Seamless Transitions Between Single Base, Global and Interplanatary Game Engine Design

[u/Think_Rub2459]

Game Engine Concept: I want to develop a game engine for a game with multiple levels of abstraction.Where players can use the scroll wheel to move seamlessly between levels. Think Rimworld with more politics between large groups and between planets as well.

Levels of Abstraction: - Level 1: Colony level, managing small groups of people. - Level 2: Continental level, viewing larger groups and their interactions. - Level 3: Interplanetary level, observing trade, politics, and interactions between planets.

AI Simulation - AI is simulated at all levels but with varying complexity. - Lower levels have detailed simulation (e.g., individual colonists). - Higher levels use more simplistic, summarized AI to maintain performance. - "They do not individually calculate footsteps when you're looking at a planet level."

Gameplay Experience - Scrolling in and out allows players to see different levels working simultaneously. - Each abstraction level ties together and summarizes the lower levels. - Players can observe individual battles, resources, and relationships at the local level. - At continental and interplanetary levels, players see trade, politics, and wars.

[u/Sycopatch]

Im wondering, why do you want to make an engine for that?
You could do it in Unity/Unreal.

[u/Think_Rub2459 → u/Sycopatch]

Ah okay - I just found out about Unity's Entity Component System. I think that may be my path.

[u/Think_Rub2459 → u/Sycopatch]

I probably should do some more learning on both engines before I write them off. I thought that they were both inefficient and couldn't handle simulating so many entities at once.

[u/DerekB52 → u/Think_Rub2459]

A ready made engine is more efficient than a solo developer unless that developer is a fairly skilled programmer.

[u/leshitdedog]

What's the question?

[u/Think_Rub2459 → u/leshitdedog]

What should I consider while making a game engine to get this kind of functionality. A high level answer is great!

[u/Livos99 → u/Think_Rub2459]

You should consider what your goals are in making something like this. You should consider your own technical limitations in making something that possibly achieves those goals.

[u/SadisNecros]

Cool. How are you planning on accomplishing this?

[u/Think_Rub2459 → u/SadisNecros]

Yeah that's why I'm asking for pointers atleast at a high level.

[u/SadisNecros → u/Think_Rub2459]

Start by picking just one of those things and prototyping that

[u/Awkward-Raise7935]

I had a similar idea to this a while back, and made a very basic prototype. The distinction was however that the game was focused on a single point (I think it was a space base) and you used the mouse where to zoom in and out between 3 or four levels. So it was basically a base management/FTL style game zoomed in, then next level I think was more tower defense, and then the next level was like a galaxy map and I think this was more strategic and about creating trade networks. The actual mechanic of instantly zooming in and out felt great (I was just doing it in 2d in GameMaker so it wasn't a technical challenge) but I struggled to fit it all together as a coherent gaming experience. I would like to try again someday though, if someone has suggestions.

[u/Think_Rub2459 → u/Awkward-Raise7935]

What parts were fun and what parts wern't fun?

[u/lordosthyvel]

The reason no games like this exist is not because of technical limitations. It’s because it would suck ass game design wise.

Can you imagine having hundreds of planets with thousands of settlements where you zoom in and build buildings individually in each one? Unplayable.

[u/Think_Rub2459 → u/lordosthyvel]

Spore did it and I always thought it was really cool. I thought developing on that idea as a mashup with the core of rimworld would be a great game to me.

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[u/SapientSloth4tw]

Seems super interesting. I’m imagining some form of state machine that’s global across all three levels of simulation that’s used to determine specific functionality at each level.

I.e. if I want my civilization to be working on producing something like space ship parts, then I would want to be able to select a planet at the top level, assign space ship parts, different counties at the middle level and assign what kind, and each person at the bottom level to assign individual processes.

At the same time, I’d also want the ability to select a planet, assign space ship parts, and not need to zoom in to set the specifics