Introduction ============ Turn based space game where each player have a radom planet and a random race to rule (that could live on that planet) and the objectives are to research one subject to it's end. In order to research technologies a race need scientist and in order to have scientits a race needs other (more fundamental) things first like education, health, transport, culture etc. Once the planet has researched space travel it can communicate with other civilizations, or can he wait until other players come to him/her for trade, use and provide services and also exchange knowledge. Planets ------- Planets can be of several types. It can be habitable or not, made of rocks, with water, gas planets are also possible and combinations of any of those as well. Planets must have the following information in order to races to inhabit it: - Mineral composition (major compounds) - Atmosphere (major compounds) - Water / land ratio - Total area and useful area percentage For instance, if a planet is 2/3 water and 1/3 land with 50% of useful area (both water and land) and has a total area of 530mi km2 the useful area is about 90mi km2 on land and 180mi km2 on water. So, a water based life form would have more space to live but would have less access to minerals and natural resources on land. Races ----- Races are populations of any kind of life form. No matter if it's terrestrial, maritime or aerial, big, clumsy and dumb or small haired geniuses or even hyperinteligent pan-dimensional beings that have no better representation on our universe than rats. A race must have the following characteristics in order to match planets to inhabit: - body composition (major compounds) - energy absortion (how/what) - strenght/weight/IQ - minimal area per habitant - reproductive strategy - work force percentage Some smal dumb individuals with a high reproductive strategy can breed millions of decendents and form a colony while other huge and smart ones would probably have one or two children. You can have any kind of combinations although some would fail miserable on any planet as the huge individuals' colony that would take so much space per capta that the colony will ever be small enought to grow to a capable size. Also small super-intelligent beings would kill themselves if the supper population threshold is achieved before the planet is totally occupied. The races are divided into some casts. Casts are important to calculate how much research or services you can do with your population. Also beware that in this universe child and alderly labor is not permitted and there is where the "work force percentage" takes a role. You may have 100% of your people in services getting a lot of money but you won't go further with that and will never be able to research anything, therefore, never winning the game. Of course, the race that finishes with the biggest amount of money receives the "Most Greedy Awards" and it's a big deal for Ferengi-Like civilizations. The military service is the same and the race with most victories on the battle field will get the "Berzerk Bastard Awards", also a great deal to Duke Nuken fans. But remember, weapons without research worth nothing, even on the battle field. (imagine axe dwarfs against plasma rifle battleships) Technology ---------- Technology is any kind of research and is the basic objective of this game. Technologies should be researched within a given objective as it's impossible to research all of them and still win the game. If you are keen to computers you can research quantum physics and reach the ultimate computer first than others research the ultimate pleasure'o'matic on a planet full of beach resorts. The technology tree should have thousands of interconnected subjects with multi-connections between them. Also, each of them should have the following information in order to fit into the tree: - technology requirements (other subjects needed) - raw materials required (if any) - products (if any) - category Categories are major themes of the technology tree that must be researched to win the game. Each category can have relationship with other categories along the way and are not compulsory in any way. Examples of categories: - raw material extraction - manufacture - support (often related with services) - society development - electronics - science - military Also, they have levels of complexity and some goes faster to the latest levels while other goes slowly but have a small last level, which makes them completely heterogeneous and with an intrinsic relationship. Technologies are often required in order to provide services (see below) and some services are required to live in a particular planet so you may have to stay away from your original research plan because of survival. You can teach to other races things you know (if they have the requirements, of course). That would take much less time to learn for them and they can also teach other things or pay in cash if you like. Service ------- A service is a basic component of the ongoing society. It may not be fancy but keeps your population alive. Essential things like education, health and transport are among the services allowed. Culture and Entertainment are services as well, and all of them can be traded, sold or given away at the discretion of the player. Other more specialized services can be of a particular interest to your population (like hairdressers for a hairy race) or to some other population when you have the control of the raw material or have cheap labor. A service also requires technologies to be learn, raw material to be available and also other services sometimes. Examples of service types: - education - health - transport - culture - entertainment Playing the game ================ This is a turn based (maybe realtime if using a computer) game with a simple dashboard that contains: - The random planet you got - The random race you got - Fact sheet of your population (numbers) - Research slots (technology research) - Service slots (grow and trade) - Military slots (move and attack) At the beginning of the game you receive a random planet and a random race that can live on that planet. The initial population and facts are then calculated based on both. You should also receive some technologies that will be available to you from start. You have to keep the tree structure so you cannot choose a level 2 technology if you don't have the level 1 complete. You can choose whatever you want but be wise to get at least some that enables you to extract food from your planet and possibly something to trade afterwards. At each turn, the total number of research, service and military slots are calculated from your facts sheet, relying on the number of each division you have. Every turn you can move from one division to the other but that would only take effect on the next turn. Research -------- Some technologies will take more than a few turns to complete and you can use only a few slots of research for that while you research other simpler things. The player is not allowed to start a research for some technology he/she still don't have all requisites completes, even if you are researching it now (and still didn't finish). You can cancel one research in the middle and restart again later with the penalty of loosing at least 10% of the total time of the research (or one slot, whichever bigger). You can learn from someone else the technology but for that you'll need all requirements and the time saved will depend on how many service slots the donator is assigning to you. You can exchange knowledge as well but you still need to follow the rules of teaching. Services -------- In order to keep your society running well you'll need to spend at least one slot with education, health and transport. An educated people can have more scientists (and research more), a helthy people will grow more (having more people to research, trade and fight) and the transport affect all other numbers equally (badly or not). External services (such as trade) can be benefited if you use a specific slot for that and for special trade routes you can assign a special slot just for that. When teaching other races about things you know you must allocate at least one service slot. That costs you so you should bargain for some valuable goods, other knowledge or even green cash. Internal services (within your planets) should only augument your society instead of giving you other things as external services does. Military -------- Of course you can invade and conquer a planet by force. If you do a basic research on military subjects, build an army and win a war against other race you should aquire most of it's technologies (learning for a while, of course) and all it's servies will be available to your people, also for trade with other races. If you invade and conquer the last planet controlled by a player he's automatically off the game. This is one way of winning the game, by being the only race on the universe, although it's not a pretty way of winning the game and other players might not want to play with you again. Oh, sure, you'll receive the "Berzerk Bastard Award" anyway. Money ----- Because the universe is so vast, different and complex there's no common value that could be called money. For a rocky planet food is the most important thing as is anti-gravity (or the raw materials needed for it) for a gas giant one. There're no basic materials for construction as well, as there is on games like Warcraft (wood/food/gold) exactly because of the same reasons. You must learn what you have that is important to each race and bargain it with them. If the trade is not good enough for you, seek another planet or develop a new technology. Turn ---- On each turn you have time to do all your stuff like caring for your people, developing new technologies, moving your troops and trading with other races. Basically the turn can contains one or more of the following: Prepare: - Update stats based on population growth, number, work force, current technologies, happiness, etc. - Define the number of slots you have for research, services and military movements. Action: - Use those slots wisely - Make trades, alliances and informal chats with other players Plan the future: - Plan how will your society change in the next years the other players would be playing, so on your next turn things would have changed. - Those changes would only take effect on the next turn. Every turn must be completed, what means that every player must play on every turn, even if the first player just won the game. This is an important mechanism because two players can be racing against each other on research and both reach the final level at the same turn, which would yeld them both an award and a shared victory. Winning the Game ================ There are three ways of winning the game and each victory yelds the player an award: - Research one subject to it's end - "Mad Scientist Award" - Eliminate other players with trade - "Most Greedy Award" - Eliminate other players with war - "Berzerk Bastard Award" Besides victories there are other awards specially designed for those that dislike status and media and are more keen to cousy homes, good food and good karma: - Most peacefull race - "Gandhi Award" - Most visited planet for tourism - "Heavens Award" - Most beloved race (voted by other players) - "Karma Award" - Most technologies teached - "Apple Award" - Shared planets with other races - "Lichen Award" - etc Research victory ---------------- If you reach the highest level possible on a subject you'll be so powerfull that all other civilizations should bow to your vast knowledge and accept you've won. Trade victory ------------- If you trade enough to be the wealthiest race in the known universe and you have many planets under your control and therefore many raw materials and manufactures you may start bargaining more fearless, raising the prices, embargoeing races, etc. With this policy some races may fall their control to you, even without war, because of the amount of debt they have to you. This is one way of conquering a planet. When you're the last player on the game, you've won. Military victory ---------------- Exactly the same story of trade, develop your army to a level that no other race can stand and simply walk into their planets and know on the door. If they want their planet destroyed they can resist, otherwise they should handle the control to you. Strategies ---------- The best strategy is a combined strategy. Without research you'll have no technology to create expensive products or new weapons, so the basic strategy is to develop your race up to the point you need (or want). Also, research by itself is enough to win the game so it's always a good strategy to reserve a good part of your society to scientifical research. If you'd like to keep on your planet, unharmed and alone you can (receiving a few awards at the end) and care for your people. Victory and the end of the game ------------------------------- As soo as the first race reach the top of scientific research the game could end but it's not compulsory as is winning by trade or war. The winning player can continue playing as long as he wants to and not warn anyone else about it. This is the "Superior mode" when the race does not need anymore to race against the clock to research or trade and can spend the rest of the game teaching other races what they've learnt and also researching new things. When the second race reaches the end, they may not claim the prize as well and the game could continue until the first race claims victory and then all should show their last technology and in which year they had completed that. If the years are the same, it's a joint victory, but the players can agree to have a shared victory even if they're different and passed a long time sharing knowledge and many other good things together. Of course, even after one race has reached the last level another race can wipe it out completely with war or trade and the victory cannot be claimed anymore, so once you have reached that level and want to play a bit more, keep your eyes open on military and trade activities so you can claim the victory right before your destruction. Some times destruction is inevitable, even after you have claimed research victory and that's called a "post morten victory". You will receive your award but the players can decide to continue the game afterwards for a second winner.