Well some of you may still be curious about the Nations game and while that seems to have taken the back seat, some of us other guys on the forums have decided to take it into our own hands. Myself (Lead Designer, Artist), Kaninen (Designer), Argon (Designer, Number Cruncher), and Knife (Village Bicycle) have come together and are currently developing Society. We’ve been working on it for several months now and I feel we have gotten to the point to where we can share what we have done so far.
Society is a browser game like Cyber Nations or Utopia. It will be a multiplayer game where players can come together to form alliances or go to war instead. The idea of Society is evolving your own society through different time periods. When a player starts a new society, they begin in the Ancient Age and have the ability to evolve, by researching different technologies, and progress to the Modern Age. There are a total of five complete ages, each with their own variety of technologies that can be researched.
Some of the most notable features include:
• An expansive technology tree consisting of over 75 technologies.
• Each Society begins in the Ancient Age and through technology they can move through five different ages including Renaissance, Industrial, and the Modern Age.
• Players can buy and sell resources on a global market which affects the entire game.
• Players can fight each other through the ages with land, naval, and air units. Nuclear warfare and espionage are also available. Conquered your opponent? Occupy their Society with your troops giving economic and production bonuses!
• Society encourages teamwork with other players through the formation of alliances. These alliances can focus on different aspects of play such as warfare or economic dominance.
• Events in your Society are not uncommon and every decision you make has a consequence. Your ethics will determine your Society's future!
• Construct individual buildings within your Society each giving their own unique bonuses and penalties.
• Much more!
Several of these features are still under the works but they should be getting finalized soon. What I’m working on now are the national events/political issues that you as a leader must decide on how your society will respond. Each decision you make will affect your society and determine the future for your people. The goal was to have an event per day, but the way it’s shaping up is that it might be one per week. Here’s an example of one of the events:
Pollution
A dense cloud of smog rests over [nation name]. People have begun to protest and are calling on the government to solve this pollution problem.
•"We are all slowly dying from this poisonous air!" An activist of Clean Air is Only Fair shouts. "All the factories in [nation name] should shut down and stop the problem at its source!"
•"These hippies need to be stopped." Your Production Advisor begins, "We should explore alternatives in manufacturing and find a cleaner method before shutting down. Of course, finding a new method will be expensive, and we'll have to devote some of our production to develop it, but it will be worth it in the end."
•"If you think about it, this is pretty funny." A close political partner exclaims, "These people actually think they are entitled to clean air? We do what is best for the government, not the people. Keep those factories going at maximum production."
If you’re interested, feel free to post your own ideas for events. Yes, you will receive credit in the final product. Just be sure to follow a format similar to the event posted above. Another thing we are sorely lacking is someone who knows PHP to help program the thing. I had made plans to learn the coding myself, but times schedules haven’t been so friendly thus far. If anyone knows how (or knows someone who does) to program in PHP and is interested in helping, please let me know.
That about does it. I’ll be sure to keep updates posted if this receives enough interest.