Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Times Are Changing

The wind’s blowing, temperatures are rising, and summer is here. Most of all, times are changing and I’m struggling to keep up. Recently I’ve announced on Twitter that I’ve started a new job and now find myself struggling to find time to do anything else. Ironic enough, my last post was all about finding time to blog. As I said, it’s a work in progress.

The new job pays way better than my last gig, but I’m a newbie again and now trying to immerse myself in the new work environment. The good thing is, I’m finally getting some kind of rhythm in my second week and seeing opportunities now to peek my head in the blogging community door once more.

Speaking of newbies, the Newbie Blogger Initiative is still going, which is good. I even see a couple new faces joined.


Most recently, I saw a couple add-ons in the NBI Discord channel (find a link to the channel on the right).

Aunion (Eyestrain warning)

If I’ve missed any newbies and returning blogs, be sure to tar and feather me, but also let me know so I can link them to (and add them to my feedly).

So what have I been up to lately? Getting into some indie games. I’m a fan of the Endless series by Amplitude Studios and had their Endless Legend sitting on my Steam list for a long while now. Seeing as I was tight on budget, I thought I’d go ahead and boot it up. I’m glad I did because it’s a fun take on the 4X strategy genre. If you aren’t sure what 4X is, it means explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. Civilization tends to be the most popular.

Quick fact, the old Civ 2 game had the best advisers. They had video responses, would change depending on the age, and the domestic adviser was an Elvis impersonator. You could say he had the most influence in my reign.

Next up to bat, thanks to my friend Rakuno, I was able to snag the Witcher series on Gog for a good price. I started up the first game and currently enjoying the story and lore through the white wolf’s eyes, Geralt (yes, that’s a take on Through Wolfy’s Eyes blog name). The game’s mechanics take some getting used to, but I think I’m understanding them a bit more as I progress.

Since I’m packing a lot of blog into one post right now, I’ll also throw in a writing prompt I found on the Discord Channel (remember, link to it on the right). This prompt was made by my friend, Faeldrey. “Describe your ideal game and all its features.” My ideal game would be a MMO, but since I don’t have the time, nor do I want to scare any of you away with a 5 million word post, I’ll stick to the 4X strategy genre.

I would like a Fantasy 4X strategy game that lead into ages like the age of men, magic, alchemy, steam, technology, and finally space. Each age has their own tech trees and the later ones build on top of the previous ages instead of making them obsolete.

There would be multiple Human, Beast, and Fantasy races to choose from. Humans include Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings, Barbarians, and themselves. Beast includes Lizardmen, Avians, Canines, Felines, and Rodent. Fantasy includes Elves, Orcs, Fae, Spirits, and Ents.

You would choose a race as your base and a government as your “class”. Obviously there will be other races that help make up your government in the later game, but your base is what gives you your racial stats and other perks.

You would conquer the planet you’re on like a traditional 4X game, but would be able to build your city like Sim City.

Once you hit the Space age, then it would open up like Spore and you can conquer other planets in your system while still competing with the other governments.

I’d expect a game like this to take me a couple months for a single play through. Any developers out there that take inspiration from this, it’s all yours. Don’t even need to give me any credit, I’d just want to give you money and play this game.

Any suggestions on improving this idea?
 

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