My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
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- Kassiopeija
- Dyson Forest
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My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
Every good game has one, so at one point in time FO needs one as well Let me just point out a few things that may be accomplished with it:
- Introduce new players how to play the game, mostly by progressively introducing technologies.
- Deliver interesting background stories to all the races that take part in the campaign, with their fates perhaps even set interactively changing in respect of how maps ultimately play out.
- Perhaps being able to shape your chosen race by the evolution it undergoes as it adapts to the campaign. This could be even implemented in a retroactive style, like "Pre-Industrialized Start" where you basically build up the strength & traits of your starting race on their native world until they have enough requisites to become a spacefaring civilization. (that sounds now like a minigame in itself, but it could be easy implemented by generating the map not in space but with a planetary outlay with the nodes being just islands in a sea)
But once you leash out in space you start at a relatively tiny map, with a severely restricted technology tree, so new players won't get lost into stuff that's basically irrelevant/overkill for that map.
Every map could come off with unique victory conditions in itself - for example, colonize/inhabitate a specific planet/system; defeat/ally specific races/empires, research a specific tech, construct a specific building, you name it
Once victory is achieved the player is taken to the bigger galactic overview to select the target of his next expansion. The choice would be kinda limited in the beginning but this will change as the empire subseqently gains in terrain & technology.
Every map will permit you to find new technologies which are then added to the techtree & these findings can be used from that point onwards. This means, that there are maps which may not be conquerably (or only very hard to) if you lack some specific techs. And because a player is free to choose his path [more or less, a good campaign wouldn't implement such trappings early on but as a method to increase difficulty later on] this kind of randomizes to a decree how the global universe will or can be ultimately played out.
Ofc you cannot jump at a new galaxy with your current strength - the sheer distances may only allow a few basic requirements in order to build a base on a suitable planet. As the game successfully continues this ability could increase to lead to Accelerated Starts, so a player doesn't have to play through the same start but also swiftly learn how to use midgame & endgame techs. Ofc the opponent empires gain these starts as well as do natives become increasingly resistant.
I've yet no clue how such a scenario could be finally be played out. The military battle of a complete colonized galaxy versus another would surely be dull & system-wrecking. Perhaps there could be a quest that is inherent to the story, like the universe is dying, you need to find (and fight your way through) the wormhole to the next universe to ensure the survival of your race - legend has it it lies somewhere in the distant Orion sector but mysteriously noone ever reported back from there^^
- Introduce new players how to play the game, mostly by progressively introducing technologies.
- Deliver interesting background stories to all the races that take part in the campaign, with their fates perhaps even set interactively changing in respect of how maps ultimately play out.
- Perhaps being able to shape your chosen race by the evolution it undergoes as it adapts to the campaign. This could be even implemented in a retroactive style, like "Pre-Industrialized Start" where you basically build up the strength & traits of your starting race on their native world until they have enough requisites to become a spacefaring civilization. (that sounds now like a minigame in itself, but it could be easy implemented by generating the map not in space but with a planetary outlay with the nodes being just islands in a sea)
But once you leash out in space you start at a relatively tiny map, with a severely restricted technology tree, so new players won't get lost into stuff that's basically irrelevant/overkill for that map.
Every map could come off with unique victory conditions in itself - for example, colonize/inhabitate a specific planet/system; defeat/ally specific races/empires, research a specific tech, construct a specific building, you name it
Once victory is achieved the player is taken to the bigger galactic overview to select the target of his next expansion. The choice would be kinda limited in the beginning but this will change as the empire subseqently gains in terrain & technology.
Every map will permit you to find new technologies which are then added to the techtree & these findings can be used from that point onwards. This means, that there are maps which may not be conquerably (or only very hard to) if you lack some specific techs. And because a player is free to choose his path [more or less, a good campaign wouldn't implement such trappings early on but as a method to increase difficulty later on] this kind of randomizes to a decree how the global universe will or can be ultimately played out.
Ofc you cannot jump at a new galaxy with your current strength - the sheer distances may only allow a few basic requirements in order to build a base on a suitable planet. As the game successfully continues this ability could increase to lead to Accelerated Starts, so a player doesn't have to play through the same start but also swiftly learn how to use midgame & endgame techs. Ofc the opponent empires gain these starts as well as do natives become increasingly resistant.
I've yet no clue how such a scenario could be finally be played out. The military battle of a complete colonized galaxy versus another would surely be dull & system-wrecking. Perhaps there could be a quest that is inherent to the story, like the universe is dying, you need to find (and fight your way through) the wormhole to the next universe to ensure the survival of your race - legend has it it lies somewhere in the distant Orion sector but mysteriously noone ever reported back from there^^
Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
hm,
this is a good idea, but I think every freeorion game is campaign
Each race already have interesting background story in their pedia pages, who whants to know more about specific race can read it!
But custom race is nice, and probably should and will be implemented at some point.
In general, campaign at this point of development (changes of techs and concepts at weekly basis) is too mach to expect, not just to program it, but also to keep it updated with constant changes introduced in game.
Keep your hopes up!
Cheers!
this is a good idea, but I think every freeorion game is campaign
This should be made as tutorial, and that is what this game really needs!- Introduce new players how to play the game, mostly by progressively introducing technologies.
Nice, but for me probably too much text to read (or lot of continue, continue, next, next clicks). Maybe if we could keep it short enough... Does enybody read those in other games that have it? Making videos or something more interesting than text is really unrealistic at this point.- Deliver interesting background stories to all the races that take part in the campaign, with their fates perhaps even set interactively changing in respect of how maps ultimately play out.
Each race already have interesting background story in their pedia pages, who whants to know more about specific race can read it!
I don't know what to say to that, new graphics, new technology tree, new game? It may be some civilization clone based on freeorion? Just fork FO and change all graphics and text and make it civ game- Perhaps being able to shape your chosen race by the evolution it undergoes as it adapts to the campaign. This could be even implemented in a retroactive style, like "Pre-Industrialized Start" where you basically build up the strength & traits of your starting race on their native world until they have enough requisites to become a spacefaring civilization. (that sounds now like a minigame in itself, but it could be easy implemented by generating the map not in space but with a planetary outlay with the nodes being just islands in a sea)
But custom race is nice, and probably should and will be implemented at some point.
In general, campaign at this point of development (changes of techs and concepts at weekly basis) is too mach to expect, not just to program it, but also to keep it updated with constant changes introduced in game.
Keep your hopes up!
Cheers!
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- Juggernaut
- Posts: 854
- Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 6:15 pm
Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
I don't remember this from when it was originally posted, although I probably read it then. I don't really understand the gist. What is a "campaign"? I can't tell if this is some sort of recruitment drive, supplementary guidance materials, or substantial changes to the game structure.
Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
I also don't remember it at all, which is weird.defaultuser wrote:I don't remember this from when it was originally posted, although I probably read it then.
Campaigns in strategy games have been fairly common, think of it as the "story bit" of games like Starcraft or Heroes of Might and Magic: you get a degree of control but it's initially very limited and it's designed to get you going with basic level stuff and a lot of advanced choices are locked off, you have a series of scripted adventures/games that build up to a game or more with almost the full ruleset but you're up against opponent(s) trying to do something specific.I don't really understand the gist. What is a "campaign"? I can't tell if this is some sort of recruitment drive, supplementary guidance materials, or substantial changes to the game structure.
It's probably a good idea to think about implementing further down the line but we're nowhere near ready for it yet: it can be done as we have a lot of stuff in Python that can support it but until the game is closer to 'ready' not sure it's a good idea.
Mat Bowles
Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.
Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.
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- Juggernaut
- Posts: 854
- Joined: Wed Aug 26, 2015 6:15 pm
Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
Interesting. One of the features of FO is the general lack of objectives aside from wiping out the opposition. Many of the older games I played had specific scenarios as you describe. Quest for this or that. Seems like it would be a substantial challenge not only to have the partially-scripted player experience, but also to program the AIs for the objective(s).
Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
You know if diplomacy in the game becomes a thing, maybe IA empires or native aliens could give "quests" in this style.
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.
- Bromstarzan
- Dyson Forest
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Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
Even I, as a new player, frowned a bit over the keyword "campaign".
I feel there's a "campaign" for every game I set up. I think OP is thinking about some type of scripted events that lead to this and that. Not a bad idea, although I'm inclined to believe it is not really neccessary.
I feel there's a "campaign" for every game I set up. I think OP is thinking about some type of scripted events that lead to this and that. Not a bad idea, although I'm inclined to believe it is not really neccessary.
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Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
I definitely think there's space for a tutorial campaign, if you've got a known layout with specific positions you can script Sitreps or popups for individual turns and/or events within it in a more comprehensive way, but I definitely want the focus of the game to be randomly generated maps where I have to conquer the map with no help.
Mat Bowles
Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.
Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.
- Krikkitone
- Creative Contributor
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Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
One big reason to have a campaign would be to really introduce the races.
In historical 4xs like civ, you know the English will have naval/trade/money/mideval ranged unit bonuses... you know America will have later game bonuses, you know Germany will probably have military bonuses.... because there is already a " campaign" that you are familiar with... real world history.
Galactic 4Xs can't do that (unless the galaxy is populated by American/EU/Chinese/Brazilian colonies)
By having a campaign you can
1-introduce game elements/mechanics (tutorial)
2-show species "in their element"...design the situation to give the players a "feel" for the species and how it plays in a game intended to show that. (as opposed to a game where the Mongols are alone on an island and England is in the middle of a vast plains)
In historical 4xs like civ, you know the English will have naval/trade/money/mideval ranged unit bonuses... you know America will have later game bonuses, you know Germany will probably have military bonuses.... because there is already a " campaign" that you are familiar with... real world history.
Galactic 4Xs can't do that (unless the galaxy is populated by American/EU/Chinese/Brazilian colonies)
By having a campaign you can
1-introduce game elements/mechanics (tutorial)
2-show species "in their element"...design the situation to give the players a "feel" for the species and how it plays in a game intended to show that. (as opposed to a game where the Mongols are alone on an island and England is in the middle of a vast plains)
- Kassiopeija
- Dyson Forest
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Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
Hehe nice to see the thread gets at least some attention half a year later
When I was writing this I remembered the massive Campaign an old game called "Powermonger" (like Populus, but better IMO) did give to the player. You basically set out to conquer a huge world-map, where hundreds of local maps (each would be one game) were located. You started in the upper left corner and once one map got conquered, could set your boats to attack the neighboring maps. The more downwards you came, the more difficult the maps got. So at some point there were defeats but that was not the end, you simply had to find another path (the goal was to conquer the map at the very bottom of the left corner...)
For FO, such a "world map" could be a galaxy. Which could harbour dozens, maybe even hundreds of individual games/maps. But such a challenge becomes only interesting if there is an evolution happening which carries over from one map to another, that would be the technological development, opening of techtree, getting to know more enemies etc
Tutorials could also come a isolated scenario where a map asks for specific circumstances to be solved by the player, with tips giving out to give new players ideas how to use certain stuff etc.
When I was writing this I remembered the massive Campaign an old game called "Powermonger" (like Populus, but better IMO) did give to the player. You basically set out to conquer a huge world-map, where hundreds of local maps (each would be one game) were located. You started in the upper left corner and once one map got conquered, could set your boats to attack the neighboring maps. The more downwards you came, the more difficult the maps got. So at some point there were defeats but that was not the end, you simply had to find another path (the goal was to conquer the map at the very bottom of the left corner...)
For FO, such a "world map" could be a galaxy. Which could harbour dozens, maybe even hundreds of individual games/maps. But such a challenge becomes only interesting if there is an evolution happening which carries over from one map to another, that would be the technological development, opening of techtree, getting to know more enemies etc
Tutorials could also come a isolated scenario where a map asks for specific circumstances to be solved by the player, with tips giving out to give new players ideas how to use certain stuff etc.
- Bromstarzan
- Dyson Forest
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Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
A "tutorial Campaign" (like MatGB suggests) could actually be very useful for new players to get the basic grips of the game. I myself had a bit of trouble travelling along the learning curve, but enjoyed it since there was (and still is) a lot of support coming from this forum. I enjoyed learning the hard way too, saw it as part of the game. Exploring the universe and the game mechanics in at the same time. Lots of disaster sessions, but that also taught me things that now stick with me
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- Kassiopeija
- Dyson Forest
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Re: My vision for a Free Orion Campaign :)
I've horribly lost my first FO game, I just didn't know what to do so I had very little planets or military and te AI fleets stomped me. After that I went to the forums and read up on game mechanisms and also, a proper research path. And since then, won all games so far.
In my opinion, one shouldn't have to refer to outside sources in order to be able to understand the basic game. For advanced tactics, special stuff and so, that would be ok, but not for a small game holding only 30 systems.
So basically it would even be helpful if tere would be a Beginner's Scenario on a small map where the fancy stuff from the tree will be cutout or inaccessably, and some popups on the gamemechanics, maybe even links to some forum guides for advanced information.
In my opinion, one shouldn't have to refer to outside sources in order to be able to understand the basic game. For advanced tactics, special stuff and so, that would be ok, but not for a small game holding only 30 systems.
So basically it would even be helpful if tere would be a Beginner's Scenario on a small map where the fancy stuff from the tree will be cutout or inaccessably, and some popups on the gamemechanics, maybe even links to some forum guides for advanced information.