[REQ] Non-violent child suitable RTS!

Ever since playing Mudcraft: http://www.mudcraft.com/ I have always been perplexed with the idea of creating a Non-violent child suitable RTS game.

But how? How do you create a stratigy game that has no violence? Well lets look at Mudcraft!

I know that is a lot of text, so I'll highlight the fundamental parts that I find very novel.

So there is the basis for the idea of a RTS game (Or as I am inferring, a Mod) that is based on the survival of a people against the elements rather then the player battling with weapons of war.

And personally Id love to see such a mod for PA that gives the game access to a broader access to children and even more casual players who might never have played a RTS before.

Is there any of you who would like to see this idea developed as mod for PA? Or am I chasing a vague idea?

If I'm honest, that reads very much like a God game. It even says that you have no direct control over your units. I'd say it is a long stretch to call that an RTS.

However, interesting concept. And given how flexible it appears PA is going to be, I wouldn't be surprised if such a mod did appear at some point.

Huh, that's strange because you can control the mud villagers!

I don't see how the game isn't already suitable for children.... Sure there's lots of explosions, but there's no blood, gore, swearing, drug abuse, or nudity... its all just robots.

Well it is about war and destruction. Violence even if it doesn't include humans.

Just a thought as some people might not appreciate the topic for their kids, or might not even like the topic at all.

Its just an interesting idea.

Checkers and Chess?

Risk

Like it or not...?

Personally for me it comes down to graphics and art style. Think about the Lego Movie Video Games (i.e. Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc.) and how combat is handled in those games.

Well the question is, can you create a RTS game without combat? Or without combat being a major part of the game?

Chess, Checkers and Risk are all kids games, where combat is a major part of the game.

There are other strategic board games as well - backgammon, Othello, stuff like that.

Sure, it's possible. But what exactly do you want to be the driving factor of the strategy?

It could be some kind of management or economics simulator I guess. That could be strategic. But would it be engaging?

Prison Architect is a pretty ingenuous take on the builder genre, which does have some similarities with RTSes. It is strategic in the sense that your goal is to keep the prisoners from escaping and/or rioting. Biggest difference is that you don't control the units directly, only the environment they live in. Though arguably Prison Architect is not suitable for kids either, and does involve violence. Of course you can build a nice prison, if you want. Theme Hospital is similar with a less sinister topic, if that is what you are after. A game about curing people. And making money..lol. I think kids love Theme Park and Rollercoaster Tycoon, too.

But mostly any other builder/management type game like stormingkiwi said.. SimCity, Transport Tycoon, etc. Typically they involve creating somewhat complex, independently running systems with different goals, or no goal at all other than fun.

We can but try!

True, so I suppose to doesn't have to focus on a kind of goal, but more on the management side of just DOING something fun.

That is characteristic of child's play in any case.. in most cases kids don't need a goal for it to be fun, it's more about the process and imagination. Frankly I'm not sure how anyone of any age can enjoy video games without at least some level of this kind of imaginative touch.. most games are really pointless and boring, if you think about it, lol. It's only by your imagination that you get some entertainment out of it, by believing in the illusion.

Indeed.

Also, I already mentioned this in some other thread, but I think a SimCity type game with the PA engine would be really amazing.. imagine having several planetwide cities, building interplanetary trade routes.. neighboring planets floating by with the cities silhouetting against the sun. With the gorgeous scale model-like graphics of PA..mmm.

Probably too ambitious for any modding project, but would be amazing nonetheless.

Would pa with water guns and water balloons be considered violent?

Well it is based on a conflict between 'people' so yeah, its a war based game.

I personally love these kinds of games, even when I was 10 I loved playing CNC and using the A-10 warthogs with their napalm on enemy barracks and hearing the little men scream.

But some people, or parents might not appreciate that as much as me, so I have pondered a way of getting the mechanics of an RTS game using them in a non-war or combative fashion to give kids and more casual gamers in general a look in to the RTS genre before they get into the actual warfair side of things that this genre is based around.

Not that I am saying that the current focus of the genre is a bad thing, but more like it would be awesome and fun to see where we can branch this, and where we can take the PA engine.

I know it is not rts as it is turn based but settlers of catan is a great game with no violence. Loads of strategy too.

Exactly, we (Well I thing so) need mores games like that and PA might be our chance to do just that!

There's a game for the Spring engine called Kernel Panic. I've never played it but it looks very interesting, and it's perhaps abstract enough that the violence is not violence, if you see what I mean.

A little bit of input from a person who was recently a child. Being exposed to artificial violence early in life is a double edge sword, it seems, as I'm looking in towards myself as well as at other people growing up around me. It doesn't result in violent children - that's for sure, so long as the guardians of the child are careful to help the child understand the difference between fantasy and real life. Rather, children learn to treat violence as a natural part of life that should neither frighten nor engage - the bad side of this is that it means children can become apathetic or insensitive towards violence, which we all know from the World Wars is the wrong attitude. Ideally, people would treat violence with respect for the lethal dangers it poses, but never should they fear it, as this results in the backwards laws and societal standards we frequently encounter in the age of information.

That veered off-topic. My point is that Uber should make the story behind Planetary Annihilation more... Shocking. The robots didn't just go rogue, they went rogue and killed every single last civilian and soldier. It is sufficiently realistic to demonstrate what violence is, but also isn't too dark and brooding for the cartoonish game that PA is. This basic backstory is inherently flawed of course - because all of sentient life is dead, it is pretty easy to forget that a biological society existed in the first place. Constantly reminding players that "Dude there were totally people here and THEY ALL DIED!" would be a bit too edgy and, frankly, annoying for PA, while simply letting it sit at "It exists in the lore," would be counterproductive for the effort of integrating such a type of story into the lore in the first place.

Tl;Dr/Conclusion: Mature hints at what happened to the galaxy's former living society should be dropped by wrecks, metal planets and maybe a few lore bits (but not too many). Specifically, destroyed structures, wrecked biodomes, sites of former battles between man(?) and machine, and of course the ever xenophobic Robot faction hellbent on killing off all life everywhere forever.

IS that true?

Because to be honest, watching Misomer Murders, or Foyle's War, or any of those murder mystery programs, or even watching horror movies, presents more disturbing concepts than video games do, and often the video games have the higher rating.