..below is a clip from a conversation I had with one of the people working on the client, comments are welcome.
Svist 8:05 PM: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/2/15/10317/6809
dcanham99 8:06 PM: funny you should show me that article
dcanham99 8:07 PM: the original design concept of MMOG CnD was to allow a mixture of strategic and tactical, though not as totally freeform as they were talking about there.
dcanham99 8:07 PM: but I toned it down (ha ha) to this with possible upgrades as the commercial version advances.
Svist (AIM) 8:08 PM: yea what that article talks about is a HUGE project
dcanham99 8:08 PM: THIS IS A HUGE PROJECT!
dcanham99 8:09 PM: which is one reason I want to get past this initial obstacle of a working client to build on
Svist (AIM) 8:09 PM: yay more underlings to harass =D
dcanham99 8:09 PM: /me flexes whip meaningfully
dcanham99 8:17 PM: the way I imagined it is leaders of empires hiring pilots and marines (players) to participate in battles that they queue using strategic decisions on the empire side, or the players just picking up
dcanham99 8:17 PM: that way we would have a mixture of strategic gaming, with realtime drill downs
dcanham99 8:21 PM: I think that would be fun, upcoming space, air and land (sea?) battles would queue up for players to pick from, and if noone picked that would proceed automatically using AI.
dcanham99 8:22 PM: you could have a battle advantage having good players (mercenaries?) join on your side. Players that wanted to develop their twitch skills would have the equivalant of a freespace module (space battles), XWing (interceptor, planetary), and Quake/Halo (ground fighting) available to pick from depending on what phase of the battle they wanted to participate in.
dcanham99 8:23 PM: I think I would be doable if you limited the participants to 8-12 on either side, and started the battle on a dedicated server. Their performance flying, ground fighting, or whatever could be a representational influence on the overall battle. What could be interesting are those battles that involved multiple races that were in a freeforall with everyone for themselves.
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Finding remnants of the elder races is a major task. In the Conquest and Destiny galaxy there are several items left lying around from the previous Elder Race occupation many eons ago. These artifacts will be found in two main places. A few will be floating around deepspace or orbiting something. These will mainly be space based objects like stargates, battle stations, etc. Most artifacts, however, will be found in ruins on a planetary surface. To retrieve these successfully it takes archaeology, which due to the danger level of some artifacts can be a whole game in itself..
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Artifact Factors - There are several bonuses or effects that can be received from possession of an artifact. There are also some restrictions on what they do and how they do it. Here are the factors involved.
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RACE INITIALIZATION
Many games in the 4x genre have different race types that you can pick from that each have their pluses and minuses. Usually these are very limited and lead to you having to be aware of your opponent predelictions and choose something that can effectively oppose what they are doing.
EXPLORING (PLANETS, STARS, ARTIFACTS, DERELICT FLEETS, ELDER RACES)
In CnD, exploring can be a game in itself. Million of planets, stars, moons, and objects to find. Each object has its own set of details which may affect game play. In most space game, a player might find a star with no planets - and find it useless. In CnD there are a whole range of ways to use this star. A player might find special or unusual planets like -
GALAXY INITIALIZATION
The Initialization of the Galaxy is handled on a one-time basis per galaxy with all the data being generated on the server and dispensed to the player in small portions as appropriate. The application that performs the initialization is quite flexible as to its parameters. Part of the initialization process is creating a summary report to let us know how things went. Below is an example of one of these summary reports.
Research Sciences - There are 31 different Research Sciences address many different areas of technology.
Advanced Weapon Systems (RS-3) -
Fortresses - This is a planetary installation that will fire upon hostile incoming forces. They are also extremely effective against Interceptors or invading Platoons.
Planetary Shields - These installation will erect an energy shield like vessels have, except around the entire planet.
Ion Cannons - These are longer range high power energy weapons that can be placed on the planet.
TECH DEVELOPMENT
This section will outline the technology tree and various aspects about it. There are a lot of cross referenced techs that you cannot get without having a certain level in another technology.
Technology - This section explains how Tech Levels are advanced and the different factors involved. For a more detailed explanation of the process, go here.
Racial Tech Levels - Tech Levels represents how much your race has invested towards research and advancement. All new races start at Racial Tech Level 1.
Tech Points - Whenever a Tech Level is advanced, the race receives 5 tech points to invest in either a General Skill or a specific Research Science.
General Skill of Research - This is a General Skill (GS-15). The more tech points your race invests in this the less it costs for each tech level advancement.
Research Points - Research Points are generated by planetary installations acquired by investment in the Research Facility Research Science (RS-22). The more research points that are developed, the less expensive it is to advance technology levels. The amount of Research Points that are developed by the facilities is affected by the Research General Skill of the race.
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