Beta 5 doesn’t include any notion of time flow. Nothing is really recorded and past events only remain as a part of the memory of players. However only relying on memory isn’t sufficient if we want to build up a real history. And history is what makes a game alive. As such we are planning [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Game design category.
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 [...]
Species: biological drones
Biological drones are the achievement of many years of scientific discovery and advancement; they are produced by humans as a general purpose, low-maintenance workforce. Appearance Biological drones were made to look like humans: they were designed to their creators’ image. They have a limited understanding to prevent people from getting worried about what would happen [...]
Space structures
In Beta 5 the only items which can actually be built are ships. Moreover the only “permanent” items a player can control are planets which are located at specific coordinates. With the introduction of real buildings it felt logical that a planet’s surface might not be the only location where permanent structures could be installed. [...]
Banking
In Beta 6, an empire’s primary cash reserve is limited to at most 2 billions. All cash earned after this limit is reached will be wasted. In addition, 75% of the empire’s main cash reserve is split between its planets, the exact proportions depending on the planet’s category. When a planet is taken by an [...]
Alliances
In Beta 5, alliances are only groups of players who have chosen to play together. There isn’t much which can be done at the alliance level. For instance the type of alliance government has an influence limited to the leader’s election; being a member of an alliance or another has no real effect on the [...]
Resources
We have already mentioned several times in comments that Beta 6 would include more resources than just money. There are in fact several types of natural resources which can be mined from various sources such as nebulae or asteroids. There are 3 different types of resources: gases, minerals and dark matter. While dark matter is [...]
Employment
While Beta 5 only featured three different types of buildings, we stated in an earlier post that Beta 6 will feature dozens. But that isn’t the only building-related change Beta 6 will introduce, far from it. One of the worst defects in Beta 5 was the “optimal factories” computation – it relied on nothing but [...]
Species: Arc’kha’to
The Arc’kha’to, often referred to as controllers, are a species of ugly, parasitic and predatory aliens. Appearance It is very hard to describe an Arc’kha’to as most of its appearance is determined by the host it currently uses. However, a host infested with an Arc’kha’to can be identified by the various protuberances and nodes that [...]
Buildings
In Beta 5, some technologies might be considered as leading to the construction of buildings; however, the construction process is implicit and no actual building is present on the planet. Beta 6 will feature actual buildings, allowing for a much higher degree of control. Several buildings with either different effects or different levels of effect [...]