tactics, I thought it would be more appropriate to start from the beginning – the battle system itself. There are two major computations performed by the battle system. First, space combat is computed. Once this part is over, and provided there are still attacking ships in [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Game design category.
Milestone 2 – Weapons and defences
I am currently working on designing the M2 database. While quite a lot of the basic structure stays, there are many changes, especially as far as fleets and battles are concerned. In order to make sure that the fleet-related information is complete, the most crucial component is the battle system. It affects a few things [...]
Contribution credits in Beta 6
I’ve been asked about contribution credits and how they are going to work in Beta 6 a few times on IRC, therefore it seems like a good idea to write a post about this. It is written in the style of a FAQ, because it’s easier. Will there be contribution credits in Beta 6? Obviously, [...]
Stock markets (1/2)
Beta 6 introduces an optional system of stock markets which, while usually being beneficial as they increase revenues, also happen to create a small risk of economic depression. A planet’s stock market normally affects only the output of industrial factories – however, some laws allow the planet’s base income to be indexed on its value [...]
Travel and distances (5/5): putting it all together
The previous posts in the series explained the basic elements of distance and trajectory computations in the Legacy Worlds Beta 6 universe; this final post about travel and distances puts these elements together, explaining how and when they apply. Indeed, while players will get the final say about their fleets’ trajectories, some details remain to [...]
Travel and distances (4/5): interstellar travel
The previous posts in this series discussed generalities, stellar systems and special objects such as nebulae. The last element that needs to be considered to describe travel in the Legacy Worlds universe is actual interstellar travel. Because of the structure of the universe in the new version, it is impossible to describe interstellar travel as [...]
Travel and distances (3/5) : special objects
While the first post discussed generalities and the second post discussed travel and distances within stellar systems, this third post about travel and in-game distances will describes the structures associated with other, “special” objects which can be found in one of the universe’s layers – namely black holes, nebulae and supergates.
Travel and distances (2/5) : stellar systems
In the previous post about travel and distances, we discussed the generalities about travel in the Legacy Worlds universe. This new post in the series describes the structure of stellar systems and the travel rules that apply. Stellar systems have two “levels” of structure. First there is a general structure, common to all stellar systems; [...]
Travel and distances (1/5) : basics
Many types of objects in Legacy Worlds Beta 6 will have to travel the universe from one point to another. While this set obviously includes ships, many other elements such as probes, resource extractors or migrating populations will need to travel. It is therefore necessary to write rules regarding the method used to travel from [...]
Writing formulas – part 1
One of the most important and tricky aspects of Beta 6′s design is the creation of formulas. This series of posts (don’t ask me how many will be written, I really don’t know) will try to explain the process. In this first post I’ll present the different types of formulas that need to be written [...]