From: gvbraun@vipunen.hut.fi (Toni Kotinurmi)
Subject: Re: Ideas for a galactic conquest game?
Reply-To: gvbraun@vipunen.hut.fi (Toni Kotinurmi)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 16:59:45 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.065628.13430@ucc.su.OZ.AU> mar@physics.su.OZ.AU (David Mar) writes:

>I'm trying to design a game which I will implement on a computer. The
-Implement on a computer ?
 Do you plan to make a board-game version also ? ( changes the
 possibilities a lot )

>game _Empire_, then it's a bit like that. The game is to be a "galactic
>conquest" sort of affair (yeah, I know, it's cliched, but what the heck).
Check newsgroup alt.games.gb for galactic bloodshed ( if you haven't yet )
in order to avoid making it similair.

Labour points
>  repair them. There may be other fun things to spend points on (this is
-Improving your race ( it _is_ different races, right ? )
-Developing following abilities:
>  Engines: the bigger, the faster,
>  Weapons: the bigger, the more destructive,
>  Shields: the bigger, the more protective,
>  Sensors: the better, the more sensitively you can nail down another
>           ship's engines/weapons/shields,
>  Cargo: the more, the more economic clout,
>  Colonists: the more, the merrier!
>  (Any other ideas?)

>  Food, metal ore, medicines, radioactives, (any other ideas?).

>- When you happen to be in the same star system as an "enemy" ship, you
>  may either fight it out, or attempt to bargain a trade (of resources,
(rather make it same planet-orbit OR close enough, this would allow
 a faster ship to flee if a slow battleship would turn towards it )

>- Spaceships will not have access to the entire galaxy. Only a relatively
>  small surveyed region will be safe for travel to each empire. This region
>  will naturally expand as more worlds are colonised. Does anyone have any

If you travel sub-light, then skip next.
If you think of hyperjump:

I have had this idea for long time; (on a silver plate):
1.Theory
In order to use hyperspace between any two points you must use resources
and ships to create this 'hyper-hole' between any two points in the
universe. This means you will have to know the distance to the star you
are going to aim to; telescopes just are not too good in that always.
So: you estimate a point and send a probe. If it is close enough to the
destination star, that is OK. If it is not close enough you fly the
probe where-ever you want to create _another_ jump-point ( costing
more and more that quasimatter--or whatever you use in creating ) and voila',
instant hyperspace to-point-xxx (xxx=point number, which has its own
co-ordinates). In the latter case you have 2 hyper-points if some
disaster ruins one point ( you can nuke the jump-point--this destroys
the delicate space-time-net in that point long enough the point will
float out of the solar system and become useless )

2. Practise ( this is what it seems like to the player)
Player says the amount of resources and labour (etc...) he wishes to use
in getting 'a road' to a certain certain star. Dice is rolled,
the more he spent, the more accurate the destination is
( and the closer the star is from the planet which creates 'the road' ),
and he gets a jumping point #237. So he orders a ship ( preferably cheap
one, it can be lost if the jump-point is inside the destination star or p ) to
jump to #237. Ship is distance x and it will cost y fuel. Ok. The ship
jumps there and he finds the place suitable.
  Next ship can jump in as soon
as this ship moves out of the danger-area ( danger that it would jump
right on top of this ship ). Of course the ship does not always enter
the system exactly at the pre-determined point but there is some
randomize ( like +-1km/co-ordinate ). If player sees it important enough
he makes several jump-points in certain systems in order to get many
ships in that system in _one_ update (=generation of results of a turn).

3.summary
  In this suggestion you have:
-A certain cost for each jump-point you wish to make TO a certain system
-Much more expensive in larger distances ( so it would cost 100 labour to
 find a hyper-route to that 40-light year distant star. And it
 would cost 5 labour to find a route to 5-light year distant star )
-A fixed number of ships which can jump during same update to any ONE
 system ( otherwise they just might land on top of each-other and blow up )


Notice that you might want to put some labour into developing hyper-engines,
otherwise they spend so much energy you will have to use too
much fuel for a single jump.

>- I'd like to include some environmental effects to make certain worlds
>  desirable to some empires and not to others. For example, the Terrans
>  covet the oxygen world in the Sirius system, while the CO2-breathing
>  Zablogs will do anything to conquer Venus.
Temperature, soil, atmosphere ( atmosphere seems easiest to change )

>Well, that's a not-so-brief run-down of my thoughts so far. If anyone has
>any interesting ideas or brainstorms, please e-mail, or post on this
>newsgroup.

I hope you find some of these ideas interesting,
  Toni
Newsgroups: rec.games.design