v2.0.0

v2 should bring some seriously fun gameplay to the table. We don't know what this is yet. Please insert your major feature pitches pros/cons below:

Further The-Oregon-Trail-ification

This game is supposed to re-create The Oregon Trail, and we're not there yet. We NEED to implement all features of the original and not go outside that scope until we do.

MOAR EVENTS!

Interesting, procedural gameplay is what makes games like this great. We want the player to feel like (s)he is playing through a captivating and unique story with every playthrough. Thus, we need to focus on adding more in-game events and making the existing ones more unique. This dev path includes improvements like #107, procedural text generation, custom audio/visual art and lore for each location, different causes of death, more character depth for the crew, and basically all of milestone 1.2 on steroids.

Ship-management

FTL is a prime example of how much fun it can be just to try to maintain, balance, and upgrade a spaceship's various systems. The Oregon Trail touched on management aspects by allowing you to set pace, rations, etc, and we should carry on in this vein. We need to add ship components and have them affect gameplay so that player feel a sense of progress as their ship grows increasingly awesome. This path includes things like adding upgrades/modules section to the store(s), adding "tweakables" (#83), a ship management screen, a tech-tree and maybe some more cool sprites to show off your ship's bling.

all people care about is winning

Yeah, dwarf fortress has procedural stuff all over, but you know what both DF and the oregon trail had in common which actually made them great? They're HARD. You die, and you die a lot. What we really need is to make this game more challenging so people feel truly proud for making it past the Moon. It doesn't even really matter how (remember qwop?). Jeez, idk, how about manual engine controls (as mentioned in #46, more deadly events (micrometeors, solar flares, oh my!), and a real scoreboard. That is what brings people in: a chance of proving they are special by getting those sweet, sweet imaginary internet points.

unlockables / badges / swag

Studies have shown that people love these useless badge things. They love discovering the game bit-by-bit through unlockables, and seeing that xp bar tick up to reveal the next ship color. These things are super easy to implement, and we have basically none of them. Adding them to boost enjoyment seems like a no-brainer to me.

colors!

Some games like to hook you with badges, scores, "juicy" feedback and other blatant dopamine manipulation, but you know what people really enjoy? Beautiful things.

Space is AMAZING, and our dinky app doesn't do it justice. We need to focus on bringing in awe-inspiring visual, audio, and textual content in addition to a major html/css re-work of the game style. Wasn't this supposed to be educational, anyway? Or are we going to end up devolving into space-cow-clicker?

v1.0.0

This outlines how the game logic should work with regard to consumables and random event modifiers. (like food & health in The Oregon Trail) These are the variables which we carry through the game to modify random events, "cost" of actions, resource-use per tick, and chance of success for various actions.

Resources are:

• fuel - used for maneuvers, accelerating, impact avoidance
• health - aggregate of mental & physical, primarily focused around psychology, radiation, food/water. Keep it simple for v1!
• rations - health goes down fast if you run out

starting modifiers: You're limited by the mass you can take on your ship initially, later you can trade what you take.

• amount of fuel - consumed in maneuvers, trade-able
• rations - consumed constantly, trade-able

future add-ons

additional complexity to be added post-v1.0.0

Consumable resources (aka food, clothes)

• take a page out of Fallout and have rad pills (radiation is the new dysentery)
• psychology factor (you only brought 3 songs to listen to for 5 years)
• energy
• heat
• fuel for EVAs (used for repairs and the debris collection mini game)
• fuel for maneuvers or impact avoidance
• Life Support stuff? backup O2 if life support breaks, etc...

spare parts (things which break)

• life support system
• water-recycle system
• engines
• solar panels
• heat radiators (the ones that reduce heat and the ones that create it. =P)
• fuel tanks

starting options & modifiers

ship modifiers (kind of like # of oxen)

• amount of radiation shielding (permanent, no trading later!) decreases chance of random health drops
• choose among rockets w/ different payloads (larger payloads cost more money). Then need to balance between your monetary budget and available supplies to take with you on the trip.
• choose among rockets w/ different initial thrust-to-weight ratio. this modifies chances of effective maneuvers.
• How protected are you from radiation? (you and your electronics; you get sick or solar flares break random things)
• Quality of your spacecraft - probability of things breaking
• Entertainment - increases payload, decreases psych (sanity) cost per tick
• Quality communication to Earth - decreases psych (sanity) cost per tick, helps figure out maneuver node stuff

crew / player modifiers (like choosing banker/farmer/etc)

Modifiers could be just for you, or each crew member could bring in modifiers.

• personality types - rich, mentally unstable guy vs monk vs robot vs engineer
• "species/race" - puny humans, homo evolutis, machine intelligences only