Iter 9 features the addition of the “research” system. Your basic click here then wait a bit and now you can build a new class of ship or station. Pretty boring (nothing very new or innovative about this), but it accomplishes several important things.

Delayed gratification: yep I’m withholding things for your own good and enjoyment, so appreciate that corvette and enjoy that new frigate when you can build it. You’ll plan it out in your head… first I’ll research a defense station so that it will protect the shipyard that I will research next… etc… etc… dreaming of things to come

Game pacing: you can’t build a destroyer right from the start. I know you can’t so if I send one against you I’ll know it will be a bit of a challenge.

But in actuality it is busy work! To extend the life of the game and give me greater control over the experience. So I hope that in future iterations I’ll make this more intersting. Right now research comes at the cost of your crew not producing ore, energy and/or food. Plus the player has to pick and chose which research item to research first. But in the future I hope to add more interesting mechanics for example: blow up a bunch of frigates to be able to research your own, or better yet capture one (via the Command ship) and make it dock with your station – then take it apart to learn its secrests. Basically making things more interesting.

Plans for iter 10: instant action system – very excited about this – it will give me the chance to test game performance (you’ll be able to create custom battles of any size). Via staging battles I’ll be able to tweak ships, balance game play and you’ll be able to quickly jump into combat for some fast action.