What game modes should we start with?

Gamemodes:

-Sandbox (with Editor)

-Tech-Race(Research every available tech (includes metal planet tech))

-TOTAL DESTRUCTION (Destroy every Planet except moons and asteroids(the player with the most destructions wins))

-King of the Commander(Only 2 Planets(Huge) with max. 10 players on each Planet.You only have 1 Commander and 3 different factorys for units.Nothing can be build.The commander who stands at last has won)

-Nuclear War (You can only build Nuclear Rocket launchers and Defence systems.No units)

-Escape from a Planet (An Asteroid is flying towards the planet so you have to escape from the planet in X minutes with at least the commander to the moon nearby(The Rocket gets more and more expensive every minute))


Options:
-Unit and Building restriction list
-Set start amount of Mass and Energy
-Commander yes or no or how much (no=1 engineer)
-Fog of War yes or no
-Metal planet techs yes or no
-Natural disasters yes or no
-Unit build limit
-Planet type restriction list
-Super Weapons (Cause Planet death) yes or no

Combination of King of the hill/Wonder victory with the following rules:

- 1 Metalplanet in the middle which is not colonized by the beginning of the game. It is an ancient space station build from an ancient race which struggled in an infinite war!

- The players have to colonize it and start to build a research lab or something else which will, 15 minutes after building, give the player the possibility to reactivate the ancient super weapon stationed in the core of the planet.

- The Superlase will enable the player to destroy his enemies planets one-by-one!

I think that ist kind of a combination between King of the hill and the wonder victory?!

Research? What's that? Is it some kind of flying brain with lasers?

Yup. That's pretty much the goal of the galactic gate. The project demands a lot of resources, and the charging takes a lot of time. Walking through the gate doesn't sound like much, but it allows for a last minute assassination. Or a gate capture. Thanks for doing all the hard work!

I'd like to see at least one super unorthodox mode. Remember, RTS games spawned the TD and MOBA genres.

It would be a cool hard-SF touch if there's no FTL travel in the setting. So instead of building a star gate you build a star ship. One of those long, thin, workmanlike looking things that are basically all reaction mass, strap your commander to the back and spend years or decades cruising to the next system. This could be the loading screen in the galactic war mode.

They had a good suggestion within the forum.. The assimilation mode, you win once all of the commanders are on your side. Killing somebody brings them on your team and as your team grows so does your potential to bring in other faction which are also growing. You could utilize anti-trolling mechanisms to ensure a player doesn't suicide back to another team and if a person rage quits the killer of said person should still get a bonus for the kill. This bonus would be a commander husk... Empty commander that can function as a back up if your commander dies.. This allows the player to use their commander as a battle units as to compensate for the lose of a member on their team..

This was already on The forum and it is by far the most interesting additional game mode I have seen talked about.

In the end I think that most gameplay modes should be enforced by actual elements like this example. Offcourse that requires alot of code and is probably not realistic yet.
Another example of a wonder could be the Implosion device from the Core Contingency. In PA it could destroy the system while it allows your commander to gate out.
Wonders like game enders in SupCom:
If you don't destroy this weapon/unit before you have taken critical damage you lose. As economies grow the accessibility of these superweapons become higher. In the end it is the player that can build this unit and keep it alive that wins. It can be used as means of making the battle be decided by 1 point of failure. This can be done on several levels offcourse. If the weapon is only usable on 1 planet it only makes you win that planet or deny it to the enemy and you might still have a fighting change if that planet isn't critical.
The weapon might be able reach several planets but is not able to destroy the whole system. If those planets aren't critical you can still have a fighting chance.

This could be useful.
If the configuration is powerful you could perhaps overwrite values on units to make them do X amount of damage, move at Y speed or cost Z amount of resources for example . If the Lobby supports you to save all this in a file you could easily create your own "mod" with this alone. Could be useful during the Beta and Alpha. I guess it is a little risk that it divides the community in later stages and makes it hard for people to access what "mod" they actually are playing.
I think resource multipliers are also good.

I totally agree with you, but I'm actually ok with leaving it up to the mod community to test and find these (and maybe incorporate into the main game if they're good enough?). The budget on this is tight, and this is something I think we can do ourselves.

Either way, the 3 modes I'd like to see are:

• • Commander dies

• • All significant units dead

• • King of the hill, in some way or another

That last one breaks the mold enough that we'll get to test unit balance in an objective based mode, which is my real motive for that.

Pretty much agree with this. I'd just like to point out that as radical a change in gameplay MOBA's were, the victory condition was actually bog standard "annihilation".

Obviously (I don't think anyone will disagree with this), Assassination should be present, and I think should be default.
Annihilation and Supremacy... could be frustrating on this scale, but I have nothing against including them.

As for this concept of a interstellar "Commander Gate" wonder structure, or indeed the suggestion of one person of a massive space ship (seems more worthy as an epic wonder), I think it's a good idea to have some sort of wonder victory mode.
SupCom in a sense allowed the wonder victory condition by creating game enders, the experimental units like the Mavor and Scathis (hmmm...) which would effectively win the game upon construction. They were almost never used, though; however, it was better to have them this way I think than being overpowered and always used, which would just lead to a rush to max out an economy and build them. The wonder idea is still a good one, though, whether applied via superweapons or instant-win conditions.

A few points I think are worthy of consideration:

Should both teams be allowed to construct the wonder at one time?
If so, could this lead to both teams adopting a turtling stance while rushing to complete the wonder and so deciding not to spend any resources on combat?

Should the other team be automatically notified when one starts their wonder? Furthermore, should they be notified of its position?
If neither, then it would allow stealth construction and dramatic or unexpected conclusions, with continuous uncertainty on both sides as to their opponent's status, but maybe a frustrated team at the end; if both, then it would lead to epic all-out assaults in attempt to reach and destroy the wonder before completion, which would be doubtless placed on their most fortified world.

I don't know how people think these points should be resolved, but would be interested in knowing how people are looking at this wonder idea at the moment. Just my contribution.

I see no reason to stop one team from building it just because the other teams has, with the rate based nature of the economy STARTING a project is easy, but finishing it is much harder. If started simultaneously the teams may default into turtle mode, but I don't see that as a problem really, it's still a fight, but instead of guns and tanks its resources and structures. I also doubt there would not be any combat, but it'd be more so in terms of territory control and raiding as opposed to 'going for the kill'.

Players should be notified that construction has started(and/or is ongoing), but not location, depending on the ability to easily scout, it'd depend.

Mike

Okay maybe the only thing between my gamemode and the classical wonder victory is that you have to build your wonder in a specific Area (mental planet) which is in equal distance to all players (other planets in the system). It would be harder because you have to hold the ground until its finished!

Well, maybe if the metal planet wasn't so devastating, it would be bad to let the enemy have it, but not instant game over.

I think to own that planet, which can destroy whole planets, is a gameender and it should be the task to fight for the ground and then for the completion of the wonder. But just losing this planet should not be the end. I think it would be nice to restruggle for it while the enemy is trying to build the wonder!

Or the planet is so big that every player can settle on it and start building the wonder! Meanwhile they can try to invade the homeworld or start the conflict on the metal planet?

This sounds a lot like assassination, but with teams. After all, the team game is over when you're the only team with a Commander, right?

Oh, absolutely. Both teams should be allowed to build as many as they want. There's no need for a hard limit, so don't bother.

Softer limits include the energy demand for charging the gate. Multiple gates will divide your power, slowing down your chances for victory. Canonically, the TotalA gates took entire worlds of fusion power several weeks to develop a full charge. Obviously, that can be toned down for PA.

You forget the one universal counter to a passive, resource heavy victory:
Just go out and frickin' kill him.

There are enormous incentives to attack an enemy gate or capture it for your own use. It is pretty standard that wonder projects are a huge drain on your economy, making you vulnerable to attack. Building it on the same planet as an enemy is likely a terrible idea, while building on a safe fortified world has more chance of success.

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A planet killing metal world sounds a lot like a "King of the Hill(s)" scenario. Capturing the death star gives a super weapon capable of breaking enemy bases and worlds. That's a pretty damn good way to win, and it's a good chance that everyone is going to fight to control (or deny) one.

The best part is that very few of these conditions are mutually exclusive. Commanders and gates and metal worlds can all exist in one game and be separate ways to win.

This would take a bit more effort, I think...But how about an objective based Victory. Every X minutes a global objective is announced. First player to complete this objective gets credit for it. Unless the objective is a hold objective. In which case those objectives need to be held and can be taken back by other players. Game ends with a final large objective or when the number of remaining objectives run out. Meaning it could be set in the lobby. Objectives would be selected randomly and would focus on not killing your opponent.

Examples...

1. Be first to land on a certain planet, asteroid, or moon.
2. Destroy marked planet, asteroid, or moon.
3. Accrue X amount of resources.
4. Capture npc structure. Alternative, invincible structure and hold till game end.
5. Build certain type of super structure.
6. Hold location till game end.
etc etc

In the lobby you can set the Victory Condition to 5 objectives. And the time interval the arrive. Let's say 10 minutes. So every 10 minutes an objective is broadcast to all players. Multiple objectives can be available at a time if they haven't been completed. Once all objectives have been completed, game ends with the winner being whoever completed the most.

This would allow Free-For-Alls to be a lot more viable. Killing opponents can be useful but would not win you the game automatically. Unless of course you held more objectives than all other players, then killed them all before they could complete enough objectives to question your victory.

For those huge weekend games you could have 50-100 objectives.

Hi I have 4 game modes may be fun may not

1 (Take over) 1st person to build a set building on a set no. Of planets

2 (High and seek) 1st person to build on the highest part of land found on a random planet say 6 of 10 random

3 (Low and seek) 1st person to build on the lowest part of the sea found on a random planet.

4 (Armageddon) all players start same conditions move around to other planets battle etc.
But after a set amount of time. All players units get transported to 1 big planet no buildings then last man standing.

just for fun

Actually, I think that it would be nice to be able to make victory conditions tied up with map, so you may create a "story" map.

Generally it should be about activating something with some steps. Like capturing some super-weapon or comm-production-factory, by first capturing special generators then building and protecting power-relay-nodes (could be quantum gate, radar or other ordinary buliding placed in the right place) for enough time to pump energy in. And so on. A lot of possible things could be - huge star-killer spaceships, mega-lasers, or said factory (factory may suck up nearby asteroids by gravity tethers using energy you are pumping into it).

Other quite obvious "story" mode is assault/defense mode when you need to protect something or destroy something.

And third mode is espionage mode - all players are spawn on special invisible asteroids (small metal-planets alike artifacts from the past). You may build additional super-stealth generators on other asteroids/planets to make them invisible. You may discover the hidden planet by capturing enemy building - it will reveal everything in some range around and by capturing enemy unit. Unit is better as you may move it. You also could build a super-radar that will reveal everything (to beat turtles that just hide) on the map. Scout satellites/spaceships may reveal a planet of they are very close - you may scout enemy interplanetary movement and triangulate possible position (maybe even automatically).

Here's a few less conventional ones:

Collection: A separate resource used only for this (or similar) game type that exists only on one planet that is not anyone's starting planet and a certain amount must be gathered and brought back to the player's starting planet. First one to collect the required amount wins.

Solar Soccer: It's exactly what you think it is... with asteroids. First one to score the required number wins. The goal could be the sun or straight up soccer net in space. This may require economy adjustments to be fun.

and since I've been playing a bit of DoW II,

King of the Hill/Control Points: capture and maintain control points to keep your points from going down. Who ever reaches 0 points loses.