The Easy Way Out (Glenn)
LCoG Design 0.1
Early design document
Summary
Planets style game with fewer resources, and therefore simpler economy. The map will be coord based with individual planets and ships displayed on the map. Gameplay will try to emphasis combat with other players and encourage games with a firm ending (i.e. fewer planets, shorter distances than planets). Rules will tend to be biased towards Jim.
Mining
The mining rate will be a game setting which indicates how much energy one crew will extract each turn. This energy is taken from the planets energy attribute and added to the planets store attribute. The store is the energy which has already been collected and is ready to be transported or built with.
Building
You may build one new ship at each of your owned planets each turn. The constraints for building are the number of crew present at that planet - determined by the hull. Building a ship requires that you have enough energy in the planets store which will be used-up.
Population growth
The rate of population growth will be a game setting, the number of new crew each turn will always be rounded down. E.g. 50 crew with a rate of 1% would not give any extra crew, while 200 crew at the same rate would give 1 new crew each turn. Crew on ships never grow in population.
Freight
Energy and crew may be freely transferred between ships and planets at the same coord, up to the maximum cargo space of the ships. Planets have unlimited space. Crew and energy will add to the mass of a ship.
Fuel
Energy is used for fuel as well as for building.
Components/Slots
The following components can be specified when a ship is built. Each component has a specific in-game function. Component costs will be a game specific setting but the actual components available and their effects will be hard-coded into the game engine.
Building
You may build a ship at each of your planets every turn, constrained by the population of the planet and the energy available. The build order requires you specify the hull and which components (from above) will be included. The hulls are listed below.
The mass of a ship is calculated by the base mass of the hull + 1 for every crew & energy being carried in cargo. The components do not effect the weight - they are considered to be included in the base hull mass.
The basic speed of every ship is warp 9, which allows 90LY of movement in a turn. This basic speed assumes the ship has one engine slot, if a ship is built with no engine slots then it cannot move. For every additional engine the ship has it can travel an additional 10LY per turn (rated as warp 9.1, 9.2 etc.). The cost of movement is 1 energy (taken from cargo) for every 10LY travelled, for every 100 mass. All mass calculations are rounded up to the nearest 100.
For example: A scout of mass 20 plus 100 energy and 20 crew has a total mass of 140. With 2 engines it can travel 100LY a turn with a top speed of warp 9.1. If it moves it's complete 100LY then it will cost 140/100 = 1.4 per 10 LY. therefore (100LY / 10) * 1.4energy = 14energy. Reducing their stock to 86.
The constants in this equation will be game settings and will be able to be changed.
Economy
There are two resources in the game energy and crew. Crew will work in a similar way to colonists in planets - you start with a set number and they will slowly mutiply, they are needed to make your planets economies develop (they will not be needed for crewing ships - to keep it simple). Energy is collected from your planets and is present in a finite quantity, once collected you can use it to build ships. Essential to the economy is the concept of owning a planet - planets can either be unowned or can be owned by one faction - when this faction has crew on the planet. When you own a planet you may mine energy and build ships there.Mining
The mining rate will be a game setting which indicates how much energy one crew will extract each turn. This energy is taken from the planets energy attribute and added to the planets store attribute. The store is the energy which has already been collected and is ready to be transported or built with.
Building
You may build one new ship at each of your owned planets each turn. The constraints for building are the number of crew present at that planet - determined by the hull. Building a ship requires that you have enough energy in the planets store which will be used-up.
Population growth
The rate of population growth will be a game setting, the number of new crew each turn will always be rounded down. E.g. 50 crew with a rate of 1% would not give any extra crew, while 200 crew at the same rate would give 1 new crew each turn. Crew on ships never grow in population.
Freight
Energy and crew may be freely transferred between ships and planets at the same coord, up to the maximum cargo space of the ships. Planets have unlimited space. Crew and energy will add to the mass of a ship.
Fuel
Energy is used for fuel as well as for building.
Ships
Ships can be built at your planets and are each of one of several hulls. The hulls give the ship certain properties: mass, cargo capacity, energy cost and slots. Each ship has a set number of slots which may be filled with a number of components.Components/Slots
The following components can be specified when a ship is built. Each component has a specific in-game function. Component costs will be a game specific setting but the actual components available and their effects will be hard-coded into the game engine.
| Component |
Cost (in energy) |
Function |
| Beam | 100 | Weapon, long range and instant. |
| Engine | 250 | Number of engines determines top speed. |
| Torpedo | 50 | Weapon, launched in a straight line. |
| Missile | 200 | Weapon, launched and tracks target. |
| Shield | 400 | Reduces damage when hit with a weapon. |
Building
You may build a ship at each of your planets every turn, constrained by the population of the planet and the energy available. The build order requires you specify the hull and which components (from above) will be included. The hulls are listed below.
| Hull |
Cost (energy) |
Mass |
Cargo |
Slots |
| Probe | 100 | 10 | 20 | 1 |
| Scout | 250 | 20 | 120 | 2 |
| Frigate | 600 | 50 | 100 | 4 |
| Destroyer | 1000 | 120 | 300 | 6 |
| Battleship | 2500 | 250 | 250 | 8 |
The mass of a ship is calculated by the base mass of the hull + 1 for every crew & energy being carried in cargo. The components do not effect the weight - they are considered to be included in the base hull mass.
Movement
The basic speed of every ship is warp 9, which allows 90LY of movement in a turn. This basic speed assumes the ship has one engine slot, if a ship is built with no engine slots then it cannot move. For every additional engine the ship has it can travel an additional 10LY per turn (rated as warp 9.1, 9.2 etc.). The cost of movement is 1 energy (taken from cargo) for every 10LY travelled, for every 100 mass. All mass calculations are rounded up to the nearest 100.
For example: A scout of mass 20 plus 100 energy and 20 crew has a total mass of 140. With 2 engines it can travel 100LY a turn with a top speed of warp 9.1. If it moves it's complete 100LY then it will cost 140/100 = 1.4 per 10 LY. therefore (100LY / 10) * 1.4energy = 14energy. Reducing their stock to 86.
The constants in this equation will be game settings and will be able to be changed.
- Speed = 10. Represents LY/turn per warp speed. So doubling this would mean warp 9 is 180LY/turn and 9.2 is 220LY/turn.
- MassEffect = 100. Represents the mass which can be moved for 1 energy/LY. So doubling to 200 would mean 140/200 = 0.7 per 10LY.
Combat
Let the wooki win.
