Wars never last forever. The Dance eventually ended which led to trade restarting as well as peaceful relations becoming the norm again. The Fractured Stars were something of an exception to this; neighboring nations struggled to get along even though hostilities had largely ceased. This created both economic and political opportunities though gaining access to some of them was not particularly easy.
While the region is prosperous the best space is claimed and controlled by various nations in the area. Some of them will be easy to convince to open themselves up to imperial trade; others will be more stubborn. Meanwhile competition for building space will be fierce. Profit margins will get tighter as time progresses
Scenario #10 Plans
The creation of an event system will allow the creation of more chaotic scenarios. The next scenario will expand the event system and involve unpredictable supply and demand.
Bug Fixes
Two scenarios lacked a proper maximum rounds trigger. This has been fixed.
While the effect was not all that noticeable some of the math applied to higher difficulties didn't work quite right. This largely had to do with profit decay. This has been fixed.
Currently In the Works
Random map generation.
Scenario #11.
More achievements.
Random Maps.
Map Editor.
Version 0.7
Scenario #9 - The Dance
History is full of difficult times. Unfortunately the future will likely be similar. While the jump lane era was mostly full of trade and prosperity there were periods where they were also used for war efforts. While the Empire generally preferred to expand peacefully this was not always an option. The Dance refers to both a period of turmoil and a region with an unpredictable nebula. This scenario involves delivering the goods demanded by the Empire for the war effort from this region.
While the region is home to other powers that are not part of the Empire they are also not hostile. However they have claimed the calmer, more open areas of the region as their own and will need to be negotiated with to open those up. As a twist on the formula of the game some of the delivery destinations offer a flat rate for profits rather than a rate based on the distance.
The Wheel Rebalance
The Wheel was a bit too difficult to get a diamond rating on painful difficulty. Initial profit availability has been increased to make it better balanced.
Scenario #10 Plans
The next step will be creating a scenario with an event system. This should make much longer scenarios possible to create. The intent here is for economic chaos to ramp up as well as various costs so that the profit snowball gets mitigated along the way. Of course some difficult terrain that one must build through will also mitigate this as the build costs will be high.
Bug Fixes
Some of the save game functionality broke along the way. This has been fixed.
Currently In the Works
Random map generation.
Scenario #10.
Event system.
More achievements.
Random Maps.
Map Editor.
Version 0.6.5
Scenario #8 - The Wheel
The Wheel is a strange region of space that appears at least partially artificial. Who built it or why is a mystery. What is not a mystery is how difficult it is to travel in the region. Strange energies permeate it while gravitic anomalies can make parts of it unpredictable. While adventurous merchants plied the region many avoided it due to the risks involved. Analysis showed that jump lane construction was impossible. Until now, that is.
This scenario is primarily a rough terrain scenario about making profit in a difficult region of space. While analysis showed that there would be a great deal of money to be made once shipping was safe in the area the snag was that making shipping safe seemed impossible. However multiple companies immediately dog piled the region once construction was possible. While some parts of the area are immediately available and cheap to build in these tend to be filled rather quickly. Any jump lane company that wishes to profit off of the region will need to consider how to branch into more difficult areas quickly.
While initially this scenario was meant to have little competition it turned out to work far better with multiple AI companies getting in the way. The higher level medals are also meant to be quite the challenge to earn.
Will The Wheel break you?
Interestingly balancing this particular scenario ended up being kind of a pain. I probably played through various versions of the scenario at least 300 times before it finally converged into a state I was happy with.
AI Improvements
While the changes are overall minor one thing I noticed is that the AI was too unlikely to make deliveries. This has now been fixed. While the frequency varies by company all of them are now more likely to make deliveries even if the profits are less than stellar.
Currently In the Works
Random map generation.
Scenario #9.
AI improvements.
More achievements.
Scenario #9 Plans
Now that the primarily game loop has been explored it's time for a bit of a twist on the formula. Part of the intent for the next scenario is a fixed profit mechanic where the amount of profit gained for some destinations is flat. The number of lanes used will not affect how much money is gained. Perhaps this is a step toward fixing the snowball issues discussed below. If nothing else it will be an interesting puzzle to think about. The map will also be smaller than The Wheel.
Let's Talk Math and Balance
One problem with this style of game ends up being balance. While I consider Railroad Tycoon 2 one of the best games ever made and do still play it to this day I also can't help but notice it has a bit of a problem in the numbers. In particular the early game can at times be extremely tight financially but once long lines are established profits become far more than one actually needs. Jump Lanes has run into similar balance issues; later on in some scenarios making long deliveries can lead to extreme profits. While this problem can be mitigated somewhat by making cash on hand or total profits goals of a scenario it can pose balance issues.
In particular the biggest balance issue comes from the fact that the early game has the longest effects when it comes to financials. One can snowball off of early game profits massively. However if they are too tight this becomes impossible and one can find themselves struggling to start a snowball at all. This can also be partially mitigated by having expensive things be available for purchase or requiring the saving of cash to build through some nasty terrain. In any case once a large profit snowball is established sometimes the game can turn into a simple waiting game instead of an active endeavor. Part of what I have been working on is ways to mitigate these issues. While nothing is completely solid yet this will affect how future scenarios will be designed. While "make a huge pile of money" scenario goals are fine they can get repetitive. One of the goals is to figure out a balance for a scenario where instead of making massive profits being the goal simple survival is the goal instead.
To that end one of the scenario end conditions that I am looking at is a negative balance condition. Currently scenarios allow you to have negative money and also issue an unlimited number of bonds. While most scenarios limit the number of bonds you are allowed to issue to get higher ratings this is not a game over condition. The requirement to maintain positive cash on hand and possibly a positive profit margin could be an interesting change to the current formula.
The biggest issue however is in generating random maps. This is turning out to be quite the puzzle to unlock given the balance issues. If too much easy profit is available early then the map will unlikely be fun to play on for long. Similarly if there is too little easy profit available early on then getting your snowball rolling will be impossible. While I have some ways in mind to deal with this I'm not quite happy with the current state of it. My experience playing Railroad Tycoon games has been that the earliest parts of a scenario are always about coming up with money. Unsurprisingly money can essentially solve every problem in an economic game if you have enough of it. However there is a band of numbers between which the game is actually fun. Too much profit and it becomes uninteresting. Too little and it becomes frustrating or impossible. How do you clamp the numbers between those? I have ideas. The next step is implementing them.
One of the goals with The Wheel was to create a longer scenario but this led to balance issues. The profit snowball blew up rather quickly once the player became sufficiently established. One of the current goals is to create very long scenarios that are meant to be played beyond 40 rounds. While The Wheel turned out to be good for about 23 it was initially intended to be a much longer scenario.
OK, strange rambling over.
Porting to Godot
In case you haven't heard Unity has made changes to its pricing structure. They're pretty ridiculous and actually quite terrible so I've decided to move away from Unity. This will unfortunately slow down development which I'm not happy about but I don't see how Unity can be trusted after this. The majority of the code won't need to be rewritten as it's already in C#. I largely detached the UI code and game logic so the biggest piece will be creating a new UI. The current plan is to finish the next scenario and then move on to porting.
Version 0.6.4
Life is Crazy, Isn't It?
Yes it's been a while since the last update. The short of it is that a lot of life happened. Making games is something I currently do in my spare time which I ended up with precious little of. I'll spare the grisly details. The important part is that I have more time now and have had a bit of a rest. Now I can spend some time on silly things like making games again. This project was never entirely abandoned but development ended up being far slower than I had intended. In particular random map generation has turned out to be more of a sticking point than I had figured. The mathematical balance of the maps can be rather tight which makes generating random maps harder than I figured. That being said it will be finished when I get it finished.
Tutorial
The original intent was that players would be presented with the game and some basic instructions. Since everything could be clicked on and played with the player was supposed to figure many things out along the way. However the game turned out to be too opaque. The most common complaint was that there was no tutorial to at least explain the basics.
This lack of a tutorial turned out to be a terrible idea. To fix this issue there is now a tutorial. This walks the player through building two lanes, making two deliveries, and implementing a upgrade. Everything else in the game progresses out from here as it creates other types of upgrades, ways to create supply and demand, and things that get in the way. There are now also a few messages that show at the beginning of the scenario. This will be improved upon but for now this should make the basics easier to sort out.
Other Stuff in the Works
The next map is in the works. Scenario #8 will be a rough terrain scenario featuring large but expensive regions. Only small, random parts of the map will be open at the beginning and must be opened. It will be a large map with minimal competition but will require careful planning to get through. The map is mostly designed. The next step is some analysis, testing, and creating the little text blurbs.
Random map generation is coming together. Some of the math and the generation algorithms are together but still not entirely solid.
More achievements are designed they just need to be implemented. The next batch will include some counter achievements in particular.
Longer Term Goals
Here are some other little things that players won't ever see directly but the results should hopefully improve the experience. From the very start Jump Lanes had test code written to prevent bugs from cropping up. This has of course expanded as the game has progressed. One thing that I sank some time into is further planning on improving automated testing of games as I create them. The end goal is to create tests that can simulate a full cycle of the game being played so that the mechanics can be put together before the game is even playable. While this level of testing may or may not end up in Jump Lanes it will be implemented in future projects.
While bugs are inevitable the goal is to prevent as many as possible before the game ever gets in front of a player.
Version 0.6.3.1
Nothing huge in this one. Just some extra help text.
Version 0.6.3
Regions
Scenarios may now have areas that begin restricted but may be opened with an investment of credits. The new scenario is largely based on this mechanic. While you must open regions to your company to build lanes there you may still ship using the lanes of other companies.
Random Color Destinations
Delivery destinations may now randomly change colors. They have a random color from a specific set at the beginning of the scenario and when a delivery is made to them they randomly change which may or may not maintain their current color.
Improved Messaging and Tutorial Messages
The messaging system has been fully implemented. Some scenarios will have help messages added when they are run. In particular Paul's Fork will tell you some basics while The Dark Pass will explain some basic strategies. This should help players new to this particular style of game learn the ropes more quickly.
Minor Balance Changes
The Cradle was a a bit too tight to accomplish diamond on. One more round has been made available to achieve your goals.
Hard and Painful difficulties have been toned down a bit. Painful in particular was a bit too, well, painful.
UI Improvements
The scenario briefing screen now shows some economic numbers about the scenario before it is started.
More things can now be right clicked for more information. In particular the source pips, the economic center upgrades, and the delivery destinations can be right clicked.
UI Bug Fixes
Clicking on the difficulty in the corporation creation screen changed the UI color. This is no longer the case.
The settings screen was not always properly loading the previous settings into the sliders. Though the settings were stored and maintained properly the sliders were not being set when the game was reloaded. This is now fixed.
Eggline
The new corporation Eggline has been added to the mix. This corporation is more likely to implement various upgrades than the others.
Scenario #7 - The Grey Barrier
The Grey Barrier is primarily about the new game mechanics implemented. The entire sector is not immediately available to the player's company and the various regions must be unlocked. They also have differing construction costs depending on the politics of the region. Some of the delivery destinations also begin with a random color and may randomly change color once a delivery has been provided to them.
The economy in this scenario is particularly volatile. Though it may begin rather prosperous don't expect things to stay that way for long. Over the course of the scenario things become increasingly unhinged.
Currently In the Works
Random map generation.
Scenario #8.
AI improvements.
More achievements.
Company Creation Bug Hotfix
There were two issues in the company creation screen.
First is that the error message widget was not properly displaying if a company name or chairman name were not entered. These must be entered to create a company. The error message quit displaying informing the player of this. This is fixed.
Second is that some of the colors were not properly selecting which was creating null reference exceptions. This was due to a glitch in the company color handling. This prevented the company from being created which stuck everything on this screen. This has been fixed.
Version 0.6.2
Cheevos!
The first seven achievements are now in Steam and are all fully implemented. More are coming in future versions.
Difficulty Rebalance
Further testing of the scenarios and difficulties showed that there was still too large of a gap between the difficulty levels. Normal had too many credits available especially early while painful proved to be too difficult on later scenarios. This was especially an issue with The Cradle.
One problem was the hard modifier given to all deliveries. The long term effects of this were problematic due to how profits decline as it would become difficult to get enough initial profits to get a network rolling. These penalties have been reduced and have been shifted into a per turn penalty onto each profit source. This reduces the harsh penalties on early game profits for harder difficulties while still ensuring that less money is available during each scenario overall.
Further balancing will happen in the future. The goal is to create difficulty levels that will appeal to all players. The intent is that normal will be an easy-ish mode where skilled play can complete diamond level victories a round or two early. Hard is meant to be fairly tight in the full round limit with a few mistakes made along the way. Painful is meant to be winnable only with highly skilled play. Earlier scenarios, Paul's Fork especially, are meant to be easier than later ones.
The Cradle Economic Change
The economics of The Cradle were a bit too tight on painful difficulty. To mitigate this the profit per lane used have been slightly increased while profits decrease slightly faster. This allows more profits to be immediately available on the next round but for this to not stick.
Scenario #6 - Anomalous Dig
This is a rough terrain scenario about connecting to and developing mining stations. Though there is a cheap area available to build in initially most of the economic centers are in the dense asteroid region of the map. Build costs end up being quite high and careful planning is needed. It is on a smaller map with one AI company that will quickly cramp the region.
Anomalous Dig also features economic fluctuations. This can dramatically affect the profits available and does include economic crashes. Plan accordingly.
AI Updates
Minor changes have been made to the personalities of all of the AI companies. In particular they are significantly more likely to upgrade their ships and their technologies. Previously they were not doing so often enough which restricted their delivery range.
Currently in the Works
Another AI company to play against.
Scenario #7.
Further balance improvements.
UI improvements.
Version 0.6.1
Major Lines Not Loading Properly
Save games were not always properly loading major lines from saved games. This is now fixed.
The Cradle Round Limit Increased
22 rounds was a bit more challenging than desired. The round limit has been increased to 23.
