Zarksoft Games was founded in 2010 by industry veterans Tina Lawton, Lee Dotson, Jeff Lawton, and Jeff Williams whose previous work includes contributions to Diablo 3, Unreal Championship 2, American McGee’s Alice, Anachronox, Hellgate: London, Star Trek Online and more titles.

In order to find out more about Empire of the Eclipse I contacted Lee Dotson, ZarkSoft’s President, for an interview for SpaceSector. He kindly accepted. Here is the interview we did. Enjoy!

1. In ZarkSoft Empire of the Eclipse (EotE) press release you say that the game will be released in Q1 2011, can you advance a more specific release date?

We’ll be launching Empire of the Eclipse at the end of March.

2. Why do you decided to develop EotE specifically (and exclusively) for Apple products (iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch)?

When the iPhone/Android generation of smart phones emerged we were immediately excited by the opportunities these platforms provide independent developers in terms of both self publishing and in terms of providing a large body of people easy, portable access to the internet and intuitive touch interfaces. For us creating an online strategy game seemed like a natural fit for what we see as the most exciting aspects of  the current generation of smart phones.

As for deciding to focus on the iOS specifically it largely comes down to an issue of resource allocation. Android as a platform is very fragmented and would greatly increase our testing time due to having to support a much larger array of hardware. Given that the iOS is a new platform for us and making a large scale online game is an ambitious task on it’s own we decided that it would make more sense to focus our resources on making one game really well before branching out onto other platforms.

3. Do you plan to release a PC version? What about other Smartphones like Android and others, will EotE be released for those at some point in time?

We would like to branch out both onto other platforms including the PC and Android eventually but that will have to wait until after our initially release is well established and supported. I will say though that due to the way we’ve design Empire of the Eclipse we will be able to maintain a unified player base so regardless of what platform you’re using you’ll be able to play with anyone else who has a copy of the game.

Honestly, you’ll probably see the game come out for the Mac before the PC or Android because porting the code over from iOS will be comparatively easy.

4. How can the game be bought, where will it be available for purchase and how much (more or less) will it cost?

Empire of the Eclipse will be available from the Apple app store as a free download and a $1.99 a month subscription. This means that you can install and play the game on any number of supported devices while paying for only a single account.

5. EotE will probably be the first MMO 4x space strategy game ever developed that is not browser based (to my knowledge). At some point did you thought at developing EotE as a browser game? What do you think about browser based games in general? In what aspects is EotE superior to those type of games (like Ogame, Cosmic Supremacy, Dark Orbit, Empire Universe II, Orion’s Belt, among others)?

For us EtoE was born out of the type of game that we really wanted to see on the iPhone so making it as a web game never really came up. In terms of what makes EtoE superior to it’s web based counter parts I’d say it comes down to our portability, not having to pay to compete, and the overall feel of the game. In a 4x MMO empires are being built and destroyed whether you’re there or not but this is less of an issue with EtoE since you can check in on your progress and issue new orders no matter where you’re at.

Empire of the Eclipse also offers a more fluid experience than is usually seen on the web. There’s no waiting for menus to load, you’re able to smoothly pan and zoom across the layers of the galaxy, and you see your fleets warping in and out of solar systems instead of only seeing them as names on a list.

6. In the press release you say that players will not be able to purchase their way to victory. What do you mean by that? Will the game offer some kind of micro-transactions where the players may buy bonus features like how its done with browser games?

One of the big problems we see with most of the strategy mmo’s out there right now is that they’re designed to coerce people into feeding them more and more money instead of being designed to be fun. In Empire of the Eclipse there are no micro-transactions for purchasing in game bonuses and all players start the game on an equal footing. If someone wins it’s because they had a better strategy, not because they spent more money.

7. In the press release you say that you (ZarkSoft Games) are fans of games like Civilization and Master of Orion (both 4x Turn-Based Classics) and that you’ve worked diligently to make (EotE) a game that lives up to the standards set by those milestone titles. In what aspects does EotE lives up to Civilization and Master of Orion classic games? In what other aspects does it innovates?

I’d have to say that one of my favorite aspects of both Civ and MOO has always been that even though combat is clearly a part of the game there’s more to winning than simply amassing the largest fleet the fastest and there are multiple conditions for victory. With Empire of the Eclipse we’ve followed that philosophy both by allowing for victory conditions that cater to a variety of play style (conquest, research, exploration, and economic) and with flexible skill trees that allow players to customize their approach to the game even further.

In terms of innovation I’d say the scale of time and players are two of the area where we really start to break away from those titles. Everything in EtoE takes a certain amount of time relative to scale of the activity and that adds a vital component of weight and tension to the game. Let me give an example, in the science tree there’s a technology that allows a player to convert a star into a blackhole – which will instantly destroy everything in the solar system that doesn’t have the technology necessary to navigate near a blackhole. Conversely, this could be a boon if the player does have that tech because that solar system is effectively shielded from any low tech outsiders. So the catch is pulling this off requires building a solar core tap and conversion process that takes 24 hours. During that time you just have to wait and pray that your able to hold off the forces of the system’s inhabitants or anyone else they might try and convince to come to their aid.

We’ve also built in a number of incentives for players to work together which sets a politically complex stage for the game to play out on. As a player you’ll rarely be able to defend all your territories from every possible attacker so forming alliances is a necessary component to staying alive. On top of that Empire of the Eclipse includes options for setting up automated trade routes with any players that you’re on peaceful terms with allowing both players to receive economic bonuses – of course in the end there can be only one winner so you must choose such alliances carefully.

8. Now regarding the game itself. Will EotE have a background story or will the game be completely sandbox where the players are given complete freedom to create their story? Does the game has an ending?

Empire of the Eclipse is more of a sandbox experience. I’ve always found that the most interesting stories in games come from those told by players of their own exploits or of those around them. An average game runs about two months in length with one player eventually emerging victorious.

9. Will EotE have colony management (city building)? Is it possible to custom design ships (customize and upgrade components)?

There are some colony management aspects to the game but due to scale of the galaxy (a large game can have hundreds of thousands of planets) we’ve tried to keep this process streamlined. There are an assortment of structures that can be placed in orbit around a planet to enhance it’s capabilities such as refineries, defense platforms, jump gates, shipyards, etc. and planets can be terraformed but you won’t have worry about the citizenry revolting or having to build housing for the population to grow.

We originally had a modular blue print system in the game for ship design but found that it made the game more confusing for new players. As a general philosophy we want to keep players from getting bogged down in micromanaging every aspect of their empire so they can spend more time interacting with other players and focus on large scale tactical decisions.

In addition to this we currently have 17 ship types that all have a distinct role in the game and being able to recognize the strengths and weakness of each ship type is critical to using them well so clarity in this area becomes very important. An example of this would be that dreadnoughts are great for dealing with destroyers and bombarding planets but are relatively weak against swarms of fighters. Destroyers on the other hand aren’t really intended for planetary siege but are great at cutting through swathes of fighters.

10. How is EotS space combat? Is it “auto resolved” or will it have some kind of tactical battle involved? Are there any pre-battle or during-battle tactical aspects involved like formations or other special orders?

Combat in EotE is auto resolved but not instantly resolved. Behind the scenes a full scale battle is being simulated and depending on the size of the battle and the relative strengths of the fleets may take a while to resolve and during that time those units will be locked in battle. One of the interesting parts of this is that during this time if you or one of your allies has other fleets that are nearby they can be sent in to help push the battle over the edge.

In terms of pre-battle tactical aspects there aren’t formations, but fleet composition is very important and more over doing proper reconnaissance so you can know what you’re up against is also very important. While there aren’t any specific commands issued during battle there are some ships that do have special abilities and are used manually outside of combat such as the planet killer’s planet buster skill.

11. What news can you advance about EotE (the latest we have was on the 5th January press release)? Will you be releasing a beta version and/or a demo?

We don’t currently have any plans for releasing a demo but we will be pulling some individuals from our community once the time for beta arrives.

Thanks so much for agreeing to this interview, Lee. I’m sure many readers will look forward for Empire of the Eclipse. I’ll certainly do!

Thanks also Adam.

In the gaming world “4X” stands for: “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit and eXterminate”. The ‘4X’ concept is well covered in the wikipedia here. Essentially the games that are catalogued as ‘4X’ must, at least, possess the following characteristics (or provide the following phases):

1. “eXplore”: means is the early phase of the game where the players scout across a map to reveal the surrounding territories.
2. “eXpand”: stands for the phase where the player already knows the surrounding territory enough and is ready to start claiming that new territory by creating settlements, outposts or simply by increasing its influence over that territory like for example by increasing its population, by increasing trade range or map reach.
3. “eXploit”: In this phase the player is ready to start gathering resources from the areas under his control. The idea is to be as quick and efficient as possible to control these resources since they normally are limited and as more you have less your enemies will have left.
4. “eXterminate”: When the territory is almost but claimed and the available resources controlled, the only way to expand is … to get more terrain and more resources and normally this means the need to make war with an opponent in order to subdue him (by turning it into a protectorate or vassal) or to destroy him completely.

Sounds familiar?

Other fundamental characteristics of a ‘4X’ game

The player usually plays the role of a Ruler of some sort normally with absolute power, like a King, Emperor or a Bureaucrat. This ruler stands by a race, country, species, civilization or some nation and his objective is to grow and develop it. The society normally has a humble beginning and part of the excitement of ‘4X’ games is to be able to transform this humble beginning in an ultimate power, where the level of knowledge, technology and expansion becomes so great that the player finally achieves victory.

Victory may come through many ways: By complete annihilation of all opponents; by diplomatic achievement via peaceful agreements with all opponents (through alliances with all other players subdued to a single alliance); by some degree of domination (like 2/3 of a galaxy, map, and planet, whatever the scope, is conquered). Other means to victory may include special achievements like “building the spaceship” in Civilization, or to unlock ultimate technologies (in Galactic Civilizations II) or being elected supreme leader by the majority of the other players due to a very powerful influence.

Research and technology are key concepts in 4X games. Deeply intertwined with the player’s hope to succeed is its unavoidable need to evolve, and normally this means the need to acquire more knowledge and more technology. By allocating resources to research the player can unlock new technologies which will translate in more comfort for its citizens, more resource management efficiency, more speed, more shields, more weapons, units, etc.

Diplomacy is another key aspect of ‘4X’ games. By the time the player is well advanced in its ‘eXpansion’ it will unavoidably bump into a neighbor and after a while into some more neighbors. The ability to make diplomacy with adjacent factions may determine the player’s race future. By “playing the cards right” the player may gain access to more resources by peaceful means which normally is much less expensive. Diplomatic relations like non-aggression pacts, trade, economic or research pacts can normally be established to achieve this. Alternatively the player may decide it’s more profitable to forge alliances with other players and go to war with others to exploit and exterminate them in order to secure their resources and their territory.

Combat is also an important aspect of ‘4X’ games for where it is in combat that normally all is decided. The ability for the player to win battles may decide wars and the survival of the society all together. To be able to wage well in war the player must do well in many areas. Must have a strong economy to support its units, must keep up in technologies not to become obsolete and it needs not only to be an effective attacker but it also needs to be able to defend its settlements well from other aggressive players. Battles can be decided automatically (like in Galactic Civilizations) or be highly tactical that require more strategic decision from the player (like in Master of Orion that puts the player in full command of all units).

What is ’4X’ and what’s not

Although almost ‘4X’ games are of the space strategy kind (like Master of Orion, Space Empires, Imperium Galactica, Galactic Civilizations, and so many others), there are other non-space strategy games that, debatably, are considered ‘4X’. Some of these games are Sid Meier’s Civilization series – undeniably ‘4X’, the Colonization series, Age of Empires, Starcraft, Command & Conquer or the TotalWar Series (among others). These last four are examples of games that are debatably ‘4X’. Some players think they should be considered ‘4X’ because they provide the 4 stages, others tend to criticize that they miss other key aspects (like the ones I introduced before) which leads them to “weak” ‘4X’ or definitely ‘non-4X’. You will find in many places some of these games catalogued as ’4X’ and in another places as non-’4X’.  You will ultimately need to judge for yourself where to draw the line (now you know why I said previously that it could get confusing :) )

‘4X’ Games Lists

You can find good lists of ‘4X’ games in moby games here and in a freeorion forum thread here.

One thing seems undeniable for ‘4X’; being them real time or turn based in terms of gameplay, ‘4X’ games are all of the strategy type. And above all else almost all of them are space strategy games.

FreeOrion is an open-source project which goal is to build a turn based 4x space strategy game. The entire project is community-centered were people who share the common motivation are invited to contribute to build the game in many ways, some as programmers, others as conceptual designers, others as opinion makers.

As stated in the project vision the game is inspired in the Master of Orion series and it will be a turn-based strategy game built-in the classic 4X model style.

Edit:  For an interview I did with the FreeOrion Programming Lead please refer to: Interview with FreeOrion’s Programming Lead: Zach Laine. / Edit

Current status

As far as I could tell from the official page forums and wiki the project seems to have started somewhere around 5 to 6 years ago and the word is that the game is currently in the alpha stage and that it will be still a while till it is finished. You can see the project roadmap here. The most recent version available to download is currently (version 0.3.13) which means that according to the roadmap there is still a long way to go.

First impressions

After checking out the forums of the project and reading some people announcements, ideas and warnings of premature and unstable material my expectations became rather low. I downloaded the most recent build available for Windows (version 0.3.13) from the project sourceforge that you can find in this link (there are also builds for Linux and Mac). I installed the game (clean), launched it (sounds good), there is already a more than presentable main menu, good ambient sound music and voila the galaxy is presented to you in all of its splendor.

Immediately you identify familiar things about the game that makes you remember of Master of Orion like for example the ship movement mechanics (select a ship with a left mouse click and choose destination planet with right-click with spaceship immediately moving towards the planet). After some time clicking on the menus, mostly in the planets and in the spaceships I have to say that it seemed that I was really playing a Orion game. And I don’t think more of a compliment to the design & development team I can give than this. In spite the version still being alpha with all the expected unpolished graphics, many unfinished functionalities, others still not present at all and clunky User Interface I really have to say that I got hooked immediately to the game atmosphere and I really wanted to play more. Oh and by the way, no software crashes :) still …

Some screenshots

As you can see the galaxy map already shows a good presentation. The production screen still looks unfinished, a lot of polish to be done, more solid graphics and definitely better UI still required. The research screen shows potential but, as normal, is still rough around the edges (rather messy and confusing dependencies with all that curvy lines around). All things considered I think that all of this is already great work! The project seems to be in the good path.

You can see more screen shots here.

Conclusion

FreeOrion is definitely a project to take seriously and to watch closely in the near future. The game seems really to embrace the spirit of the Master of Orion series. I personally became quite interested in knowing more about the project and to contribute myself to the cause with all the means I can. For now I’m spreading the word, in the near future I plan to make updates at least when the major project milestones are announced.

Godspeed FreeOrion, and watch out for the Guardian! :)

Playing Ogame is like a breath of fresh air brought to the space strategy 4x gaming experience since it offers the possibility to play anywhere I have an internet connection while offering a rich and free multiplayer experience.

Other popular games of this type include:

• Travian: One of the most popular Antiquity – Empire building game;
• Earth 2025: Contemporary / Country Building
• Hattrick: Contemporary / Soccer Team
• You can find here a comprehensive list of other browser games.

Another excellent source of browser games I recommend is the Galaxy-News website.

Ogame is developed by Gameforge and is a space strategy game 4x like any other but you play it using solely your web browser. It features all the 4x essentials: research, resource gathering, colony management, spaceship building, fleet management and space combat but in real-time strategy style, against the traditional turn based gameplay, which means that everything in the player’s Ogame universe is happening real-time for all registered users. One can start researching a technology in the morning before breakfast, start building a spaceship during lunch time break from work and launch an attack on a nearby player right before bed time.

Ogame is free? What’s the catch?

There’s really no catch at all. The majority of these recent browser-based games are free of charge. Anyone can register and start playing them in a few minutes. In spite being free these games do have their own limitations (sounds like catch alert to me? .. not really, keep on reading). Many browser-based games you will find are completely free of charge, others offer free play with advertising, others still offer free play with micro-transactions or optional paid subscriptions. What this last type of games offer are bonus packs, extensions or exclusive add-ons that are not available in the standard game features and are only granted through small additional payments. Normally this is not a big deal if you want to play the game free of charge because usually this does not hurt the game experience too much. At least for Ogame that happens to be the case, I’m playing it for almost 3 months by now and I don’t really find the need to pay for any extra features (but others may find it useful of course).
You can find a list of many browser-based games of the different charging categories here.

Now back to Ogame: The game basics

When you register and start playing Ogame you start with your home planet empty. No mines, no technologies, no ships, no nothing. All you have is your tiny planetary base production needed to bootstrap your first production buildings: mines for metal, crystal  and deuterium (your three main resources). You

have a wide range of planetary improvements you can start building like a shipyard: required to build spaceships and planetary defenses; storage warehouses to store resources and the research lab to research new technologies. Each building can then be upgraded by constructing successive additional levels. So you start with your buildings all at level 0 and then you go on evolving them one by one for more production capacity, more research capability, etc.

Things take a looong time in Ogame

As I mentioned above Ogame is not a regular PC space strategy game 4x, where one can play for five hours straight just by clicking the end-turn button. This is a game where everything happens in real-time with hundreds and hundreds of players playing simultaneously, so you will end up needing to wait for your metal mine to finish, which can take you, for example, 1:30h to complete, or your battleship that will take you about 3 hours, or a technology that will take 24 hours to research. At some stage of play all is done at that time and you simply log off. Then you login later to check on your empire status.

Research and Technologies

The technology tree is complex enough to keep you busy wondering what to research next. There are plenty of technology dependencies. You can make breakthroughs in several categories: New buildings, research fields, spaceships and new planetary defense systems. In the left you can see an image for the Weapons Technology that boosts the spaceship weapons efficiency in 10%. Each evolution of this technology will add another 10% to weapons efficiency.

The Spaceships

Building spaceships will require you to unlock specific technologies and construct the appropriate building levels. There are several types of standard spaceships available for you to build: colony ships, transports, drones, regular fighters, heavy fighters, cruisers, battleships, destroyers, bombers, interceptors and even a dreaded Death Star. There is no spaceship customization, you have these models at your disposal and that’s it. However the process of unlocking all the spaceship models is complex enough to keep you busy for a long time waiting for your next space toy to be available for production.

Fleet Management

Managing fleets is quite easy as the interface is simple but effective (considering that the user interface is a browser). You can move your ships around; set them for colonization, spying missions, raids and transports of materials.

No Diplomacy?

Well, in Ogame there is no concept of Artificial Intelligence as there is no computer AI to compete with. All the players in Ogame are Human players (or at least they should be) so the diplomacy features offered to players are practically nonexistent. Basically players can forge alliances with other players or other alliances of players and all the rest must take its course via normal human-to-human message interchange from there.

Tips and Strategy Guide to get you started

You can find many tips and all kinds of information regarding Ogame in the web. You can have a look at the official OGame forum here. Another simple but effective source of tips and faqs can be found at GameFAQs, a strategy guide/FAQ maintained by Xeigrich. However if you’re aiming for a single source of condensed information you can also have a look at the “Ogame Tips Strategy Guide” e-Book published by “OgameTips” that you can get here.

The Good

• Free of charge
• Simple to register and start playing
• Very suitable for players with not much time in their hands that want to play occasionally
• Portable technology which allows the game to be played practically everywhere (only internet with browser availability required)

The Bad

• Not enough depth for the more demanding
• Not much going on, specially on early game stages
• Slow paced game not suitable for players eager for instant action

Conclusion

Considering that everything is done via a web browser client and that the game is free of charge Ogame is a space strategy game that at least deserves you to have a look at. The game may not be for everyone but could be for many of you that simply don’t have much time in your hands and cannot keep up with the micromanagement needs of most 4x space strategy games. If you’re a fan of space strategy gaming you will like to try this lightweight space strategy gaming experience that is Ogame.

You can find more information about Ogame here.

You can register and start playing Ogame now by clicking here.

OGame: Free Internet Space Strategy	Space Sector score: 6.5 (about the score system)

Spaceships are expensive

If we think realistically spaceships are an enormous expense of resources, in terms of manpower: scientists, engineers; time and materials. When produced, spaceships are also a huge expense during its lifetime: fuel, staff, energy, coordination and constant maintenance and retrofit.

If we take the Earth case study, after 50 years since the space age has begun on Earth the world has seen only a small bunch of different spacecrafts with little or no significant evolution in terms of life support, propulsion systems, range or … reliability, not to mention warfare need which is nil. For god sake in 50 years of space monitoring we have not yet made contact with a single bacteria in another planet inside our solar system, not to mention outside! The bottom line is that the space traveling business is a slow, cumbersome, incident fill, hugely expensive and very thoughtful enterprise.

The number of Spaceships matter

Being playing space strategy games for more than 15 years now (see Space Strategy Games: What’s next? Article ) I’ve constantly got the same boring feeling after some time playing a game. Constructing, maintaining and retrofitting spaceships becomes so ridiculous easy and cheap that the game simply looses its interest. So Alien race “X” happens to have 24 fleets of 40 medium size war ships each in a specific sector in space. Ohh and watch out!, they have another 24 equally sized fleets in another sector, and another…  I don’t think this is realistic at all, nor fun.

If you take as reference the top Sci Fi novels: StarWars, StarTrek and BattleStar Galactica, just to name the few most representative, you have to ask yourself how many space ships you usually see in the biggest of the fleets. 4 ships? 10? Maybe 30 big vessels and around 50 to 60 smaller units tops in the more striking epic battles, already taking both sides into account.

In space strategy games usually after you research warp drive, “space ships tech 1” or some other easy to come by technology you’re set to construct large colony ships, transports and even fighters and bombers. Not just you can build one, you’re invited to build tens of them fast since usually these ships are not considered expensive. As soon as you know you’re not only building larger ships but you are also building hosts of them. Now after building so much ships the only thing you can think of (since nothing more exciting to do is offered) is which alien civilization will you try on your new 200 corvettes with your new Plasma Cannon IX generation rifle. For me this does not feel realistic nor satisfying enough. More is needed.

Spaceship Epic Battles, StarWars, StarTrek, BattleStar Galactica: Some numbers

I think it’s no accident that the big sci-fi films always portray a reduced number of ships in their battles, exploration missions or transport convoys. A few facts and numbers on this:

In the Star Trek Universe

In StarTrek we never see more than a handful of starships in combat – maybe half a dozen Cruisers class vessels and a couple Galaxy class vessels tops. In the Voyager series you never see more than a couple of alien ships, but ok that’s primarily due to the series plot, since Voyager is the typical scout explorer that gets lost in space.

For some hard numbers, the Galaxy Class space ship (the biggest of the Star Trek Human universe if I’m not mistaken) has allegedly a crew complement of roughly 1,014 people! Among officers, enlisted crew and civilians. Imagine the amount of resources that big snake takes to build and maintain, not to mention the years and years of research needed to put it all together in the first place. Imagine the day where the first prototype was assembled in Space Dock. That would be a day to remember.

StarWars Starships

In StarWars the maximum number of ships you can count is probably on “Return of the Jedi” final sequence where maybe a couple dozen Star Destroyers (including a single Super Star Destroyer Mothership) storms the not so many Rebel Alliance starship perpetrators. The Rebel Alliance counts maybe a dozen corvette

class ships and probably around half a dozen Heavy Cruisers. Even the number of fighters is not so great. Maybe 5 to 6 rebel squadrons of 4 to 6 fighters each and some equal number of Galactic Empire fighters.  In another one of the biggest epic starwars battles: the attack on the Death Star in the “New Hope”, you only count 3 squadrons of rebel fighters if I recall correctly: The Gold squadron with a handful of slow, but

punchy, Y-Wings (a total of 6 maybe), a Red squadron of a good handful of X-Wings (3-6 units), and another squadron of X-Wings (3-6 units) that I cannot recall right now. Approximately 18 fighter class vessels attacked the Death Star … ok plus the help of the Millenium Falcon, what a ship, what a personality, both ship and its captain.

Take the Victory I Class Star Destroyer for example in the Wookieepedia. For god sake, around 5.200 crew members of different specialties not to count with around 2000 troops. And what to say about the dimensions of this huge beast. Imagine the technology, the contracts needed to pull that off altogether. It would have taken the Sith Emperor a good decade or two just to come up with the plans for that not to talk about the amount of effort to put these boys into production.

Battlestar Galactica Toys

In BattleStar Galactica (the remake series, I don’t quite remember how it was in the original) in the Humans faction you see a convoy of a dozen corvette class vessels and … Galactica, a single Heavy Cruiser class vessel. Ok, the situation in Galactica is special since the Human fleet is just a collection of refugees that escaped an extinction event perpetrated by the Cylon Empire, however if you take the Cylon fleets for example you never see more than 3 to 4 Baseships in a single battle, and these are the biggest ships you can see in their arsenal (let me know if I’m wrong, I didn’t saw yet the final episodes).

The Battlestar Galactica Starship is the star of the series. It is said in the BattleStar Galactic wiki that eight other Battlestar class vessels were produced specifically: (Acropolis, Atlantia, Columbia, Pacifica, Pegasus, Rycon, Solaria, and Triton). Not 100!

Less Spaceships with more personality is more fun

In the future I think space strategy games should pay more attention to their spaceships design concept to take into account that players will enjoy more the games if they can experience the excitement of researching and planning their spaceships more carefully in order that building the first prototypes can be a much more rewarding experience. Spaceships need to have more personality, need to be much harder to create and maintain and should be thinked more carefully because due to amount of resources used in these construction campaigns the decisions made will affect the entire gameplay experience from that point forward.

As you can imagine when I talk about the need for a much slower and harder process to create the starships I do not mean just doubling or tripling the amount of “turns” required to create them, I mean a much more creative process in the making. Everything in the spaceship creation process should be much rich featured, for example:

• The amount of specialists required, or need to recruit elsewhere (engineers, scientists)
• The amount of raw-materials required
• The special materials (that could be rare to assemble or find)
• Key technologies that must be unlocked or bought (life support, engines, hull integrity, weapons, energy)
• Contracts that need to be established with specialized alien sub-contractors
• Approval from the Senate for a new construct project (basically approval from the people)
• The needed infrastructure (space dock, lab, technical expertise)

Another aspect of the spaceships making process is the choice of the right crew. The right crews with the right skills are not to be found easily. The spaceship crews also deserve special attention, examples of this are the recruitment of legendary leaders and experts in certain fields like pilots, navigators, engineers. Take the good example of Star Trek for instance, what makes the series great and engaging is the bond that the viewers establish with the crew and with the spaceship itself, I think something of this should be found in the next generation of space strategy games somehow, but the crew aspect of spaceships could be a subject for another time, now we need more fun creating our fleets.

In the past many games tried many variants of “tech trees”, as they are vulgarly called. A tech tree is a collection of technologies that can be researched and all the possible investigation paths that lead to the next discoveries and so forth. You can see this in space strategy games as you can see this also in many other types of strategy games (like Civilization IV for example).

Predictability and lack of Re-playability

Some games offer simpler and smaller technology trees, others present more complex and diverse research paths. As this is satisfying in the beginning unfortunately soon enough the games start to lose their re-playability since the possible technologies to research are already known from the start and the technology investigation looses its interest. Normally all races have at their disposal the same tech tree to research for and players tend to beeline (focus) on specific technologies that they already know the path to reach for which turns the games very predictable and ultimately boring to replay.

In the recent past GalCiv2 tried to give its technology trees a little more salt and pepper by providing specialized tech trees for each race which means that every race supposedly has its own tech tree with special and unique technologies. As very interesting that this may sound at first soon enough it looses its full potential since in most cases the “specialized” just means a different tech tree shuffle, re-ordering, subset or superset. This is a good start but not in my opinion what we are ultimately looking for technology research.

Dynamic and Specialized Research: an Innovative and Realistic approach

It is fine that tech trees can be customized for specific races however I think we did not hit the mark yet. To increase the re-playability and realistic factors a better idea would be to have complete or at least some degree of uncertainty regarding what technologies could be researched next. Think about it, there are areas to research as always but the exact technologies are still not available to choose from in the beginning. Instead of researching, for example, the “Universal Translator” the player would be researching in the field of “Communications” and a possible breakthrough could be the “Universal Translator” but could also be “Subspace communications” or “Xeno Diplomacy Relations”. All of these possibilities could be available to unlock in a particular game but not available in the next. The exact technologies to be unlocked would depend on certain factors. In spite Sword of the Stars has already did some work in this area I think much still needs to be addressed.

An example:

A certain Race “R” is very creative by nature but their members lack personality or charisma. This would make them prone to discover some kinds of technologies in favor of others. When researching in the field of “Diplomacy” Race “R” would be more keen to discover high technological gadgets to increase diplomacy (like the “Universal Translator” for example) but would be less keen on making breakthroughs on social aspects of the “Diplomacy” technology and so it would be more difficult to breakthrough “Alliances” (or Advanced Intergalactic Governments) or “Trade” (or Advanced Trade). The innovation behind this is that it would not be impossible for the race to discover “Advanced Trade”, it would just mean that would be less likely to happen. Certain perks, bonuses, events or player decisions throughout the game would influence the ability to make breakthroughs more in one area than another.

An example list of “factors” that could contribute to a certain player prowess to certain technologies would be:

• An ancestor ruin is discovered
• Special artifacts were found on planets
• Unexpected contact with alien races that shares knowledge (with the “correct” approach/answer)
• Luck
• Race characteristics
• Decisions made on certain actions like colonizing, government decisions
• Previous breakthroughs
• Planet events
• Special people (specialists) born in the planets

Conclusion on Dynamic and Specialized Research

The uncertainty factor in research is very realistic and the possibility for a player to specialize in a specific technological field due to in-game events and decisions is also very attractive. These aspects of technology research would most definitely increase game re-playability and not only that it would give the player more sense of being in command of its empire with its own gameplay style. Some players would be more prone to research in the field of “Diplomacy” others more specialized in the field of “Weapons” others in the field of “Spaceship hulls”, others still were a bit luckier and discovered a very difficult or unreachable by normal means technology. This would be very interesting since then alliances would have a new meaning. Each race could be specialized in certain types of technologies, the kind that the player is interested or destined by fate to have.

So what we cannot live in real life we experience in the virtual one. Movies and games have been offering this possibility. Computer games in specific have been putting people in command of space faring civilizations that explore new worlds, meet new races, establish new societies and gain the ultimate knowledge of the Universe.

Like so many of you I’m a space lover in general and a computer game space strategy lover in particular. I’ve been playing computer games, and specially space strategy computer games, for a long time now. I assembled a chronological classification of what I consider to be the space strategy game landmarks, games which I’ve been playing intensely over the years. The question is what’s next and where should we go from here.

The Beginning [1993]: Master of Orion ^[1]

This game is consensually considered the father of space strategy computer gaming. You could for the first time experience what would be like to be in control of a space faring race with most of its core elements like trade, technology evolution, space ships construction and more importantly its customization, colonization of planets, creation of armadas, diplomacy and ultimately war. The game is turn-based which means that you play “your turn” and then wait for all other computer players to finish playing “their turn” and so on. The game offered single player only possibility, i.e. no human-human multi-player offered yet. Two sequels were made for this game: “Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares” and “Master of Orion III”. Both offered human-human multi-player possibility.

The Branch to Real Time Strategy [1997]: Imperium Galactica ^[2]

This game takes on the Master of Orion legacy and makes a leap to a new level. The most important innovation of this game resides on its gameplay style. It abandoned the “turn based” concept to become the first real-time space based strategy game of its kind. The most notable features also include improved graphics and detailed planet management. This game did not offer multi-player possibility though. One sequel was made: “Imperium Galactica II” which offered multi-player experience.

The Adaptation to a Franchise [1998]: Star Wars: Rebellion ^[3]

Lucasarts took the space strategy concept genre and adapted it to the StarWars franchise Universe. For the fans this was seen as the perfect marriage of StarWars lore and most loved space strategy gaming, the concept had it all to succeed. The game offered the possibility to play as the two sides of StarWars: – the Rebel Alliance or the Galactic Empire in single-player or multiplayer mode. The gameplay is a mix of real-time and turn-based elements.

The Evolution of a Franchise [1998]: Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri ^[4]

Sid Meier, one of the most successful individuals of the gaming industry, literally took his Civilization franchise to the stars. Alpha Centauri is basically civilization in another planet with all its alien aspects. The story is simple but sound. The technology tree, units, buildings and diplomacy are creative and very polished. Although not on a true “Master of Orion” genre, since Alpha Centauri action is all played in a single star system: Alpha Centauri, the game is definitely 4x “eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate” only at a different scope.

The Remake with a Twist [2003-2007]: Galactic Civilizations ^[5]

Stardocks’s Galactic Civilization is neither a branch nor an adaptation of the original Master of Orion series but rather its remake. It is basically Master of Orion but in the present (in this case we are in 2003). It delivers better graphics, more polished mechanics that have been perfected over the years on-top of turn-based gameplay single player only mode. Its major innovation was not on the logic or the product itself but on the business concept. It is distributed with no copy prevention that allowed extensive modding by the community. It was also based on the principle of delivering constant updates to customers that featured among patches for bugs also improvements on what the community would want to see in the game. Several sequels and expansion packs were developed which include Galactic “Civilizations II: Dread Lords”.

The Next Generation [2010]: ___________________?

Since the early 90’s space based strategy gaming has been evolving at the rhythm and pace of available technology, creativity and also adapting to the trends of the modern society. In spite the concepts still being basically the same the delivery of these concepts is radically changing nowadays, or at least broadening.

The question is where we should go from now to keep the concept appealing at the same time expanding its coverage. The network society demands ubiquitous products which can be accessed quickly, easily and anywhere with no requirements for special tools or products. Current technology already offers this reality with the Internet and the global range of telecommunication services and products.

So the question we now face is: Which of the following features would we like to see explored in future ubiquitous space gaming experience or which elements do we favor more and in which order? Or basically what do we want to see next?

• Human-Computer VS Human-Human experience
• Thin Client Browser based approach vs Normal Client based
• Free content with paid extensions VS Paid to use
• Reward system importance
• Eye candy factor importance
• In-game movies?
• Technology tree depth
• Spaceship customization depth
• Races number and customization level
• Story depth
• Universe depth
• Overall customization
• Others …

^{[1] Master of Orion:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Orion}

^{[2] Imperium Galactica: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperium_Galactica}

^{[3] StarWars Rebellion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Rebellion}

^{[4] Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri}

^{[5] Galactic Civilizations: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Civilizations}