Colony Mode

This mode refers to the bulk of the game (or more accurately "toy") which is spent placing buildings.

Premise

In the future, humans have depleted nearly all natural resources from all known habitable planets, forcing them to become a nomadic species. They live primarily in colonies that float through space looking for new planets and life forms.

Play as a colony leader, who's job is to build and manage a city contained within a large spacecraft.

Objective

This is technically a toy, so there is no clear objective. Some players may attempt to make a large city which requires efficient placement of buildings. Others may strive to build specific structures and will need to first build their target's dependencies.

Gameplay

The main city area is divided into a grid oriented at 45 degrees (to increase visibility). Buildings and units can occupy any number of whole squares. Each grid space may only host 1 structure, but may host as many units as necessary. The game is turn based, but there are multiple turns per second thus giving the game a real-time feel. Units can only move 1 space per turn and must wait a specific number of turns before moving again.

Upon starting a new game, the player is presented with an empty city. Resources are dispersed randomly (and count as structures). If the player has enough resources, he/she can select a building and then place it on the map to instantly construct it. If the building comes with units, they are launched. A unit has 1 destination and travels along the least-cost path to its objective. Roads lower the cost of travel. Once it arrives, a unit remains at its objective for some randomized number of turns and then returns to its home structure. Citizens travel to work or recreational areas, harvesters travel to resources, transporters travel to industrial complexes, etc.

Certain structures generate resource income upon the return of their unit(s). This accounts for the majority of the player's resources. The one exception is money, which can only be generated by playing the minigames. All structures cost some amount of money, so minigames are inevitable. With minimal effort, a minigame will also reward a special building which is stored in a "Rewards" menu until placement in the city. Some minigames reward more than a structure and money, but these rewards can theoretically be earned through the existence of specific city structures.

Each building has construction costs and operational costs measured in units of various resources and utilities. See Structures and Consumables. If a structure's operational costs cannot be met, it shuts down and ceases launching its units. Buildings with harvester or transporter units will increase the player's resource stock each time the unit returns. For example, the Lumber Mill launches a harvester that travels to the nearest forest square and after some time returns to the mill thus increasing the player's supply of wood.

Most structures require certain utilities (see Structures for the list of utility plants). A meat-packing plant requires Electricity, for example. In order to operate, this plant must be within 3 grids of a Power Line or other powered structure.

The last dependency on structures are its employees. Each structure requires some number of staff and if the city does not have enough citizens then the each new structure does not operate. As the population grows, structures become operational on a first-built first-serve basis.

Some structures output products (see Consumables for a complete list). Each product requires some number of consumables. Once these consumables are delivered, the structure makes 1 product and sends it to the appropriate location as a delivery or transport unit. The location is determined by the type of product. Food, for example, goes to stores whereas wheels may go to a car factory.

User Interface

The screen is divided into two major sections. The main area displays the city (with approximately 20x20 tiles visible). A menu bar sits on the right of the screen, approximately 2 inches wide. The menu bar contians buttons that are labeld graphically. When the user hovers over them, the name will appear over the cursor. The buttons are as follows: Build Structure, Build Line, Build Path, Place Reward, Budget, Sell, and Options. If a button is clicked, then a submenu pops out to the left of the main menu bar. This submenu contains a scrollable list of all placable buildings within the selected category. Clicking on one of these brings up the building information in the bottom area of the main menu. With a specific building selected, the cursor is replaced by a transparent image of the building if the user mouses over the main city area. Clicking while the building is in a suitable location places that building permanently (unless it is sold).

When no building is selected in the submenu, the user can click on any placed structure to display its information in the bottom of the main menu. This information contains a picture of the building, and displays (with words and symbols) the build costs, operational costs, output, and units.

to be continued...

Scoring

Although there are not victory conditions, a player's score is determined by the colony asset value, current pool of resources and city population (both human and android).