Promote Alliance
Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 1:08 pm
This is more of a brainstorm than a real cut-and-dried suggestion... bear with me
I think a really cool way to deepen game play would be to develop the alliance concept. At present the only real point of the game is to wipe out all other players; in practise an "alliance" amounts to nothing more than a mutual agreement that we both stand a better chance if we bash another player now and bash each other later. What if the game could be tweaked to make genuine alliance a viable strategy?
So far I have six ideas, which would mostly have to be implemented *together* to work.
1) Change the objective of the game (or at least on certain maps), eg. whoever has the highest prestige after x minutes wins (calculated by population + buildings + resources in warehouse)
2) Implement the all-resource integrated warehouse idea.
3) Enable instant trading of resources between warehouses.
4) Enable selling buildings' services to other players.
5) Enable allies to disable fruit conversion.
6) Assume peace; players have to openly declare war before their warriors will start fighting.
This would theoretically enable two players to set up a symbiotic economy. I've got stone, you've got wood. I build schools, you build barracks. Because we don't have to destroy one another to win, we may choose to focus on economic competition instead.
The warehouses would work like this: We stock up our warehouses (which are universally integrated), and we have a menu where we can see the stock levels in the warehouses of our allies. I put 100 wheat up for sale, you make an offer of 70 stone, if I accept, the resources switch automatically. We could also make a running trade deal, ie. whenever I have 3 wheat and you have 1 plum the trade automatically takes place.
The same dialog would enable us to approve which services we are offering, and which resources are acceptable for payment. Let's say you haven't got any barracks. I choose to provide "level 2 warrior training" and approve "fruit" as payment. When your warrior turns up at my barracks the fruit is instantly transferred from your warehouse. (The amount of fruit goes up for each level.) Conversely you would also approve which services you are prepared to come to me for.
Disabling fruit conversion would have to be a mutual decision which may be rarely used. It might come in handy if, say, I've only got fruit trees and no wood. You've got a enormous forest and no fruit. Ideally I would like to trade with you, but you wouldn't because I'd convert all your people with my fruit, unless of course we turn fruit conversion off.
Two players who make this work would stand a better chance of winning. After all, the first thing the best AI's do is build a second swarm. If two players were to ally from the beginning, it would be almost like playing against one player with an instant second swarm. You could also come up with some interesting unbalanced maps.
Anyway, more ideas for the mix. All your fruits are belong to us.
I think a really cool way to deepen game play would be to develop the alliance concept. At present the only real point of the game is to wipe out all other players; in practise an "alliance" amounts to nothing more than a mutual agreement that we both stand a better chance if we bash another player now and bash each other later. What if the game could be tweaked to make genuine alliance a viable strategy?
So far I have six ideas, which would mostly have to be implemented *together* to work.
1) Change the objective of the game (or at least on certain maps), eg. whoever has the highest prestige after x minutes wins (calculated by population + buildings + resources in warehouse)
2) Implement the all-resource integrated warehouse idea.
3) Enable instant trading of resources between warehouses.
4) Enable selling buildings' services to other players.
5) Enable allies to disable fruit conversion.
6) Assume peace; players have to openly declare war before their warriors will start fighting.
This would theoretically enable two players to set up a symbiotic economy. I've got stone, you've got wood. I build schools, you build barracks. Because we don't have to destroy one another to win, we may choose to focus on economic competition instead.
The warehouses would work like this: We stock up our warehouses (which are universally integrated), and we have a menu where we can see the stock levels in the warehouses of our allies. I put 100 wheat up for sale, you make an offer of 70 stone, if I accept, the resources switch automatically. We could also make a running trade deal, ie. whenever I have 3 wheat and you have 1 plum the trade automatically takes place.
The same dialog would enable us to approve which services we are offering, and which resources are acceptable for payment. Let's say you haven't got any barracks. I choose to provide "level 2 warrior training" and approve "fruit" as payment. When your warrior turns up at my barracks the fruit is instantly transferred from your warehouse. (The amount of fruit goes up for each level.) Conversely you would also approve which services you are prepared to come to me for.
Disabling fruit conversion would have to be a mutual decision which may be rarely used. It might come in handy if, say, I've only got fruit trees and no wood. You've got a enormous forest and no fruit. Ideally I would like to trade with you, but you wouldn't because I'd convert all your people with my fruit, unless of course we turn fruit conversion off.
Two players who make this work would stand a better chance of winning. After all, the first thing the best AI's do is build a second swarm. If two players were to ally from the beginning, it would be almost like playing against one player with an instant second swarm. You could also come up with some interesting unbalanced maps.
Anyway, more ideas for the mix. All your fruits are belong to us.