Last night, I got this weird idea for a game. I am not going to create this game... yet... maybe some time within the next twenty years, but for now it''s just an idea. Let''s say you take elements of The Sims, Sim City, Hitman, C&C, B&W, and real-life. What do you get? D.O.P. Drunk On Power. In this game, you are the leader of a brand new country and you must lead your country from third world to first. What type of leader are you? An elected official or ruthless tyrant? Are you serving a four year term or are you dictator for life? Communist or capitalist? Good or evil? Emperor or President of a Democracy? The choices are up to you and your people. In the single player game, you''d play the part of the leader. Your cabinet would be around you at all times. You would tell them changes to make in the economy, peace with nations, weapons research and development, scientific research, projects to work on, where to send the armies, enlist more troops, and more. You could even punish your people by bringing down the value of your currency, taking away their food, giving them no rights, or using your armies to kill non-followers off. You must do what you must to protect the integrity of your country. For weapons research and development, you could build weapons you already know about, like small arms. However, other weapons, like nuclear technology, you''d have to research. You can also create different parts of the military, like a navy and air force. For science, you could pump oil, create a space program, research a specific area in your country to see if there are resources you could use, and more. The space program could be used to build different types of satellites, including scientific research, spy, and more. Scientific research satellites would help you expand your science program to study other planets and other parts of the earth. Scientific research satellites would only require the space program. Spy satellites would help you look at other countries around the world to see what they''re up to, and if they''re thinking of attacking you. Spy satellites would require the space program and a spy program in your military. Each thing you build for your country would require other things to be researched, like in Strategy games. Building your country, of course, would be another important part. You''d need to set taxes, what items you''re going to tax, what type of economy you''re going to have, and more. If you have a communist government, you hire the workers yourself or have a cabinet member do it for you. If you have a capitalist society, people will start up their own business. Both have their ups and downs. Then you need to make sure that there is enough housing in your country, so you''d need to build houses. You need food, so you''d build farms. Once people start coming to your country, you can build other things that will help you increase the number of the jobs and thus the popularity of your country. Once you have enough money, of course, you start to build the heavy stuff, like forming a military and building a weapons research/development center. If you set it to auto build it will make sure that a certain number of troops will always have weapons. You can then trade your weapons around the world to get even more cash flow. Then your military is ready. Of course, like all good strategy/sim games, there''d be plenty more to build. Different types of housing like appartment buildings, hotels, and mansions. Different types of weapon research centers like air and water. Scientific buildings including basic scientific research centers, power plants, mining stations, space stations, and more. Normal research centers always research the most basic things which lead to being able to build more complicated buildings which leads to researching more advanced things, like any good strategy game. Now you''re problably wondering, "What''s so special about this game?" The fact that you are actually in it. You play the game in the third person. You can go around town, talking with people, watch over your armies from somewhere besides your laptop or television, partake in battle, travel to other countries, and if your citizens don''t like you, you can even get sniped. The world is living, and you are part of it. Of course, there would be multiplayer via Network or Internet connection. It''d be single player Massively Multiplayer of course so several countries could be governed at the same time. Players could declare war on each other, trade with each other, spy on each other, and even set other countries up by researching their or stealing their custom weapons and firing it at another country they don''t like. Then the researchers would find that it was the weapon of the other country and they''d go to war as you sat back and laughed. While they were defenseless and weak, you move in and conquer both of them. But not just your armies. You. You literally take your character, your armies behind you, and march into your enemy countries to conquer them. This is just the broad idea of my game. As I said before, I am not going to make it, but if you''d like a shot at it go right ahead. I get a lot of crazy game ideas like this, it''s just this is the best one in a long time. Donchya think?

Not to rain on your parade too much... But the only thing that I see that's any different from games like Civilizations 3 and all is that you can walk around your country and actually have a corporeal presence. Wouldn't this kinda take away from the game though? You find you've got some rebels in the country, then before you get a chance to do anything about it they assassinate you. Game over. You can talk to people, but again, you can get the peoples' opinions in current games. Only difference would be that you could get involved in their personal lives, but who would want to? You've got more important concerns. And again, with the multiplayer aspects.... Massively multiplayer? Would I really want to play in the game if there was a consistent gamestate? That'd mean that the other players who'd been in there longer could easily come in and destroy my country before I had to chance to get anywhere in the game. Ignoring that, have you ever heard of a head of state leading his armies into battle? You'd be the prime target. Take the leader out, the rest of the country's outta the game. Hell, even in the medieval times the leaders of the armies didn't actually take to the front lines.

Sorry, that may have been a little harsh... I'm just trying to figure out ways that a game like this could be made to work. I'd love to hear more ideas from you about how you could take care of some of these potential problems. This does sound like a game that could be great if it could be balanced nicely.

[edited by - Melraidin on June 29, 2002 1:14:05 PM]

Whp says you couldn''t be armed to the teeth? It''s very complicated, and as I said, I''m not making it. It''d still need a lot of work. As for preventing assassination, you''d have bodyguards to take bullets for you, and if you lose your power, you can work up a private militia to gain it back. It''s just my imagination running ahead of me again. For now, though, I''m sticking with NightRise.

I had an idea a little similar to this a while back, but there''s no way I''ll ever be able to do it so I might as well post it.

The basic idea is a pure-multiplayer ''virtual nation.'' Players can join, ''live'' in the nation (try to make money, I guess), and - most importantly - stand for election as leader.

The leader can place laws, taxes, and so on and so forth to achieve the goal of the leader (which is.. I dunno.. to get re-elected, I guess).

Every now and then the game throws up random events; bad crop harvests, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, etc, etc.

Practically, people would be able to buy the server-side software to run small nations - say, on their websites, or on a LAN.

Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net

This sounds a lot like Republic actually. In that game, you become friends with different people in the city and then you can have them accomplish tasks for you, on your rise to power. It''s got a HUGE game world, and millions of simulated AI''s living out their daily lives.


Anyway, pretty neat idea, but as you said, it''s never going to get made

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Original post by Magic Card
Whp says you couldn''t be armed to the teeth?

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Armament takes time. You were the one who said the player would start out with a third world country, so it''s illogical for such a nation to be armed to the teeth. Furthermore, with more pressing economic concerns, spending an overly significant portion of the budget on arms would be irresponsible and would come back to bite you in the ass - like the USSR/Russia.

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As for preventing assassination, you''d have bodyguards to take bullets for you...

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Security can always be compromised. Always.

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...and if you lose your power, you can work up a private militia to gain it back.

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Funding? Location? Training facilities?

I''m not in the least bit against the idea, but it''s not coherent - probably because you haven''t stopped to ponder the realities of modern geopolitics.

I think you might enjoy this thread: Online game idea - politics & conquest.

virtual world?
for ppl who dont have a good life?
those ppl will die cuz of too long playing this game?
the makers get screwed?

just a thought.

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Original post by Melraidin
Massively multiplayer? Would I really want to play in the game if there was a consistent gamestate? That''d mean that the other players who''d been in there longer could easily come in and destroy my country before I had to chance to get anywhere in the game.

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10Six, anyone? And some MM web-based games, like ArchMage. First, it would help breed alliances among players, leaving some of your own troops in another''s nation to help protect... a grace period of x amount of time where you can''t be attacked, although that would require territorial boundaries and a game mechanic that supported it--for instance, say the player is given a certain amount of territory to start and then a forcefield is placed around it. Do you allow the player to expand beyond his forcefield in his grace period? If so, is the field resized/reshaped to support this, or is he at his neighbors'' mercy when he steps out?

I think it''s a workable idea... I just think it would take some careful planning to keep it balanced and fun for everyone.

Sounds like Tropico

How long could the grace period be? I mean, you''ve got people who''ve been in there playing for ages, have a massive country, and could easily decimate any beginner. So a grace period would seem to take care of that.... But the beginner would never be able to catch up to the person whose played longer. So once the grace period expires, the beginner''s at the mercy of the more experienced players. There doesn''t seem to be much use of an alliance between an expert and a beginner, unless the beginner wants to give up resources to the expert, which would of course end up limiting the beginner''s play before they''ve even advanced very far into the game.