GameStrafe Browsergame Nations Development

[TheGnome]

Simon and I have been working closely together on developing GameStrafe's own web browser game similar to CN. We have developed a interface to our liking and want to share with you all for any input you may have. Keep in mind that these are rough drafts. Click for larger image.

Politics Screen


Overview Screen


Military Screen


Messages Screen


Infrastructure Screen


Economics Screen


Trade Screen


Research Screen

[Simon Moon]

I like it. Any input from anyone about this?

[Krewsader]

Nice... looks more involved then CN. But how is the day messured? In CN its messured by each actual day but since we said we wouldn't do it based on actual 24 hours, are we going to have in game world clock or somthing like it?

[TheGnome]

We are gonna base it on six hour intervals. Every six hours, the player will get income. You can see the timer (wrong digits) in the Quickview bar on the top of each page with a little clock icon next to it. The timer will be in real time allowing you to work around it's schedule.

[Simon Moon]

This also means that taxes and bills stack up mind you

Here an alternative for the menu. We are not sure how to do them right yet

[Krewsader]

Maybe combine both your menus... have Simons dark text color and then when its selected have gnomes bright blue

[Simon Moon]

Nations

Made an HTML mockup. anyone wanting to screw around with the images is welcome. Let me know and I give you the link for the PSD to download. Until someone brings something better, I run with this

We don't need no signup process or anything like that since thats all handled through the forums. So I will make a small create a nation thing first and the login, to see if i can make this thing go somewhere

What we need the most now is more concrete data. Say a definitive list of resources to start out with.

[n00bf00d]

Dude, this looks pretty sick! Keep at it, and we may have our very own browser game yet!

[Simon Moon]

It actually is not that hard. Most of it is childs play. What will be harder is getting it to play well. The balances will be highly important.

[BMHo]

You guys are hardcore, keep up the good work!

[Timmy_theHat]

Six hour intervals is much better than 24 hour ones. I always knew you had it in you Gnomester.

[ArgonV]

Gnome, where the hell did you get that Pig Latin? I'm no Latin scholar, but I can't really make heads or tails of it

Simon's mock up looks good. I'm just still wondering, is war the only way or can you get stronger by diplomacy or tech as well? Of course you're going to have to buy and maintain a military, but I was wondering if you could go the easy way and just buy lots and lots of soldiers, tanks and jets or that you can research a lot and then build soldiers that are 3x times as good, tanks that are 5x as strong and dig in using your advanced tech, in case you're not that much of a war monger but more of a nation builder? Of course there'd be an attack penalty if you're all dug in and decide to attack.

Another thing I think needs a change from CN is the aid system. Instead of giving a maximum of amounts of aid you can send, but not to certain number of people.
What I mean is this: Say you can send a maximum of 12 million credits (among other things) every 10 days, you could send 2 people 6 million, or 12 people 1 million.

Ok, maybe an upper limit of 15 simultaneous aid packages, but still

[Simon Moon]

Lorem Ipsum - All the facts - Lipsum generator thats where this piglatin is from. Neat online generator.

We can do all that and more. But I need to get a first version online. At first it wont even be a game

[painmaker]

Lorem ipsum isnt a language, its a filler they used to use reallllly long ago.

[ArgonV]

Ah, so that's what it is I thought it sounded vaguely familiar, I had to translate Cicero on my high school exams

I was thinking, a friend of mine is an avid Utopia (another browsergame) player. In that game, you're part of a kingdom. As a kingdom, the monarch can set a kingdom stance, aggresive, peaceful or fortified, providing certain bonuses and penalties for the entire kingdom.

Now I'm not saying we should implement kingdoms like in that game, but I do think the stances might be useful.
Like you could set your country to Construction and get growth bonuses, but research and war penalties. Conflict would increase attack, defense and military research, but damage economy and growth. Peaceful would increase growth and trade revenues (?), but your military would cost more to maintain and is less effective. You know, stuff like that.

In Utopia there are races as well. Dwarves are good at building, but bad at magic. Elves are good at magic, but suck at growth. Undead can fight like the best, but their research sucks. Maybe we can implement alignments, like Researchers get a tech bonus, but can't fight wars. Diplomats would have increased trade, but their building skills suck.

And maybe alliances should be more of a commitment. In CN, you join an alliance and just hope they'll stick their neck out for you. Sure, they might, but maybe they won't. Why not make it on our game so that if you're in an alliance and a member gets attacked, you allies' troops help defend. Something like 20% of their troops or 20% equivalence to your troops, whichever is less, to protect large losses for small countries or enormous troop deployments by large countries if a small ally gets attacked.
And ofcourse maybe some research bonusses (research pool) and trade bonusses (inter-alliance trade routes) as well.

I dunno, just throwing things out there

Oh, and if there's anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask. Just not sure what I could do