Fantastic work, thank you so much for keeping it going!!! What are the ways to support this work other than playing it? :)
And what's the best way to learn how to play?
If you like the game, please tell about it to your friends. Also please suggest features/things which you would think would be cool to have in game. Of course you can also participate into developing process in github if you are interested. Also writing reviews or making youtube videos about it would be very cool.
Best way to learn to play? I think there are there ways to learn it:
1. Just play it and try different things.
2. Play it with tutorial(This should be players which are new, but I am not sure how good tutorial is. Tutorial instructions depends on what happens in tutorial game and instructions are little bit different depending on that. Of course all tutorial text are also visible in help menu.)
3. Watch let's play videos made by me for older versions( [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2tzt2KRkhE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2tzt2KRkhE) )
There is also official wiki pages in github: [https://github.com/tuomount/Open-Realms-of-Stars/wiki](https://github.com/tuomount/Open-Realms-of-Stars/wiki) but that is more like reference guide. I think best way to learn things depends highly on person.
AI that does not cheat. AI plays with same rules as human player and they do not gang up against human but they try to make their own realm as strong as possible. This means that AI does not have full knowledge of the map nor it does not get any extra bonus. AI also remembers how it was treated during game and it should do rational diplomacy. AI could be better, but saying better AI is easier said that done. I know it has some limitations in exploration and combat specially when attacking against star bases.
Single player only. This design was made at the start and reason for this is that diplomacy can be more like conversion and not just demands or offers given to others. ORoS also requires that there is line of sight in order to have diplomacy. This forces sending scouts/spies or some ships to opponent in order to have diplomacy.
Diplomacy. Game has separate diplomacy screen where realms can trade technology, maps, artifacts, ships and planets. Diplomatic relations vary from war, trade war, peace, trade alliance, defensive pact and alliance. Realm can be in alliance only with one another realm and they may win the game together. Diplomacy is also more than just diplomacy screen. Each 20 turns GBNC will release a galaxy wide study, which also has estimation of each realm's military power. Realms can lie amount of military power they have, lower or higher. Now if enemy does not have intelligence, it does not have other estimate how strong other is. Spies with leader can also do espionage missions which allows doing different kind of sabotage or even try make you look better in eyes of another realm. There are also Galactic Olympics where each realm can decide if they want to participate. Organizer and those whom participate like each other more but those which boycotted like each other more, but organizer does not like them.
Meaningful combat. Single player also allows to have playable combats turn based combats. Each ships has certain components and those components can break during combat. It takes at least one star year to fix(if you are on your own planet), otherwise it fixes just one hull point per star year. If component breaks it cannot be used until it has been fixed. If ships energy source goes done, then all other components that draw energy from it stops function. So with a lucky shot you can blast enemy's fusion source and then it cannot do anything, unless it has some system that does not require energy like armor, cannons or missiles. Ships are designed almost freely, hull basically limits how many components there can be fitted. So it is important to see what component enemy has and how your design fight against them.
Research is something concrete. There are 6 different research categories and each of them is research simultaneous, but you can alter how much focusing on certain field. When you research something it is usually new ship component or planetary improvement to build. There are only very few that give some simple bonus for something and those bonus should be significant. Not typical +5% for something.
Game should tell a story of your realm and how it survives in the galaxy. At end of the game there is recap and textual story for each realm. It is totally possible that there are some realms you do not meet during in the game(They could be on other side of the galaxy), but they still will have some story to told after the game.
Wow, that sounds awesome, especially how the turn-based combat and diplomacy work. I also like that research is mostly about giving you something concrete instead of just making numbers go up more.
Fantastic work, thank you so much for keeping it going!!! What are the ways to support this work other than playing it? :) And what's the best way to learn how to play?
If you like the game, please tell about it to your friends. Also please suggest features/things which you would think would be cool to have in game. Of course you can also participate into developing process in github if you are interested. Also writing reviews or making youtube videos about it would be very cool. Best way to learn to play? I think there are there ways to learn it: 1. Just play it and try different things. 2. Play it with tutorial(This should be players which are new, but I am not sure how good tutorial is. Tutorial instructions depends on what happens in tutorial game and instructions are little bit different depending on that. Of course all tutorial text are also visible in help menu.) 3. Watch let's play videos made by me for older versions( [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2tzt2KRkhE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2tzt2KRkhE) ) There is also official wiki pages in github: [https://github.com/tuomount/Open-Realms-of-Stars/wiki](https://github.com/tuomount/Open-Realms-of-Stars/wiki) but that is more like reference guide. I think best way to learn things depends highly on person.
OK, thanks and best wishes for continued development of this great-looking game!
Can you describe the main selling points of the game?
AI that does not cheat. AI plays with same rules as human player and they do not gang up against human but they try to make their own realm as strong as possible. This means that AI does not have full knowledge of the map nor it does not get any extra bonus. AI also remembers how it was treated during game and it should do rational diplomacy. AI could be better, but saying better AI is easier said that done. I know it has some limitations in exploration and combat specially when attacking against star bases. Single player only. This design was made at the start and reason for this is that diplomacy can be more like conversion and not just demands or offers given to others. ORoS also requires that there is line of sight in order to have diplomacy. This forces sending scouts/spies or some ships to opponent in order to have diplomacy. Diplomacy. Game has separate diplomacy screen where realms can trade technology, maps, artifacts, ships and planets. Diplomatic relations vary from war, trade war, peace, trade alliance, defensive pact and alliance. Realm can be in alliance only with one another realm and they may win the game together. Diplomacy is also more than just diplomacy screen. Each 20 turns GBNC will release a galaxy wide study, which also has estimation of each realm's military power. Realms can lie amount of military power they have, lower or higher. Now if enemy does not have intelligence, it does not have other estimate how strong other is. Spies with leader can also do espionage missions which allows doing different kind of sabotage or even try make you look better in eyes of another realm. There are also Galactic Olympics where each realm can decide if they want to participate. Organizer and those whom participate like each other more but those which boycotted like each other more, but organizer does not like them. Meaningful combat. Single player also allows to have playable combats turn based combats. Each ships has certain components and those components can break during combat. It takes at least one star year to fix(if you are on your own planet), otherwise it fixes just one hull point per star year. If component breaks it cannot be used until it has been fixed. If ships energy source goes done, then all other components that draw energy from it stops function. So with a lucky shot you can blast enemy's fusion source and then it cannot do anything, unless it has some system that does not require energy like armor, cannons or missiles. Ships are designed almost freely, hull basically limits how many components there can be fitted. So it is important to see what component enemy has and how your design fight against them. Research is something concrete. There are 6 different research categories and each of them is research simultaneous, but you can alter how much focusing on certain field. When you research something it is usually new ship component or planetary improvement to build. There are only very few that give some simple bonus for something and those bonus should be significant. Not typical +5% for something. Game should tell a story of your realm and how it survives in the galaxy. At end of the game there is recap and textual story for each realm. It is totally possible that there are some realms you do not meet during in the game(They could be on other side of the galaxy), but they still will have some story to told after the game.
Wow, that sounds awesome, especially how the turn-based combat and diplomacy work. I also like that research is mostly about giving you something concrete instead of just making numbers go up more.
What are your inspirations? It sure has me thinking of Aurora and *Stars!*
50% correct! Biggest inspirations were Stars! and Galactic Civilization II.