Some maybe rememeber my older posts about space empire & emperor's simulator. I gathered all these, simplified, removed the boring parts and that's what I came up with Looking for feedback and the usual stuff.

Genre: turn based strategy, singleplayer (only)

Theme: space empire builder

Mechanic: asymmetric gameplay (like in tower defence games), the player controls the empire and the AI controls invaders & problems (so it's not traditional 4x game, but it takes a lot of concepts from these too)

My goal is to make that game rather fast (months, not years), also I want it to feel cozy and not bloated to the player. Like some mini empire builder you play after you finished these long, bloated, full blown 4x games.

Overview & map

You start in the very center of the galaxy (ALWAYS) and you are the meaniest, baddest, the most powerful & advanced civilization around. At the very beginning of the game you claim the title of the Emperor of the Known Universe (althrough the known universe is rather small ) and go on a quest to unify the galaxy under your rule (not that difficult) and defend if from various threats (much more challenging).

The galaxy is made of a few dozens of planets (not that many) connected by routes (so traditional here). You start in the exact center, there are plenty of uninhabited worlds and worlds with neutral races/nations (they can join your empire willingly or by conquest). There are also few special planets (parasites/symbiots, pirates), usually at the outskirts of the galaxy. Also there are several entry points (at the very edges of the galaxy) via which "aliens from another dimension/galaxy" can (and will) enter.

Planets can have special/rare resources, alien artifacts (ruins), special conditions, can also be terraformed and colonized.

Enemies/neutrals (AI)

* neutral planets - passive races that only defend their own planet, they will never form any empire or go on a conquest, their destiny it to eventually join your empire (willingly or not), they will improve their planets a bit and build local fleets & defences, but overall they just exist

* pirates - they build bases on various planets, demand tribute from neutral planets and overall disrupts the trade; they excell at hit & run tactic so, while not a match to your imperial fleet (if you built it properly) they are not trivial to eradicate; they can also respawn on some distant uninhabited planed when eradicated

* symbiots/parasites - a special planet somewhere at the outskirs it houses a rase of toxic, hostile, uninteligent race. Once every 100 turns they go on a rampage and infestate the planets pone by one (then they go back to their home planet and hibernate till the next cycle), their home planet is extremelly hard to conquer

* aliens from another galaxy - they enter via portals/entry points at the outskirts, their goal is annihilation not conquest, they go around destroying everything (when they appear the neutral planets suddenly are much more eager to join your empire for some reason ). You can't attack them at the beggining since they habve no home playet in your galaxy, but later you will have an option to send a fleet via the portal and get rid of them (no new map, just a hidden battle/event/simulation)

* plague - not enemy per se (your fleet can't stop it), but hehaves similarly. Plague starts on one planet and spreads around, then dies out causing heavy casualities among population if not quatantined properly.

Buildings

I want to avoid all building queues, clicking on every planet each turn and so on. So the model will be like this:

- Each planet produces "infrastructure points" that are added to the global imperial pool (probably you will be accumulate the indefinitely)

- You can build any building anywhere instantly by spending these points, but no more that one building per planet per turn (you can make one action per planet each turn, so you either terraform, construct, give an edict).

- These infrastructure/construction points are used for buildings only, ships use different points made by shipyards

- Planets also automaticaly increase their infrastructure over time (local AI upgrades it based on racial traits/preferences), unless you tax the planet too much, so even when neglected each planet will improve on its own over time.

EDIT: simplified, you only select the industry type and then it's all automatic, except for special military instalations/bases

Diplomacy

Used to make neutrals join the empire. Usually they will have some demands before joining (like what their status within empire will be, what level of taxation, what military (conscription) obligations, etc). Sometimes (especially primitive races) will even try to bribe you if you let them join the empire.

It will be probably done by sending some "diplomats" units to the planet.

Research

Yes, there will be research in the game

Fleet

Not sure yet how it will work. Most likely ships will be built either on the capital planet or on one of military bases planets (so on like 1-5 planets max, not everywhere).

Buildings

One thought, how about having industries instead of buildings ? Either have multiple industries like buildings (planet X have advanced military ship industry and a rudimentary agra industry) or assign a single industry to a planet (planet X have only an agra industry which costs you X infra points per turn).

Buildings

One thought, how about having industries instead of buildings ? Either have multiple industries like buildings (planet X have advanced military ship industry and a rudimentary agra industry) or assign a single industry to a planet (planet X have only an agra industry which costs you X infra points per turn).

You mean you don't find buildings fun/needed? And that I should remove them and replace with some more generic & straighforward system (like an option "this planet shall produce food")?

I agree with the above, though I don't want to suggest that buildings aren't "fun" or "needed" in the game. But, to avoid the bloated feeling you describe in your first post, I'd really consider the scope or scale that the player manages at a "planetary" scale. Imagine that the Emperor doesn't really want to concern himself with the building management or individual factories -- he/she expects the Governor of the planet (or whatever you call them in your game) to take care of the low level concerns and reports only big picture information (planetary output, tax figures, health information).

I'm not sure a planet should just be set to produce one thing, like "food" or "weapons", because things might go all to pieces really quick if you lose your food base. OR... that could be your idea of a good time in game!

My advice is to think like the Emperor. Only let the player control the amount of detail the fictional emperor might legitimately want to control. All else might be bloat in a slimmed down game.

My advice is to think like the Emperor.

Heh, strangely that was my initial idea which I thought would might be not that appealing to players :) OK, since I'm not the only one who thinks that way, I will go back to "Emperor's level" of thinking.

Buildings - there could be a designation of a planet as a food/industry/reserach type, but it means a specialization, not that it produces 0 other things; like industrial planet gets +300% to production but still produces some food and research. I wouild also add 4th type "government" which would act as a center of administration for surrounding planets (you capital planet is locked as government type) boosting their output based on distance.

Addons - each planet could also have one "addon" slot, you can select what is there hospitals center, long range radars, communication relay, these would have some effects (but not planet wise but more like empire wide - these can provide emergency services for other planets, scan for enemy fleets and so on). You can see the addon on the galaxy view map (small icon next to the planet).

Forts - in addition any planet can have fortifications (both planetary and orbital), these greatly increase planet's defence and boost your fleets fighting there, fort can have 3 levels and would be clearly visible on the galaxy view. These would be expensive/limited, so only few planets would have these (usually in choke points).

And, since there is not much hassle regarding planets I could make more planets total :D Which is nice :)

I really think you are on to something here -- as a potential player, the features you are describing are right up my gaming alley! Not too deep or "grand", not too watered down. Good luck with the project!

Planets

OK, I think I like the simplified approach as well :) So, how about this:

- you set up industry type (food,production,research) + addon + fort as bescribed 2 posts above

- each planet grows over time on its own (auto infrastructure upgrade), the speed of the growth depends on taxation level (decided empire wide)

But usually, the player would not want to invest in the frontier worlds (which are at high risk of getting heavy hit during war) and would prefer to concentrate on the code (safe) world. How to make it?

I thought of these variants:

- the player can click(toggle) an invest/not invest "button" on any planet

- the invest level is automatic and depends on the distance from the homeworld (core worlds are invested on fully, distant ones in minimal degree - the definition of "distant" changes over time as the empire grows)

Neutral planets/races & diplomacy

What you think of that part? I have some doubts if I should implement it...

Regardless of how much you want to develop frontier worlds, it's probably more expensive to get materials and people over there. So investment costs will be higher (in theory).

But I would leave the investment level up to the player, unless it becomes too complex.

You might want to take a look at Master of Orion to see how that implemented some of these problems, it was quite nice and seems similar.

Neutral planets/races & diplomacy

What you think of that part? I have some doubts if I should implement it...

What TRUE emperor worries about diplomacy? All planets should either be seen as colonies or targets! Your ambassador is your Death Star (or regional equivalent).

Neutral planets/races & diplomacy

What you think of that part? I have some doubts if I should implement it...

What TRUE emperor worries about diplomacy? All planets should either be seen as colonies or targets! Your ambassador is your Death Star (or regional equivalent).

But shouldn't the empire be so magnificient that other, lesser, races want to join willingly? :D Diplomacy is merely a tool to make these ignorants understand the great joys they will experience if they join :)

Anyway, how about the neutral planets concept? Keep it? Remove? Modify?

What I like is some sort of unorganized "barbarians" you can conquest and make join the empire (what I don't like is them being too weak - which is unavoidable considering each is just one planet). And that you can use these neutrals to stop/slow down various invasion (they put up some resistance against aliens from another dimension, parasitic symbionts, etc) either because they fight or because their planet need to be occupied - which drains more forces than uninhabited planets.

Or maybe some culture mechanic? Like you spread cultural influence from your capital/advanced planets and over time it makes all neutrals in range more and more willing to join?