Supernova 2 resources

[kaiser]

First of all, thanks for your great games. They're really something different from the crap stuff you find on the crap portals around the net
Then back into this game - I've read your latest blog post . I like the taxation idea. Was about to post this morning about the problem with the game being too quick - if you could simply invade all the new planets and win the wargame part, a match could last only a few hours if you're good. And I know I would (I played all the hex wargames ever made, and I'm a brilliant strategist).
The taxation makes sense - you can't expand fast if you don't have the economy backbone to sustain your empire new conquered planets. Also please make a good computer AI during battles. I prefer almost impossible battles, I know at least will make me enjoy the game more, until I find a AI hole and win all the fights (I always managed to do that in all other stratgegy/rts games).

Good luck with the game, looking forward to play it.

[jack1974]

Don't worry - this game will have different AI difficulty, and if you select HARD setting, it WILL be really hard, you have my word!
But remember, what you do in the simulation part will also have serious impact on the wargame part. So don't think that whatever you do in simulation part, you'll always be able to beat enemies on the battlefield...

[KnockOut]

This is a 2X game(no eXplore or eXpand) so there are fewer opportunities to get a massive exponential advantage over the AI. Most wars take a looooong time with barely any advancement for years(territory is taken only to be taken back).

BTW, I love the current effects. That's absolutely brilliant. The veteran system prevents people from only putting resources in military right before they attack. If you don't continuously put resources into military then your enemy will win most battles because they have veteran units.

Instead of using money, you could have an economic rating 1/2 to five stars. I think buying technologies and ships is just too unrealistic. Your economic rating acts as a multiplier. The higher your rating the faster your population increases and the faster you receive new technologies and the higher loyalty you have. Your economic rating goes down as you conquer new territories to simulate the time it takes to make those enemy colonies profitable. Your economy goes up and down in waves to stimulate the surplus/deficit cycle+it's effected by random events. You can increase your economy by researching new technologies(move the supply curve to the right).

Having a surplus/deficit cycle would enable AI comebacks as just when you're about to win you could head into a deficit and would be simpler than having exact galactic currency amounts.

If the war takes a long time to occur, you have to have plenty of technologies to research. So, make sure there's plenty of generic miniturazation techs or economic techs that occur forever at the end of the tree.

[jack1974]

Thanks for the feedback... indeed buying buildings like in civilization is a bit unrealistic (even if is just a sci-fi game). The economic thing you suggested seems quite complex though, I'm not sure I understood it completely
But anyway the main purpose of money was to simulate the time you need to "assimilate" a new starsystem (think of it as a colony). Maybe I should change money into something else. Or maybe I can keep it, considering the tech to buy as technologies sold by the famous "other races" present in the space! yes maybe could work this way. Pay lot of money to get a special laser attack that can hit 2 ships at once, not available with normal research. A sort of superbonuses, very expensive to buy and unobtainable otherwise...

As for the effects, indeed I think I made a good choice, everything is focused towards the battle. With such variety of skills involved (accuracy, view range, ship speed) and different battlegrounds with different bonus/malus, I think that would really hard to find a "general trick" to win all battles like happens in most wargames. But first, I'll have to write the wargame engine, probably the hardest part of the game...

[kaiser]

This game looks promising, with all the variety of situations. Wonder only if the variety of ships will be good also?

[jack1974]

Well for now, can't say, since haven't started working on the wargame part.
I plan to divide ships based on class (size) but also on a specific purpose, like in real wargames there are artillery units and such. Of course I'll post more info on the blog