Re: Multi-layer game

From: petemack@ozemail.com.au (Peter Mackay)

Date: Sun, 22 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <Pine.SUN.3.91.951013000621.19779A-100000@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu>,
Aaron Boyden <6500adb@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu> wrote:

>An add for an admittedly highly suspicious-looking game nonetheless
>reawakened a thought I've had for some time.  I've often wondered whether
>a game could be made to work with at least the following two levels of
>players: merchants and pirates run by players plying their trades in a
>space game, in a galaxy of empires also run by (different) players.  Could
>it be done?  Has it perhaps already been done without my noticing?  Does
>anybody else even care?

Difficult but possible.  One problem is that of timescale, in that the
decision cycle for people flying ships around is so much shorter than for
those running space empires (or even planets).  How do you let scacefarers
do their thing while still keeping the game interesting for the emperors?

Having said that, it's a great concept.  By and large, once a player has
set up his empire the way he wants it, most of his effort is devoted to
fighting wars and stamping out grass fires, and the running of the empire
is largely automatic.  This leaves a lot of room for smaller players to
exploit trade opportunities that aren't worth the effort of the emperor to
cater for, or to pirate a few imperial trade vessels, maybe the odd scout.
Most empires would rather accept a small loss than divert a squadron of
warships from *real* work to hunt down a few pesky pirates or free traders.
 If the pirates took over a planet, or captured all ships in a certain star
system, then it becomes a worthwhile task.

Possibly the small fry could work their way up to becoming large fry, say,
once you control a planet for a certain number of turns, you're an emperor.
 Or maybe those who run empires are not allowed to run ships, and must
subcontract their needs from smaller players (with the exception of the
imperial fleet, run by the goofy computer).

I put a bit of thought into a game like this some years back, after my
StarMagic game evolved out of my control, but I never got past the planning
stage.

~ m
    # U     Cheers!
     \|
      |\    -Peter Mackay
      |/    "Put not thy faith in platitudes"
     / \
    _\ /_

References

Multi-layer game
Aaron Boyden <6500adb@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu>
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Multi-layer game
Aaron Boyden <6500adb@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu>
Fri, 13 Oct 1995 00:00:00 +0000