What is/is there an end game?

[baconisprime]

Hope this doesn't sound too much like a 'how many weapons?' question, but is there a way to beat the game? 

When I beat FTL the first(and last time) my desire to play just evaporated.  Every time I'd try to play again and didn't run into some of the conditions that helped me win originally I'd get frustrated at the game 'screwing me over'. 

Laser swords? 

[Tynan]

There's no endgame.

I have ideas about the idea of giving the colony long-term quests that act a little bit like the story sequence of some other games. There'd be a series of events leading to a conclusion. But there's no reason for me to force the colony to end afterwards.

The only trouble here is that right now you can get into a state where you've pretty much done and got everything in the game. Researched, built, and acquired everything. It's up to me now to extend the time until you get close to that by:

• Adding more content
• Designing systems to combine and recombine into new situations forever

[Hypolite]

Giving the premises of the game, one obvious end would be rebuilding a space ship and getting out of there.

[Tynan]

Been thinking more about that. I think it's a good idea, it's been on the list for a while.

Of course most of the AI storytellers will make sure that not everyone gets out scot-free. Look forward to some crazy shit going down as you near completion of the escape ship.

I think it could be a really interesting long-term quest, what with having to acquire various parts by trading or manufacturing, and put them together.

[Hypolite]

I definitely agree with that

Edit: Now that I got to the point where I can trade, it struck me as odd that you would trade with passing spaceships when you are stranded on a moon after your spaceship crashed. I mean, can't you just ask for a ride home? 

[Tynan]

Maybe you can't afford it?

[Hypolite]

It would have been a good reason if I weren't fully stocked on weapons of all sorts. I even have been able to buy a slave! 

I mean, it makes sense in a context where I would have to settle a piece of unknown land for a living, but it's less likely in a Robinson-like setting.

[Tynan]

Who knows how expensive interplanetary travel is? Could cost a fortune!

Anyway, I'll have to think about that. It is a bit odd.

[UsF]

I have an idea for endgame. The spaceship idea seems nice, but what about if you make it so people get anxious the more spaceship you build, that they will be left behind. You could leave soon with one person, trying to get a stealth "win" out of it, but the longer and more you build on the ship, the more people will fit onto it, but also the more everyone thinks they are the person that will be left behind. That way, you would have a difficulty curve/endgame difficulty spike at the end, trying to rescue people, as they go mad while completing the final project. Could of course be counteracted by other mood affecting things, but maybe it can be done in-game.

[Tynan]

So basically, making the ship means collecting lots of tough-to-get resources by trading, theft, construction, research, etc and assembling them into the ship.

I really want to do some drama at the end of the game where not all the colonists can go, or really bad things start happening just as you approach the finish line. Again, this is all storyteller-driven. Because that's how real stories work best - great challenge near the climactic finish line. No reason we can't generate that adaptively in a simulation.

It's also possible that colonists could start exhibiting some special behaviors when they anticipate being left behind (like pre-emptive psychotic breaks).

[Hypolite]

There could be a fixed timed deadline, like the approach of a killer asteroid or the eruption of a volcano, or the spread of a life-consuming disease, slowly razing everything that moves from the map. The last two examples are inspired by Outpost 2.

The tension could rise during a project as the workload increase by adding a similar happiness feature to Towns : colonists eventually grow tired or angry of working non-stop, and idling replenishes their happiness gauge. Drinking malted beverages or playing virtual reality game could help relaxing also.

The tension could further rise by interest matching : if two colonists that can't stand each other have to work together for an extended period of time, trouble will arise. That feature is inspired by Zafehouse Diaries which is a wonderful story-driven zombie survival game that I recommend to anyone.

[UsF]

I disapprove of a fixed deadline/ending time, because it would make the game too samey.

I think the player should be able to progress into more stressful gameplay by himself, similar to Dwarf Fortress. If you keep your value low, you wouldn't get nobles early. Similar here if you keep yourself hidden and low (maybe not researching, not sending active signals) you could get less activitiy (less raids).

But yea a fixed timed deadline sounds bad to me. I like endless gameplay. The deadline could be made for a story or challenge missions, but not the default game mode in my opinion.

[Hypolite]

I also like the player-controlled pace, like in AI:War where the enemy AI gets more poweful and aggressive when you destroy valuable targets (which makes some targets worthless, since the retaliation would be greater than the actual threat of the target). Until then, he's just sending small waves to keep the player on is toes.

[Tynan]

The good thing is that since players choose which AI storyteller they want at game start, we can make different storytellers who approach these in different ways.

The simulation itself can handle a wide variety of story types - short, long, hard, easy, small population, large population, time-limited or no. Why limit the game to one?

So it's possible we could, say, create one storyteller who sends a meteor after a few seasons, thus time-limiting the game. Others wouldn't have to.

[WolveNZ]

It would have been a good reason if I weren't fully stocked on weapons of all sorts. I even have been able to buy a slave! 

I mean, it makes sense in a context where I would have to settle a piece of unknown land for a living, but it's less likely in a Robinson-like setting.

Now, I havnt played the game, but couldnt you make them Un-manned Trading stations that just kinda float/fly around searching for outposts/ships etc...