Teams?

[bennysaurus]

Hi Dingo, awesome game you have here, we got a group in the office and we've come up with the idea of getting a couple of AI with a high intelligence and the group of us here versing them. True temporary alliances are good and then great fun to turn on each other, but how about a team option for a combined victory?

[Chris]

Hi Dingo, awesome game you have here, we got a group in the office

Great! It's nice to get a regular group together.

and we've come up with the idea of getting a couple of AI with a high intelligence and the group of us here versing them. True temporary alliances are good and then great fun to turn on each other, but how about a team option for a combined victory?

I'll certainly keep it in mind. The main objection I've had to an explicit "teams" feature in the past is that there's no mechanism for allowing ships belonging to two different players to coexist on the one planet. There are ways to dodge that problem, but I haven't thought of any good ways yet.

[bennysaurus]

Got a few of ideas in that direction,

One is simply to not allow players to visit planets owned by someone else in the team. Creates a good teamwork strategy here since it means you need you work out resources and co-operate on that front too. This would work great with massive maps where there is a bit of flexibility behind empty planets and such.

Another is like mean RTS games that have allies and have a passthing through feature; where the team mate has no control with your factory levels or ships, however just sits perched on the side happy to defend that planet from others until it moves on.

I'm figuring the idea behind the gameplay is to keep it as simple as possible (hence why there are only 3 possible controls!) so it's just a matter of how complex you want to make it.

Either way, keep up the great work!

[Chris]

Got a few of ideas in that direction,

One is simply to not allow players to visit planets owned by someone else in the team. Creates a good teamwork strategy here since it means you need you work out resources and co-operate on that front too. This would work great with massive maps where there is a bit of flexibility behind empty planets and such.

Ah, but what happens when two allies both attack the same enemy planet simultaneously? It would feel rather arbitrary if travel to a planet was disallowed simply because an ally already has a convoy in-transit.

Another is like mean RTS games that have allies and have a passthing through feature; where the team mate has no control with your factory levels or ships, however just sits perched on the side happy to defend that planet from others until it moves on.

Not impossible, though the code isn't really designed for it.

Either way, keep up the great work!

Certainly will. Thanks for playing!

Please let me know if you come up with any other thoughts on the subject; I always like to hear ideas and feedback.

[Foomer]

You'd have to adjust your combat program to make it so that ships on the same team won't damage each other. When two allied players simultaneously attack a planet, they'll work together to defeat the enemy if there is one, and then the player with the largest fleet takes the planet.

Afterwards, or if a player attacks a planet owned by an ally, the fleet will either return to its origin, or it will return to the nearest planet which it owns.