Planets

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

A little text I could't complete because I must go home:

One thing I liked about SEIV that didn’t feature in MoO2 is the importance of Planet types. There’s three types of planets: Rock, Ice and Gas. Rock means its a big, rock-like world like Earth. Ice planets are like Pluto and Kuiper Belt objects, Gas planets are like Jupiter and Saturn.

There’s also atmosphere type. Atmosphere types are the breatheable gases in a planet. From what I remember, they’re classified as None, Methane, Oxigen, Hydrogen and Carbon Dioxide.

Planets also have a enviroment type, which ranges from Good to Unpleasant. That didn't affect the game as much as in MoO2.

Master of Orion 2 featured a similar system, though it was more focused on the world’s climate. From what I remember, they were Barren,Frozen, Desert, Ocean, Terran and Gaia. Barren was your typical big airless Ball of Rock; Frozen had atmosphere but it was a big Ball of Ice; Desert was a world with harsh climate conditions; Ocean worlds were worlds almost or fully submerged under Waters; Terran were, well, worlds like Earth; Gaia worlds were ecologically perfect and Nice.

Both games played with resources on different ways. In SEIV, there were three types of resources in a planet; minerals, organics and radioactives. MoO2 showed resources as Mineral Poor or Rich worlds, and the mineral level helped or hindered industry.

Master of Orion 2 also featured pollution in a important role. Sorry ecofags, MoO2 came first. Pollution was created by industry and could be fixed with anti-polution facilities and governors. Weirdly enough, pollution weakened industrial production, and it wans't as much as a problem in more hostile planets, so in the early game barren mineral rich planets were the industrial juggernaults of a space empire.

 

[tiagocc0]

I found it really interesting in SEIV but in practice it was really confusing and made (at least for me) colonizing other planets a chore.
I was planning on being a little more specific than MoO2 but not as much as SEIV.

I've been thinking a lot about this because it will impact on how the first part of the game will play (evolution)
I did this yesterday, a rather quick first thought:

Planet types:
+Terran (Rock/Water)
+Ice (Rock/Water)
+Ocean (Water)
+Barren (Rock)
+Storm (Rock/Acid)
+Lava (Rock/Lava)
+Gas Giant (Gas)
+Radiated (Rock)

Gravity:
+Extremely High
+High
+Normal
+Low
+No atmosphere

Planet size:
Tiny
Small
Medium
Large
Huge
Impossible

Star Color: (MoO2)
Blue-white (New)
White
Yellow
Orange
Red
Brown (Old)

Other:
Black Hole
Nebula
Neutron Star

Players will choose what kind of planet they will start. (Type/Size/Gravity)
The planet type will define the star color.
The planet is constantly changing so the temperature will vary, storms, earthquakes, hurricanes among others may happen.
A set number of turns will define a point where those changes happens, for example after 10 turns random events will happen.
The player will also be able to choose the interval of turns.
The player then evolve it's species choosing the best place for it to develop, competing against predators or branches of your own species that may become the main species over time if you are not careful.
Migrating to more suitable places until it's physical body is mostly developed, then it will start to develop it's intelligence until the point where space travel becomes available.
The faster you evolve the better because you will be able to go to space before other races.
An option to start the game on a already developed system will also be available.
The choices made on the evolution phase will dictate the technology tree of the race as well as it's traits and perks.

 

[JarlFrank]

Also, please make it so every planet has some kind of use. I hated how in GalCiv2 most of the planets were utterly useless. Either it was a colonizable planet and you could colonize it, or it was no use at all.

I like how in Distant Worlds, even gas giants can be used. You can build resource gathering stations near them and gather precious types of gases.

Planets that are not usable at all are utterly boring. Planets that are all the same are boring, too. Make each planet so it has its own good and bad sides, and make all of them usable in some way.

 

[tiagocc0]

There will be races that can colonize only gas giants (maybe some other too with tech) and the other races won't be able to colonize them.
However there is mining colonies and mining stations.
I'm also planning on having a system that will make exploring quite necessary.
For example instead of naming resources like metals, gases, minerals, water and thus making very complex and boring to find compatible worlds to your needs, I will rather make a random system that will compute for each race the planet desirability.
So for example planet A from System 1 might have a desirability of 50% to humans, 85% to Kroms and 20% to The Empire.
While planet B from System 1 might have a desirability of 90% to humans, 0% to Kroms and 100% to the Empire.
If the humans colonize both planets and The Empire starts a war, guess which planet they are going to capture first.
So the desirability will directly affect production.

EDIT: The funny part is that humans won't know that the empire really likes that planet.

 

[tiagocc0]

Yep, and also trading colonies between races now makes sense.

 

[Angthoron]

EDIT: The funny part is that humans won't know that the empire really likes that planet.

This sounds great. Although, will there be SOME way to find out, without meta-gaming? Learning through diplomacy, research or espionage?

 

[tiagocc0]

If you become ally with another race you will get to know it.
Also each race will be a tech tree to another race so if you are human you can study Krom or The Empire, it will appear after you meet them.
The first tech will be necessary for you to speak with them, further techs will reveal this information.
By espionage you will get random bits of information so it might take a while before you get all the info.

 

[Destroid]

You might as well just give that sort of information to the player, they will remember after a few games anyway (unless there is some random variation).

 

[tiagocc0]

It is random, a terran planet from one system might be 50% while another terran planet might be 80%. It is calculated when game starts.

 

[Destroid]

I meant what kinds of planets are desirable for the various aliens.

 

[tiagocc0]

Oh, this will be in the race info when you select it before a new game.