Some ideas and suggestions

[Edelweiss]

Hey guys! Here are some thoughts that can be used in this game. Not all of them are brilliant, but I still want to post those. Gl with developing and debugging! :)

1) Government trying to interfere (cops, undercover guys among cult members, other events)
2) Family members trying to get cult members out (option of converting them too is nice, maybe even through imprisoning or other ways)
3) Great variety of cults. Not just cosmetics, but also some traits and buffs/debuffs (political, doomsday, animalistic, UFO, food, vegetable or alcohol praising, gaming, destructive cults, etc.) Any ordinary stuff should be a possible base for a cult
4) Clashes with other cults and traditional religions (being able to make actions and spread cult in several preset places – supermarket, cinema, church, school, city streets)
5) Some cults should be naughty and have options like polygamy and other stuff
6) It shouldn’t be only about money and getting rich. If people want to go full fanatic they should be able to do so. The idea is to have options to play in funny way or brutal one or both
7) Scale. It is important to be able to make large society and still be able to manage it
8) Land and seasons (different nature according to different states – desert, snow, mild green)
9) Cosmetics. The more the better. Furniture, clothes, items, weapons, greens, foods, building walls and floors, etc.
10) Crafting starting from basic needed stuff to advanced production (for example, secret alcohol or drug production in a small building with limited access to only most trusted cult members + events of uncovering by honest cult members and options to deal with them. Farming as a source of income of the cult + adding drugs to vegetables to get new members or adding those to food to make cultists more dependent)
11) Power struggle (some cultists wanting to get your place as the head of cult, dealing with them – soft and hard options)
12) Printing books and articles (possibility of naming them), buying journalists to spread the word or advocate cult
13) Lobbying and buying businesses with possibility either just getting money or corrupting it and being able to spread cult through it. Lobbying through taking powerful people to the cult (politicians, officials and so)
14) Different perks and traits among cultists
15) Some ideas and stuff from the ‘Wild Wild Country series’

Other ideas are welcome too, don't be shy!

[Sole Survivor Games]

Thanks for the ideas. We're always pleased to receive comments on what people want to see in the game and there's a number of ideas that we're already incorporating as a result. In response to your points:

1) Government intervention is already being incorporated, including undercover members who need to be weeded out and less covert interventions also.
2) There is a family mechanic built in already - each person has a family "stat" that this is guided by.
3) We're trying to design the game to allow people to play their cult in a variety of different ways. This includes cosmetic customisation but also includes taking actions with your members/leader/with the cult itself which will steer the cult in different directions and give it a different feel. Vegetable praising is a new suggestion though!
4) Rival cults are being included already and there are a variety off-screen missions at other locations that the player needs to undertake.
5) Some type of "free love" element is already on our list but we haven’t decided how/if to implement this at present.
6) We want to allow players to wield their power in tyrannical ways (this seems to be one of the most appealing aspects of the concept to people), but the game mechanics require you to stay solvent whilst doing it.
7) Towards the end game we are hoping for various options to expand your cult to different locations. How/if this is implemented depends on how the rest of the development goes.
8) Although admittedly this would be nice to have, the cult is based somewhere pretty sunny for the foreseeable future :P
9) We will be adding more variety to all items - at Insomnia 62 we were surprised by how much people loved the pure building aspect of the game. We had to turf people off of the computers generally otherwise they'd continue building forever.
10) Production of various goods is also a common request we've had so we already have this on the list.
11) We haven't included means of removing your leader - we want players to have a leader that they choose and then become familiar with over the course of the game.
12) Various forms of publicity/recruitment are already included.
13) Interactions with the government are already being included, in a similar way to lobbying.
14) Cultists have a number of perks and traits already which are being constantly expanded.
15) We've seen Wild Wild Country and you'll recognise some ideas from it :)

[GrandSong]

@Edelweiss, you are awesome!
So many good ideas.

Here are my thinkings over yours.

1.
Although I like ideas about the outside and large world, I believe it will be wise for the dev team, who are just two guys, to focus on the map itself.
Idea 4 is about going out to places like supermarket, cinema, etc. I think we'd better minimalize this design and combine it with Idea 12 & 13 into a simple "Public Influences" system:
You will have opportunities to promote your cult, or you will need to handle social offenses and even crises.
All these are events. You do not have right to regularly create events. They will be generated by the system and come to you. You will have some time-window/deadline.
So, you won't be distracted by such events long from your core gameplay on your map.
And in most cases, these events should require something within your map; they are not standalone and separated.

2.
I'm afraid Idea 8 and 9 are not high priorities.

And I hope soon the dev team can make a road map with priorities for people to discuss, which is vital for your tiny team of only two men.


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As to the replies by the dev...

Reply 7 doesnt' seem advisable.

I don't think "end game" is very important, at least in this game genre not as important as in many others.

For example, Prison Architect has no design about end game at all.
And end game (leaving the planet) of RimWorld doesn't seem to be very attractive to players who usually prefer to stay and have other fun.


Instead, I hope you manage to offer enough fun to players
1) from the long and gradual expanding & optimizing their maps at good paces;
2) from creating new maps with different options/modifications and aiming for new paths/gamestyles. And I vote for this.

To put it further, you may consider some core elements of Roguelike game genre which I am studying recently.
In The Binding of Isaac and Slay the Spire, players are addicted to starting new playthroughs on and on and on.
Why?
Because there are always new experiences waiting ahead.

In contrast, management games lack such freshness and novelties.
One compensation is to feed players with levels but they will be consumed eventually, and usually shorter than desired.
Another solution is options/modifications like in PA and Invisible, Inc. However, these mainly affect the openings but few new things will surprise players later in their gameplays.

I guess it might be worth trying to design some random (to be precise, procedually generated) things
1) which players cannot be sure to anticipate in one playthrough. And
2) only a propotion of which can be gotten/seen in one playthrough.
So, many playthroughs are needed. Players will enjoy the game for hundreds of hours before they get bored.

[Goobers1960]

Hey, how about Meat praise, not just veggies. ;)

Also, I know you mentioned no violence but some mild violence similar to Prison Architec would allow some interesting additions.
#1 Lock down where the cult would not allow "non-believers" to leave. Armed or at least big brutes at the doors and exits to keep people in place. Like bouncers . LOL
#2 This could lead to a more involved "escape" process of digging tunnels, costumes, etc... to get out.
#3 Challenges with rival cults for dominence.
#4 Smuggling guns and other items (veggies), magazines, etc... like in PA could be cool with punishment for bring the contraband in.

I know you are considering the "free love" aspect. I think it would be great as long as it was handled carefully (hearts popping out of rooms), that kind of stuff. Hey in my opinion you are already treading in a lot of irony and sarcasm here so why stop short. Prisons aren't exactly fun places or cute ideas either but it turned out great. Just keep it funny and lighthearted and you should be ok. I don't like the mass suicide idea.... too close to home here these days with suicide not something to joke about. You could have a goal of a certain number of member, etc.. as a goal or like in State of Decay 2, once you dominate a certain area/town, you move on to work on the next, maybe keeping track of the data from the first town so you can "Cultivate" a growing buisiness bigger and bigger. This would allow building new structures in differnt towns to keep it fresh and to promote longer play.

I love this theme, and love PA and think you have a very unique and cool idea.
Keep up the great work. I am on your e-mail list. :) Monte

[csayer89]

A few people already touched on this, but I think as far as "endgame" goes, perhaps much like Prison Architect there could be a "new game +1" dynamic. In Prison Architect, once your prison is a certain size you can sell your prison and start a new one with the proceeds from the sale of the old one, thereby increasing your starting cash and making setting up your new prison easier (and theoretically allowing you to build a much bigger prison before you run out of money). You can continue to play the old one as a separate save, but you cannot sell it again if you do so.

Perhaps with this game, once your cult reaches a certain size or amount of influence or whatever, you could select one of your higher-ranking cultists to lead a small group of chosen followers to make a second settlement, subservient to the first one of course, in a new map. Or perhaps the leader himself (or herself) could lead a select group of followers to set up a new settlement, choosing a deputy to manage the day-to-day affairs of the original settlement--with due deference to the Head Priest(ess) of the Cosmic Carrot regarding larger matters, that is. Either you would get more starting cash (taken from the coffers of the original settlement) to help you get started; or you could hand-pick which followers go to set up the new colony, so that you can get those workers with the best traits and/or the highest skills. You could continue to play with the original settlement, and perhaps other events might occur that threaten it, or you can play the new settlement.

Further idea based on that, perhaps if you have two or more settlements devoted to the worship of the almighty Cosmic Carrot, there could be some new random events that you could encounter, such as one to the effect of, "The church at (settlement name) has been (attacked|destroyed), and the devoted followers are fleeing here. They will be arriving shortly." This would give you a new sudden influx of devoted individuals from the old save, but could shake the faith of some of your less devoted followers by making them wonder if it's really worth it.

Just some thoughts, feel free to discuss.

[Sole Survivor Games]

Not sure how we overlooked responding to what must be the most creative thread we've had.

In response to some of the points raised (sorry we don't have time to go through all of them):

1. There will be the ability to undertake various actions/missions with your cult in other locations. Some of these might be to do more run-of-the-mill type things such as recruiting different locations. Others will have a more significant role to what kind of route your cult wants to take and will form a major part of how the game progresses for your cult. Actions and missions will have a mechanic of their own to determine whether they are successful (more to come of this), and will yield various different consequences for success/failure. The ability to pick and choose which actions to undertake will allow for players to have very different experiences/challenges when they play the game.

2. Second locations where you physically go and build another settlement yourself are not currently planned, although that's not to necessarily say that your Cult won't spread to different locations.

3. Interesting what you say about the new game +1 idea, it's not something we'd considered in relation to the end game.

Thanks for all the feedback. It's fantastic to see everyone's ideas about HIJAC. We are listening to everything that's been said and the feedback has already helped to push the game in certain directions and away from others.

[nocforweb]

Just wanna through a +1 behind some of the ideas here (and maybe add to the list, just to keep it in one condensed post)

#3 Unique Cults (not just aesthetics) - Sounds like that's already being done but yes, that would allow a lot of replay for me - seeing how different cult directions might go, with unique looks and feels

#5 Free love - nothing says 'cult' to me like that concept - from wild wild country on through.. oh hell, just about any 60s cult. The poly part I just generally want to see more represented in games (even if it has to be in a humorous fashion for now) and shemxy portion I'm sure can be censored like Sims / RimWorld and the concept be kept and implied. Game would just be weird without it, and the possibility of humor around it are fabulous

#10 Crafting and craft unlocks - Production of goods migth be on the table but I like the initial suggestion, unlocking up through tiers. Like an Evil Genius thing where you work your way through super secret weapons, mind controls and subliminal messaging motivational posters, dark demonic books, etc - so even as your cult gets more personality the things you start building (that give you the bonuses that fit that theme) also naturally start adding that theme's 'look'. Cthulhu squid cult gets more and more murky pools and helpful tentacle objects. Atom cult gets more and more robots and cyberman enhancements, etc.

#12 Publications - Sounds awesome, glad you're already doing it, especially awesome if you can add your own flavor into them - titles, images, passages, ala Tropico speaches

#14 Unique cultists with unique abilities - sounds like you're on it, awesome!

So to add just a few more ideas?

#16 Steam workshop - know its mentioned in another post and you're looking into tech costs, but that will Really keep this game alive between patches / updates / expansions and keep everyone excited

#17 Actual magic! That does stuff! The scope may start as 'we believe in the flying spaghetti mosnster' but how cool would it be if it turned out it existed? (Or maybe the worship brought it into existence) And cool / quirky / weird stuff started actually happening - ghosts, demons, possessed people, madness - and now you have to keep your cult together while also managing the things you brought into existence, keep the deep ones fed without anyone realizing it, using the necronomicon on the pesky detective, etc

#18 Drugs - because cults (as we think of them) pretty much are born from either horror flicks or the shmexy / drugs / rock and roll era - Osho, Rael, etc. Doesn't have to be real stuff, could bring in 'Lotus' from the Illiad, have fun weird effects, perks to morale but productivity goes down or some trippy person feels 'called to press the big red button' so you gotta try to corale the trippies or manage when / where they can do the trippy ceremonies (and then watch out for Prison Architect style contraband where they wanna sneak stuff to their rooms and do their own little rituals.... and then end up wondering off naked and singing into the streets unless you catch them before the police / neighbors notice them

#19 Personality Test - eg Rebuild 3, choices you make that steadily shape the 'culture' of your cult, almost like a personality test of the player. How do we feel about letting people leave? Outsiders wanting to sit in on ceremonies? Like the kind of questions that went into Rebuild 3's writing / expanding of the group charter

#20 Levels of initiation - pretty much every mystery religion and cult has this - different levels of people are allowed in different areas, find out the deeper secrets, get different perks, and get to do different rituals. So some element of that