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Having spent many hundreds of hours playing KSP, I find myself wondering about what other games there could be that would build on the intuition and skills I have learned. Has this conversation come up before? I didn't know what keyterms to use to search for it. If I missed it please let me know how to find them! Anyway, I've been kicking around this concept of a Civilization type game crossed with KSP. Instead of turn based, it will be event driven. And instead of each unit having fixed movement per turn, they will generate new events based on time of arrival as determined by physics. The player can just warp to the next event instead of moving to the next turn. Of course, orbital maneuvers must be greatly simplified since you will need to do a lot of that. And since the cost of these burns vary greatly based on time of departure/arrival, there needs to be a simple way do that. In most games it's just click unit, click on destination. Two clicks. I have a prototype that does it in 4 clicks, but I can probably optimize it down to 2. With unit movement taken care of, the next step is doing something once you get somewhere. Docking, landing, drilling, sciencing, building, etc. What do you do in Civ anyway? Build a settler, move to a new spot, settle, make new buildings, research, make units, repeat. The interesting game play mechanisms are the choices you make. Do you build a scout or go straight for a soldier guy (it's been a while since I played civ). Do you expand trade route or attack a nation? I'm interested in how those decisions will change based on costs that are derived from material/energy/dV cost to harvest asteroids, settle on Mars, construct ships on planet vs in orbit. And ultimately, how space combat will evolve as these costs change with better technology. TLDR I'm interested in a true space civ style simulator that anyone can use to project what space faring nations would be like given a particular trajectory of technological improvements from modern day tech to future scifi tech. Does anyone else share this interest? Let me know what you think! What are some other things I should consider? What would a barebones simulator necessarily include? So far I have a rudimentary ship editor with a couple of blocky assets to play around with and orbital mechanics basically working. The simulator is up on github if anyone's interested.

So, I've been playing a bit of the old 4X game Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri a lot lately (by the way, if you don't have it they sell it on Steam, and GOG.com has regular sales of it) and felt like discussing it with other Kerbalites... Hopefully it's within the subforum rules to discuss this old game here? Anyways, Alpha Centauri was a game and a work of science fiction far ahead of its time in many ways. It powerfully envisioned the future in such a compelling way I still find myself quoting it from time to time (and I don't usually quote games). Here is one of my favorite quotes from the game, for instance: "Human behavior is economic behavior. The particulars may vary, but competition for limited resources remains a constant. Need as well as greed have followed us to the stars, and the rewards of wealth still await those wise enough to recognize this deep thrumming of our common pulse." - CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Ethics of Greed" - There are many other interesting and thought-provoking quotes in this game on everything from how to fight a war, to the nature of liberty. For instance: "Beware of he who seeks to deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master." - Commissioner Pravin Lal, "U.N. Declaration of Rights" - I'lI have to post audio clips of the in-game readings of these quotes some time, because Alpha Centauri's voice acting is simply superb. Anyways, for now that should be enough to bring back a few memories and stimulate some discussion. Go forth and converse! Regards, Northstar