Well, here's my first attempt at a game, and I decided to do a galactic empire simulation! Here's how it works: Your civilization has discovered
this(for those who can't be bothered to follow the link, a scientifically backed warp drive), and an age of exploration has begun, leading to the first few colonies and star exploration. But, you aren't the only one in the galaxy, and it is up to you how you interact with your neighbors; are you an all conquering empire, a peaceful confederation, or something in-between?
So basically, you guys are playing against each other, and will have a homeworld and at least 3 other colonies in neighboring systems(or in the same system, or both, your choice). You create your race(doesn't have to be human, be sure to get creative!), and you create your techs. Here's how that works: When posting your race, you get to choose between an empire with an average population, one with a large population, or one with a smaller population. Your choice affects your tech levels; a larger empire gets by with less tech and more manpower, while a smaller empire is more sophisticated, but lacks warm bodies to fill positions. Your total starting pop depends on this choice and general tech(more on that below), and larger empires start with more colonies
Speaking of tech, you get to think up what your empire's technology looks like(within reason, ofc! I DO have final say on things), with some general things given for free(like basic railguns and basic lasers, for instance. And no, effective missiles are NOT free) your empire gets a number of slots depending on your choice above. an average empire gets 4 military tech slots(for things like missiles and stuff) and 2 general empire slots(used for anything you can think of for your civvies), a large empire gets 3 military spots and 1 general, and a smaller empire gets about 6 military and 3 general. When designing techs, if I think its a powerful tech(but not overpowered), it may take 2 or even 3 slots(I'll tell you if this is the case), so please TRY to be reasonable. Now you'd think being a smaller empire would be an advantage, but remember that they have less pop, which corresponds to a smaller military as well as a smaller industrial base, so its up to you. Oh one last thing; FTL travel is free, but any sort of FTL communication is not. You can get around this with a standard courier system where you have ships relaying messages, but expect transit delays and such. As well, FTL travel is 1 hour=1 light year, and cannot be used too close to a star(it would likely disrupt the warp bubble; on the plus side, stars can act as handy emergency brakes). The point where this occurs is called the Davis-Markson Line(DM Line for short) and is different for every star.
So, speaking of military, you get a number of points to buy military ships to start with base on empire size. Larger empires get 200 points, average empires get 150 points, and smaller empires get only 100 points.
The size of a ship dictates how much it costs, and tech slot costs dictate how many systems it can hold. For example; a frigate costs 10 points and is the smallest fleet ship. You design a military system(let's say a more powerful railgun) that has a cost of 1 slot and a system that costs 2 slots(lets say an advanced capital missile). A frigate can hold 4 slots worth of weapons and other systems. So you can mount 2 railguns and 1 missiles, 2 missiles, or 4 railguns. As a side note, basic systems cost only half a slot(except basic armor, which is free; you can add extra armor for half a slot). So with that out of the way, here is the cost for ships:
Fighters are bought in wings of 10 and cost only 1 point. However, they can mount only one weapon, have practically no armor, and cannot mount FTL. Note that a carrier designed to house fighters/bombers has a +5 cost, cannot be sized lower than Battlecruiser, and is lightly armed(if armed at all) due to most space being taken up by hangers. On the plus side, they can house 3 wings of fighter minimum(larger ships obviously holding more wings), and a good carrier group can be a good force multipier.
Frigates are your smallest fleet ships, as stated above. They aren't very armed(having only 4 slots), and are relatively lightly armored, but they are the fastest non-fighter ships in space, and act as the fleet's scouts and recon platforms. They cost 10 points.
Destroyers are a step up from frigates, being nearly as fast, but more heavily armed and armored. They hold 6 slots worth of systems, and are great scout leaders and commerce raiders. they cost 20 points
Cruisers are your standard combatants, being even bigger than destroyers, while still having very good speed. They hold 8 slots worth of systems, and cost 30 points
Battlecruisers are you smallest Capital Ship, and are a good bit slower than cruisers, but are pretty heavily armored. They hold 10 slots worth of systems, and cost 40 points.
Battleships are your standard Capital ship, and form the backbone of your fleet early game. They are armored like Fort Knox, and mount 12 weapons. They cost 50 points.
If you want to start with anything larger, ask, but be aware the cost will be exponentially higher. Now, for branches of military other than navy (like army), you get a free tech to decide general equipment(keep it thematically appropriate to your race, please. Say, you have plasma launchers for your ships, it wouldn't be a stretch to have them for your troops, but having your troops have portable black hole launchers is a bit much). If you want advanced equipment, say something like battlemechs, you can use a slot to do so(I'll decide if something requires a slot, but I'll be flexible on this).
Finally, we come to the rest; Industry, your wealth, turn order, and researching more techs. First, Industry:
Industry dictates how much wealth you get every turn, how fast you can add ships to your fleets, and general population increases/decreases. To start with, your starting industry is of course dictated by empire size, which I'll decide when you post your race. From that, you'll also get your wealth modifier, and build modifier. Building something requires a number of turns depending on what it is you're doing, and requires wealth.
Wealth is in the form of Wealth Points(WP. You get a set number of WP per turn, and start with 100 wp. WP is used for fleet maintenance, research costs, and other things you might reasonably expect you'd need cash for, like infrastructure increases.
The general format from the start is every colony you own starts with 10 industry, except for your homeworld. Homeworlds have 20 industry(larger empires get 22, smaller empires get 18); this does not not include any bonus from tech, which are applied individually. This doesn't matter if it's colonies in the same system or one in a different system. You add this up to get you general industry number, which you use to get your wealth mod(please note building goes on on individual colonies, so only the industry on that colony helps in this regard); your wealth mod is 4x your overall industry mod at the beginning(again any tech monuses at the start to wealth are applied individually).
You gain industry and wealth from research and building. When building(or researching), you can call it whatever you want, but the most important thing you need to include is by how much wealth and/or industry increases; you don't HAVE to do both, wealth has a natural rise of 1/2 industry increase, the same for industry. But, increasing one is less expensive(in terms of time and money) than increasing both, but increasing both can yield higher numbers in a shorter time than increasing each individually.
Research requires you having labs to discover tech. Everyone starts with 2 labs on the homeworld, and you can add more. You'd need a number of turns to research something depending on what it is, as well as wealth.
Finally, Turn Order goes like this: Everyone gets 1 Major Action and 2 minor actions every turn. A Major action is something along the lines of sending (one of)your fleet(s) to explore a new system, sending a colony ship to a system and establishing a colony, engaging in battle, and so forth(anything that would affect your empire as a whole). A minor action would be having an existing colony expand infrastructure, ording building of something on a colony, having a lab research new tech, and anything else that generally takes place on a single colony. You can research bureaucracy to increase minor actions, and research government level to increase Major actions.
Any questions you have, please feel free to ask! Like I said, this is my first attempt at a game and I'd appreciate and feedback.
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Topic: Galactica: A Space Simulation (Read 4736 times)