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[LordArchibald]

3 - natural expansion - as civilians explorers and settlers and company concerns move into an uninhabited system, it slowly colonizes towards your empire at no cost to you. Eventually, they might have enough population to become formally represented. (MOO3 had this - species would naturally settle planets that were perfect for them, which allowed minor species in your empire to colonize worlds that your base species considered hellholes.)

Heh, actually that's what I planned originally but abandoned it later. Maybe I should go back to it...

The first thing is the colonization is not terribly important in that game (at least not as important as in other games). Planets can switch ownership quite frequent and it's not traumatic (no destruction of infrastructure, etc) at least if the planet was taken over by another civilized race. Also AI has an instant colonization (well, I could change that one if needed I suppose).

The important question is, should the player have an option to say "do not colonize this planet"?

How it could work:
- only planets neighbouring imperial planets can be colonized (otherwise progress is halted)
- there is a base 1% colonization progress per communication range rating (so the near capital planets with comm range 1 have 5% while the distant comm range 5 have 1%) OR make it 1% per neighbouring imperial planet (so if you have an uncolonized planet surrounded by your planets it should be colonized fairy quickly).
- you can spend money (just a button like the current "Colonize") to "encourage colonization" which gives +15% per turn (+25% if you selected 'colonization freighters' reform)
- once the planet is colonized (progress 100%) you get the claim to the planet.

Only change I would suggest is allowing the player to somehow control the research budget, ideally through events.  Dump cash, get research points (or not, if the RNG doesn't favor the player).  Most games use a dorky slider that most players just set to max, hence why events are better.

Yeah, I was thinking of some sort of "budget" mechanic (not only for research, but also to rectuit more stormtroopers, invest more into planetary defences and the like). I even implemented one but it was not so great and I removed it.

I hesitate about some "budget" audience event (once per 50 turns let's say) which basicly pops up you a budget page with sliders you can adjust (so you can't do it anytime, need to wait for next budget period to adjust it). I also have a slight problem what to do if you go into a negative treasury due to budget setttings.

Anyway, I'm looking for ideas for some sort of budget/investment mechanic.

[Zangi]

50 turns sounds way too long.... but it also shouldn't need to be mandatory spam?

Why not a minimum amount of turns before letting the player call another budget meeting?  If the player decides nothing needs to change after first setting it, they can wait over 1000 turns before they decide to call a budget meeting again.

[EuchreJack]

Only change I would suggest is allowing the player to somehow control the research budget, ideally through events.  Dump cash, get research points (or not, if the RNG doesn't favor the player).  Most games use a dorky slider that most players just set to max, hence why events are better.

Yeah, I was thinking of some sort of "budget" mechanic (not only for research, but also to rectuit more stormtroopers, invest more into planetary defences and the like). I even implemented one but it was not so great and I removed it.

I hesitate about some "budget" audience event (once per 50 turns let's say) which basicly pops up you a budget page with sliders you can adjust (so you can't do it anytime, need to wait for next budget period to adjust it). I also have a slight problem what to do if you go into a negative treasury due to budget setttings.

Anyway, I'm looking for ideas for some sort of budget/investment mechanic.

Two possible solutions to Negative Treasury and Budgets:
Option 1: Austerity measures, AKA Bankruptcy Mode - Negative treasury for more than one turn in a row leads to all spending being cut until next budget cycle.  Penalizes the player by not allowing them to build ships, research, or anything else.  While it would be nice of the budget could revert to previous when cash is positive, that would probably just tank the budget again.  It would be best if the budget calculator could warn the player of a negative cash flow.

Option 2: Imperial Fiat, AKA "We can't run out of money, we're the Empire" - Negative treasury is either ignored till the next budget cycle, or after two turns leads to negative effects that extinguish the deficit.  Inflation, Corruption, etc.

Actually, the solution probably involves combining these two, with possibly an AI budget being imposed that balances the budget.  I guess my two takeaway ideas are that
1) Emperors that can't balance their budgets shouldn't be allowed to set their budgets (at least for while)
2) Emperors that can't balance their budgets should suffer some catastrophe, at the very least Corruption would go rampant (which is cyclical, so the deficit should also be deleted by the Event).

[LordArchibald]

50 turns sounds way too long.... but it also shouldn't need to be mandatory spam?

Why not a minimum amount of turns before letting the player call another budget meeting?  If the player decides nothing needs to change after first setting it, they can wait over 1000 turns before they decide to call a budget meeting again.

Note it does not have to be budget. I just need some investment mechanic. Maybe direct spending via events like "do you want to spend 1000 cr to gain instant +20 res pts to energy field"?

As for spam, you are right, yet I feel if there is a budget it should be cyclic. It's sooo thematic As for calling the meeting by the player, I don't know... Unless we go for another periodic event type where you choose what kind of special meeting youn want to call (you can choose only one) and if you have choosen "new budget" you will get that one during the next audience.

[Zangi]

What about a min-max amount of time? 
You can keep '50 turns' before next budget meeting, but... the player can call it in early cause something went wrong/situation changed(like losing Planet Dosh of the Flowing Shinies).

... How many types of meetings will there be anyways? 
Anyways, I'm mostly saying it could be considered spam if there isn't anything interesting/useful within budget meetings, especially if you don't need to change anything.  It could be rolled up with other types of meetings if there isn't too much of a point/useful interactivity in the budget meeting alone.

[LordArchibald]

Version 0.23 (Alpha) released.

The fourth Alpha. Mostly finishing smaller things.

Changes:

• Shipyard: SHIFT key allows requesting 10 units at once
• Fleets sepcializations, each fleet can specialize in beating up to 2 enemies, this bonus is applied only if squadrons from same fleet take part in a battle. Therefore there is an incentive to not mix fleets and to dedicate fleets to specific borders.
• Alien ships progress, the AI changes ship designs over time.
• More reforms available (still unifinished).
• Smaller improvements (interface).

YouTube: https://youtu.be/tDOAun4fLls

[Aqma]

PTW - this looks very interesting!

[LordArchibald]

Space Game Junkie preview of Pocket Space Empire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ6GwZMR1Jc

[LordArchibald]

Version 0.24 (Alpha) released.

The fifth Alpha. Introduced storylines.

Changes:

• Storyline (audience now contains several storylines which unfolds as the game goes)
• Create Emperor screen (a pretty standard point based perks system)

https://youtu.be/Py7mosqNhd0



Version 0.25 (Alpha) released.

The sixth Alpha. Imperial Court and court related audience events.

Changes:

• Imperial Court redesigned and redone
• More audience events (court related)
• Usual fixes and smaller improvements

https://youtu.be/ptxJIZiYPOo

[LoSboccacc]

gf comment: "are you playing space china?"

[LordArchibald]

Version 0.26 and 0.27 released. Imperial court and victory conditions redesigned plus tons of polish.

Also, it seems I'm going to launch Steam Early Access somewhere this month!

gf comment: "are you playing space china?"

Actually, I told the artist to make those courtiers based on chinese mandarins Overall, it's a correct observation, that was my intention. The game realities are a bit like The Empire of China with a single Emperor and hordes of bureaucrats, court factions and without feudal lords.

[QuakeIV]

Updates look promising.

[LordArchibald]

Steam EA release this week.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/446000

So, here it comes, I wonder how people will recieve it


EDIT: Since some people asked for a non Steam version, if you bought it via the official websoite you get both a Steam key and a direct download link (regularly updated with new versions of course): http://www.pocketspaceempire.com/pre-order/ (also a bigger share of income goes to me if you buy it directly )

[QuakeIV]

Ooh, interesting.

[Aqma]

Looking very good so far LordArchibald, I see the steam release is giving you some extra coverage and testing which is nice.

I have a quick question here, on your website in the past you mentioned there would be an option to buy the game without steam as well (if I remember right, might be getting a bit too old heh). I don't see it anymore now though, will this option still exist in the end for those that don't use steam?

This is one of the few games I am keeping an eye on very closely and looking forward to, it looks super interesting