Anteworld - Outerra Game > Game & gameplay discussion
Anteworld Game Design Think Tank
Occams Razer:
Outerra Anteworld promises to be big, both spatially and in scope. While the engine handles the former, the latter relies heavily on good game design. Not only will the game need to be programmed to handle all the systems in play, but they will also need to be balanced and paced properly to result in a coherent and satisfying product.
Now, we as the community can't develop Anteworld, but to gauge interest and generate discussion, I'd like to know what it is that the community hopes to see come about in specific. What kind of game do you want to see? What features do you want to see, and what don't you? Is online play something supplementary to the main game, is it coop-enabled, or is it an online-only title, รก la MMO RPGs? Is there an objective that the player is striving for, or is it a choose-your-own path kind of thing?
Some ground rules and disclaimers:
* This topic isn't addressed to the devs, nor is it a question about their plans or capabilities. This is more for community discussion about game design theory, though naturally devs are welcome.
* This topic is in regards to Outerra Anteworld specifically. Other ideas you have about games that could be made in Outerra, say with a neolithic or medieval setting, aren't relevant to this discussion.
* This is purely discussion and theory. Don't take anything discussed as impending, even if you like the sound of the idea. Conversely, don't be taken aback or claim plagiarism if an idea you come up with is used in the final game. For all you know, the devs may have certain ideas planned as-is.
* Complaints about the lack of Anteworld progress are not germane.
Now, for those who aren't familiar, the narrative premise of Anteworld is that human colonization of distant planets became possible in the distant future, but when colonizers return to Earth from a distant star system, humanity at large seems to have vanished. So there's your starting point.
fly77:
Hi Occams Razer
It seems that 2020 will be an important year were more focus of modders and developers will be placed on the gaming side of outerra rather than ever more detailed graphical upgrading of the world rendering engine.
I come from flightsim and I like a lot the "choose your way" approach of simulators. Still there should be challenges you encounter and requires some kind of skill to accomplish what you have choosen to do.
I know the orignal idea of an outerra game was this Anteworld concept where you find a world empty of civilization...or maybe with only some remains of ancient civilization . That would be more interesting than a purely virgin planet..giving also a touch of history/story to the whole thing...and it could for instance suggest places where it is convienient to build new cities !
Then there was that idea that you could build your settlements, cities and that it would be all shared online by all players..like all were playing in the same world. I still I wonder if all this is realistically achievable. If it is it would be great. So just for the sake of discussing it , suppose it is.
Then it appears it would be like a planet-wide multiplayer city-skyline kind of game, where every player builds its detailed 3D model cities..that probably need some kind of "life" as well, at least in the form of some simulated economy. In that case the terrain and rivers/seas should have their importance in facilitating setting up a new town like it is for instance is in songs-of-the-eons (https://demiansky.itch.io/songs-of-the-eons) .
Then as players come into conflict wanting to occupy the same spot with their cities..there need be some "battle modus" (either military or economic or political or all of them together) to decide who will get the "rights" to build in a certain place. So it will need some "strategy game" programming as well. Trade should be also part of this to promote player collaboration. So the planet will also need resources modelling, with each place having specific resources or lacking them so that trade makes sense.
As the world is empty initially it will be peacefully watching how different towns pop up around the world. As more players join to build new cities at some point conflicts and/or cooperations may arise and we will be able to see which players or player teams get the upper hand..so nations of player teams may rise, occupying certain places, and combat will start. That's how I could imagine this "Anteworld" concept.
Finally there should be possible a "voyager/explorer" modus for players that just want to travel around this world without having any intention to build their cities. Eventually these players can signal resources to other players and get bonuses for successful collaboration with other players so that they "can make a living" in a wild and hostile anteworld
All this seems very very ambitious ..and maybe not possible at all...but as we are here just to "dream" lets do it :)
Occams Razer:
I'll admit on the online/single-player spectrum, all of my favorite formitive games of late have been single-player (STALKER and Subnautica in particular leap to mind), so I'm biased toward that conclusion. It generally requires fewer resources, the product can continue to be used after servers are taken offline, there's no need to perfect anti-cheat, and modding is much easier to support. I agree that online play is preferable, but for personal reasons I'd limit it to client-client connections with a dozen or so players, rather than client-server connections with ~2000.
To me, one of the bigger challenges for the game is defining the gameplay to best make use of the engine's features: your typical FPS doesn't need 100 square kilometers of play space, let alone a full-scale planet. But your typical RTS or city builder doesn't need centimeter-level detail and individual blades of grass. Even with aircraft, single-unit gameplay probably can't use a worthwhile portion of the space provided, and traveling from one region to another would take horrendous amounts of time without fast-travel or time skips.
My idea is that the player will, after establishing their initial home base around their randomly-positioned colonizer ship, discover a network of teleportation gates. These would allow the player to move to wildly different corners of the Earth without needing to travel there in realtime. As these gates can only facilitate transport of people and small vehicles, it's not always a perfect shortcut, but should allow the player to move to remote locales without taking away agency, or making the player too mobile early on.
Jagerbomber:
Land vehicles is what I'm most keen on and I've never been one for using fast travel (unless maybe I can't stand the idea of doing a straight return trip in a game). Hell... a bit a go I took some roadtrips in the dang tatra through a couple/few countries in the game (actually traveled to airports as well because they couldn't be reached by road from where I started each trip). Still would like to see more of those buildings, though. Sadly, evening sunlight still tanks my framerate and I suspect buildings will be bad. :( But I want them a lot.
Gonna really need GPS routes though. I was using Google Maps on my mobile device as best as I could, lol.
bomber:
An interesting question Ocam,
I understand your focus on Anteworld (as a question) ......what's it gonna be...
But I never thought it was going to be anything, least of all a game... it's more bait to modders, to entice them onto the hook.
I'm an Online player of combat flight sims, WWII bomber crew experience being my thing.... I also have a slight hankering for tank and submarine crewing... the theme here is that I like having multiple people talking to each other on intercom in a single vehicle... A Friday night, a bottle of red wine and a good chat and experience as we all crew a B17 to Schweinfurt can't be beaten to my mind.. (it's not for everyone I know).
But Outerra mods have the ability to be something to everyone... the trick to my mind would be to link them up such that although separate mods catering to their own fanbase of players within a genre, there's a cause and effect link.
Lets just say that I'm not a great fan of the 'Total simulation' but instead a more focused approach that satisfies the player of that particular mod and doesn't leave them thinking 'well it's ok, but there's too much... this that and the other getting in the way'
Outerra does have a great future... I hope they revolutionise the online gaming industry by engaging 110% with moders..
that's my 1 pence anyway
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