Idea Compendium

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[Brink]

I have a lot of ideas so I will only post a couple that I can think of off the top of my head right now.

1.) I've always thought of production as being the amount of labor force your empire has. In that respect, it doesn't make much sense that you can bank it. I can't take a month off work and then do it all in one day because I banked my production. Instead, my idea is to change production to labor and make it a flat usable amount each tick. It might take some balance tweaks but it doesn't seem like it would be anything too complicated. It would also give it a slightly different feel than just another resource that isn't really any different than ore or credits.

2.) Tax. An on the fly(per tick that is) change to the amount of credits you receive from megas. Higher taxes would increase the amount of credits you earn next turn but perhaps reduce your population growth due to lower moral(but mostly just to balance it out). Would give the game a more dynamic feel I think.

3.) Advanced building queues. It would be nice to be able to say build 10 ore mines now but 10 megas next hour. This way, you don't have to worry as much about not being able to micro manage your construction when you go to bed at night or while you're away during the day.

4.) Ship queues. This would be a minor quality of life kind of improvement since ships take at least a few hours to build any way but could be nice none the less. Also, to add on to this idea, instead of having to pay the entire cost up front, pay over the during of the ships construction. If it is a ship that costs 1k resources and takes 10 hours to build then it would cost 100 resources each hour. If, for what ever reason, you don't have enough resources in a given hour then the build time in prolonged.

5.) Vision from claimed but uncolonized systems as well as colonized ones. I'm not sure why it isn't like this already. It will allow people to explore their surroundings faster giving you more to do in the first couple days. It also opens up a bit more dynamic play. You have to ask your self, do you want to send a ship out to claim a system or do you want to keep it closer to home and ready to defend from other explorers.

6.) Research. I don't understand why you can't choose the tech you get to research at the start of the galaxy. I dislike being forced into something in such a manor. Aside from that, I think it would also be nice to add a third or maybe even fourth slot to research queues. Even better yet, I think it would be more interesting if you could split your research points over more than just one topic at a time. Say you want to research economics but you also want to start on ore mining and production. You could allocate 75% of the research funding to economics and the remaining 25% as you want on mining and production. Lastly, major bonuses such as Oomari travel time, will not be activated until the next level of research is complete. This would tie into choosing your first research project because you would have to choose between researching what you want or acquiring your race bonus sooner.

7.) Unique buildings. For example:

Edit: Making it easier to read this part.

Drall Colonial Conglomeration: Similar to megapoli but have a higher capacity than megapoli.

Gorgoth War Factories: Reduce the cost of warships built on the planet as well as providing production and jobs.

Ji Nano-Bioformation Pool: Increased bioforming speed and increases the populations growth rate by a small percentage at all times.

Kreel Stealth Projector: Increase the stealth rating of all allied ships in that planets orbit.

Oomari Aqua Dome: Similar to megapoli but have a lower capacity than megapoli. However, populations within the Aqua Dome grow at maximum potential(not effected by planet habitability).

Shy'Dow Matter Generator: Generates a flat amount of ore each tick.

Sirnef Central Information Processing Station: Increases the planets research output by a percentage based on its population.

Toag Trading District: Reduce the upkeep costs of buildings and ships within the planets orbit. Reduce the effects of tax. Increase the credit income bonus of megapoli when populations exceed jobs.

Turian Planetary Defense Silo: Attack enemy ships with heavy beams and missiles.

Zeeb Industrial Zone: Provide more jobs than factories and loses less efficiency when not fully populated.

Just a few quick ideas of the top of my head. Some could probably just be made into passive bonuses though and given buildings that actually change the gameplay of the species based on their style. For example, my idea for the drall is kind of boring. It only replaces megas. Either that or the unique buildings could cost more than their normal counter parts or perhaps take up more land. Lots of possibilities there regardless.



So, let me know what you guys think.

[Hal]

Brain is fried, worked all weekend. But here's some quick feedback:

1) cool idea.
2) also cool idea. but to work it would have to force negative growth (citizens moving to a less taxed planet) as full planets have not growth to slow down.
3) on my list of things to implement for BMH features.
4) Not sure what you mean. There are ship queues. You can stack up to ten ships in queue on a planet.
5) this was tried long ago as a species feature for Kreel. was highly unbalanced. if given to all in a FFA might be interesting. If in regular team game is see some problems with people seeking out only their friends for allies (even more so then now). Also highly favors the high activity players.
6) interesting idea, but I feel lukewarm toward it.
7) I've had some ideas along those lines before too. Not the specific ones you have but special buildings for species. Your ideas are nice.

Keep em coming!

[Brink]

2) I actually hadn't thought of that but it does make sense. Though, aside from the extra work I'm sure it would take you, I don't see why not. Populations are supposed to fluctuate naturally after all.

3) Always good to hear ^_^

4) Ah, I'm still pretty noob in the game so I actually didn't know that XD What about the price over time for the ships though?

5) Haha well yeah in the hands of only one species I certainly see how that could be a problem. You may have a point about the standard galaxies but I don't see why people wanting to ally themselves with friends is a problem. Even so, it would still be a risk on their part to explore too far out leaving their planets and scouts exposed. Expansion always has to be balanced with the ability to defend the newly expanded borders. The last point is a good one. I'm not sure we want to do that. I'm a pretty active player but I understand not wanting to base balance around how often one can log in.

Maybe you could add some sort of 'exploration cost' to claiming planets beyond your established border. Might slow people down enough to allow the slightly less active to keep up. Especially so early in the game when resources are tight as it is.

6) I'm sure this one would probably cost you a good few hours of work lol. I mean I'm not a programmer so I don't really know how all this stuff works but I understand that implementing something entirely new like that could be taxing. Especially since I've got the impression that your're already pretty busy.

7) Yeah, lots of possibilities there.

Oh, trust me I am full of ideas. I've always enjoyed thinking up new concepts for games as much as I enjoyed playing them.

Couple new ones off the top of my head.

8.) Map trading. Something like in the Civilization games. Might be able to do this instead of #5 even or something to add even on top of that but all for the same purpose. The galaxies always feel so small to me and I want to know what's out there. I don't know about other players but I like knowing what's around me. Maybe it's intentional, because it does add a hint of mystery to each galaxy, but exploring the unknown could be just as fun.

9.) Open Passage Clause to NAPs. Again similar to that in the Civ games. Allowing friendly alliances passage through your territory could open up a new level of diplomacy.

10.) This one is a bit of a heavy idea. I think it would be neat but definitely seems like it could be a lot of work. Basically, being able to further micromanage building construction and battles on each planet. The way I see it is when you go to build on or attack a specific planet it opens up that planets surface grid. In this way, you choose where you build each type of building on the grid when building and when attacking it opens up an all new level of battle into the game. You could have a landing force consisting of a number of soldiers that you recruited out of the population and trained in the same way you pay to build a ship. When you deploy a landing force on the surface of the planet you start in a selected grid or even multiple locations depending on your strategy. You command where they move and conquer first. This would also open up another way to individualize each species since you could give each species a unique ground battle bonus. I have some ideas on that as well.

Drall: Biological Warfare: Drall infect their targets with microscopic biological diseases that cause additional casualties and deaths after each battle. Infected casualties can continue to spread the diseases forcing the enemies to separate their casualties from any heavily populated areas.
Unique Unit: Creep Colony: Creep Colonies don't directly contribute to battle. Instead they stay behind the lines and focus on reproducing, providing their forntlines with a steady supply of reinforcements.

Gorgoth: Gorgoth Ferocity: Gorgoths battle score is increased when attacking.
Unique Unit: Goliath: Goliaths are the elite born within their populations and raised as killing machines. They are all around better at battle.

Ji: Territorial Instincts: When defending their own territories, a portion of the local Ji populace aid in the defense of their homes.
Infectious Blood(No unique unit, instead a second passive bonus): A portion of fallen Ji infect their killers via their blood with a rabies like virus, causing additional casualties. (Does not spread like the Dralls Diseases do however)

Kreel: Predators: Kreel forces are slightly rejuvenated by feasting upon fallen enemies.
Unique Unit: Rogue: Kreels advanced stealth technologies extend to the battle field. Squadrons of Kreel rogues can sneak behind enemy lines and attack where their enemies are weak. However, once revealed their chance of escape is limited and even further hindered by the planets scanners.

Oomari: Psychological Warfare: Enemy forces have their battle score reduced by a percentage.
Unique Unit: Telepaths: Telepaths have extremely low battle scores but aid their allies by causing enemies to hallucinate, effectively reducing their chance to cause deaths.

Shy'Dow: Invasion Mastery: Shy'Dow battle score is not effected by the planets habitability rating.
Unique Unit: Titans: Heavly armored soldiers that have a significantly reduced chance of being killed. However, due to the amount of armor they carry, their ore cost is significantly higher.

Sirnef: Unified Mind: Due to their connection with each others minds, Sirnef can better focus their fire. This results in a higher death to casualty ratio than other species.
Unique Unit: Battle Bot: A Sirnef whos construction design is aimed towards battle. They are individually extremely powerful but do not receive bonuses from Battle Tactics or squadron size.

Toag: Mercenaries: Toag offer to spare the life of their enemies populace in exchange for their service. A percentage of the conquered populace will instead be converted into mercenaries.
Unique Unit: Mercenaries: Toag can pay to instantly hire mercenaries(Basically any toag willing to make a quick buck) instead of waiting to train professional soldiers. However, mercenaries are more expensive and less effective.

Turian: Last Stand: Turian battle scores are increased proportionally to the amount of remaining land under their control on the planets surface. Turian forces moral is not reduced if their enemies control more land. This bonus only applies when defending.
Unique Unit: Marine: Marines are highly trained soldiers taught to take advantage of their enemies weakness' allowing them to fight on even ground with even the fiercest of opponents. If marines are fighting against a stronger force, the enemies battle score bonuses are reduced to be equal to that of the marine squadron. This reduction in battle score applies only in the calculations in exchanges between enemies and Marines and does not apply to the rest of the Turian forces.

Zeeb: Base of Operations: Zeeb can construct bioformers, scanners, minefields and planetary shields on lands under their control and not currently in conflict on planets they are conquering. On their own planets, construction projects will not be effected by battle.
Unique Unit: Battle Technician: Trained in both the art of combat and construction. Battle Technicians are used to fight as well as build Bases of operations behind the lines. The more Battle Technicians, the more buildings they can construct per tick. (Up to a maximum of 10 to keep in line with normal construction rates)

The battles would take place in sectors. Each sector would consist of a number of grids(perhaps 10x10 or w/e Though not all would necessarily be the same. This would make some sectors on the planet more valuable making them prime targets for attack and defense). Each grid is equal to 1 land. Land units can move one sector per turn. Control of a sector gives control of all grids within that sector. Any construction projects in grids within sectors in conflict are halted.

Base battle score is 100 per unit. There would be a new technology(Battle Tactics) to increase this. Battle score is increased by an small but increasing percentage the larger the squadron is. Squadrons are simply the units within the same sector on a planet. Death to casualty ratio is determined by the difference between each sides Battle Score and Battle Tactics tech level. Battle Score can be increased and decreased based on moral and the current habitability rating for the each species. Moral is determined by consecutive victories or defeats, difference in army size and difference in the amount of land under each sides control.


Yeah, I could keep going, giving more specific details on everything but just for the purpose of getting the idea across I think I've more than accomplished that XD

Also, hope I don't contribute too much to frying your brain Last thing I want to do is make your job more difficult lol.

Edit: More ideas:

11.) Alliance Standards: Customizable flags to represent your alliance

12.)  This one is more of a bug I think. When you customize the colors of your planets and allies planets, they get mixed up between the new map and the star map on the main profile page(in one ally a might be light blue and ally b might be dark blue but in the other ally b is dark blue and ally b is light blue). Also, the color of star ships don't change. Made my systems green and my allies blue in the last galaxy then got confused because my ships were still blue and theirs were still green.

13.) Map Borders: Purely aesthetic but could be neat. A drawn border around each alliances controlled zones on the map

[Belzebut]

some good ideas but 9 and 10 will totally f*** the game up. 9 is very easy to abuse and one player, old or new without friends in the galaxy will be easy pray. 10 i dont even get the point. its space, leave the ground troops to another game.
3 i like, and been waiting for it
Another idea for  BMH features, a display on the fleet status of the stats including bonuses, specially damage. It would be great if you could actually see the real damage output of your fleet. It will give you the info you need to maximize bonuses

[Brink]

Yes I am sure you are probably right about #9.

I fail to see your logic on #10 however. Yes it is a game based on war in space but that doesn't really change the fact that you need to conquer planets too. It would give a more epic feel to fighting for a planet instead of just send more/strong fleets to beat the other guys. And as I spent a lot of time giving examples for, it could open up a lot of possibilities to make each race feel unique. I mean I'm not really saying I think this idea *needs* to be implemented. I just think it would be neat if it were possible to do so. It wouldn't even have to be as complex a system as the fleet battles. Just a simple "send 100 troops to this section to take it". 

Putting the military part of #10 aside, I still think the economic view could be neat. I mean completely unnecessary but again it's always nice to throw in extra features when you can afford to do so.

Any way, most of the ideas are simply because I enjoy doing this kind of thing. Thinking up ideas for games. I'm not expecting anything to actually come of them

[Brink]

14.) Research information. How long the current research project will take given the current research points income. This is the one I just thoguht of a but a few extras just for the heck of it... How much the current research project will improve your current economy(say you're researching economics, it would display how much more credits would you make per turn once that research project is finished). Current research pointed needed for each tech. So if you are researching one tech at the moment and deciding on which one to research next and you're looking that the table with all the research techs you see the next level of researching will cost 2,542 points or what have you. Pausing a project mid way through and switching to another. Kind of goes along the lines with #6.

15.) Building construction page + construction report page on the same page.

Re#2.) Alternative to reduced population growth for higher taxes is perhaps a lower employment rate. In this regard, you would either sacrifice production/ore income for more credits or vice versa. For example, say 10% taxes was standard(how the game is balanced now), but you had your taxes set to 15%, the the planets employment rate(what is now efficiency) would drop by 5%. Numbers could always be tweaked of course.

[Brink]

16.) Auto trade for resources when building a ship you don't have the immediate raw resources for. For example, when you've decided on a ship build but you're under by maybe a hundred ore, right now you have to go to the toag market page, trade for the resources, go back to the ship design page, then start over on the ship design. My idea is to have a the price of the trade it would take at the Toag market just be part of the cost of building the ship right then and there. So instead of 1000 o/p which you can't afford it would be 900 o/p + 400 credits.

[Onos Toolan]

I like ideas

I always had dreams of a custom version of Space and a game similar to Starcraft or C&C existing separately in a mutual universe. So I am a Toag attacking a Turians homeworld, I destroy their fleet but simultaneously a team of heavily fortified Turian players are beating back wave after wave of Toag Marines landing on the surface, in a RTS setting.
Allowing the "Space" leaders to bribe the RTS ones with better weapons, reinforce them with shipborne Marines, unique weapons like a Shy'dow with Aether above that can rain down chucks of dead ships..

All we need is a team of about 200 game developers, $15 million and an unlimited supply of honey pretzel pieces. It would be a groundbreaking game. Sigh.

Realistic ideas: Yes BFM queuing of buildings! (I cant afford hours)

: Support space with ads on non-BFH players games, if they want the extended queue. I know its sad but today its become much more acceptable to have them, many new players probably leave because of the uneasy feeling they get not having to contend with ads.

: Eat more greens, especially spinach, they will help keep your iron up. And you will need it because I have plans to finch off a pint of blood a day per player

:Ignore last

:Update the Space Wiki to read initially developed by DarkEnt. The internet must be true!

:Patching together two games looked fun for everyone, though I missed CG2. I know it might take some real number crunching, but DM Gals could go like this:

DM -3 top 10 players vs dm-4 top 10 players PLUS 30 regular DM accounts.
Scenario
These 20 players cannot ally anyone are now for their sake on FFA rules ie cannot see player names, names of ships, names of empires
They loose all their colonies are back to one HW unlike the 30 regular DM accounts, but keep ALL their final ships (with no ship upkeep)

Regular 30 have normal DM rules, apart from 20 player's names and empires are hashed.
What I thought would make it really really fun, is to have the 20 FFA players HW's grouped together in the centre of the gal, so they have to duke it out in disgustingly graphic wars, then a couple emerge victorious from this bloodbath, only to find the rest of the galaxy starting to heat up with a couple of full-grown alliances to contend with....Or else having 20 huge fleets constantly on the run from each other ravaging the normal alliances who are struggling to get econs together....

Whaddya Think??       

[Brink]

New Ideas.

1.) 10-player galaxies. One player per species. Galaxy starts once each species has a player.

2.) Mines don't take land. You can build as many mines without taking up valuable land. They would still be included in the 10 building limit per tick. Maybe increase the upkeep cost to prevent excessive mining of planets.

3.) No more Shield Generators. Instead make it a racial bonus to Turians which in turn make it available to their alliance. Instead of having to build Shield Generators and take of land, each planet automatically is protected. The new Shield Generators resist an unlimited amount of damage but only for one tick.
"Turian advancements in shield technology have increased to the point they can build massive shield generators capable of shielding not just small ships but entire planets. These massive shield generators are so powerful they can withstand even the toughest of enemy barrages. The energy required to operate is so high however they can only be run for a limited time before they must recharge."

4.) Give each species a unique* alliance bonus.
Drall      : Megapoli maximum capacity increased.
Gorgoth : Allied weapons have a chance to bypass shields -or- all weapons damage increased. *Basically anything War related and not a watered down version of another species raical bonus.
Ji          : Bioforming effectiveness increased and cost of colonizations reduced.
Kreel      : First Strike
Oomari   : Travel time between allied systems reduced by 50%
Shy'Dow : Effectiveness of mining increased.
Sirnef    : Effectiveness of labs increased.
Toag     : Maximum 40% Toag Market bonus.
Turian   : Planetary Shields.
Zeeb     : Ship construction speed reduced -or- Can build up to 11 buildings per tick -or- effectiveness of factories increased.
Just some ideas.