computer games

Supernova 2: resources allocation

Today I was playing with the resources screen. It will be one of the 3 main screen of the management part of the game. They are: Resources, Galaxy Map and Build.

In resources you have to distribute your resources to the various field, in percentage. The total percentage will be 100%, and leaving unused resources give no advantage.

I thought about using a finite-resource system. I did some experiments though and doesn’t seem a good idea because it could lead to bad gameover and frustration for the player. So the resources will be unlimited, but will have a rate per turn.

For example if you control 1 starsystem you’ll have 15million of minerals and 20million of population grow each turn (just random numbers), while if you control 2 you’ll have a higher amount. So conquering new starsystem will only increase the production/research/population growth each turn - but you won’t be forced to conquer new ones because your resources are about to end.

In any case in terms of gameplay won’t change much - the more starsystem you own, the stronger you become. So the only difference is that you won’t run out of raw materials to produce units or out of space to grow population, that would be a bit strange since we talk about whole starsystems and not even just “one planet”

The game will be more about balancing between research, military, production and population. I need more powerful military units, or more population? I need more scientist to research or more engineers to increase production? that sums up the core of the management part of the game.