Idea for PBW: Foundation
Scw and I have developed some ideas for a PBW game based on Isaac's Asimov Foundation.
As it would be impossible to catch the whole storyline of the original trilogy, we have chosen (so far) to take a specific part of the book: the time of "Neotrantor", where the old Empire still exists, but has left Trantor (which is without warp connections to the completely surrounding Neotrantor Empire) and now only spans 20 agrarian planets, the outer parts of the galaxy diconnected (We have decided the Neotrantor Empire will span 20 systems, maybe with 20 distinctly agrarian planets. Maybe they could be an organic race, but we haven't talked about that yet.
There will be three, maybe four types of players.
About 9 players will play the kingdoms of the outer parts of the galaxy. Their task will be to reach and conquer Trantor, for which they will have to get through the rests of the old Empire. The Empire will be weaker then all kingdoms together, but stronger than each of them alone.
One player will play the old Empire, having no contact with all others for several years, as there is no connection. He will have to prepare to fight against the kingdoms who will com from every side of the map. He is not allowed to open to open warp points to Trantor or to the outer parts of the galaxy, but is free to use them if someone else does.
One player will play the 2nd Foundation which is on Trantor. As we have begun to develop this concept the day before yesterday, we're still collecting ideas what his tasks could be. If this is possible, Trantor will be a sphereworld, but my recent tests with the map editor have not been successful so far - it always changed into a huge planet. Second best option would be to have this player start on a huge planet besides Trantor, so he can settle the sphere immediately.
(Maybe we will have one player in the outer parts play the 1st Foundation - still thinking about that).
VICTORY CONDITIONS:
1 The first player from the outer regions who is able to conquer Trantor with troop transports and hold it for one year wins. He will be the founder of the 2nd Empire. Maybe we will have the game go on at this point until the galaxy is united under one kingdom. If Trantor is destroyed, everyone loses. The conquering idea is to make sure that a strong enough and constructive kingdom to form the 2nd Empire is successful, so a new period of prosperity can begin.
2 The 1st Empire makes it to prevent the others from reaching Trantor and is able to return to old glory.
3 (If there is going to be one), the 1st Foundation is able to unite the other empires and to return to Trantor; yet there must be an interest for the kingdoms in the outer galaxy to do this, which I don't see at this stage of game development.
The game will be based on the assumption that the warp gates are manmade (btw, is there an alternative picture for warp points which makes them look more artificial?).
The game will use a modified events.tx file which mainly will have features like collapsing warp points (technology can not be maintained anymore, planetary catastrophes (atomic energy is getting dangerous, as there's less and less experts, so millions of people will die, planetary conditions get worse etc.), ships will have problems due to lack of feasible technicians etc.
Start should be with medium tech, one priority for the players of the kingdoms will be to research stellar manipulation tech to make the connection to the Neotrantor Empire, and finally to Trantor itself!
Obviously the player who will be doing the 2nd Foundation on Trantor will not have much to do for a long time, so:
one idea is to make him a computer player with no ability to open warp points (maybe a neutral) and who will never form treaties;
the other idea is to give him special abilities:
a) there was a thread about hyperspace ability for human players I'd like to know more about -
To the player who developed this: Is it possible to give this ability to only one player in the game, so the 2nd Foundation could travel around without warp gates?
Some other questions we haven't found answers for:
- Sphereworld as starting planet - how?
- Is there any way to give people different starting techs?
- Is there any way to give people different numbers of starting planets?
We'd appreciate some help on this: Someone who has experience with the events.txt file would be great. Also, if the second Foundation will be a computer player, someone with modding experience would be cool.
Check out the map - it's a first try, so you'll get an idea what we're shooting for. Obviously, it will look even better with more systems.
Please post comments, ideas, critics and more!
Gorgo
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