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Main News about StarLife
- Thread starter tiagocc0
- Start date
Expand and Explore are overlapping a bit, but very cool nonetheless. 
Like, why a Explorer is Explore, but a Scout is Expand?
Ah, a explorer explore worlds, a Scout explores stars and watches your borders.
So a explorer is more like Federation ship on Star Trek, a science vessel, that you put in orbit of a planet and you explore it like in Eador when you use a hero to explore a province.
A Scout is faster and also stealth, so you are likely to use it to visit stars and watch your enemies so you know where you can expand.
EDIT: In StarLife we have set 4 types of ships, one of them is recent.
Explorer like I explained above is necessary to explore worlds, thus trigger events and also increase the amount of land your colonists can use. Pretty much like in Eador, but the events are more like those in King of Dragon Pass.
An explorer can go to neutral and friendly territories.
Scout can go anywhere, have the best radar/sensor range, detects attacking fleets and also helps your attacking fleets to infiltrate enemy territory as well as helps spies to infiltrate other empires.
Military can only go to friendly territories, that is because to attack you have to use the Attack Plan, you set your objective, your target, your fleet and where to return after the attack. So the game takes care of getting all your ships together and travelling into the enemy territory.
The enemy can spot your attacking fleet or their spies can learn about your attack plan and then make a Defense Plan, otherwise you are going to reach them unnoticed.
Transport is the last type, it's important because of how we set FTL in our universe.
FTL is possible, however at the start of the game it requires a huge engine, power source and a powerful hull so the ship can withstand the travel. So non-FTL ships are very small compared to FTL ships.
Transports are then the only way to transport goods/food/equipment/non-FTL ships to other solar systems.
So in the game you can plan the route where the transport will go, and it enters a loop.
This also works on how you can colonize planets, instead of making a colony ship, your population will start to migrate to other worlds on their own, you can make an advanced post or starbase there to help them, you can give incentives for them to go there or even pay them to help build the necessary infrastructure.
So the transport ship is very important since without it your population simply can't reach other places.
Because of the nature of FTL, ships are very expensive and you are likely to have a small fleet, since you can't mix the types like 'explorer/scout/transport with guns', then you have to think very well on how many ships of each type you will maintain.
Your empire will also grow slowly and within it's borders as opposed to the famous 'gold(colony) rush' of every other game in the genre. Your empire can't grow too much either, if it grows then it will likely end up splitting into two empires.
So a explorer is more like Federation ship on Star Trek, a science vessel, that you put in orbit of a planet and you explore it like in Eador when you use a hero to explore a province.
A Scout is faster and also stealth, so you are likely to use it to visit stars and watch your enemies so you know where you can expand.
EDIT: In StarLife we have set 4 types of ships, one of them is recent.
Explorer like I explained above is necessary to explore worlds, thus trigger events and also increase the amount of land your colonists can use. Pretty much like in Eador, but the events are more like those in King of Dragon Pass.
An explorer can go to neutral and friendly territories.
Scout can go anywhere, have the best radar/sensor range, detects attacking fleets and also helps your attacking fleets to infiltrate enemy territory as well as helps spies to infiltrate other empires.
Military can only go to friendly territories, that is because to attack you have to use the Attack Plan, you set your objective, your target, your fleet and where to return after the attack. So the game takes care of getting all your ships together and travelling into the enemy territory.
The enemy can spot your attacking fleet or their spies can learn about your attack plan and then make a Defense Plan, otherwise you are going to reach them unnoticed.
Transport is the last type, it's important because of how we set FTL in our universe.
FTL is possible, however at the start of the game it requires a huge engine, power source and a powerful hull so the ship can withstand the travel. So non-FTL ships are very small compared to FTL ships.
Transports are then the only way to transport goods/food/equipment/non-FTL ships to other solar systems.
So in the game you can plan the route where the transport will go, and it enters a loop.
This also works on how you can colonize planets, instead of making a colony ship, your population will start to migrate to other worlds on their own, you can make an advanced post or starbase there to help them, you can give incentives for them to go there or even pay them to help build the necessary infrastructure.
So the transport ship is very important since without it your population simply can't reach other places.
Because of the nature of FTL, ships are very expensive and you are likely to have a small fleet, since you can't mix the types like 'explorer/scout/transport with guns', then you have to think very well on how many ships of each type you will maintain.
Your empire will also grow slowly and within it's borders as opposed to the famous 'gold(colony) rush' of every other game in the genre. Your empire can't grow too much either, if it grows then it will likely end up splitting into two empires.
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Hi Jarl, we have made a change of plans, no Kickstarter until the demo is great, I got two weeks of vacation that I'm using to develop a tool to help the team get in contact with each other and I'm studying Scrum to apply it in our project.
So we are back into the game itself, with scrum I believe we will start to get things done a lot faster and with releases to show our progress.
So we are back into the game itself, with scrum I believe we will start to get things done a lot faster and with releases to show our progress.
Concerning your MOO1 vs MOO2 question, I think MOO2 planet management is more awe inspiring the first time around, but when you play for the 10th time, you really appreciate the streamlined planet management of MOO1. I'm not sure the pink Starlife logo conveys the atmosphere of the game that well 
exactly my feeling about moo1 and moo2
I'm trying to find a way to keep you busy the entire game on a meaningful task
while moo1 is great when replaying the game, it is still something I find too simple
while moo2 is great for first time players, it is incredible boring and unnecessary after you 'get' the game
starlife will be more like moo2 in having options, but it won't have the same options as moo2, hopefully it will make it more interesting than moo1 and less boring than moo2
the pink logo you mean is the one with a star above and a planet below? it was more like an experiment, I will be using the background in the game, not the logo
I'm trying to find a way to keep you busy the entire game on a meaningful task
while moo1 is great when replaying the game, it is still something I find too simple
while moo2 is great for first time players, it is incredible boring and unnecessary after you 'get' the game
starlife will be more like moo2 in having options, but it won't have the same options as moo2, hopefully it will make it more interesting than moo1 and less boring than moo2
the pink logo you mean is the one with a star above and a planet below? it was more like an experiment, I will be using the background in the game, not the logo
Surf Solar
cannot into womynz
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2011
- Messages
- 8,831
Thanks.
Right now I'm working on a project management tool based on scrum so the game still looks the same, the tool however will be used inside the game by the team and also those interested in seeing the progress of the game.
I will also use it on my job so the progress is going great since I can work on it all day.
The intention is to release it's source code later so people can keep improving it or use it however they would like.
Here are some screenshots:
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Foda.
Fixed the most recent screenshots, I've been trying out some host options and just moved from a ubuntu server with apache, mysql and wordpress to a centos with nginx, mariadb and wordpress. I have to find my old backups so I can restore all the images.. 
General Maxson
Arcane
Fixed the most recent screenshots, I've been trying out some host options and just moved from a ubuntu server with apache, mysql and wordpress to a centos with nginx, mariadb and wordpress. I have to find my old backups so I can restore all the images..
Bro where can I see a single screenshot of your game?
What I read on your game site seems really promising, I hope it doesn't turn into a vaporware. We need a good space 4x. Well I do anyway. Hope you make quite a bit of random events, monsters and interesting stuff to explore and find. :D
Until I can finish the site (again, sorry =P) you can check screenshots here:
http://www.indiedb.com/games/starlife
And here is a video showing the combat:
https://vimeo.com/54759001
http://www.indiedb.com/games/starlife
And here is a video showing the combat:
https://vimeo.com/54759001
General Maxson
Arcane
Whoa man, it looks great. I don't like indie games with boring "excel spreadsheet" graphics (graphicswhore
) but your game look charming, and when going for that 2d indie look, one should have nice art design in the game (artwork is important too), and I think you succeeded in both cases. Quality work man, can't wait to hear more about your game. Can it be purchased yet?Edit: pre-ordered I mean, to help you fund it etc.
Thanks!
Can't buy it yet because it is still pretty much a prototype but we are looking into a doing a kickstarter campaign or self publish when we reach beta. For now the development is very slow since I'm working on a regular job but if we do get the fund necessary I will be able to work on it full time.
Can't buy it yet because it is still pretty much a prototype but we are looking into a doing a kickstarter campaign or self publish when we reach beta. For now the development is very slow since I'm working on a regular job but if we do get the fund necessary I will be able to work on it full time.
General Maxson
Arcane
Good luck bro, your ideas are spot on and just what we needed for all these long years - a successful "heir" to MoO (and by this I mean a great space 4x in it's own right). Hopefully it won't take 10 years. But even then, it's better than never.
I've been disappointed with everything so far, although quite a few space 4x and even fantasy 4x games have come out (only in the last few years though, it was a drought for a long time). Unfortunately they all can't capture the awesomeness of MoO or MoM. Most of them were quite boring/soulless/sterile for my taste, and I think that good attention to randomization, backstories, races, interesting technology and research, events, and an interesting "weird" universe with monsters and lost civilizations are what games need to have "magic" of yesteryear games (prolly one of the reasons old games have that "magic" for me), along with improvements of today.
Do you draw any ideas form Star Control 2? What kind of a setting will StarLife have, at least generally speaking. More of a sci-fi I'm constantly ranting about, or more "sterile" approach, like "realistic" stuff etc.?
I get what you are saying, I feel the same.
StarLife is more like a boardgame than a realistic game, with really simple rules that the player can use to make complex strategies instead of too much stuff with almost no feedback and too little variation.
I played Star Control 2 and I like how it set their races and story and everything around that.
One thing that I really want to do is to create a very big galaxy at the start of the game with small, medium and large empires already set, so the player has to try to survive among the chaos, so it would look like Star Control 2 a bit and it's where I'm aiming at.
About the story, I still don't know exactly how I want to approach it.
But I aiming for different races, like in their mechanics instead of just changing some variables and images.
For example The Empire is a sterile race that was engineered for combat, they transform other races into their own. (Like the Borgs)
But for them, they can't just expand and destroy, they need others to survive and they make raids to other races periodically, but they know they can't attack too much or they risk a war and losing their prey, at the same time other races let them raid sometimes since they were made for combat so they don't want to start a war. So it becomes an interesting race to play, you are a scary race that needs to strive for moderation or you will end up dead.
Another race is The One, it's a robot race, but in reality it is just a super computer that operated all robot workers from an advanced race, that race disappeared and it kept doing it's chores of cleaning up and maintaining everything, with time it's worker robots started to decay and stop working. Until the super computer started to become aware and started doing new robots and formed it's own empire.
So you don't have population in the same sense as the other races, yet since it's a super computer and it can't replicate itself (at the beginning), if you lose your homeworld you lose the war, and until it can upgrade itself it has a limited amount of resources it can manage.
I want to avoid things like humans being at the center of the story or that humans have something in common with another race.
Humans are just another race and there is no main race in the game, some will have some story with another race but it in the end the game is about them discovering each other and forming alliances and then even bigger groups to stay alive.
Like in King of Dragon Pass when you have to form a tribe and later you form a kingdom made of tribes.
This happens because expansion will be limited in StarLife, you can't grow too much, if you do you will end up losing your farther colonies as they go independent of join other empires. So the only way to stay safe is to join others.
StarLife is more like a boardgame than a realistic game, with really simple rules that the player can use to make complex strategies instead of too much stuff with almost no feedback and too little variation.
I played Star Control 2 and I like how it set their races and story and everything around that.
One thing that I really want to do is to create a very big galaxy at the start of the game with small, medium and large empires already set, so the player has to try to survive among the chaos, so it would look like Star Control 2 a bit and it's where I'm aiming at.
About the story, I still don't know exactly how I want to approach it.
But I aiming for different races, like in their mechanics instead of just changing some variables and images.
For example The Empire is a sterile race that was engineered for combat, they transform other races into their own. (Like the Borgs)
But for them, they can't just expand and destroy, they need others to survive and they make raids to other races periodically, but they know they can't attack too much or they risk a war and losing their prey, at the same time other races let them raid sometimes since they were made for combat so they don't want to start a war. So it becomes an interesting race to play, you are a scary race that needs to strive for moderation or you will end up dead.
Another race is The One, it's a robot race, but in reality it is just a super computer that operated all robot workers from an advanced race, that race disappeared and it kept doing it's chores of cleaning up and maintaining everything, with time it's worker robots started to decay and stop working. Until the super computer started to become aware and started doing new robots and formed it's own empire.
So you don't have population in the same sense as the other races, yet since it's a super computer and it can't replicate itself (at the beginning), if you lose your homeworld you lose the war, and until it can upgrade itself it has a limited amount of resources it can manage.
I want to avoid things like humans being at the center of the story or that humans have something in common with another race.
Humans are just another race and there is no main race in the game, some will have some story with another race but it in the end the game is about them discovering each other and forming alliances and then even bigger groups to stay alive.
Like in King of Dragon Pass when you have to form a tribe and later you form a kingdom made of tribes.
This happens because expansion will be limited in StarLife, you can't grow too much, if you do you will end up losing your farther colonies as they go independent of join other empires. So the only way to stay safe is to join others.
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General Maxson
Arcane
Why aim for a story in a 4x at all? Good and interesting backstories and randomization should do the trick? Does MoO even have a "story"? I played GalCiv 2 and campaign sucks. Don't want to say it can't be done in an interesting way, but it's unnecessary IMO. The Orion guardian "story" and Antarans is just an interesting game mechanics and world flavor (long extinct "uber" race whose lost planet you discover, and a powerful "evil" enemy you must struggle against etc.)...
I'll contribute to your KS, just prepare it thoroughly, unfortunately presentation and marketing are more important than quality there (which is also important, especially since you're indie). Ask for help and advice. And be sure to spam around when it starts on various sites, no matter how insignificant, it's important to gain momentum even before the campaign starts. I know it's probably unnecessary for me to give you advice, but I would hate to see this fail and/or become another hopeful vaporware...
Yep, probably no story would be better.
I kind of liked how campaigns played in Starcraft 1 and Kohan so if I try would be because of that, but if done it would be the last thing that I do so everything else would be already ready and working.
I'm always open for advice! I got a lot of help from two members of my team regarding KS so it already has great quality, our main artist also did a great job on it for the concept art.
I'm just a bit worried about the video, since it needs to be me and I'm shy as hell and my English isn't that great.
But since we plan on releasing a demo for the KS campaign I think it will add a lot of value to it.
I kind of liked how campaigns played in Starcraft 1 and Kohan so if I try would be because of that, but if done it would be the last thing that I do so everything else would be already ready and working.
I'm always open for advice! I got a lot of help from two members of my team regarding KS so it already has great quality, our main artist also did a great job on it for the concept art.
I'm just a bit worried about the video, since it needs to be me and I'm shy as hell and my English isn't that great.
But since we plan on releasing a demo for the KS campaign I think it will add a lot of value to it.
General Maxson
Arcane
Practice bro! Educate yourself (about how to pitch a game on KS video), and give away the aura of confidence. I know, easy for me to say. But you need to look confident and like you know what you're doing otherwise it won't be successful. Maybe you should consider also indiegogo and its flexible funding. In case you have a large sum of $ as a KS goal. If you have interesting and communicative colleagues working on a game, include them also. It will make for a more interesting pitch than a single guy droning away (I hope you will manage to make it interesting). Maybe ask felipepepe to help you make a cool video if he's willing. But I think the most important thing is for you to spread the word about your game wherever possible so people hear about it a bit before the KS starts. Most of the funding fails because not enough people hear about it, especially small indie teams.
That's true.
We are going to make a buzz, I plan on going to steam greenlight when we start to get close to the KS campaign.
But before that I want to make something that I can show, for now it looks good on screenshots but once it is playable, like FTL was on it's campaign, then I will be confident to make a lot of buzz.
We considered indiegogo, but for now KS seems a bit better.
I practiced a lot, it was starting to look good, but in the end I wasn't able to find a good place to film, so for now I'm still looking for a good place so I can resume practicing and finish the video.
We are going to make a buzz, I plan on going to steam greenlight when we start to get close to the KS campaign.
But before that I want to make something that I can show, for now it looks good on screenshots but once it is playable, like FTL was on it's campaign, then I will be confident to make a lot of buzz.
We considered indiegogo, but for now KS seems a bit better.
I practiced a lot, it was starting to look good, but in the end I wasn't able to find a good place to film, so for now I'm still looking for a good place so I can resume practicing and finish the video.
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