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[GlyphGryph]

(as always, help appreciated)

Having played a few of the common political web based games, where you control a country and try to build an empire, there are a few problems I've noticed. I hope the following game, though fairly simple, will serve to overcome some of the problems I perceive these games to have. There will be a few central concepts.

Problems to overcome: Too much power simply from being around longer, impossible to overthrow the old guard. Little ultimate point to playing. Eventual descent into stagnation and boredom. Low investment.

I hope to fix most of these problems with the following features:

Physical locations, diffuse control - There will be an actual map and nations will have physical proximity to one another that constrain their actions and require strategic and tactical planning. However, players will not be tied to specific nations - by their nature, they will be able to take control of faraway countries through covert actions, and have disconnected mostly unrelated nations work together as allies under their own control. If a player's nation gets conquered and falls from their control, they may still wield enormous influence through other means as a free agent, and attempt to gain control of another nation through a coup or election.
Limits and instanced Worlds - There will be a limited number of players per "world", and a limited amount of time a world runs (around 4 months for your average world, but it's decided by events in game). When it finishes, some players will "win" and most will lose, but it will be possible for almost all to acquire some sort of boon that may aid them in their next world.
Advancing tech advances yourself, but also the world - As you develop advanced technology, you don't only push your own nation into the future, but drag along the world as a whole. New players will never be far behind advanced players technologically, as the benefit from pushing the boundaries is only temporary.
Overextending yourself is needed to progress, but leaves you vulnerable - You will need to take risks to become more powerful, but that power will be difficult to hold. As your nations increase in size and power, your own personal influence will be spread thin. Only be playing intelligently and participating in the world of politics will you have a chance to succeed, and even then... there is always risk of you falling from your lofty position, as new challenges will always be presenting themselves.

So how is all this accomplished?

Here's the basic plot: You are one of the lizardmen, arriving on a backwards world in advance of the main fleet. Your influence and long lifespan will guide this world through the ages to a point where it's worth conquering, and then your fleet will arrive to do so. But there is glory to be earned, and power to enjoy, and it is expected the lizardmen will only work together enough to insure the world advances, but will otherwise strive against each other for power. Still, you are few in numbers, and you must avoid revealing yourself directly (lest the planet's inhabitants become wise and seek to defend themselves from the invasion), so you will conduct your struggle for power with the others from the shadows. You will become a Shadow Ruler, operating through pawns and loyal followers, using a variety of abilities to cultivate influence in the world at large, but almost always operating indirectly.

I don't actually expect this game to take terribly long to put together - a few weekends at most, even on top of my other responsibilities - but I was wondering if this was a game people might be interested in, and if anyone might want to throw in an offer to assist.

Tech:
I'll be developing this as a web based game with a ruby/mysql backend, running on heroku, with some (but not much) front-end javascript work. I might end up doing ember.js, if only to get some experience using it, but I don't know yet.

[Anvilfolk]

Any ideas on actual gameplay yet? I honestly have little idea on how these things go, since I'm a bit out of the loop as I haven't played this kind of online game in a while, except for a brief spell on Imperium Nova, which was actually pretty cool.

Will this be opensource? I haven't done any Ruby on Rails before (or ruby, for that matter), but am interested to see an implementation of the MVC thing. I probably should just read up on it for fun

[GlyphGryph]

Yep, I've been working out the details on paper not just of the gameplay but of the approach. Hope to start putting it together soon. (Like, this week)

It won't be open source, at least not originally. I'll probably release it as open source later on, but honestly keeping one of these games funded tends to be pretty hard even without competitors using the exact same code. But I probably won't be able to resist releasing it out into the wild for long, heh.

[Levi]

Is it going to be a multiplayer thing?

[GlyphGryph]

Yes, it's going to be a multiplayer web-game.

[Levi]

Neat.  Was just trying to get a vague idea in my head of how it might work.

[Zangi]

1. What happens if players fail to stay covert?  Or is that hand-waved as impossible?  Or will it be an integral part of the game?

2. What about different winning goals or paths to winning?
2a. Turning countries into... Utopian Paradises.  (Won't resist alien invasion when it happens.  Happy with alien overlords.)
2b. Turning countries into enforcers for the invasion.  (Will zealously help the alien overlords take over the world when it comes time.)
2c. Already enslaved/subjugated/broken countries.  (Not much difference in who holds the reigns of Tyranny after all.)

3. Saboteurs against the invasion?  Though... it would be the more troll-ish playstyle if done wrong...

[GlyphGryph]

1. There is one primary way you could be revealed - you can build yourself an avatar to make yourself look like a human (which will work with almost identical mechanics to using a cultivated human pawn, but with extremely high stats), and then get assassinated. This is also one of only two things that can remove you from the game, but your true form will be revealed, there will be a mad rush by "those in the know" to cover things up, scandal will rock the world and it's likely that many countries will lose some stability over it before it's "hushed up".

Depending on what sort of position you're in, this could be a good thing or a bad thing, but getting caught assassinating another player in a public way will NOT make you very popular amongst those in power, and they might work together to remove YOU from the game in the second way (if they can figure out you did it).

There might also be minor scandals and rumours, but nothing serious. There is a assumed to be a concerted effort among all the players to insure a large-scale reveal does not occur until the planet is "ready".

2. There will be a variety of things that give you accolades when the game ends, and these things will all contribute to your chance of being one of the most powerful players at the climax. Creating large, docile, heavily populated and strongly controlled countries will be one of those things. Both 2a and 2c could achieve that end.

2b can actually be accomplished, but it won't be through the country control system (though 2a and 2c will be helped by the same thing) - nations will only form one component of the game, and you will be able to launch non-national ventures such as Corporations, Religions, Political Groups and Ideologies. Religion and Ideologies can be used to create a large population awaiting the coming of the invaders so as to serve them, and doing so will gain you quite a few accolades, in addition to lowering the reputation hit if things are revealed. And other bonuses, if you work it right - ideologies can be effective tools for turning your carefully cultivated minority Political Group in another player's country into rulers of said country.

Corporations will be most effective at gaining money, Political Groups at forming takeovers (either from the inside as Parties or from the outside as Rebels), and Ideologies at changing a countries opinions (which can provide a variety of situational perks and drawbacks). Religions are okay at doing all three, but not as effective as a dedicated venture.

3. Not sure exactly what you're asking here.

[Cthulufaic]

This sounds almost exactly like Shadow President... except for the lizardmen obviously.

[Playergamer]

Well this just sounds amazing. Tell me when it comes out, please. Can't wait to leave BLOC.

[Skyrunner]

3. Not sure exactly what you're asking here.

Now, understand that this might sound horrendous and unspeakable. He is asking, what if some lizardmen decide to work against lizardkind?! Or maybe non-lizardmen who are in the know.