Arcen Games

General Category => The Last Federation => : Darloth February 02, 2014, 09:05:15 AM

: Player bonus for hydral technology?
: Darloth February 02, 2014, 09:05:15 AM
I would be stylistically nice if the player (being the last hydral) has some sort of bonus when interacting with the ancient hydral technology scattered around the place.

In terms of game mechanics I have no idea what this might be, this could be faster capturing, or being able to negate an enemy's capture without them being able to do the same, or a variety of things.

In terms of game design, it would be an edge that the player could (and would need to) leverage against larger, tougher enemy fleets, but not one that automatically grants them extra power or makes every battle trivial (especially if the number of pieces of hydral tech in the battlespace depends in some way on battle scale).

If I had even seen how they're going to work in a video then I'd consider putting this on Mantis as an actual suggestion, but as it is I think it's more a discussion/speculation forum topic :)
: Re: Player bonus for hydral technology?
: x4000 February 02, 2014, 09:37:05 AM
That's a great way to express it -- I had not thought of it specifically in those terms, but at any rate I am pushing for increasing asymmetry in the design of most of the battles.  Giving players some abilities that enemies simply don't have, but giving enemies advantages in scale.  You're a small mercenary fleet, and meant to feel like it -- right now, the battles themselves are way too even in numbers and scale, even though the number of fleets out in the solar system are much more plentiful.

That to me makes it feel slightly boring, like I actually am a big fleet or else like the enemy is a small fleet.  Neither is the feeling that should really be given here.  Instead it needs to be that I'm small but awesome, carving through a larger foe to achieve victory.  Which already is the case on the solar map scale, but that needs to play out in individual battles, too.