Greetings,
Since i need some help figuring out how to complete the game design of a game i'm working on, WorldBase, i'd like you fellow forum members to take a look at what i've got so far and tell me what you think should be changed/added to it.

-------------------------------Design info starts here-------------------------

WorldBase is an evolving sandbox with emphasis on user-created Worlds (or sandboxes). The game itself has no proper plot unless a world defines one, so you end up deciding on your goals and do whatever you like.

You initially belong to a Community, but may join other communities or quit your active community. There are advantages to belonging to a community, such as access to further education in the form of technologies as long as those technologies were discovered/learned by that Community.

Communities have a leader, who decides the primary focus of the community and how that community may expand, along with taking care of diplomacy towards other communities. The Leader may either be a NPC or a Player. Diplomacy is decided from actions from other communities' members that affect this Community.

You also start with at least one basic technology that allows you to do basic things and may acquire further technologies either by discovering them (by passing on a condition), or paying people to teach you those technologies.

A player may define, on an editor, playable species, technologies (which include Tasks, Goals, Buildings, Skills, and Objects), Resource Pools (as in, sources of a certain Resource), including Resource Types, and the usual world editor-stuff like props, spawn locations, NPCs and geometry, and after laying out everything they may export the world and therefore start playing the game.

Tasks are a form of interacting with the world and therefore you depend on them to do things. Goals, on the other hand, are... Goals, things to achieve. You don't have to get rewarded to do them. You can do them for your own amusement, even. You can also repeat said Goals most of the time. They're the main focus of the AI, since NPCs will be following goals as the main simulation focus.

Buildings can be built by Beings (NPCs and Players), and may perform various things ranging from a simple small house that you use to store your things, to huge factories that produce plenty of Objects. It all depends on the World, of course.

Buildings are built in a Settlers-style, where the building just slowly pops out of the ground until it is complete. Players and/or NPCs may request other Players and/or NPCs to aid in the construction to speed it up.

Objects are pretty much anything Beings can interact with, be it food or weapons. Beings may produce some Objects, too.

Skills are a special form of Tasks that, on use, spend some form of energy like Fatigue, and are used to perform something like producing an Object.

Technologies may be discovered when a certain condition passes. E.g., When a village gets 20 buildings, they could discover (unlock) a better Construction technology.

There are also World Characteristics. These are Creator-made and are used mainly to qualify something while decision-making. Let's say that there's an Economy Characteristic, and a certain Building has a 0-Star Economy Characteristic. In that case, a Being may be more interested in purchasing another certain Building with at least 1-Star Economy Characteristic, depending on their Desire.

Desires are another form of Goals, but are more long-term than Goals by default. A Being may initially have a Desire for World Domination and Economical Safety and therefore attempt to sabotage their way to the top while producing a lot of Money.

Regaring gameplay, the game would be played either in first- or third-person, with the player being able to change cameras at any time, and movement and combat and such would be Fable-style.

------------------------------------End Design stuff------------------------

Well, i think i've summed it up pretty much. As you can see it's a pretty complex idea and that's why i'm having such a hard time completing it. What would you change if you could?

[Edited by - Little Coding Fox on August 26, 2010 12:31:21 PM]

Sounds extremely complex and also a lot like Spore, but with some improvements in freedom and user created content.

You might want to add in how the player will move around the world and interact with other players/NPCs. How do the players build buildings? Like Mincraft, like Spore, like an RTS?

How skills are acquired isn't really explained.

How different communities interact isn't explained either. Is a community leader a player? If so, how did he become one?

You could get a lot more in depth with every game element you mentioned. And there are a lot of elements. You might want to just focus on 2-3.