WermRider

I.e Tleilaxu ----------------------------------- Technology: 732 Manufactories: 7 Natural Resources: 4390 Cultural Buildings: 10 ---------------------------------------------- TechQuality = 7 TechSupply = 700 NatQuality = 12 NatSupply = 1000 Total Credits Per Hour = 16,900 Ix ----------------------------------- Technology: 1232 Manufactories: 14 Natural Resources: 350 Cultural Buildings: 3 ---------------------------------------------- TechQuality = 12 TechSupply = 1400 NatQuality = 1 NatSupply = 300 Total Credits Per Hour = 17,‬100 In the above if Ix had +1 manufactory, it would generate 18,100 if Tleilaxu had +1 Cultural Building, it would generate 17,900. Tleilaxu would be near balanced with Ix; but he is not building manufactories; if he built manufactories each of his culturals would be worth slightly less. He has plenty of room to create his own balance. Ix However has no choice but to industrialize. And so he will have high manufactories and a higher tech level. This is just an example; and very few planets will have low Natural Resources. And even then it is likely they will not be as low as 350, unless severe industrialization is occurring. Even Harkonen will receive a nice sum of natural resources. and again these will play into faction specific bonuses; who may have a specific advantage from specializing the homeworld economically into one of the two methods. The Home Planet specializations look like this; the home planets government is one of the following - Technocracy -- We specialize in arms dealing and manufacture ix; sells vehicles tleilaxu; sells infantry ordos; sells stealth modded vehicle Stratocracy -- We specialize in military development and producing reinforcments Harkonen + Atreides Patriarch/Matriarch -- we specialize in diplomacy and selling mercenaries Corrino + Gesserit Mercantile -- we specialize in import and exports, space travel; trade. Guild Technocracy comes in two kinds; NAT and TECH. Nat is things like poisons, gholas, trees, wood, fruit etc; and genetically engineered products. Culturally distinct; Tech is industrial inventions such as most of the generic and household things that ix produce. Tleilaxu are a Natural Technocracy so they develop more NATPRODUCTS and Ix are pure Machining Technocracy - so they develop more TECHPRODUCTS They are both economy, but one of them is more comfortable without allies than the other. Atreides and Harkonen are both a Stratocracy, this means they are governed by a military force, so they produce more military at the homeworld. Ordos are a hybrid Patriarchal Technocracy; so they are specializing in military via purchase of mercenaries; and are also able to sell units to other house as a technocracy. Note; Technocracy is a government run by a technical elite; Stratocracy is a government run by a military force or the leader of a military force; Partriarch/Matriarch is a government similar to a monarchy; with a single leader(in this case specifically male or specifically female) Mercantile is pretty much representing guilds monopoly. They are receiving an economic bonus that comes through lower transportation costs and cheaper costing trade routes.

Thanks man; the AI will obviously generate credits over their turns, and then use these credits to build up standing base locations; but when they run out of space to build up in that location and if there is no direct local military threat threating that location; I.e no need for defense, they will just accumulate their cash until they can buy or Order in an MCV and then go over and take another base. So before I code anymore I'll at some point over today, completely populate that map with locations, and as I implement the AI we'll implement all factions simultaneous and just basically twiddle about with it until we can get a nice AI expansion going on. Looking at the original game something similar happens. He deploys the MCV; he checks his power; he builds his powerplant if hes low power, and then he selects a random available manufacture structure(barracks) builds the barracks; checks power; not low; builds refinery; checks power; low; builds power; And so this is how its progressing up the tree. I gotta do something similar here to make the AI somewhat structured. The power plant is vital measure to decide what needs building. And here this is going to be defined by available buildspace in that location. I think Canon; the Wind Trap isn't generating power; the wind trap is catching water. Water could be a currency that needs collecting in order to pay maintenance on military units. This might be a good way to have a fremen siech as playable. As since they wouldn't receive a homeworld economy; they would just never lose their water, and water would be returned on death. Potentially huge military capacity to compensate.

So it is taking its time but I don't have a massive amount of time and I need to take regular breaks as the amount of work that actually needs doing is quite large to do in one go so this is why progress seems slow, However we are nearly at the point where I can completely populate the map with base locations which I assume will take over an hour to do to a good standard. But I am starting to get excited for creating and watching AI growth and exapansion, and start making the ai generate and spend its points. Sandstorms will move from hex to hex and damage all base locations within a hex that a storm is operating. Sandstorms will move per random number of player turn per cycle per turn; so the planet is quite volatile. Storms could move to a hex once per turn, or once per two turns, or even once per three turns. Depending on weather severity that day. Freman are a 10th faction that receive a turn; but are not yet playable. 9 playable factions. So fremen will make some moves and diplomatic decisions aswell.

The new Arrakis Map, and method of defining Regions. The Hex grid will be useful for managing and balancing and generating things like global weather conditions. we now navigate the map to some amount left and right. As you can see i have been developing this version of the game for 5 sol 109 hours. Well. Not really, the code has been keeping track of its start date and how long its been since.

Lore, Idea's, Opinons, Corrections, Welcome.

heres a great progress report; Cut CHOAM, SMUGGLERS from playable factions list, have other plans for them. This roster is looking solid to me. I don't want to over-do it with factions I think the above is just right. Fremen, Choam, Smugglers will play into the game in their own way. Mainly because smugglers are generic; and Arakeen smugglers are Arrakis Based. They will offer services of whom some factions will receive discounts on usage. CHOAM is a shared corporation that changes hands, and we will have something similar going on here, where we can buy from choam and buy into choam. To make choam something we can gain full shareholding control of , as another layer of economy/power. And we know what we'll do with Fremen and that is these will interfere on the map, and will populate some areas of the map at the beginning of the game by default. They are each basically three sub, or story factions that we can share out some bonuses for over our current roster in order to make gameplay more unique than just units for each faction. I have taken a look into the Richese but they seem to be replaced or related to Ix, or at least they share a homeworld/are the ancestors(I am not entirely sure).

Thanks Bro this wheel turns with the click of our white buttons bottom left. The top faction is previewed in the description. We select the Players faction for the game before initiating the Game. We wont show specific faction bonuses here. This will be available to view once the faction has been selected; in the Home Planet overview. I have chosen the Throne for the Bene Gesserit; and a the white circle is to represent Smugglers. but nothings permenant or finished yet so. Everything subject to change.

Not Given up BTW I have just rewrote the entire game from scratch yesterday; in dynamic PC resolutions; I did so so I could implement some mechanics I overlooked. The gpx are more streamline and less lights are used. I am also making gpx from scratch incase I decide to release this game officially. We have also named all of the Base locations unique names; and regions unique names from the books and games. There are now 11 standard Factions and one gamespeed, Homeworld Planet Screens with more Homeworld development and trade Mechanics. There is a 3D globe of dune in addition to the strategic map that we can rotate. This 3D planet rotates in real time over the course of 24 hours. We will indeed develop a portion of the homeworld; to build our landing force for Dune prior to establishment. The primary MCV force must be constructed prior to selection of Landing Zone on dune. Each faction will land on Dune at different times; when they are prepared. It will not be mandatory to land on dune, and players could perform some operations on the homeworld prior to entering dune. I will post screens and info when more is ready. But for now we are on a new version project built from scratch using the original demo as a guide. here is the new Empire Overview screen; it is still unfinished; we now count the Orbit(year) the Lunar(month) and the Sol(day); The Length is indicating the total length of the current game. Which is 24 hours. Tleilaxu is on their 24th Turn. We can click the strategic map to open the strategic map view As the player is disadvantaged to the AI as the player needs to sleep in real life; the player doesn't receive a turn. Only AI factions receive movement turns. The player can move and make decisions as often as they like; so the faction that the player chooses will not be allocated a 6 minute turn schedule in the turn cycle. This is now purely an AI mechanic; giving life to the AI players in real time.

Tleilaxu --- 50% chance to convert defeated infantry into Contaminators; Tleilaxu and Allies receive 25% discount on Tleilaxu Technology at the Technology Market Tleilaxu Technology purchased from the Technology Market is quicker, stronger and more effective. Unique Unit: Ghola House of Ix --- Structure and Vehicles repair at double rate Allies receive a 20% discount on their Unique Unit; Windtraps produce 20% more power Ix receive 20% discount on Ixian technology at the technology market. Unique Unit: Projector Bene Gesserit --- For each ally of the Bene Gesserit gain +1 remote viewer Each ally receives a 5% overall combat boost When in an alliance; receive a 20% discount on their allies mercenaries Can purchase Diplomatic Points with Credits (multiplying x2 with each purchase) Atreides --- Aircraft are cheaper Alliance decay at half speed 60% chance a fremen encounter is recruited 100% if a recruited fremen is in the discovering party. Harkonen -- Vehicles are stronger Alliances decay at double rate Convention Penalities last half as long.. and recover twice as fast. Ordos -- Increased loot from Raids Decreased chance of uncovering stealth units Recon Units are 50% more effective Scouts are undetectable when still Guild -- Exports cash at double rate Factories require more power Starport deliveries are cheaper and Starport orders are delivered sooner. Corrino -- Starts with a Palace Cannot break convention Increased shares if another player breaks convention Infantry highly resistant to storms Smugglers -- Technology market is cheaper Smugglers and Allies receive 50% Discount on Smugglers Services at Starport Starport stock limits less often Stealth units are more effective

More divisions of territory? yes I agree. I had to knock off earlier so I couldn't continue much work; but I am about to set down and do some more work. Earlier I built the system for the construction of buildings; whereby we select a baselocation; and if we are the house of that baselocation; and we click the refinery button... From here; if we have the credits; we can build the structure; which then activates a countdown clock which reads from a variable buildtime, takes credits from house; and such doing this flips a bool Constructing = true; and for the duration of the countdown constructing remains true, until the countdown is at 0 and construction is complete ---> when once again constructing = false. So given the funds you could just construct another one straight away. Interesting part about this is on Application.Quit we don't need to carry as much information as we do when we are processing turns. Here we just save the simple information of the base contents and its owner; and the actual real time with date/month/year that the building would be constructed by. Which is just 30 seconds. But if we were to switch off for more than 30 seconds we could return to a complete building; and a harvester waiting to be tasked. So lets crack on and fix this system up to a high standard. Things we will get as a result of writing code like this ---> 1. Dynamic cost of all units and structure which could be unique per House. This is oppose to having the construction and building prerequisites and other information be a universal script that is referenced by all houses. So basically I am not 100% sure where I am going to put the prerequisite, buildspeed variables etc; atm the are in base locations; but we will probably reach into the house script to pull these unique prices and values for structures/units. anyway enough writing; i'll grab a beer and crack on- ---------- Hey yo if anyone wants to help I could use a list of base prices from the .ini of D2k with all house units and structures; before modifiers are applied.

furthermore; each time a harvester makes a successful deposit ;; lets save a log of the time and amount deposited. So that a base owner(and any observers) can keep track of a history of events at this base location. ----- Okay; like a base location; here is a spice field script. These guys sit on the map; and harvesters from nearby bases would be tasked to visit them and mine their spice. Soon we could specify a number of zones in each region to spawn; to randomly generate spicefields or base locations in each region (with some limits; like min amount of base location spawns) with each new game. As so the map content can be shuffled each new game. ++for replayability; and dynamic AI. For the time being; lets build a refinery; and task a harvester. Okay; so before we rush into harvesting spice from spice fields; we'll need to make a buildmenu for this base location. I guess the first category we'll need is Spice. we can worry about power afterwoulds. So lets start off by building the structure in the base location; and we will use the original D2K icons; and the familiar build method. While building; all other buildings would be off limits until construction complete. Buildings cannot be queued. You build it; and come back when its finished. Lets add some of these variables to the script; such as Refinery Count; Silo Count; Harvester Count

Regarding small House Icons to indicate the owner --> YES!! or it will be player colours; But ofc; the player will only know that there is an enemy base there if they have discovered it; or are observing the area. I was also thinking about Tleilaxu, Ix and Fremen as playables again, Particularly Ix. But I might backtrack on the Fremen; as in order for the Atreides to play the way that we know them to play -- they need access to fremen warriors. Or it would be cool rather that the Atreides play style is to some extent focussing on rallying fremen. It just suits their character more. Again, maybe fremen can lock away some base locations; and cause havoc for harvesters and all sides when we start reaching deeper into the map; where an atreides advantage would come into effect; and it would also be the same sort of time that Harkonen atomics, and other methods of breaking convention would come into play. other methods might include sabotage an enemy starliner to starport delivery. Which would be illegal via Convention. But it could carry a 50% chance of not being discovered, so we add a gamble mechanic to these things. An atomic will get discovered; but an atomic will have much more of a significant effect; where to most factions the convention penalty for doing so would be stagnating; much like the use of an atomic would be to the targets base. Corrino would lack access to any and all methods to break the convention entirely as their main debuffs And these debuffs are suppose to be sort of neither good nor bad; so its not a bad thing that corrino cant break the convention; because they benefit when others do. Just as its not bad that harkonen alliances decay at double rate; as it can get them out of relationships that are turning sour quickly; but at the same time; can put them behind if others form unions. Its kind of a -- good and bad thing to have. Atriedes ofcourse gets the exact opposite. They struggle to break alliances; which again can be good or bad. When I look at the plan for the smugglers truth is most of that I had ramshackled from ix and tleilaxu designs; and it might be best that the smugglers are providing illegal technologies and offering stealth transport services. Starport rental from specific location. Sort of like Ra2 Tech Buildings. We say the same about Mercenaries. Idk though lets see what rolls out over time. ps 1. I should probably put a starscape instead of black background 2. I wanna redesign that sidebar heres an image of some of the timekeeper script properties; GameSpeed = 0.2 translates to turns that last 11 seconds, and a turn cycle of 11*6. See how the time is logged above it ^^ ComingCycle, NextCycle, Next Turn; Coming Turn. This is a translated system clock(with date year month) in a binary value. this will prevent time cheating. As this one(and by one I mean the concept) actually checks the length of time in the date change; and if a date change is detected that is less than the date and time that you last played --> you will be known cheating. These values are autosaved on Application.quit; So given you close the application in a realistic way these guys save; and reload when you open again. And they will also know how long ago you last checked. So any production or other variables tied into the time stores will also know that they had been completed a long time ago; and such; if it was a building for example that provides a benefit --> it could then use the time to calculate what you should have as a result. Credits for example. What is important here is that the game needs to know which faction was next turn; so that when the algorithm figures out in 2 weeks time that 2 weeks ago you set up a base; and then closed the app and it was guilds turn; on the 14th of bla bla on the 2020 at 00:34:21; So that without the use of a Server; we can mathematically figure out exactly where the game should be on relaunch. Useful stuff. And the whole system should work well; and hold up. I guess even jumping forward in time; you could cheat; but u know; I am not so sure. But never the less, no matter. Exploits exploits. For as long as the system can process your credits; and advance some AI progress -- in your absence. I am happy. The Entire Script Begin implanting BaseLocations Houses You might notice there are 6 houses, and 6 factions. Current Data of a House Script (randomly selected) They generated 85 credits, 17 diplomacy points; from a homeworld income of 5; while I left the game idle. Heres what gets selected when you click a base location; at the moment no data is transferred. It only registers as selected and lights up; while all unselected dim. We will pass the house script in order to register the Base Owner. A Base Location with structures; could potentially still be taken by an overwhelming non-destructive force; by changing the base owner. Structures at a base locations; will be best tied into to individual BaseLocation scripts(of which there are currently 15 of, in those dots) SPECIFICALLY Spice IN Silos' will be tied to base location. CREDITS are assigned to the House. Spice in Silo lower the cost of production from Barracks Factory; these units more expensive this way using credits. Only at starport. This is why you might store spice in silos at all. Instead of converting it all to credits. No, Spice is more efficient. Spice is your actual Wealth. The powerful stuff. Spice is how you get stuff done quickly. Production should be fast; production with credits should be expensive, production with spice is a breeze. With the idea that ; with the amount of credits you make --> exporting spice; if you spent those credits on unit production from a factory then you would be at a loss as to how much you can manufacture with it, compared to putting it in a silo and spending it on units. As so you are encouraged to store spice; and spend spice; while doing so makes you a target; you then need military and off we go. 111 this be useful for getting the AI to know whose got powerful bases and who doesn't. And it can be a variable to encourage AI to raid.

Spacing Guild ^^ pretty basic Themed Harkonen improvement. Ima make an Ordos Lets make this game guys; I will take all your input and create to high standard of specifications and strategic requirements. and yes I agree; might be too much up there, But I also think there should be a nice variation in general; some with 5 locations, some with 8 locations. And we also wouldn't mind some level of random-gen so that each game the map is somewhat differnt. Which Ordos logo do you prefer? I like the Dune2k one to the Emperor one; but its hard to get a HQ rip of it.

I will have to improve on the Harkonen design to match this standard; although these symbols should display for each faction whenever it is that players turn. Yes the dots in the corner I am testing out methods to make base building - and zone control viable. One method is to have some preset base locations. and player fight over control of these zones; as each zone, however some zones could be spice grounds; where nearby bases send harvesters and ultimately end up competing for control of the spice. So maybe many of those dots would be spice fields; but a few of those dots are base locations. If you were to control all dots --- we would highlight the zone as the Houses territory.

HarkGPX +

4 Okay the map and GPX aren't perfect yet, but here I have a system where we have some base locations in the region, and we can select a base location; and pull up some info on it. Though the content of this information is yet to be implemented. Here, the selected location is highlighted in red; and this will be considered a base location. and the amount of buildspace available here will be defined by some Region Stats; which will contain all of that Inf Rock, Sand, Rock percentage; that defines how much space each base has; so that locations can be specialized for purpose in the future. p.s I wasn't sure how many base locations I should put in the regions; so I started the first region by putting as many as possible. Though they may not all have to be viable base locations; and some could be considered spice fields.

An Update: The turn counter is quite efficient and is on its third rewrite and this time its pretty clean and straightforward. I have begun the process of implementing stats for each house. Of whom each house now has a script. What we do now is --> if its a Houses turn their script is receiving +1 diplomacy point. If it has been a full revolution of turns -- and a full turn cycle is complete --> which is currently -> (Faction.Count / GameSpeed) Then all houses will receive HomeWorldIncome in Credits from their homeworld. HomeWorldIncome is defined on each house script; and is specific to each house. I'm going to go ahead and create production system for Buildings; and hopefully copy and paste this for all other productions.

Yes something like this I think; so a scout move could be detected; but if the scout is in observation he is invisible for ordos. But he could be discovered if the enemy explored the area. But if the scout moved from one location within a region to another within the same region; an observing scout would alert this to the player/AI where he came from - and where hes going --> and display the timer it takes him to get there aswell;; to the enemy. But as he is still - an observing enemy scout in the same location would not see him. What are some other factions? I reserved the Ix and TL because TL isn't likely to use Combat Tanks and the standard issue gear; and nor would the Ix; as far as I know. + they would get some lore going on in the tech market; and what advanced stuff can be ordered. Mercenaries I guess could make another; in my current testing I am set to 18 factions so turns tick by at 3 mins each. But they are just dummy factions i am using to lower the time intervals while I tweak and test the system.

I am still working on the Time system. Specifically I am just coming towards completion of time tracing; where we are logging the last application quit time; and comparing it when we reopen the application; to get the difference in time; to then deduct and use algorithm to calculate how many moves should have occurred; and what specific minute and second the next turn clocks would display if the application had not been turned off. And although complex; I have almost completed this. I actually had to rescratch my entire code in order to organize it in a vastly superior way to the code I was running yesterday. But anyways I had some design changes for Factions- specifically removing Fremen as a faction and have Fremen be Map units; like worms. Main Factions ---> Plan (with some bonuses) Atreides --- Aircraft are cheaper Alliance decay at half speed 60% chance a fremen encounter is recruited 100% if a recruited fremen is in the discovering party. Harkonen -- Vehicles are stronger Alliances decay at double rate Convention Penalities last half as long.. and recover twice as fast. Ordos -- Increased loot from Raids Decreased chance of uncovering stealth units Recon Units are 50% more effective Scouts are undetectable when still Guild -- Exports cash at double rate Factories require more power Starport deliveries are cheaper and Starport orders are delivered sooner. Corrino -- Starts with a Palace Cannot break convention Increased shares if another player breaks convention Infantry highly resistant to storms Smugglers -- Technology market is cheaper Alliances benefit their ally more Starport stock limits less often Stealth units are more effective here we keep Tleilaxu, Ixian as technology merchants. Fremen, Storms and Worms are Indigenous/Wild Map Units. anyway just dropping in --- ima crack on with this system. p.s All of the generic units from dune2000 will be the generic units available to all houses in this. no planned new additions to the roster yet; so this includes;;; High Tech Factory; Heavy Factory; Light Factory; Barracks; Starport all dune2000 units; harvester, siege tank, mrls, combat tank, trike, quad. UU like deviator; devastator(tank), sonic tank; ornithropter, sardaukar etc But as for an actual combat system; we will create squads; and designate these squads purpose;; such as perform missions in locations; or raids at location; exploration, observation etc this is how we will get Fremen and Worm encounters. And how we may encounter enemy forces in the same location. In which combat may be initiated. Where then the combat result would be calculated based on the unit stats and type comparison of both parties. Exploration(Discovery) - A chance to encounter fremen, worms, stealth unit; or discover an enemy base; (to find things to observe) Exploration Generates Random Events; OR Discovers an enemy presence Observsation(Spy) - A chance to observe fremen, worms, storm;; or spy on enemy base / activity; // giving a feed of events of ocurrance at known bases/spice fields in this location Observation Provides a Feed of Information at known sites; Raid(theif) - Attack a spicefield or harvesters; returns spice Attack - Attack something to destroy it (heavy vehicles less efficient at raiding as destructive + worm attraction) The weight of the squad will influence worm encounters; and define which squad a worm might attack give a choice of two squads in one location and the randomgen - size of the worm. Fremen might occupy base locations preventing anyone building there until they are removed or recruited. And fremen would generally be consistent of small randomgen AI squads, that basically distrupt your missions from time to time. Fremen might have a popcap in a location; to tell the player what the fremen presence is like in that location to then decide how safe it is to operate here or what squad size is necessary. But we will address this sort of stuff as we near the implementation of these mechanics.

Implemented turn system. (ignore left hand stats) Which can fit any number of factions, and is not hardcoded to a set of specific factions. Faction turns can be in any order, but this order will be specified when player selects a House. Currently -- the player House is Ordos. Anyway; time Ticks by; and our Next Player to Move(Harkonen) updates; while our Current Turn is registering Fremen; and will do for the next ten minutes. While our turn (regarding our chance to spend some special hourly points -- Diplomacy etc; (not regarding manufacture and emprie management) is renewed in 49 mins. That will cycle currently 6 factions in the hour; and return to CurrentTurn Ordos by the next hour. I guess with the usage of a full list of Factions;; lz count ---> AT, OR, HK, GU, TL, IX, FR, IM, CO etc what not; however many are to be used; We would say 60 mins / Number of Factions = Turn Time for each faction. And maybe a game setup can have us decide how many factions are in the game. So I code this now so it can be adaptive for this usage. --Sayin that --> turns could be ten mins as a set value; and if there are less factions or more factions than the hour; time until next turn = NextPlayerToMoveTime * Difference between PlayerFactionIndex and CurrentPlayerToMoveIndex. So ultimately; our turn timer value is 10mins * NumberOfFactions, and since it always starts on PlayersTurn; this clock can just loop that way while giving the correct results. the current time registers as 30 seconds late because I paused between screenshots

More Concept, nothings plugged in I am just compiling a list of attributes needed to represent the information of the selected region. Add to that Urban Structures or Living Quarters. Which will be required for Pop Cap per region; How many infantry can we feed; how many vehicles can we maintain; how much can we accommodate at full power. Add to that Number of Powerplants + Total Base Power; which will be needed for all structures. Maybe Add Viable base locations; make It possible for more than one player settlement in a region., whereby base locations will divide Plateux % among the number of base locations; to define how much build space is divided for each faction with a base in this location. Here, to claim a region is to occupy all settlements within the region, ( So If we start separated we always have a high probability of nabbing our first region) and by the time we claim our second region -- we should be competing with AI. (as more houses will operate on the map) Some houses, like the Sub Houses, might claim region via alliance; or might settle in lots of regions very early. True military overview will receive a page of its own, this is intended to be the briefest amount of information needed on a given region. - an overview that would expand into tabs of further detail. Likely an activity feed or history of region to be stored, storing logs of all the activity that has occurred here. in its own tab. We make decisions like -- how much spice are we selling --- and how much spice are we storing. And this important; because; you will manufacture using StoredSpice; in Silos;(i.e your factory workers are working for spice that you pay directly from the store; under the cost of the unit); But credits will be spice sold; your spice exports; so this is when you empty a silo and sell the contents for credits that you can spend maybe at the starport and on forging alliances or helping to fund factions or buy from a technology market etc. <-- here we could also say things like -- who are you exporting your spice to? Who is buying your exports? Somebody else benefits from spice exports; but at the same time having too much stored spice could provoke an attack; and someone steal your base. Whereby managing these decisions is in effect the game. The faction who is least traded with in Exports subsequently pays the most for them. But the money is invisible; and is only felt by the selling player; as the exports are to the home planets; which might be providing a trickle of income to their Dune operations based on their own accumulating wealth( occurring as result of players using the exports to empty silos) A player could sell to their own homeplanet; at the lowest of all rates; and, this will not be effecting anybody elses income when doing so. Here we can encourage dynamic trade; via exports; which will grant access to starport; and other technology markets; as well as attribute some effect to the benefit of alliances. Where an ally will be exporting spice to his own, and your home planet, if you are doing the same in return. This will increase a base income per hour -- the starting income per hour. And will be accessible as soon as you build a refinery, a silo, and a starport. an Economic overview might look like this --> Credits; Credits per hour : (total credits you will receive this hour) from Homeworld : (how much from homeworld) from Exports : (how much of this is from exports) Spice: Spice Inbound per hour : (total spice you will have mined this hour) Spice outgoing this hour : (How much of this spice is leaving) % what percentange Storage ; how much spice have we stored. a unit might look like this; Atreides Conscript - Cost: 50credits(to import/with/starport) or 5 spice(to train/at barracks); barracks+factories train in queue -- while starport will alow mass purchase as normal.

It doesn't sound complex at all. Keep in mind; a players total power will be the sum of many things -- which could be the number of territory held / number of troops (which is defined by troop type; whose effectiveness is further refined by favouring or unfavoring conditions / weather/Combat conditions.) I will not restrict the number of alliances that can be made --- as theoretically a global alliance could also result in a victory if achieved. I think certain conditions and behaviours that could be provoked from an AI or performed by Human should hinder alliance making -- like breaking of the convention. But I will make it one of the first thing the AI checks each time the AI updates its code (which may be when the faction specifically updates its turn, he will check all of this data before calculating the best move which will be defined even further by the faction personality --- how likely am I as a personality to form an alliance? This would put us into the realm of base stats for each faction. Either way -- what we don't want is a never ending game; We want games to last a few real time days at least - maybe up to a week -- But we want the game to result in victory or loss - and then let players start again with another faction; we don't want to be playing the same save file forever. So i'll keep this in mind when building it knowing that the game won't have any substantial graphical meat to it -- in that it wont be like an RTS -- the quality of AI is going to be ++ priority -- in order to make the game good. Here we can say Harkonen alliance will decay quickly; since it is their personality to backstab you. also A decay mechanic on Alliances ---> so that we aren't allies unconditionally -- and we are only friends with the factions we are maintaining --> and an alliance can be forgotten

I'll throw some code together this evening for some basic starter logic. Implement the basic systems. and get a nice map and planet view. And maybe add some weather whilst continuing to ponder what the actual game should entail when built around these mechanics. More gameplay theory --- So lets say the player has some points to spend on forging an alliance with another faction, one point an hour --- the AI get these points to forge their own relationships with other factions once an hour. Something like this; and we'll keep combat events on their own timeline - based on how long it takes to travel to a location from a location in real(ish) time. With long expeditions to the other side of the globe taking a long time at first but gradually getting easier as you start to build an empire and claim territory.