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[Schilcote]

Posting this here out of desperation for feedback. _{Definitely going to regret it.}

Download is here: http://www.gametorpedo.com/projects/galgen-trader

GalGen Trader is a science-fiction simulation/sandbox game. You can run cargo missions, conduct trade, fight pirates, and more. It already boasts a massive procedurally generated galaxy (if anyone manages to find the end of it, let me know), which will eventually become highly mutable (you could destroy a star, sterilize or colonize a planet, build a space station...).

Of course, as of now it's not at all complete, much like Dwarf Fortress itself.

Screenshots:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Here's a (highly outdated) video of a star being blown up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwmSqW6xZb8
It's not very interesting in itself, but it's a sort of an indicator for things to come I suppose.

[Fikes]

I strongly dislike threads like this. No info what so ever, no screen shots, nothing, just a link. The only feedback I can give is that you should at LEAST entice me to click your link. Other wise I just hit the back button until there is another reply.

[diamok]

Sadly for the OP I am not the next reply Fikes is looking for.  Though I do agree totally.

Take care,

[lemon10]

Sadly for the OP I am not the next reply Fikes is looking for.  Though I do agree totally.

Take care,

Errr.... Kinda a pointless post.
From the link:

GalGen Trader is currently a simple interstellar trading game. It features a simple text-based menu system similar to TEOS, a simplistic, functional starmap, and a 2d space combat system.

Currently, GGT is in alpha.

I plan to add some adventure-game features eventually, but for now I'm just focusing on getting the underlying functionality to work. The current version of the game is stable enough to be playable (at least it is on my computer, I've gotten reports of problems with the graphics on other machines), and quite addictive and fun.

I'd love to have someone do the ship sprites for me, as you can see I'm quite poor at spriting.

[Schilcote]

Yeah, I agree too. I'm writing a better summary as we speak.

[Schilcote]

Oh come on...

Is there something about my game that makes everyone just go completely mute?

[Shadowgandor]

To be honest, I'm not really interested because the game doesn't look that interesting and the information given isn't very interesting.

In what way can the player affect the universe? How does trade work, supply/demand? Information like that could spark an interest in this game

[Schilcote]

To be honest, I'm not really interested because the game doesn't look that interesting and the information given isn't very interesting.

In what way can the player affect the universe? How does trade work, supply/demand? Information like that could spark an interest in this game

Well, right now the universe is mostly static. Trade prices are determined by the technology level of the planet; base materials go up in price with TLevel, manufactured materials go down. Eventually (perhaps next update) it'll be more complex than that.

I don't really know what to work on because I never get any feedback. The last four or five updates have just mostly been to the ship-to-ship combat system, because that's what seems to require the most improvement.

[forsaken1111]

Oh come on...

Is there something about my game that makes everyone just go completely mute?

Right now it sounds like a generic space sandbox game without anything to distinguish it. You have to write something to get people interested, it doesn't just happen by magic.

I do like the idea of an open sandboxy space game, but it has been tried before and done wrong more often than right. (X series for an example of doing it wrong)

[fatherjimbo]

Sounds a bit like Elite. If so that would be sweet.

Can you upgrade your ship? What about weapons? Technology? Land on planets? Does the Blue Danube play when you dock with a station?

Need more info!

[forsaken1111]

Need more info!

Exactly. You can't just say "Hey look, I am making a space sandbox game!" and expect admiration and discussion. We need to know what you plan to do with the game, what features you will be including.

Am I limited to doing trade runs myself or can I hire NPC captains and give them ships? Can I build space stations? Is there any interaction with planets beyond buying/selling? For example, can I build factories on a planet to produce goods?

[Schilcote]

Right now it sounds like a generic space sandbox game without anything to distinguish it.

Well... that's because it sort of is at the moment.

Here's a run-down of all the features it has now:

• Procedural galaxy generation
• Trading (with static prices)
• 'Missions', of the nature "Take this box to Star 1337 within 72 hours" and "Fight a whole f**kton of enemies under the pretext that you're protecting our ship"
• The ability to upgrade most of the ship's statistics
• 'Crew' characters, generated Western-RPG style. Having crewmen with a higher engineering skill makes the ship's HP regenerate faster, higher Medical skill makes crew HP regen faster, Combat skill does nothing yet.
• User-made 'Adventures', though the scripting language isn't fully implemented yet (there's a lot of game data you don't have access to).
• Random encounters.
• Keygen music!

I think that's all.

A few planned features (In order of difficulty, easiest to hardest):

Non-static galactic topography (stars blow up or form, planets advance in TLevel or die out, artifical structures built and destroyed)
Mutable economy
Devices that can be added to your ship to give it new functionality and can be user-extended via scripts (ala Transcendence)
NPC ships that fly about doing basically the same thing the player does and can be hired to protect you in battle or perform tasks
Fully functional scripting system
Interstellar governments, and the ability to create your own interstellar government (ala Flash Trek: Broken Mirror, though much less static)


Yeah, I know, all the cool things are "Eventually". But I'm the sort of fellow who needs to be encouraged to get things done.

And yes, it's very much like Elite.

[forsaken1111]

That is what we wanted to know.

Do you have an alpha version up? If so I'll take a look at it when I get home from work.

[Schilcote]

That is what we wanted to know.

Do you have an alpha version up? If so I'll take a look at it when I get home from work.

That would be the link in the OP.

An example what the final product looks like in my head:

I decide that I'm going to get rich by preying on passing cargo vessels. So, I train up my captain in Engineering (to soak up more damage) and open fire on a few vessels out "on the wrong side of the tracks" (an area of space with a very low average TLevel, and therefore less police and civilization in general). I win, loot their vessel, and sell off their goods (and perhaps the wreck of their ship) at a port. After doing this a few times, the powers that be start to get suspicious, and send a police ship after me. I defeat the ship, and now the local governments are pissed. So they start sending bigger police ships, which I also destroy and sell/install the parts from. Now some of the larger governments are starting to take notice of me, and they start sending their muscle at me (or perhaps hire me as a privateer). This doesn't work either, and now I've got a pretty massive killcount. So they start blowing up suns. Of course, if I was hired as a privateer, my employers might go out of their way to protect me, and definitely lose favor with their neighbors. Of course, if I'm a big enough guy that stars are considered acceptable losses (and even if I'm not), there might very well be a few wars starting. Planets get razed, civilizations get conquered, I loot the debris.

So the large-scale topology of the galaxy is, indirectly and inadvertently, affected by my actions. Of course, I can affect the galaxy directly too, by blowing up a few suns myself, or colonizing new planets full of rouges and subordinate pirates. Maybe after a few years of piracy, I can decide to give up pirating myself and just have my criminal empire make money for me. Maybe I can even start enforcing some laws, keep citizens of the pirate empire from stealing from eachother. Maybe after a while, perhaps even after my character is dead and I've taken up a new one in the same galaxy.sav, the Pirate Empire can become its own respected sovereign government, with its own laws and political relationships.

But that's a ways off.

[forsaken1111]

That is what we wanted to know.

Do you have an alpha version up? If so I'll take a look at it when I get home from work.

That would be the link in the OP.

I can't actually look at it from work. ^.^