Base Building Mechanic? Does it work?

[BottleCapGames]

Soooooo, I was wondering if it might be a good idea to do a base building mechanic in my game. An example is a lot of mobile
games like war games, or games like Ever Oasis. It would be evented, and the player would spend money building new shops and upgrading the base. You can raise the base's rank to receive better quests. As I haven't played a lot of games with this mechanic, so do you think it would be a cool addition, or a plain annoyance that just sits there, gathering dust?

(P.S: My game's story is around characters trying to build a new empire, so it kind of works.)

 

[Poryg]

What are the waiting times till structures get built? I had to leave so many games due to ridiculously long building times.

 

[BottleCapGames]

Probably minutes for small shops, and a day for big structures.

 

[Poryg]

In game day or real life day? Do you have enough to be done to justify long building plans?

 

[BottleCapGames]

In game day or real life day? Do you have enough to be done to justify long building plans?

Game day. I hate waiting real life days. And yes, I can justify long plans as some shops have exclusive items and one helps learn skills, which don't get learned to often.

 

[Poryg]

If it's game day and you can justify it, I don't think there's a problem with it then.

 

[10kk]

It is a great way to create a central hub to break up any monotonous gameplay. The eventing is the hardest part, making structures appear might require a little parallax or event magic.

 

[Poryg]

Or simply showing picture, not a big deal

 

[nomotog]

I am working on basically the same idea*. I wouldn't bother with using time systems. I don't think you really get anything out of making the player wait. If you want things to take more time, then make it where they have to find or do something. Active rather then passive. I think the overall idea is neat though. I would also tie game and story progress to the building system. Like you can only find some party members after you build a bar in your city, or you need your blacksmith to make you a airship that can fly over lava.


*It is just different setting. It's a Sci Fi game about settling a new planet. I originally was going to do a medieval thing, but I wasn't able to come up with enough ideas that fit the setting.

 

[BottleCapGames]

I would also tie game and story progress to the building system. Like you can only find some party members after you build a bar in your city, or you need your blacksmith to make you a airship that can fly over lava
.

Yeah, that's probably a smart idea.

 

[10kk]

Or simply showing picture, not a big deal

Things get weird if there's multiple buildings on one map, no?
The picture would have to attach to the map and not scroll with the player. There's plugins for that iirc.

 

[Poryg]

You're not wrong. It needs to be bound to map. However, it's not that hard to event binding the picture to map
Although for that it would make more sense to use events instead... Or Yanfly's grid free doodads.

 

[nomotog]

A thought I have in relation to this idea is to include more in depth city management elements like food, moral, or resources chains. Like if you bring too many people to your city, without adding farms then people will start to starve. Almost like a watered down civ or watered down down sim city.

I don't know if it's good idea though. A system like that could pull focus from everything else in the game.

 

[BottleCapGames]

I don't know if it's good idea though. A system like that could pull focus from everything else in the game.

True, but the player is given option most of the time whether to care or not. While the player can benefit from building the base, they can choose not to care. Buuuutttt why???

 

[nomotog]

True, but the player is given option most of the time whether to care or not. While the player can benefit from building the base, they can choose not to care. Buuuutttt why???

If you start bringing in systems like starvation, then you have a lot less of a choice to not care. If you ignore it, then you might come back from dragon slaying to find everyone dead. That is kind of why I think the idea may not be fun.

 

[BottleCapGames]

Yeah... I don't like hunger systems in the first place... so no hunger system. Yayyyy!!!!