Developer's Announcement: Galactic Civilization for OS/2 2.1: Difference between revisions
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June 24, 1993 | |||
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Brief: | |||
June 24, 1993 ---- | |||
An OS/2 multithreaded PM game that uses MMPM/2 to generate digitized sounds. Began development early in June. Beta testing begins early this Fall. Game only available on the OS/2 platform. | |||
An OS/2 multithreaded PM game that uses MMPM/2 to generate digitized | |||
sounds. | |||
early this Fall. | |||
Features: | Features: | ||
* Completely 32 bit | *Completely 32 bit | ||
* Multithreaded | *Multithreaded | ||
* SDS/AI (SDS Artificial Intelligence specification .9) | *SDS/AI (SDS Artificial Intelligence specification .9) | ||
* Up to 7 computer players vs. You. | *Up to 7 computer players vs. You. | ||
* Over 1000 different star systems | *Over 1000 different star systems | ||
* Over 8000 different planets to conquer | *Over 8000 different planets to conquer | ||
* SVGA/XGA graphics support, 256 color high resolution. | *SVGA/XGA graphics support, 256 color high resolution. | ||
* Object Oriented interface. | *Object Oriented interface. If you can see it, you can click on it. | ||
---- | |||
In Early June SDS inquired on the Internet Usenet conference of comp.sys.os2.apps about the interest in an OS/2 specific game. SDS had come to the conclusion that OS/2, lacking native entertainment software, might be a viable market now that it had reached critical mass. We expected to receive between 5 and 10 responses that week and would base our decision on that mail. Instead, SDS received over 1000 mail messages in the first 2 weeks and discovered that the message had made its way all over the globe to virtually every major OS/2 BBS in existence. This response prompted SDS to not only pursue this project but to accerlate its development. | |||
This announcement will cover in a fair amount of detail what the game is about, how to make suggestions to changes, how to become a beta tester, pricing information, and availability information. | |||
This message will be cross posted to several well known OS/2 areas by us. If it is not on a conference that you, the reader, think it should be, please feel free to re-post it there. To Fido-Net moderators, please do not consider this off topic, in order to produce this game to the | |||
OS/2 population's liking, we are including (on various FTP and BBS sites) bitmap snap shots of the program. This way, users can send us feedback about the interface as well as the rules and other design mechanics of the game. Before cross posting this message, please be sure that it has not already appeared on that conference since this message is rather long and will take up considerable bandwidth. | |||
==THE GAME== | |||
The game is loosely based on MicroProse's game, Civilization. The game departs from Civilization in most ways but maintains its general | |||
theme: Build up technology, ally with other players or destroy them, keep your people happy. In this game, you begin with your people just beginning to explore space. To make the game more fun, we have taken several factual liberties, namely, you don't know where stars are. The stars appear as you get close to them. You will begin with one little explorer star ship that can't even colonize new worlds. | |||
Your screen is dominated by the map view, which lets you see one "quadrent" at a time. In order to leave a quadrent you must develop "warp" technology. A typical quadrent might hold 5 or so star systems, the game features an 16x16 grid of quadrents, so it is a pretty big galaxy. When you finally build ships capable of transporting a colony, you can enter a star system and colonize the various worlds. | |||
The worlds you can colonize will be pretty easy to tell by looking at them. You can colonize any world you want but the less earth like it | |||
looks, the less you will get out of it in terms of food, resources, and trade. | |||
The key ingredient to success in this game is developing new technologies. For instance, you begin the game with space travel and | |||
technologies. | |||
a few other technologies and are asked what you want to develop next. | a few other technologies and are asked what you want to develop next. | ||
Unlike Civilization, which only allows you to be developing one new | Unlike Civilization, which only allows you to be developing one new technology at once, GalCiv allows you to be working on 4 new technologies | ||
technology at once, GalCiv allows you to be working on 4 new technologies | |||
at once, dividing up your research resources among them however you want. | at once, dividing up your research resources among them however you want. | ||
You can, for example, put 50% of your resources into developing | You can, for example, put 50% of your resources into developing Nano-Electronics, 20% into Phaser tech, 10% into Anti-matter tech, and | ||
Nano-Electronics, 20% into Phaser tech, 10% into Anti-matter tech, and | 10% into photon tech. Some technologies will take longer to develop than others. Developing technologies to make a "death star" will take | ||
10% into photon tech. Some technologies will take longer to develop | |||
than others. | |||
a lot longer than to design a cloaking device. | a lot longer than to design a cloaking device. | ||
to 7 other computer players will be doing the same thing. These computer | While you are busy building colonies and exploring space, up to 7 other computer players will be doing the same thing. These computer | ||
players will be controlled by SDS's AI specification and molded after | players will be controlled by SDS's AI specification and molded after real life strategy experts. Since a lot of the strategy to win is | ||
real life strategy experts. Since a lot of the strategy to win is | similar to the game Civilization, we have chosen to model the AI after people who have literally creamed Civilization. Unfortunately for you, | ||
similar to the game Civilization, we have chosen to model the AI after | no matter how easy you set the difficulty, the computer players will always be smart, they will just have the number of resources available | ||
people who have literally creamed Civilization. Unfortunately for you, | |||
no matter how easy you set the difficulty, the computer players will | |||
always be smart, they will just have the number of resources available | |||
to them limited. | to them limited. | ||
The game is won by either A: Destroying all enemies, or B: Uniting all players into one alliance. There is no time limit to complete the game, the game could literally go on forever if you aren't able to destroy other players or unite them. Because of this, the player has the option to set the size of the universe. The largest it can get is the aforementioned 18x18 area. In a smaller universe, the game will likely end sooner. | |||
If you are not familiar with Civilization, then this next part may be difficult to understand. Feel free to skip it to the next section... | |||
---- | |||
FEATURE SET: | FEATURE SET: | ||
Since this game takes place in the distant future, we assume that | Since this game takes place in the distant future, we assume that all resources are handled optimally. You will be too busy to have | ||
all resources are handled optimally. You will be too busy to have | to deal with making sure your colonies are (for example) using the newly made Energy System you've built (in Civ, you could build a coal | ||
to deal with making sure your colonies are (for example) using the | mine and the game would use a desert area until you manually changed it to the coal mine, this won't happen in this game). | ||
newly made Energy System you've built (in Civ, you could build a coal | |||
mine and the game would use a desert area until you manually changed it | |||
to the coal mine, this won't happen in this game). | |||
The economic system is based more on reality than Civilization. | The economic system is based more on reality than Civilization. In this game you set your tax rate. The higher the tax rate, the more | ||
this game you set your tax rate. The higher the tax rate, the more | irritated your people get. With those taxes you can spend it on research, military or social programs. Mineral resources can be put | ||
irritated your people get. With those taxes you can spend it on | towards your military or colony improvements. This is an added modifier towards the amount of taxes. If you happen to have a lot | ||
research, military or social programs. Mineral resources can be put | of very productive planets, you can lower your taxes spent on the military and social and more towards research. | ||
towards your military or colony improvements. This is an added | |||
modifier towards the amount of taxes. If you happen to have a lot | |||
of very productive planets, you can lower your taxes spent on the | |||
military and social and more towards research. | |||
In summary on this feature: | In summary on this feature: | ||
Line 127: | Line 66: | ||
- Building colony improvements (Social) | - Building colony improvements (Social) | ||
* By the way, our game isn't based on socialist politics, social programs | * By the way, our game isn't based on socialist politics, social programs simply mean that we invest in privately owned companies that would build the colony improvements! | ||
simply mean that we invest in privately owned companies that would build | |||
the colony improvements! | |||
Your star systems also produce resources which can be converted into liquid funds or applied directly towards colony improvements (for the colony that the mineral resources came from) and military units (again, for that particular colony). | |||
into liquid funds or applied directly towards colony improvements (for | |||
the colony that the mineral resources came from) and military units | |||
(again, for that particular colony). | |||
There is no "corruption" in this game or "revolutions" but the higher | There is no "corruption" in this game or "revolutions" but the higher you raise taxes, the less productive your people get and the more | ||
you raise taxes, the less productive your people get and the more | |||
taxes that are lost due to having to fight crime on your colonies. | taxes that are lost due to having to fight crime on your colonies. | ||
===Star Ship Units=== | |||
The following is a preliminary list of star ships. Each empire will have their own unique looking star ships. they aren't color coated, | |||
The following is a preliminary list of star ships. | |||
have their own unique looking star ships. they aren't color coated, | |||
they simply look different. | they simply look different. | ||
Line 165: | Line 96: | ||
* Ground Based Units * | * Ground Based Units * | ||
Ground Troops - Just protect the ground | Ground Troops - Just protect the ground | ||
* Colony Improvements * | * Colony Improvements * | ||
You can improve your colonies' defense, money making potential, happiness, | You can improve your colonies' defense, money making potential, happiness, or productivity by adding improvements. | ||
or productivity by adding improvements. | |||
Planetary library - Increases research, a modifier of the taxes you | Planetary library - Increases research, a modifier of the taxes you put towards new technlogies | ||
Planetary bank - Increases wealth and makes republicans happy! | Planetary bank - Increases wealth and makes republicans happy! | ||
Line 193: | Line 121: | ||
(we want to add more here, please feel free to suggest more to us) | (we want to add more here, please feel free to suggest more to us) | ||
===WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE=== | |||
TerraForming device: | TerraForming device: | ||
basically doubles the trade resources of all its worlds. Very powerful | This is a device that only one empire can have, that empire basically doubles the trade resources of all its worlds. Very powerful | ||
and very expensive to build. Because you can make your worlds a | and very expensive to build. Because you can make your worlds a garden of eden, you will receive a lot more trade income. | ||
garden of eden, you will receive a lot more trade income. | |||
Hydroponics Lab: | Hydroponics Lab: | ||
on that colony always have enough food keep them happy. | One empire will be able to build a lab that will make everyone on that colony always have enough food keep them happy. | ||
The Cloaking Device: | The Cloaking Device: | ||
points. | Whoever develops this first will receive increased offensive points. | ||
Dinosaurus Park: | Dinosaurus Park: | ||
Doubles trade to that colony. Bring back the dinosours. | |||
"Chicago": | "Chicago": | ||
get the next closest technology free because while everyone else was | Build a mythical operating system that allows you to automatically get the next closest technology free because while everyone else was | ||
wasting time waiting for this to get done, you were busy getting real | wasting time waiting for this to get done, you were busy getting real research done. | ||
research done. | |||
Deep Thought: | Deep Thought: | ||
Build the ultimate super computer. Doubles research in colony. | |||
The Death Star Project: | The Death Star Project: | ||
Must complete this before you can build death stars (PLURAL). | |||
Creation of Life: | Creation of Life: | ||
Makes everyone a bit happier. | |||
(We need more...please send suggestions if you have any for more wonders | (We need more...please send suggestions if you have any for more wonders of the universe). | ||
of the universe). | |||
---- | |||
===Government Types=== | |||
Government types are very important to the game. You start out as a simple colonizer and work your way to having a federation. | |||
Colonizer: | |||
You can only collect taxes from your home planet, but then again, you don't have to worry about how unhappy your colonies are. You | |||
can still build things with your colonies (except star ships) but collect no money, unless you trade your resources into money (which means you can potentially get a moderate income from colonies). | |||
you don't have to worry about how unhappy your colonies are. You | |||
can still build things with your colonies (except star ships) but collect no money, unless | |||
you trade your resources into money (which means you can potentially | |||
get a moderate income from colonies). | |||
Star Empire: | Star Empire: | ||
build star ships on your colonies. | You can collect taxes from your colonies but you still can't build star ships on your colonies. | ||
Star Democracy: | Star Democracy: | ||
can build ships. | You recognize your colonies to be states and collect taxes and can build ships. | ||
Star Federation: | Star Federation: | ||
Same as above but your trade resources are doubled. Downfall is, people get unhappy a lot easier. | |||
==List of Discoveries== | |||
Nano-Electronics | Nano-Electronics | ||
Phasers: Allows star fighters and star cruisers | Phasers: Allows star fighters and star cruisers | ||
Line 295: | Line 217: | ||
(if you can think of more, please tell us). | (if you can think of more, please tell us). | ||
Special Features: | Special Features: | ||
Unlike Civilization, ships and death stars take damage. You can keep | Unlike Civilization, ships and death stars take damage. You can keep attacking a battle ship and if that battle ship is far away from a home | ||
attacking a battle ship and if that battle ship is far away from a home | port it will eventually be destroyed. Also unlike civilization, if a attacker is far less powerful than the defender, the attacker | ||
port it will eventually be destroyed. Also unlike civilization, | will ALWAYS lose. A star fighter will NEVER single handedly destroy a death star. It may damage it some but NEVER will it just destroy it. | ||
if a attacker is far less powerful than the defender, the attacker | |||
will ALWAYS lose. A star fighter will NEVER single handedly destroy | |||
a death star. It may damage it some but NEVER will it just destroy it. | |||
You can form alliances with other powers. | You can form alliances with other powers. Alliances mean that if someone attacks you, the other members of the alliance will attack them. | ||
attacks you, the other members of the alliance will attack them. | |||
The economics of the game is very important. | The economics of the game is very important. You can trade with other races and get a lot of income. But if you are at war, you will receive | ||
races and get a lot of income. | NO money from star systems that belong to the enemy. Even if you have a small military, if you are a large economic power, people will | ||
NO money from star systems that belong to the enemy. | |||
have a small military, if you are a large economic power, people will | |||
think twice before going to war with you. | think twice before going to war with you. | ||
Line 317: | Line 232: | ||
The aformentioned trade. | The aformentioned trade. | ||
Taxation | Taxation | ||
Tourism. For every quadrent you control, you will get some | Tourism. For every quadrent you control, you will get some tourism money from it. | ||
To control a quadrent, the sum of your star system's power must be greater than the enemy players' star systems' power. | |||
*Enemy Players************************ | *Enemy Players************************ | ||
Line 332: | Line 245: | ||
The Orcors | The Orcors | ||
---- | |||
Availability: | |||
The game is still early in development, but we are a couple weeks ahead of schedule. The September beta may have sound support in it but it will not have the enemy players in it. You will be able to play it in completeness but there won't be anyone to play against (so it won't be very fun). Next winter a feature complete version should be almost done and ready to be tested by a limited beta audience. Next Spring the finished product should be ready. | |||
The game is still early in development, but we are a couple weeks ahead | |||
of schedule. | |||
will not have the enemy players in it. | |||
in completeness but there won't be anyone to play against (so it | |||
won't be very fun). | |||
be almost done and ready to be tested by a limited beta audience. | |||
Next Spring the finished product should be ready. | |||
Beta users will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with SDS. | Beta users will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with SDS. | ||
Line 355: | Line 262: | ||
A mouse | A mouse | ||
Features not in v1.0 but in 2.0 (if the game is successful, a sequel will | Features not in v1.0 but in 2.0 (if the game is successful, a sequel will probably be made). | ||
probably be made). | |||
THESE FEATURES WILL NOT BE IN THE FIRST VERSION: | THESE FEATURES WILL NOT BE IN THE FIRST VERSION: | ||
Line 363: | Line 269: | ||
- No editors | - No editors | ||
---- | |||
About the Bitmap snap shots: | About the Bitmap snap shots: | ||
The screens show some of the early featurs (not polished yet) and | The screens show some of the early featurs (not polished yet) and show what a battle ship will look like. One screen shows how the game will begin with no discovered stars. The final product will look somewhat different. For example, the starfleet icon will not be there since it is trademarked. | ||
show what a battle ship will look like. | |||
game will begin with no discovered stars. | |||
look somewhat different. | |||
be there since it is trademarked. | |||
If you have questions, please send email to: | If you have questions, please send email to: | ||
Line 380: | Line 281: | ||
On OS2BBS: Brad Wardell | On OS2BBS: Brad Wardell | ||
On the | On the Atlanta IBMBBS: Brad Wardell | ||
Note. No support will be at locations | Note. No support will be at locations requiring a fee (i.e. compuserve). | ||
---- | |||
Conclusions: | Conclusions: | ||
We believe that this is probably the first commercial OS/2 game, and hope that it sells well. It is more than just a game, it is advocacy for future software development for OS/2. How well it does will depend on how well we market it and how responsive the OS/2 community is to it. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to make them to us. | |||
and hope that it sells well. | |||
advocacy for future software development for OS/2. | |||
will depend on how well we market it and how responsive the OS/2 community | |||
is to it. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to make them | |||
to us. | |||
==Images== | ==Images== |
Revision as of 04:57, 2 November 2019
June 24, 1993
Brief:
An OS/2 multithreaded PM game that uses MMPM/2 to generate digitized sounds. Began development early in June. Beta testing begins early this Fall. Game only available on the OS/2 platform.
Features:
- Completely 32 bit
- Multithreaded
- SDS/AI (SDS Artificial Intelligence specification .9)
- Up to 7 computer players vs. You.
- Over 1000 different star systems
- Over 8000 different planets to conquer
- SVGA/XGA graphics support, 256 color high resolution.
- Object Oriented interface. If you can see it, you can click on it.
In Early June SDS inquired on the Internet Usenet conference of comp.sys.os2.apps about the interest in an OS/2 specific game. SDS had come to the conclusion that OS/2, lacking native entertainment software, might be a viable market now that it had reached critical mass. We expected to receive between 5 and 10 responses that week and would base our decision on that mail. Instead, SDS received over 1000 mail messages in the first 2 weeks and discovered that the message had made its way all over the globe to virtually every major OS/2 BBS in existence. This response prompted SDS to not only pursue this project but to accerlate its development.
This announcement will cover in a fair amount of detail what the game is about, how to make suggestions to changes, how to become a beta tester, pricing information, and availability information.
This message will be cross posted to several well known OS/2 areas by us. If it is not on a conference that you, the reader, think it should be, please feel free to re-post it there. To Fido-Net moderators, please do not consider this off topic, in order to produce this game to the OS/2 population's liking, we are including (on various FTP and BBS sites) bitmap snap shots of the program. This way, users can send us feedback about the interface as well as the rules and other design mechanics of the game. Before cross posting this message, please be sure that it has not already appeared on that conference since this message is rather long and will take up considerable bandwidth.
THE GAME
The game is loosely based on MicroProse's game, Civilization. The game departs from Civilization in most ways but maintains its general theme: Build up technology, ally with other players or destroy them, keep your people happy. In this game, you begin with your people just beginning to explore space. To make the game more fun, we have taken several factual liberties, namely, you don't know where stars are. The stars appear as you get close to them. You will begin with one little explorer star ship that can't even colonize new worlds.
Your screen is dominated by the map view, which lets you see one "quadrent" at a time. In order to leave a quadrent you must develop "warp" technology. A typical quadrent might hold 5 or so star systems, the game features an 16x16 grid of quadrents, so it is a pretty big galaxy. When you finally build ships capable of transporting a colony, you can enter a star system and colonize the various worlds. The worlds you can colonize will be pretty easy to tell by looking at them. You can colonize any world you want but the less earth like it looks, the less you will get out of it in terms of food, resources, and trade.
The key ingredient to success in this game is developing new technologies. For instance, you begin the game with space travel and a few other technologies and are asked what you want to develop next. Unlike Civilization, which only allows you to be developing one new technology at once, GalCiv allows you to be working on 4 new technologies at once, dividing up your research resources among them however you want. You can, for example, put 50% of your resources into developing Nano-Electronics, 20% into Phaser tech, 10% into Anti-matter tech, and 10% into photon tech. Some technologies will take longer to develop than others. Developing technologies to make a "death star" will take a lot longer than to design a cloaking device.
While you are busy building colonies and exploring space, up to 7 other computer players will be doing the same thing. These computer players will be controlled by SDS's AI specification and molded after real life strategy experts. Since a lot of the strategy to win is similar to the game Civilization, we have chosen to model the AI after people who have literally creamed Civilization. Unfortunately for you, no matter how easy you set the difficulty, the computer players will always be smart, they will just have the number of resources available to them limited.
The game is won by either A: Destroying all enemies, or B: Uniting all players into one alliance. There is no time limit to complete the game, the game could literally go on forever if you aren't able to destroy other players or unite them. Because of this, the player has the option to set the size of the universe. The largest it can get is the aforementioned 18x18 area. In a smaller universe, the game will likely end sooner.
If you are not familiar with Civilization, then this next part may be difficult to understand. Feel free to skip it to the next section...
FEATURE SET:
Since this game takes place in the distant future, we assume that all resources are handled optimally. You will be too busy to have to deal with making sure your colonies are (for example) using the newly made Energy System you've built (in Civ, you could build a coal mine and the game would use a desert area until you manually changed it to the coal mine, this won't happen in this game).
The economic system is based more on reality than Civilization. In this game you set your tax rate. The higher the tax rate, the more irritated your people get. With those taxes you can spend it on research, military or social programs. Mineral resources can be put towards your military or colony improvements. This is an added modifier towards the amount of taxes. If you happen to have a lot of very productive planets, you can lower your taxes spent on the military and social and more towards research.
In summary on this feature: Your taxes go towards: - Research of new technologies - Building your military might - Building colony improvements (Social)
- By the way, our game isn't based on socialist politics, social programs simply mean that we invest in privately owned companies that would build the colony improvements!
Your star systems also produce resources which can be converted into liquid funds or applied directly towards colony improvements (for the colony that the mineral resources came from) and military units (again, for that particular colony).
There is no "corruption" in this game or "revolutions" but the higher you raise taxes, the less productive your people get and the more taxes that are lost due to having to fight crime on your colonies.
Star Ship Units
The following is a preliminary list of star ships. Each empire will have their own unique looking star ships. they aren't color coated, they simply look different.
Planet Explorer - Explores your quadrent, no warp drive Star Fighters - Can attack others, no warp drive Colony Wagon - Can colonize star systems, no warp drive Interstellar Colony Wag - " ", has warp drive Star Cruiser - Explores everywhere, has warp drive, limited arms Battle Cruiser - " " better arms Battle Ship - """" also has hyperspace, very tough Military Transport - Transports troops. Can invade other colonies Sensor Array - Just hangs around in a quadrent, required if you want to be able to look in that quadrent (when you don't have a star ship in it).
Death Moon - Can destroy ships easily, no warp drive Death Star - " and star systems, has warp drive very tough. Diplomatic Cruiser - Can make treaties with other star nations. Tradeships - Allow interstellar trade (major part of game)
- Ground Based Units *
Ground Troops - Just protect the ground
- Colony Improvements *
You can improve your colonies' defense, money making potential, happiness, or productivity by adding improvements.
Planetary library - Increases research, a modifier of the taxes you put towards new technlogies
Planetary bank - Increases wealth and makes republicans happy!
Fusion based manf. plant- Increases productivity
Planetary Defense - Improves your defenses
Military Accademy - "
Food Replicators - Lets your population increase faster
Research Institute - Really improves your research modifier
Stadium - Makes people happy
Multimedia stations - Makes people happy
(we want to add more here, please feel free to suggest more to us)
WONDERS OF THE UNIVERSE
TerraForming device:
This is a device that only one empire can have, that empire basically doubles the trade resources of all its worlds. Very powerful and very expensive to build. Because you can make your worlds a garden of eden, you will receive a lot more trade income.
Hydroponics Lab:
One empire will be able to build a lab that will make everyone on that colony always have enough food keep them happy.
The Cloaking Device:
Whoever develops this first will receive increased offensive points.
Dinosaurus Park:
Doubles trade to that colony. Bring back the dinosours.
"Chicago":
Build a mythical operating system that allows you to automatically get the next closest technology free because while everyone else was wasting time waiting for this to get done, you were busy getting real research done.
Deep Thought:
Build the ultimate super computer. Doubles research in colony.
The Death Star Project:
Must complete this before you can build death stars (PLURAL).
Creation of Life:
Makes everyone a bit happier.
(We need more...please send suggestions if you have any for more wonders of the universe).
Government Types
Government types are very important to the game. You start out as a simple colonizer and work your way to having a federation.
Colonizer:
You can only collect taxes from your home planet, but then again, you don't have to worry about how unhappy your colonies are. You can still build things with your colonies (except star ships) but collect no money, unless you trade your resources into money (which means you can potentially get a moderate income from colonies).
Star Empire:
You can collect taxes from your colonies but you still can't build star ships on your colonies.
Star Democracy:
You recognize your colonies to be states and collect taxes and can build ships.
Star Federation:
Same as above but your trade resources are doubled. Downfall is, people get unhappy a lot easier.
List of Discoveries
Nano-Electronics Phasers: Allows star fighters and star cruisers Anti-matter Photons Deflectors TurboLasers Allows battle cruiser instant communications tractor beams universal translotor Super-Metals Warp drive Allows you to leave the quadrent Transporters Anti-matter weapons robot fighters long range sensors planetary defense Cloaking Atmosphere Traversal Super Lasers Allows battle ships Intergalactic Diplomacy Allows you to make alliances Largescale building Civilian Interplanetary transport Hyperspace Mass food Molecular Reconstruction Molecular Medicine Star Democracy Star Federation Artificial Satellite (moon) Death Moon Death Star
(if you can think of more, please tell us).
Special Features:
Unlike Civilization, ships and death stars take damage. You can keep attacking a battle ship and if that battle ship is far away from a home port it will eventually be destroyed. Also unlike civilization, if a attacker is far less powerful than the defender, the attacker will ALWAYS lose. A star fighter will NEVER single handedly destroy a death star. It may damage it some but NEVER will it just destroy it.
You can form alliances with other powers. Alliances mean that if someone attacks you, the other members of the alliance will attack them.
The economics of the game is very important. You can trade with other races and get a lot of income. But if you are at war, you will receive NO money from star systems that belong to the enemy. Even if you have a small military, if you are a large economic power, people will think twice before going to war with you.
You receive money in 3 ways: The aformentioned trade. Taxation Tourism. For every quadrent you control, you will get some tourism money from it.
To control a quadrent, the sum of your star system's power must be greater than the enemy players' star systems' power.
- Enemy Players************************
THE BORG The NTers The Altarians The Cylonians The Empire The Drengi The Orcors
Availability:
The game is still early in development, but we are a couple weeks ahead of schedule. The September beta may have sound support in it but it will not have the enemy players in it. You will be able to play it in completeness but there won't be anyone to play against (so it won't be very fun). Next winter a feature complete version should be almost done and ready to be tested by a limited beta audience. Next Spring the finished product should be ready.
Beta users will be required to sign a non-disclosure agreement with SDS.
The cost of the game will be between $28 to $35.
Requirements:
OS/2 2.1 8 megabytes of memory VGA or better, SVGA or better highly recommended (16 colors will look terrible) 4 to 8 megs of disk space. A mouse
Features not in v1.0 but in 2.0 (if the game is successful, a sequel will probably be made).
THESE FEATURES WILL NOT BE IN THE FIRST VERSION: - No modem play - No network awareness - No editors
About the Bitmap snap shots:
The screens show some of the early featurs (not polished yet) and show what a battle ship will look like. One screen shows how the game will begin with no discovered stars. The final product will look somewhat different. For example, the starfleet icon will not be there since it is trademarked.
If you have questions, please send email to:
Internet: x90wardell@wmich.edu
On OS2BBS: Brad Wardell
On the Atlanta IBMBBS: Brad Wardell
Note. No support will be at locations requiring a fee (i.e. compuserve).
Conclusions:
We believe that this is probably the first commercial OS/2 game, and hope that it sells well. It is more than just a game, it is advocacy for future software development for OS/2. How well it does will depend on how well we market it and how responsive the OS/2 community is to it. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to make them to us.