PlanetCon - Galcon clone

[schme16]

It's still early days, but that means that if anyone has feature ideas I can add them as I go (if I like them of course)

[Game Controls]:

• +Select your planets by Left Clicking on them (you can select multiple planets by holding the Control button as you select)

• +Send ships to a planet by Right clicking on the desired destination; use your Mouse Scroll to select the desired percentage of ships to be sent.

• + The Escape key will always take you back to the Main Menu

[Answers To Feedback]:

• +I'll definitely add a multiple selection tool in!

• +The ship formation is weird, that too, will be fixed in the next version

• +Auto sending is a FANTASTIC idea!!!!!

• +Production cap will be a factor of planet size maybe 5 times planet size (i.e. planet is 32pixels in diameter so max production is 160 )

[Game Modes]:

• +Domination: Capture all enemy planets or 90% of planets on map

• +Capture: Must capture the enemy Home World

• +? More game modes would be good if anyone has ideas

Thanks for the critics guys any feedback or ideas are, as always VERY welcome!

[Shoutouts]:

• +Special thanks to Skasi for his take on this and allowing my to study his source.

[Where Can I Get A Copy]:

• +It's still under works, but you can always get the latest copy from the SVN:
  PlanetCon- Project Hosting on Google Code: SVN Checkout

Which is updated on a bi-weekly basis

[bartbes]

Change the FSAA setting, 5 is pretty uncommon.

[0x69]

Positive critics:
1. Selecting planets by one - is pain in the *ass*. As in original game - it shoud be possible to select group of planets at once.
2. Ship formation in circle is funny as hell :-) Formation should be changed into line or wedge or column. (Possibly line will be most simple to implement)
3. Add planet movements in own orbits. (Or make flying asteroids instead of planets, and rename game to AsteroidCon :-) ). In that case game will have additional dynamics which will make game more interesting (and different) compared to GalCon.
4. Each planet could have maximum production limit - maximum number of ships it can produce. I think limiting resources is good thing.
5. Original game is a bit too much click-fiesta. We can change this - each planet could have its own enemy target planet - after number of ships reaches some limit -> planet should send automatically portion of ships to target planet. In that case enemy target would be persistent (and not temporary as in original game) and players should focus more on own strategy and not on clicks per second :-)
[Of cource this approach needs a bit of thinking - what to do when enemy target is captured -> leave planet target as it is (ships would accumulate from source planet into target planet) or maybe choose at random first enemy planet (until player changes target himself)?
6. Maybe it is reasonable to add headquarter planet for player and for AI ? And of course change game goal - to capture opponent HQ planet (instead of capture all enemy planets). In that case player should focus not only on How to capture more of enemy planets (and enemy HQ), but also on - How to defend his own HQ planet ? This maybe additional source of fun I think.

Thats all, good luck

[bartbes]

Positive critics:
1. Selecting planets by one - is pain in the *ass*. As in original game - it shoud be possible to select group of planets at once.

Try ctrl+click.

I would like to add that somehow I couldn't capture the enemy planet, I thought that was weird.

[0x69]

Positive critics:
1. Selecting planets by one - is pain in the *ass*. As in original game - it shoud be possible to select group of planets at once.

Try ctrl+click

Ups, i didn`t tried ctrl+click, yep it works... but still that way of selection is non-fiendly in some cases. I mean that group selection should also be implemented as in most strategic games - by drawing bounding rectangle with mouse and selecting all planets that fits in that rectangle

[schme16]

I would like to add that somehow I couldn't capture the enemy planet, I thought that was weird.

Whoops, forgot to mention that: Known issue and will be fixed in the next version



To 0x69:
Thanks for all the feedback:

• +I'll definitely add a multiple selection tool in!

• +The ship formation is weird, that too, will be fixed in the next version

• +Auto sending is a FANTASTIC idea!!!!!

• +Production cap will be a factor of planet size maybe 5 times planet size (i.e. planet is 32pixels in diameter so max production is 160 )

The games name will stay for now, but I'll consider the asteroid angle and maybe a few others that I can think of.

As for the game goal, I'll make multiple game modes,

• +Domination: Capture all enemy planets or 90% of planets on map

• +Capture: Must capture the enemy Home World

• +? More game modes would be good if anyone has ideas

Thanks for the critics guys any feedback or ideas are, as always VERY welcome!

[Skasi]

Um.. I expected this to become the ultimate successor of Lords of Space. So what is it?!

[schme16]

I'ts still under works, you can always get the latest copy from the SVN: http://code.google.com/p/planetcon/source/checkout
See the first post for details (I've cleaned it up quite a bit)

[osuf oboys]

Ah, fun game revitalized! You should definitely add some AI though.

If you want a host of ideas, see the flash game Civilization Wars that build on the same concept. They have an alternative for attacking - you hold the mouse and drag over all of the outposts/planets you wish to select, finally realeasing over the target to launch the attack. Perhaps a quick key for "select none/all"?

I liked that you (for nearby planets) had a slower ship velocity than Skasi's version since it means that the target will have time to mount some minor defenses while the ships travel. This partly but not fully counters the trivial strategy of merely launching a direct assault as soon an opponent has sent ships to eir first extension. However, making the ships' velocity proportional to the target distance renders the spatial features a mere decoration!

Skasi had some 'plopp' sound and graphical effects whenever a ship attacked another planet. Simple but I think such feedback adds a lot to a game. He also had great music.

P.S. those green and yellow planets are quite difficult to distinguish for us 5% of men with color deficiencies. Nice graphics though.

Wohoo, 30000 ships. I think I'm winning this.

[schme16]

Wohoo, 30000 ships. I think I'm winning this.

Congratz heres your prize -> NOTHING! lol

Thanks for the great feedback, I'm about a day away from updating the current version, if I have time I'll get music and sound effects in, but don't hold me to it.
As for the colours I've been wondering about this very problem, if you have some suggestions for colours based on what would work for you; I'd live to hear them!