For Your Perusal [Galaxy at War Project]

[SithMaster]

Hello,

 

While I'm finishing up the requirements document, here's something to whet your appetites.

 

This is my original game concept for Galaxy at War. Please feel free to post your comments on it - it may give me ideas as I finish the rd.

 

SM

[SithMaster]

Game Concept

 

Introduction

 

Have you ever dreamed of liberating large numbers of planets from the grip of evil tyrants? Or have you wished to hold the galaxy in your iron grip? Or do you just need a great game to suck up hour upon hour of your free time?

 

Galaxy at War is an open source ‘4x’ sci-fi strategy game for the PC. It uses the proven design concepts of Master of Orion, Star Wars Rebellion and other great games in this genre to place players in the role of the leader one of many factions attempting to gain total control over the galaxy.

 

Background

 

Created by the fans of Star Wars Rebellion at swrebellion.com, Galaxy at War is our attempt to create a game as great as Rebellion without its many problems. The poor AI and inefficient user interface in Star Wars Rebellion doomed it to poor sales despite the overall addictive experience it offered.

 

Galaxy at War uses the proven strategy game concepts of previous ‘4x’ (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate) games as inspiration and builds upon those ideas. The main area that sets Galaxy at War apart from other strategy games is the extent to which users can change the game. Through the included toolkit players can modify almost anything in Galaxy at War to make the gaming experience as enjoyable as possible.

Description

 

You board the flagship of your mighty fleet and give the final signal. The band of marauding pirates has made a fatal mistake and left its chief spaceport undefended. After a hard fought battle in which your forces destroyed the remaining ships you take control of the hidden base. Bringing in construction crews you start building up the asteroid-based spaceport into your hidden refuge. Before long the pirates remain and your overwhelming fleet destroys them, and the knowledge of this base.

 

Returning home, you arrive to the cheers of a million of the citizens on your capital planet. With the pirates destroyed, the main trade routes connecting this sector to the rest of the galactic commerce system are once again free. You are given a victors welcome, but it is just the beginning. Your scout ships have returned with news of a vast uncharted expanse of space. Whichever faction claims those planets is sure to get a major boost to their economic and military power.

 

After dispatching an expeditionary force you receive word from your biggest rival, who is suing for peace. Can you trust him, knowing his treacherous past? Or can you use this opportunity to wipe him stink from the galaxy once and for all?

 

Key Features

 

• A streamlined, efficient user interface so managing your empire is a breeze.

• Advanced artificial intelligence so your single player experience is challenging and enjoyable.

• Up to eight major factions, two of, which may be human, controlled.

• A vast galaxy to explore and conquer.

• Both ground and space based combat situation to test your army and fleet.

• Many economic and diplomatic options to build up your intergalactic empire.

• The complete toolkit that created the game is included with Galaxy at War.

• It allows you to modify much of the gaming experience such as: creating new worlds, creating new characters, creating new units, creating new ships and modifying game data.

• … Including the ability to add your favourite ‘game worlds’ such as Star Trek or Star Wars.

 

Genre

 

Galaxy at War is a real-time sci-fi strategy game using the popular ‘4x’ system of eXploring vast sections of uncharted space, eXpanding your empire through whatever means are necessary, eXploiting weaknesses in your enemies and eXterminating them whenever you have the opportunity.

 

Platform

 

The target platform of Galaxy at War is PCs running Windows 98 / XP or Linux. Other platforms may also be supported in the future.

 

Concept Art (Don’t Have Any Yet)

 

The following items give a brief ‘view’ of what we hope to accomplish with this game.

 

- Screen shots.

- Pictures from similar items off of the internet.

[Lord_La_forge]

Sounds good. You want to do this for real? Got any staff for it, any sponsors, publishers....

[Mad78]

one Question. How many ships should we have. Should we use every ship in the SW universe?

[AdmiralFishface]

Not necessary, if the ability to add ships later on is there. And the final number of ships will depend on how the game plays, I think, which we don't know right now. About 10-15 would be a good start.

 

Also, if you don't want to get into legal trouble with LucasArts, not including anything that points to Star Wars might be wiser. One can always release mods afterwards...

Just something to think about...

[Valorum_Kore]

Well we've been talking about this project for months now if not longer... I think LA would have chimed in by now if they had any concerns....

[Evaders99]

There's a big difference going from talk to action. We can talk all we want, but until we are actually producing something that conflicts with LEC, they won't say anything. Once there is something to release, than LEC can hit strong with a "cease and desist" order

[Mad78]

One major question.

How are we going to set space battles?

I am not very keen on using a 2d plane like EaW but i also think that the original rebellion interface isn't really adapted to create real strategies.

[Valorum_Kore]

How about a move or manuver button which can bring up a whole slew of different tactics? Select a Double Pincer move and corresponding waypoints, then if you see another area of opportunity later on during the fight you can select a totally different move with its own respective waypoints showing your ships' paths... Maybe even use Admiral Ackbar's move if he is in cammand of your fleet...

[Mad78]

How about each admiral knows a certain amount of moves. He can receive more if you send him on training missions. He can also give your ships a moral bonus.

[Guest JediIgor]

Sounds good. You want to do this for real? Got any staff for it, any sponsors, publishers....

 

The game will be open source, and probably GPLd, so we won't need any publishers, although some might come along.

 

There's a big difference going from talk to action. We can talk all we want, but until we are actually producing something that conflicts with LEC, they won't say anything. Once there is something to release, than LEC can hit strong with a "cease and desist" order

 

Agreed. We've been talking about Rebellion 2 for a while, and you can talk about your dream Star Wars game too, just like you can talk about getting rid of the president, nothing is going to happen since we have free speech in the USA here .

 

On the other hand, I was under the impression that the game was not going to have a Star Wars theme, but that Star Wars could be modded in later..? Can SithMaster please fill us in?

 

One major question.

How are we going to set space battles?

I am not very keen on using a 2d plane like EaW but i also think that the original rebellion interface isn't really adapted to create real strategies.

 

You're probably thinking of the UI, right? We will need a good way to move the cameras and to calculate where the mouse click actually goes (since you know, the screens are kinda 2d, ), but everything else is kind of obvious.. 3d battling .

 

How about each admiral knows a certain amount of moves. He can receive more if you send him on training missions. He can also give your ships a moral bonus.

 

Wouldn't it be better if we just have a flexible and powerful UI (if something like that is possible) so that the players can do all those fancy tactics themselves instead of us spending our precious time and hardcoding fancy "special moves?" I always feel like I'm in control when I'm the one doing the commands, and not when I can press a button and give a ship over to the AI.

[Mad78]

I am working on a design for the menu for adding and removing ships.

[Nikermaster]

hey remember I told ya I would send info? im sry but I will have to right it ok here it is

I draw mad78 model of comerce routes and it is good but I would add this see where a route is ?? well lets make the planet divide in parts acording 2 the routes established like this =(|)= well and in the trade routes we should have an outpost like in the midle of it that checks everyhthing (1 more planet like although it doesnt spread in parts)(attackable) well there is also a posibilyty if you see that the fleet comand in all sw games say (ok bla bla youve done your job return to the randevoz point and we'll regroup can we make some randevouz points across the sectors?? cos if you lose all the planets there you can still hide there and launch operations against your enemies from there we should also add this: outer line defence a fighing place but its outer (commands retreat to inner defence\planet\etc,fight) also when an outpost is under atack instead of fighting you can desert the outpost with all te personal that made it in the fight (protect them) the enemy can claim the outpost and the trade route is cut off. this is only part of my ideas

 

Pd: I would like to have a reinforcment tag I mean when your main base at..... lets make it yavin is under atack you can call for reinforcments from a nearby planet/outpost/randevouz point

[SithMaster]

 

On the other hand, I was under the impression that the game was not going to have a Star Wars theme, but that Star Wars could be modded in later..? Can SithMaster please fill us in?

 

Just to clarify - Galaxy at War has absolutely nothing to do with Star Wars or the Star Wars universe. It is an open source 4x game with our own unique setting. The game will come with tools for people to create their own universes though, that's probably where the confusion sets in. What they do with those tools is limited to their skills and imagination.

 

SM