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[Themage]

STAR RULER:THATS NO MOON!

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS A WIP


Features:
A fully customizable and new experience each time you play:
A dynamic, 5 to 700 (or beyond 4000, with powerful rigs) system, procedurally-generated galaxy, which may be altered over the course of the game (create and destroy stars, planets, and other interstellar phenomena; turn stars into powerful platforms, etc.)
Bring Your Own Ship (Choose their components, sizes, the AI which governs them, and their scale (from the size of a boat to the size of the whole galaxy))
Create your own race or choose from a set of races which ship with the game.
A research web which shuffles every playthrough
AIs which adapt to player actions by modifying their ships to counter yours
Complex diplomatic interaction between empires and races
Rich, diverse, planets whose type, size, number of moons, and other characteristics vary.
A directional damage system which makes how you build your ships important
Save and load your custom ships and settings to your profile for easy importation and exportation.
Extensive mod support
Almost the entire game is modable by an editor as simple as Notepad
Built in tools to ease mod creation including: Particle System editor, and Model configurator.
Example mods and scripts which ship with the game to provide scripters and modders an easy way to see how modifying Star Ruler works
Smart use of AngelScript allows users to create entirely new gamemodes, gameplay, and online experiences
Lots of Meat for your Carnage
Massive ship battles fought in real-time with particle effects and location-based damage
Ships whose individual components can be compromised, destroyed, disabled, repaired, and renovated
Catastrophic failure of critical systems (such as a fuel tank exploding near a munitions cache which detonates, damaging the ship's power supply and control systems, leading to the failure of life support systems and imminent crew death if the ship isn't rescued or if the crew can't repair the systems in time)
Subsystems such as Bulkheads and Coolant Systems which modify internal components, adding that extra 'oomph' or extra bit of armor to protect against the exploitation of critical systems in ship designs.
Fully simulated newtonian physics
Co-Op, Team/Objective based play, Competitive play, and Single play (Skirmish)
Up to 4+ players playing simultaneously, with drop-in-drop-out compatibility
Supports both internet and LAN play
Standard server controls
Seamless transitioning: Multiplayer games can be saved and then played in Singleplayer and then brought back up in Multiplayer.
Easy to use interface, complex gameplay.
Planetary governers which intelligently govern planets using a simple, easy-to-use, language which may be modified on-the-fly by the player to quickly and efficiently manage their entire Empire without much of the micromanagement typically involved; allowing the player to set their assets up and step in to directly control them without them getting in the way.
Ships have their own fuel stores, power supply, and et cetera.; all represented in a very visible, easy-to-read, format along with visual cues to keep the focus on the battles, not the numbers.
Numerous easy-to-use interfaces which provide quick solutions to specific problems, all of them moddable by the player for maximum comfort.
Much more to come!
As time goes on, more and more features, graphics updates, and so on will be added to Star Ruler. We won't be satisfied until we're the best in the genre.


MODDING

From the beginning, Star Ruler was designed to be accessible to modders. In this article, we'll explore the impact of that choice from two perspectives: impact of modability on development, and the advantages modability brings to the end users.

It was an early choice to design Star Ruler with support for modifications, as that's how I personally got most interested in game design and development, and I wanted to give that opportunity to people that are just becoming exposed to game development. This choice has had significant impact on the rest of the design process, both positively and negatively, although the positives vastly outweigh the negatives.

Starting with the negative side of mod support, everything in our engine will be exposed to circumstances far beyond what any of us can envision, requiring code which is resilient to all sorts of input errors as well as other strange things that modding may cause. We don't know that ships will always leave a system under their own power, or that planets always need people, or that stars will be stationary. Many of the shortcuts that could have become available without support for modding simply aren't options.

Additionally, we have extra difficulty in designing the user interface as we try to balance design complexity on our end with support for things modders (or even we) may make use of, thereby saving time for modders whom won't have the same difficulty during their development.

On the other hand, these design requirements have also benefited us as we got farther along in the development, because the engine already supports things we didn't even know we would eventually be adding, and allows us to very rapidly code things that had already been planned, as well as quickly and easily change many elements of the game.

Looking back at the decision to support modification, I'd make the same choice. While supporting that decision has made development more difficult, the extra difficulty truly comes from programming the engine in a way that is far easier to maintain as time passes, and the design requirements limit the times where a quick solution wins out over a long term solution.

Star Ruler from a Modder's Perspective
Star Ruler's modding starts with its data files. These files are in a plain text format, so any text editor with the ability to export plain text works. Data files consist of Key:Value pairs as an attempt to maximize both human and machine readability. Each data file specifies base data, or a relationship between the base data and the mechanics of the game. Here's an example of a Sub System definition.

System: MediumHull
              Name: "Standard Hull"
              Description: "Standard hulls provide the necessary support structure to equip components, and some moderate damage resistance. They provide a middle ground between strength and speed."
              Appearance: MediumHull
              Tags: IgnoresScale, Hull
              Available: Techs.ShipConstruction.Level > 0
              Level: floor(Techs.ShipConstruction.Level)
              Size: Object.Size
              Durability: Size * progress(20,0.5,Level)
              Mass: Size * 20
              Costs: Metals[100 + 50 * Size], Electronics[50 + 10 * Size], AdvParts[20 + 4 * Size]
              Provides: DestructsShip

All the blue text is the keys, and the remainder of a line is interpreted based on the key. All the mathematical expressions are evaluated via algebraic order of operations whenever an instance of the Sub System is created. The Provides line adds gameplay effects, specified elsewhere, to the Sub System, optionally with variables that define the effect's behavior. Also of importance is the costs, which can be named anything – adding a new resource is as simple as referencing one that doesn't already exist – which ties into the more general system of object states.

For non-data files, we use the C++ style scripting language AngelScript. This language is used for the GUI, custom effects system, and AI, and it may be expanded elsewhere in the future. A great deal of the engine is exposed in this language, and very little is impossible to do. While learning this language gives a modder far more power to create his or her vision, plenty of modding can still take place in the data files, or by editing clearly described variables within the code files.

To make mod creation as easy as possible, mods can make use of as much of the base game – or any mod – as they chose, overriding parts as the creator sees fit. We also plan to support meta-mods, which could function independent of the base mod (e.g. a new GUI window), or act as options or small modifications to larger mods.

http://starruler.blind-mind.com/srbeta.php

All images are "Works In Progress" and are not representative of the final product. All ship models, images, and in-game screenshots used in this news article are the property of Blind Mind Studios and the team members and contracted individuals who created them (listed at our website); they may not be redistributed without permission. To seek permission, contact us through the Blind Mind Studios website; if you are a member of the press, please indicate as such when contacting us!

Taken from the Mod DB page, Personally this game looks great.

[fenrif]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there no working version of this game out and about there? I couldn't see any sort of download link. I know you said WIP, but is there no demo or beta or anything?

I'm assuming this is a turn based 4x game in the vein of space empires or galactic civilizations? It looks pretty awesome from what you wrote. dyson spheres and star cannons!

[Themage]

Oh crap, I forgot the link to the Site, Hang on let me add it

[quinnr]

Aw closed beta...I'm gonna have to wait for it 

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

Is it 3d and does it have orbits?

[Firgof Umbra]

Howdy, I'm Firgof Umbra; I'm one of the developers working at Blind Mind Studios to produce the game.  I'm in charge of directing the game's Quality Assurance, Marketing, and Graphics with my boss, ThyReaper.

We are flattered by the attention here and I'll stick around and answer questions as I can.  We're about to put up several large updates media-wise.  Also, I'll put up some fresh screenshots later today because most of the pictures in the first post are old (there's even one from back in April 2009 in there! )

Let's start off by answering some questions some of you have had.

Is it 3d and does it have orbits?

It is fully 3D and has planetary orbits as well as full newtonian physics.

Aw closed beta...I'm gonna have to wait for it 

You can always apply to be a part of the closed beta via our website.  Here's a link to the beta application form if you're interested.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there no working version of this game out and about there? I couldn't see any sort of download link. I know you said WIP, but is there no demo or beta or anything?

The game is not out yet; we are still more than four months from the retail version of the game and still have plenty of things left to do in our base game before we reach that point.  There is a closed beta if you wanted to apply and we may start accepting Preorders if there is a demand for them.
We may also try and work out some sort of Demo for the game if there is demand for that as well.

I'm assuming this is a turn based 4x game in the vein of space empires or galactic civilizations? It looks pretty awesome from what you wrote. dyson spheres and star cannons!

The game is an RTS/4X hybrid which will have online multiplayer and is deeply modable; things that we often miss when we play other 4X games.  To describe the gameplay I would say blending Space Empires with Galactic Civilizations and Supreme Commander should get you a fair idea of what you might expect from our game.

Some links for you guys:
Apply to be a beta tester!
Our ModDB page

If you have any burning questions that you'd rather ask over IM or VOIP, feel free to contact me on:
GMail: Firgof.Umbra@gmail.com
MSN: firgof@hotmail.com
Skype: firgof
Steam: FirgofUmbra
XFire: firgof

[Sean Mirrsen]

My chief interests apart from combat in 4X games are ship design and research. There's not a single shot of the ship design or research interfaces. Is the ship design slot-based? Does research happen per-project with static trees?

Also, what are the absolute minimum specs for playing? 2GHz CPU with 512Mb RAM and a Radeon 9600Pro here, would that be in any way playable?

[hemmingjay]

I am very interested and have submitted my application. I will be following your website as well as this forum for more information. Thank you for your attention here.

[Firgof Umbra]

My chief interests apart from combat in 4X games are ship design and research. There's not a single shot of the ship design or research interfaces. Is the ship design slot-based? Does research happen per-project with static trees?

Yes, sorry about that.  We don't have screenshots of those up for mass consumption just because they're still in their 'functional, but not pretty or streamlined' stage.

Ship design is a very rich, interesting, and detailed process, so explaining it will take me a few paragraphs.

How Ship Design Works
Ship design is focused around the idea of templated ship design; you design what goes in a ship and save that design; making it available anywhere you control objects with enough resources to build the ship. When you build a ship the workers update your design automatically within reasonable limits (workers will not change what subsystems are on a ship, but they will use the latest technological advancement of that subsystem when the ship is built). 

You are only ever hard-limited by the space the internal components of a ship takes up.  Everything else is soft-limited and if you can meet the requirements to do it we allow you to do so (e.g. unbelievably huge ships and strapping engines on to planets and making them ships) -- but that doesn't mean the most impressive stuff is easy or quick to pull off as planets only generate so much resources over time; that's how we keep the game self-balanced while letting players decide how they want their Empire to work. That particular problem could be solved by the player building ships with large cargo bays and ferrying supplies to the location they're building the large ship or horrifying Dyson sphere but since that takes time and focus that allows other players to stop that player from building those horrifying things.

The design process itself works by adding, removing, or scaling components of the ship (Subsystems) as well as altering the base scale of the ship (satellite size, planet size, huge star size, and beyond).  Subsystems cost both space and materials. Space is the amount of space a component takes up in the design and materials is how much and with what materials it takes to build the ship.  Materials cost is entirely related to the subsystem.  Each subsystem has a 'base cost' which gets multiplied as you scale the part inside the ship and as the ship itself grows or shrinks.

Space cost for a part is only impacted by the internal scaling of the part; this is very important to note because as ships scale up or down in size the internal scaling of the components go up or down 1:1 with the scale of the ship.  So for example if you compared a Scale 12 ship (about the size of a small moon)with a max'd out Reverse Inductor weapon to a Scale 4 ship with a max'd out Reverse Inductor weapon the Scale 12's Inductor would be effectively 3 times larger than the Scale 4's Inductor.

Subsystems also often have requirements (for instance a power generator requires fuel and control to function; and so you would need to satisfy these requirements by adding subsystems which give fuel and control) and without these requirements they quickly become disabled or destroyed (interrupting the control of an anti-matter generator would produce disastrous results, for instance).

There are specialized subsystems which link to other subsystems, weapons have firing arcs, and where you put your subsystems in your Layout portion of your Ship Blueprint editor impacts how the ship fires and takes damage. (A fusion reactor right next to the surface of your ship, for instance, would mean it would get hit first if a shot damaged that part of the ship). 

How Research Works
Research is a point-and-level based multi-tier system.  Technologies have a base level cost and Science Facilities provide a 'research rate' which adds to the points you have invested into unlocking the next level of a given field of science.  When your scientists have gathered enough knowledge to unlock the next level of a field of science, the invested points reset to 0, the cost of the research goes up based on what level it is going up to, and a level is added to that field of research; sometimes unlocking new subsystems and planetary facilities.

Leveling up a particular technology not only unlocks subsystems related to that technology but also impacts your Empire.  Leveling up Planetary Facilities does not only unlock things like Planetary Shield Generators if you are also researching Shields; it also increases the output, defensibility, and cargo storage of planet-based factories for instance.

The times when subsystems unlock does not change from Empire-to-Empire but if your Empire has no understanding of the principles behind a field of science it will take them a long time to figure it out.

We're working to make both of those processes work as quickly, intuitively, and with the least amount of micromanagement as possible.  We wish to keep their complexity on par with turn-based 4X titles but provide a very simple to use interface to them; the best of both worlds, we feel.

Also, what are the absolute minimum specs for playing? 2GHz CPU with 512Mb RAM and a Radeon 9600Pro here, would that be in any way playable?

We're still finding the precise numbers.  At this time we would recommend a computer which has either a dual-core or a very fast single-cpu processor (2.4 GHz+, I'd say for the default galaxy.  Perhaps as low as 2.0 for the minimum-scaled galaxy.  The basest requirement is probably something like 1.2GHz with mods to enforce ships to be a certain base minimum size so that there aren't often more than 100+ ships roaming around in the galaxy)as Star Ruler is built upon the principle of threading; as such it's harder work for a single-core to keep up.  The more threads your computer can handle, the better the game will run.  Your card needs to be able to put out about 100k-300k polygons per second without too much trouble and has to both support OpenGL and be Shader Model 2.0+ able (these are very low requirements and almost every card on the market supports these).

I would say that if you can run Half-life 2: Episode Two on medium or better settings you should have smooth sailing with Star Ruler -- though you may need to downscale your galaxy from the default scale of 150 systems to whatever your system can handle.  We are doing our best to support the largest base of hardware possible; we're even looking in to getting Star Ruler to work on Linux-based systems.

[Zangi]

Six distinct paths to victory. Combat, Espionage, Diplomatic, Research, Economic, and Exploration paths give players a choice of gameplay styles.

I'm skeptical on this.... 
Victory conditions are decided by settings right?  A point based system where whoever gets X points first wins?

Exploration/Research, I can't really see either of them being the sole means to victory unless it goes with a point based victory condition...

Economics, yea if you can buy out the enemy... and/or their economic facilities/support and collapsing their financial support needed to hold the fleets/armies together...  (they dare not make a move against you unless they have a way to erode your control over their 'merchants'...)

Espionage, able to destablize target empires from within and make the people revolt and join someone else and/or mutiny on ships...  so much can be done here....

Diplomacy, peaceful negotiations for a grand space empire... under your rule.  Honestly, I don't see other space empires submit to just peaceful negotiations unless you hold something significant over them. IE: Economy/Military/Information

Combat, extermination or submission.... nuff said.

Then there is the 'this is the best way' mentality or 'this way doesn't work' game flaw...

[quinnr]

What are the plans for payment in the future?
Will it be free, subscription-based, etc.?

[Sean Mirrsen]

Interesting.

So, to sum up what I understood: You design a ship by vaguely filling a certain "volume" with certain types of systems which you also "scale up" to change their volume, but you're not limited by anything other than volume (no silly mass restrictions is good - what about power/crew?). Does the design impact the ship's combat performance? I'm going to make a hypothetical example, which is likely not applicable to SR - you design a ship with a large fuel tank block right under the hull plating, and a lucky torpedo hit into that spot will instantly make the ship go "kersplode". Will something like that happen?

I didn't quite understand your explanation of research options, but it seems like a fair approximation to what I consider the best system - no "single projects", just progress in scientific areas and technologies becoming available in the process. Fair enough as long as you don't need to focus on one science field at a time, which I hope is not the case, as it's almost sillier than single projects.

I guess I'll apply for testing, let's see if this old rig can handle a game like this. Seems very RAM-hungry.

ninja edit: I don't think victory conditions are per-setting, rather all together and whoever gets any of them wins. I also don't think they need to be point-based. Combat is straightforward, Diplomacy is alliances, Espionage is underhanded Diplomacy with induced riots or rigged elections, Research is immortality or superweapons, Economic is Diplomacy through trade, Exploration could be finding some Precursor artifacts and combining them into something awe-inspiring.

[x2yzh9]

God this looks awesome. already sent a beta application.

[Firgof Umbra]

What are the plans for payment in the future?
Will it be free, subscription-based, etc.?

$20-$25 is the price we're shooting for (we dislike the "games must be $50" self-enforced standard throughout most of the industry).  It is a retail game, so once you buy it you own it.  We're not going to have any DRM in our product, we may do some free DLC, and if there is a great demand for an expansion we may also do one of those.  An important thing to note is that by online multiplayer we do not mean to say this is an MMO.  It is a multiplayer-capable game with up to 8 players playing simultaneously on different machines -- whether LAN or over the internet. Though I suppose a dedicated server hosting an always-available persistent galaxy would be a fun thing to see, we're not going to officially support that -- that'd require a bit more time than we have unfortunately.  No reason why the mod community couldn't do it though.

I'm skeptical on this....
Victory conditions are decided by settings right?  A point based system where whoever gets X points first wins?

Currently they are soft conditions, not hard conditions; there are no 'points' to be had, the best strategy simply wins.  Though we will probably support point-based conditions through the Scenario Editor for those who would enjoy that or find the soft condition approach too difficult to keep up with.  I'll illuminate some of the ways the game can be won without spoiling too much.

Exploration:   You find something or a set of somethings in the galaxy that is/are a unique resource(s)/asset(s).  By finding this/these things you gain control of something very strategically important to the game and by controlling that it is very likely that you will become unstoppable.  Other players may stop you by destroying the resource(s)/asset(s) but that is very difficult to do; but it also takes you a while to gain control of it/them.  To find this/these resource(s)/asset(s), you must explore the Galaxy and find clues to it's/their location.

You have the right idea on the economic victory.  Basically you can indebt the whole galaxy and if you dared to call your debt you would essentially destabilize their entire economic system.  Or you could pump so much money into a corporation (or even the pirates if you feel lucky) that you favor that going up against you means going up against them -- and going up against them is a hard thing to decide to do.  Basically, though you may not control other Empires directly with your money you can influence them to do whatever you want -- even surrender their planets to you.

You have the right idea on Espionage as well.  Though you might also gain access to technologies they control, siphon their research rates, and etc.

Diplomacy will work either through Espionage, through Economics, through Combat, or through plain vanilla Diplomacy.  Vanilla Diplomacy works essentially this way: you make your Empire so benevolent and peaceful that their citizens have a very strong likelihood of revolting when they would ever attack you; as you would be such an icon of purity and moral strength to their culture that to kill you would mean soiling the base values of their own morality.  (Note:  This victory is difficult to achieve in a war-focused galaxy, but not impossible)

Combat, as you said, is intuitive in how it could be won. :p

Research can be done through a variety of ways.  (Making your ships and planets practically impenetrable, evolving your society beyond the 'pithy' morals of other societies, building your own "asset(s)/resource(s)" from the Exploration victory emergent condition, and et cetera)

Then there is the 'this is the best way' mentality or 'this way doesn't work' game flaw...

We also recruit beta testers so that they can call us on the carpet with their individual opinions.  Helps us stay 'out of the vacuum' we feel.  Though, realistically, no game is totally immune to self-containment in the design process.  So we felt that the best solution was through 'emergent victories', even if they are harder to track and keep the player informed of.

I'm going to make a hypothetical example, which is likely not applicable to SR - you design a ship with a large fuel tank block right under the hull plating, and a lucky torpedo hit into that spot will instantly make the ship go "kersplode". Will something like that happen?

Yes.  Has happened on more than one occasion to me.  I've taken to placing bulkheads on every last explosive component in my ship designs after some very ... dissatisfying results with my large ships and my boss sending out wave after wave of Power and Control sapping ships in response. 

I didn't quite understand your explanation of research options, but it seems like a fair approximation to what I consider the best system - no "single projects", just progress in scientific areas and technologies becoming available in the process. Fair enough as long as you don't need to focus on one science field at a time, which I hope is not the case, as it's almost sillier than single projects.

Yes, it is just progress and technologies becoming available.  You may also queue up a series of research techs and we're working out a way to streamline the "I want a Plasma Beam" (a specific subsystem) player/system interaction.  Currently you do have to put all your research rate on one field at a time (this does not 'lock you in', you can immediately switch to another field of research if you wanted) but we are open to suggestion and debate on this matter; multi-researching is an important thing to discount or count when it comes to how research works.

[Zangi]

What are the plans for payment in the future?
Will it be free, subscription-based, etc.?

$20-$25 is the price we're shooting for (we dislike the "games must be $50" self-enforced standard throughout most of the industry).  It is a retail game, so once you buy it you own it.  We're not going to have any DRM in our product, we may do some free DLC, and if there is a great demand for an expansion we may also do one of those.

+1 right here.

*Victory Condition + Mentality/Game Flaw Snip*

Alright cool.  So for Exploration/Research you get something nigh unstoppable(tech/assets that is like... centuries ahead of the current time?).  And you are assumed to have won?  (Can we play on after victory?)

Sounds satisfactory.  Though for Diplomacy, going by reputation/morality...  how much of a pain in the arse would it be to keep it at a decent level? (IE: Not looking like a noob to your own race/people?  Or at the very least, not become public enemy #1?)  Or does this reputation/morality only ever apply beneficially?

I'm going to make a hypothetical example, which is likely not applicable to SR - you design a ship with a large fuel tank block right under the hull plating, and a lucky torpedo hit into that spot will instantly make the ship go "kersplode". Will something like that happen?

Yes.  Has happened on more than one occasion to me.  I've taken to placing bulkheads on every last explosive component in my ship designs after some very ... dissatisfying results with my large ships and my boss sending out wave after wave of Power and Control sapping ships in response. 

On this note... internal damage...  is there some sort of indicator to how much internal damage a ship can take before "kersplode"?  Or is just hitting the large fuel tank or something else = auto-"kersplode"?

I didn't quite understand your explanation of research options, but it seems like a fair approximation to what I consider the best system - no "single projects", just progress in scientific areas and technologies becoming available in the process. Fair enough as long as you don't need to focus on one science field at a time, which I hope is not the case, as it's almost sillier than single projects.

Yes, it is just progress and technologies becoming available.  You may also queue up a series of research techs and we're working out a way to streamline the "I want a Plasma Beam" player/system interaction.  Currently you do have to focus on one field at a time but we are open to suggestion and debate on this matter; multi-researching is an important thing to discount or count when it comes to how research works.

How far does research go?  If I wanted to play a long/persistent single player campaign....  how far would a line of research go?