More Blah and Another Game Idea

I've decided I need to stop making depressing posts on my blog. This decision probably won't hold, since I'm using this as an output for some more underlying "ARGS" in my life, but I'd really like it if I could make myself not sound like I'm depressed. Which I'm not. I think. I'm just generally disatisfied with where my life is and how I've managed to go about things. I would really like to get things in gear already and start doing something significant... but, stuff like that doesn't happen overnight, so I need to learn to be less impatient.

Today? Well, it's 11 AM, it's raining, and seemingly everybody is still asleep. I also think I might be starting to come down with whatever Rob has, or something vaguely similar in the throat department. I'll take something later. For now, I'm going to sit and write here, because I feel the need to do so.

What did I actually do this week? I went to New York on Friday and shot a few scenes for Till Death. I also gave Ed that huge supply of batteries I had sitting in my car for a few weeks. Yesterday, I hung out with John all day. We ordered buffalo wings, watched Stranger than Fiction, and then played GTA Liberty City Stories until about midnight. It was fun! I really do need to hang out with my cousins more often... outside of parties, that is.

And today it's raining. I want to go to the comic book store later and see if they have the new Evangelion graphic novel (FINALLY, after 3 YEARS they released it!). Besides that, though, I'm not sure what to do. I'll probably work on the novel a bit today, although it did just occur to me last night that, although I know what happens, I don't know how to describe it. I might also just play some Age of Empires or Counterstrike. I could watch Mothra vs. Godzilla Master Collection Edition, which has been sitting here for about a week unwatched. And then there's the NEW game idea.

Well, not really new, just different from the one I mentioned a few weeks ago. This one is a real time strategy game idea I've been playing with for years, constantly tinkering the idea to create something I feel I would really enjoy playing. It dumps a few traditional RTS concepts, revives a bunch of older ones, and kinda feels like a cross between Age of Empires, Total Annihilation, and Populous: The Beginning.

Like in AoE, Civilization, and Rise of Nations, you control a particular civilization and lead them from nomadicism to become the largest and most advanced empire in the world. Important differences:

• No Town Centers.
• Leader units take the TC's research and defense responsibilities.
• Markets and Granaries take the TC's resource dumping responsibilities.
• Houses now produce Commoners (my version of the basic "Villager" construction unit)
• Houses.
• Rather than just increase population limits, Houses also produce people in the same manner as Farms: a Commoner is assigned and, with time and some money, a Commoner is produced.
  
• When a House meets its quota of units, it stops producing. Population limit is the cumulative number of units that can be supported by houses, but each house only keeps track of units produced by it. This means you can have many houses that are not filled (House 1: 3/6, House 2: 5/6, House 3: 1/6; Total Population: 9/18).
• Leader units.
• A fusion of AoE's Town Center, Total Annihilation's Commander, and Populous' Shaman.
• Like the TC, the Leader unit is capable of researching some civic technologies. It is also a requirement for the construction of certain buildings and researching certain technologies.
• Like the Commander, the Leader has some combat skills. Also, the death of the Leader could sometimes be a defeat condition.
• Like the Shaman, the Leader can convert enemy units and some Gaia (aka "Neutral" or "Natural") units, like Horses or Wildmen. This is most useful early in the game when you may need more people than you can produce.
• Leaders can be altered by the establishment of a particular government type at the Capitol. The starting government is Tribalism, with the Leader unit Chieftain. Later governments include Monarchy (Monarch), Police State (Dictator), Democracy (President), Theocracy (Spiritual Leader), and Republic (Prime Minister).
• Units.
• Commoners are "raised" rather than "trained" or "created". They are created at Houses, each House requiring a Commoner assigned to it before any Commoners are produced.
• Like in Populous, all other units are CONVERTED from Commoners, not trained or created. This means that if you have 10 Commoners and want 5 Warriors, you must take 5 Commoners, send them to the Barracks, and convert them to Warriors, leaving you with 5 Commoners and 5 Warriors.
• Some units, such as ships, tanks, or siege weapons, require more than one Commoner to produce.
• Buildings.
• When destroyed, buildings leave ruins, like in Total Annihilation. These ruins must be removed before a new building can be built in its place.
• Units can be garrisoned in almost every building.
• Individual buildings can be captured relatively easily. Due to the effort one must take to remove destroyed buildings, it may be more desirable to capture buildings rather than raize them.
• Disasters.
• Natural disasters are also going to be included.
• Basic disasters: Fires, Plagues, etc.

Yeah, so that's about all I've got. Well, that and a few sprites I created the last time I took this idea seriously. They look mostly useable. I'll give more updates about this as time goes on.