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[Servant Corps]

Trying to play EOI is a pain because if I click on anything, I soon get an error which closes the game. I'll still try to do it, but meh.

EDIT: ...how do I access voting?

[Servant Corps]

Here's my latest idea for the Senate. Some feedback would be highly appreciated.

I don't care if this doesn't get implemented, I love the idea, and I'm going to try and make a mini-game based off that idea, divorced from this game.

Possibly would be more productive than waiting for a playable release of this game.

[Tormodino]

If you are interested in developing a diplomatic voting system, I am sure that EoI is the place to be

We do need a good diplomacy and voting model.

[Il Palazzo]

There has been a move with the development forums, EoI is now available at: www.echoesofimperium.com

[Areyar]

Love the maps. (i'm a chartophile )
My opinion on the UI though: on the zoomed out map the units are displayed, the contrast around the edges is too sharp.
it might also be nicer to use symbolic army designation icons (arrows and such). Ofcourse that also means that the pretty uniticons get relegated to a mouse-over or clickable army-composition window and actual closeup combat.
pretty much depends on how combat will work though.


@reply below:oh, ok. Hadn't realized. also: seems you still need a race of spacedwarves.

[Il Palazzo]

Areyar, feel free to post your thoughts on the above linked forum - we're trying to move all that stuff there for ease of reference. I've only revived this thread should anybody have problems finding the EoI forum after the move(like I had).

[Lap]

Ever since getting a proper .com domain spam registrations on the board have gone up 10x so I've had to switch to moderator approved accounts. If you are waiting for approval or were mistakenly banned just post here or send a PM/email.

[Lap]

Wow. It's been almost 3 years since last update of this thread and a little more than a year since the main forms have been updated.

I've still been busy coding things here and there, collecting assets and toying with new ideas. Most of my work has been on backend stuff and despite all the work there's not a lot that I can show in impressive screenshot form.

The hardest part over the last two years has been the same game design hurdles I've been trying to solve since day one:

1. How can you still have a rich system with different resources/production/supply lines without making it a management hell?

2. How to design the tech tree?

3. How can I display an effective UI?


Number one has been the biggest problem because changes to resource storage and production reverberate throughout so many other systems. Without this being finalized so many other systems couldn't even be worked on (galactic market, transportation, UI, unit/building balancing, etc.). I hate how in EFS planetary warehouse oversimplified everything. I had much more fun playing with that turned off and having to figure out how to supply far off worlds. However, I have to admit that it bogged down gameplay tremendously with the micro. In this game resources were produced locally and would connect to adjacent supply networks forming caches. This has plenty of other problems related to storing, capturing, and moving resources around. I believe I finally found a compromise:

In EoI the resources will still be held in a "Universal Warehouse." They get produced somewhere and get abstracted away to a magical holding place somewhere. However, if a province is isolated or blockaded in some way it will suffer penalties to harvesting/producing. In this way I still simulate blockades and supply lines without ever having to have resources be moved manually. I can also augment this feeling by giving planets bonuses on food upkeep for having food produced on planet.


2. Tech trees are always hard. I've gone back and forth on all sorts of ideas. A long and narrow Civilization style tech tree is always an option, but it tends to mean that different factions end up being fairly similar. I also looked at some of the crazier tech trees like those from endless space http://i.imgur.com/bg2g6.jpg?1?4460.

I'm currently focusing on a very "wide" tech tree. The good part about a wide tech tree is that there are a lot of different options at any given point in time. The bad part is that it can be overwhelming to players. It's also very hard to balance out the military techs as players tend to gravitate towards the techs that give them the biggest and best units/ships. https://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view/4b73928c-50fc-8a8b-b530-29920a005798

There's still tons of work to be done here.

3. UI will always be one of the greatest challenges and I have been playing with different UI's I make on napkins for the last year or so. Representing armies, units, buildings, and region features is still something I'm not quite satisfied with yet.



I'm glad to see there is still interest in an EFS type games ( I also wish good luck to maniac's fivebanners!). I just wanted to let everyone know that I have been continuing work despite all the silence.

[Svampapa]

Well now, we can't have this float off the first page without a single shit given, can we?

Hiya Lap! Glad to see you're still around and hacking away at this.

[Lap]

Glad to see you too. You've been in the back of my mind for the last 2.5 years since I always see your name as last registered on the forums (which I check frequently as I use it to organize ideas).

[burningpet]

Wow, glad to see this project is still alive, lap!

Is there a compiled build to play with?

[Lap]

Glad to see you too burningpet! You've made quite a name for yourself over the years. It's been a nice surprise seeing your name while browsing through Steam or Reddit.

I also again have to say thanks for your past contributions. When I get in a coding slump and start to lose motivation it always helps to look at the art that's been made just for this project. The motivation to make sure this content sees the light of release is very helpful.

I haven't been updating the SVN since I've made so many experimental changes and I haven't made a neatly packaged version in forever.

Looking at the size of my project directory it looks like it has ballooned to 500mb. I'm going to have to cut down all the art assets that aren't really used. It'll probably be at least a month before I can get another packaged version out (at least one that's worth trying). Considering I get married in about a month I can't really promise anything short term.

[Il Palazzo]

Considering I get married in about a month I can't really promise anything short term.

Woo-hoo! Congratulations!

you poor bastard ;P

One of these days, I'll buy a modern* graphics card and see what you've done, rather than just hearing about it.

*meaning, no more than a decade old, I suppose.

[WhitiusOpus]

I'll work on a tech tree, if you want. I'm thinking along the lines of a wider, branching tree than narrow. If you give me a basis of what needs to be in it (technologies, units, etc) I can probably make a decent addition within two weeks or so.

[Lap]

Always glad to have more people willing to help. So far I've got a fairly extensive tech tree mapped out. I thought the hardest part was making techs that converged back to an idea that was related to the two previous prereqs, but the actual hard part is going to be making a lot of these technologies worth researching. It is very hard to make rushing all the industry/military less appetizing.

Here's the current tree:

https://www.lucidchart.com/documents/view/4b73928c-50fc-8a8b-b530-29920a005798

If anyone else wants to monkey around with it let me know and I'll send you edit links. If you want to propose entirely new ones be warned that with the amount of time I've spent on this one I'll be unlikely to totally scrap it at least until it is gameplay tested and proven to suck .