A new 4x game is on the way

[KurtGodel7]

I'm working with a team of people to create a new turn-based 4x game. In order to find out how to make a game that's as fun as possible, we need your help. Please fill out our survey at www.surveyinside.com

Thanks to everyone who lends a hand!

[Zoetrope]

I hope you read and apply the suggestions, because I, for one, have listed all the most important elements for a space strategy game (as best I could recall them).

An option I overlooked is to allow players to write automation scripts.

[KurtGodel7]

I appreciate you taking the time to fill out the survey. I've been reading the suggestions carefully, and quite frankly, they're of a much higher quality than I'd expected. I can't comment on your specific suggestions, because I don't know which particular survey result is yours.

I will also say this: the game as a whole is more important than any individual part. While the game design process is far from finished, it's far enough along that I know I'll have to abandon several ideas that I myself had thought of and really liked. There is always a trade-off between the simplicity and elegance of MoO1 and the depth and richness of MoO2. Sometimes, to ensure the game flows smoothly, that the relationship between cause and effect is clear, and to keep things simple, it is necessary to abandon a feature that you'd love to have in there.

There are other suggestions that will be difficult to implement given our limited resources. Someone mentioned that StarCraft's races each have their own feel; and suggested this be done with the races in the game. The problem is that while StarCraft has three different unit trees, this game will have 16 races. I can't create 16 different race-specific tech trees (I don't think). What I'm planning instead is to divide the species up into four different categories: land dwellers, water dwellers, space dwellers, and gas giant dwellers. There will be four species in each category. While each species will have access to the general tech tree, each will have access to special items available only for its own category. Also, each group will have specific planetary preferences that do not overlap with any of the other three groups. At least, preferences won't overlap at the beginning of the game.

If there's more I can do to differentiate the four groups, or even to differentiate individual species, please let me know.

[Zoetrope]

Technological differences are good: they worked fairly well in SE3 and SE4, for example. (I haven't played StarCraft, though I've seen that its network code is excellent: a student here was playing against someone in Japan and there was no discernible lag!)

I suggest you NOT use preset diplomatic relations. Instead let the course of events play themselves out. It's clear enough that land dwellers will be in competition with each other, whereas they might naturally see an advantage in sharing territory with gas giant dwellers. The AI should be aware of this complementarity and see the advantage in such an accommodation, much as we benefit from sharing our gardens with (non-noxious and non-invasive) plants. So this way of thinking should largely occur to repulsive races too, who may actually regard others as no different than vegetation (and conversely).

[KurtGodel7]

I will definitely think about your post.

[Vince278]

I'm anxiously awaiting SE5.