Looks like free-to-play MMO games are here to stay. Possibly we’re even only seeing the tip of iceberg still, from what I can tell. Every day there seems to be a new free-to-play online game that gets released or announced. Three of the latest strategy MMO big shots were Command & Conquer Tiberium Alliances, Jagged Alliance Online and UFO Online. Three big franchises that now see their new installments go free-to-play online.

UFO Online: Fight for Earth is a new sci-fi browser-based MMO developed by Gamigo, that is obviously inspired in the turn-based tactics X-COM series (UFO: Enemy Unknown, X-COM Terror from the Deep among others). Powered by the Unity 3D graphics engine, which is becoming a serious case of success on browser games btw, UFO Online looks quite amazing for a browser-game, as you can witness by the screenshots and the gameplay video below that was presented at Gamescom 2011. Long gone seem to be the days of walls of text and constant server-side calls that lagged your playing experience on the web browser. Now, with AJAX and game engines like unity, browser-games look better and better by the day.

UFO Online takes place in a near future where Humanity has split into three factions that are competing for the few remaining resources left on Earth. Energy is in short supply and, to top it all, first contact has been made with extraterrestrials. They seemed friendly at first, but nah, not really. They plans were dark. This is where you come in.

Features

- Sci-Fi strategy MMOG with tactical battles;
- 3D graphics battles in your browser;
- 3 playable factions. Each side has its advantages and disadvantages and its own goals;
- A variety if classes with unique skills to choose from (tank, medic, sniper and more);
- Upgradeable weapons and items;
- Tactical battles against the AI and other players (PvE and PvP);
- Storyline with countless quests;
- Expandable base for conducting research and training troops;
- Free to play

By MMO HDTV.

UFO Online entered closed beta around a month ago, so, we’ll probably have some news about open-beta soon. I’ll keep you guys informed!

Progression exists in many different forms so I will talk about it generally. It is important because the players can see the reward for their time spent in the game. It can keep people engaged in the game and longevity in games is always a good thing to have.

Progression

Progression is having goals and how the player achieves them. What is their purpose(s) in the game? How do they fulfill their purpose(s)? By having good progression, it keeps players involved in the game. People, especially gamers, like to strive towards something. They like to set themselves a goal in a game and then achieve it. Put simply, this can be seen as the “carrot on the end of the stick”.

4X games for example offer several different forms of progression (more on this below): empire expansion, ship design, and technology/research to name a few. To me, one of the greatest joys in playing a space 4X is watching my empire spread out amongst the stars. I love building massive fleets and “incorporating” lesser civilizations into my own. MMORPGs generally have a lot of progression: gear based, skills, encounter based and so on.

As mentioned above, most gamers like to improve themselves and do better. They want to gain that next level, or that next technology for their ships. They strive to achieve these goals. It creates an environment that makes the player’s time well spent and encourages them to play longer. The excitement level and desire of getting something keeps them interested.

Progression rewards the players. That is why the typical experience and leveling system in MMORPGs hasn’t gone away (TOR is reported to have a very strong and lengthy leveling experience). It is very easy to understand and gives great results. “Hey I gained a level and got some new abilities!”. You now have something you didn’t before. In 4X games, technology is a great example of this. Researching a new plasma cannon that can be placed on your ships: the excitement level grows with each click that increases the number of plasma cannons. Imagine the damage it will deal to your enemies!  Or acquiring shields for the first time and knowing (hoping) that the enemy would not be able to deal with them.

Even though the developer may place progression in a game, it does not discount the fact that players make their own progression (sometimes unknowingly). In a 4X game, there could be an instance where a particular planet is “ultra-rich” in ore and it would be vital for the player to acquire that. Perhaps this planet is controlled by an enemy empire with a strong defensive presence. This situation can set off an entire chain of small goals leading up to the eventual attack on the planet. The player just created a small progression system.

Next, I would like to provide a humorous real life example. In MoO1/2, I always played as the Psilons. I enjoyed having a large tech edge (plasma cannons, anyone?). I always got very displeased with the Darloks stealing my technology. So, I made it my mission to show them what eXterminate really means in 4X.

Other forms such as victory conditions and achievements helps too. The boundaries are really endless and each game can have their own progression and be unique. That is the beauty of games. I want to throw out one warning: do not make the progression overly difficult or time consuming. A fine balance must be done to ensure that the players do not feel the time spent is not worth what is earned (or will be).

Example

As with the previous article, I want to give an example of how I achieved progression. I will again use the MUD for my example (I’ll use my own 4X game when it gets farther along). During character creation, a player could choose one of two skill paths to travel down. Each path had 10 skills. They then could select 7 of the 10 skills and these would be gained in 5 level increments. This was a good system because it allowed the player to set their own goals with gaining skills at certain levels. Then they wanted to use them and so the player had to work to attain them. This created a small progression system that encouraged people to play more.

This finishes up my second article about the two aspects I feel are that important to me: Immersion and Progression. I hope you enjoyed reading it and thinking about games and their development in slightly different ways. As with the post on Immersion, I would like to hear your thoughts and comments (I’ll try to reply faster this time). Finally, if anyone has a request for a future topic on an article, let me know and I’ll consider it.

dayrinni has been a Space Sector contributor since October 2011. This is his first foray into writing articles for any review site. He is an avid gamer in the genres of 4X, Strategy, MMO’s and RPGs. Finally, he has been the implementor of several MUDs and is currently working on a 4X space game that offers large scope and complexity. See all dayrinni’s posts here.

Beyond Beyaan is heavily inspired by the 4x classic Master of Orion series. When you start playing you can easily tell that many aspects are inspired by MoO1 (the sliders, ship design and research for example) and others by MoO2 (some parts of research and ship design also). The starmap and ships movement also remind you of MoO.

I’ve been following Brent’s work for some time now. Considering that he’s working almost by himself (and that this is his first game) I think his progress is amazing. I believe there’s much still to be done and polish but I think the game is already solid enough to be looked at more closely. There is no release date established yet though.

Next follows a brief hands-on preview of the current development/alpha version Brent was kind enough to share with me.

Game Setup

When you start your game you can choose the players (Human or Computer) and some galaxy generation parameters. When you’re done with that you generate your galaxy. When you’re happy with your galaxy you click next and start your game.

Beyond Beyaan: Game Setup Screen

The game customization screen is probably not finished yet. It needs a bit of polishing but it already contains the basic stuff, and looks fine. There are only two races currently available to choose from: Humans and Zero People. Brent will probably add more races in the future.

In-Game

When the game starts you’re presented with a starmap. You can see your star system containing your homeworld and probably other planets of different types. I already saw Tundra planets, Desert, Terran, Asteroids, Jungle, Steppe and Dead, and all of this diversity in a single system. Amazing!

You decide your planet’s output by adjusting sliders to manipulate what’s to be produced. Here the similarities with MoO1 are striking, but also in Sword of the Stars, although SotS got inspired in MoO1 in the first place :)

By adjusting your sliders you can choose to allocate funds to Agriculture (impacts population growth), Pollution (impacts max pop, not fully implemented yet), Commerce (not yet implemented), Research (implemented), and Construction (implemented).

Beyond Beyaan: Colony Screen

From what I could tell 1 population unit standing on a planet generates 1 BC (billion credits if I’m correct). You then allocate the amount of cash generated to areas like research, pollution containment, construction, etc.

Planets have special characteristics I believe, since some feature an icon representing some kind of treat. I could not tell which types of bonuses are offered though (tip: tool tips always help a lot).

To move ships around you click on your fleet (represented by a bunch of small ships next to your systems), set the amount of ships you want to send and then right-click on a location.

Beyond Beyaan: Ships Movement

To colonize planets, if I understood correctly, you transfer population by building transports. At least that was what I did since I could not find a colony type of ship. So, to colonize, you send your transport(s) to an ninhabited planet, in the same system or in a different one, and choose a planet to land. Multiple empires can inhabit the same system (something that also made me remember MoO2).

On the bottom of the galaxy screen there is a “taskbar” with 9 buttons that contain the menu options. From left to right: Game Menu, Galaxy View, Diplomacy, View Fleets, Design Ship, View Designs, View Planets, Research, and End Turn.View Designs isn’t implemented yet.

Beyond Beyaan: UI Menu

Brent confirmed that ship Design is fully implemented, but the UI layout isn’t final. Here again the similarities with MoO1 and MoO2 are evident. You can choose weapons, hulls (the models resemble MoO models a lot), number of mounts and special equipment like computers, engine, armor and shields.

Beyond Beyaan: Ship Design

Although you can tell that the models are heavily inspired by MoO I don’t remember seeing them exactly as such in MoO games. Some of the models are quite cool actually.

Research is implemented, you can already research stuff. You allocate the research points you generate from each planet throughout the different technologies you want to research.

Beyond Beyaan: Research Screen

The research mechanics feels also very MoO’ish. You manipulate sliders (and can lock them) to distribute your research points, which is clearly inspired in MoO1 (other games also use this mechanic like Armada 2526 for instance), and you can choose from multiple research options in the same “field” (which resembles MoO2 way of choosing  from multiple alternatives).

Nothing seems to be left out; there is also diplomacy in Beyond Beyann.

Beyond Beyaan: Diplomacy Screen

The options presented are pretty much standard, maybe the reconcile empire and harass empire are two innovative options on this topic.

So, what’s new or different about Beyond Beyaan?

So far my experience playing Beyond Beyaan was not so different from playing a mix of MoO1 and MoO2, but subpar. I also had a few flash experiences from other space strategy games.

Beyond Beyaan’s major strength though resides on its high moddability.

Brent states that the player will have the ability to modify different aspects of gameplay. You could mod galaxy generation to create custom galaxies for example.

But the biggest things that you will be able to modify are the technologies.  From Brent’s own words:

“This game will focus on space combat and technologies, so you can create your own technologies and plug them in.  For example, if you want a torpedo to bounce off a ship towards another ship, you can script that torpedo’s “OnHit” function to tell it to bounce instead of disappearing. Or perhaps you want a missile to split into multiple missiles (not just internal code, but visibly splitting), you can script that in “Travel” function after a certain time amount has passed” – Brent Patterson.

This sounds great so I asked Brent how players could modify the game. He replied the following:

“At main menu, before starting a game, there will be a drop-down showing different game files that you can load, the normal gameplay would use “Default”.  You can add new folders, and create your own races, technologies, AI scripts, galaxy generation scripts, artwork and sounds for the game.  The game will allow you to select one of those folders and load it, so you don’t have to overwrite any of the game files. So in theory, it’d be possible to mod the game to be similar to older 4x games, or create your own game.” – Brent Patterson.

Pre-Order and Donations

Brent has plans to set up a Pre-Order service soon in order to try and raise money to fund art work and other resources of the game. Currently he has set up donations on his website. He explains what he plans to do with the funding. There will be perks involved to donors.

Brent would be delighted, for sure, to hear your comments on what you’ve seen so far. If you want to support his project, then feel free to do so! You can reach Brent through his blog.

Good luck on your project Brent. I will watch it closely.

About Brent Patterson

Brent shared his motivation on developing Beyond Beyaan with SpaceSector.

Brent is a professional programmer and a space game enthusiast that wants to see a worthy Master of Orion successor.

“I was not happy with the new 4x games being released, that I find to be too complicated or in real-time. So, I decided to create my own game, picking up from the features I liked best from MOO1, and some other 4x games” – Brent Patterson.

Brent maintains a blog where he keeps his advancement on Beyond Beyaan up to date.

The story revolves around a special resource nick named REZ, and the two main factions trying to control it.  The militaristic UTA, and  the civilian population that has expanded so fast it is beyond manageable.

You are an aspiring Space Pirate that is also in search of rich REZ deposits, which happen to be located in the Core of the Galaxy you create, which can be between 150 stars to 300 stars.  As you travel towards the core you have the choice in each system to side with the Civilians or UTA, and these decisions do not carry over to the next system.

Depending on which side you join, you can dock at their Starbases to purchase that last blue print piece you need to start building that large cruiser you sorely need.  You will not be able to dock if your relations are too low, so you can run missions on their side to improve them.

While doing missions, and some storyline elements, you notice that the UTA has been dumping toxic chemicals in the environment.  This is where the Zombie element comes into play, as these toxins are causing ships to be infected.  There is no way for you to cleanse them, and must be left behind.

As far as indie titles go, the graphics and effects are well done.  The development team of three put this game together using Torque, which custom scripts that numbered more than 50,000.  They have notified me that they are currently working on transforming the script to code, which will optimize the game even further.  However, it is simply amazing what they have achieved from an off the shelf game engine and scripting.

The combat mechanics are well balanced, and actually make learning the game a challenge.  This is the fun part, in trying to configure your fleet to specific situations.  You have to manage two main resources which are REZ, and Goons (Crew).

REZ allows you to purchase blueprints, more ships once they are destroyed, and goons. Goons are required to crew your ships, and having a fuller crew gives your ships a bonus to it’s performance.  Goons can also be traded for faction standing improvement, or for REZ.  Some have complained that obtaining Goons is hard, and this has been addressed in the latest patch which will increase the chance of a Goon joining your crew.

When you destroy another ship, crew pods are ejected to safety.  That is until you either shoot the pods, or pick them up.  When you pick up a pod, you make the “Walk the Plank” or join your crew.  If they choose “Walk the Plank” (So to say), you see a nice animation of them being ejected out of your airlock into the harshness of open vacuum.  It is the attention to detail that make this game rise above the rest, which background radio chatter, and signs posting a speed limit of say “54,000” m.p.h.

The depth added to game comes from the tactical and strategic decisions a player can make while attempting to reach the core.  You have a Mothership that is upgraded by unlocking the storyline, and a line-up of ships to unlock by picking up pieces of blueprints from destroying that type.

This was a challenge for me to acquire the blue prints to build my first Large Hull “Right Hook”, because you have to take it down with ships that are outclassed.  I accomplished this by acquiring maxed out resources of Credits and Goons, and spamming rebuilds into the mission, eventually collecting enough blueprints to build my own “Right Hook”.

This element of the game can feel grindy, as you have to sometimes fall back into a safer mining system and configure a mining fleet and collect REZ for the next mission.  Or you have to go on “Hotel” missions and intercept Goon drop offs at Space Hotels, and impress the crew into a life of Piracy or show them “The Air Lock”.

When taking into context that SPAZ is an Indie game made by three people, and is priced at a discount for the Beta at around $15, I would recommend this game to fans of the genre.  While I have personally made comparisons to Star Control II, SPAZ has certainly earned its own place among this type of games.

Space Pirates and Zombies (v1.0) (Buy from GamersGate)	Space Sector score: 8.5 (about the score system)

Kyle Rees “Lordxorn” has been a Space Sector contributor since May 2011. Kyle is a credited tester on games like Distant Worlds: Return of the Shakturi, and Panzer Corps, and an avid World of Tanks player. See all Kyle’s posts here.

In May the 9th 2011 MinMax released the SPAZ Beta. It is now available for Pre-Order at Impulse (exclusively for now). Soon after the beta release the devs plan to distribute SPAZ also on GamersGate, BMT Micro and other digital distribution platforms. They don’t plan to release a box version of the game, at least not soon.

SPAZ is available for the PC but the devs stated that they’d like to do a Mac version also “and even possibly an Xbox version at some point in the future“.

The game will cost $20 (US dollars) upon release. If you pre-order the beta it will be cheaper. “If you pre-order (which includes beta access) it will cost you $15“.

Exploration, Combat, Research, Design and Destruction

SPAZ is a space combat game with exploration, research and design elements. The game puts you in the skin of a space pirate travelling the galaxy from star system to star system in pursuit of riches. Along the way you fight your enemies, upgrade your mothership and your fleet.

Why zombies? Because there is a nasty zombie faction present in the game :)

MinMax games released a demo. Check it out! I played a bit before doing this post, it was fun!

The SpaceSector SPAZ review will be available soon. So, stay tuned!  ;-)

SPAZ Beta Release Trailer

About MinMax Games

“We’re a small two-man company operating out of British Columbia, Canada. Between the two of us, we have almost 20 years of game development experience. We’re dedicated gamers who are striving to resurrect the concepts of the golden age of old school games mixed with today’s high def graphics. We are strong believers in fun for the simple sake of fun itself. We like playing new and different games, and we hope so do you!”

1. Tell us a bit about the game. It’s characteristics, features, innovations from other titles.

Horizon is a 4x space strategy game with a heavy emphasis on exploration. It introduces the player to a galaxy that feels alive and more complex than other games in the genre. Playing as the humans you are at the beginning of interstellar exploration but the galaxy is already mature and races much older and more advanced than you inhabit it. There is a great deal to discover while you plot humanity’s course of action and slowly engage in first contact situations, hopefully coming out of them stronger to expand ever more and prosper!

From a more technical view we have designed the game around the concept of making it a more open and more interactive space strategy game. To lessen artificial design limitations on important components of the game with the aim to make the whole more seamless and more ‘real’, to accentuate that exciting feeling of managing a space-faring race in a dynamic galaxy. And let’s not forget to engage in kick-ass space combat!

2. Does Horizon have a main plot or background story? Or is it completely a sand box create-story-as-you-go game?

Horizon does have a background story and it all begins in present time with the Voyager 2 probe exploring the edge of our solar system. Launched by NASA in 1977 it is currently more than twice as far from the Sun as Pluto and moving outward. Until the game is released more information and other reports are available on the web for those curious about Voyager 2 go to this Voyager 2 Wikipedia article or to UK Newspaper or to NASA weekly reports.

To get back to your question, the galaxy and all the races have their own story and their actions are influenced by their history and culture.

3. What type of game is Horizon? Is it a 4x game? TBS, RTS or mix of both?

Horizon at its heart is a traditional 4x game and plays very much like one. If you have played Master of Orion 1 and 2 you will feel right at home.

We designed the game completely turn-based because we feel it gives the player more control in almost every situation including combat and a big part of what 4x gamers really enjoy. There is a certain pleasure being in control of your ship and actually firing its weapons that an RTS based combat system cannot quite deliver.

4. What about the game mechanics? You say in the FAQ that the game will be turn-based, does this means that tactical combat will also be TBS or will it be RTS? Or will it be completely cinematic as in Galactic Civilizations series.

Yes tactical combat is also turn-based. One important distinction I want to make here is that the combat is not a separate phase in Horizon and occurs seamlessly because you are in essence always in tactical view when the game is running (when ships move etc.) After 20 rounds of tactical view the game is ‘paused’ as the turn ends and you then switch to a strategic view to review or make decisions, manage all facets of your empire before starting the next turn.

5. What about planetary invasions. Will there be planetary bombardments? And the assault invasion, will it be tactical or will be completely cinematic?

Planetary bombardments are handled through tactical view. As long as your ships are in firing range of the planet you may inflict planetary damage at any time. Damage is applied to both infrastructure and the population. The standard planetary weapon types all exist in the game so if the always popular nuclear bombs don’t suffice you can always consider bio weapons.

Defending your colonies from such attacks is extremely important because in Horizon we take the view that you can’t just forcibly shuffle population from one planet to another (a method used in many games to increase population on new colonies). So developing and increasing the population on colonies is a long process and they are truly your biggest assets. And your homeworld is your biggest asset of all, orders of magnitude more important than everything else and can never be replaced.

In terms of how invasions work, once your troop transports are near orbit of a colony you can then land troops on the planet for the invasion. You control the logistics and timing of the invasion and then watch the results when the assault is started. Like many other games this part is done in abstract fashion.

6. Could you elaborate a bit how ship design will work?

Our ship design focuses on the selection of 4 ship hull sizes followed by the selection of components from the three groups: Weapons, Core and Specials. Each group has 8 hull slots reserved.

Core systems are automatically populated with default components that every ship needs such as the engines, life support, power generators etc. If you have 2 or more of the same core component then you can choose the desired option otherwise it’s already setup.

For weapon systems the slot positions actually correspond to their mounting location on the ship hull which should be considered carefully when installing large weapons with small firing arcs. Also for weapons you get additional customization options such as the mount size, number of emplacements, etc.

Ship Specials are things like cargo bays, fighter bays, troop pods, colonizer pods, etc. Anything that is not a weapon or core system falls in this group.

7. What about research, tell us a bit how it works. Will it have random aspects, that is, will it unlock random techs at times or is it completely linear?

A pet peeve of mine with many 4X games is how research is handled. I tend to think an advanced space-faring race with a billion+ population would be able to research more than just a handful of projects simultaneously.

With that in mind, each race starts with a custom tech list at different levels. All discovered techs are available to be researched simultaneously. You can also set a focus for each category so techs that you want to advance more quickly can receive more resources. And finally you may disable tech projects you don’t want to develop further.

Research is divided into three phases in Horizon: Discovery, Breakthrough and Refinement. You must first discover or become aware of a technology before you can begin researching. Once you can research a tech you then have a chance to make a breakthrough at which point the tech becomes usable in your empire. Through refinement a tech can also be improved further increasing its efficiency or benefits.

With every refinement level a tech has a chance of unlocking a random new technology. Along with some other discovery methods and the fact that discovered techs are not automatically usable (requiring a breakthrough) these add a lot of variables so no two games develop the same way.

8. Will the game provide random events like space monster attacks or mega events (e.g. plagues, disasters, revolts) that can surprise the player to take action?

We have no plans for space monsters currently while random events are on a low priority list of things we would like to do. We are focused on the core game elements so it may not happen.

9. Will there be espionage options in Horizon?

Espionage was part of our original design but it’s currently in the same boat as the random events so it may not be in the initial release. But at some point it surely will be because I have some great ideas I would like to implement and it would add yet another layer of strategy and complexity.

10. Regarding on how to win, what are Horizon victory conditions?  Time?  Special achievement?  Alliance domination, Full conquest?  Are there specific victory conditions for each race?

This is still a work in progress. Alliance victory is the easiest victory condition and the typical way to finish the game. It is also technically possible to fully conquer the galaxy but it would be extremely difficult if not impossible in practical terms. Other specific victory conditions such as story/plot based we are still considering.

11. In terms of settlements expansion does Horizon allow the player to colonize every system he finds or does it requires the player to unlock special research to allow the colonization of some systems?

This may yet change but as it stands we have not implemented any research requirements for colonizing different types of planets. Currently colonies get penalties if the environment is not native to your home planet.

12. How long have you been developing Horizon, and what are your plans to have it ready for release? Will there be a demo or an alpha version around soon?

A long while… Full-time development of Horizon started in 2001 and stopped in 2006 due to financial reasons. I have since been working on it part-time toward completion. The game has been in alpha (playable but not feature complete) since 2006. My current plans are a return to full-time development within the next 6 months and to continue working on getting all the features completed.

There are no plans for a public demo at this time.

13. Do you need help from the community in some way to contribute to the project? Is this an open source project (open and free to the community)?

As a small Indie outfit (based in Toronto Canada), the support from the game community is a source of inspiration for us and we have had a very supportive and loyal following since we started. For now the continued interest and encouragement from the community is all we ask for. I am sure there will come a point later on where we will need more involvement.

Horizon is closed source software.

Thank you very much for your time Raf.

It was my pleasure and thank you for the questions and interest in Horizon. For those interested in keeping track of our progress via email we invite you to subscribe to Horizon mailing list.

Distant Worlds main features are:

• 4x Real-Time Strategy
• Less Micromanagement on an Epic Scale
• Special emphasis in Exploration and Expansion
• Research, Diplomacy and Espionage
• Spaceship and Starbase Design
• Lots of feedback, information and help provided through tooltips
• Galactopedia (with additional information and help)

Check the following SpaceSector.com first impressions article “Distant Worlds – A new Real-time, 4X Space Strategy Game” for more information on Distant Worlds and also for some screenshots. Check the Distant Worlds Forums for game discussion.

You can buy Distant Worlds from Matrix Games here.

And why am I writing a Civilization preview in SpaceSector.com you may ask. Well for starters these are my favorite games ever as for many strategy gamers also. The game is not Sci-Fi but it does contain a late chapter where Sci-Fi elements do take place. You see, one of the possible victory conditions of Civilization is to build the “Spaceship” that will takes us from this planet and sends us to the stars, more specifically to settle a new home in the Alpha Centauri system (Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri is the continuation of the Civilization series for this reason).

Another reason why I’m writing about it is because the game type is strategy and because it is 4x (well in fact one of the fathers of the 4x genre).

When I read the Firaxis announcement that they were developing Civilization 5 my heart started to beat faster and my emotions started to rise just to think how wonderful it will be to explore the Civilization world once again.

Evolution of the Civilization series in four pictures

Its remarkable how a game that in concept remained the same over and over, title after title is able to maintain a legion of fanatic fans after all this time. But what do you do of so extraordinary in Civilization games that people just love so much?

At game start you pick a nation and begin your humble beginnings with a single city. Then you start to explore the vicinity. The next step is to settle new cities and claim resources found nearby. You construct buildings and train armies. You conduct research and negotiate deals with your neighbours. And after dozens and dozens of decisions and many more actions you dazzle of how big your empire has grown and how the simple beginning has turned out to be a strong and vigorous empire ready to rival with all the other empires in the map.

This process makes people feel powerful and important and ultimately if you win you can’t help to feel a sense of validation for being able to have taken so many good decisions during the journey. Playing Civilization is pure problem solving, pure strategy and pure fun and that is why so many people like it so much.

These next 4 pictures illustrate the Civilization series evolution (click on them to enlarge). Note that although the graphics have been always improving the game remained basically the same. You have your map, cities, resources and armies and a user interface to help you administer your empire.

But now its time to talk about Civilization 5. First an introduction.

The Official Trailer

Or click here if you cannot see the trailer above.

So but what’s new in Civilization 5?

Judging from the official Civ 5 website the new Civ installment will provide better graphics, bigger battles, improved diplomacy and improved modability features, among other features.

Better Graphics

One of the things were Civilization has always become better and better is on its presentation. Civilization 5 will continue this legacy providing us with better looking graphics and a promised even better user interface.

Civilization 5: The best graphics the civ world as ever seen (image from civfanatics.com)

In the picture above we can see the most detailed terrain Civilization has ever offered with diverse vegetation, different water colors for rivers and seas. It looks promising.

No more squares, the map is now in hexagons

The units now move around the map through hex tiles instead of squares.

Civilization 5: Hexagon tiles instead of squares (image from civfanatics.com)

This is a nice improvement since the map will look better and cleaner, since now its easier to spot what is effectively connected and what is not. Besides that there are now 6 movement options instead of previous 8 (4 nominal directions + 4 diagonals).

Modified combat system and bigger battles

This is probably one of the aspects of Civilization that now will be much different. In the past the player attacked in stacks of troops, one at a turn. Remember the famous SoDs (Stacks of Doom?) where you massed up a gigantic army in a single square. This is no more.

Civilization 5: Troops laid in the battlefield (image from civfanatics.com)

In Civ5 there cannot be two units in the same terrain spot so now tactical combat gains a new  level since you have to spread your units across the map or battlefield with care. Melee and Cavalry units should be put upfront in the battle while archers and catapults are probably better placed behind the lines.

Other important features

Among others these are the improvements and features added (and removed) by the 5th installment of Civilization that I could gather (from civfanatics.com) :

• City states added (sort of like NPCs these are neutral factions that follow their independent agenda)
• Civ5 will be more moddable than before
• Religion and Espionage were removed (at least as we know it)
• Technology trade removed
• Distant troops like archers can attack from distance
• Units are no longer destroyed when they loose a battle, more emphasis is put in maintaining them than on creating new ones

Release Date

Civilization 5 is scheduled for release in Fall 2010. I don’t know about you but I know of  at least one game I’ll be playing by the end of this year. If it comes out this year I mean :) I wonder if Leonard Nimoy is returning for this one..

For more information check the official Civilization 5 site, the Firaxis website, 2K Games or the Civ Fanatics website, the place where Civ fanatics (like me) hang out to discuss about Civ.

Some may say that the key is in the complexity, others will defend that simpler is better others may even argue that realism is in important factor. So what is the right balance? What makes a good 4x space game economic model? And ultimately is that such a big deal?

Let’s look into some classic examples to try to find some answers to these questions.

Master of Orion I: local planetary management; simple processes

MOO presents production as a function of population and factories present in the planet. You allocate production using 5 sliders that represent the 5 areas where the player can invest: – Ships, Defense, Industry, Ecology and Technology. This allocation is done locally, i.e. on a planetary basis. It cannot get simpler than that. In addition to this, and for flexibility, the player may allocate up to 10% of the general wide net production to the empire reserves to spend on a particular planet to increase its production temporarily or to invest on global empire security.

Planet size determines the amount of population it may hold, and more population means more production. The Planet’s mineral quality has also a dramatic effect on production in terms of bonuses. The categories vary from: Ultra-poor, Poor, Normal, Rich and Ultra-Rich. And since everything in MOO is about production, planet quality is one, if not the most critical factor for success. Own the richer and bigger planets and you will be the ultimate power of the galaxy and the source of envy of your neighbors.

In MOO there is no tax concept and money can only be made by scrapping ships and bases or by diverting some production to empire reserves as explained above. Players pay maintenance for ships, spies, security and missile bases. This payment is not made from empire reserves but discounted directly from planetary production.

Master of Orion II: specialized economy; adds food and taxes

In MOO2, production is also a direct function of population but now it’s not generated uniformly and not spread into several investment categories: Ships, Defense, Industry, Ecology and Technology as in its predecessor MOO. In MOO2 the player can specialize into three main fields of labor: – food production, industry output and research on a planetary basis. For every million colonists there is one work unit and the player may distribute them among these three economy fields.

The food production introduces new a level of complexity in MOO2 economics since now the player has to worry that people don’t starve to death. The industry output is used to build any type of structure being it defense, ships or buildings; research directly contributes to the amount of production diverted to technology.

The main difference from MOO is the inclusion of a colony management system which allows the construction of buildings that affect production through bonus. As an example, the “Rob Miners Plant” building increases the base production of the planet by 10 and the production output of each population unit to +2. The planets quality remains a critical factor in MOO2.

In MOO2 there is a somewhat advanced tax concept. All citizens pay taxes (a fixed amount). Additionally the player can set an industry tax (0% to 50%) that halves industry output in favor of cash. Money can be used to accelerate production of buildings or ships and to hire leaders, a new concept in MOO2 – which are specialists that add further bonuses.

Players pay maintenance for ships, freighters (food trade), spies, tribute and leaders. This payment is discounted directly from empire treasury.

Galactic Civilizations II: global empire management with planetary focus; money has a new meaning

The Galactic Civilizations II approach is much different from MOO and MOO2. In the previous titles the economy is founded on top of population (more on MOO) and population and economic buildings (in MOO2). Money exists but is not an essential factor for MOO and MOO2 on building and researching things and is used for more indirect purposes like build-rush and maintenance. In other words, even without money the planets always produce as long as they have population and factories built on them. Industrial output has therefore nothing to do with the player’s economic income.

On the other hand GalCiv2 adds another level of complexity by requiring that production is paid with money. Production is still dependent on economic structures present in the planet (like factories) but this production is only potential production. To actually build and research stuff the player must allocate money from the global empire budget. Population does not contribute directly to production but indirectly through taxes. More population means more taxes a stronger economy and therefore more money can be spent on actual production.

As said above the player allocates money from the empire budget. It can do so into three areas using sliders that GalCiv2 calls: Social, Military and Research (you can see this in the picture below). By allocating money to the first (Social) the player diverts production to build all sorts of non-military buildings like factories, laboratories, space port, wonders etc. By focusing on the second area (Military) the player allocates production for building spaceships, the third (Research) allocates production to generate research points to investigate new technologies. Actual production is managed on an empire scale so if the player wants to build more social structures in the empire it puts more emphasis on the Social slider.

The pros and cons of this economic decision are clear. To alleviate the burden of planetary micromanagement, GalCiv2 developers decided to manage production on an empire scale in direct contrast with MOO and MOO2 where production was managed on a planetary basis. On the reverse side of the coin this caused some problems to gamers that liked to micromanage their planets. In one of the GalCiv2 expansions (Dark Avatar if I recall correctly) they blend the concept by introducing the “planet production focus” concept. In addition to the global empire sliders the players can now focus production on a planetary scale. As an example a player may decide to focus on Research on a global empire scale but decide to focus production on a particular planet for building spaceships and another planet to build social structures. This decision seemed to work because it brought a certain balance to the issue of planet management VS global empire management; at least I was happy with what they did.

The player can set taxes but only at an empire scale. More taxes means more money in the short term however the player must pay close attention so that the planets Morale does not get down from a certain level which in the long run will halve income. Money is used for everything: for production, to pay maintenance, tributes and to hurry buildings.

Sword of the Stars: return to local planetary management;

I don’t have so much in depth experience with SOTS as I do with the former titles since I’m not playing it for so much time yet (see what I meant with the “not noticing how economy works” so fast when I introduced this post?) so please correct me if you find any inaccuracies.

Having said this, SOTS presents a similar economy model as the original Master of Orion at least in what concerns local planetary management, the production scheme, the use of sliders to allocate production and the lack of colony city-building.

Production, like in MOO, is a function of both population and “infrastructure”: the SOTS designation for industrial output (or factories). Income comes in direct function of population, what is inferred to be due to taxation. There is no food concept in SOTS, as there was none also on MOO. The planetary budget (production) can be allocated to Trade, Terraforming, Infrastructure and Ship construction. Notice the resemblance with the MOO model where the player diverted production to Ecology (Terraforming), Industry (Infrastructure) and Ships (Ship construction). The Trade slider is new though since SOTS presents a clear separation between money (income) and production as MOO2 and GalCiv2 do.

Money is used to pay maintenance but primarily to spend on Research and cannot be used to hurry production in direct contrast with MOO2 and GalCiv2. In addition to this, SOTS does not offer a refined taxation concept, the player cannot set taxes.

Conclusions

After having dissecting these four classics economic models let’s see in what they agree on and where they go apart. After that let’s try to answer some questions here.  First the summary:

MOO:

• Production as a function of population, factories and planet quality
• Production is managed on a planetary basis
• No planetary city-building offered (no economic structures)
• Research is made by allocating global production
• Cannot set taxes
• Money is made by diverting production to empire reserves or by scrapping structures
• Money is used for empire security or to increase production in a planet with penalty
• Maintenance paid directly from planetary production

MOO2:

• Production is a function of population, economic structures (which includes factories), race traits and planet quality
• Production is managed on a planetary basis
• Offers planetary city-building features
• Research is made by allocating population to science (similar to MOO)
• Can set taxes at an empire scale (halves construction in favor of cash)
• Money is made from taxes, by constructing “trade goods” or by scrapping structures and can be used to hurry-buildings
• Money is used to accelerate buildings and ships construction and to hire leaders
• Maintenance is paid directly from empire treasury

GalCiv2:

• Production is a function of economic structures, planetary bonuses (planet quality), trait bonuses and funds allocation
• Production is managed on a global empire basis (with local planetary focus)
• Has planetary city-building
• Research is made using economic structures (labs) and by allocating funds
• Can set taxes at an empire scale (affects morale)
• Money is made primarily from taxes (from population) and trade
• Money is used to create production (buildings, ships and research)
• Maintenance is paid directly from empire treasury

SOTS:

• Production is a function of population and the level of infrastructure
• Production is managed on a planetary basis
• No planetary city-building (no economic structures)
• Research is made solely by allocating funds
• Cannot set taxes (fixed amount)
• Money is made from taxes and trade
• Money is used essentially for research
• Maintenance is paid directly from empire treasury

In conclusion there is one thing where all these games seem to agree on that is the notion that production shall outcome in one way or another from the amount of population present in the planet (the workforce) and the infrastructure level, being it the amount of factories or other economic structures. Only GalCiv2 deviates a bit from this concept. No matter the amount of population you have in a planet the only thing that matters in GalCiv2 is the amount of factories and the amount of money pumped from the empire budget to make them work. This does not seem to be very realistic at first because normally one may think that the more population you have the more production the planet should output. But in another hand one may think that it is not the amount of population or workforce that is important but the amount of infrastructure automation the planet has achieved. One has not to forget though that if you have no people to pay taxes you will not survive in the long run anyway, so the amount of population is kept as a crucial factor for success in GalCiv2 economy model.

Another interesting aspect where the four games this time don’t agree on has to do with research. In MOO and MOO2 research is just another area where the player can allocate production on and in this case it does not have anything to do with money. On the other hand, GalCiv2 and SOTS finance research directly with money. For these last two cases it does not matter that you have lots of labs and lots of population, if you don’t have money to finance research you will not be able to investigate new technologies, which in my opinion is realistic and makes perfect sense.

Than there are a series of other indirect factors in more or less amount depending on the game that affect the game economy. Usually they come in the form of positive or negative bonuses like race traits, empire bonuses, planetary quality, economic structures, morale, etc. These factors contribute in my opinion to the complexity of the economy model but not necessarily to the overall game enjoyment. MOO2 and GalCiv2 provide city-building features that allow players to build all sorts of economic, social or military structures on it. On the other hand MOO and SOTS do not offer this possibility which may frustrate the player avid for planetary micromanagement however it may fancy the players that like to focus more on other areas like spaceship design, research, and battles or like to manage from the “big chair” rather than focus too much attention to planet details.

As final conclusion of this little essay I say that the core of space game economics is normally common ground. The differences are on the details and where the game tends to focus more. Some players like the complexity others enjoy higher abstraction. So for me there is no ideal space game economy model but just one that works and that is ultimately fun to play. But if I would need to pick one I would choose GalCiv2′s model since it is the one that provides the right amount of balance: the player manages production in a global scale but can make small adjustments on a planetary basis.

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.

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.