2020 April 10¶
Still very much early days, but I'm getting close to having the core game loop in, even if nothing really happens still. As of today on the live site the player can play cards to add resources and end their turn. The AI currently just skips it's turn, but the player discard / draw loop works perfectly.
This means that I'm now at the difficult bit. I need to think about what events the AI might play, what conditions might encourage them. What the player can do for the first few turns. How might the player lose? It is possible to lose
I've said before that Attrition is the enemy when talking about how combat will be abstract, and I think this should be represented in the player's ability to lose. A value which slowly decreases and results in a loss when it reaches 0. The word for this value that comes to mind first is cohesion. The ability for the character to hold themselves together. The core resource, nanites, should hold this process of decreasing cohesion back. An attempt to fight entropy. Lonely is about fighting entropy. Raw nanites are abundant, and should remain that way unless the player finds a way to discard and lose all ways of generating them.
There should be other ways that a player can lose cohesion, though. I'll have a think about it.
I've also been thinking about blueprints. Possibly a type of card which allows you to build something. I don't know if the cost should be stable, or increase each time you build the same thing. I don't know if the card should persist in your deck, or be removed when you play it. Perhaps two types of building card, representing a found way of cobbling something together and a true understanding of how something works. The former would let you build something once for the benefit, but then cannot be built again. If the building is lost, then it is lost - can you support it for long enough for it to be useful? The latter would stick around in your deck, so you'll have to think about whether it's worth a slot - is this something you want to build often, will it be valuable to draw or take up a place in your hand for something that could have been more useful?
I don't know whether a concept like Slay the Spire's Relics might fit in to this game also - I suppose buildings fill a similar role, except you choose when to build them.
Finally, as mentioned I need to consider what events might be possible. How often should they occur. How could they be triggered? There should be events with positive consequences, and those with negative. Those with ambiguous consequences that could go wrong or could go very right if handled well..I think that events will fall broadly into categories, but I don't know what they all might be yet. They should develop naturally.
A few examples of what might be possible. Raiders have discovered your base and are attempting to extort you. For some reason, wild animals are attacking. They will continue to do so until they are stopped. While exploring, you have discovered an abundant source of nanites.