Author Topic: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation  (Read 31000 times)

Offline Penumbra

  • Sr. Member Mark III
  • ****
  • Posts: 464
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #60 on: November 20, 2013, 04:43:57 pm »
  At first I was sick . . .

See! It's justified that we worry when you don't post....  :D

Glad you're feeling better.

Thank you for ever keeping us in the loop.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #61 on: November 20, 2013, 04:56:55 pm »
You bet, and thanks as well. :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Teal_Blue

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 935
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #62 on: November 20, 2013, 10:50:59 pm »
@x4000,
                  your post on page 4 was really cool and interesting, thank you for the new information, it is fascinating to hear how you all are putting it all together.  :)


Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #63 on: November 21, 2013, 08:21:23 am »
My pleasure, Teal!
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline nas1m

  • Master Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,268
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #64 on: November 29, 2013, 01:37:16 am »
::poke::
  ;)
Okay I will give this a try myself:
::poke::?

Another random blob of news perhaps ;)? I am quite excited to see how this one turns out...
Craving some more color and variety in your next Bionic run? Grab a boost and a couple of custom floors!

Offline Wingflier

  • Core Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,753
  • To add me on Steam, click the little Steam icon ^
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #65 on: December 02, 2013, 02:55:50 am »
First thing I thought when I read this article was an RTS version of Drox Operative.

The 8 races, the small group of mercenaries, the emergent quests, and how you are supposed to take the situation and mold it to your advantage - forging alliances, sabotaging enemies, and slowly puppeteering the entire solar system to your goal.

Anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun. I wish it were multiplayer!
"Inner peace is the void of expectation. It is the absence of our shared desperation to feel a certain way."

Offline Misery

  • Arcen Volunteer
  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,109
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #66 on: December 03, 2013, 08:45:36 pm »
First thing I thought when I read this article was an RTS version of Drox Operative.

The 8 races, the small group of mercenaries, the emergent quests, and how you are supposed to take the situation and mold it to your advantage - forging alliances, sabotaging enemies, and slowly puppeteering the entire solar system to your goal.

Anyway, it sounds like a lot of fun. I wish it were multiplayer!


I'm getting the impression that the Drox comparison is going to be made really often.

I've now shown the game to a few people, which includes the topic containing the explanation of how it's different from Drox, and the same thing was said by all:  "Cool, it sounds just like Drox".  Hopefully once there are trailers they'll be able to show enough so that it shows it's uniqueness. 

Offline Cyborg

  • Master Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,957
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #67 on: December 03, 2013, 09:26:09 pm »
I think we all need to see the game before making comparisons, but I'm sure that it has elements of a lot of other games. One thing you won't have the same as drox- lawnmowing unexplored space (did they fix that yet? I asked for a refund over that issue, it bored me to tears).
Kahuna strategy guide:
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,13369.0.html

Suggestions, bugs? Don't be lazy, give back:
http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/

Planetcracker. Believe it.

The stigma of hunger. http://wayw.re/Vi12BK

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #68 on: December 05, 2013, 09:56:44 am »
I think that comparisons to many things are inevitable of course, but I think that the screenshots and videos really won't feel like drox at all.  I'm not really sure what other games people will think they evoke (I can think of a few, but people always surprise me), but I doubt drox will be among them.

Anyhow, I've posted a random blob of news, sorry for the delay.  Been really busy!

In terms of multiplayer, this is something that I really do want to do, and I have some ideas on how to do it.  But it's a big enough task and would require expansion of game mechanics that it would probably need to be an expansion-pack feature.  The general idea is to make it basically kind of like Bughouse Chess, where technically you are playing two different games (each your own solar system), but you are also able to pass things across.  Though more freely than in bughouse.

Basically you would each be playing your own solar system in single player, but with a network connection between them for as long as you feel like, and the ability to pass some things back and forth across that connection and thus interact and collaborate.  That's an odd sort of multiplayer, so we likely would not even call it that.  Most likely we'd say "ability to connect single player worlds and use one solar system to help another!"  Or something along those lines.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Vyndicu

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 319
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #69 on: December 05, 2013, 02:12:15 pm »
First off I am looking forward to "The Last Federation".

I have been reading up on Last Federation a bit and for some strange reason it remind me lot of distant world's races. To be fair Federation seem to have more robotic races than DW has (DW has just one and you can't play as them sadly).

I assume it is safe to say that with randomization planet conditions that situation can cause a typical utopia race to be warmonger and vice versa. Or even a typical game might see two races, normally like each other, ending up commit to generations of war? Or the entire solar system just in general lack resource to support three space faring races? (No fissionable material and sun is dying kind of thing)

What are some crazy examples that you have come across that show some fun in emergency gameplay?

Offline Teal_Blue

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 935
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #70 on: December 05, 2013, 03:25:48 pm »
The part about the sun dying sounds pretty cool, i mean... you know, in an abstract and game sort of way only. Really, i mean, that would totally not be cool if it were like for real.  :)
Isn't it funny what is cool and not depending on if its like for real or not?


-Teal

Offline madcow

  • Hero Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,153
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #71 on: December 05, 2013, 04:31:16 pm »
I wonder if it's possible after getting somebody to join the federation, if they will ever leave. Or if it's possible to get the federation itself pissed at you and have them going after you. That would be strange and interesting.

Offline Coppermantis

  • Hero Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,212
  • Avenger? I hardly know 'er!
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #72 on: December 05, 2013, 06:34:11 pm »
I think I remember Chris saying that once someone was in the Federation, they'd never leave. I could be wrong, or it could have changed though.
I can already tell this is going to be a roller coaster ride of disappointment.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #73 on: December 05, 2013, 08:50:40 pm »
I haven't played DW, so can't really comment on similarities there.  But I imagine that both they and we are pulling from similar general tropes in sci-fi overall, honestly, heh.

In terms of how the races behave with one another in one game versus another, yes that absolutely does vary based on situations.  Sometimes the "klingons" cower in terror from the "ewoks," and I always find that hilarious when it does happen.  That said, even then there is a very distinct feel of dealing with klingons versus ewoks when you personally interact with them -- but their attitudes towards you and toward one another can really change the feel of how the overall atmosphere is.  Dealing with a burlust warlord is always very different from dealing with a peltian collective, but dealing with a warmongering versus a meek collective, or an ascendant warlord versus a desperate one are four very different scenarios.

One of the funny/crazy examples of emergent stuff happening lately is the pirates are sometimes setting up kind of a federation of their own, heh.  They form a pirate empire and then get so strong that they suppress all the planetary fleets of the other races, thus enforcing peace through violence (and preventing the actual federation from forming).  That was... unexpected.  It's happening too frequently right now, but it's cool to see that happen sometimes.

There have also been some cases of where a race was super-compatible with a planet with low land area, and they then just absolutely sprinted into space aggressively and started taking over everything incredibly quickly.  Basically a zerg rush, out of the blue, which also was unexpected.

And then there's a whole variety of humorous tales of woe relating to events and so forth and so on, but those are more in the range of the "expected randomness" I suppose you could call it.  It will surprise the players quite often and in fun ways, but it doesn't surprise us as the developers since we coded those to sometimes come up.  But even with those, the combinations of those can lead to some pretty unexpected end results since there can be kind of causal chain reactions.

I'll be doing a much bigger writeup on the whole butterfly effect stuff sometime soon, but right now haven't had time.  But those are a couple of very broad examples. :)

---

Teal -- very much agree on what is "cool" when something is real versus just a game, heh.

---

In terms of the federation, they can "leave" if they die, which is possible.  Right now that's the only way that they can leave, although at some point likely we'd add some ways they could leave.

Once in the federation, a race can still personally hate your guts, and may wind up sending assassins after you, etc.  They may even kill you (losing you the game) despite being in the federation!  And even if their official government is not sending assassins after you, the race may have a ton of citizen unrest leading to AFA demonstrators and insurgents, which then wind up fighting with you and possibly killing you.

On that note, it is possible to get a race into the federation even if they hate you and you have like the worst relationship with them ever.  But to do that, you have to make sure that their relationship with some other race is really good, and then kind of backdoor them into the federation through a political deal with that other race.  Those sorts of deals can only be brokered by some races, like the Skylaxians.  So if the Skylaxians are dead and the Thoraxians perma-hate you, then you may find yourself in a situation where the only way to win the game is to kill the Thoraxians.  Just as one example.  You haven't lost the game, but you have lost a lot of options by then; you are highly unlikely to be able to remotely kill the Thoraxians yourself, so you need to set about warmongering the other races (in the federation or not) to go kill them.  And then help a bit as you can.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Vyndicu

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 319
Re: Preview: Simulations In The Last Federation
« Reply #74 on: December 06, 2013, 12:54:41 am »
The part about the sun dying sounds pretty cool, i mean... you know, in an abstract and game sort of way only. Really, i mean, that would totally not be cool if it were like for real.  :)
Isn't it funny what is cool and not depending on if its like for real or not?


-Teal

No I meant like a solar system wide resource shortage and it kind of push everyone either into "survival" mode or the peace is very fragile as in only two or three races can afford realistic maintain a standing roving patrol. As for the rest? They just have to figure out how to leverage (salvage from battle or hand me down stuff). Also the pace is obviously very different since there are fewer space faring fleet in the same time frame. Perhaps even more "reavers" out and around so combat is probability much harder with little to no backing from federation.

It was surprising that nobody have even gone past the initial impression to find the gameplay as opposite to "abstracted" dying sun setting. Let me put it in AI war setting with a similar if not identical feeling.

normal/exo-wave 7/7; 20 solar systems; honeycomb map; simple unit type; all minor hostile faction enable on 10; both hybrid type/astro train/cookie monster/both hunter type/etc... all set to 10; Set on epic and smaller cap; perhaps some resource handicap on top of that.

Your opinion may vary widely but it should get you on the right track on what I was thinking of.