Making a Better 4X (Part 4 - Final)

Continuing where we left off...

Leaders in 4X games tend to bring some much needed faces to a genre that is traditionally dominated by numbers and objects.  However, when it comes to actual gameplay it's rare for these special characters to be anything more than a mild stat boost.  In the case of planetary administrators, each individual could have a personality to go with those production buffs running the gambit from Winston Churchill to...well...his predecessor Neville Chamberlain.  A die-hard planetary governor might never give up the cause even when an enemy fleet hangs menacingly in the skies overhead, but others might have more practical or even opportunistic outlooks.  Perhaps they could be persuaded with a big enough carrot or stick...or both.  Threats and bribes aside, another possibility could be what I like to think of as the "Lando Calrissian" scenario, a local leader who remains loyal in secret, providing information or aid through backchannels to their empire of origin (possibly because the conquerors aren't holding up their side of the prearranged bargain).

Espionage is  a tough thing to make interesting in a 4X.  All too often it's a pointless aside that adds yet another layer of unwanted micro-management.  When you think about it though the primary purpose of a spy network is to provide information.  Sabotage, theft, assassinations and instigating uprisings might be what players say they want, but knowing what a rival empire is up to or (better yet) planning to do is far more valuable on a regular basis than risky black ops.  Rather than taking the Stellaris approach of having to construct a colossal deep-space sensor array you'd think it would be far more practical to go the Galactic Civilizations III route of establish web of paid low profile informants scattered throughout the stars.  Of course this ties into diplomacy as well.  Knowing the disposition of other empires can be very useful when negotiating.  If nothing else it should be the reason why those intel tooltips popup regarding disposition and relative strengths.  A lack of espionage options aside, Stellaris generally has the widest range of options with guarantees of independence, mutual defensive pacts, vassalization, as well as federations with member or associate status.  That said, I feel like there needs to be more...not in terms of annoying busy work like establishing embassies or constantly renewing expired agreements, but rather the option to engage in more aggressive deal making.  It would be nice if the player could present more coercion (gunboat diplomacy) in their negotiations or incentivisation.  As is, most 4X games are too constrained in the diplomacy department to even present AI empires with proper ultimatums.

End Game:

It's a design conceit of 4X games that the player take on the role of a semi-omnipotent being, guiding the destiny of their species as it branches out amongst the stars.  Since dying of old age isn't a possibility, how do 4X games ultimately end?  In some cases it's when the player gets bored and decides to move onto other things.  Not a very satisfying way to wrap up an epic space opera story, so what's needed is some exciting victory conditions.  In Spaceward Ho! the utter extermination of all opposition is the only way to win.  Other 4X games include this option, but (for the sake of variety) offer up other paths to victory.  The most robust 4X in this regard is Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars.  Aside from the the aforementioned domination victory there are five other win conditions; Technological (ascend to higher realm of existence), Economic (hold a majority stake in the galactic stock market, Diplomatic (get elected leader of the galactic council), Heroic (defeat the universally reviled Antares in their dimensional-pocket lair, or simply have the highest overall score after a set number of turns.  It's a bit "board gamey," but does provide the player with a lot of viable approaches.  Stellaris, on the other hand, embraces a more simulation school of design with an end game crysis (which can have several different flavors) serving as the climax.  I can't claim one approach is inherently better than the other, but I do find myself drawn toward 4X games that aspire to be more than just spreadsheets and maps.  Random events, character backstories, independent traders and fleet tenders going about their merry way...these are the little artistic flourishes that make the setting come to life.  Even static images and artwork can inject a degree of vibrance that might otherwise be missing.  By the same token I understand why voice acting is best kept to a minimum.  It can cost a pretty penny, and that's money that might be better spent elsewhere.  Even so there's something to be said for 4X games that have style.  I'm not a fan of the year 2000 version of Reach for the Stars, but I have to admit it has one sleek looking interface.  There are certain aspects of Master of Orion 2 I do not care for, but that music sure sets the mood.  Even the third entry in the series (for all it's faults) does have an ominous, if not engrossing lecture on the nature of dominance.  I don't think the ideal 4X needs to be hard sci-fi, but if paying lip service to science leads to new and exciting gameplay why wouldn't you do it?

When you get down to it, the best sci-fi tends to be a combination of two things; scientific concepts spun out in a compelling directions and interesting characters that the audience can identify with.  Space 4X games tend to be hit or miss with that first part, but it's with the second that they really tend to drop the ball.  I get that trying to create an interesting cast in a procedurally generated game is a tall order, but if someone could crack that nut, even if only partially, then they'd have something truly special on their hands.

Making a Better 4X (Part 3)

...and we're back.  On with the show!

Ship Design:

Most space 4X games provide default templates for the player to use, but in my own limited experience designing ships and baptizing them in the crucible of war is a big part of the fun.  That said, constantly needed to update blueprints everytime a new piece of technology becomes available can get a bit tedious.  This is especially true in that it tends to come down to a fairly straight forward process, "what's the role of the ship?" after which the question becomes "how do I optimize the numbers?"  For combat vessels the process really boils down to attack, defense and mobility.  Each of these categories can be divided into three sub-components.  Attacking in space is a matter of deploying energy weapons, kinetic weapons, and guided weapons.  If you prefer World War 2 analogues then think of energy weapons being a bit like flak, kinetic weapons like guns and torpedoes, while guided ordinance is along the lines of aircraft.  If you've ever played the hyper-realistic tactical space combat game Children of a Dead Earth then it becomes readily apparent that none of these weapon types is unequivocally superior to the rest.  Defensive schemes employing the right mix of armor, shields and countermeasures have the capacity to neutralize pretty much any form of attack.  Mobility can be thought of as a culmination of three important factors as well - engines, delta-v and sustainability.  With regards to those first two points, current chemical rocket motors provide plenty of thrust, but at a poor fuel economy.  Meanwhile, electromagnetic plasma drives produce less power, but are able to get better gas mileage.  In a futuristic sci-fi setting the means of propulsion might be different, but I highly doubt the need to balance between these two conflicting concerns will simply go away.  Third in the mix is sustainability, or more specifically, the reliability of the various components that make up the spacecraft.  This also includes the crew, who need food, fresh water, oxygen and radiation shielding.  It's a lot to keep track of, but in reality most of these factors can be pushed into the background.  The important takeaway here is ship design as a triangle-shaped graph with each corner corresponding to the maximum possible emphasis that can be given to either offense, defense or mobility.  By breaking down ships in this manner it becomes easy for the player to make informed decisions regarding what aspects of a particular design they want to stress.  Looking for a raider or scout?  Choose an intersection near the mobility corner.  Want an escort or picket ship?  Lean toward defense.  Planning to make an all-out assault on a well fortified enemy starsystem?  Best set your sights on the offense point of the triangle.  Obviously more subtle variations can be made by selecting an area between two of the three points.  Alternatively combined fleets (a mixture of ship designs) can create some interesting dynamics as well.  More on that it the next section.

War and Peace:

Now we come to the final "X" - eXterminate.  In pretty much every space 4X this is done through violent interstellar conflicts.  Going back to FTL Gates, I like the idea of having multiple entry and exit points to each star system, as well as new routes which open up over the course of the game.  By doing this it's possible to launch raids through previously inaccessible nodes or probing attacks by sending strike forces through several different nodes at once.  Another option is a multi-pronged attack on a single star system in an attempt to overwhelm whatever garrison happens to be there.  Defense is still an option, but it requires planning in depth and a willingness to scuttle FTL Gates that are at risk of being captured by the enemy.  The dreaded "death stack" problem of players concentrating all their forces into a single massive fleet can be avoided easily enough by simply limiting the amount of ships that can traverse a Gate at one time before a cooldown period for the Gate is needed.  So rather than feeding forces piecemeal through a single point it's far more advantageous to have multiple fleets operating separately.  When two opposing fleets meet, it's a bit like jousting in that the time in which they are within weapons range of each other is exceedingly short (do to relativistic speeds).  Chances are this holds true even when both forces are in orbit around the same planet.  For this reason, I think a somewhat abstracted combat system is the best approach.  When you get down to it the 2D battlefields used in most 4X games feel a bit silly considering space is three dimensional.  That said, a turn-based system wherein the opposing fleets are abstractedly represented on either side of the screen would work well provided the player is allowed a degree of input such as setting formations and prioritizing targets.  Whether or not the two fleets take additional passes at each other depends on which side has the advantage in terms of overall mobility.  This can also lead to some interesting tactical decisions such as ditching slower ships so the faster ones can escape, or partitioning off a pursuit force made up of fast vessels should an opponent's hit'n'run attempt go sour.

Moving on, let's say that the player has achieved space superiority around an enemy colony.  In most 4X games there's really only two ways to go from here, orbital bombardment or planetary invasion.  Both tend to be very dull affairs and usually involve siege-like tactics mixed with systematic destruction.  The way I see it though, a player in this sort of situation should really have three options.  First, they could knock out any connections the colony has with space, essentially making it a non-contributor to the war effort.  Second, they can devastate the planet from orbit (an act that will likely upset empathetic being everywhere).  Third, the player could enter negotiations with the colonists for the surrender of the planet.  When you get down to it being a colonist in an interstellar empire is a bit like being a peasant in medieval fiefdom - the lord of the land may change, but what's expected of you will most likely remain the same.  As for invasion...it's a logistical impossibility for anything bigger than an asteroid base or miniscule outpost.  One thing the original Master of Orion got kind of right was the number of troops needed for full-scale planetary conquest.  Typically the armies were measure in the tens (if not hundreds) of millions.  The lack of large-scale ground combat might sound like a turn off to some traditional 4X fans, but I think this unorthodox approach has some interesting gameplay mechanics baked in.

Next time I'll continue this section on War and Peace by going into detail on leaders, diplomacy and espionage... 

Making a Better 4X (Part 2)

Continuing where we left off...

Colonization:

It can't be a 4X without the "eXpand" part, and in a space opera setting that means colonizing worlds.  The degree to which players are tasked with managing these operations varies a lot even within the sub-genre.  It can be anything from moving some sliders around on the overview screen to dragging and dropping individual units of population on a tile-like grid.  More complex systems of management tend to give the player the option of having an A.I. assistant take the reins although this tends to be a sub-optimal choice.  Personally, I don't think the level of detail is nearly as important as where that detail centered on.  For an interstellar empire it's not really about what's on the planet, but rather what the planet can get up into space.  To clarify that last point a bit further the total population of a planet is a lot less important than how many trained personal can be brought up to (and sustained in) orbital habitats.  Construction materials and equipment follow a similar line of reasoning.  Raw resources are another major point to consider.  For all intents and purposes it's a lot easier to mine whatever is needed from asteroids and small moons.  A fuel refinery in low orbit around a gas giant is far more useful than one down in the gravity well and dense atmosphere of a planet's surface.  From the player's perspective a planet's space infrastructure should be all that really matters when it comes to managing their interstellar empire.  Farms, factories, and power plants can be abstracted out of the picture because the things that really matter on the ground are space elevators and rocket launch/recovery facilities.  Meanwhile, orbiting stations that serve as shipyards, supply depots and living facilities count for far more by virtue of being readily available for use.  Having said all that, I think making planets entirely irrelevant would be a bad idea.  Quite the contrary, giving each colony and outpost a distinct feel adds a lot to the 4X experience.  Aside from biome type, world size, and mineral richness, most 4X games give planets little "tags" to help make them feel more distinct.  In Master of Orion it's things like artifacts (which boost research) or crystals (that raise colony revenue).  Stellaris is a bit more interesting with tags like titanic life or the discovery of a previously unknown underground civilization.  These sorts of flourishes are great, but it feels like there needs to be more of them.  Ideally, there should be a bunch of "tags" for each kind of planetary biome.  It would also be nice if habilital worlds were more defined by their native flora and fauna.  After all, if the planet can support life then chances are there's life on the planet already.  Whether that entails nothing more than primordial ooze or a sentient race of primitive natives, what's already living on the planet can dramatically affect what the player can do with it.

 Research:

In Spaceward Ho! there is quite literally only five thing that are ever available for research; speed, range, weapons, shields, and miniaturization.  All scientific efforts in the game are directed toward war.  Master of Orion and it's sequel have six distinct categories of research which are further divided into individual "techs."  Stellaris does something similar, but reduces the categories down to three.  In Spaceward Ho! technology is a linear progression, level 3 shields are followed by level 4 shields and so on.  It's pretty bland, but functional.  Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars opts for a tech tree with more exoctic sounding labels.  In all but the first game in the series there was an attempt to create more gameplay variety by limiting the player's research to one of of several options within a given category.  The problem with that approach is some techs are more useful than others, plus it never really made sense to me why you couldn't simply go back and research something that had been previously passed over.  Stellaris does a much better job with its "deck-of-cards" approach.  Although I still find myself annoyed by the fact that certain techs will vanish from the list of options only to reappear later.  Stellaris also has some kinds of rare technology exclusive to certain empires based on government ethics or special events.  Overall, it is the best take I've seen yet, but it still has room for improvement.  As reluctant as I am to break that ever-so-important sense of immersion, for the purposes of comprehension it might be better to simply categorize fields of research into three clearly label subsets such as "ship," "colony" and "society" based improvements  Other than that, I see some interesting ways the Stellaris research system could be more heavily customized for a given species (depending on their natural tendencies).  Take, for example, the Bulrathi; they are tough, ecologically minded wolf-bears from a high-G world.  Based on that information I can come up with interesting setting questions like, do they refrain from heavily polluting industries?  How about terraforming?  Are they pro cybernetic and see it as a way to enhance their innate strengths, or do they view the tech as a kind of spiritual corruption?  High-G tolerance sounds like a boon for spaceship crews that need to withstand maneuvers with rapid acceleration or deceleration.  Does that make them better in space combat?  What about boarding actions?  There are more questions I could ask, but I think I've made my point.  A species having bonuses or penalties based on their nature is great, but I would also be curious to see what potential can unlocked over the course of the game.

Manufacturing:

In Spaceward Ho! population equals production.  Master of Orion uses a combination of population and factories to measure industrial output.  Stellaris turns everything into various currencies which are spent over time, or in a lump sum to achieve a desired goal.  If a player wants to build a cruiser then they need to pay a certain amount of mineral points and wait a certain amount of in-game days.  Once the warship is finished the player must pay a monthly energy credits fee to keep it operational.  None of these economic systems are particularly elegant.  They get the job done (so to speak), but as I mentioned in the colonization section, I think a decided focus on what can be brought into space (rather than what's on the ground) is the way to go.  The exception to this is terraforming.  In Stellaris they initially made the mistake of pushing this tech  out to the late game in an attempt to avoid the Master of Orion pitfall of having every planet end up with the exact same biome over time.  I see the issue here, but I honestly think terraforming should be available from pretty much the very beginning of the game.  I would also dump the prohibitive costs usually associated with utilizing the technology.  Instead, terraforming should simply be a huge time investment.  Say we're playing humans with the starting planet of Earth.  The first planet we colonize is Mars and from the get-go we start to terraforming it for a minimal expenditure of resources.  Over the course of the game the planet transforms from a barren world to a tundra-like environment.  By mid-game it's an arid desert world, and only toward the end of the game do we finally see a blue-green Mars.  The Jovian moon of Europa might travel a different terraforming path, starting off as a ball of ice, then becoming vast arctic sea, and at last a temperate ocean world.  Of course as habitability improves the colony could redirect efforts toward things other than simply sustaining itself.  The more prosperous the world the more it can contribute to the interstellar empire as a whole.  What that contribution entails can be left to the player's discretion.  Maybe they want one colony to work on establishing a star-system wide mining network?...or perhaps a steady supply of new space-adapted recruits.  Maybe the colony is geared toward research and scientific discovery?  Construction ships are nice and all, but much like merchant fleets, I don't see why the player needs to micromanage them.  Just assume they are there ready and able to do whatever task the player wants unless it's some kind of extra-special project like building a gateway between star systems.  Also, if we're going to have construction ships at all, I'd prefer something more along the lines of a mobile dockyard that moves from star to star gathering up materials and personal that are needed to build whatever the player demands.  It's sort of like a giant 3D printer in space, or a "Mothership" from the RTS series Homeworld.

Next up is spaceship design...

Making a Better 4X (Part 1)

I've been bouncing back and forth between Stellaris and Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars over the last couple of weeks and it has made me think long and hard about the genre.  Pretty much every 4X has its own strengths and weaknesses.  Might it be possible to combine the best of each entry in the genre to create an ideal 4X?  Galactic conquest strategy games tend to follow a predictable gameplay pattern of species selection, galaxy creation, exploring stars, colonizing planets, researching technologies, manufacturing, ship design and after encountering rival empires things like diplomacy, espionage and warfare.  So, let's examine these core aspects of space 4X design and see how they are handled or see what, if anything, can be improved.

Species Selection:

Every 4X begins with the player choosing who they want to be and who they want to play against.  Spaceward Ho! (the first 4X I ever played) had no differences between empires except for the kind of hats they wore.  Evenly balanced, to be sure, but there was a distinct lack of variety.  One of the nice things about having a pool of diverse alien species to choose from is the dramatic increase in replayability.  Being humans from the planet Earth is a very different experience than say taking the role of a hive mind of giant insects from a chthonian world.  That said, balanced gameplay is oftentimes hard to maintain with a more exotic selection.  Ask anyone who has played a lot Master of Orion and they'll probably tell you that the Mrrshans and Bulrathi are some of the hardest species to win with because their advantages are minor compared to other races.  Stellaris is the most robust option currently out there in this regard with the ability to choose from a list of pre-made species and custom create new ones to play as (or against).  Players can even randomize the selection process or have the computer generate species whole cloth.  This definitely adds an extra layer of mystery when they player journeys forth to the stars.

Galaxy Creation:

On the surface this seems like a fairly straightforward task.  Astronomy ranks all stars in the universe on the OBAFGKM scale of classification with each having subsets like "giant" and "dwarf" within their respective light spectrum.  This is all easy enough to simulate in a digital environment until you account for the numbers needed.  Realistically, the smallest galaxy in the observable universe has 250 million stars.  The only game I know of that grapples with numbers of that size is No Man's Sky, which as someone other than myself astutely observed has the width of a vast ocean, but the depth of a tiny puddle.  More stars does not equate to more interesting gameplay.  Thankfully, there is an elegant way meld plausibility with playability.  Stars tend to form in clusters.  Representing the area in which the game takes place as one of these clusters allows for a realistic arrangement without melting your CPU and possibly your brain.  Of course it also begs the question, what is preventing the player from sending ships outside the cluster?  That's something I'll explain in the next section.  For now there is another potential numerical nightmare I want to address when it comes to galaxy creation - planets.  The discovery of large numbers of exoplanets in recent years has definitively proven that our solar system is unexceptional when it comes to orbital bodies.  In fact it appears that many stars have planets in significant numbers.  4X games have been, and still are, stingy when it comes to allocating planets around stars.  The original Master of Orion had a maximum of one planet in each star system.  Spaceward Ho! simply had planets suspended in the void.  Master of Orion II: Battle at Antares along with the most recent one, Conquer the Stars, rectified this to some degree, but the average is still only 2~3 planets per star with a maximum (that I've seen) of 5 planets plus an asteroid belt.  Stellaris pushes the number of planets per system higher still in addition to having colonizable moons.  However, the game isn't able to represent our own solar system accurately without modding support.  It's certainly possible that Sol has an exceptionally high number of planets compared to most stars, but even so I think any given 4X should be able to generate an eight planet star system.

Exploration:

Now that the game has begun in earnest we come to the first "X" in 4X games.  So, how does one go about it?  We're going to need FTL (short for Faster Than Light) travel.  Scientifically speaking it currently only exists in the world of mathematics.  Sci-fi authors, on the other hand, have come up with inventive ways intelligent life might be able break the ultimate speed limit.  Generally speaking FTL can be distilled down into three basic forms: Warp (Star Trek), Gates (Mass Effect) and Lanes (Wing Commander).  Most early 4X games used Warp, but more recently the genre has shifted over to Lanes and, to a lesser extent, Gates.  Stellaris had all three, but recently embraced Lanes, similar to what Conquer the Stars did in comparison to the the rest of the Master of Orion series.  So, why do developers like Lanes so much?  The reason comes down to A.I. programming.  The more possible moves available the harder it is for a computer to make good decisions.  This is why your PC can play a killer game of chess, but is barely competent at Go.  Compared to Go, chess has a fairly limited moveset; hence the reason it's good at the latter and not so hot at the former.  Lanes also create some interesting strategic options that are lacking in the other two forms of FTL.  That said, I don't think Warp and Gates should be excluded entirely.  When you get down to it trying to travel from one planet to another, even within the confines of a single star system, can be a real headache both logistically and in terms of resources needed.  Therefore, I think having some kind of Warp drive, even if only capable of sub-light speeds, would be an extremely useful component of any interstellar empire wanting to accomplish things on human timescales.  As for Lanes and Gates, I think combining the two technologies could create some interesting choices for the player.  Assume for a moment that each star system (on top of planets, moons and asteroid belts) has a bunch of nodes that connect to other nodes in neighboring systems.  Building a gate at a node opens up that connection...here's the catch though, it's a one-way trip until a gate is set up on the other end.  So instead of sending scout ships or a science vessel (depending on the 4X) the player must mount a resource intensive expedition complete with a survey team and construction ship to set up the gate on the other end.  In this way it becomes very important for the player to consider where they want to focus their "stellar cartography" efforts.  Some nodes with more distant connections require more advanced gates to utilize which can only be accessed through technological advancement.  In this way new routes will become available as the game progresses, creating shortcuts and unlocking new areas for exploration or avenues of attack while still keeping things within the star cluster generated at the start of the game.  In fact there's a lot this sort of FTL arrangement adds to wartime strategies, but I'll discuss that in more detail in the section on warfare.

Whew!  Long post...expect more in about a week where I'll continue this space 4X examination by continuing with the next item on the list - colonization.
 

What I'm Watching

I wanted to embed a couple of game related videos that it thought suited the themes of this blog so without further ado: