No action on most turns

[guillaume-alvarez]

In game current state nothing (except for influence spread) happens on most of the turns. In a turn-based game it is boring not to have actions to make at every turn. Consequences from previous actions would be fun too.

On the discovery mechanism, maybe instead of selecting a discovery and waiting for it to end the player could select every turn a direction in which to investigate. It would have a change to cause a new discovery, or nothing may happen (or previous discoveries may be reinforced).

The policy mechanism effectively permits to make choices, but once done there is little incentive to modify them. Maybe the player could be asked to choose a policy type+discovery every few turns, with an incentive not to re-use the same old policy.

An other idea would be to have an event every turn, the kind of event being selected randomly from the different stats of the player (depending on discoveries and policies).

Having the possibility to create armies from start would also provide something to do to player. Maybe the cities could move slower (and on greater distances) with an obligation to get as far as they can until they settle and the armies could move faster (1 tile per turn).

[baaleze]

Having more to do in the first turns is a good idea, but this should not happen for the full game. In the late game more things will happen, and too much to do each turn can be annoying.

Changing policies often or choosing a direction every few turn, I don't know... Maybe some players will not want to change their goals too often. It seems like something that would force the player to play some way or some other.

I like way more the random events, because it's something the player should react, not something the game told the player to do.

Creating armies soon enough could be cool too.

[guillaume-alvarez]

I think a good balance would be 1 or 2 actions to perform or events per turn. More would quickly feel overwhelming, less is boring.

As for random events, I was not thinking of them as decisions to be made (like in CK for instance) but as consequences from player past choices. You favored growth ? you also increased the chance for an epidemy. You favored stability ? You also increased chance for a neighbor to sign a treaty with you.

Random events with direct choices (our people are angry, should we pay them more or send the army ?) can only work if the game is fun without them, if the player is already hooked in the game. Or they aren't random but the standard way the game asks the player to make a choice (instead of going to a menu and selecting a thing).

[guillaume-alvarez]

Currently the game let the player do some actions when he wants. Maybe the game should propose 1-2 actions/choices per turn (selected pseudo-randomly from the empire stats and situation). It would mean the game pace would follow the player instead of making the player follow the game.

For instance discoveries would not take some time but when a discovery action is selected the palyer could make a new one.

[guillaume-alvarez]

There is another way to think about it: the goal is to tell the story of a culture, a civilization, an empire. This story is created and delivered via player choices and events that

• are logical (but not deterministic) consequences of these choices according to a chaotic simulation
• ask for other choices from the player

In a tactical/strategical game with strong player control the events are obvious consequences and are not really part of the story, they were already included in the original player choice. Here the system should be sufficiently obscure that choices do not have obvious consequences. Thus events have a greater impact and must be given the importance they deserve in the game.

Technically speaking, every turn:

• new possible events are added to the possible list for every empire
• every possible event gets a score depending on empire stats
• a few are randomly selected (higher score => higher chance) and presented to the player
• the ones that are not chosen are kept for next turn (not sure if score should be increased or re-computed every turn)

Some possible events:

• make a discovery!
  • choose among 3 choices as of now
• our people revolt!
  • let them establish a new settlement (as of now)
  • lose source power (as of now when cannot find a suitable tile)
• disease!
  • lose power (as of now)
  • lose tiles
• [conflict source with neighbor]
  • make treaty
  • declare war
• fields are barren this year
  • must move the tribe on the map to a tile outside our current territory
• our army is sleeping
  • must move an army on the map

[guillaume-alvarez]

Other idea : do not expand automatically but let the player choose the tile to expand to each turn. The cost to expand would depend on the tile terrain and his discoveries.

It would even be possible to let the player spend power points (depending on the number of tiles or capital size and discoveries) on expansion, growth or discoveries.