In my previous article, I talked about the first steps players will take in Halcyon Online. As leaders of their own homeworld, they'll be tasked with expanding humanity's footprint amongst the stars, and in doing so, reap the benefits for their people through the resources they wish to exploit.
In short, Phase 1 is all about a player's Homeworld, the limitations and strengths of its resources, the technological paths players will need to take for advancement, and their initial construction of a Space Station, as well as the production of their first spacecraft.
Phase 2 is where the game of Halcyon Online really takes off. Players begin to take their activities multi-planetary, as well as gather the off-world resources available to them in their own star system, such as from moons and asteroids. In this phase, players will see their Empire beginning to grow, establishing multiple colonies and trade routes, setting up spacecraft production for both peaceful and military means, as well as colonising numerous planets to fuel their constant need for growth.
Missions. Missions everywhere!
In Phase 2, players will also have access to missions for their fleets and their Empire. These missions are provided by the Conglomerate, a diplomatic institution tasked with ensuring Humanity survives beyond Aea, our first world after Earth.
These missions will provide players with essentially a Player Vs Environment (PvE) experience, providing them with an array of opportunities that can reward spacecraft, credits (a social credit system of the displaced Humanity), temporary boons to their empire or planet, or even whole research unlocks. Missions are therefore, a feature that players can engage with as another way of advancing their Empire.
We'll talk more about missions in another post, but know that they are another avenue for you to accumulate resources and wealth as part of your expanding Empire.
One small step for Man...
Of course one of the first things players will do as part of Phase 2 is colonise another planet, either within their own star system or farther afield. Colonising planets enables you to quickly expand your resource generation over time, due to each planet developing its infrastructure separately (but utilising the same technological research of your Empire).
It also gives you access to moons. No player's starting Homeworld will have a moon, and this is by design. Moons offer immense benefits but also require several tiers of research in order to setup lunar bases, complete with mining operations and biodomes for population growth. They require a lot to get started, so Homeworlds do not have access to them. It requires players to expand to other planets in order gain access to these celestial objects. Furthermore, moons can only be discovered through planetary scans. These scans will note that there is a moon present, and then a subsequent probe can be sent to scan these moons for their resources. Finally, moons require cargo missions to ship the resources from the moons to their parent planets, as moons are unable to have vast production facilities created upon them.
In short, Moons are a resource-generating haven, but require a lot of work to get working efficiently. Once they are, they'll be providing their parent planet with a constant influx of raw materials that can be used in expanding their Empire, or in defending their resource lines.
Communications
Phase 2 establishes the patterns of play and requirements that players must have in order to expand their Empire successfully. This is also when players will start engaging with other players, both peacefully and militarily.
There will be a number of communication tools available to players in-game, in helping to establish direct contact, as well as creating alliances between players in order to maintain a strong, capable force in both offense and defense.
Combat
Of course, where would an epic, galactic game of conquest be without fleet combat? In Phase 2, players will have their first fleetsships and start engaging with other players in order to plunder resources and destroy other ships. Of course, this is also when the first player protections are put in place. I'll talk more about this in a subsequent article, but know that because Halcyon Online can potentially have galaxies lasting for a few months at a time, with both new and more established players, then it stands to reason that players of lower score levels need to be protected, to prevent player farming by more advanced players (also known as "ganking" in other games).
My goal in Halcyon Online is that players choose targets that they would have an advantage over due specifically to their fleet composition and/or resource opportunities, not simply because they're more powerful than them. For example, they may wish to build a fleet of nothing but fighter craft, and by doing so would target players that will have problems dealing with such craft within their fleets and defenses.
Regardless, in Phase 2 players will begin producing an array of combat spacecraft, create and manage fleets, and be sending their spacecraft on PvE and PvP missions. My desire is that many players at this point will have a number of different fleets all working toward different outcomes, based on their fleet composition.
This fleet composition will be learned from an early stage in Halcyon Online, as the game will push players initially towards PvE missions where fleet composition is essential to winning those encounters (more on missions in a later article).
There will be a lot to do for players as they reach Phase 2 within the game, as they expand their Empire to other planets, start mining moons and asteroids for precious raw resources, setup Alliances to work with other players toward a particular goal, produce spacecraft for military engagements, as well as continue to develop their Empire's technological prowess.
By the time we get to Phase 2 development, Halcyon Online will have already been through multiple testing rounds, ensuring that the progress and game itself is already on a great foundation with all the features and game mechanics found in Phase 1, and I for one can't wait, as Phase 2 is when the fun really begins.