thanks tribal
I used to dabble in photoshop occasionally so i got fairly good at making random things in it, although i cant draw to save my life.
Initially, I thought of making a browser based game called 'polis' (the idea was pretty similar to ikariam, before that came out properly)- it was strongly based around alliances, (similar functions to travian), but also had macro-management after you got a certain number of 'spots'. I actually planned on that one with a friend, but the coding became boring, and the layout wasnt working properly in IE, so i stopped on that one
that was my first experiment with PHP, so the coding was pretty shocking aswell xD
My current idea was one of a heist sort of game. I'd code it in probably java (either as a client/server or as an applet), which i'm fairly comfortable with nowadays- if i decided to make it client/server i might decide for making it in C, because it'd probably be a bit faster
The idea sort of sprang from an episode of prison break i was watching recently- each player has their own set of editable blueprints, and as you advance in your technological research ways, your building must expand to accomodate the extra knowledge. This however, means that you'd be unable to defend your areas so well, and so you could also be a target for people wanting to get their hands on these technological ideas.
As you progress through the game, you'd end up not having enough space to have everything you could possibly research, without being able to have your alliance (or whatever i end up calling it) support you hugely- chances are you'd have to specialise in a particular area.
Each area of research would mimic one in real life- it'd essentially go to the fundamental parts of society- mining, the creation of tools, combining these tools to make something interesting, then using this something interesting for a particular purpose (or combining it with other interesting things and repeat)
Resources would be in the ideas of money- unfortunately, money can only be earnt with the selling of things that you've researched (hence letting people know if they havnt got it) like a small business, or by hacking into a bank (the more costly the bank, the harder it is to hack, and more likely you'll be caught).
For all of your security defences and research, there will be a maintenance cost- so any money you do earn will be quickly used up again
These points are where the big player's vulnerability would lie (there's a limit to how secure you can make your bank account, and you can only maintain how much you have *so* much), hence bringing a bit of balance into the game, regardless of how pumped up a particular player is.
note- the hacking of the bank would work similarly to a game called 'uplink'- it's basically a game designed entirely around hacking.
It'd be a fairly complex project, but mainly because of game balance and flexibility. The idea that people can choose what they would like to specialise in (and therefore there will be a price drop if a lot of people decide to do this), would mean that people would need to stay one step ahead of the game to really get an advantage.
