Numbers

Currently the game has only a small number of events and anomolys, since they're just placeholders to make sure the code is working properly However, once the meat of the game engine is implemented, some of the team will be put onto "Content Duty" where everything from new Anomoly and Events to Cutscenes will be created. Also, following the beta (I think) we'll be releasing the .Anomoly and .Event file formats, allowing users to create their own.

In the end, we hope to have hundreds of both at the initial release, with more becoming available as players make their own.

Can other races use the anomolies for their benifit, or is it for the player only?

Yup, so get them fast

Yeah, the other races have their survey ships looking for anomolys as well...however, we're hoping to implement anomoly levels, where a level X anomoly can only be accessed by a explorer ship with survey skill at level X or higher. This way the anomolys will last longer throughout the course of the game, but it's a feature fairly low in priority.

Sounds like a cool feature though! Will you be able to see the level of the anomoly of would you have to explore to find out?

Paul.

Yeah I remember reading about that a year ago. Create your own events.

Sounds like fun though some restrictions will have to implemented to prevent cheating

As for lvl anomalies compared to explorer anomalies ... interesting. That would make it possible to colonize a planet/sector and find out about something there later on wouldn't it ?

Solitair: I imagaine the player will have to move their survey vessel into the anomaly, then a popup will tell them its level. However, we'd try to make the anomaly animation clue the player to the level of anomaly. A huge animation (80x80) would be a level 5, where as a small animation (10x10) would be a level 0...making the trip over to the anomaly less necessary.

OUTgunned: Yes, limits on player-crafted events will be necessary. That's something I bring up in the meeting today.

As for the anomalies, even the ones with high levels would be constantly visible to the player (provided they've cleared the fog of war for that area), so it wouldn't be something you'd discover later, but it'd be something you'd want to keep an eye on as the game progresses. Perhaps, if you find a level 8 anomoly close to your home star, you could send some defenders to surround it until your survey ship is up to that level. Or would this be too much tedium late in the game?

Ah so anomaly level are only for space based ones.

>>if you find a level 8 anomoly close to your home star, you could send some defenders to surround it until your survey ship is up to that level. Or would this be too much tedium late in the game? <<

The way I read this is that (some) anomalies move about. However a high level anomaly early in the game would seriously hamper a player. And if it doesn't move about then there's no need to surround it. But I don't see it getting tedious in mid to late game since you still get to make discoveries. However the rewards for those anomalies will have to be big enough for that time period of the game to make it worthwhile

Defending an anomoly sounds fine. The current likelihood of a defender defeating a flag ship is not very high though! I personally don't like flag ships as the sole anolomy explorer. I liked survey ships. Perhaps return unarmed or lightly armed survey ships but only allow them to reach a certain level (maybe 4). Only a flag ship can advance beyond that (but obviously costs more to build).
Then you have the choice of cheaper survey but very vunerable to attack (from enemies of from anomoly) versus expensive flag ship, which is armed and can achieve much higher levels.

Paul.

We had talked about having anomalies move at one point, but as of right now they are stationary. Surrounding a higher class of anomaly could prevent other races from stealing a potentially great find. As paul pointed out, though, the defenders would stand little chance against the current flag ships. We are going to be doing a great deal of play tweaking on that matter, and as of the last meeting i think the flag ships are going to be changed back to survey ships. I like the idea of the flag ship being able to reach higher levels though...we'll have to fool around with that idea.



The good thing about this setup is, by the time survey ships reach levels high enough to get into the more powerful anomalys, the game should be pretty far along. So, when you get to the Level 8 anomalys, the rewards will be pretty huge! Aww yeah!

I like the idea of having some new anomalys appear on the map when new technology (ie sensors) is researched or when the survey ship is at a level capable of entering it. Once a sector has been mapped, right now there is no reason to go back and visit it again. If new things can appear, it gives the survey ships something to do, keep surveying.

Not all the powerful anomalies should appear later. That black hole is quite large and visible right now, you just don't have a chance of surviving it. Or professor Biggles just invented the "poloron field amplification widget" that lets us see those "inverted dimentional pockets" or whatever based on our new technology "sensors".

I dislike the idea of only the flag ship being able to explore an anomaly. Several classes of ship should be able to, as long as one could reasonable say that the ship has a 'science section' on board. A science/scout ship yes, but not just a scout. A flag ship yes, but not a destroyer or cruiser.