Checkmate- Endgame

Discussion for the Next Big Thing, which is purely theoretical.
Locked
inteuniso
Commander
Commander
Posts: 207
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:31 am

Checkmate- Endgame

Post by inteuniso »

It might seem a bit odd to plan the end of the game before it's even started, but it's always good to plan ahead, just so it's there. This should really just be a brainstorm session on how we should decide the game should end.

Should it be where one faction conquers all the others? If all of an alliances goals are fulfilled?

I think we should have victory conditions like this:

One faction left- Obvious win for that faction

Only players left have alliance- I think the players in that alliance should decide if they want to continue, but if the game has dragged on too long, it should be insta-win.

Only players left aren't in alliance, but both have fulfilled their goals- Again, like the one stated above. But if it's only two players, they're both winners.

Stalemate- This is just a theoretical scenario. What if, by the blind luck of it, two alliances stalemate each other, with no side being able to gain the upper hand? The remnant is already destroyed, and it's just the two alliances of factions.
This probably will not happen, simply because a capital ship (or a deus ex machina) will break the stalemate, resulting in victory in one side.


I can't think of anything else. Does anyone else have any comments/suggestions/criticisms?
It's not my fault I can't take your post seriously.
User avatar
Arcalane
Pseudofeline Overlord
Posts: 4034
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:37 am
Location: UK

Post by Arcalane »

Likely ending scenarios include:

Empire Rebuilt
The Old Empire is reestablished by any means necessary. Life returns to how it was, mostly. This basically occurs when there are no factions left that are not allied at the highest level with the Remnant. I don't see many people going that far with them though.

New Alliance
The major powers form a government of sorts of their own, that is probably more like a Federation; how the factions choose to run their own affairs is largely up to them, but they all meet and talk on important matters of security.

Galactic Superpower
One faction or group of factions becomes so powerful that their conquest of the galaxy becomes an inevitability or an unstoppable occurance, rather than something that could happen, but could be stopped.

~~

Individual win/lose scenarios:

The primary "lose" scenario for an individual faction as I see it is basically losing all of their military vessels and their headquarters to enemy assault. In fact, not even the entire destruction of their fleet is required; simply destroying their headquarters may be enough to force them into negotiations.

If a faction surrenders to you, you will gradually recieve control of all of it's ships and planets. Be warned that ships may opt to join other factions rather than willingly work for their enemy. A faction may also be able to evacuate it's leader to a friendly faction to evade defeat, but maintaining their fleet will be hard.

Alternately you can spare them, or possibly negotiate for them to become your vassal, which means you get a cut of their income, their unique technologies (if any), and constant, up to date information on their faction and it's holdings. You see everything they see, essentially.

Or you can just wipe them out entirely, if you're feeling arbitrary.

~~
(or a deus ex machina)
Whilst I'd like to say it's possible that there might be alien invasions in case you all get too complacent and laid-back, I can't see it happening without some uninvolved designers to ensure that nobody knows what they're up against 'til it hits them.
Silverware
Commodore
Commodore
Posts: 626
Joined: Fri Apr 17, 2009 11:50 am

Post by Silverware »

Well any point where there is a New Galactic Order of a kind, that could eventually break down would lead to a recurring themed game. So I personally would tend away from that sort of win condition.

A simple survival condition would be in my view the best.
Bringing in all sorts of things to push the players towards destruction slowly bit by bit would be fun to watch on the side lines and fun to be playing in, knowing that your only set goal is survival would also tend to make players think up a personal goal, like total control of a sub-section of space, or cornering the market in particular goods. Or the simple and ever popular total destruction of the other factions.
inteuniso
Commander
Commander
Posts: 207
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2009 1:31 am

Re: Checkmate- Endgame

Post by inteuniso »

Now that we're talking about the possibility of outsiders, could it be possible for a joint alien-human victory? One human faction decides to join forces with outsiders, and help them with whatever goal they're going for.

It would be interesting, and I think pretty cool too, to have a multi-species win.
It's not my fault I can't take your post seriously.
Droid
Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Posts: 1173
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2008 2:07 pm
Location: Canada

Re: Checkmate- Endgame

Post by Droid »

That'd probably be something like option 2.
A new alliance is built between whatever factions :P
User avatar
Arcalane
Pseudofeline Overlord
Posts: 4034
Joined: Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:37 am
Location: UK

Re: Checkmate- Endgame

Post by Arcalane »

inteuniso wrote:Now that we're talking about the possibility of outsiders, could it be possible for a joint alien-human victory? One human faction decides to join forces with outsiders, and help them with whatever goal they're going for.

It would be interesting, and I think pretty cool too, to have a multi-species win.
To be honest I'm disinclined to allow any easily-achieved victory conditions. If there are any of those, it's certainly not going to result in a Game Over just because one faction managed to achieve what it wanted to achieve. Similarly there won't be any "Space Race", "Transcendence" or other similar 'global win' objectives.

An example would be Victory Points, or a similar "hold <x> strategic locations for <y> turns"-type objective(s). You wouldn't instantly win by taking all of those - whether other factions knew or not about your reasons, many of those Points are likely to be in enemy territory, and I doubt they're going to let you get away with taking their territory. So, of course, I'm not going to let you get away with trying to victory-snipe; they get another shot at resecuring their territory.

And of course, if you lost control of all of your objectives, you'd have a limited amount of time to recapture them before your time required starts ticking back down to the maximum. Just to keep things interesting. ;)

Additionally, if we were still modelling the Morale of planets (which we probably won't be) then losing/gaining victory objective points would probably have a significant impact on that.
  /l、
゙(゚、 。 7
 l、゙ ~ヽ
 じしf_, )ノ
Locked