Hello there /v/ this year I've been working on a strategy game that might remind you off games like Anno, Settlers or the Impression games. Lately I've been wondering if there still exists a scene for this type of game in 2015.
The goal at the moment is to make a survival mod where the player will attempt to survive by ensuring he does not mess up, survives the coming war and it's battles. An ai will attack the player while he attempts to establish a working economy, allies and foes alike will try to establish themselves in the region too.
At the moment I have systems in place for
-Needs of the people (food, cloths and enjoyment)
-Farms (custom plants, growth time, harvest time and plant time)
-Storehouse (where buildings deliver and request materials, workers have a carry capacity - jobs get split up by it, a food version, a queue system)
-Refinery (where materials gets refined into other materials)
-Gatherers (gathers materials from nearby resources, gather location can be changed)
-Towers (Attacks nearby enemies, ammunition can be changed on a tower by tower basis)
-Basic Enemy AI (a basic AI that seeks out the player and attacks his units/buildings)
I've got some other systems in place but they're kinda minor. There are a lot of things I still wanna implement, a couple of examples are a weather system (rain that causes all growing plants not to die, too much and the crops die. Snow that changes the way you play both with the economy but also how you wage war), Eco system for all living things (so what you do can have an affect on other things, cutting down to much of the forest might scare away the deer)
Late 2016 I hope to have a playable alpha for anyone to enjoy.
So you are talking a citybuilding-survival-rts? Age of Empires meets Banished? I've been having the hots for something like this for years now, preferably with political elements like in CIV too. Might be a bit tricky real time, but RTS banished while managing a war seems like a golden thing if you ask me.
Looks cool OP, if it plays out well I'd pay a couple of bucks for something like this. It already looks better than some of the garbage on greenlight
>>322149105
I've seen you post before. Looks cool.
I should get around to mess with gamemaker or something again too if I weren't so lazy.
>>322149105
Looks Great OP. I've really had an itch for something like this. I miss the old Settler games.
>>322149105
Do you plan adding some sort of merchanting system? Adding some sort of rudimentary market system similar to trade in tropico would be cool.
>>322149105
Damn I love games like this, would love to work on them, do you need any free help programming wise?
>>322149105
>See this thread
>Remember how the Towns developer shilled his game in the Taleworlds forums (Mount&Blade devs) some years ago and then abandoned the game after many people bought it
>get PTSD
>>322149404
There's going to be factions that you can un/ally, besides that you will be able to threaten them to give you resources or money. Ally with them to gain quests or wage war against them to take their land and resources. Or just leave them to their peace and have other enemies or the greater threat target them.
Besides that I dont have much planned.
And thanks for liking what I've got so far, I plan to make the survival mod free and use that to garner interest and fans to later sell the campaigns for a small fee. I'm mostly doing this because it's fun so money isn't much of an interest so I will be able keep the sale price low.
>>322149105
From your description this is the sort of game I am looking for. Get your ass in gear OP and you have my money.
>>322151303
Yeah the political system wouldn't have to be much in demand. Keep it short but still make it so one would be able to easily get their message forth while easy to use since real time.
Only thing I would say was online is pretty much a given since there hasn't been an AI that is actually good to play against in games of these genres, and sorry OP but I doubt you would make that breakthrough.
>>322150379
You're gonna be able to trade with the factions on a local level (established towns in the region, requires no setup, small cost but high risk, the transports will be killable and low sortiment aka obly able to trade what they can produce) or
on a global level (requires setup (land setup will be cheaper but have the same risk as local trades but comes with protection, can carry only a limited amount) (sea setup is costly and takes quite the time to setup but have an unlimited carry capacity and no risk), can trade anything from the get go, prices will vary depening on faction and reputation with said faction.
>>322149105
What engine are you using? what language is it using?
>>322149105
looks cool, op. ill definitely check it out if you post a playable version
>>322152172
A good Ai is something I'm not capable of doing, a basic AI like most RTSes, sure.
There is no plans for online at the moment cause I've got no experience with it. But I know games without it usually dies off quickly. It might be something I have to look into once the survival mod gets released to see if people actually like it before spending time developing it.
But I'm keeping a modular mind when developing so most things can be changed without breaking and Unreal 4 appears to not be that hard to get working online.
How's food production gonna work? Does food spoil?
I loved Stronghold in general but the way food worked basically broke the game so that the most efficient thing to do was to make shittons of bread and just enough hops to get +8 to alcohol and then sell all the bread and keep your population drunk.
Are you gonna be able to farm just anywhere or will there be dedicated "nutrient rich" soil for farming? Also do you have any solid plans for soldiery? If not, I would suggest not getting too in depth with it. Basic archer, basic footman, basic cavalry, siege, heavy footman, heavy cavalry. Maybe a pikeman unit that normally sucks but counters cavalry.
But don't go overboard with it.
>>322152804
>>>322149105 (OP) (You)
>What engine are you using? what language is it using?
It's Unreal 4 and it uses c++ and blueprints.
>>322153072
There isn't enough content at the moment to really do much.
>>322153667
How many hours of works did put into it so far?
>>322154361
Can you stop being obnoxious? This isn't an AMA i'm the one asking questions here.
>>322153432
Food does not spoil, the people will require different types of food depending on their level, once they've reached a level they will stay on it, but you will be able to force them to downgrade 1 level feom their max but they then loose all their happiness.
I'm working on a water system for the plants so every area will have different capacities to grow on (will be indicated by grass color) plants will reduce values from the stored water in the ground. The water value will be restored by rain or nearby moving rivers. Plant to much in the same area and the land dries up affecting other eco systems.
The unit system is gonna be basic units, mostly the ones you said with rock scissor paper balance to them. However I do want to make customizable Ai, like changing their target priority (closest, most health, least health, specific unit) and stuff like that to add some spicy but also make it easier on the user since they will be controlling their economy too.
>>322154902
Will soldiers count against population and consume food?
If not, they should.
>>322154361
FUCK OFF
>>322154361
A lot so far, been working on it for 5 months so far. I mostly work Sundays but I try to take time whenever I can to do anything. Every little effort counts in the end. I would probably guess around 200 hours so far.
>>322155108
They will count towards population but there is no strict plan for a limit. They will consume food, I don't know how the delivery system is gonna wirk though.
Sent to the house where they life? To where they're located? To where they were trained from? The house and building trained from wouldn't make much sense, but to their location might force the player to make extra storehouses just to deliver food to them.
>>322149105
Interesting to see something with potential being dropped km /v/..
I'll keep an eye out for it.
>>322155925
Just make it simple and make the food deliver to the Guardhouse or something. Or Barracks.
Making them actually have to eat probably wouldn't work and be too complicated, so just make it abstract.
Maybe if you want to add a bit of depth to it a Guardhouse feeds troops in a certain radius so long as it's supplied. You assign troops to a Guardhouse or area and food gets delivered to feed them, bigger cities require multiple guardhouses and postings.
Only problem would be feeding them on the offensive with that mechanic since they'd be out of range of a guardhouse.
So maybe caravans can carry food to supply troops on the front line?
Or make it even simpler, and you just pay a chunk of food and you can send soldiers to attack for x minutes without having to supply them with food.
>>322149105
Is there gonna be a sort of dev blog? Cause this looks awesome and id love to see something like this.
>>322155925
What if buildings where people live like houses and barracks can hold a very small amount of food which can be delivered to and is the first place people will look when they are hungry. If they dont have any they will have to trek to a storehouse or market somewhere. Since those buildings are less convenience and less common than houses and other residences it might offer some sort of penalty such as taking longer to get food or something.
holy shit OP calm down on shilling your own thread.
all these fucking targeted questions no one ever asks. at least fucking disguise it a little.
>>322156484
I like the guardhouse with the food wagon idea, you could take out the enemy food wagon to force a retreat or have the enemy soldiers starve. It adds some complexity but is still easy to manage. Guardhouses and food wagons feed nearby troops and combat units food lasts longer for balance reason. Guardhouses should have an extreme range while the food wagon has a small one. Thanks anon.
Reminds me a bit of Banished. That game was great at first but lacked any and all progress beyond making your town larger, sadly.
Cozy factor was through the roof at first tho. Looks great btw.
The game looks and sounds like it has a ton of potential. Good luck OP, i look forward to more updates and an eventual release
>>322156916
>>>322149105 (OP) (You)
>Is there gonna be a sort of dev blog? Cause this looks awesome and id love to see something like this.
Nothing planned until I get a "playable" version out, I like the occasional "hiws that game coming along" thread for now.
>>322157345
I really liked Banished up until the end game, because as you said there was never any real goal besides making a big town. I hope to avoid that by having a large amount of buildings and combat. But I also got some other ideas to keep it fresh. One thing is to have building upgrades, so low level building's can still be fresh late game.
One upgrade I've been toying around with is a combined sawmill and lumberjack, you get planks directly at the same speed, but you do loose the wood resource in the process.
>>322149105
Oh wow. I remember when this was just colorless grey placeholder blocks. This is looking really good so far, man. You should set up a kickstarter or a donation page. I'll toss you what I can when I can.
>>322159187
I like being free. Also my first webm of the game.
>>322159614
Well, cheers to progress then.
