I'm really nervous about designing this game because I have heard from so many different places that the first game you design doesn't really make it very far and if there is any game that I design that I want to go the distance, it's this one.
WHAT MAKES THIS GAME DIFFERENT:
Something that I haven't seen in board games is a truly customizable civilization game.
-I want people to design their own armies to their own taste
-I want people to customize their economy
-I want people to customize wonders
-I want a strong theme of designing a cultural civilization based upon where you start (similar to real life civilizations (examples: Egypt: started in a desert and thus designed boats to travel on the river for trade; Britain: Started in a forest and made some of the best archers, also was surrounded by water from almost all enemies and made perhaps the strongest armada the world has seen. ect. ect.))
-I want people to be able to do trading with a central "pool" where players can just buy to satisfy their needs, but can trade with other players to try to get a better deal.
-Everything that made a great civilization integrated into the game to earn you points (military conquests, wonders, trade/economical, technological advancements, ect.)
CHALLENGES:
-I know that the biggest challenge is to make this as simple as I want with such strong customization.
-Balancing is going to be another big challenge
-Removing all useless decisions (example: I can build this building that won't do anything except be used an action that I wouldn't otherwise use and don't want to waste the opportunity and would only prolong the game without other impact (I know that prolonging the game can allow for those who are behind to catch up but this is assuming that it is physically impossible to catch up)
-Making the game fun for more people than just me!
-Make it so that the game doesn't feel like it ended abruptly or in an unsatisfying manner
IDEAS:
-A board similar to the tech tree in Historia but use it for customizing your units
-Hex tile placement to make a fully customizable board designed however you want to make everything different
+All tiles are layed face down without knowing what they are, and a player can place their unit on any tile and gain benefits of starting on that type of tile
+If a player is the first to explore a tile they gain a random unique card that benefits that civilization that is available to use in trade (example: Economy wood, all buildings wood cost is reduced by 1(one))
-Worker placement on tiles to gather resources of your choice.
+Plains gather more food than forest, but doesn't collect as much wood as a forest and you choose which to gain from that tile (this is to allow players who are unable to afford a resource from trade and is unable to make a successful deal with another player that they can still get that resource)
-3 to 4 different "army" types
+This is allows players to develop different units (light infantry, heavy infantry, archers, light cavalry, heavy cavalry, pikeman, ect.) based on what that civilization is able to produce and afford and needs
++ I'm still working out if there will be an upkeep cost to your army (again I want this to be at least somewhat simple
-Combat is resolved through dice rolling and depending on the stats and cards given to an army determines the dice that will be rolled (so custom dice)
-VP is earned through building wonders, defeating armies, conducting trade, advancing technologies, and developing culture
+a wonder can be made by combining different resources and events that have happened
++a military wonder can be built if an army wins X number of battles when having fewer units
++an economic wonder can be built if a civilization performs enough trading
++technological wonders can be built with certain technology cards
+++Only one technological wonder can be built per technology
++cultural wonders are built with massive amounts of resources for slightly more victory points
+Winning battles scores points based upon how many troops you remove from the battle to tell the tale of the battle (less effective military to score more points). There will be a base set of points that will get added onto from removing units for this purpose
+every time you trade with someone you score X amount of points, also a player can sweeten a deal by offering their own victory points to be added to the other player to encourage good deals between players
+Each technology earns you points denoted on the tech card
+Culture is different rules for each player that they can choose from a group of cards (technology can add to the options a player has) If a player follows these rules for their turn they earn the amount of victory points on the card, if they break any rules on that card they lose that many victory points instead.
++Culture cards are only optional, you do not have to take a card if you do not wish to, but you lose out on the bonus victory points every turn
-I also want an event deck that alters the game state every turn(example: Flooded Plains, all workers on a plains tile must give up 1 food per worker in that tile; Overpopulated Woods, all workers in the woods gain an additional food; ect.)
HOW MANY PLAYERS
-3 to 8 players would be the minimum and maximum size, but best with 4-6 players
TIME
-Time frame of the game is very flexible to me at the moment. I want the game to have meaningful decisions that really affect the players in the most engaging way possible, but I don't want the game to take 8+hours. So basically as long as the game needs to
Victory
-First player to reach X amount of victory points (right now probably 100 points)
HOW TO PREVENT VICTORY IN DIFFERENT WAYS
-A person can use trade to force a player to give up victory points in certain situations to slow down their rate of collecting victory points
-Plundering a city will lower the amount of VP earned by the player whose city has been plundered (that city will have immunity for X turns afterwards to prevent a military strong player to just pummel a player into submission)
SUMMARY
This is my current thoughts and ideas for the game right now. I want to get a prototype made soon to playtest with my friends to balance the numbers. If you guys have any ideas and or thoughts please let me know. I want this to succeed since I'm putting my heart and soul into this board game. I can take criticism about my ideas since I want this to be the best that it can be.
NOTES
The only things that are not changeable in anyway is the customization options. There must be customization, how that customization comes about is changeable.
