Roadmap of RUSTORION development

Initial research [done]

• Develop the basic data structures [done]
• Establish basic universeview/action scheme [done]
• Develop netcode to ensure data structures work well with it and are easy to update [done]
• Develop CLI tools for testing and guiless gameplay testing [done]
• Develop readonly GUI [done]

The Playable Demo [done]

The goal of this milestone is to have a playable game, which has simplistic mechanics, barebones controls, but offers a competitive multiplayer experience to prove that underlying concepts work. Gameplay features are gonna be:

• Capturable star systems: you get one then you can capture one if your ships are only present in a system. [done]
• Ships: one ship is built per turn in the capital. One ship moves one starlane per turn. [done]
• Ships fight: each ship destroys random ship from other empire in the same system during one turn. [done]
• All this works over network with client authentication via TLS using self-signed certificates. [done]
• GUI implementing all above [done]

The Competitive Demo [done]

The goal of this milestone is to have a space wargame with simple, but interesting mechanics, requiring a player to make choices in order to win.

In addition to the Playable Demo:

• Money: Accumulate Credits to build ships. [done]
• Population yields 1 credit per million people. [done]
• Player can order ships to be built for 100 credits per ship. [done]
• Planets are captured by spending money proportional to their population, that money should be earned back over a sizeable timespan. [done]
• UI has to give players all the information they need easily. [perpetual]
• Game is lost for a player if they lose the capital, or won if all other players lose. [done]
• There is a lobby UI to create a server and manage connecting people. [done]

The Competitive demo will further test the architecture and UI growth capabilities and give inspiration for a set of features for Version 1.0.

Version 1.0

This version will have to implement the full game, providing interesting strategical as well as technical choices and balanced and interesting gameplay. Set of features might be limited but self-sufficient and avoid leaving plot-holes and gameplay-holes (breaking suspension of belief).

• Fleets: Player build fleets as projection of power, fleets require Fuel, Parts and Food to exist and more to fight, and can be used to capture planets and defeat enemy fleets.
• Combat: basic combat between one model of ships, one hit = one kill. [done]
  • Reports: after battles a combat report should be available to players, showing at least killed ships count.
• Trade: Planets should produce goods of at least 5 types:
  • Food: required for healthy citizens [done]
  • Ship Parts: required to build and maintain ships
  • Industrial: used to build infrastructure
  • Luxury: consuming to raise happiness on a planet, building a habit
  • Fuel: required for ships
  • These types should be available at different planet types, ideally controlled by different players, to encourage trade and distrubution of production
• Foreign Relations: Players can set migration taxes, tariffs, transit taxes per good and empire
• Interface: Players should be able to conveniently host a server and connect to it, create a game and play it using GUI
• Population: Should have a happiness stat and will actively try to migrate from unhappy planets or regimes. Happiness is affected by having enough food and luxuries. People build their own planetary facilities to produce goods that are in demand and have their pools of money and resources which they use to trade.
• Currency: Empires issue Energy Credits (EC) 1-for-1 fuel they receive. EC are empire-specific, different empires can exchange fuel instead. 1 EC entitles the bearer to receive 1 Fuel at the empire's capital, and is given in exchange for 1 Fuel.