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Hey everybody. I wanted to start a thread where all of us could discuss ideas we have for an OKX sequel and also for ideas we have to "improve" the current game. Of course, any "improvements" would only be implemented when/if there is a sequel so I figured the topics go hand in hand.

Of course the sequel could be either a direct continuation of the Adventure or War Stories *or* it could be a completely new story. This sequel could contain new expansions or new station types...the sky is the limit since we're just dreaming at this point. So let your imagination run wild and chime in!

So, what are your ideas?

Here's one of mine:

I was thinking about how it can be difficult (or slightly annoying) to have to scroll through all the ships at your station to talk to an important person, be it a story character or some guy selling you the plans for the jewel exchange. It also takes time, and as we all know, time is of the essence. So what could we do to solve this problem?

Well, I was thinking that there could be two rows at the top of the screen for visitors. The top row (reached by pressing "Y") would contain all the "significant" visitors. This includes anyone that has some sort of expaned dialogue with you or has something to give you/request of you. Since this list would be at the top and also shorter, it would allow the player to get to the important bits as fast as possible.

Another "Y" press and the player is brought to the second row which is (just as you probably expected) every other visitor to your station. Since they're less directly important to moving each mission/chapter along they don't need to be as readily accessible so they are relegated to the bottom row.

And then of course, press "Y" again to get back to the game.

Jeez...now that I started thinking about this, I can't stop.

Someone else in the forums (I think it was here) talked about mulitplayer. They mentioned both co-op and competitive ideas.

Competitive could see you building expansions that spawn attacking ships which would fly over to your competition and try to destroy them as well as a general competition over customers.

Co-op you could have side by side stations (or distant ones for that matter depending on the scenario) that either form a symbiotic relationship and plug each other's weaknesses or a relationship of two balanced stations growing the market. Maybe one brings in the money and the other fends off attackers/pirates? That's really what this game needs!! Pirates!!

Any other ideas?

Pirates are cool. And Ninjas.

We've gone over the multi-player stuff a ton, ever since the first design a couple of years ago, and I gotta say it's a tough thing. The game is pretty naturally single-player, and the multi-player stuff would need to be, in my opinion, fairly different, and it would change the game.

Not that this is a bad thing. But the way we've handled the pressure so far is change the subject! In other words, we put energy into other games instead of pushing the multi-player thing with Kaloki When I first admitted to myself that maybe multi-player Kaloki didn't have to happen, I became a bit happier and more relaxed about it.

So, we could do it, of course. But I might rather spend some time on other stuff in a sequel, like cool new stories and better interface and more flexible station building and ninjas and pirates...

But I like this thread. We'd love to hear what you'd like in a sequel. Feel free to beat me up on the multi-player issue.

Somebody needs to poke marmosetofdeath and make him chime in on this one.

-- stay

Here's the one I keep coming back to:

I want way more flexible station building. Stations that grow and expand and have hubs and subsections and expansions that open up other expansions and hook to yet more expansions...

-- stay

Oh, and a "Turned Game On" achievement!

-- stay

The only suggestion I can think of right now is actually different modes. I'm not sure if its even possible, but when I saw War Story I was expecting a whole new set of buildings and objectives. Instead of building singles lines and lemonade stands you'd build barracks, air strips, hangars, etc. Build up an army and send them off to fight. Although that might take it into a whole new game entirely >_>

@ Stay

"turned game on" -- I guess if you added that you could see what it's like to be a gynormous publisher<cough EA cough>.

Don't worry, I won't beat you up over multiplayer for OKX...yet.
No, I understand what you mean about it becoming a totally different game. Of course, that "totally different game" could be awesome, but I understand that instinct to distill and improve the *core* gameplay instead of just lumping in a bunch of extra features that dilute the quality of the experience.

Sub-sections and add-on hubs and such sound really cool. Actually that's a great idea considering the challenge of the 8-port scenario. If you could "add" ports that would add a new level of complexity to the tech tree. As you'd have to tech up your "sub-section/hub" category so that you could expand your station, and thus, tech up your other areas of demand. What if you only started with *4* ports and had to get up to 32...now *that* would be challenging

Of course, I'm always down for more of that quirky storytelling and humor that the NinjaBees bring to the table. Then again, that would fit squarely in the "improvement" or "expansion" category, as you could theoretically add that to the existing engine as DLC. Not that I would mind, believe me.

And yes, more pirates and ninjas are required! Maybe the ninja expansion is the only way to defend against the pirates. "Damn, I didn't tech up my katanas enough?!? Arrrr."

** What about "ghosts"? Would there ever be a way to record the build order and interactions and share those "ghosts" over Live? This would make the leaderboards *super* competitive as you could see what others are doing to meet the challenges of the levels. Is that a weird idea? I was just thinking about how Drunky and I could've used a feature like this to share our strategies on levels back and forth (with less discussion and more demonstration).

** Did you ever consider having an expansion that served as "parking" or "waiting" area? Essentially a place to keep people busy until their desired expansion opened up.

** What about if what (and when) you tech up gave you benefits and drawbacks? For example, you tech up your Trade tree first...and then other expansions are cheaper to build because you've improved your negotiating skills. Or you tech up your Nature tree and then you get the ability to build a special entertainment expansion: a Circus. I'd love to see more of that kind of interaction...of course balancing a game like that would require a *lot* of playtesting to get it right. <raises hand to volunteer>

Guess I'm the only one with ideas?

Anyway... I'd love it if I could adjust an expansion's sliders *before* the construction was completed. And also decide if it turns on immediately upon completion or stays turned off.

[update 1]
Regarding the "auto-off" feature: Currently, expansions are turned off based on power need (i.e. expansions with a higher power demand are "auto-offed" first). I'd like it if, in the case of a power demand *tie* that the expansion with the *most current visitors* (i.e. the expansion that is making the most money at that moment) would remain on. That would solve the problem of having a full expansion lose 3 visitors just so that an empty expansion can be continuously powered. If you need an additional tiebreaker (i.e. each expansion has the same number of vistors), it should be based on the "projected" station income from the current visitors of each expansion (i.e. the visitors with the most/strongest needs should be allowed to continue at their expansion and the other should be turned off). Hope that's specific enough for ya.

New Idea:
I would hate to clutter up your elegant GUI, but can we get a X.X decimal rating for the station listed somewhere at all times? It would fit to the left of the stars right now, or it could be somewhere else, but that info is so important.

I know that the number is listed against scenario objectives that are station rating specific and that is very helpful. It also is implied when a check mark is placed next to the conditions of building certain expansions. However, on 8-port challenge where you can't even check to see if you've reached the needed star rating because you have all the ports filled, this presents a problem. For example, I wanted to build an Aviary and it looked like I might've had 4.5 stars but I wasn't sure...so I sold my nature expansion (pond?) and went to build the aviary but I hadn't gotten 4.5 stars yet...so I had to rebuild the pond -- a huge waste of time and money.

Here is one that I wholeheartedly agree with originally thought up by ChrisCasey:

A way to access each level that you have already completed without loading a save or doing through the previous levels.

Also, to piggyback on that, I'd like to have more savegame slots. It's getting really restrictive for me cuz I like to work on different levels back and forth.

Another old one from ChrisCasey:

I was just thinking, the reason I had so much trouble with this level is because I didn't know that being shot affected my star rating. Yeah, I should have figured it out, but it would have been easier if there'd been some feedback from the station. People complain that there's nowhere to enjoy nature or practice science or whatever ... It would be nice if there was a message like, "Hey, I really don't like being shot at!" or something to that effect.

stay's original response (which adds to it a little):

Yeah, that seems like a pretty good idea, or at least some comment from your advisor saying "hey, keep in mind that your visitors don't like combat very much..."

I don't have much time right now to post some detailed ideas or read through the current ideas already in this topic, but here is a quickie:

A on screen instruction manual detailing all the other stuff that we had to guess at (ex: demand bars) and/or a diagram of the controller layout and what each button does under different menus (like how I stumbled upon the triggers maxing/minimizing power). It would help a lot. Just have it in the menu under oprions or something.

I agree, more in-game help would be great. At one point we had also designed this Galactic Encyclopedia thing that explained the origins of various races and what they liked, but only after you first met them. But we never did get that in... Maybe a good thing - translating all the text in the game was pretty expensive as it was...

Another thing we talked about, and originally designed a lot of, was zooming in to expansions and controlling them from the inside. For instance, you could control the layout of the Restaurant, the menu, the placement of tables, etc. I'm not sure how important this is anymore, since there's so much going on outside the expansions, thus my interest in more expandability in the station itself...

Another one: Hopping in a ship and flying around and doing stuff. Wow did we ever put time into this idea. But it just kept feeling like a different game. In fact, we eventually put that "avatar ship" into another concept demo for a separate game in the Kaloki universe - that's a game we still might do eventually.

-- stay

Cool...you don't still have that Hitchhiker's Guide...er...Galactic Encyclopedia floating around the office, do you? I would *love* to get a look at that!

Ooo...Kaloki spin-offs! That sounds fun.

Random question: Where did the name "Kaloki" come from?