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Exploration

Exploration entails the process of seeking out new planets to add to one's empire. The document outlines how that process will work, the steps involved in exploration and some basic technical theory on operation.

Scenarios

The following attempts to outline some basic scenarios to better illustrate how exploration works.

The Scouting Mission

            The Neptunian Forces are a small Guild with only a few players, mostly 
            overlooked by the more powerful Guilds on the server. Content in their 
            role, they focus on attempting to find new places to establish outposts 
            and uncover new resources, slowly growing their empire bit by bit.

            So the Neptunian Forces assemble a small fleet of ships, a few fighters 
            for defense, a scout ship or two and several transports. Picking a random
            direction, they send the fleet packing in hopes of finding some new, rich
            planet full of resources.

            Three real-time hours later, the fleet is hundreds of light years away when
            they finally come to their destination. A few seconds of scanning and they
            find...success! An unclaimed planet that has a large reserve of uranium, 
            which sells very well at the Trade Federation.

            So, the Neptunian Forces set up a new outpost and being constructing a
            refinery for shipping...

Seek and Destroy

            The Xordian Ninth Division has been hunting their deadly enemies, the 
            Zurb, for weeks now. Through discussion and plenty of bribes, they have
            managed to narrow down their location to one of three quadrents of the
            known Universe. 

            Putting together a small scouting fleet of fast ships, they send them off
            to each of the three quadrents knowing that, should one not return they 
            have their answer.

            After five hours (real time), two of the three fleets have returned, 
            leaving the Xordian Ninth Division with their answer. Mounting a massive
            armada, they set off to what they believe to be the Zurb homeworld...

Process

The following outlines the basic process used when a player is exploring the Universe. Please note that this is incomplete information at this time and will be updated in the future to reflect changing ideas and concepts.

When exploring, the player will be shifted into what is called "Exploration Mode" in game terms. Simply defined, this means that all activity taken by the player until "Exploration Mode" is exit can be assumed to relate to the exploration process.

Do we want an explicit exploration mode? I suppose this could just be one screen, because I would expect exploration to be a potentially lengthy process, one during which the user might also wish to check on trade routes, negotiate new deals, maybe quell a pirate rebellion at one of their bases.

The steps for using "Exploration Mode" are as follows:

Step 1 - Gathering A Fleet

  • Players will first need to assemble an exploration fleet. Choosing from available resources, any type and/or combination of ships may be sent, however if the player wishes to establish an outpost on a new world, at least one Outpost Ship must be sent along.
  • For more information on the available types of units, please consult the Unit Functional Specification.
  • To enable unit selection, players will be given a list of their available resources and a method of assigning a given number of those resources to a specific "Exploration Fleet".
  • Technical Note: "Exploration Fleet" here would be an object, created dynamically when the player goes into "Exploration Mode".
  • From here the player may either cancel out, thus ending Exploration Mode, or continue to Step 2.

Step 2 - Choosing Coodinates

  • Open Issue: Need to determine how navigation will be played out. In most space-type software I've seen, everything is coordinate based, but that doesn't need to be a limiting factor. Could do vector based travel, show the users a scrollable map and let them click where they want to go, any of a number of ideas.
  • Once the destination has been entered, the user can accept and progress to Step 3 or cancel and return to Step 1.

Step 3 - Calculate Arrival Time

  • Open Issue: How would travel time be calculated?

Step 4 - Launch Fleet

  • Now that the user is aware of how long the trip will take and what resources they have allocated to them, they can either accept the Exploration Fleet as is and send it off (in which case progress to Step 5) or they can cancel the launch which means they proceed back to Step 3.

Step 5 - Loop: Actual Travel

  • Once sent, the fleet will move through the intervening sectors of space in a straight path. For each sector that the fleet moves through, the following things must be checked by the system:
    • Defenses in the given sector.
      • If the defensive system would detect the fleet, and is hostile, then it must attack, triggering combat.
      • Resolve combat before travel can continue and update the time estimate.
      • For more on defensive systems, view the Unit Functional Specification for details.
  • Alien presence in the given sector.
    • If hostile aliens are present, then trigger combat.
    • If neutral or friendly, then trigger diplomacy.
    • Resolve diplomacy and/or combat then update the time estimate before fleet can continue.
    • Is this previously explored space?
      • If not, update player knowledge of the sector with appropriate data.
    • Is this the final sector to arrive in?
      • If not, then progress if possible, otherwise stop and accounce arrival.
    • As this is an automatic process, there is no "cancel" feature, though a potential "recall" feature could be added for tactical purposes.
    • Open Issue: Assuming the map is divided into "sectors" here, each potentially controlled by a player or npc. Thoughts?
    • Open Issue: Would Aliens use the same tech as players? If so, then the "defensive scan" phase could be combined and remove the "alien presence" phase.
    • Open Issue: Introduced the concept of diplomacy here a bit - friendly NPC's, as mentioned in the Gameplay docs. Might want to keep or ditch this, depending.
    • Open Issue: What, if anything, should be done when two or more Exploration Fleets occupy the same sector at the same time? Potential for combat/negotiations?

Step 6 - Arrival

Open Issue: How should players go about setting up an outpost? Special unit type or something else?

Definitely it should involve either some single special unit or combination of units (i.e. new habitation, population in cryo-sleep, resources enough to supply the new outpost until it either can support shipments or produce for itself. I like the idea of it costing raw resources beyond those required for the ship to plant a new base

Open Issue: Does establishing an outpost happen automagically or does it require player intervention?

I am in favor of player intervention to establish an outpost at a given location. I expect locations will be varied in their availability and suitability for new construction, and the fewer major game actions we have automated like that the more difficult it will be to create a bot to play the game in the user's stead.

Open Issue: Time required to establish an outpost?