Since my last post about the next gen rewrite, I am happy to report that I am making good progress - the game is now in a playable state (again!). I am now tying up the loose ends and prepare for a public build. I am taking the auto battler mechanism from the previous build, and adding more 4X/Grand Strategy flavors. In this post, I will briefly introduce all the new mechanisms.
Weapon Focus
- Resource management is removed. Now, weaponry is the single focus of building spaceships
- Production multiplier no longer exists. Instead, there are HP, damage and XP multiplier
- Batch operations still remain and have new QoL options
- Ship layout is now semi-fixed - and layout can be changed when prestige
Galaxy
- The galaxy has several star systems - you are in one of them
- Within each star system, there are neutral states and pirates
Make Friends
- You declare friendship with neutral states (consumes Victory Point and Friendship Slot) for rewards
- Friendship rewards are usually progression-related, rather than battle- related.
- Friendship lasts 4h and can be renewed
- Backstabbing a neutral state (declaring war on a past friend) will give you a backstabber penalty, which makes declaring further friendship more expensive.
...And War
- You can also declare war on neutral states and pirates (consumes Victory Point) and earn war reparation if you win
- Declaring war on neutral will give you a warmonger penalty, but declaring war on pirates will not
- Warmonger penalty makes declaring further war more expensive. Warmonger penalty decreases over time
Negotiate War Reparation
- War reparations can be negotiated if you win any type of spaceship battle: whether it's galaxy war (vs. AI spaceship) or matchmaking (vs. other player's ship)
- The reparations depends on your battle score: i.e. the percentage of your remaining HP after defeating your enemy
- Your first Victory Point and Add-on are free. The second one costs 50 battle score. Different types of add-ons have additional cost
- The remaining battle score is converted to XP
Linear Tech Tree
- Tech tree is now linear (like CivIdle), and is divided into different ship class
- Unlocking a tech still costs one quantum
- Unlocking a new ship class will give you bigger ship layout and higher tier weapons
- Unlocking a new ship class now have Element Shards requirement, which means prestige is now a requirement
Catalyst
- Catalysts are like "traits" in auto chess: they provide significant boosts if your weapon composition fulfill its requirement
- In auto chess, traits are fixed and your champions/heros are randomly rolled. Here's it's the opposite: all weapons are available (via research) but catalysts are randomly rolled: you choose one from three candidates, which are rolled from an even bigger pool
- Activating a catalyst (i.e. fulfill its requirement) will allow you to choose your next catalyst
Add-on
- Boosters are now called "add-ons" - they are now attached to a weapon module
- They provide significant boosts and require some layout planning (like wonders in CivIdle)
- Each ship class has its own set of add-ons. They are acquired from war reparations
- Multiple add-ons of the same kind provide diminishing returns
- Higher class add-ons can be crafted from lower class add-ons.
Directive
- After you've researched all techs in a ship class, you can issue a directive
- You choose one out of three candidates, which are rolled from an even bigger pool
- They provide progression related boost, like Friendship Rewards
- They last until the end of the run
Element
- The fundamentals of element remains unchanged
- You discover element at 15, 25, 35... quantum: you choose one from three candidates
- When you prestige, elements from this run become element shards
- You can assign your elements from this run to boost either HP or Damage multiplier
That's a quick rundown of all new mechanisms in the next-gen build. Another change you can already see is a visual update. Instead of abstract art, now the game features pixel art. The main motivation is readability - as there are more weapons, they become hard to tell apart. The new pixel art hopefully can improve the readability of gameplay.
I am working hard to get a public build out. If you are interested to give it a try, stay tuned either on Steam or on Discord server. As this is an almost complete rewrite of the game, progress from the last playtest build will not carry over.
Cheers,
FishPond