Home » Stars! 2.6/7 » The Bar » Game concept: Homeworld Quest.
| Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Sun, 02 November 2008 21:23  |
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 magic9mushroom |
 | Commander |
Messages: 1361
Registered: May 2008 | |
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Non-competing host sets up things so that each player starts on a world which is decent for them but not their actual HW.
All players have to have different HW hab, so the HWs are recognisable.
The galaxy is huge packed.
The players have to find and colonise their original homeworld.
They initially have no idea where it is, but there are worlds scattered throughout space which have clues. One will be near their original start point. Basically, each time they find one, they're directed to the next one's approximate location (galaxy clumping on, cluster will be given) once they stick a scanner ship in orbit, or colonise it, and "search the surface for clues" (Some clues won't be visible from orbit, and will have to be colonised). The host will check each turn and give out the clues to the races that find them. Each race has its own set of clue worlds. There will be around 10 clues that have to be found before the homeworld location is given to you in a clue. As soon as one race colonises their HW, they win.
The thing is though, because there are a lot of races in the galaxy (I'm thinking 12 at least), races may have trouble finding their clues. Stealth will be important, especially for the "flyby" clues, as will misdirection. Because if it's obvious that a certain world has a clue for you, others may stop you from getting the clue. Also Propulsion tech will be vital to the 2000-ly trips that may be necessary.
EDIT: Also, CA would be banned, because of the Crystal Ball if nothing else. IT would be penalised 50 points, because they start with higher Propulsion tech and can expand faster.
EDIT #2: The game would be slow tech, of course, otherwise everyone would be at full tech long before any homeworlds were rediscovered.
[Updated on: Sun, 02 November 2008 22:00] Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Mon, 03 November 2008 10:42  |
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| magic9mushroom wrote on Mon, 03 November 2008 03:23 |
The host will check each turn and give out the clues to the races that find them. Each race has its own set of clue worlds. There will be around 10 clues that have to be found before the homeworld location is given to you in a clue. As soon as one race colonises their HW, they win.
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That sounds like a lot of work for the host.
10 players who each get about 10 hints... makes 100 hints altogether and checking game and m-files each year...
It's an interesting idea but it needs some measures or tools to cut down the workload for the host.
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Mon, 03 November 2008 20:18 |
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| magic9mushroom |
| Commander |
Messages: 1361
Registered: May 2008 | |
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to Altruist: Ya, I suppose.
to joseph: Circumventing the clues is intended to be a viable way to win. But not the easiest. So everyone has to have different HW hab.
to Kreedon: CA will already be banned because the Crystal Ball allows them to match players and HWs. JoaT banning and NAS requiring are good ideas, partially because it makes the host's job easier. Problem with that is that if you ban penscans, you have to ban SS as well, and a good portion of this scenario favors SS. And it's a huge packed full of other players knowing you're looking for either a clue or your HW. It's going to be hard to get scouts, and then a colony ship through.
Banning IFE is iffy, because it gives a good likelihood that full tech will be reached before anyone gets to the end, turning it into a slugfest. Which I don't want.
The other solution, of course, would be to make the "HW" not actually a HW. That would make the "screw clues" approach fail utterly.
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Tue, 04 November 2008 16:42 |
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| skoormit |
 | Lieutenant |
Messages: 665
Registered: July 2008
Location: Alabama | |
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I like the idea of having a target world to colonize, and that being the sole victory condition. I would do away with the clues, though, and simply give each race a secret goal planet.
Make the goal planets as far from the starting position as possible. You might need to mod the .xy to have a fair starting position for everyone. Those who start in the middle, for example, will have an easier time getting to a goal planet than someone who has to cross the whole map.
Instead of a huge map, this idea might have potential as a fun shorter game in a small map. A lot of players are leery of the MM required for a huge/packed game. Make it small/packed, and I think it will still be fun and will also make more strategies viable.
All in all, I think what I really like about your idea is that you have a clear, objective victory condition that is different from "outproduce everyone else."
What we need's a few good taters.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Wed, 05 November 2008 13:40 |
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| skoormit |
| Lieutenant |
Messages: 665
Registered: July 2008
Location: Alabama | |
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| magic9mushroom wrote on Tue, 04 November 2008 19:30 |
If you make it small/packed, then conquest comes into it, which makes it boring. Also, clues are fun. If every race knows from the start what they're going for, it sorta ruins the fun, which you have with clues.
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You could try introducing some rules to reduce the viability of conquest. Maybe a limit of planets per player, or number of armed ships per player. Or, just make it a rule that you cannot invade another player's planet (and some secondary rule to prevent squatting). Or, give every player the same race design and make con and weap expensive. There's got to be a simple way to keep conquest from happening without having to play in a big map. The reason I proposed going small was to avoid a superlong game with a lot of MM. Reason being that you might get more players willing to pick up a 3rd game if the time commitment isn't terribly daunting.
Are the clues going to be hints and puzzles and riddles, or just the name of the next target planet?
You know, one advantage of huge/packed is the sheer number of planets (945), meaning that you aren't likely to accidentally stumble upon a clue planet. Maybe to avoid the superlong MM game you could just limit the number of planets per player to 5 or 6. Maybe everyone plays a -f IT and just hops around from planet to planet, looking for clues.
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Thu, 06 November 2008 16:14 |
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| perrindom |
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Messages: 129
Registered: August 2005
Location: Denmark | |
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Seing the discussion now have some elements from a game idea I once toyed with. It will indeed be (too) much work for the host, but perhaps you like an idea or two.
"Quests"
This game idea is inspired by another old game Warlords I & II (now free abandonware). The host will provide a tresure of some kind to the first player that accomplishes a given quest. A technologically advanced host race is needed for this. What these goals should be and what the rewards should be is up for discussion, but the harder the quest the bigger the reward. Perhaps it would be wise to have a second host to advise on the correct difficulty and reward. Possible rewards:
Minerals --- Ships --- MT parts/hulls (in the form of a bunch of scrappers) --- Map information (planet and ship intel from an area of space taken from the host's game files --- Tech levels (in the form of a bunch of scrappers) --- Having the host orbit som CA orbital adjusters for effectively X terraforming units.
Some things are to be decided:
Q: Should you have 1, 2, 3 or all things to choose from when you complete a quest? Should you have a free pick from all MT items or just those you have the current tech to build? Should depend on the quest.
Q: Should what you can get be public?
Q: Host will announce that a goal has been reached, but should the player's name be published too?
Q: How big should the rewards be? They must at least be big enough to make it worth to allocate some resources, but balancing them so they will have a game impact, but not so big that fulfilling a quest is a game winner - difficult to say.
Q: Where should the reward be handed over? (probably at a green planet that the player owned when starting the quest)
Q: it is hard to rate which quests are difficult and which are easy. They can of course be modified so they are judged to be of equal difficulty.
FIXED quests to accomplish/goals to reach: (these are determined from game start)
# square root of all individual teh levels must equal or exceed 18. Examples: Techs 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 equals 6 * 3 = 18. The same 54 tech levels: 10, 14, 5, 15, 8, 4 equals 17,84. In this example researching bio gives an increase of 0,23 and thus completes the goal (square root of 5 is 2,23)
# Every 25th year, the player whose lowest tech level is the highest, ties are determined by the level of the second lowest tech and so forth.
# Maxing out a tech other than weapons and contruction (or maxing out one that is not cheap).
# Maxing out a tech that is expensive
# place some not cloaked ships less than 5 ly from all four edges of the map, but at least 150 ly away from the corners.
# populate two green planets with at least 250000 colonists. The planets must be apart with at least 85% of the universe size.
# mines a planet to 1% concentration in all 3 minerals. To rule out luck of having a mineral poor planet close by, the planet must have at least one 50% concentration from game start, which must be verified by looking at old game files.
# locate some highly cloaked ships, placed around the galaxy by the host. These will not move during the game. A reward is given for all of these ships. The first to locate a ship will receive a bigger reward, and so forth a smaller reward for each ship.
# kill a tough but not cloaked ship, placed around the galaxy by the host. These will not move during the game. A reward is given for all of these ships. The reward should be bigger the fewer ships player uses to kill this ship. The first to kill a ship will receive a bigger reward.
DYNAMIC quests: (these are game dependent)
To start a quest, the player will ask host for a quest. Host will then give the player a quest, which must be completed under certain conditions. Each player can only be trying for 1 quest at a time. If a player doesn't like the quest, 10 years must pass before he may ask again. No time limit after completed quests.
Q: should it be public that you start a quest? should it be revealed which quest?
# Invade a small enemy planet deep inside enemy space within 15 yea
...
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Thu, 06 November 2008 16:44 |
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| skoormit wrote on Thu, 06 November 2008 13:31 |
A bunch of nice ideas in there, but I wonder if the quests are significant enough to usurp the usual attempt to conquer the galaxy. What about a game which could only be won by completing quests, and had strict rules disallowing attempts to conquer other races?
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Suggest something, it sounds interesting.
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Thu, 06 November 2008 16:53 |
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| skoormit |
| Lieutenant |
Messages: 665
Registered: July 2008
Location: Alabama | |
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| Coyote wrote on Thu, 06 November 2008 15:44 |
| skoormit wrote on Thu, 06 November 2008 13:31 |
A bunch of nice ideas in there, but I wonder if the quests are significant enough to usurp the usual attempt to conquer the galaxy. What about a game which could only be won by completing quests, and had strict rules disallowing attempts to conquer other races?
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Suggest something, it sounds interesting.
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Top of my head:
Huge packed Uni, host is an IT with max tech and a few worlds scattered around the map. All players start with max tech (via a 1000 year gen prior to game start or some such method), and can design whatever race they want.
No player can have more than 5 planets colonized at a time.
No player may enter the orbit of an enemy planet.
No player may launch a packet at an enemy planet.
At game start, the host publishes a list of quests. To win the game, you must be the first race to complete a certain number of these quests.
In keeping with the spirit of mushroom's original idea, perhaps all the races begin the game on a planet far from their hw, and one of the quests is to find and colonize your own hw.
So, in essence, remove combat and tech research from the game, let players start with all the fun toys, and everyone races around trying to do stuff besides kill each other. Though space combat will certainly play a part.
As for the list of quests, perrindom's list above is a great start, minus all the ones that require attacking, of course.
What we need's a few good taters.Report message to a moderator
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Sat, 08 November 2008 07:40 |
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Hmmm... Just noticed the Star Name Changer utility
How about incorporating something like
1. You visit a particular planet.
2. This triggers the creation of a new xy file. You suddenly find the planet has vanished and you must chase it to the other side of the universe.
3. This happens x number of times whereupon it leads you to where you need to be.
This needn't be the whole task, just part of it.
Furthermore, it may be the case that all participants get the new xy file or just the player who triggered it or a random/planned combination of this.
Sulpholobus.
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Sat, 08 November 2008 08:15 |
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It may be an idea to level the playing field - possibles could be
> Max mins
> Limit planets that can be inhabited (x2 for HE)
> Limit level of tech use
> All races are OWW's (With just narrowest max left or right shifted combos this gives 8 completely different hab set ups - special planets could be created for each too using SHE - all the rest could be centred. Makes outright conquest somewhat wasteful probably)
> All races get to have the highest tech available to any particular race. e.g. someone chooses IT so all other races get P5 and con5 too
> HW's can't be attacked unless part of a quest
> Everyone starts in a central cluster
> Limited to X number of scouts at any one time (so JoaT can only have a max of X Scouts/DD's/FF's inclusive at any one time - JoaT's get must not have OBRM too perhaps)
I'm sure I've read some of these elsewhere. Just having a quick brainstorm.
Sulpholobus.
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| Re: Game concept: Homeworld Quest. |
Sun, 09 November 2008 16:27 |
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| magic9mushroom |
| Commander |
Messages: 1361
Registered: May 2008 | |
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| Quote: |
With the "Pursuer" you would have to make it so the developed race
A) Doesnt stop all the races by colonising planets they need. (ie when chasing player A they bomb and colonise a world player B needs to colonise).
B) Doesnt become to weak to "Chase" the players (ie if limited to only owning their homeworld - the running player will eventually be able to defeat the pursuing fleets).
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A can be easily set up by the host, by putting the clue planets not right next to the pursuer (except for maybe 1 each to give a challenge)
B isn't really hard if you give them say 20 planets.
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My plan would be to make it so the Pursuer would be a 1WW (must choose NAS)
They could have (4 X number of players) Scouting Fleets (bat scanner only!)
And (2 X number of players) Attack Fleets (no Scanners!)
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No pen scans I can agree with, but no scans at all is ridiculous. Because then they can't see or attack fleets and would hence lose the trail quickly.
The pursuer shouldn't need to popdrop or colonise, as I'm thinking of starting them off with En10, W12, P12, C10, El11, B7. Hence they'd start with decent bombs, the Trans-Galactic Super Scoop, and Super Fuel Xports. So they wouldn't need to colonise or popdrop.
[Updated on: Sun, 09 November 2008 16:30] Report message to a moderator
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