Newtonian

[russleyshaw]

You and your team are Quantum engineers at DynoKnetics and due to government budget limitations, must share a Level 5 containment facility with another engineer from the rival organization Rivylon. You both are competing to create the first Fusion Reactor.

Goal: Be the first to create Fusion

To create fusion, you use various scientific instruments around the room to create heat and pressure.
There will be a constant supply of Deuterium and Tritium coming in on opposite ends of the room respectively. This means although you may have one substance, you must enter enemy territory to retrieve such elements. The more heat/pressure you have, the harder it is to maintain, thus introducing a rubber-band mechanic.

Processing the materials will take some amount of time X. Because the lab equipment is scattered around the room, to optimize your processing of the elements, you will need to use the equipment on the enemy's side. A way to prevent the snowballing of this would be to allow an enemy team to "sabotage" your experiments on the lab equipment. Each team will need to perform a balance of scientific progress and corporate sabotage.

Lab Equipment: Different equipment could have different stats and produce different results. For example, one set of equipment could be difficult to sabotage, but take a while to process the elements. Other sets of lab equipment could product pressure or heat from different combinations of elements. For example, to produce heat in one set of equipment, 3 Deuterium and 2 Tritium could be required and in another set of equipment, 1 Deuterium and 5 Tritium could be required (but produce less heat and pressure because of the possibility of it being on the side where Tritium is spawned).

Updates

Goal: Generate 100 million F (Heat) and 100 million kPA (Pressure) Individual heat and pressure units are in the order of magnitude of the millions using Farenheight and kPA as units.

Amounts of D are in millions of Tonnes (aka Metric Ton, not to be confused with tons). Amounts of T are measured in parts per million.

Every turn D and T are delivered to some respective spawn point.

Lab Equipment:

The maximum any equipment can be delayed is an extra 2 turns

• Hammer

  • Requires 2 D and 1 T
  • Generates 1 million F
  • Takes 2 turns to process

• Centrifuge:

  • Requires 2 T and 1 D
  • Generates 1 million kPA
  • Takes 2 turns to process

• Thermopile:

  • Requires 2 T and 2 D
  • Generates 1 million F and 1 million kPA
  • Takes 3 turns to process

Every player will have 4 of each unit (similar to unit spawning in saloon)

Engineers:

Be able to carry a total of 5 element units at once.

• Nuclear Physicist (10 HP)
  • Cannot pickpocket
  • Can use lab equipment
  • Can attack, deals 3 damage (weak due to being confined in lab for so long).
• Intern (10 HP)
  • Cannot use lab equipment
  • Can pickpocket up to 2 units of elements.
  • Can sabotage, delays finishing of generation by 2 turns
  • Can attack, deals 5 damage
• Board Member (50 HP)
  • Can attack, deals 2 damage
  • Cannot use lab equipment
  • Can be used to block others from sabotaging. (by standing in front).

Notes

• Imagine Undercooked meets nuclear physics
• Honestly this is more of a theme that could be expanded upon, but could easily be made simple enough to be a first semester game.
• Heat/Pressure could be two separate "resources" that are processed separate lab equipment or it could be a single resource.
• Maybe there is some way to incorporate the disposing of waste elements into the mechanics.
• There is no reason we have to adhere to even remotely real physics. Using some "lab equipment" could be beating the elements with a hammer.

[JeffreyStrahm]

The first thing I noticed is, sure you have to enter "enemy territory" to get the other element, but how can they stop you? Also, be careful about balancing different costs as something that costs 5 Tritium and 1 Deuterium would be a lot better deal for the people who have control of the Tritium. Otherwise, this sounds like an interesting game of resource control game, though tool sabotage would be interesting to balance. How would people even steal tools, can they take them off the enemy units, or do you have to place them, someone, for them to work? I do feel like this is very underdeveloped, however. Will there be different scientist types? How do they interact with each other? What do you mean by tools scattered around? What is the winning point? You say they create heat and pressure, is there number they must reach to win?

[russleyshaw]

The first thing I noticed is, sure you have to enter "enemy territory" to get the other element, but how can they stop you?

I'm assuming there would be some sort of combat mechanic. I can't think of anything special about that mechanic at this point in time but some "physics"y things could easily be added.

Additional Mechanic: Aside from sabotaging individual lab equipment, an engineer could be able to "pickpocket" another engineer which would cause a 1:1 trade of materials. For example if you had 5 T and 1 D, and the enemy had 2 T 4 D, and you needed more D, you could use your action to replace N of your T with N of their D. In this example, if we define N to be 2 (just cause, numbers don't matter this early), you could pickpocket their D and end up with 3T 3D and they would have 4T 2D. This could be advantageous to you but also advantageous to the enemy depending on the equipment they are using.

A smart AI would recognize this and only trade when it of benefit to you and of detriment to the enemy.

Also, be careful about balancing different costs as something that costs 5 Tritium and 1 Deuterium would be a lot better deal for the people who have control of the Tritium.

I also said that this could be balanced by having such things create less energy. We would balance any advantageous placements with similarly advantageous placements for the other player. They both could only prioritize their own lab equipment, but then it would end in a stalemate. If one wants to actually win by any margin, they would need to gain control of opposing lab equipment.

I do feel like this is very underdeveloped

As I said in the note, this is mainly a theme we could potentially attach game mechanics to. Mechanics change as the game is implemented, usually to the point of being nearly unrecognizable to the original pitch aside from the primary goal and high level mechanics.

I do hope that more comments come in and this game can be fleshed out a bit more. Do note though that "fleshing out" does not necessarily mean every constant and interaction is defined right now.

Will there be different scientist types?

Sure, why not. Some could be better at fighting, some could be better at producing. Some could even carry more elements back and forth. With the addition of the new mechanic added above, there could be some that are better at pickpocketing.

What do you mean by tools scattered around?

Lab equipment is procedurally generated throughout the level.

What is the winning point?

By using lab equipment on elements to produce heat and pressure until Fusion is successfully generated. This is denoted by heat and pressure reaching some defined value X

You say they create heat and pressure, is there number they must reach to win?

The numbers really don't matter this early.

[JeffreyStrahm]

Example number can go a long way, so let's say they must reach a combined heat and pressure level of 20. You add the square root of the heat and the square root of the pressure. Then let's say that we tie Tritium to pressure and Deuterium to heat. That way, equipment that requires more of the one, produce more of the tied resource. You will see where I am going with this in a second. Now let's say for every 10 Heat/Pressure they have, they get a leak of 1 per turn. Then there is a balanced tool each team gets that takes 5 of each resource, this produces 5 heat and 5 pressure. Then there can be any combination of the two below 5. If they are balanced, they produce that much pressure and heat, otherwise the produce the higher element's resource plus half, rounded down, the other element. This way, you really need the other team's equipment to get anywhere. Each team would also always end up with mirrored equipment.

Try and get some numbers down, as that goes a long way towards developing the game. It can also bring up issues you hadn't considered before.

Edit: also, I like the idea of the pickpocketing. Very unique and challenging.

[russleyshaw]

Goal: Generate 100 million F and 100 million kPA

Individual heat and pressure units are in the order of magnitude of the millions using Farenheight and kPA as units.

Amounts of D are in millions of Tonnes (aka Metric Ton, not to be confused with tons). Amounts of T are measured in parts per million.

Every turn D and T are delivered to each respective spawn point.

Lab Equipment: The maximum any equipment can be delayed is an extra 2 turns

• Hammer

  • Requires 2 D and 1 T
  • Generates 1 million F
  • Takes 2 turns to process

• Centrifuge:

  • Requires 2 T and 1 D
  • Generates 1 million kPA
  • Takes 2 turns to process

• Thermopile:

  • Requires 2 T and 2 D
  • Generates 1 million F and 1 million kPA
  • Takes 3 turns to process

Every player will have 4 of each unit (similar to unit spawning in saloon) Units: Be able to carry a total of 5 element units at once.

• Nuclear Physicist (10 HP)
  • Cannot pickpocket
  • Can use lab equipment
  • Can attack, deals 3 damage (weak due to being confined in lab for so long).
• Intern (10 HP)
  • Cannot use lab equipment
  • Can pickpocket up to 2 units of elements.
  • Can sabotage, delays finishing of generation by 2 turns
  • Can attack, deals 5 damage
• Board Member (50 HP)
  • Can attack, deals 2 damage
  • Cannot use lab equipment
  • Can be used to block others from sabotaging. (by standing in front).

[russleyshaw]

These are spitballed numbers.