Writing a system like this seemed relatively easy, but once I started working on the project a few issues came up. The first was linking the systems together. The algorithm i wrote aimed at linking each system to its nearest 3 neighbours. This worked fine, but once i rendered the links on an image an issue was immediately obvious - some of the links crossed each other, messing up the visual experience. To solve it I checked ALL the existing links when adding a new one, not adding it if it crossed any existing link.

The second problem was not only a visual problem, but a show-stopper. If the galaxy was not densely enough packed with stars, isolated collections of stars would be generated, small islands of stars, not conneted to the rest of the galaxy. To solve this I added a special checking algorithm that identified all the islands of stars in the galaxy and connected them together by their nearest systems.

These initial algorithms and a demonstration applet were actually written last year. This code has been pulled out, cleaned, polished and improved, and now its ready to back the new Shadow Wars game. I added a little image-generator utility to the code so i could quickly generate galaxies and play around with the settings. Here are a few of the generated images to give you a little more of an idea of what can been done with the layout.

As there are two factions in this game, take note of the green/red - these colours are there to represent the starting positions of the players in the two factions.

The galaxy systems (including faction colours)

The galaxy systems (including factions & wormholes linking them)

There are quite a lot of options that will allow the galaxy to be made larger or smaller, increase/decrease density and number of lines (wormholes), and number of systems per faction. The above example has 2000 systems, 500 for each faction (red/green) and 1000 neutral in the middle. Here is another example with 600 systems, 200 for each faction and 200 neutral in the middle.

600 systems, 200 for each faction

600 systems, 200 for each faction (only two wormholes per system)

I’ll play around with the settings, perhaps make a really crazily large one and a tiny one for fun

ShadowWars was originally slated to replace DarkGalaxy as a dominant Space Based Strategy, we’ve taken what could be defined as a lot of the problems with the DarkGalaxy game play, and tried to improve on them as much as possible, resulting in a game which is much easier to pick up and play, and is more balanced. Below I’m going to list a few of the features, and attempt to explain the reasoning behind them. Please note: All information provided here is subject to change during game development.

Endless Gameplay

One of the things that gets frequently brought to our attention about DG, is the inability to complete games due to the turn limit, one of the first things we want to do with ShadowWars is just give an end condition of “total annihilation”, and leave the game running permanently until this occurs. This has been made possible with faction based game play (see below), and allows games to last weeks / months maybe even years if people continue to fight the good fight.

Faction Based Gameplay

One of the bigger problems in DG is the ability for a single large alliance to just dominate, the goals were to get as many good people into your alliance as possible, resulting in what could be defined as ’superpowers’ in the universe, if any small alliance stepped in the way, they were trodden on, and newer players to the game were having difficulties getting any sort of foothold without submitting to them.

The concept behind factions, is that there are only two opposing sides fighting against each other. The concept of alliances will still remain inside the greater faction, but you can only war against those on the other side. This essentially allows for ’squads’ of people forcing their way forward (see Navigation below) and working together towards the end goal. We will be looking to add bonuses for working in an alliance, so it’s not something to be completely ignored, but those at this point are changing frequently. This allows players to not only go lone-wolf if they choose, but it gives them a chance to make an impact in some way.

Linear Navigation

The change to navigation is quite substantial, we will be moving from the current system, and making something new and shiny. We’re basing the entire game in a single galaxy, which happens to be dark (just a coincidence :p). We’re running around the idea that to get from A->C, you have to go through B. Each system will have several planets, and at least one ‘SpaceGate’ (Name subject to change) connecting it to nearby systems. You will go through the gates, travel across a systems, then go out the gate on the other side, then rinse / repeat until you’ve reached your destination. To make things interesting, it will be possible to place fleets on either end of the gate, and have them ambush opposing fleets coming through. This adds an interesting dynamic to the game, as due to navigation paths, there may be some key systems which should be defended to the best of their ability, but at the same time, the opposing faction will be working together to destroy your block and exploit it as a good entrance into your territory. This is where teamwork comes into play heavily, the fighting will be a tense back and forth in the center of the galaxy.. Oh, and to add to the fun, there will be no homeworld protection, it will take a LONG time to get back there and the journey will be full of peril, but flanking them would be hugely beneficial to your faction!

At the end of the day, pictures speak louder than words, so there are some example images of something that’s been worked on. Again, this is FAR from complete, it’s more of a test application which we’ve been playing about with, but should give you a reasonable idea of what i’m talking about. Click the thumbnails to expand them.

Simplified Gameplay

To help keep new players participating in games, the game mechanics are going to be easier to understand, to that end, we hope to drop the number of resources down to two (maybe three), but there will be no location population, and we’ll also be doing away with research. Game cues will prompt users on how to do things, and a UI featuring more modern web technologies (for example, drag and drop) will allow the user to do things like edit queues easily and efficiently. We will also be dropping the number of combat ready ships to a handful, and adopting more of a ‘rock-paper-scissors’ approach to combat, but maintaining enough depth for the hard-core strategists to put their skill to use.

Admittedly, there will be a lot of questions / comments about this subject specifically, please feel free to voice them in the comment section, please remember that all comments are moderated to avoid inappropriateness. Thanks for reading

To allow for everyone’s voices to be heard, i wont be asking for technical implementations, or for users to produce code (I’ll be handling that myself!), but instead just general descriptions or if you’re feeling creative, a few images, and with a little luck, I’ll be able to generate something which meets most peoples need.

Obviously, I have full discretion on the features / functionality implemented, and may not be able to give feedback on every suggestion, and you may not see every suggestion plugged into the next produced game either, but I’ll endeavour to have the best suggestions implemented in some form or another, so when the new games come along, we’ll have something which is intuitive, accessible and easy to play for everyone.

The first ‘Ask the Players’ will be coming in a couple of days, so stay tuned!

The blog is separated into different sections (indicated on the right), although everything we post will be presented on this page, if you’re not interested in the technical details, you can just hit the ‘General’ link and see all the English (as opposed to geek) posts. We’ll try and make sure everything goes to the right place

All comments will be moderated by myself, to help prevent the same spamming here we occasionally see on the forums (you know who you are :P).

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Enjoy!