Game Design, Programming and running a one-man games business…

Difficulty levels and other ‘wrapper stuff’

cliffski

I’ve been trying to avoid acting too much like a graphics junkie and getting some work done on the gamey stuff instead. I’ve put in difficulty levels today, and also made some decisions regarding what race of aliens the player controls.

The main part of the game currently has ten missions, basically defined by a certain backdrop, of a certain size (some maps are bigger than others) which some other variables such as nebula effects on shields etc. These levels also define the maximum fleet size (in ship and pilot terms) and which race the player fights against.

So today, each of these missions has three enemy fleets rather than one, the normal, hard and expert AI fleets, which are of differing sizes. Obviously the bigger fleets are harder :D. During combat, the enemy AI is the same as yours, so the difficulty comes purely from the force that is fielded against you. I may get around to the AI evolving its own fleets, but thats a whole can of worms.

There will be some ‘other stuff’ that will give the game longevity beyond those 3 fleets in 10 different missions, but I’m not talking about that stuff yet :D

The other thing decided today was that the player will fight the game as ‘the federation’ which is a ferengi inspired race whose backstory I’m still mulling over. Once you have beaten every mission on Normal, you will unlock the Rebels as a selectable playable race for each mission, beat them all on Hard and you unlock the Alliance, Beat them all of Expert, and you unlock the Empire. That’s the plan anyway. Any thoughts?

5 thoughts on Difficulty levels and other ‘wrapper stuff’

  1. Unlocking is a good way to increase the games longevity. Your ideas are solid and you should go with them.

    When you say backstory, are the races based in a totally fictional galaxy or do you plan to base the backstories within our galaxy with Humans being one of the races?

    Also, are the Rebels a race or are they a rebellion within one of the other races/empires?

  2. Only 10 missions? Please tell me you’re going to add a mission creation tool. Also, please tell me that’s not in binary =)

  3. What’s the plan for Multiplayer?

    Viewing the videos, I have the feeling of “StarCon2″… ever play? One of the fun parts was multiplayer, and I’d like to see that.

    Personally, I hate “Achievement Unlocks Gameplay”… but most people seem to like that they need to keep at it for immense amounts of time to get that last thing unlocked.

  4. I agree with CaesarsGhost.
    It might be better to have the unlockable races in the campaign, but have a skirmish mode where you can be anyone. Or give the player the choice in the options menu.
    One of the worst features of, for example, Rome: Total War was that you could only play as the Romans until you had beaten the campaign. I’d prefer the freedom to play as any of the races.

  5. I think unlocking the races is a good idea. Maybe the player could choose the race to unlock as they beat the game?
    As for the Federation back-story, this is a Gratuitous Space Battle – do back stories really matter?

Comments are currently closed.