Time Compression in a 4X Game

Michel Mony · 2015-10-22T23:50:08

Once upon a time (before Acharis started turning this into a design method), I used to come here asking about design concepts in certain game types. Today I come to you again for guidance and advice. I've struggled the past 2 years with a simple concept that I can't seem to get right: Time Compression in a 4X Game. What I mean by time compression, is the balance within any given turn to provide meaningful interaction with elements that are clearly short and long-term. For example, it is expected at the end of a given turn that the population can grow organically which, for most species we know, takes a matter of months. Likewise, within the same turn, we're expected to demonstrate progress in battles, which certainly don't take nearly as long to perform, especially if the game focuses on Tactical Elements. How do you (would you) as a designer resolve this issue to keep the content balanced between high-level strategic and actual tactical implications? Do you bother explaining this to the player, or do you just 'go with it'? Also, how do you keep this balanced? Surely if the population grows as fast as people die, one must create artificial population shortages or balance accordingly? Would love to hear your input on this.

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Orymus3 October 13, 2015 11:22 PM

20 comments, last by Orymus3 8 years, 10 months ago

PKLoki

1,492

October 22, 2015 10:13 AM

There's a discussion with Soren Johnson in episode 14 of the Game Design Round Table podcast. They discuss time handling in Civ 4 a bit from around 20 mins in, may be interesting for readers of this thread.

http://thegamedesignroundtable.com/category/episodes/page/13/

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Orymus3

Author

18,866

October 22, 2015 11:50 PM

There's a discussion with Soren Johnson in episode 14 of the Game Design Round Table podcast. They discuss time handling in Civ 4 a bit from around 20 mins in, may be interesting for readers of this thread.

Also very interesting take on multiplayer in 4X at around 51:00.

Thanks for bringing it up!

Time Compression in a 4X Game

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Time Compression in a 4X Game

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