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Terry
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« on: March 02, 2008, 06:54:33 PM »




[Download here]
(Zip File, 2.8Mb)

(Thanks for the awesome contest, everybody Smiley I hope you enjoy the game! I'll be back to explain how it all works later when I've had some sleep...)

Edit: I thought it was about time I finally sat down to write that tutorial I promised. Sorry to anybody who tried playing this and couldn't work out what to do Shocked Hopefully this will help:

Tutorial:

Background:

You control one of five gifted siblings, and your goal in the game is to eliminate the other four so that you can take over the world. You do this by building up mighty robot armies and fighting them in RPG-style battles. At the start of the game, you hold a 5% share in each of the seven country's resources. To get the resources to build up your army and take out your siblings, you need to buy more shares in each country and use your resources to create oil, metal, plastics and machine parts, which you use to build troops.

Building Units:

You start each turn in your floating fortress, which gives you an overview of your global financial situation. The first thing you'll want to do is buy some shares, so click the bottom right hand button (which will say something like "Visit Moscow" or "Visit Cape Town" depending on where you are) to go to the city.

On the city screen, click "Visit Stock Market". You'll see a breakdown of the stock market in this country. At the start of the game, you'll own 5%, your siblings will own 5% each, and the local government holds 75%. The share price is based on the current state of the economy and how much the government owns - in addition, if you're playing as Adriana, it's divided in two. Buy some shares. This will cause the economy in the country to increase a rank. (You can only do this once per turn.)

Ok! The next step is to use your shares to create resources! Click "Return to City" and then "Visit Industrial Sector".

To create anything, you need money, oil, metal, plastics and machine parts. The amount of "resource points" corresponds to your share in the local stock market - anything you don't use you sell, so you effectively make money by not using your resource points. How much you make depends on (a) the current economy (You make $1m per point in a "Chaotic" economy, but $7m in a "Roaring" one), and (b) the local tax rate.

Click the left and right arrows beside each resource to adjust how much of it you produce. Oil and Metals are simple, but to produce Plastics, Machine Parts or Chemicals, you need to produce some materials locally. For example, to create 1 unit of Plastic, first produce 5 units of Oil, then you'll be allowed to produce the plastic. (note: I'm going to simplify this in the update Smiley )

Repeat this for each nation (you can change your location on the fortress screen), and try to get a balance of producing resources without going into debt.

Controlling Nations:

Over time, all economies go down and countries destabilise. You can keep track of what's happening in the "Check News History" and "Check Country Data" options on the fortress screen.

When a country destabilises enough, militia groups will begin to intercept your resources. The easiest way to stabilise a country is to invest in it - i.e. buy shares - but you can also use Mind Control Rockets to do it.

To build Mind Control Rockets, you first need to research them (this will happen automatically within your first 10 turns). You need 5 metal and 10 chemicals to build each one. To actually use them, you need to own some sort of media outlet in a given country, which you can buy in the "Media Market". Buying a media outlet increases your influence, which impacts how powerful your suggestions are.

Once you own a media outlet and at least one mind control rocket, you can select the "Plant Suggestions" option from the city screen. Simply select what effect you want your suggestions to have, and your media outlets will begin broadcasting a suitable message. Your mind control rockets will trigger it.

You can stabilise a country by decreasing fear, or boosting the economy. If you actually want a country to destabilise (which can be useful to amassing human troops or buying cheap shares), you can do that here too. You can also use this to reduce taxes and scrap troublesome laws.

If a country destabilises enough, talk to the president about dissent. He'll offer to give you some human troops in exchange for dealing with it for him. (If you're Joseph, this is basically the most effective way to build up an army).

Combat:

Every 50 turns, like clockwork, one of your siblings will attack you. To be ready for your first attack, I suggest either having over 1000 of any unit type, or over 500 of two different types.

You can build units in the "Military Actions" screen on the fortress (once you've researched them). They all cost the same and do the same base damage - the difference is in their strengths and weaknesses. Zig Fighters are effective against Mecha Units, Mecha Units are effective against Killbots and Human Troops, and Killbots and Human Troops are effective against Zig Fighters.

The actual battles work by assigning targets for your robots. You can assign one target per turn - if there are still troops remaining after your units have attacked, they'll keep the same target - if not, they'll lose it.

There's some other stuff, but I'll leave that for you to discover. I think I've rambled on long enough. You can stop reading now Tongue

Disclaimers:

The game was pretty rushed, and I didn't have time to add a lot of things that I wanted to. In fact, I barely made the deadline. As a result, a lot of game elements are underpowered or totally unnecessary, and the balancing is way off (it's too hard at first, and not hard enough later on). The good news is that I'm working on an update that will (hopefully) fix a lot of these problems! I should have more details on that later on today. I really think there's potential for a fun game here, but right now it's got some serious issues. Regardless, I hope you enjoy playing it!
« Last Edit: March 28, 2008, 08:43:21 AM by Terry » Logged

Melly
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« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2008, 07:31:59 PM »

Indeed we do. All hail the Mind Control Rocket.
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Terry
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« Reply #2 on: March 16, 2008, 03:20:05 PM »

Bloody hell - I had to go back 5 pages to find this topic Shocked

Anyway, I've been working away at this game but I haven't posted anything because I didn't know if I'd be seeing it through (and also because I'm using horrible placeholders for graphics).

Here's the jist of the game: It's a political strategy/war game where five supervillians battle for world domination. Success requires cunning media manipulation and the use of Mind Control Rockets to play countries off against each other, so that you can move in and take their resources! Here are a few early screenshots using horrible placeholder graphics that I made today:







[Edit: I'm looking to team up with an artist - see this post for more info!]
« Last Edit: March 16, 2008, 05:47:31 PM by Terry » Logged

Terry
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« Reply #3 on: March 25, 2008, 01:52:03 AM »

It's finished! Get it here!

We Love Mind Control Rocket

I'm going to update the first post in a few minutes Grin
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Terry
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« Reply #4 on: March 25, 2008, 07:32:46 AM »

Oh dear - it looks like there was a bug on the buy shares screen Shocked I've fixed it and reuploaded the file.

So, has anyone had a chance to try this yet?  Grin
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« Reply #5 on: March 25, 2008, 07:52:04 AM »

I have tried it and it looks promising, however I dont really know how to play it and what I want to accomplish Embarrassed Maybe you can post a little tutorial or guide or something

btw the art looks great!
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Terry
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« Reply #6 on: March 25, 2008, 08:07:21 AM »

I have tried it and it looks promising, however I dont really know how to play it and what I want to accomplish Embarrassed Maybe you can post a little tutorial or guide or something

btw the art looks great!

I'm planning to post one later on - sorry, I know the game's a little vague on help. Unfortunately I didn't get time to add a tutorial mode Embarrassed

You've got Derek to thank for the art Smiley He volunteered to help out last week, and everything he's done has been awesome Kiss I can't thank him enough.
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« Reply #7 on: March 25, 2008, 08:56:36 AM »

I have somewhat figured out what to do and I'm enjoying it very much Grin! But this game seriously needs saving and loading buttons Sad
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Terry
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« Reply #8 on: March 25, 2008, 01:23:05 PM »

Glad to hear that Grin Sorry about the lack of a save function - afraid that lost out to the deadline too Sad

So I just started working on a quickstart guide to the game, and discovered that I'd forgotten to comment out some lines that I was using to test the combat and to make sure that the game played through alright Shocked Basically, the game's impossible to win normally with it in, so I took it out and recompiled it. That's the last thing I change, I promise! If you've already downloaded it, you might wanna download it again (otherwise you won't get very far  Cry )
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« Reply #9 on: March 25, 2008, 06:55:56 PM »

yeah I noticed that... :D but really it would be so helpfull to have the save and load functions..I mean it should not be so hard, and I think that Derek would take it even after the deadline Wink
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Derek
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« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2008, 10:48:13 PM »

Yeah, Terry, don't worry about making small tweaks... as long as you had a playable game by this morning.

I don't mind, and I don't think the other competitors will mind. Grin
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« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2008, 11:49:24 PM »

Your link seems to be down. Nice screenies though!
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Derek
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« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2008, 05:37:44 AM »

Fixt.  It was missing an "s." Tongue
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Terry
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« Reply #13 on: March 26, 2008, 05:45:01 AM »

Fixt.  It was missing an "s." Tongue

So it is! But it shouldn't be, so I renamed it on the server Smiley

Speaking of small tweaks, there was *another* bug that meant you couldn't finish the game. When it counted the remaining siblings, it included whoever you were playing as  Shocked Anyway, fixed. Smiley
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« Reply #14 on: March 26, 2008, 07:17:04 PM »

This game looks really fun, but unfortunately, I had no idea what I was doing. I died quickly.
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« Reply #15 on: March 28, 2008, 01:35:46 AM »

Very fun game once you figure out how to play. I beat the game with Adriana, after two frighteningly short, clumsy rounds with others as I tried to discover what to do. She seems like a very good starting character, since it's easier with her to buy government shares, giving you easier access to both income and resources. You got the classy supervillian mood down, from the music to the retro art style. There's a significant (but by no means long) learning curve (not helped by the complete lack of documentation), but it's definitely worth playing. Smiley

My biggest complaint, though, is that all your rivals remain static. They don't really have any effect on you except in their sole moment of combat. I never felt like they were really doing anything against me: they weren't amassing larger armies, they weren't trying to buy up government shares, they weren't sabotaging the economies of my key continents, etc. So there came a point where my economy was doing so well, that the only reason to delay attacking my siblings was to try and conquer even more of the world for personal satisfaction. Since the rivals weren't affected by the global economy, none of the offensive effects of the mind rockets had any impact. How cool would it be to locate a key market of your opponent, sell your stocks, then tank their economy? Since the framework is there, I'm guessing it was planned, but decent non-cheating AI would have taken way too long under the competition timeframe. I could see this being very fun with turn-based multiplayer.

By the way, was I supposed to start out with -5 rockets? I had to build 5 rockets before it let me use any of them.

Gameplay Tips/Clarifications:
  • Don't fight a sibling straight away. You will die.
  • Buying shares in a government gives you one resource point per percent owned. Resource points earn you money (minus taxes), or can be spent to create resources to build your army at the expense of not being able to sell those spent resources.
  • You need 5 units of oil in a single continent before you can produce plastics. Same for metal and robot parts. And you'll need 5 units of oil and 5 units of metal in the same continent to create chemicals, necessary for mind control rockets.
  • You can't sell excess resources, so make sure to shift production focus if you're stockpiling too much of any one.
  • Invest in some continents where you'll produce either nothing or very little in order to finance heavier production in other continents. Plus, it will make sure you won't be crippled by random riots.
  • If a nation loves you when dissent strikes (I think influence might play a role, too), the president will give you 400 kickass human troops for keeps if you decide to quell the insurgence personally.
  • Combat is heavily based on the number of units. If there are very little of a unit type left after attack, focus on another type that can actually do real damage to you.
  • Your siblings may randomly attack you, so make sure to keep building up your armies. More of one unit type is generally stronger than few of many unit types. There are relative strengths and weaknesses to the types, but if your economy is good enough, you'll never have to worry about them.
« Last Edit: March 28, 2008, 01:46:17 AM by Noyb » Logged

Terry
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« Reply #16 on: March 28, 2008, 08:55:31 AM »

Hey, I'm glad you were able to get into it Smiley

My biggest complaint, though, is that all your rivals remain static. They don't really have any effect on you except in their sole moment of combat. I never felt like they were really doing anything against me: they weren't amassing larger armies, they weren't trying to buy up government shares, they weren't sabotaging the economies of my key continents, etc. So there came a point where my economy was doing so well, that the only reason to delay attacking my siblings was to try and conquer even more of the world for personal satisfaction. Since the rivals weren't affected by the global economy, none of the offensive effects of the mind rockets had any impact. How cool would it be to locate a key market of your opponent, sell your stocks, then tank their economy? Since the framework is there, I'm guessing it was planned, but decent non-cheating AI would have taken way too long under the competition timeframe. I could see this being very fun with turn-based multiplayer.

Ah, well, that was more or less the original plan Smiley I didn't have time to really implement AI properly, so I just did what I could. The big feature that got left out, actually, was civilian combat - you were supposed to be able to go to war with the civilian territories and capture countries, and fight with your siblings over territory control, which would have downplayed the stock buying aspect of the game (which is a lot more prominent than it's supposed to be). Fighting your siblings wasn't supposed to be an outright battle either, rather a couple of battles. This is all stuff I'm working on for the update Smiley

Quote
By the way, was I supposed to start out with -5 rockets? I had to build 5 rockets before it let me use any of them.

Nope Shocked That sounds like a very strange bug. I've got no idea why that would happen, but I'll look into it.

Quote
Gameplay Tips/Clarifications:

Thanks for posting that Smiley Hopefully it'll help out anyone else who's puzzled by the game.

I've actually just gotten around to posting a full tutorial in the first post of this thread, so hopefully that'll clear a few things up for other people.
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Terry
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« Reply #17 on: March 28, 2008, 08:57:09 AM »

Here's the tutorial I promised! I've also added it to the first post.

Tutorial:

Background:

You control one of five gifted siblings, and your goal in the game is to eliminate the other four so that you can take over the world. You do this by building up mighty robot armies and fighting them in RPG-style battles. At the start of the game, you hold a 5% share in each of the seven country's resources. To get the resources to build up your army and take out your siblings, you need to buy more shares in each country and use your resources to create oil, metal, plastics and machine parts, which you use to build troops.

Building Units:

You start each turn in your floating fortress, which gives you an overview of your global financial situation. The first thing you'll want to do is buy some shares, so click the bottom right hand button (which will say something like "Visit Moscow" or "Visit Cape Town" depending on where you are) to go to the city.

On the city screen, click "Visit Stock Market". You'll see a breakdown of the stock market in this country. At the start of the game, you'll own 5%, your siblings will own 5% each, and the local government holds 75%. The share price is based on the current state of the economy and how much the government owns - in addition, if you're playing as Adriana, it's divided in two. Buy some shares. This will cause the economy in the country to increase a rank. (You can only do this once per turn.)

Ok! The next step is to use your shares to create resources! Click "Return to City" and then "Visit Industrial Sector".

To create anything, you need money, oil, metal, plastics and machine parts. The amount of "resource points" corresponds to your share in the local stock market - anything you don't use you sell, so you effectively make money by not using your resource points. How much you make depends on (a) the current economy (You make $1m per point in a "Chaotic" economy, but $7m in a "Roaring" one), and (b) the local tax rate.

Click the left and right arrows beside each resource to adjust how much of it you produce. Oil and Metals are simple, but to produce Plastics, Machine Parts or Chemicals, you need to produce some materials locally. For example, to create 1 unit of Plastic, first produce 5 units of Oil, then you'll be allowed to produce the plastic. (note: I'm going to simplify this in the update Smiley )

Repeat this for each nation (you can change your location on the fortress screen), and try to get a balance of producing resources without going into debt.

Controlling Nations:

Over time, all economies go down and countries destabilise. You can keep track of what's happening in the "Check News History" and "Check Country Data" options on the fortress screen.

When a country destabilises enough, militia groups will begin to intercept your resources. The easiest way to stabilise a country is to invest in it - i.e. buy shares - but you can also use Mind Control Rockets to do it.

To build Mind Control Rockets, you first need to research them (this will happen automatically within your first 10 turns). You need 5 metal and 10 chemicals to build each one. To actually use them, you need to own some sort of media outlet in a given country, which you can buy in the "Media Market". Buying a media outlet increases your influence, which impacts how powerful your suggestions are.

Once you own a media outlet and at least one mind control rocket, you can select the "Plant Suggestions" option from the city screen. Simply select what effect you want your suggestions to have, and your media outlets will begin broadcasting a suitable message. Your mind control rockets will trigger it.

You can stabilise a country by decreasing fear, or boosting the economy. If you actually want a country to destabilise (which can be useful to amassing human troops or buying cheap shares), you can do that here too. You can also use this to reduce taxes and scrap troublesome laws.

If a country destabilises enough, talk to the president about dissent. He'll offer to give you some human troops in exchange for dealing with it for him. (If you're Joseph, this is basically the most effective way to build up an army).

Combat:

Every 50 turns, like clockwork, one of your siblings will attack you. To be ready for your first attack, I suggest either having over 1000 of any unit type, or over 500 of two different types.

You can build units in the "Military Actions" screen on the fortress (once you've researched them). They all cost the same and do the same base damage - the difference is in their strengths and weaknesses. Zig Fighters are effective against Mecha Units, Mecha Units are effective against Killbots and Human Troops, and Killbots and Human Troops are effective against Zig Fighters.

The actual battles work by assigning targets for your robots. You can assign one target per turn - if there are still troops remaining after your units have attacked, they'll keep the same target - if not, they'll lose it.

There's some other stuff, but I'll leave that for you to discover. I think I've rambled on long enough. You can stop reading now Tongue

Disclaimers:

The game was pretty rushed, and I didn't have time to add a lot of things that I wanted to. In fact, I barely made the deadline. As a result, a lot of game elements are underpowered or totally unnecessary, and the balancing is way off (it's too hard at first, and not hard enough later on). The good news is that I'm working on an update that will (hopefully) fix a lot of these problems! I should have more details on that later on today. I really think there's potential for a fun game here, but right now it's got some serious issues. Regardless, I hope you enjoy playing it!
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« Reply #18 on: March 28, 2008, 11:25:48 AM »

Although I have completed your game already (and had much fun!), I'm looking forward to your updates. The idea is great, and the gameplay will go right up to heavens after some tweaks...like there should be more emphasis on the rockets (but you mentioned this already Smiley)

Here are some of my observations:
- when you defeat siblings, their share should go to government
- usualy there was no point in using EMP or stuff like that, because all the attacks were lethal (so the units would not attack again)
- the negative amount of rockets happens to me usually after the combat

Anyway the game is one of the best i have played in the compo yet (and one that i have been playing for longest time). Job well done!
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Terry
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« Reply #19 on: March 28, 2008, 06:39:17 PM »

Thanks, lukipuk, that means a lot Smiley I hope you like the updates when they're done!

By the way, I've posted a few vague ideas about what I'm planning for the update on my blog. The changes will probably alter the core gameplay completely, but I think that's a good thing. Right now the game isn't playing to its strengths - there isn't nearly enough "supervillianly" stuff to do. The game needs more dastardly plans, manipulation, blackmail and so on Smiley
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