This might come across as a weird question, but while writing emails to gaming portals the other day one explicitly asked for screenshots and I had to tell them that we haven’t released any official ones yet and don’t feel like doing so for another few month.
Then it occurred to me that no one besides the few souls that have visited our little booth at the Games Vernissage have ever actually seen the game. For the vast majority of people, the perception of Prosperous Universe is 100% based on textual descriptions and concept art that exists more to bolster the background story than to illustrate the actual game.
So I started to wonder: Those of you who are already vivid followers of the project and/or active parts of the community…what do you see in Prosperous Universe? Why does it interest you? What is your favorite feature or which one are you excited about the most?
I hope the answers to these questions will be helpful in determining what your expectations are and consequently where our priorities should lie pre- and post-release.
Personally, I love believable sci-fi that isn’t crowded with colorful aliens and technology that makes no sense. Learning some things about the inner workings of an economy intruiges me, but it’s more of an added plus and not what initially caught my attention. I’m also happy to play something slow-paced for a change that’s actually going to be relaxing.
Last but not least, I have high hopes that the community will be nice, as is usually the case with games that require a certain level of planning and reflection. I expect PU to attract geeky people who are interested in the subject matter and who don’t play to vent their frustrations and aggressions.
I think it will be similar to airlinesim (lots of data tables), a good economic simulation in an (for now) unknown universe - but like @Mjeno said, without lots of overdone aliens, (who are only out there, to destroy the earth )
Though i hope, PU will have some more visuals. A good map tool for the fictional universe (2d or 3d)? And beautiful pictures of the starships (better an 3d editor for creating own starships?).
At least i am very unsure, what i will get from PU. Interested yes, because of the space setting and all the fun and good hours i am having with airlinesim, but without screenshots its all “fantasy” at the moment and i hope, that i´am not a lightyear away from your ideas of PU
@skywalker74 We will show more of the actual game soon. To tease some of the things you mentioned: there is a 3D map of the universe as well as the star systems, it just needs a bit of polishing. As soon as I return from parental leave I will continue working on the ship editor whichs allows to build larger ships from modules
Currently i’m studying logistics and i’m really sold on supply chains and dependencies between different companies. I talked abaout PU on the campus and immediately found 4 more future Players I think for us are the most important points:
build complex supply chains
the ability to create complex transport structures like Hub-and-Spoke Networks to optimize economic viability
the ability to create your very own ships that fulfill your special needs
realistic ways of order placements (e.g second-price-sealed-bit-auction)
@Saladplus Great to hear that Prosperous Universe seems to be right up your alley! The first three points you list sound almost exactly like the features we have in mind Actually we are working on and off at the moment at the material editor, a internal tool that will help us design all materials (goods, resources, products, etc.) in the game. We tried to manually manage them, but it gets complicated pretty fast, hence the tool.
like these trading games from the late 90s where you have a ship sail to a port by some goods send the ship to an other port and sell these goods. if you want you can build a base mine or harvest or manufacture goods yourself. you can either only trade or harvest.
i think that PU will be much more complex than these games.
I hope that these fractions wont come to important so that “independent” players are possible (like alliances on AS. where you can join one as more or less thight pact or you can play on your own only white a few interactions with other players (interling e.g.))
@phz Being independent will definitely be possible, but interaction with other players is practically inevitable, since (for example) almost everything you buy at commodity exchanges will have been produced by other players. Alliances (or Corporations as we call them) will be in the game, and we added them to our feature list a while ago.
You guys did a booth there? Damn, must’ve missed it. I love sci-fi games that aren’t just about aliens and spacecraft but a fully functioning world outside of ours. It creates a very immersive experience as you know everything that is happening but know very little at the same time, if you know what I mean. I hope for your startup to be the game No Man’s Sky was hoping to be, hopefully better No pressure but there are a lot of people hoping this is going to be the space game of the decade.
Sorry for the necro, but i must add, that i’m quite hyped about the ship editor and designing ships, because i love to tinker around and find the best loadout.
And most 08/15 games don’t offer this or have some crappy form of it.
I really liked the implementation they had in Xwars, back in the days, although i designed warships then.
I also liked the modular units in Alpha Centauri and the game in general, because it gives me that feeling, being shipwrecked on a strange planet with native flora and fauna and you struggle to survive, which i really like.
Thanks for the references, we’ll be sure to check them out! It’s also one of the features I’m looking forward to most. It’ll be a while until it’s in the game, unfortunately, but I’m sure it’ll be worth the wait.
Unfortunately Xwars ceased service years ago, but if you need details you can reach out to me via PM, i just thought this thread isn’t the right place to explain everything in detail.
In response to the original question, I’ll admit, when I first saw the game on Massively OP I had the wrong idea. I thought I’d be actually in a ship and flying around like Firefly or something (which I would love, don’t get me wrong). But now that I know more about the game, I’m really excited about what it is. I used to play a trucking simulator (sadly, shuttered) and you wouldn’t believe how much fun I had just picking up cargoes, telling my trucker to drive for 2 (real time) days, and then selling when I got there.
Someone else mentioned Virtonomics in another thread. I’ve played it too, but it’s a bit too hardcore for me. I’m hoping we’re slightly more “arcade” here.
To have a truly cooperative experience where others need my production, I need theirs, and we work together in friendly competition to create successful corporations. Yeah, I like that idea.
To be honest I expected something like a shiny and significantly more complex Ogame 3.0. Lots of different ressources and ship/defense action. What I have seen so far is more of a universe themed economy simulation. Definitely not bad, just vastly different from my expectation. But I dont know what is to come this year in terms of new features. Especially the scientists and what we will be able to do with them makes me curious.
I imagine players being able to specialize their corporation to fit an economic niche. For example:
Exploration based corp selling asteroid locations and planetary characteristics to resource gathering focused corps who then sell the materials to production corps…
It’s just a cool thing to do. But to be fair, the gameplay is entirely different. I’m getting increasingly bored by sitting in a cockpit waiting around in Elite…
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I think for us are the most important points:
But to be fair, the gameplay is entirely different. I’m getting increasingly bored by sitting in a cockpit waiting around in Elite…