Gameplay Description

This document describes what the experience is intended to be like playing Epiar v1.0.

Objective

To be entertained through acquiring more powerful ships, finishing more difficult missions, exploring the galaxy, and possibly following mini-mission story arcs with endgames.

The Player

The player is a single ship which moves in all directions on the screen. The attributes of the ship (picture, speed, weaponry) are determined by the type of ship they own and can be upgraded through money. The player cannot play multiple ships at a time. It is unclear whether the player should have the ability to own multiple ships in that all but one would be 'parked' somewhere (this might be a bad idea). The player may, however, amass a fleet of ships to order around, either through purchase or conquest.

Equipment

The player has a shield and hull to defend himself. The shield typically takes the hits, while the hull usually can only be shot a few times before the ship explodes. The shields are powered by a reactor, which also powers any non-ammo weaponry, the engines, and others. The player can buy an upgrade to control power distribution, e.g. more power to the shields. The shields are broken up into four segments, forward, back, left and right. If a player is on the run and being shot at from behind, the back shield may fail completely while the front and sides work fine, so a shield distribution upgrade should also be available.

The Galaxy

The galaxy is made up of planets, space stations and asteroids. There are no stars, and we may implement nebulae as hazy gas clouds. There are no black holes or other elements because of their radical effect on gameplay, though any good idea is open to discussion.

Movement Through the Galaxy

There are many movement options: thrusters (regular moving), jump engines (only for very large ships), and jump gates (for small ships to travel great distances). Jump gates typically have fees, and one can book an entire network of travel, e.g. go from planet A to D, via B and C.

Planets

One of the primary pieces of the game is the planet network: players will land on planets (or space stations, which for all gameplay matters, are the same as planets) and have the following options: see a planet picture and summary (for the sake of experience), be able to outfit their ship (not on all planets, equipment varies with the planet), visit the shipyard to buy a new ship or sell theirs (again, varies), go to a bar, seek employment through the mission board, or buy and sell commodities.

Distance Between Planets

Jump gate networks may take a day or two or three depending on the distance (let's say due to queues, e.g. you have to wait four hours before jumping at a gate: the player won't have to wait but the calendar date will pass), while jump engines are near instant (but require a lot of money and energy resources and a large ship), but the player may also manually travel between planets. Since Epiar is an open universe and the player may travel in any direction, we need to establish a reasonable distance. Very close planets might take about 30 seconds to travel between (this is practically the same solar system), while the average planet should be a few minutes away (we will have navigation on the HUD to help the player cross such vastness of space). Very, very far planets, on manual thrusters, shouldn't be more than 8 minutes away, as you're really testing somebody's patience (although auto-pilot is another idea for an upgrade).

Making Money

The primary form of experience in this game is not EXP or levels but money. The more money (or money converted into material things) you have, the longer you've been playing and the more likely it is that you are powerful. You can make money by trading commodities, taking missions, stealing it (via battle with other ships), gambling (on planets), or via mining (which will cause pirates to love to attack you and requires a mining vessel).

Dedication to (Somewhat) Real Science

We'd like to at least propose the idea of a game that respects science, even if it requires incredibly leaps in technology. As such, we would like very few or no alien races: most colonies or other empires should be humans. This is due to the nature of the universe: while other intelligent life is likely, it's likely incredibly far away and very foreign (watch Sagan's The Cosmos in its entirety before arguing any of this).

We'd also like to explain things whenever possible: jump engines or gates will be 'folding space', etc.