Tech Tree Mindmap & Mechanics
Jul 28, 2015 15:30:20 GMT
Lord Ba'al, 13thGeneral, and 3 more like this
Post by Roumsen on Jul 28, 2015 15:30:20 GMT
Hey guys, Crytivo, respectively the lead game designer just unveiled some great stuff regarding the research mechanics. But first an early concept gif and a nice video.
Now let's go!
Have fun! Regards
Now let's go!
Overview
Research mechanics will not be very different from most RTS or 4X games. There is a tech tree, the player chooses what tech to start researching, and after paying a price in resources and waiting an amount of time, that research is unlocked.
Description
The research tree is composed by a radial web of researches. They start at the middle and are divided in 3 categories:
Adaptation: unlocks fire, clothing...
Expansion: researches like exploration and happiness upgrades
Resource management: these researches unlock better harvesting/gathering and stockpiling of resources.
At the beginning, only parents are shown. Unlocking a parent grants access to the next parents, plus the children inside of it.
Not all techs are shown from the beginning. Only the researched ones and one level above it.
Mechanics
Once a parent research is clicked, the unlocking will begin. Each research will be discovered after a time assigned by its CORE (COllective REsearch) value (which is quite low) and after spending a set amount of resources (wood, stone, etc).
Parents give minor effects. Way less than the childs, which are used to specialise. Example: Tools (parent, needs 15 wood, 10 stone and 15NWs) gives +10% resource gathering speed. Pickaxes (tool's child, needs 40 COREs and no resources) give an additional 15% to mining speed, but nothing to the other gathering speeds.
Once the parent research is finished, the child techs will appear inside it. They only require COREs to unlock, not resources. Example:
The player chooses to unlock the one at the bottom, which expands and shows the childs and the next tier:
One CORE is calculated off the total population's collective intellect, based off the table in the corresponding documentation.
The total weekly COREs can be shown in the tech tree interface.
Research completion is checked every week, rounded up. Week fractions are not taken into account.
Example:
Discovering Fire needs 380 COREs. If there is a population of 10 with an average intellect of 20 points, it will be discovered at the end of the 4th week.
The minimum research time is always 1 week, and overflow is not take into account.
A player can click any other tech to queue several techs. A number will appear on the tech icon showing what number it is in the queue.
If the player wants to remove a tech from the queue, he/she just has to hover over the queue number and a red X appears. If clicked, that tech is removed.
Resources are taken immediately, once the player clicks the tech. If there are not enough resources, the research will not start, and an alert will appear.
If the research is cancelled, resources are fully refunded, but the invested COREs are lost
Parents and children can be queued.
Once a research is completed, a news is displayed. Clicking it opens the tech tree. If there is a queued tech, research will begin immediately.
An urgent news will be displayed if there are no queued techs.
Clicking on a locked tech where the pre-reqs have not been discovered, will queue up to the chosen tech, starting immediately.
At the beginning, only two techs can be queued (the current and one more). To queue more, the player has to research and build science buildings.
There is only one science building per era, and they are unique, meaning you can only build one each.
MindMap
Blue circles are Parents, hexagons are childs
Research mechanics will not be very different from most RTS or 4X games. There is a tech tree, the player chooses what tech to start researching, and after paying a price in resources and waiting an amount of time, that research is unlocked.
Description
The research tree is composed by a radial web of researches. They start at the middle and are divided in 3 categories:
Adaptation: unlocks fire, clothing...
Expansion: researches like exploration and happiness upgrades
Resource management: these researches unlock better harvesting/gathering and stockpiling of resources.
At the beginning, only parents are shown. Unlocking a parent grants access to the next parents, plus the children inside of it.
Not all techs are shown from the beginning. Only the researched ones and one level above it.
Mechanics
Once a parent research is clicked, the unlocking will begin. Each research will be discovered after a time assigned by its CORE (COllective REsearch) value (which is quite low) and after spending a set amount of resources (wood, stone, etc).
Parents give minor effects. Way less than the childs, which are used to specialise. Example: Tools (parent, needs 15 wood, 10 stone and 15NWs) gives +10% resource gathering speed. Pickaxes (tool's child, needs 40 COREs and no resources) give an additional 15% to mining speed, but nothing to the other gathering speeds.
Once the parent research is finished, the child techs will appear inside it. They only require COREs to unlock, not resources. Example:
The player chooses to unlock the one at the bottom, which expands and shows the childs and the next tier:
One CORE is calculated off the total population's collective intellect, based off the table in the corresponding documentation.
The total weekly COREs can be shown in the tech tree interface.
Research completion is checked every week, rounded up. Week fractions are not taken into account.
Example:
Discovering Fire needs 380 COREs. If there is a population of 10 with an average intellect of 20 points, it will be discovered at the end of the 4th week.
The minimum research time is always 1 week, and overflow is not take into account.
A player can click any other tech to queue several techs. A number will appear on the tech icon showing what number it is in the queue.
If the player wants to remove a tech from the queue, he/she just has to hover over the queue number and a red X appears. If clicked, that tech is removed.
Resources are taken immediately, once the player clicks the tech. If there are not enough resources, the research will not start, and an alert will appear.
If the research is cancelled, resources are fully refunded, but the invested COREs are lost
Parents and children can be queued.
Once a research is completed, a news is displayed. Clicking it opens the tech tree. If there is a queued tech, research will begin immediately.
An urgent news will be displayed if there are no queued techs.
Clicking on a locked tech where the pre-reqs have not been discovered, will queue up to the chosen tech, starting immediately.
At the beginning, only two techs can be queued (the current and one more). To queue more, the player has to research and build science buildings.
There is only one science building per era, and they are unique, meaning you can only build one each.
MindMap
Blue circles are Parents, hexagons are childs
Have fun! Regards
Feel free to move it, if there is a place where it actually should be.
