4 replies to this topic

[SpreeTree]

I have a few simple issues, or ideas, concerning the construction of buildings/units in the genres mentioned above, and thought I would share my ideas here, see what ppl think about them.


Firstly, costs of construction. In most TBS games, construction costs are quoted in x no. resources, and then when the building/unit is being constructed, the costs are removed from your store per turn. So if a building costs 100 gold and takes 4 turns, 25 gold is taken from your bank each turn. Do ppl think this is a good idea? For example, in Total War games, I often add a lot of buildings to the queue, only to find out 3 turns down the line, I cant afford them, and as such, _nothing_ gets built!

What do you think about taking _all_ the resources needed to construct this building as it is added to the construction queue, in effect, allocating that money. That way the player knows exactly what they can build and when it will be completed. If they cancel the construction, they get a % of the cost back, depending on the number of turns the building has been in construction.


Secondly, the use of a construction 'queue'. If the government wants to build a new school and hospital in a city, they dont say "Start the hospital, and in 5 years, when its ocmpleted, start on the school". No, they build them concurently. Could this same principle be applied to the build queue in TBS games? Maybe having some kind of penalty, where the no. of turns to build the construction increases depending on the number of constructions taking place.

Im not sure if that might remove of add to the challenge of constructing units/buildings, but that do you think?


I did have another idea, that I now cant remeber! And I'm being dragged out of the flat by my girlfriend 'because its a nice day'!! Any thoughts on the two ideas above would be much appreciated

Thanks
Spree

[bladder]

IMO:

You could let the player choose how he wants to pay. Installments or advance payment. Maybe the player dosent have enough currently but he knows that by the 3rd turn he'll make some "extra" cash and be able to pay fo the 3rd installment.

ou can have parallel building by managing your construction resources. Like say you have 10 workers or something, and a building can be finished with one worker in X time, , with 2 workers in X/Y time etc... So you choose how many workers to allocate for each building or something.

[JSoftware]

as a die-hard C&C fan i would say: no cash = you can't start building it building it! cash upfront!

i have total war. i like the concept of it but i would feel more secure the other way

[Ed Mack]

A like paying as it goes along, a bit like Black and White. The building will halt if you run out of funds, but you can take funds from one and put them into another, allowing really easy to use prioritising.

[SpreeTree]

Thanks for the opinions guys.

To solve it, I have added both for now. The games moddable, so having both options in there anyway is a good idea, and I can see how they both play out.

Now I just have to think if something interesting to build!!!

Spree