Spoilers for next content patch ahead.
When working on a Content Update, building the next Fleet Galaxy is the part that takes the longest, even not counting the time that goes into coding the new mechanics for Fleet in that galaxy. Since the next galaxy is now a good ways along (but not fully tested, tweaked and polished or even close) I figured I'd share a tiny bit of that process.
There are several things I keep in mind when designing the galaxies now beyond just balance and feel. Basically, I want "new things" in each galaxy:
- New "strategic" considerations on the map.
- New mechanics to work around in battles.
- New unlocks for ships (or new ships).
- New enemies.
Before anything else, I at least vaguely figure those out. That way I know how many and how major each new thing is so I can spread them out in the galaxy properly during work on the layout.
For the layout, I sloppily build out a diagram of the galaxy with color coding and some notes. I build things out until the next "new thing" needs to come in, at which point I move on from this part of planning, and start plopping the nodes in game and building the battles. This is the part that takes the longest, as while im doing this, I am running battles and sections of the map over and over to make sure the scaling is correct, the resource gain is smooth and that the battles are at least somewhat interesting. Once a section is in an "OK" state, work shifts to implementing the next "new thing" if I haven't yet, test it individually, then plan out the next section and repeat.
The layout
Its important to note that I'm only roughly checking things balance/feel wise at this point. Once I've got the whole thing built, testers come in and we figure out balance and such in a far more complete fashion. While testers are running things, I move on to the truckload of new non-fleet stuff that goes into a content patch.
Once things have been run by testers and balanced/tweaked etc, I know a decent range for how many runs it will take to complete, as well as expected Artifact amounts you'll have at various points, and I can plan out the artifact upgrades grid.
As a final note, since galaxies are taking so much time to do, I'd say 1/2 the time basically, and since its actually fairly daunting on my end (this is the one thing I have hard time "starting" work on, shoulda made G5 smaller T.T), after this next patch, something about galaxies will be shifting to smooth out how quickly I can get new stuff done. Not sure what yet though.
Next galaxy map in game (not final or anything though)
