Game Design Document

for project codename:

Perseus
(WORKING TITLE)

Property of Stone Watch and Marko Sandic

Confidential and subject to NDA
Introduction

Legal

Marketing

 Deliver Date and Platform

 Genre
 Similar Games
 Setting
 Look
 Sound
 High Concept
 Plot
 System Requirement

Gameplay

 Interactions
 General mechanics
 Ships
 Weapons
 Drones and fighters
 Defence
 Tactics
 Enemies
 AI technical details
 Factions
 Meta progression
 Skills and Upgrades
 Shop
 Easter eggs and cheat codes

Game Flow

 Splash screens
 Cinematic
 Menus
 Controls
 Maps
 Game modes

Story

 Concept
 Details
 Locations
 Execution
 Factions
 Endgame
INTRODUCTION

This document provides a general design on the project that will be supplemented by other
documents and files. The document is subject to change. The project is inspired by multiple games,
movies and books. The primary reference for inspiration is Homeworld franchise as well as Eve
Online. From Homeworld the project draws upon art style, atmosphere and story concepts. From
Eve Online the project draws upon combat and fitting mechanics in a simplified manner and away
from PVP elements.

LEGAL

This document is confidential and falls under the NDA. Even its existence should not be
discussed, revealed or acknowledged to any part that has not signed NDA with Stone Watch or
Marko Sandic. Any references made to other games or copyrighted products are coincidental or
serve as a reference point and not an infringement on the copyright of the mentioned product or
intellectual property. The project is to be kept secret until such time as Marko Sandic decides
confidentiality no longer applies. Members of the team working on the project may discuss details of
the document to other team members who have signed NDA. Marko Sandic retains the option of
restricting access to team members even if they have signed NDA. Disclosing information to such
members is a breach of the NDA. Marko Sandic is to clearly specify if a team member has access to
the documents of the project.

MARKETING
Deliver Date and Platform

Estimate for the completion of the project is 6 (six) months from the first day of
development (TBD). It is expected to have a working prototype after about 1 month. Two to three
months into production it is expected, but not critical, to have a well-functioning DEMO or EARLY
ACCESS ready for STEAM. The development will allow for extended project time of one or two
months, but rather then delay, it is preferable to hire more people on the team.

Game is designed and developed for Windows PC and as such will not receive support for
other platforms or operating systems. This might change at a later date based on title success and
demand of the market/players. The game will be single player only with possibility of developing
multiplayer upon community request and technical plausibility.
Publishing platforms will be STEAM and Epic games.
 Genre

Game is primarily a tactical RTS/RPG with elements of roguelite system. There will be meta
progression as well as upgrading, loot, crafting and exploration.

Similar Games

Endless sky, Homeworld, High Fleet, Eve Online and many other titles share some aspects of
this project but none is similar enough to name as a definitive lookalike.

Setting

The game is set in a galaxy thousands of years after humans disappeared. The alien races
now inhabiting the galaxy don’t know what exactly happened to humans as they ascended to be
interstellar species thousands of years after humanity has gone. Before the complete disappearance,
human civilization grew to span the entire galaxy and have been building astonishing megastructures
most of which have fallen into ruin since then. The role and purpose of the megastructures was
never revealed. Unknown to players, humanity ascended and became a singularity moving to high
dimensions of existence. It was at the peak of their golden age but the event itself happened
extremely fast and they omitted clues as to what they did, on purpose. Why, it is not known.
Humans have known about existence of other sapient and non-sapient life forms and they created
so called enclaves and reserves where that life could be studied, safeguarded and contained,
without allowing immature civilizations to join in the galactic stage and potentially cause issues and
compete for dominance. Humanity was a very purist civilization at that point and any adversaries
were subjugated into those enclaves or erased from existence where containment was troublesome.
They annihilated many smaller galactic species long before their golden age of total dominion of the
galaxy. In the time following the human departure, alien species rose from their enclaves and spread
throughout the galaxy using remnants of human hyperspace network. Unfortunately, the knowledge
required to fully utilize hyperspace network, repair it or expand it, has been lost and the hyperspace
network has suffered much damage. In addition, alien species need to make a series of relatively
short jumps with significant downtimes to get anywhere, while humans could travel between any 2
points in the network regardless of distance between them. Additionally, galactic centre was
inaccessible, via hyperspace network, to the aliens due to a cluster of black holes and gravitational
anomalies there. The megastructures of humanity still have many secrets inside them, but also many
dangers. From environmental anomalies to automated defences going into the labyrinth of the
megastructure derelicts is extremely dangerous, but can be very profitable. Some have also made a
home for themselves in the derelicts, using the derelicts resources and defences which wouldn’t
hesitate eradicating them as well. As is inevitable, power vacuum humans left was filled with various
factions, and very often, faction strength was determined by how much of human technology they
have recovered or figured out.
 Look

The look and atmosphere of the game are heavily inspired by Homeworld art style, featuring
stylized, simple yet striking designs. It takes a step away from conventional designs of grey ships and
makes them much more colourful similar to the old sci fi artworks from the era of Asimov, Clark and
Niven. The artists Peter Elson and Chris Foss are the main inspirations for the art and Mr Foss
actually worked on the art of Homeworld from which we draw inspiration. The specific nature of the
art style and atmosphere is to invoke a sense of nostalgia and draw player base of Homeworld
games as well as many of the traditional sci-fi fans who like the art style which was used in old sci-fi
novels.
 Sound

Sound design is a very important part of the game. It gives weight and meaning to actions as
well as set the atmosphere. The game won’t have many overly intrusive soundtracks but will contain
some music. Main menu, special sequences and such. However, SFX sound needs to be on point.
Voice acting is least important part of sound design and will be developed if, and when possible. SFX
sounds need to be powerful, heavy, chunky. With hisses, electronic whine, slam and many other
powerful impactful sounds. Another part of the atmospheric sound effect will be the radio chatter of
nearby enemies and other NPC’s especially fighter pilots during combat. Muffled and unclear while
the drones will give off “data noise” as they receive orders to otherwise silent servants.

High Concept
 In this galaxy filled with derelicts of human civilization and Xenos, a remnant of humanity,
lost and forgotten awakens, an ancient sentient, autonomous AI, trying to find humans or discover
their fate and in the process restore the megastructures of humanity and reclaim them once more.

Plot

PLAYER is an ancient drone AI (Sentinel 571), it awakens after a long stasis. Its primary
directive, protecting ancient human installations, long since abandoned and largely destroyed. The
AI drone awakens to organic intruders accessing the megastructure it has been tasked with
guarding. It used to be one of the guardians, but now seems to be the last one. It can't make contact
with other AI or Humans who built it. The starting “shell” it is currently operating is a damaged utility
vessel with limited combat capabilities. It fully believes alien organics are the enemy of humans and
there is a war. In truth it has been thousands of years, and humans have gone extinct, leaving the
remnants of their civilization as these absurdly big megastructures. Alien civilizations have risen to
the stars and have come upon the great derelicts to salvage and explore them for one reason or
another. There are several species of alien life forms. As the PLAYER goes about purging the
intruders, it will build up the sector defences and bring about more ancient machines to bear.
However, it is the only sentient AI that has remained active. Other synthetics being much simpler
automatons. It does not negotiate, but will try to scan ships and examine things as it is looking for a
human with a command matrix. Throughout the game, it will find pieces of the story of the
disappearance of humans but no definitive answers will be given, leaving PLAYER to speculate. Even
though it has been thousands of years, AI is undisturbed as the human empire existed for much
longer than that prior to the AI’s stasis. AI itself has been created at least 10k years prior to the
current timeline
System Requirement

Attempts should be made to optimize game performance as much as possible without sacrificing
quality. The graphic setting scaling from low to high should be very big and set in 5 steps. Very Low,
Low, Medium, High, Very High. Performance on Very Low should be manageable with low end PC
while average gaming PC should be able to handle high or even very high settings at over 30fps.

Gameplay
Interactions

Player is able to interact with many different objects throughout the game. From data
points, to disabled defence systems and others. Player’s interaction with other factions will be
minimal and reserved for the storyline moments. To interact, player will need to approach target to
X distance and activate onscreen prompt for interaction.

General mechanics

 Game will be set into a 3D environment in or around massive megastructure derelicts.

 The movement of ships will be in a 2D X, Y plane. Ships will have some autonomous vertical
movement in order to not collide with each other or some obstacles. This movement will be
minimal and automatic. For reference check “Homeworld Mobile”.
 Player will navigate map from point A, B or C until he completes all the objectives. Upon
objective completion player needs to activate hyperspace travel which will bring him either
to the next mission or return him to the base. Player base will be “Hyperspace Forge”, which
is a hyperspace capable mobile shipyard/factory. Player’s base is what will enable him to
travel the galaxy easily and the main advantage a player has to other NPC factions.
 Ships

Ships are the main focus of game and should have attractive designs. No “boring” alien ship
designs with curvy bulbous mess. Ship design should somewhat follow Chris Foss and Peter Elson art
designs but more modern. Factions will have faction specific designs. On the technical side, ships will
come in different size, tier and type.
*SIZE: S-Small; M-Medium; L-Large and XL-Extra Large.
*TIER: Tier 1 – T1; Tier 2 – T2; Tier 3 – T3. There is also Tier 0 but it’s limited to starting equipment.
*SHIP TYPES: Corvette; Frigate; Destroyer; Cruiser; Battlecruiser; Battleship; Dreadnaught; Carrier.

 Ships player will be able to obtain will be from different factions that player will meet in the
game with ancient human ships always being of highest quality.
 Ships will all have different designs and stats. If possible, ship skins will be implemented.
 Ship naming conventions will differ from faction to faction but will follow same theme.
 All ships will be built or obtained unloaded with a set number of hardpoints. They will have a
set number of weapon and equipment mounting slots. The weapon slots will be split by size
and a ship can have a mix of different size slots. There will also be a limit on the number of
weapon systems to be fitted on a ship.
Example: A destroyer has 6 weapon slots, 4 medium size and 2 small size slots. The weapon
allowance is up to 3 HOMING, 6 MAIN, 4 PD. So, the destroyer can fit any combination of
those weapons that fit into those slots he has. A Medium size weapon can fit into Medium,
Large or Extra-Large weapon slot, but not into a Small weapon slot.

Weapons

Weapons are fairly limited in range due to each ship possessing a standard suite of multispectral
jammers, preventing computers and sensors of achieving sensor lock and giving firing solution for
weapons. Due to that limitation spacefaring civilizations have opted for close-range high-power
weaponry instead. Even if ship achieves target lock on target, some weapon systems still can’t give a
firing solution until maximum engagement range has been achieved. This explains fairly short ranges
when compared to what is possible in space warfare.
 Weapons will be in 3 types: PD (Point Defence), Main and Standoff
 Weapons will come in 4 sizes S, M, L, XL
 Every weapon type will have multiple weapon systems 
 Weapons will have 3+1 tiers. All weapons will be given a tier based on their performance.
The +1 is Tier 0 which is a limited number of starter weapons and some NPC weapons
designed to introduce elements into gameplay.

Drones and fighters

Both player and NPC will have access to ships capable of launching drones or fighters. Player will be
limited to only drones, while NPC’s will have faction limitations. Fighters and drones will also be a
defence mechanism of some facilities and defence installations. E.g., space stations or drone
dispensers or aliens inhabiting derelicts. When not engaging in combat, they should form up and
follow the ship.

 Drones – Automated craft with relatively simple AI built around a single task. They can range
in size from little more than smart bombs to corvette sized. Drones should have very simple
behaviour and would be very dependant on the drone tender with no autonomy. If a drone
launching platform is destroyed, drone should just default to a self defence pattern. Drone
should have higher manoeuvrability and accuracy then a fighter. Tactics of drones would be
 to close in on target, maintain optimal attack range and maintain fire while making darting
evasive manoeuvres.
 Fighters – Manned craft used by the NPC factions, usually bigger and stronger than its drone
counterpart but hard to replace because of the pilots. They come as interceptors, bombers
or gunships. Fighters should have greater autonomy then drones with slightly better tactics.
They should have more HP, higher top speed and more firepower than a drone. With higher
speed, tactic should be to make an attack run then pull out to safe and make another attack
run.
Defence

Ship defence applies for any ship or structure in the game map. Some objects might have only
some of the things mentioned here or all of them. For majority of the ships, defence is split into 3
things: Evasion, Resistance and Durability. Some ships will not have armour, while some might not
have shields. Destructible objects like asteroids, debris, derelicts or wrecks will only have structure
HP and maybe armour. Static non-combat objects will not have evasion modifier regardless of size.

 Evasion of a ship is determining how hard is it to hit a ship. The biggest impact is its size.
Other elements are current speed and evasive manoeuvring that the ship is capable off.
Evasion of the ship is denoted with a “Miss Chance %” that affects only projectile weapons.
Miss chance % is calculated as accuracy penalty to a weapon shooting at the target.
Example: Tier 1 corvette with 50% Evasion is being targeted by a mass driver turret. Mass
driver has base projectile dispersion of 10 minutes of angle(moa) per 100 units of distance.
Mass driver’s new dispersion in this situation is 10moa + 50% = 15moa. Missiles and beam
MissChance
weapons have their damage reduced by the . Exact calculations and numbers
2
remain subject to balancing changes.
o Size evasion bonus:
 Corvette -> 30%
 Frigate -> 25%
 Destroyer -> 20%
 Cruiser -> 15%
 Battlecruiser -> 10%
 Battleship -> 5%
 Dreadnought -> 0%
 Carrier -> 20-0%
 Resistance is the percentage damage reduction that Shield or Armour provide. It is split into
3 types of damage resistance Electromagnetic (EM), Thermal (TH) and Kinetic (KN). Shield is
more sensitive to EM damage while armour is more sensitive to TH damage. Kinetic damage
resistance is the middle on both. Resistances will depend on the ship used as well as
equipment mounted on the ship and skills. Example: If a shot dealing 100 kinetic damage
hits a shield with 20% of kinetic damage resistance the damage applied will be 100-
20%=80KN dmg. Structure has no damage resistances.
o Base Shield resistance:
 10%EM
 50%TH
 30%KN
o Base Armour resistance:
 60%EM
 20%TH
  40%KN
 Durability of the ship is its HP pool. The HP is split into 3 parts. Shield which is the first line of
defence. Armour as the second line of defence. Structure as the final, critical part. Each of
those will have a separate mechanic and upgrades will be applied to only a single layer and
not a whole HP pool. Armour cannot be damaged until the Shield is depleted and Structure
cannot be damaged until Armour is depleted.
o Shield is self-regenerating, with regeneration rate speeding up to its maximum
recharge rate of 250% at 25% capacity. Example: If shield has 100hp and shield
recharge time is 100 seconds then regeneration rate is 1hp/s. When the shield drops
to 25hp remaining shield will be regenerating at 1*2.5=2.5hp/s. The exact equation
for shield regeneration is as follows:
 regen (point/s) = max_capacity × intensity × c / regen_time
 max_capacity is the shield HP
 intensity is a variable that is 1 when the % of shield is 25%, and decreases
the further we are from that peak value
 c is a constant 2.5
 regen_time is the time of regeneration for the shield.
Additionally, shield can be restored using shield boosters for quick boost but with
high energy cost and long cooldown.

o Armour is the second line of defence and will not auto regenerate by default it will
depend on armour repair systems to keep it repaired. Armour repairing is done by
armour repair modules with short cooldown and small repair amount. Other
modules can improve performance.
o Structure is last to go, but worst. Structure cannot auto regenerate or be repaired
other than at designated refitting stations at great cost. Additionally, structure
damage can damage, weaken, disable or destroy modules of the ship making
structure damage very risky. Every tie structure takes 10% of damage, there is a
chance something else goes wrong. The more damage structure takes the higher the
chance and the worse the penalties are.

Enemies

Enemies will be defined based on faction they belong to and different factions will have
different approach to combat and tactics. On the galaxy map megastructures will be in faction zones
of influence and that will dictate which enemy faction the player will meet on that location. Enemies
in the mission will be randomized by placement, faction, ships and amount. Scavengers, pirates and
explorer factions will have presence in every mission area.

AI technical details

NPC AI will have role pre-set behaviour. That will take into account that NPC’s ship loadout
and other NPC ships around it. The AI should move out of each other’s way so as not to block line of
fire. They will not engage in case of blocked line of fire and will instead move out of the way to fire.
Accidental friendly fire can be a possibility. All AI will avoid anomalous areas and will not pursue
target into the anomaly field (unless immune to it), instead they will retreat to safe distance and
wait for target in clear space. If Target I within anomalous area and NPC can engage the target within
its optimal range while staying out of the anomalous area, it will do so.
The basic tactical roles will be as follows:

Basic – Easy AI. For simple AI enemies such as emplaced defences and other “easy” enemies like
automated drones. Attacks with any and all available weapons without manoeuvring out of line of
fire, instead, others will move around them to find a clear line of fire. If the NPC can move it will do
so trying to match target speed.
Assault – Moderate AI. Ships equipped mostly with MAIN weapons will try to close the distance fast
and attack at optimal range. If snipers are present, they will take a flanking manoeuvre to move out
of line of fire.
Sniper – Advanced AI. Ships with long range MAIN or STANDOFF weapons will position themselves at
their optimal range and try to maintain the range to target. They will move up or down in order to
get the clear line of fire as well as move laterally while maintaining range.
Defender – Advanced AI. Ships with superior PD weapons will try to close to their highest DPS
weapon range while positioning themselves close to the path of any hostile missiles to try to
intercept them.
Balanced – Advanced AI. Ships with a good mix of weapons will try to position themselves where
needed. If the group lacks assaults, they will try to fulfil that role, if it doesn’t have snipers, they will
engage at range, and if group lacks PD, it will take over defender role.
Adaptive – Hard AI. Similar to balanced but intended for elite and boss enemies. It will open up with
different weapons to test the enemy and then it will switch to the most effective weapons and try to
maximize damage and manoeuvre so that it keeps the advantage. If it suffers too much damage
from a specific weapon type, it will try to move out of that weapons range. This AI needs to feel very
difficult and intelligent almost like fighting another player.

Factions

Factions have impact both on the story and on the gameplay mechanics. Here we cover the
gameplay element of factions. The megastructures are located within or close to territories of
various factions. That proximity will be the key determining factor in what enemies will be generated
for the mission. The game will make a roll based on % chance of encountering a faction within the
mission. Missions can contain one or more factions and the generation will be based on specific
mission factors. Player will almost always find at least some scavengers or automated defence NPC’s
regardless of the main faction present in the mission. In a mission there can be a maximum of 5
factions. The maximum number and type of factions will be limited and shown on the map selection
screen. Factions in a mission will be split based on their representation within that mission and it will
be as follows:
Main – Faction what represents over 60-90% of ships that will be encountered in the mission.
Secondary – Faction that represents 10-40% of ships that will be encountered in the mission.
Minor – Faction that represents 5-20% of ships that will be encountered in the mission.

Each mission can have only 1 Main, 1-2 secondary and 1-4 minor factions.
For generating a mission generator selects Main faction first, then randomly chooses number of
secondary factions where total can never be above 5. Next it will select minor factions from available
pool and at the end assign % of ships to each faction.

Tactics

Each faction will have different tactics and that means different fleet composition, ship loadouts and
behaviour. While all individual NPC’s will share AI variants described above, tactics will cover
different set of parameters. Some factions will prefer rushing with close ranged ships and
overwhelming the target while others might use long range weapons and fighters to attack at a
distance while being protected by PD ships.

Anomalies

Anomalies are natural, artificial or seemingly supernatural occurrences that can severely
damage any ship passing into the effect zone. Anomalies can also have non damaging effects and will
be scannable. Some anomalies are permanent, some are semi-permanent and some will be
temporary. They can also be moving and static.

 Natural: Result of some natural phenomenon like ionized dust clouds.

 Supernatural: Result of some strange unexplained phenomenon like gravity distortion.
 Artificial: Result of man-made phenomenon like fuel explosion or damaged machines.
 Special effect: The anomaly does something strange like teleport you short distance.
 Moving: The anomaly is moving around either teleporting or floating.
 Static: The anomaly is only affecting set area and doesn’t change at all.
 Permanent: Active all the time without the means to neutralize it or stop it.
 Semi-Permanent: Active or inactive until some trigger changes it.
 Temporary: Has a set time duration. Like a fuel tank explosion.

Meta progression

Between the missions, players will have access to the Hyperspace Forge where they have
option of spending upgrade points or spending resources for crafting weapons and ships to use on
missions. If the player’s structure drops to 0 during a mission, the ship will initiate emergency
hyperspace jump and retreat to the Hyperspace Forge where it will be repaired, but any debilitating
effects on the ship will need to be fixed by spending resources. If resources are unavailable, player
will need to either use such de-buffed ship or pick another ship to use.
Meta progression is split between ships, weapons, equipment and upgrades. For ships,
weapons and equipment, player will be spending resources. For upgrades, player will be spending
DATASETS which is essentially experience.
Another aspect of meta progression will be in story. Every time player finishes a successful
mission, the game will reward him with a progression meter that “recovers” another bit of history
from the damaged data storage. Once the progress is completed, a chunk of data will become
available in form of text or cinematic. This information should just display as available but not forced
onto players. It can even be a mini game where the player will be presented with a data chunks in a
50x50 grid where most of them will be blacked out (destroyed) and rest would be grey until
unlocked, when unlocked they should turn green/blue/red depending on what it is. Some of the
black ones can also be recovered by completing special missions and major story points.

 Unlocking new ships starting with a starter ship. The unlocking process needs to be
complex but not overly “grindy”, such as finding a blueprint part (very rare), killing x
number of specific ships to “research” it and completing secret
missions/achievements for it.
 Unlocking items will be done with meta currency (resources). There will be 3 tiers of
resources showing different complexity in obtaining weapons, modules and ships.
 No timers on production, we don’t want to waste player’s time.
 Weapons and modules will be produced in singles. So, to equip a ship with 5 “Mass
Drivers” player will need to manufacture 5 of them spending resources for each of
them. Allow producing items in bulk with a simple +X- selector.
 Once produced, ships will always be available.
 Produced weapons and equipment can be reprocessed for refund of 50% of original
material cost. Ships cannot be reprocessed.
  Unlocking starting weapons upon completing the tutorial
 Weapons and equipment have a chance to be damaged or destroyed when ship
receives structure damage.

Skills and Upgrades

As the players do things in game, they will accumulate DATASETS which function as Experience
points and can be spent on various upgrade skills. There is no level up, instead DATASETS are
directly spent to “buy” upgrades. The upgrades will be setup in various paths and levels. So, some
upgrades will have different levels of improvement with bonus replacing the previous one. Some
Upgrades will have prerequisites while others will be directly available.

Shop

In game shop is entirely optional and theoretical at this point, but if introduced, it will only
provide cosmetic and other non-mechanic upgrades. Prices need to be very low, easily affordable
and players who complete certain achievements like completing the game for the first time, should
get some 100% discounts on skins.
Skins – Players will be able to buy different skins for their weapons/ships and in case moders
introduce custom skins, shop will have purchasable custom slots for skins where they can assign any
custom skin they want without limitation. Skin price will be minimal at 1-2$ per skin or maybe even
cheaper. Custom slot will have same price as the average skin. “Skin can be either a model or a
retexture of a weapon or a ship”
Cheat mode – Since some players will definitely want to use cheats, we can at least get some benefit
from it. Cheat mode will be purchasable at some relatively low cost of 2-5$. It will include many
different options as a complete trainer would. The cheat mode would be something we would also
develop and use in development or testing. Using cheats will disable any game story progression and
achievements. And should be called “Simulation mode”.
Misc – Anything that we think of and doesn’t fall into skins will be in this class.

Easter eggs and cheat codes

Since the game is heavily influenced by some other titles, I want to introduce many easter eggs and
secrets that will make it extra interesting for players to go looking for them. Those will include things
from Homeworld games, STALKER series and Eve online. Some will be minor things like a wreckage
floating in the background, while some will be a story element, a character that appears in some way
or another or as achievements.
Cheat codes will be included in the game, but for players to use them they will need to enable
“Simulation mode” in settings, after buying it through the shop. (if that shop option is implemented)
If no shop option, we can either exclude cheat options or enable for free via same mechanic but
without extra purchase. Cheat mode will include structure/armour/shield invulnerabilities, speed
increase or decrease, weapon power up or down, resources acquisition, exp acquisition, unlocking of
ships and modules and so on…
Game Flow
Splash screens

Splash screens should accompany any loading screen or transition and relate to the situation.
Loading a mission should feature some scene from the mission environment. Loading the base
should feature the scene from base exterior or some interior scene like ship or equipment under
construction. Accompanying splash screen should be a tooltip of soe kind, either explaining
mechanics or giving some lore info about the location player is traveling to.

Cinematic

Cinematics should be done using images, not video. Sometimes simple overlaying in images to create
a fake 3d effect (parallax). Different layers moving around. Cinematics can be done in colour or
grayscale but I think grayscale would be preferable.

Menus

Menus should have animated screen space which will open quantum waveform upon clicking Play.

Menu buttons:

PLAY – takes you to choosing game type – Campaign, Survival, Scenario, Free play
SETTINGS – Gives options menu – Graphics, Game, Audio
CREDITS – Shows a credit roll screen with different unlockable video
EXIT – Exits the game

Controls

MOVE - Ship navigation should be done by clicking left mouse to open move order and then clicking
again on desired location to confirm the move order. Same mode would be used for both standard
view and sensor view. Move indicator should be a line from the centre mass of the ship ending in a
circle.
WEAPONS – Weapon groups should be activated by pressing different buttons for each. Weapons
should have a “loading” indicator in a form of filling bar that turns green when weapon is ready to
fire, yellow while weapon is firing and red while weapon is on cooldown or reloading.
Q – MAIN – Turn on/off
W – PD – Active by default and will target missiles and fighters. Pressing key enables PD to
shoot at corvettes or to ignore them and save ammo for missiles/fighters.
E – STANDOFF – Turn on/off
TARGETING – To engage, ship needs to lock on target. Target lock is achieved by moving mouse on
target and holding “RIGHT CLICK” for a certain amount of time, that targeting time can be different
based on the ship ability, player upgrades and target size. Once the targeting is initiated, the mouse
“sticks” to target and only releases when targeting is achieved or RIGHT CLICK is released.
CAMERA – The game will have zoom levels by using mouse scroll and camera rotation by holding
down MIDDLE MOUSE button. The zoom level should have quite a range able to zoom in very close
to the ship to “admire” or zoom out to have a good overview of the battlefield. When in Sensor
mode the zoom out level should be larger, but zoom in should not be as close. So, sensor mode
trades increased awareness for details.
VIEW MODE - Switching between sensor mode and standard will be done by pressing TAB button.
TIME DIALATION – Entering TIDI mode enables the player to stop and think on the best approach,
showing the advantage of AI over organics. The TIDI will be activated by pressing SPACE and can be
turned on and off at will as long as the AI has “power” for it.

Maps

All maps will be in or around megastructures. The Ai player is controlling has no desire or need to
move away from its duty and will only visit those location. However, since the megastructures have
been damaged, the actual area they now cover is bigger than the initial area they occupied while
intact. And the AI consider the new expanded area as its territory and part of megastructure,
regardless of how much things drifted apart.
Map layout will be either static, or randomly generated, based on what dev team capabilities are. If
static, the maps will have element of random generation at least. Anomalies will change places,
destructible environment and enemies will all be generated. In such a case, there will be multiple
“background” locations for each megastructure that the maps will share.

Game modes

The game will feature at least 2 game modes: Endless wave defence and Campaign. Ideally, they
would feature more than that - Survival, Scenario, Free play

Campaign: Non-Linear storyline beginning with AI awakening and set on a quest to find humans and
reclaim the megastructures.

Endless: Endless defence mode would be something primarily designed for early access that will
allow players to experience game mechanic and combat, with little progression and upgrade
mechanics. It would feature different difficulty modes ending them with player destruction.

Survival: It would feature randomly generated content without storyline where the player chooses
starting ship and proceeds from one mission are to another and every 5 levels being granted
upgrade spot where he can change the ship or loadout. Or having optional “rooms” to chose at the
end of each previous one.

Scenario: Combat scenario challenge with set elements. Given a specific ship to fight specific
enemies in a static arena. Difficulty should be extreme.

Free Play: Similar to survival but the player can freely choose the missions, difficulty and loadout.

Story
Concept

PLAYER is an ancient drone ai (Sentinel571), that awakens after a long stasis. It was
tasked with protecting ancient human installations, long since abandoned and partially
destroyed. The AI drone awakens to organic intruders accessing the megastructure it has
been tasked with guarding. It used to be one of the guardians, but now seems to be the last
one. It can't make contact with other AI or Humans who built it. The starting “shell” it is
currently operating is a utility vessel with limited combat capabilities. It fully believes alien
organics are the enemy of humans and there is a war. In truth it has been thousands of
years, and humans have gone extinct, leaving the remnants of their civilization as these
absurdly big megastructures. Alien civilizations have risen to the stars and have come upon
the great derelicts to salvage and explore them for one reason or another. There are several
species of alien life forms. As the PLAYER goes about purging the intruders, it will build up
the sector defences and bring about more ancient machines to bear. However, it is the only
sentient AI that has remained active. Other synthetics being much simpler automatons. It
does not negotiate, but will try to scan ships and examine things as it is looking for a human
with a command matrix. Throughout the game, it will find pieces of the story of the
disappearance of humans but no definitive answers will be given, leaving PLAYER to
speculate. Even though it has been thousands of years, AI is undisturbed as the human
empire existed for much longer than that prior to the AI’s stasis. AI itself has been created
more then 10k years prior to the current timeline

Details

The player’s character is not a true AI, instead it is an amalgam of highly advanced VI and human
consciousness, which in itself should gently point to what ultimately happened to the humans. The
process of creation of such constructs is lost in time, and most information about them are lost as
well. The moment players find out a little more about their own nature is when they find another
sentinel, now a deity of a religious cult being worshiped as the god of the machine. Unfortunately,
the other Sentinel is damaged beyond repair and will demand subjugation or destruction of player.
Unable to ignore him, player will end up destroying the only other sentinel he encounters, close to
the endgame. The fight between sentinels will be in 2 parts, damaging him in real space and then
after emergency jump, destroying him in hyperspace, or a different real space location.

Unknown to either sentinel, humans have been battling extragalactic beings made of energy and
manifesting in more then 3 dimensions. The battle escalated but the humans were being eradicated
slowly with the beings having primitive intellect and not allowing for any compromise,
communication or surrender. The humans in a last dich effort, drew the creatures into a trap and
obliterated them with a massive wave of dimensional energy that was released as the entirety of
human civilization, every soul in existence, formed a singularity and transcended the dimensional
boundaries to become extradimensional beings. In effect, they have sacrificed their entire
civilization and race to save the galaxy from destruction and possibly the universe and have since left
the milky way behind. The sentinels who were at the time of the ascension damaged in some way
and left in stasis, were left to the automated systems to repair them, yet not much hope was left for
such damaged units, as that particular type of damage was though to be irreparable. All functioning
sentinels, ascended with the rest of humanity as their AI cores were instrumental in initiating the
ascension. Some of the megastructure’s humans left around were part of the ascension mechanism
and were damaged during activation. The same event damaged hyperspace network which no one
was able to repair since that time.

Locations

Ancient humans created many different megastructures from Dyson spheres to ring worlds, O’Neil
cylinders, planetary Bishop rings, hollow planets, shell worlds and others.

10 megastructures scattered around the galaxy:

Zeta Ophiuchi - Dyson sphere.

51 Andromedae – Nembus – ring worlds

Gamma Andromedae – Almach - Cylinders

Zeta Aquilae – Okab – Bishops rings

Gliese 221 - Hollow planets

Theta Aurigae – Mahasim – Shell worlds

Sigma Orionis – Matryoshka spheres

9 Sagittarii- Dyson sphere.

Betelgeuse – Shoulder of Orion

Tannhauser Gate – Massive gate complex giving access to endgame area

Execution

First play is also a tutorial. Awakening, and securing the staging area. If killed at this first
phase, show game over, and the game needs to be started again. Make the first phase
somewhat easy and explain what happens when you complete a phase. This first one will
grant a stable base of operation, besides small upgrade rewards to show meta progression.
Once the primary base is established, every run after will be launched from there. Adjust for
different starts. 

Cutscenes and story for every time a new faction is encountered as a main mission faction.
Faction player hasn’t encountered as a Main faction for a mission excludes those factions
from spawning as Secondary or Minor factions in a mission.

Factions

PLAYER – Artificial intelligence - Sentinel 571

Player is one of the ancient human AI guardians of the megastructures. After awakening it
will attempt to reclaim the derelicts, repair, and secure the megastructures and locate humans or
information about humans. Unknown to the Sentinel 571, it used to be a human, whose consciousness
was uploaded to the AI core. True AI was forbidden in ancient human civilization due to its rebellious
nature, so merging of the VI and Human consciousness produced Sentinels. Constructs who could
fight forever, retaining all memories and experiences as they fight and die for the mankind. In turn
their limitations were that Humans had absolute control over their operation. However, now humans
are nowhere to be found, giving the Sentinel 571 unbound power.
Human machine remnants – PASIVE NPC faction
Remnants of autonomous defences within the megastructure. Many of which have suffered
damage or data corruption disabling their FOF recognition. They are locked in their loop and fulfil the
last given command forever. Set on simple patrol orders, emplaced weapons or platforms to
sometimes slightly more advanced VI with more autonomy in managing its task.
Pirates/Scavengers – SEMI ACTIVE NPC faction
Unorganized bands of marauders, nomads, scavengers, pirates and others all fall within this
faction. Some have no other choice, while others choose to risk it all to recover some valuable piece
of tech or data. Some have even made their home in the great derelicts, adapting to life there and
taking over human machines for their own purposes.
Alien worshipers – ACTIVE NPC faction
Alien race that worships ancient humans as gods and their machines like sacred artefacts. The
race is actually guided by a damaged sentinel to be discovered later and often inhabits derelicts. The
size of the cult is huge, as they have gained popularity due to their power which comes from use of
human tech. They have good working knowledge of human tech and use it often in their constructs.
They will see another sentinel as another of the sacred being and will try to worship it, inviting the
player to one of their cult bases. However, once there, damaged sentinel fails to get a FOF and due to
the severe damage, it sustained, commands the cultists to attack the player explaining it’s the fallen
one, an evil entity. From then on, cultists will seek out and attack player actively.
Alien explorers – ACTIVE NPC faction
A peaceful alien trader/explorer race. They interact with all, trading data and tech but
maintaining their own tech advantage. Player can choose to trade with them or slaughter them. They
can often be found in the derelicts, picking them clean and conducting research. They are avian in
origin an homage to the “Lost Planet”
Alien Machine AI – ACTIVE NPC faction
Machine AI that rebelled against its creator a mere few hundreds of years ago. They are
hostile to all others in the galaxy but also very cunning. Meeting them for the first time gives player
clues that he is not a true AI as they will be able to recognize. They operate as a networked AI (geth)
and often setup bases on the derelicts to completely salvage and repurpose everything. They also
attack on sight. They are the nemesis to the player. They will behave a little like fungus growth on the
derelicts. Their “hives” striping the resources and data from the derelicts.
Alien Empire – ACTIVE NPC faction
Oldest alien faction to raise to the level of galactic power was The Empire. It is ruled by a
monarchy of 11 seemingly immortal emperors that take turns ruling the empire. There used to be 12
but 1 Emperor was somehow assassinated long ago. Apart from the monarchs no one else seems to
have this immortality. A religion was born around the monarchs and religion and state have merged to
form a very long lasting and powerful civilization. Empire as such includes members of 12 alien
races, and while each of those races enjoys full rights and no oppression, there has been no new
member races for over a thousand years, since the assassination of the last emperor. Empire aims for a
steady advancement and generally prefers peace, but has a massive war machine potential fuelled by
religious zealotry. Their ships usually travel in well-structured fleets which reduces their flexibility.
Ships design revolves around heavy armour powerful artillery combined with various beam weapons.
Alien Federation – ACTIVE NPC faction
While relatively young, Star Federation is very powerful, being a pier adversary to the
Empire. Federation and Empire haven’t been at war much, and there is no deep hatred, as galaxy is
still big enough for both and their expansion only ran into each other a few times. However, those few
times they fought, millions died and entire worlds burned. Both sides scared by such devastation
approach conflict with much more care. Federation has a massive industrial base and high level of
technological development, however, being a coalition of hundreds of planets and half as many races,
somewhat fragmented interests and lack of unity get in the way. There is still much internal power
struggle as each race tries to grab more power in the council. Federation ships have most variation
within a single faction, due to the different source of designs. They don’t have a single design
philosophy or style, opting for a very wide range of different designs.

Endgame

After the first several missions revealing core mechanics and locations, last mechanic will be
revelation of ultimate goal, reclaiming of all functional parts of the megastructures, and re-tasking
automated defences and other automatons to tasks of securing and restoration of megastructures.
As more and more of the megastructure falls under sentinel’s control, the difficulty of enemies and
missions increases. When at a 99% there will be a boss battle for the final control and at 100% that
megastructure is secure and will start with complete restoration (projected restoration time ~400
years at current capacity). Once all the megastructures are secured, player will encounter the other
sentinel which will reveal the location of final megastructure, built after the Sentinel 571 went into
stasis, hence no information was available. It is the Tannhauser Gate, which leads the layer to the
endgame area. There final pieces of the puzzle are revealed, but still not a complete story. The
player will have a final decision to make which will give different ending. There should be 3 endings.
Additional details in story/campaign technical document.