Society Centres

Well, governors in SCs were introduced to make them self-sufficient, no intervention from player needed (but allowed, if the player wants a change, he can do it), so I don't see what those levels would be good for.

Good point with not simulating all smaller SCs. It would be like simulating the whole galaxy at once. I guess we could abstract them to +production or other stats when not simulated.

Zooming out should hide small SCs though, as not to clutter it with millions of tiny points. Good idea, Rex.


Edit: This gives me an idea - we should be able to select an SC/MC and click on a "Send resources" button. This would make all near SCs send X% of it's earnings of to the selected SC. Would be useful to send resources to production centres or food to capitals and the like.

Commander Keen wrote:

Well, governors in SCs were introduced to make them self-sufficient, no intervention from player needed (but allowed, if the player wants a change, he can do it), so I don't see what those levels would be good for.

Good point with not simulating all smaller SCs. It would be like simulating the whole galaxy at once. I guess we could abstract them to +production or other stats when not simulated.

Good enough point. Revision: Levels define when smaller SCs become irrelevent.

Commander Keen wrote:

Edit: This gives me an idea - we should be able to select an SC/MC and click on a "Send resources" button. This would make all near SCs send X% of it's earnings of to the selected SC. Would be useful to send resources to production centres or food to capitals and the like.

I like it. How about the opposite being available too, for say, rationing out food during famine?

Back to SCs, how would their relationship with the surrounding claimed land be?
Something I was thinking is that we shouldn't hard-code a urban/rural dichotomy, because two aspects become problematic:
1: Ecumenopolises get hard to do (although at such stage we'd have space travel, gotta flesh out better how they'll act when on galaxy dimension)
2: Photossynthesyzing organisms. Something tells me a skyscraper full of sentient plants just won't work, they'll need more sunlight...

Djohaal wrote:

Back to SCs, how would their relationship with the surrounding claimed land be?
Something I was thinking is that we shouldn't hard-code a urban/rural dichotomy, because two aspects become problematic:
1: Ecumenopolises get hard to do (although at such stage we'd have space travel, gotta flesh out better how they'll act when on galaxy dimension)
2: Photossynthesyzing organisms. Something tells me a skyscraper full of sentient plants just won't work, they'll need more sunlight...

1) Well, at such a stage that SCs merge into mega-SCs, then they will act as a single SC instead of multiple. This would make Space Stages much easier to manage.
2) That's not our problem, it's the player's.

Photosynthesizing organisms can live in glass houses: they just have to be careful not to throw rocks.
I like how this is set up - seems pretty straightforward.
Any word on how we'll handle underground/underwater SC's? Or is that a different thread?

Underground...how will the camera deal with that? I've always assumed it would be overhead view, but that wouldn't really work for underground cities.

ParadoxJuice wrote:

Underground...how will the camera deal with that? I've always assumed it would be overhead view, but that wouldn't really work for underground cities.

We could make the ground appear as a 'ghost', so you can make out what is space and what is earth, but you can also see through this, allowing the camera to be positioned in the ground as well as empty space.

The Uteen wrote:

ParadoxJuice wrote:

Underground...how will the camera deal with that? I've always assumed it would be overhead view, but that wouldn't really work for underground cities.

We could make the ground appear as a 'ghost', so you can make out what is space and what is earth, but you can also see through this, allowing the camera to be positioned in the ground as well as empty space.

QFT

Fog of war would still be there though. That way you can't see your enemy's sapping attempts.

Ever tried looking through the ground from below in just any game? The terrain mesh is culled, meaning it's impossible to see from below.

Commander Keen wrote:

Ever tried looking through the ground from below in just any game? The terrain mesh is culled, meaning it's impossible to see from below.

I'd deal with it like water. Just remove all the stuff with flowing and variables - basically rip a chunk out of our water render and apply a dirt/rock effect intstead of water. Save Bashi some time.

Well, there would be the problem of water and oil reserves (aquifers are different than underground lakes) but I'd assume that if you were going any direction but down, you'd hit the rocks that trap the fluids, and that would be a big red flag not to dig your burrow further that way.