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[hemmingjay]

I don't believe in design by committee but I would be a fool to ignore the feedback. I am foregoing the idea of mini-games for the inclusion of unlockable abilities that give the player a chance to affect the outcome of regular situations they encounter. At somewhat regular intervals the player will be given the opportunity to choose from a small selection of abilities/skills. These can then be called upon in situations such as negotiations or encounters with one of the law enforcement agencies. After activating it there is a chance of success or failure and the impact is variable as well. There will be a small chance of catastrophic backfire and also a cool-down on the abilities to prevent it from being overused. This is just a further extension of the advancement system in the game which was previously primarily focused on the collecting of money. As you rise to the top of a field you become powerful. Many times that means that you become wealthy enough to influence situations through your bank account. We realized that basing a system of advancement on money alone allowed for game-breaking abuses so we have added other manifestations of rising power and influence.

These abilities could help you attempt to increase the sales price of a deal by 5-15% or to try and talk your way into a country instead of paying the extremely high passport forgery fees. These are just a few examples. The potential pitfalls are just as important as the benefits. they can neither be too minor nor too severe, lest they break the game or the player's immersion. Finally, we have a system in place to explain how you come about these abilities. I feel there is nothing worse than a game that gives you super powers with no rhyme or reason as to how or why. 

NOTE: I have removed "tycoon" from the thread title as I think some people were getting fixated on that one word despite the fact that all of the others and the description would lead you to expect a mostly different concept. The tycoon aspect was meant to convey that it's a biz sim without building. I think some people were expecting something more like Detroit with guns. That's more like the sequel which is under production already, with a custom engine being built to handle the 3D models in a lab setting for the player to handle and a testing environment as well.

[Meta]

I like this new system!

And I don't remember reading something about it in this thread, but what about competition? Will there be wars and/or alliances between you and other weapon smugglers?

[Neonivek]

I don't believe in design by committee but I would be a fool to ignore the feedback.

I think it is under valued artistically. But it requires a an entirely different set up then what we got here. It does often need creator fiat but it can work.

I remember when the Simpsons wrote an episode on it where it started off looking like it was going to parody it. Yet the committee the Simpsons had actually worked and while indeed their book started off being made to be attractive to consumers, it had its own shared artistic world.

Then again a lot of things about the creative process are undervalued, and I like to remind people that something can be derivative but can still be worth merit for doing it very well.

I feel there is nothing worse than a game that gives you super powers with no rhyme or reason as to how or why.

Usually it is just an extrapolated idea explained as experience or something everyone has. Though to be honest I have no idea what you mean.

I mean I could understand if it is those games where you are treated as exceptionally competent but the things you do seem pretty typical ("Our park is going out of business and only you can help us" ... "Did you try, I don't know, putting in roller coasters?" ... "Wow you are a genius!")

[hemmingjay]

I like this new system!

And I don't remember reading something about it in this thread, but what about competition? Will there be wars and/or alliances between you and other weapon smugglers?

There will be other arms dealers but you compete with them. Depending on the difficulty setting, they can be background noise or maddening. If I have time I want to include the ability to impact them directly through sabotage, setting them up with the authorities or trying to put a hit on them obviously with all of the relevant potential consequences. I imagine it will be one of those things that I want to keep working on long after release. I am still hopeful I can solve that option by making the game mod friendly enough.

Neonivek, I agree that it's under-rated somewhat. There is that episode of the simpsons where they write the book together and it pretty much works, but then again there is the episode where they try to rule the town as a committee and it failed miserably. I think two coders working together can be brilliant. I think two writers working together is 1000 times more difficult but still possible. I think full game design by a proper committee is almost always a failure due to the fragmentation of expectations and preferences within this field/hobby. The game ends up being incongruous and watered down. Unfortunately we have some recent examples especially with Kickstarter empowering people who have no place developing games who then let their vocal minority on their forums direct every element of design through what amounts to an applause meter.

Anyway, I'm going to make 99 problems but I won't admit to 1. Just kidding. Sort of.   

[EuchreJack]

Thank god you won't be adding any mini-game nonsense.  Never liked 'em.  Especially if they don't match the genre of the game: AKA arcadey minigames in a strategy game.  Or timed minigames in an untimed game.

[Retropunch]

There will be other arms dealers but you compete with them. Depending on the difficulty setting, they can be background noise or maddening. If I have time I want to include the ability to impact them directly through sabotage, setting them up with the authorities or trying to put a hit on them obviously with all of the relevant potential consequences. I imagine it will be one of those things that I want to keep working on long after release. I am still hopeful I can solve that option by making the game mod friendly enough.

That sounds great! As a side note, there's nothing I find more infuriating in games (especially grand strategy) than having an enemy/competitor and not be able to do anything about it. I've played a few games that have stopped me doing anything until a certain point (or just react rather than be proactive) and it realllllly annoys me.

Even if early on all I can do is something subtle like bribe a smuggler to 'lose' my competitors cargo or something, it'd at least makes me feel as though I'm doing something against them.

[hemmingjay]

You will always be able to impact other arms dealers, at least indirectly. You can also engage with and persuade customers to only deal with you, which can cripple the competition. If you have enough cash reserves it might be a viable strategy to try and choke out a difficult opponent by taking a loss on a bunch of trades and thereby cut him out of the region. You could take a more direct action although risky, perhaps hiring a group of mercenaries to pose as pirates and hit their ships. I say it's riskier because if you are caught your reputation and bank balance will take a big hit, but most importantly, your HEAT rating will rise and that's the only way to lost the game. When your HEAT hits 100, it's game over. It goes down on it's own a little over time and there are more active measures you can take, but it's easier to have it go up than down. The important thing is that you will always know how close you are to losing or winning(if enabled).

Progress report: We just finished the "Game Box Art" despite being digital only

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

, which is needed for places like IndieDB, Desura and GoG.com.

I have been working on data entry for the last three days and will continue for the next 4 days entering detailed information on countries, weapons, shipping behaviors and trade balances to made the global economy function with and without the player's interaction.

My programmer, Zeke(South Dakota), made an APP so I can plug in the relevant data on each country as well as upload the flags and placing ports manually myself and setting starting conditions and relationships between countries. Those relationships and starting stats will be randomized in the sandbox mode.

My art director, Jorge Porta(Mexico/Canada) has stopped work on menu redesign while we hammer out some details on reshaping the travel planner and the buy/sell menus to reduce the number of actions a player takes. Since he is freed up, he has begun work on the story panels, which are full screen digital paintings(around 6) that will tell the story, both in the campaign/tutorial and a few in the trailer.

My freelance artist is producing blueprints for 75 weapons every 8 days. I hope to have 300 weapons and 80 vehicles and one of a kind items for nearly 400 items to buy and sell at the launch of the game, more to come for free post launch. This might actually be the only possible delay for release as everything else is on schedule.

Sound design is being handled by Grammy Award winner, Billy Shaw(Vermont). Expect some cool but natural and non-jarring sound effects. He will also remaster a couple of the tracks laid down by my composer, Eoin Forker(Scotland)

My webmaster and potential lead programmer for the next title, Chad Mason(Florida), is wrapping up work on the game site and the company(Case in Point Studios) website.

That seems to be everything. I have a couple of interviews lined up and I haven't decided if I will do Greenlight on Steam or if I will wait until after I launch on the other sites and push it on Steam directly. Would you guys help me with Greenlight if I went that route or do you have a moral stand against it?

[Duuvian]

I'd vote for it.

[Meta]

I'd vote for it.

Same here, no problems.

Btw, thank you for answering my last question! I like the idea of having to deal with other competitors.

[choppy]

I'd vote for it.

Same here, no problems.

Btw, thank you for answering my last question! I like the idea of having to deal with other competitors.

Hey, you have my vote.

[nenjin]

I'd play it, so I'd vote for it, yeah.

[stabbymcstabstab]

I'd vote for it.

[hemmingjay]

Meta, I was happy to answer your question as well as expand upon it for Retropunch. Its incredibly hard to convey the contents and intention of something as complex as a sim/strategy game, so it's a great opportunity when someone poses a question or to a lesser degree, a challenge. The only thing keeping this game from being a niche hit is if the niche doesn't hear about it. I have a few interviews set, but I worry it won't be enough. I need to get access to the gamers who play these types of games but I don't want to join their forums and say Hi, I'm the creator of a game you might like. Blah Blah blah. Maybe I will try to do a giveaway on each of those sites for copies of my game or the native game on that site(winners choose). Nobody likes forum spam, but hopping on and offering free games with nothing in return and no purchase or Facebook Like crap required. Any thoughts on that or potential games/forums I should try?

[Retropunch]

Meta, I was happy to answer your question as well as expand upon it for Retropunch. Its incredibly hard to convey the contents and intention of something as complex as a sim/strategy game, so it's a great opportunity when someone poses a question or to a lesser degree, a challenge. The only thing keeping this game from being a niche hit is if the niche doesn't hear about it. I have a few interviews set, but I worry it won't be enough. I need to get access to the gamers who play these types of games but I don't want to join their forums and say Hi, I'm the creator of a game you might like. Blah Blah blah. Maybe I will try to do a giveaway on each of those sites for copies of my game or the native game on that site(winners choose). Nobody likes forum spam, but hopping on and offering free games with nothing in return and no purchase or Facebook Like crap required. Any thoughts on that or potential games/forums I should try?

Giving advice with your game details as your signature (or even relating it back to your game in an unobtrusive way) is an awesome way to get things rolling. I've bought/played a lot of games that I've seen as signatures of helpful people.
Rather than doing game giveaways (although that's always good), how about giving away some resources (or get your artist/sound designer to make some new ones)? Things like tilesets/graphics/sounds are always a big hit, and you've got some reallllly nice graphics. Doesn't need to be anything extensive, just a few bits that can be reused royalty free which can be posted around forums and websites without being advertising spam.

[hemmingjay]

Thanks for lots of god stuff to think about. I really appreciate it.

I'm rather stuck on one detail now, do I describe Arms Dealer as a simulation or as a strategy game? It's technically a business simulation but it's a strategic game that extends beyond a realistic simulation of business and into a sci-fi spectrum. I believe the wise business decision would be to use the strategy tag, but I don't want to mislead anyone.