Worlds Collide is a 4X turn based space strategy game. I've been casually developing it over the last 2 years as the game I've always wanted to play. It's designed to be a standard 4X galactic strategy game where you colonize planets, expand your empire, research, contact and trade\negotiate\fight other empires.
I have a few alternative features and mechanics that aren't usually seen in this type of game that will make it different to most similar games out there. This includes avoiding as many hard limits as I can (i.e. Planet population, fleet sizes, etc) instead working on game mechanics that encourage you to balance these things yourself.
Features Include:
Hex Grid Based Maps
Modular Ship Design
AI Corporations that are the base of your empires industry\research
Jump Based Movement
Detailed Empire Diplomacy
Dynamic Sensor FOW
Good Morning,
It's been awhile since I've posted anything but work has still been progressing, my two main focuses have been GUI for ship designer and the research system. This post I'll just do a quick summary of the ship designer changes and there will be a post later for the research GUI and it's system as there is a lot to that one :)
Here is what ship designer looked like before I started this work
Here is a mockup of possible what I'm aiming for, this is with a module selected to show the details of that module (not in-game yet):
This might be a little overdone with the lines and extras but would like to try it in game as they all actually show some useful info at a glance but they might be removed if it appears too much.
Some of the main changes are adding backgrounds for the stats which I think really help and grouping the stats by type (Movement, Hull, Power, etc). I also moved the preview stats to the left which seems to work better as on some of the larger stat names it could overlap which was no good.
The hull selection list has also been updated, mainly focusing on the stats and how to display them. Now the research system adds a lot more variation to the hull options I needed to show more stats and in a useful way. I was mainly thinking if players care when the ship has 10hp or 100hp then realizing it only matters how much it compares to other hulls, i.e. "It's twice as strong as the cheaper one". So along those lines hull GUI has been changed to be bars (tooltips can still show the actual figure), these get the values by finding the highest value for each stat that any hull has that is available to the player and basically displaying it as 0-100% of the best available one.
Hopefully at a glace this will make it easier to choose what you are looking for. One thing I'll be paying attention too when testing is how it feel as tech advances and the bars actually change for hulls that haven't changed stats. For example if you get new hull for Battlecruiser that has twice the HP as your previous best design that previous design will now be half a bar (it used to show a full bar). It'll always show up to date information as a dynamic comparison. I will need to see how it will feel as a player, as I can't think of information been displayed like this in other games but think it should work.
Here is a current screenshot of what I've been able to implement so far, very much a WIP and nothing final but starting to feel more developed:
I've also done a lot of work on research systems and the GUI. Halfway through it was redesigned as I began to see limitation to the initial approach, so I'll talk over that with some before and after screenshots next blog.
Happy to answer any questions or feedback in the comments.
Til next time!
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Hi Everyone, Got another preview release for anyone who is willing to try it out. Added piles of stuff since my first demo including: Ship Design, Sounds...
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An in development version for testing and having a look at what i'm up to so far. This hasn't been tested, balanced or polished at all so look at your...
"This includes avoiding as many hard limits as I can (i.e. Planet population, fleet sizes, etc) instead working on game mechanics that encourage you to balance these things yourself."
That's what I've been looking for a loooong time ago.
Yeah that was exactly my thought, maybe it is hard to do but I'm certainly giving it a go and so far I think it will work ;)
Looks interesting
Tracking
hmm, Axis and Allies meets Sins of a Solar Empire, cool. tracking
Thanks for the interest, I haven't actually played axis and allies though definitely have heard of it might be my next research game ;) I like Sins and have played that one quite a bit!
I'm currently working toward another early test build to get more feedback . This will include basic ship designing, Hull Damage\penetration, module damage, weapon accuracy and I'll try to put in another ship class or 2 (not just frigates)
I'm thinking before the end of December maybe sooner but just depends on how much free time I get to spend on it. Happy to answer any questions in the meantime if anyone wants more information?
-Paul