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Micronatia

A little like Risk, a little like Transport Tycoon, a little like Catan, mostly a Turn-Based Strategy Game.

I want to make a game that could be a boardgame, but I'm writing it in the computer instead because that's easier. So, I want it to be tile based, the rules / logic to be relatively simple.

The Gist

Game starts, tiles are randomly laid facedown on the playing surface. (Facedown shows only black)

Next, each player picks, in some sort of order, where they want to start, and then turn that tile faceup and put their starting unit there.

There are different types of units:

Then there are different types of tiles:

I want more, but I can't come up with them.

The gist is that each type of tile has different properties for each unit.

That's the gist.

One of the age-old questions regarding different tile-based costs is "Does it cost to enter or exit?". I'm thinking exit. That is, if I'm on a grass tile it costs me to move to any adjacent tile, no matter what it is.

Oh, crap, duh. Yeah, I can't do what I did above with the "2 on grass, one on mountain" thing, because a given path may be across different tile types. I've got to switch it to a cost based system.

Also, I'm concerned now, because I wanted to have desserts and mountain ranges and stuff, but it seems now like if I do it randomly I'll just get a grass, with a mountain next to it, and some desert next to that.

I may have to rethink the world-generation.

Anyway, so, then people can put stuff on tiles:

So, the airport is where planes can go to and from. The train track is what trains move on.

Resource gathering

The idea is that different types of resources, to build these things, can be gotten from different tiles. A pedestrian can always, as their turn, extract any valid resource out of a tile they're on. A resource gathering building, though, does that automatically, and allows that to build up. So, while a pedestrian can stand on a mountain tile, and every turn he can add one stone to his load, that seems like a waste. Instead, he can go there and build a resource gathering building, then leave. Now, that building can't move, but on every turn it accumulates a stone. This stone just stockpiles, though, and must be picked up by another unit before it is useful. There are no rules that say that another player's units can't take resources from the stockpile on my building. In general, resource buildings are not owned.

Fences

Since I may want to protect some resource, or establish a border for my micronation, I need to erect fences. Units may pass through a fence, if they could otherwise travel on that space, but it breaks their progress. Specifically, a pedestrian may not move through a fence, they must walk to the fence, then walk away from the fence next turn. A car, I think, can drive to a fence normally, but while on a fence, can only move 1 tile, then may move normally. (Essentially, taking an extra turn) Trains can't go there, since you can't build a track and a fence on the same tile. Planes are unaffected by fences.

Gates

These allow units of the owner's choosing to pass through them normally. Any other units treat it as a fence. This allows one player to put a fence around their area to protect it, but still not disturb their own transit. The part about the owner's choosing is to allow for allegiances involving open borders. Or, alternatively, a player could exact a tax on another player, asking them for some bounty in exchange for free passage on this turn. If the player refuses, then they treat it as a fence.

Resources and Building

There are no banks in my system. Resource tiles never enter a players possession, they all stay on the board and are carried about by units.

A unit may, for free during their turn, place resources they carry onto any adjacent tile, or pickup resources from any adjacent tile.

To build either a building or a unit, the player uses their units to assemble the necessary cost onto a tile and then an adjacent pedestrian uses its turn to swap those resources for a unit or building. I would say a unit doesn't get any actions on the turn it's created.

So, potentially tedious, but the gist is that one must, over some series of turns, carry the resources from one place to the target location in order to build there. That seems neat, though.

If two units are adjacent, they may take resources from, or place resources on, the other unit as part of their turn. This must be consensual, though. So, if the two units are of the same player, it's easy. If, though, two units are from different players, then one unit may not steal from another, or place other items on them unless the other player allows it.

Trading

Because players never truly own resources, all trading occurs in the metagame, which seems cool. If some player wants to trade with another, it involves an entirely non-mechanical agreement that this player will drop a resource somewhere this other player wants it.

Things like loans, interest, IOUs, etc can all exist just based on players trusting one another, and agreeing on some terms.

Same is true for gates, tariffs, or tolls. One player could demand that anyone traveling through their gates must be carrying some resource to leave at the gate as a toll.

Another may only ask for a tariff: Any unencumbered unit may pass freely, but any units carrying a load must leave some of it behind.

Another player may "commission" a second to build things for them. The first player leaves some resources around, and the second player agrees to use their units to build there.

Either way, anything one can think of, and agree on, goes, since as far as the game is concerned, it's all just units and resources sitting around.

Unit Cost

I think I've decided how I want to do things. Each unit starts the turn with some amount of starting "power", and different things have a cost. Different types of landscapes hold different movement costs for one unit type than another.

Also, each unit type has some load rate of holding. So, a pedestrian may lose 1 power for every two resources it carries. A car may lose 1 power for every 4 resources.

I'd say that if a unit drops sufficient resources at any point in their turn, they immediately gain that power back and may continue their turn with it. Similarly, if a unit takes on sufficient resources at any point, then they immediately lose power.

I'll also say that we mark as follows: A pedestrian loses 1 power if it has 1-2 resources, 2 for 3-4, 4 for 5-6, etc. That way there's no question of "If I lose every 2, but I have 3, have I lost 1 or 2?"

A unit is never allowed to pick up enough resources that they would have less than 0 power.

Planes, I'd say, start with no power, and gain 1 power for every "fuel" resource they consume from their hold, losing power for every 6 resources they carry, or something. Then, the only valid moves they can make is to immediately be placed on another airport they would have sufficient power to reach. They may, though, pick up and consume more fuel at their destination and then continue their turn.

Planes may land at an airport only if permitted by the airport's owner.

Groups

Any adjacent chain of units may be considered a group, and may all take a single turn. They must, for the duration of that turn, continue to be adjacent at all times, and through each move.

Every move made by any unit in the group must be valid, and stay within the group.

Because of this, groups that are single file must zig-zag, while double file groups may travel in a straight line.

--    --    --    -0
0-    0-    00    -0
0- -> 00 -> -0 -> -0
0-    --    --    --

vs

--    -0    -0    -0    00    00    00
00    0-    00    00    -0    00    00
00 -> 00 -> 0- -> 00 -> 00 -> -0 -> 00
00    00    00    0-    0-    0-    --

Also, because of the above restrictions, a group can not move through a single gate, since that would force them to become single file, and move in a straight line.

Each unit costs independently for each move they make, and units with cost remaining may continue to take actions so long as the group is maintained.

Since the units in a group take a single turn, and since there is adjacency by definition, resources may be distributed throughout the group instantly, so long as no individual move would reduce a unit to a below-zero power, even temporarily.

Security

While a fence slows units down, they can't truly prevent a unit from entering a given area.

The only way to truly prevent it is with security units.

If a group of one player's units encounters a group of another player's units (or a single unit), it may add that unit to its group so long as it maintains a majority of units. This unit no longer takes its own turn, it takes a turn with the group, controlled by the group owner, until the group owner chooses to allow the unit to be released.

No resources may be stolen from this unit, but if the other player is willing, they may be given up.

This allows one player to capture another player's units, and either keep them where they are, or by escorting them back to a border, etc.

One can, with sufficient units, make a "prison" that can hold units.

For example:

X-X-X
-0-0-
X-X-X

This structure will always have more X units than 0, and can be added to easily as the need arises.

If a group consisting of 5 units belonging to player A encounters another group consisting of 3 members of player B and 2 members of player A, player A may choose to, on their turn, add the entire other group to their group. This would switch the balance of power form 3B2A to 7A3B, meaning the group is now A's, and the captors have become the captives.

This feature is not only interesting for hostile purposes. If two players are allied, they can choose to form an allied group that acts on one of their turns, but is otherwise the same as a single-player group.

While restricted, this is one way that one player can provide units to another player.

Strategies

Depots

Because one must move resources from one place to build anything, setting up a depot where one stockpiles resources can be effective. This way, when a series of disparate resources are required, a unit can pick them all up from the depot and take them to where they are needed. Similarly, everyone transporting from the resource buildings can centralize at the depot.

As the airplane can, with sufficient fuel, cross any distance instantly, having different depots next to airports tends to be a good idea. Also, since planes can, with sufficient fuel at each depot, have a very long turn, it allows one to, with a single plane in a single turn, move a bunch of stuff all over.

Unit Pipelines

While airplanes are very effective at moving resources from one place to another, they cost resources every time you move. When one wants to move a resource over a distance quickly, one can also consider a unit pipeline.

The gist is that if one has a remote resource they want to bring in to the depot every turn, they can have a series of cars or pedestrians in a trail from the resource to the depot. At the beginning of their turn, the first unit collects the resource from the source, drives to the next unit, gives the resource to them, then drives back. That next unit then does the same, and on and on it goes until, in one round the resource has moved instantly far for free.

The issue with this, though, is that while it is free to move resources over any distance once the pipeline exists, it's very expensive to setup. Each unit must be built.

Then there are tradeoffs, cars are more expensive, but you may need fewer of them because they can travel further on the given terrain. One can build a pipeline with far fewer items if it operates every few rounds rather than every round. For example, if the car didn't have to worry about getting itself back home, it could go almost twice as far, meaning about half as many units in the pipe. But, the second turn for the pipe would then be resetting.

Etc.

Guards

A tile can hold infinite resources, so the easiest way to make a depot is to simply pile resources on the ground. Any player's units that can make it to the pile can take from it, though. A more secure strategy is to have a unit who stands near the depot and is full of resources. They can't move, and can only hold a limited number of resources, but resources can't be stolen from them either.

An airplane, at an airport, can hold any number of resources, given sufficient fuel. This means, though, that if one can afford both the cost of constructing an airport and plane, and the per-turn cost to feed the plane, then it can hold many many resources safely with a single unit. As soon as the airplane ceases to be fed, though, it is forced to unload all resources it can no longer hold.

World Generation

So, I think hidden random world isn't really going to give me the kind of game I want. So, I'm thinking that either one player builds the map, and everyone agrees to play it, or one can play a world generation game before hand.

We start with an empty grid.

Every player's turn works as follows:

I think this would result in the kind of world I want, large areas of one type of tile, but still with borders and stuff. A mountain range between these grassy areas, and a desert on the other side, etc.

Play Order

I'm thinking that there's some order players go in, but each unit takes a turn (with groups counting as a single unit), and that goes around. The round is over when each player's units have gone.

So, we have 3 players, A, B, and C.

A picks one of their units and does its turn, then B picks a unit to take its turn, then C does, then back to A if A has units left.

Game End

I honestly don't know when I want the game to end.

I'm thinking one could, like with RTS games, have different kind of games.

I feel like even just sitting around and playing until one is done playing could be fun, but one could also try some of these:

Dunno, not really my interest actually. I just wanted to make the system.

Published:
2013-01-23T19:41:32Z