Forums
The Great Beyond
Free SciFi Gaming P...
Barons of the Galax...
 
Notifications
Clear all

To all SSC Station occupants

Thank you for the donations over the past year (2024), it is much appreciated. I am still trying to figure out how to migrate the forums to another community software (probably phpbb) but in the meantime I have updated the forum software to the latest version. SSC has been around a while so their is some very long time members here still using the site, thanks for making SSC home and sorry I haven't been as vocal as I should be in the forums I will try to improve my posting frequency.

Thank you again to all of the members that do take the time to donate a little, it helps keep this station functioning on the outer reaches of space.

-D1-

Barons of the Galaxy - MMO Trading, Politics and Warfare

 
    Last Post
  RSS
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member
Hello everyone, just like you all I've been working on a sci fi themed space game and its exciting to see a community doing the same!

 

 I recently put up a website that explains it better than I can here but I will give you a blurb from the website and an image to tantalize you:

 

Barons of the Galaxy is a loosely cooperative strategy game of commerce, industry, politics and warfare played online with thousands of players at the same time in a self-expanding galaxy. It is played through your regular internet browser, iPad or Mobile Phone with nothing to install and is free to play with limited features.

 

Players assume the role of a corporation in a near future sci-fi world where the human race has recently mastered space travel. These corporations represent the major industries of the human race which profit by supplying the 16 resources and over 150 different products and services that every city in the quickly expanding galaxy demands. Product prices, volume of goods and the size of populations rise on fall purely on how much product the players can provide to these cities. Trading between corporations who specialize in different goods is often required and military strife is usually inevitable.

 

 

 

 

WebSiteSS.jpg

Quote
Topic starter Posted : August 4, 2015 19:05
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member

I recently got some advice from a planet artist and with it I reworked most of the planet type textures I was using in my game http://baronsofthegalaxy.com . The results have been pretty good

 

 

Ocean

 

Screenshots26.png

 

 

Forest

 

Screenshots24.png

 

Earth Like

Screenshots01.png

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : October 8, 2015 14:20
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member
This has been a busy month for me, not so much for the game development but real life! I didn't get as much time to spend developing as I would of liked but I did push through a complicated milestone that needed a lot of focused quality time.

 

Contracts have been implemented and seem to be working well. When you trade products with another player in game, it must be done through a contract., Since this game is played mostly "off-line" there needs to be a system In place to enforce trades when either player is online. 

 

They can be simple one shot affairs where you agree to buy a certain amount of product at a certain price. Most likely however, trade between two players will be a repeated affair such as trading 1000 units of a components every 10 turns at a price keyed to the current value at a specific city. This is the typical way a player can manufacture the higher tier products which require several different components to be brought together at his factory most of which he can't produce efficiently or in bulk. The contract tracks what you're selling or buying and to whom for how much and how often and to what location.

 

Contracts can be put out to the public and accepted by anyone, there are plans to make them re-negotiated or modified as an offer. Once accepted, the players can give a transport orders to pick up goods and transfer the a appropriate location USING the contract which will change ownership of the goods, move the money and enforce any other restrictions present in the contract automatically. 

 

Screenshots don't do Contracts much justice since the complicated parts are how they are handled in the back end but this is what a search grid and a contract are looking like now.

 

 

Screenshots28.png

 

Screenshots29.png

 

 

Another thing we worked on this month was the planet textures. We recently got together with an artist who provided some working examples of his very pretty planets. We took what he showed us and re-worked our planets to make them more eye-catching. There are several different version of each planet type as well as rings and atmosphere "glows" that are randomly put together for all the planets in the game but here is look at one version of what all our planet types look like:

 

 

planetgroup1.png

 

 

We updated the website with more screenshots also

 

With Contracts mostly working now we're going to move onto implementing Combat, something that my wife has been waiting for =) After that it should be Titles system and then the big one which is the Event system. Those are the only major components remaining before a fully playable game!
ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : November 3, 2015 08:35
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member
Working on Combat this month and the guild system. I've done the database work and the UI to issue the combat order to units. Moving on to the database implementation that actually conducts combat

 

Barons_of_the_galaxy_Screen_35.png

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : November 14, 2015 16:02
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member
Considering implementing character dynasties

 

Someone on Reddit saw our posts and game and mentioned that it was similar to an old dying game called "Imperium Nova". That game was more like a space opera. Your "Player" was actually a house or dynasty of descendants that all had varying stats, could get married, find religion etc. You can send them to different  These descendants would be placed around your empire and assigned to different task such as Factories, politics or combat duties kind of like commanders of other games. They all grow old and die and there is a system of hierarchy and ascension.

 

This is also similar to a board game I have called "Blood Royale" which was a simple war-game with resources in Europe. But you played that countries "Dynasty" which was King/queen which had children and simple stats which played out in a similar way.

 

I am considering implementing something like this in Barons of the Galaxy. Currently the idea is that you, the player, has an "Avatar" that represents you. Instead we can make it so you start off with a "Character" which you can of course still name and upload an image for but your character has a few simple stats or bonuses that affect your entire game. Perhaps its combat bonuses, political advantages or bonuses to certain kinds of industry or situations. Greater combat bonus when DEFENDING, does better with industry when less competition is nearby etc.

 

I'm thinking we key the number of descendants you have to your corporation level 1-10. That means when you level up your corporation you will get another descendant showing up very soon after. I don't think its a good idea to implement a "marriage" system as that involves the other players and such and can lead to exhausting your dynasty and other problem. Instead though I think that these descendants are chosen randomly and are related in some way to one of  your current characters in the dynasty. "Marriages" would be abstract and spouses are not necessarily characters in the dynasty, perhaps they are bastard children or newly discovered relatives. 

 

For example your first descendant at level two could be a brother, sister, wife, son, daughter maybe even cousin of your first character. Then at level 3 the system will randomly make another brother sister spouse, daughter, son etc. for either character with more chances of currently married descendants having children as opposed to another sibling showing up. A system like that makes for unique looking family trees that are ever changing and cannot be exhausted since there is no strict and necessary "Marriages". The system would replenish descendants when they die due to old age or assassination and would insure that if you are, say, level 6 then there 6 characters in your dynasty. There is always one leader of the dynasty and that characters stats affect your entire game in addition to the location he is at. Ascension would be done like a medieval hierarchy.

 

When creating your corporation Perhaps you can set a few option which dictate the general type of characters you want to see in your dynasty (Combat oriented, political etc.) doesn't mean you will get descendants exactly like that but the system can enforce a pretty narrow randomizer which can guarantee that, say, at least two thirds of your dynasty would be those kinds of characters. You would also be able to "Level Up" your characters like any other unit in the game for bigger bonuses, make them a bigger military unit or cybernize them to extend their lives etc. 

 

Your dynasty characters would probably be represented by military units like everything else. a medium sized ship that can be given order to move around and maybe apply themselves to an area or structure, maybe even dock with another ship the way fighter and bombe units attach to carriers. which means he or she is on that ship and his bonuses apply to whatever combat that ship gets into. It would also mean that ship can be destroyed and that character killed.

 

This sounds like a fun and workable mechanic and we're seriously considering implementing something along these lines, just not now as we want to remain on schedule. Perhaps as an expansion to the game if it goes well. 

 

 

 

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : November 19, 2015 09:54
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member

Haven't posted on here in a little while but I assure you I've been busy! =)

 

The last few updates have been combat implementation, guild system, Titles system and also placing combat units into "Groups" and "Fleets".

 

The Development forum on baronsofthegalaxy.com has more details but here are a few screenshots going back a few weeks

 

Barons_of_the_galaxy_Screen_37.png

 

Barons_of_the_galaxy_Screen_41.png

 

Barons_of_the_galaxy_Screen_45.png

 

Barons_of_the_galaxy_Screen_51.png

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : January 4, 2016 10:41
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member
Whew! Working on a Kickstarter campaign and making a reasonable video for the first time isn't easy but that's what we did in the last week or so. Getting your hands on video software and writing up a campaign pages ACTUALLY TAKES A WEEK just like the internet says it does!

 

Our kickstarter campaign is scheduled to launch on Feb 8th, 2016 just a week from now. We submitted our campaign for review and we put together a video on youtube if you want to check it out

 

 

The Kickstarter isn't launched yet, but you can see a preview of it here:

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : February 1, 2016 17:14
 ollobrain
(@ollobrain)
Honorable Member

Looking forward to it.  Looks like a good game

ReplyQuote
Posted : February 10, 2016 14:07
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member

Thanks a lot! It will probably come out in a few months whether I get funded or not. Might take longer with improvised graphics is all =)

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : February 12, 2016 20:51
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member
Our Kickstarter campaign launched a week or so ago. If you love space games we would love to bring another one out for you all =)

 

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : February 19, 2016 14:15
DarkOne
 DarkOne
(@sscadmin)
Illustrious Member Admin

Good stuff so far and your almost a 3rd of the way there on your kickstarter. Web-browser based games I think are the hardest to kickstart just because a lot of people do them. Looks like you have spent a lot of time on this and the art and layout look great. Can this be played on a mobile or tablet as well? Might want to leverage those platforms as well with some screenshots.

ReplyQuote
Posted : February 23, 2016 04:52
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member

Thanks DarkOne! Yes Browser games get no love. It can be played on tablet or mobile also but I plan on doing a more mobile friendl-er version for mobile. 

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : February 23, 2016 18:47
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member

We've gone into an Open Beta Test for Barons of the Galaxy. Everyone can come play and offer feedback!

 

We're planning to re-launch our Kickstarter campaign within a week also. We invite you all to come try it out.

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : July 31, 2016 20:42
 DrDread
(@drdread)
Active Member

Our Kickstarter Campaign was just launched. We invite all of you to come help support our project!

We are currently in Open Beta Test, you can come play the game RIGHT NOW.

 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/164042533/barons-of-the-galaxy-sci-fi-trading-politics-warfa

 

http://baronsofthegalaxy.com/

ReplyQuote
Topic starter Posted : August 7, 2016 13:34
Forum Jump:
  Previous Topic
Next Topic