Main News about StarLife

[tiagocc0]

Just finished doing some icons:

Didn't think I would have to make so many of them. More to come

 

[JarlFrank]

Those look really stylish!

 

[tiagocc0]

Thanks Jarl!

 

[Marsal]

Diplomacy icon is nifty!

 

[tiagocc0]

Diplomacy icon is nifty!

Thanks, I was going for a normal hand to hand shake when I thought about a tentacle instead.
Took me quite some time to get it right though.

 

[JarlFrank]

Diplomacy icon needs some more contrast though, maybe outlines for the hand and tentacle?

 

[tiagocc0]

Diplomacy icon needs some more contrast though, maybe outlines for the hand and tentacle?

Ok, I will try some more varitions for it.

 

[tiagocc0]

How about these?

 

[felipepepe]

I like #1 & #6.

 

[tiagocc0]

I like #1 & #6.

Thanks felipepepe, #1 would fit with the other icons but I like #6 too, maybe if the outline was a different color other than white

 

[tiagocc0]

Espionage! mhuahuahauha!!

http://site2.purpleorangegames.com/2013/03/gameplay-espionage/

Espionage, much like diplomacy, feels completely underdeveloped in 4X games and almost non-existent in strategy games overall.

Unlike other areas, spying plays a tertiary (at best) role, like a feature that was tacked on late in the development just for the sake of it. It doesn’t connect well with other systems, we could cut it out and the changes wouldn’t be even noticeable. Its design doesn’t help either – limited in scope and use, with simplistic mechanics that doesn’t allow for any player input.

We intend to create an espionage system that feels like an integral part of the game, is useful and sophisticated without being a micromanagement nightmare. It’s easy to criticize, but how are going to tackle these problems ourselves?

Spies aren’t cannon fodder you can send out in thousands. Not unlike heroes, each spy has a name, a portrait and stats. You can train them yourself (the cheaper but less effective option – unless you are playing an espionage-heavy race) or hire them on the galactic market (these are costly, but more skilled).

Agents can be assigned to different positions. For now, we will definitely implement counter-espionage, a defensive measure against enemy spies, and three exterior missions: theft (acquiring designs), infiltration (learning another empire’s intentions) and intel (keeping track of enemy fleets and colonies). Every assignment will contribute a specific amount of mission points each turn. This is calculated by appropriate skills of the spies taking part in the mission versus enemy counter-espionage. You will be also informed how many points were scored against you (though you won’t know what or to whom are you conceding exactly), so you can reallocate your spies. Having continuous progress of missions rather than one-off actions with a % of success makes it more fluid and discourages save-scumming. So if you are stealing technology from race A, the progress will look like this:

Turn 1, 1 spy active: +5: Total 5
Turn 2: 1 spy active +5: Total 10
Turn 3 1 spy active: +3: Total 13
Turn 4 1 spy active: 0: Total 13
Turn 5 2 spies active: +10: Total 23 acquired

Spies can also be caught. There will be a counter going on for every spy on a mission. When it reaches 100%, the agent is caught. You will see a text assessment of the risk (“hidden”, “unsafe”, “in danger”), but not the counter itself. Uncovering a spy means a big hit to relations and a casus belli. The agent himself can be either executed or ransomed.

The larger the empire, the harder it is to prevent enemy spies from infiltrating it and the more agents you have to assign to defence. Maximum number of spies you can hire is limited by your population, so a small but developed civilization can bolster a powerful intelligence network, while a sprawling, spread out one will have problems counteracting opponents’ actions.

 

[felipepepe]

Very nice.

The agent himself can be either executed or ransomed.

Would be nice to have the option to pay more to a captured hired spy and turn him into a double agent, but that would blow the complexity of this far beyond manageble...

 

[tiagocc0]

We left double agents as something to consider later in development.

 

[hoverdog]

Very nice.

The agent himself can be either executed or ransomed.

Would be nice to have the option to pay more to a captured hired spy and turn him into a double agent, but that would blow the complexity of this far beyond manageble...

We've been thinking about it, but we've come to the same conclusion - too complicated, too hard to implement.

 

[tiagocc0]

Here is a little survey, if you have time be sure to take it, it is just a few questions and no, there is no 'how old are you' or 'are you a male or female' questions there!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/V25GY7Q

 

[Malakal]

Was reading up to date and noticed you divided currency into internal and universal. Brofist just for that, excellent idea and never implemented yet I think. Keep up the good work.

 

[tiagocc0]

Thanks!

 

[tiagocc0]

I'm making a long post on our site, I will post about it here later.

It seems people on reddit are talking about StarLife: http://redd.it/1daxrt

 

[tiagocc0]

So we have been busy this last month working hard on our prototype.
Here you can see the colony window, you can check all the info about your colonies here:

You have two windows for each colony to check information simultaneously.


I have been working hard on the event system too, so when your turn begins all sort of information will appear for you like this:

Here you can see that we just found another Race.


Something I have always wanted to do and have finally been able to is to apply Voronoi diagram on the starmap, it won't affect movement but will affect influence colonies on different stars have over each other:

More info on Voronoi Diagram here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram
You can check the original code here: https://github.com/nodename/as3delaunay
This is what I have used, a port to C++: https://github.com/SirAnthony/cppdelaunay
And here is Amit version where he expanded it considerably: https://github.com/amitp/mapgen2
Also check Amit's article, it's amazing!
http://www-cs-students.stanford.edu/~amitp/game-programming/polygon-map-generation/


And lastly here you can see populated regions showing their respective player colors:

 

[Surf Solar]

Looking awesome!

 

[tiagocc0]

Looking awesome!

Thanks!

 

[Destroid]

The logos in the colony screen could use some clarification. Is that a watermelon with lightning coming out of it? I feel like this screen and the tech screen suffer somewhat from the very strong colour scheme you have.

 

[tiagocc0]

The logos in the colony screen could use some clarification. Is that a watermelon with lightning coming out of it? I feel like this screen and the tech screen suffer somewhat from the very strong colour scheme you have.

You mean the icons?

 

[tuluse]

Everything on the colony screen seems very small and the effect is a very "busy" look. I don't really have any suggestions for how to improve it though.

 

[tiagocc0]

Everything on the colony screen seems very small and the effect is a very "busy" look. I don't really have any suggestions for how to improve it though.

Yeah, I will improve it later, for now most screens have just a basic construct, I have made some boxes and I use them everywhere. Later I will design each screen individually.

Also the colony screen is meant to be used when you have more than 5 colonies, less than that you will be able to easily control them on the main screen, on the upper left corner you can also check all your colonies there. You can also show the colony info and drag it anywhere on the map, you can pass the turn and the window will remain there so you can place all your colonies windows around your empire and leave as long as you want.