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Old 28-08-2018, 17:19   #1
Matrix
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Lightbulb I'm creating a new civ inspired game!

The plan is substantial enough, so I'll start sharing my idea with you all. But we're still in the very early stages, i.e. design and framework programming.

A friend of mine and I are working on a new game, heavily inspired on Civilization (and a bit of Colonization) which should be different enough to prevent receiving a cease and desist letter.

The idea spawned for two reasons.
- Playing pitboss style requires you to start up the game, connect to the server, download the savegame, play your turn and exit the game again. This will be browser based, so you just log in and you're there. This game is primarily made for pitboss style multiplayer.
- Each new version of Civilization has one third old, one third improved and one third new, as the designers have always put it. The result is, now that we're all becoming old farts, that many of us got stuck on a certain version of the game. What if we want to play together again? III, IV, V or VI?

It's purely client-server based. The matches are hosted by a server and you connect to play the game. Single player is an option, that is, there will be an AI, but we're optimizing it for multiplayer gameplay. Thus, the player will not have to download the whole savegame, as what happens now. The server will just give you the information that you need and are allowed to know and the browser renders it.

Technicalities
Back-end: MySQL and PHP. So all 'savegames' are actually stored on a database.
Front-end: Vue.JS (JavaScript framework) and HTML/SVG for lay-out.

So any action you make is sent to the server, who then sends back the information about what you explored with that move, what the result of the battle is, etc.

The pickle I have is how to go to the next turn. Ideally I'd like to have a timed programme that does that, but it's also possible that the server checks the time when someone logs in and progresses the turn shift before the player can play his turn. Then I can keep everything in PHP.

Another pickle is starting a new game. Generating a world map will be quite a challenge.

Ideas we have so far
The looks will be similar to the original Civilization and Colonization, thus more board game styled, if you will. First of all because it's browser based, secondly I want that.

Biggest difference with what we know from Civ will be that it's not solely city based. People (as units) work on either the land or in a city, which can be located anywhere. So you don't have to worry anymore about how to spread those 'fat crosses'. The people working on land can produce food or building material, or work on the infrastructure. People in the city (need food and) can produce more commerce, science and culture. Later on in the game, people working on land will also contribute on those things.

Military units and weapons are separate. You can have an X amount of units per population (depending on...factors) and then 'mount' weapons on to them. Those can be multiple at the same time, e.g. guns and horses.

We're not too sure about technology yet, but we're trying to think of something else than the tech tree and are thinking in the lines of nations specializing and advancing in what they do, rather than a completely voluntary path. E.g. if you use spears a lot, your nation will be a lot more skilled with that (thus developing the Civ equivalent of phalanxes). But again, we haven't worked that out yet.

How to get it done
Well yea, it's just the two of us. He can program a bit, but will mostly be doing the graphic design. I suck at that. I am a programmer by profession now, but with a full time job. To create the whole back-end and front-end would take me years. So we're thinking of crowd sourcing and/or crowd funding. (My employer won't be happy with the latter if that becomes successful.) I'm not asking for your money now , but I am asking for your suggestions and insights. I know some of you, e.g. ProPain, are also programmers, so perhaps they're willing to lend a helping hand? Eventually I also want to share this idea on CivFanatics and other sites. If they put it on their front page and promote it, crowd funding would be a realistic option! But right now, I'm just interested in your input.
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Old 28-08-2018, 20:14   #2
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matrix View Post
People (as units) work on either the land or in a city, which can be located anywhere. So you don't have to worry anymore about how to spread those 'fat crosses'.
Is that a good thing? It sounds like Colonization without cities.
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Old 28-08-2018, 22:08   #3
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You can still build cities, but they can be located anywhere. Sorry, I wasn't clear on that. Food transportation will be a factor, but we still need to figure out a system for that. Again: "People in the city (need food and) can produce (...) commerce, science and culture" and such. And this way you will also be able to claim small islands in an ocean without having to build a whole useless city. And they will also be more stationary. If you evacuate half your population, you'll basically have unhoused refugees in your own country.
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Old 29-08-2018, 16:51   #4
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I get that you can build cities, but if you can simply work everything without a nearby city it does sound a lot like Infinite Worker Spam.
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Old 31-08-2018, 16:37   #5
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- Population growth is not solely dependent on food production.
- Transportation matters. Especially in the early stage, food produced far away simply can't reach the city. Inventing the wheel would greatly enlarge that reach, for example.
- There will be other factors that make ridiculously large cities undesireable, like crime and health.

Thanks for the feedback so far. I hope you might also have to interesting ideas on how to work this out, instead of just saying what would be wrong.
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Old 01-09-2018, 11:47   #6
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Quote:
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I hope you might also have to interesting ideas on how to work this out, instead of just saying what would be wrong.
I'm not sure I'm any good at that. I'm good at figuring out what doesn't work. And I can't code anyway.
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Old 02-09-2018, 01:45   #7
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That's ok. Any kind of feedback is welcome.

I was kind of hoping this would spark some new activity on this site, but where are all the others? Do they simply not check the site anymore?

Can't you send an e-mail to all members, telling that we're on to something new and exciting? Or is that against the GDPR?
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Old 02-09-2018, 02:03   #8
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I check here from time to time...

...sounds very interesting what you have in mind.

I guess, complexity of how the logics work should be kind of connected to the desired game flow.
Is it more like a game where you duel for an hour or a few in one go?
Or more like you login like once a day and make your turn and a game might last a few months...or both?

Seems like you want a game where you can micromanage a lot? (Which would then more fit to the second style)

By the way, I am a programmer, too, and of course always wanted to do games; but with php I only came in contact very shortly at the university; I am more comfortable with C++/C#
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Old 02-09-2018, 14:04   #9
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Back in the early days of Civ 5 Sulla wrote a concept on how a cool civ orientated game would look like. I posted that on CDZ (don't have time right now to find it).

Search for it or use this: http://www.sullla.com/Civ5/civ5editorials.html
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Old 02-09-2018, 22:48   #10
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Found it: http://www.sullla.com/designingciv.html
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