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#1 I need some advice on RTS game design

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 2:54 am
by Anonymous
Hello. Ace Pace invited me to join this place sometime back. Sorry I forgot I actually have an account here. :eek:

I am working on a little pet project - a RTS game like Star Trek Armada. It is a 2D game meaning the player will see a top down view of the battlefield. It is just like Armada except you can not switch to 3D camera and fly around a ship. The game engine is intended to support major Trek races and the Empire and Rebels from SW. Currently I got the basic 2D engine thing up and running so I think it is about time the game play is hammered out.

1 How should the economy be implemented? I am thinking of moving away from miners mining crystals idea from Armada. Instead colonized planets will be the main resource source. The player can build factories once a planet is colonized, the more factories on a planet the more resources is generated. Also how about including a taxation or morale issue on planets? The more you tax the more money you make but also make your population less happy.

2. Ship combat: This is a confusing issue. The ships can be as detailed as in Bridge commander with tons of subsystems, 6 different shields etc. I tried this approach first but its quite hard to code in practice. So as an easier solution I am thinking of falling back on what Armada did. Which merely including six subsystem types like weapons, shields, engines etc. Any ideas?

3. Ship production cost: Massive fleets of expendable warships or expensive fleets whose lose could be a deadly blow to your empire?

4. Canon ships: The Romulans and Cardassians have very few ship types while Feds have tons. So should I add non official ships to fill the gap?

#2

Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:06 pm
by frigidmagi
Have you considered a SE4 sytle approach, where colonized planets produce certain sets of resources in certain amounts? This would certainly drive players to colonize as many planets has they possibly can.