Project FOFC: Choosing a focus

[Barkeep49]

Based off of this thread. The basic gist of Project FOFC is for this board to program some sort of open source game. I would really like to get moving on this idea as I think it's a great one and don't want it to lose momentum before it can even get started. This thread will be acompanied by another thread with a poll about choosing someone to spearhead the project (see first reply for link).

The two options above would need to be further refined. Like the other poll this is not meant to be a finishing point, but rather a starting point for moving forward.

Below I've listed some of the ideas presented to give an idea of what people are talking about when they say a politics or sports game.

Politics -
Could be a more election oriented sim. Either a chance to change history (i.e. be Nixon in '60) or a modern day sim. Perhaps have a character that rises through multiple offices ending up in President?
Could also be a more day-to-day thing. You would be an offical and would have to vote/make decisions/etc. Perhaps similar to Shadow President?
Or maybe it'll be more internationally focused. Ability to run election or play day-to-day in Britian, Latvia, Brazil, etc?

Sports -
Perhaps be a football game (as that remains a major focus of the board)? Ability to be more an RPG with character rising through ranks as owner/player/agent/coach?
Perhaps a basketball game? Could simulate multiple nations besides US
Perhaps a college-football game?
Maybe all of these could be an online persistant universe ala Hattrick?

Again I hope this project moves foward and we discuss rather than just passivly posting.

[Barkeep49]

The thread to choose a project leader can be found here

[Barkeep49]

Double dola:

To kick off the discussion let me say I think we should go with a political sim.

I think there is a lot more untapped potential here. I think there would be real demand and there have been fun games in this genre in the past, such as Shadow President, Balance of Power, Doonsburry, and Election. I know that I could provide a lot more help and research to a game like this than to a sports related game. I also think that we could produce something fun more quickly here than with a sports game and continue to add features as wanted.

If we did go with a sports related game I would hope that we would make it more an RPG than a "front office" game. I think there is a lot of potential there and would be much easier to come up with something good, than if we had to make our own simulation engine.

[illinifan999]

If we go with a International Political Sim here are my ideas:

Start with any country (maybe not every single one, but a few choices, so you don't play with the US every time if you don't want to.)

The ability to create an alliance (like NATO, but say Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan, and Yemen want to start the Middle Muslim States Organization, they would promise to help each other in case of war, etc.

Civil Wars or Rebel groups- If you upset the people they may decide to remove you whether you like it or not. Civil Wars wouldn't be commom with like the US or Canada, but Iraq might get a few.

War- Ability to invade any country you want as long as you are given either permission to fly through a countries airspace, or a countries military base. So say you are Mexico and want to attack Canada. You would have to get permission from the US to use thier airspace, or land to launch troops off of. They might say no, or yes based on their reputation. Like the US isn't likely to give Mexico permission to fly over them to attack Canada, but a country like Jordan might give in to letting Israel attack Iraq if they are given aid. If you are the US you need to ask Congress to declare war.

If you want- Elections every 4 years.

Economics- Real life type economics, with a stock market.

I'll try to come up with more during school, and give my ideas on a sport sim.

[Aylmar]

Bump

[GoldenEagle]

I think a coaching RPG college football game is the way to go, and I vote accordingly.

[WSUCougar]

I voted for the “other” category. I personally am not too interested in a political sim, although I’d still retain an interest in any FOFC project. Sports sims are familiar territory – too familiar in many ways – but I’d like to go in a direction that borrows from them rather than simply covering old ground (football, basketball, etc.).

One idea I’ve tinkered with over the years is a game that combines the aspects of a sports text sim and a gladiator-style wargame, set in a fantasy world. The gladiators would be like athletes in terms of skills/ratings/contracts, etc. I can provide some more details if anyone is interested.

Here's another wild idea - don't laugh too hard, I'm kind of serious. What about a dating sim? Not an x-rated one, I mean one that covers single life and the pursuit of a relationship. Think of the strategies, factors, and ratings (yeah, cocky & funny could be included)! It could be both a lot of fun and a very interesting strategy game. Okay, laugh away...I'll just go hang out with the Colossal Squid.

[Bee]

I actually had a friend ask me to help him develop a "gladiator type mangement game" about a year ago (I have an interest in gladiator history). I didn't have the time to really help him and the project died before it got started. I think that's another area where there is an open market.

[WSUCougar]

Originally posted by Bee
I have an interest in gladiator history.

The man is a veritable QOTM machine!

[Fido]

Originally posted by illinifan999
If we go with a International Political Sim here are my ideas:

*Disclaimer - its not my intention to blast your ideas - I think they're good ones. My intention is just to try to illustrate the difficulty involved here. *

Civil Wars or Rebel groups- If you upset the people they may decide to remove you whether you like it or not. Civil Wars wouldn't be commom with like the US or Canada, but Iraq might get a few.

The commonality of Civil wars is a product of the government, not the country. The US has a by the people government (in theory) so there are alternatives to Rebellion. Countries with a very strict dictator (USSR, IRAQ) would be unlikely to have rebellions as well though out of fear. So you really cannot simplify whether or not a country woudl have a revolt. Its a product of the people's happiness with their lives and their fear of reprecussions (and that's still a simplistic view).

Like the US isn't likely to give Mexico permission to fly over them to attack Canada, but a country like Jordan might give in to letting Israel attack Iraq if they are given aid.

There's also other incentives as illustrated recently by Turkey. How much money will you give us to allow you to do such and such? How much will they give me to not allow this?

If you are the US you need to ask Congress to declare war.

Ah...here's where things get interresting. That is true only because of our constitution, which by its own rules is ammendable. That may be the rule now, but an amendment could be passes requiring a 2/3 general election majority be required. Any simulation has to handle the fact that the laws for any given country (and the world as a whole) can and will change.

If you want- Elections every 4 years.

Same as above. This is not an if you want issue. Bush could not just say that we are not going to have any more elections - there's laws that he operates under. Iraq doesn't have succh laws. Note that to be completely realistic, someone will have to write a Hanging Chad simulator for the Election process.

Economics- Real life type economics, with a stock market.

How many games do you want to make? A realistic economic simulator is a game in and of itself (and another possibilty that shoudl be considered). Its way too much effort to include in game that does not focus on it.

To write a good political simulation game, I realy think we woudl need a lot more information. Ideally we would get a Washington insider on the team who can describe/detail what goes on that we don't know about. I agree that the Political Simulation genre is a relatively untapped market, but has anyone considered that teher may be a reason behind that?

[Fido]

Originally posted by WSUCougar
One idea I’ve tinkered with over the years is a game that combines the aspects of a sports text sim and a gladiator-style wargame, set in a fantasy world. The gladiators would be like athletes in terms of skills/ratings/contracts, etc. I can provide some more details if anyone is interested.

Here's another wild idea - don't laugh too hard, I'm kind of serious. What about a dating sim? Not an x-rated one, I mean one that covers single life and the pursuit of a relationship. Think of the strategies, factors, and ratings (yeah, cocky & funny could be included)! It could be both a lot of fun and a very interesting strategy game. Okay, laugh away...I'll just go hang out with the Colossal Squid.

If you decide to pursue either of these and want some help, let me know. I actually considered something like the second at one point. A Single's bar adventure type game that has a Natural Language Processos (Something like this) and reactions from people based on what you say - sort of like a single player chatroom. Note here that my interest was solely due to the complexity of the AI involved.

[illinifan999]

Fido,

Those were my wishful thinking ideas. I had no idea how hard it would be to program them into the game, but I figured I'd throw them out there.

[tucker342]

Originally posted by GoldenEagle
I think a coaching RPG college football game is the way to go, and I vote accordingly.

That's a good idea...

But a political sim would be the shiznit

[Airhog]

I like the idea of a gladitorial combat game. especailly if its a fun text game. More along the lines of a stadium owner/promoter


You would have control over things like
1. stadium size and types of seating
2. ticket prices.
3. vendors
4. The Gladiators
5. trainers, doctors, etc
6. weapons
7. special events

The gladiators would be the lynch piece of the whole game of course, no-one wants to watch people that cant fight. And maybe every few years the empire would hold the games, and your best gladiators would travel to rome to fight for the emperor.