Plan of Action by Sharks

[raw]
made by Sharks for Ludum Dare 49 (JAM)

A high octane top-down 2D strategy game about fighting an Unstable government.

Banner.png

Overview

Real Time strategy with spaceships and easy to learn hard to master mechanics? Yup.
In Plan of Action you play against the computer each starting with just 5 ships
As quickly as possible you want to build up funds and start building new ships - the ones you are given are not exactly the best ;)

WEBGL NOTE: Scrolling is really wonky on WEBGL - I'm working on it!

One short notice:

At the start of the game there is a 'tutorial' which amounts to a crappy wall of text and later on some icons informing you of basic controls. These were added post jam if you think that a tutorial affects gameplay so much that including it after the fact is a breach of good faith, X out of the textbox immediately and complain in the comments ;)
(No, I am not being sarcastic! I really do value people's opinions on what is and isn't important to be done during/after a jam)

A quick note on theme

While I had a (decent) idea for how to integrate the theme it was always an 'extra' feature, as time ran low I focused on core gameplay and knew I would add the theme on if I had time. Long story short while I had some time I wanted to spend it on much needed polish and felt any attempts to add in the Unstable mechanic would feel tacked on because of the amount of time allotted.

Regardless I join LD to improve my skills! While I know this isn't the jam winning idea, and may even be a stain on my record because of the difficulty in correctly executing a strategy game that can't be achieved in a weekend. Regardless I really challenged myself in making such a complex game so quickly and go to learn/use some brand new (to me) design patterns. Success in my terms!

What does that even mean?

I don't expect to be scored well on theme, if I could go back I would opt out of it but it seems that feature to opt out of categories after the fact is gone? Either way, please don't allow your view of my connection to the theme cause you to rate the rest of the game/gameplay worst, unless you believe theme is integral to every LD game of course, I won't judge.

TL;DR Wish I could opt out of theme, please don't let it affect your scoring of my game on other categories. Thanks!

Gameplay

Ahh so much text! If you hate this sort of thing keep going but if you need help refer to this.

Game loop

To advance you need to harvest asteroids, capture and hold drydocks and build newer, better ships. I'll go over each step in detail now.

Harvest Asteroids

First, there are two types of asteroids, normal and rich. Rich asteroids are worth much more than normal ones but have take significantly longer to harvest meaning they are a bad option early game. To harvest an asteroid simply order a ship to move nearby it and it will automatically engage when in range.

Capture and hold drydocks

Hopefully the first time you zoomed out on the map you noticed the giant "thing" to your right, clicked on it and saw it was a drydock. Similarly to asteroids simply send your ships to the vicinity of it and they will engage. Once it get's to 0 health it will become yours and new UI options will become available for building ships. Drydocks start out at 10k health but once they are captured get up to 50k health to aid you in holding on to them.

Build newer better ships

Select a drydock you own and you'll see 3 buttons, click one and wait up to 25 seconds for the ship to be built. Defend your drydock in this time! Once it's done building it will simply pop out and you can use it as normal. Now go capture other drydocks and destroy enemy ships.

Controls

Camera

Pan

To pan the camera use either left control or right control and left mouse button drag, middle mouse button drag, right mouse button drag.

Zoom

To zoom the camera use the scroll wheel. Scrolling with your mouse on the top half of the screen will scroll towards or away from it depending on whether you are zooming in or out?

Unit control

Select one

Simply left click!

Select multiple

Two options: shift + left click to add, shift + left click on already selected units to deselect them while maintaining the previous selection, or left mouse button drag to select several.

Move orders

With units selected, simply left click on empty space or an enemy unit to have them move there

Attack orders

With units selected simply left click nearby or on an enemy unit and your ships will attack while in range.

How to Win/Lose ;)

You win or lose when you destroy every enemy ship and they either have no drydocks left to rebuild or do but don't have sufficient funds.

A quick note on difficulty:

Default difficulty is '2' this is how many seconds between each of the AI's decisions. Turn this up to make things easier and down to make things harder. If you have previously changed difficulty and you simply go with the default it's uh, not gonna change it. Click in and put a random number then put it back to 2. Sorry!

## Another tiny note here: While I don't believe in the sort of "follow for follow" type things I always try to pay back everyone who leaves feedback on my game by doing the same for them - it's the least I could do. If I forget for someone let me know ;)

Media

Screenshot 2021-10-05 204808.png Screenshot 2021-10-05 204735.png

LD RATINGS: USE THE 'PRODUCTION' OPTION ON WEBGL VERSION

Ratings

Overall 893th 3.417⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Fun 851th 3.333⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 1292th 2.729⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Theme 1495th 2.227⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Graphics 1165th 3.042⭐ 26🧑‍⚖️
Audio 984th 1.974⭐ 21🧑‍⚖️
Humor 1176th 2.075⭐ 22🧑‍⚖️
Mood 1280th 2.795⭐ 24🧑‍⚖️
Given 13🗳️ 23🗨️

Feedback

Stroe Andrew
06. Oct 2021 · 13:31 UTC
Mmmm.. would be great to have an execute file :\
🎤 Sharks
06. Oct 2021 · 20:11 UTC
Yeah @stroe-andrew haha I feel right asleep after submission hour :p
Just uploaded a web build now. Thanks for playing anyway, I really didn't expect anyone to play and explicitly tried not to rate other games yet so that I could buy time to make my webgl build. Thanks for going out of your way! I'm going to make some cover art and actually build out the game page in a little bit as well!
Copito
07. Oct 2021 · 16:23 UTC
this game is super cool but let down a bit by rough UX the AI works well and the range of tactical options available building different ships is really impressive, but I hit quite a few problems such as:
* only seemingly being able to drag down and right to select ships
* zooming out and dragging throwing my camera way out of the map
* ships being deselected whenever I clicked to give orders to them
while these weren't entirely game breaking because the game itself has such a large scope and complexity for the player to manage I felt they impacted things more than they might in a simpler game

I still really enjoyed it though and it's an impressively complete RTS.
🎤 Sharks
07. Oct 2021 · 18:37 UTC
@copito Thank you for playing!
Right-down only selection was a tech issue. I spent an entire day on just selection which was fine but I really needed to move on and didn't think the extra few hours were worth it. Definitely something I want to add though!

Hmn must be a bug!

That was a purposeful decision to deselect units after you issued a move order. Evidently it wasn't a good one!
Braian996
08. Oct 2021 · 00:10 UTC
Amazing game! I had fun playing it. The idea of being the conqueror of the universe is great. Now with the feedback:
- It would be great if the units you move had a circular UI so you know who you are controlling, like warcraft or AOE style.
- Add different colors to the enemies to better recognize them.
- Add a particle or sprite effect when a unit or asteroid is destroy
- Add environment music to the level and SFX for projectiles and explosions
- Add some kind of feedback when one of the units it's under attack (The level is big and have many drydocks around the map is make it complicated to know who is under attack)
- Add game over screen with a button to replay the game
Bugs:
- The colliders of the units get stuck when they try to surround other ships
- The units don't see in the direction they are moving
- Sometimes the units don't shot an enemy is in range
Max Makes Things
08. Oct 2021 · 01:44 UTC
Wow this is a great idea, incredibly ambitious and mostly well-executed. I agree that it isn't a great match with the theme, but the overall experience is still really cool!
Andy123454321
08. Oct 2021 · 01:58 UTC
Sharks Interactive is the next up-incoming gaming company. Expect a large shift in the industry towards their games in 2030
Sceef
11. Oct 2021 · 04:18 UTC
like the concept
Webox
11. Oct 2021 · 22:17 UTC
Cool idea!! I really liked it. Traversing the map was a bit challenging, it would've been really cool to be able to click the minimap or use WASD to move around. I think this Idea can be polished into a fully fledged game with a some adds and polishing. Nicely done!!
🎤 Sharks
11. Oct 2021 · 23:33 UTC
@webox Thank you for playing and leaving feedback, for sure WASD for movement is a great idea and is already something that is live on the 'staging' or post jam version! I agree with clicking on the minimap too, if only there was more time!

@sceef I'm glad you like it, even if it wasn't the most innovative thing I've ever come up with :joy:

@andy123454321 ;)

@max-makes-things That means a lot to me to hear 'well-executed' a few years back I never would have ever in my wildest dreams imagined I'd be able to pull something of this scope off, it really feels good to be able to look back and see how far I've come. So thank you for your comment, confirming to me that I did manage to (mostly) pull this off!

@braian996 Oh wow thank you for playing and leaving such great feedback. I'll be around to play your (and everyone else who commented) game at some point this week, now if you care onto some of my thoughts and/or reasoning behind some things you mentioned!
- Was the green health bar circle and the blue highlight not enough? Or do you mean like it drawing a line showing you where the unit is headed?
- I like this idea, already integrated it in the post jam version
- Explosion effects are definitely up there, unfortunately that type of polish I just didn't have time for in the jam, but for sure something I would have loved to see!
- Yup, I always think to myself "What do they mean they didn't have time for audio, they're just being lazy, cheap 8 bit sounds can be done super quick!" but of course I ran out of time. Karma!
- I really like this idea! Something like the "Unit taking effective fire" of Homeworld: DoK
- Replay button, that I didn't think about in my hectic scramble.
- Yeah, The fighters don't shrink their colliders unfortunately.
- In an effort to make 1 on 1's more interesting when the units get within a certain range of their targets they turn to broadside them, and when moving face the direction they are moving. Does this not work well in practice?
- Is it possible you are getting the 'units only shoot the first enemy they see' mechanic confused?
seurimas
12. Oct 2021 · 01:03 UTC
Can't really knock the core loop, which is simple build and bully, but the controls could have used a little more love for the WebGL version. Key controls and an interactive mini-map would have been a great start, but you could have also added selection hotkeys (Shift-One to save a selection, One to reselect that selection). Regardless, good work!
🎤 Sharks
15. Oct 2021 · 00:43 UTC
@seurimas Thanks for playing!
Key-controls have already been added in the post-jam version as that was a definite need. Selection hotkeys and an interactive mini-map are super requested features, definitely something I want to add!
arron-fowler
17. Oct 2021 · 18:57 UTC
I will start my stream about 9pm Uk time. Hope to see you there. https://www.twitch.tv/thesoulselector
arron-fowler
17. Oct 2021 · 21:21 UTC
I played this on stream tonight. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1179627561
Togis
18. Oct 2021 · 04:52 UTC
Hey there! This game was cool to play! I really enjoy a RTS game during a game jam, it's always a challenge but you take it and won. Thanks for joining us live!

I finally had the time to come back and rate everything I played so far!

Here is a link to the vod of the review if you wish to see it again: https://www.youtube.be/watch?v=AiVWayIqffU&t=23345s
🎤 Sharks
18. Oct 2021 · 23:52 UTC
@arron-fowler Wow, thank you so much for playing my game on stream :heart: I'm so disappointed I missed it - I've just gotten a nasty cold (No it's not covid :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

@togis Yes it was a blast to hang out with you during the jam, truly made my weekend! My only hope is that I'll be able to get around to playing your entry. If not by the end of rating period for sure at some point!
Rengo
21. Oct 2021 · 17:20 UTC
im sure this game is great but bro i have adhd i cant read that much