Tech Victory

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labgnome
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Tech Victory

#1 Post by labgnome »

As I've been thinking about making major changes to the tech tree, I've also been thinking about the different existing and possible victory conditions for Free Orion. Namely the tech victory, which I've though about in detail before. With that in mind I wanted to share my thought and start discussion on what a technology victory should look like, and more importantly should do.

First, lets talk about what it shouldn't do:
  • Nothing: as it currently stands, and in many games, the tech victory doesn't really do anything, and this feels like "cheating".
  • Control the Board: it should not give some ultimate weapon, or ultimate influence tool that makes the "real" victory something else.
  • Force Interaction: the tech victory should not force the player to compete or cooperate with any other player.
Honestly I find going though a tech tree an enjoyable part of many 4X games, so for me it, like conquest, is it's own reward. However I do understand and share the sense of frustration that it doesn't "do" anything. Players should be properly rewarded for going though an expansive technology tree, and not just with potential cool toys they pick up along the way.

Now let's talk about what it should do:
  • Reward for Theory: you have to go though a lot of techs that don't give an immediate reward to the player, except getting them closer to transcendence.
  • Remove the Player: either literally or effectively. You have now progressed to another level of existence, the rest of the galaxy is beneath you.
To ensure a balanced game the tech victory should offer a challenge, and should not allow the player to outproduce, outgun or outinfluience the other players just because they are heading for the tech victory. On the way there you should be vulnerable to any player enemies, and forced to divert resources away from getting to the end-goal. The different victory conditions should be meaningful choices. Also reaching a "higher" level of existence should mean that you no longer interact with the world in the same way, and thus aren't "part of the game" like you were before. I also like the idea of a post-singularity land-rush for the other players.

Here are some things I would like to see:
  • Something Left Behind: with the player now gone, there should be signs of their former greatness.
  • Omniscience: should you not walk away, complete awareness of the galaxy is a fitting reward.
One of the thoughts I've had on transcendence is that it represents reaching the "same level" as the precursor civilizations. So have a portion of your former planets get something like the "Ancient Ruins" or "Abandoned Colony" specials, or nay native homeworlds getting the "Moderate" or "High Tech Natives" specials seems like a nice fit for a post-singularity effect. Likewise if you want to stick around, you should effectively be able to do so as an observer: looking down on the primitive civilizations who once shared your galaxy as they scramble for the crumbs you left behind.

Scenario:
Singularity of Transcendence Victory
Upon reaching the Singularity of Transcendence, your population leaves this entire plane of existence for a better one. All your ships disappear. Outposts become unowned. They get the abandoned colony, ancient ruins or monster nests specials randomly applied. Homeworlds get their populations set to 1 and become unowned, and get the ancient ruins, moderate tech or advanced tech specials applied randomly. The appropriate guardians should also be spawned.

However I can see some possible variations on this:
Variation 1:
All colonies (at least without existing specials) get a simmilar effect to outposts, but with random growth specials instead of monster nests.

Variation 2:
This would be predicated to a major modification to the tech tree, that would remove the "construction" requirement and replace it with an "intelligence" requirement, thus putting the stealth techs in-line with the tech victory. Colony planets would disappear, being pulled completely into the void. This may or may not depend on the presence of specials on the planets. IE: planets with certain specials might get the treatment of the first option.

However one thing I am not certain is if I want the removal to be literal and figurative.
Literal Removal:
If a planet has the Imperial Palace, it's population gets set to zero and randomly gets the panopticon, honeycomb or fortress special applied to it. Possibly also having all of its starlanes severed: so anyone trying to get it has to use a starlane bore.

Effective Removal:
Your capitol remains, but all the starlanes are severed, and it is granted a defensive and/or stealth boost that make it impossible for another player to successfully attack, even if they do have a starlane bore to get to you. Your ability to colonize (outside of your capital-system), bombard and invade would be removed. Really producing ships would be predicated if you staying around was a prelude for something like a Precursor invasion (Unifiers or Final Ones), in which case you should get a substantial bonus to ship structure or the ability to "summon" a guardian so you can be a *valuable ally.

I have a couple of other "effective removal" concepts, but they're quite a bit more complex.

*I'm thinking something along the lines of Ivanova's First One's roundup form Babylon 5.
All of my contributions should be considered released under creative commons attribution share-alike license, CC-BY-SA 3.0 for use in, by and with the Free Orion project.

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Tech Victory

#2 Post by Geoff the Medio »


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labgnome
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Re: Tech Victory

#3 Post by labgnome »

Geoff the Medio wrote:Recent similar thread: http://www.freeorion.org/forum/viewtopi ... 15&t=10113
I somehow missed that thread when I came back. Anyway this post was meant to pair with my other one, basically getting people thinking about other victory conditions.
All of my contributions should be considered released under creative commons attribution share-alike license, CC-BY-SA 3.0 for use in, by and with the Free Orion project.

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