A Sci-Fi Browser Game

[CrippledVulture]

I hope this doesn't come off as spamming or shameless plugging, but I imagine many of you may be interested, and there's nothing to plug yet.

Many years ago I was part of the flip side of the big Versus debate, the dorky roleplaying. There was a chat room where we would meet, and it usually devolved into pseudo-scientific arguments and flaming. Eventually, the Trek group sort of broke off to RP on our own.

We lost interest after a while, but right before we did, we made an attempt to actually put everything into a gaming system, so that the battles would actually have (gasp) a winner. We didn't get very far.

Last year, I stumbled upon Darkstar/G2K's st-v-sw.net and I started to think about that project again. I decided that it would be even better to make a game that would allow the player to customize a lot about their people, their ships, as much as possible.

I've been working on it for a while now, and I kind of have a programmer. Well, he's been ignoring me, so I guess I'm on the hunt again. Most of the rules and systems are designed at this point. I'm really just working on the tech tree (which is a massive undertaking, I don't envy Sid Meier or the guys he pays to do that) and finding someone to program it.

The ship-building and combat systems will probably be the major selling points of the game, but exploration and trade are also major aspects of the game. Nothing will be taken directly from a Sci-Fi universe, but it's hard to avoid these things, and I'd like players to research something and notice that it's inspired by a Sci-Fi series they like.

What I'd like to know is what kinds of features you'd like to see in a game like this.

[Sunburst]

I've been working on a game seemingly related to yours for years. The game started out as a tactical board game very similar to the new star wars starship battles with dice and everything. It was initially as a Star Wars only thing, and grew to include Star Trek, and even Transformers.

Anyway, I ended up writing a program in LabVIEW because the battle calculations got so complex...as in there were so many variables. It works pretty well and sped things up considerably, but it added complications. At some point I may revisit the "to hit" calculator, streamline a few things, and add more features.

Finally…

Focus: Features I'd like to see

-a simple interface
-balance between ships and troops
-detailed descriptions of units
-detailed rules and an ever expanding faq

[CrippledVulture]

Focus: Features I'd like to see

-a simple interface

A challenge, indeed. The game incorporates a lot of different things. I'm not quite at that stage yet, and I have a friend who works in layout and design. She lays out three of the publications at our college, and two of them are the only ones that matter.

-balance between ships and troops

At the moment, there are no troops to speak of. The military aspect of the game rests with my uber-complicated ship design system.

-detailed descriptions of units

This is the part we're testing now. As I said before, there is a lot to the ship creation, and it should result in players having wildly different strategies that are effective in their own way. My goal is to create a game in which the best players don't look the same.

-detailed rules and an ever expanding faq

Couldn't agree more. There's a lot to it, and I hope it isn't overwhelming. There is a startup period in which the game is a little slower while the player explores their own system and learns the game before they develop the trans-system drive and join the game proper.