Core Game Ideas - Githubissues

ShipCore - The Game is an Open World Time-based Exploration Management RPG.

What does that mean? The roleplaying aspect comes from playing the character, obviously. Players will determine their actions, make choices, build up their stats, etc.

What about management? The player is rewarded by managing multiple assets -- At first they just have themselves. Then they acquire companions. Then a ship. Then a fleet or business. Then a station. Then possibly a colony, or multiple fleets and stations -- the amount of assets the player earns increases their ability to approach harder and harder challenges in the game.

For Open World -- the player should always have a choice on what they are doing and where they are going. Just because it is open world doesn't mean that there won't be authored content, but there will be a lot of areas that exist to allow the player to facilitate their assets -- empty asteroid belts for harvesting -- planets to setup colonies on -- etc.

Time based -- What does that mean? Well, time is incremented on every action. They won't be able to focus on everything at once -- choosing to setup new outposts, or going to purchase ships, or drinking in a bar to raise morale, all of these mean the player should have made a choice to invest time into that because they wanted to gain something. We don't want the player to get into a point where they are passing days along just to pass days along to increment their income or businesses -- we want them to be actively engaged in doing and finding new things.

Exploration -- We should reward the player for exploring and finding new places and things to do. When they go into the bar they should be wondering what they will find. Maybe it will be a new POI that offers better rewards than before? In the starting station there are many different bars, but only one that has a card game that has a chance to make big money.

There are multiple shops, but the wheeling and dealing in the Wharf Emporium is much better than others. In the Black Market, you can make quick cash at the expense of facing hostile criminals and law enforcement. These are all things for the player to find and figuring out the strategy that is best for their advancement is up to them -- we don't have to worry about whether one thing is better than another -- we simply create more areas and allow them to find the best way to move forward!

Overall Theme:

It's a game about starting with nothing, and pushing through and advancing to rule an empire. We want the player to feel each major milestone on the advancement path as a massive benefit. What was previously hard should become normal -- what was impossible before should become doable.

Game Progression Vision:

RAGS: Scrapping around on the lower decks of MOR-1, barely scraping by, being beat up, harassed, etc.

FRIENDS: Player gets a handle on things, making credits, getting their first companions and helpers -- the people who beat them up and harassed them now are combats and fights the player can win.

BUSINESS: The player will gain a business and expand on the station -- these will be small investable POIs that the player can place their companions in to work, generate passive income, and defend against threats of competitors and criminals. This will enable them to hire more NPCs, fill out their companion roster, and arm themselves better. CHOICE: Pick their starting business, represented by a location on the middeck. Customizable. CHOICE: Support station security, or the criminal groups -- permanently altering the lower deck's population.

RICHES: Player finishes the lower-deck content, and moves on -- their previous 'basic' business continues to provide income, they can return in person to the place, but mostly they'll want to keep moving on to new places because rewards. The Mid-deck opens up more characters. The player will be encouraged to build up new business 'divisions' (processing, manufacturing, agriculture, services) which are interconnected, providing different resources, accessing the system economy network with variable market based prices that the player affects, and better companion acquisition. They will finish this stage when they finally pay off their debt and acquire their first ship.

SHIP: With their first ship the player is now free to explore the universe. Everything before this was setting the player up to understand how the game works, how to manage businesses, acquire and manage NPCS, and providing a railed and safe path for advancement. They will find new areas to setup businesses (resource acquisition), encounter new factions, and opportunities to acquire more hardware and equipment. They'll be locked out of some areas by stronger enemy ships and fleets, they will be pushed back and realize they need to become stronger. They can setup new businesses, and acquire funds passively/remotely. They will get missions to protect their business's shipments via random event where they need to fly to a certain system and engage pirates, etc. They can buy low/sell high cargo from stations. Player can assemble their first 'fleet' by acquiring more ships until they acquire a Companion with the 'fleet commander' trait opening up full fleet access.

FLEET: This section begins when the Player assembles powerful special NPCS that can handle controlling their own ship. Player can assign the fleet to assist their businesses, protect shipments, and do things they were doing manually when they only owned one ship. The new power of having multiple fleets will mean the player has much more powerful than before, allowing them to enter into previously more dangerous areas that were locked by enemies. They will be able to explore deeper and find unclaimed locations. New resources, equipment, and exploration rewards from factions will be the main theme, with them building up more income and more credit balance. The stage will end when they finally decide they want to create a station, which will be a massive expense, possibly funded by a faction issuing them a large amount of debt.

STATION: Player begins to build and develop a independent station. This station will serve as a player HQ, that can be expanded extensively and modularly until its fully function as a NPC station allowing: ship construction, ship upgrading, ship refits, etc. It will be able to act as a transshipment hub for all player businesses, and acts as a central warehouse. It will allow installing larger business divisions, etc. The station is mobile -- the player can build a wormhole system that will allow them to relocate it into a friendly or independent system. Player will undertake more difficult exploration and combat challenges, continue to meet new characters, and find new opportunities--unique ships, special resource deposits, special companions, new business types, and especially expanding the station functions.

COLONY: With the development of the wormhole drive on their station the player will have the opportunity to dive into unconnected systems, totally unexplored. Alien encounters, ghosts, drone fleets, are extreme dangers that players will need powerful fleets to fight. The opportunity to locate a habitable planet that isn't claimed will occur, and the player can advance by moving their station to that location and begin to establish a colony. Building a space elevator to facilitate a capital will end this stage and move to the final stage.

FACTION: Player has a fully fleshed out faction that interacts with the game's primary factions. They compete and challenge them and can interact with Starlight Revolution (story faction) to maintain order. Goal isn't to conquer or destroy the other factions, but to continue to develop the population, colonies, and stations across the universe. Challenges come from intergalactic invasions, localized wars with other factions, etc.

Erios909 / ShipCore-The-Game

Core Game Ideas #38

Overall Theme:

Game Progression Vision: