LCOG Gameplay v0.2

Changes

After plenty of discussion, the new version will allow players to own a planet.  Instead of having a colony as described below players will now be able to build certain components directly on planets, as well as on ships.  Components must be built by a ship in orbit around the planet unless the planet itself has a factory component.  The order will be called upgrade and will be issued to the ship or planet with the factory component - a ship given an upgrade order will always try and upgrade the planet they are around.

In combat planets will take damage as if they were a large hull (perhaps mass 1000?) and for every 10% damage they take a component will be destroyed.

Overview

Version 0.1 of LCOG saw a basic, working turn based game based on a coordinate based map, with an economic system based on crew and energy localised on planets and ships.  This new version of the game, aims to minimize the micromanagement of player economies, in favour of more dynamic strategy based on the disposition and deployment of a players fleet.

Map

Exactly the same as the previous version, the map will be coordinate based, with planets dotted across the map as single coordinates.  The map will optionally wrap around, i.e. moving across the top edge will mean you arrive on the bottom edge.  The speed of ships and the size of the map will be kept approximately the same as well.

Planets

Planets used to have a finite energy store which was reduced each turn by players crew mining.  This was intended to force players into conflict by providing a seriously limited commodity to fight over, however had the reverse effect since movement and ships both cost energy players were reluctant to waste this finite resource in warfare.  Planets were owned by a player when he deposited crew there and crew automatically mined.  When a planet was owned players could build ships there, as long as enough energy had been mined.

In the new version planets will be much simpler than before, with an infinite store of energy to be collected. Each planet, will however have a base amount of energy that will be produced if the planet is owned - meaning some planets are better than others.  As explained later, planets no longer store energy that was produced/mined the energy is stored in a global pool that each player can use to build.  In addition planets are no longer the factories of a faction and so building is no longer done on planets.

Crew are no longer tracked individually, and a planet is colonised by a ship equipped with a colony component (it also costs energy from the factions reserve).  Once this is done the planet is owned and is said to have a colony.

Energy

Energy is no longer a localised resource once it has been extracted from planets, meaning that each faction has a global energy reserve to call upon.  Planets also, now have unlimited energy reserves, but different planets produce a different amount of energy each turn.  Energy production relies on factions colonising a planet.

When a player captures another players planet then a percentage of energy will be stolen from their reserve.

Crew

Crew no longer exist.  Planets are colonised using a new colonise order, which requires that the ship has a colonisation component (a new component) and a cost in energy.  Colonising a new planet will cost approximately 500-1000 energy from the factions global reserve (yet to be decided).

Hulls

Specific hulls no longer exist.  When building a ship (ships are now built by other ships equipped with the new factory component) the order includes the size of hull to build.  The hull will cost 1 energy per hull mass built.  Hull mass/size will have a similar effect in combat as the old hulls, but instead of slots the components that can be added to a hull depend on it's size.  This is likely to be equivalent of about 1 slot for every 50 mass, with some components being smaller and others larger.  In order to let players make sense of their own and enemies ships, an algorithm will be used to determine the hull class.  Essentially, the size of the hull, along with the components used will be matches against a set of predetermined hull classes and a name, description and image assigned.  Some examples follow.

• Scout Class: Small hull (less than 100), scanning components.
• Interceptor Class: small hull (less than 150), scanners and or weapons.
• Explorer Class: medium hull (100-200), some weaponry and some additional components (e.g. cloak, colony, repair).
• Destroyer Class: medium/large hull (150-300), mostly weaponry.
• Colony Class: Colony module and little else.
• Factory Class: Factory module and little else.
• Baseship Class: medium/large hull, includes factory class and several other components.
• Mothership Class: large hull, includes factory and colony components.

There are just examples - the details will depend on final decisions about hull sizes and component costs etc.

Components

Components will work in the same way as the previous version, although there will be more components to allow for build and colony orders.  Also building components will require hulls of certain sizes.  For example a hull of mass/size 100 is allowed components that add-up to 100 in size.  Components such as beams will be relatively small, while factory and colony components will require much larger hulls.  A preliminary list of hulls is shown below.

• Engine: medium
• Beam: small
• Torpedo: small
• Shield: medium
• Factory: large
• Colony: large
• Repair: medium
• Long Range Scanner: small (increase scan range)
• Telemetry: small (scan planet energy)

Colonies

Instead of planets keeping track of crew, they are now owned by a faction when it colonises it. To start with this will be a simple colony which is created by issuing the colonise order to a ship in orbit around anuncolonised planet to a ship with a colony component.  Once a colony is created it will add energy to your reserve depending on the planets energy attribute (you can see that from orbit).  The only order you may issue a colony is to upgrade to one of the following advanced structures to gain specific benefits.

• Military base - additional defence
• Research base - additional research (see technology)
• Mining base - produces 20% (or more?) extra energy
• City - marginal additions to defence, research and mining

In combat colonies behave the same as the existing version, although with more balanced weaponry compared to the ships (a colony should be equivalent to a small warship).

Movement

The same as earlier version.

Combat

The same as earlier version, given the new hull sizing and components.  Also, beams will be enhanced compared to torpedo's.

Technology

For the new version a completely new feature is technology which must be researched.  There will be three technology areas in which factions can advance themselves: fields, materials and computing.  Each faction starts with tech level 0 in each of these.  Every component will require a certain tech level in order for you to add it to a hull, and may require a level from more than one technology.  In addition materials is used to determine the maximum hull size that your faction may construct.

There may be other gameplay features that depend on your tech levels.  This is undecided at present.  For example, shields may require fields level 2 in order to be built.  Either there will be an advance shield at level 4, and perhaps anuber shield at level 6, or your shields will gain a bonus as your technology levels increase.  Beams may have longer range, a wider ark and shorter recharge time for example.

Technology is researched automatically by research bases (advanced colony) and research components on ships.  Each base and component will add 1 research point.  To advance to level 1 from level zero will require 10 research points.  Level 2 will require 20 and so on.

There will be no upper limit on technology, although after a certain level there will be no new components and perhaps no added gameplay advantages.

Certain orders may also be restricted by tech levels - although I can't think of any at the moment that would not be component specific.