Michel and I are working on the events that appear on the map.
What does that actually mean? We’re aligning our vision of it right now as we build a prototype, so I can bring you in on some of the discussion points.
The 6 Event Types
Traveler
Discovery
Resource
Tracks
Monster Patrol
Monster Lair
We are focusing on the Traveler and Discovery type because they are slightly more complicated and require definition for implementation.
Rather than writing a sample event from scratch, we’re using a typical one from a game we both enjoy: FTL
Example Sector Event from FTL: (See all events here)
ASTEROID_DERELICT_SHIP
A ship without life forms within a nearby dense asteroid field is giving off the distress call. Shall we investigate? It could be dangerous.
Search for the ship.
1/3
You find what appears to be pieces of a derelict ship coated with ice or crystal. Before you have a chance to dock, a few asteroids get past your shields and partially damage your engines. You'll have to pull out!
5 Hull Damage
1 System Damage to engines
1/3
You find a pirate ship, damaged and abandoned. You salvage what you can and move on.
Random scrap and low resources
1/3
You find the decaying remains of some kind of ship coated with ice or crystal. You send some crew aboard to explore. Nearly everything is either destroyed or unidentifiable, but one of the weapons appears salvageable and there's a strange stasis pod that catches your eye.
Continue...
It looks like a massive asteroid is in a direct collision course with the derelict ship! You have to pull your crew out but they want to grab what they can first. What do they take?
Take the weapon and any spare scrap.
Your crew grabs what they can and returns to the ship before the asteroid hits. You take a look at what you've recovered once you move clear of the asteroid field.
Low scrap
Weapon
Grab the stasis chamber.
Your crew drags the pod back to your ship before the asteroid smashes into the ship, shattering through the crystal coating and destroying the ship.
Continue...
The pod appears to be functioning but you see nothing but shards of crystal inside. Perhaps someone else will know how to open it.
Low scrap
Augmentation (Damaged Stasis Pod)
Avoid the area.
Discretion is the better part of valor. Better not risk it.
Nothing happens
(Rock Plating) Make a thorough search for the ship without fear of stray asteroids.
1/1
You find the decaying remains of some kind of ship coated with ice or crystal. You send some crew aboard to explore. Nearly everything is either destroyed or unidentifiable, but one of the weapons appears salvageable and there's a strange stasis pod that catches your eye.
Continue...
It looks like a massive asteroid is in a direct collision course with the derelict ship! You have to pull your crew out but they want to grab what they can first. What do they take?
Take the weapon and any spare scrap.
Your crew grabs what they can and returns to the ship before the asteroid hits. You take a look at what you've recovered once you move clear of the asteroid field.
Low scrap
Weapon
Grab the stasis chamber.
Your crew drags the pod back to your ship before the asteroid smashes into the ship, shattering through the crystal coating and destroying the ship.
Continue...
The pod appears to be functioning but you see nothing but shards of crystal inside. Perhaps someone else will know how to open it.
Low scrap
Augmentation (Damaged Stasis Pod)
FTL is a great game and their event system works well in their game context. What I like about FTL Events for us:
Simple - get to the point, faced with a decision with multiple outcomes
Randomized Outcomes - even if you get the same event, and choose the same option, it has potential different outcomes (the 1/3s above)
We can weight these outcomes by stats, skills, equipment, etc
We can flag some to only appear once per game
Scalable - we can write a lot of these and keeping adding more until it feels that we have enough
We’re working on getting a prototype event icon to appear on the map and parse the data file. Then take it from there.