"Really? We reached that point again..."
Atlas is in love with city-building RTS games. Especially the survival types where you have to focus on food and clothing to survive the initial stage.
The problem is, however, that after you pass the initial stage, gameplay usually becomes stale. Most become a case of min-maxing or increasing the tech of the buildings, but to what purpose?
His citizens aren't going to die and he's just spamming amenity buildings or churches if they want entertainment or religion.
Oh disasters? It's late game! Spam the 'rebuild' button!
Some started to include enemies but even those are just a nuisance. It never feels like a real threat. That or it doesn't have a purpose beyond how many you can kill as your city grows.
Grumbling and sighing, Atlas leans back in his gaming chair. 'Most don't even have good AI either. I want one where you can control army units rather than individual soldiers.'
Click-click-click
Browsing through the featured games section, he's trying to find another city-building RTS game but it's all pretty disappointing. Different art styles, but the mechanics are the same.
How hard is it to mix it up? Just a little? What about a city-building game for an airship civilization?
What about underground city-builders with trolls and spiders to fight off and ancient demons that rise from the depths when you delve too deep? It's underground too, so you could have multiple levels in your city!
Atlas thought about playing the bad guy too. Where are the city builders where he can play as some evil overlord pillaging and looting the 'good' people? All of this while building this badass evil and customizable fortress?
No, instead it's just more of the same.
Click-click-click
"World Weaver," Atlas muttered, sipping on some vodka and cranberry juice. It sparked some hope in him, it looked unique.
"Build a world inside your very own universe! Infinite possibilities and unlimited scaling! Defeat other gods and conquer their planets. Take over realms and expand your influence!"
Atlas eyed the description with skepticism.
'This game is either a complete fraud or bland. I've never heard of this developer before.' Atlas thought, eyeing up the developer's name. 'But it looks so unique... I just have to give it a look.'
His interest was stirred. It looked different, unique. Something to freshen up his experience in this genre.
It is not early access as well? Is this a one-hit wonder or a disaster?"
"Heck, why not give it a try? Worst case scenario, I'll refund it if it's a scam."
-------------------------------------
Welcome to World Weavers!
-------------------------------------
A bright blue orb, similar to a blueprint, appeared in the center of the screen with tons of greyed out icons floating on the top and bottom of the screen.
"Ah, I'm liking this already!" His eyes glossed over the icons, sitting up in his seat.
At the center of this blueprint orb was the magma core. It looked pretty cool, even without anything built yet.
The top right of his screen had normal resource indicators, but he didn't recognize their symbols or value yet.
He rotated the camera. The sun was blue with stars and swirling clusters of purple and blue light in the background.
'Pretty cool, I like the vibe it's giving right now.' Atlas thought, resting his hand on his chin before his mouse hovered over the only icon that wasn't grayed out in the bottom left.
World Creation
-Click-
A large interface popped up on his screen with four sliders. In the background, the light-blue blueprint shimmered and seemed to change size.
-----------------------
Essence: 03.00
Planet Size: 5
Land <-------------|-------------> (0)
Water <-------------|-------------> (0)
Resources <-------------|-------------> (0)
Magic <-------------|-------------> (0)
-----------------------
'A character slider but for planetary features, huh?'
He experimented with the land and water first. When he moved the sliders left, the planet shrunk by 0.5 and gave 0.5 essence.
Moving resources or magic left and right cost or gave a full point of essence too.
'I'm assuming resources are just everything from fertile soil to minerals in the ground?' Atlas frowned. He looked around the screen for any hints but there weren't any.
'Alright, well it's still pretty simple. Let's fiddle with it.'
One thing Atlas hated in city-building games was when the map was too small. When it was small, he felt constrained- even if the city was well designed and was actually massive.
He liked the feeling of openness. Same with where he lived, he didn't like the feeling of living in a box. So why would he bring that into his gameplay unless it was required?
This was frustrating though. There was no guide or hint as to what style of gameplay this was. Was it survival? Did resources matter more than magic in late game? Were they renewable? Could he expand it?
Tapping his mouse in frustration, he sighed before finalizing his choices.
-----------------------
Essence: 00.00
Planet Size: 5
Land <-------------|-------------> (0)
Water <-------------|-------------> (0)
Resources <--------------|------------> (1)
Magic <---------------|-----------> (2)
-----------------------
Perhaps this was one of those games where after the first playthrough, he would be given more Essence for the next planet. Why else would they make the sliders this big?
He put most of the essence into magic because why not? Atlas was good at survival city-building games, so let's have something new.
-Confirm-
The screen flashed white. It really could've used an epilepsy warning.
When the light faded, the icons on the screen disappeared. Asteroids of different colors flew toward the magma core, turning bright red before exploding. Debris flew out everywhere before swirling around in a wild display of brilliant colors as it condensed inward.
A large, red hot orb of molten rock.
The game sped up, the landmass cooling and a shimmering before what he could only guess was the atmosphere, started to form around it.
Small masses of water grew, clouds started forming. Within a few minutes of watching and waiting, the cinematic slowed and he could start to make out its features.
Two large continents with three smaller landmasses between them. He could see rivers flowing through the landmasses, and green starting to sprout from the otherwise barren world.
'Shame...I don't get to customize it?' Zander sulked, spinning the world around on his screen. 'Was it randomly generated or is this a prebuilt template?'
As if to answer his complaint, a pop-up appeared.
"Congratulations on creating your first world! World Editing has been temporarily disabled until the player surpasses certain milestones. This world has been generated randomly based off of the player's previous choices."
Sighing, he nodded. 'Alright, so it's one of those games.'
He wasn't too upset with its appearance after clicking away.
The three smaller landmasses dividing the two larger continents were mountainous with plenty of rivers.
The northern had one large, towering mountain in the center with tons of rivers and small streams branching out from it. The southern landmass, the smallest, had a mountain range that created a crescent moon.
The middle landmass, the largest, created a basin with its mountain range and the largest mountain directly in the center. It had two gaps on the east and west which had rivers flowing out. He could spot some smaller streams and features at a quick glance, but those were it's major features.
The continents were more complex. Pressing the 'map view' of the world, a flat map of the world appeared on screen.
The western continent was the largest. It's eastern coast had a large mountain range, with two small clusters of mountains on the western side.
Mountains dotted here and there, but outside of that and some lakes, a major feature was the large body of water in the center with rivers branching out in every direction.
The eastern continent was more like a desert in comparison, and about two-thirds the size of its western brother.
The entire coastline circling the continent had a mountain range. The center of the continent had almost no water, just flat plains. Yeah, there were some lakes here and there, but it seemed very dry and arid.
Ping!
Another icon lit up. Atlas's eyes drifted away from the landmasses to it. It had the outlines of plants and creatures.
-Click-
'Ah, this is much more complicated. Huh.'
Atlas's eyes widened as his screen was dominated by words and lines of text. Most rectangular grids were empty, but it still gave him that sudden feeling of being overwhelmed.
-------------
"This screen allows you to shape your world's primary races and species. As time progresses, variants- weaker and stronger- will naturally evolve. Please be careful."
-------------------------------
:::Left Interface:::
Organic Material: 5000
Magic: 2500
Gene Points: 10
Primordial Points: 1
Forge Points: 0
Religious Points: 0
Eldritch Points: 0
Chaos Points: 0
-------------------------------
:::Center Interface:::
-- Create New Race --
-- Random Generation --
-- Pre-built Races --
-------------------------------
:::Right Interface:::
------
::Currently Owned Races:
-Blank-
------
::Race Information::
-Blank-
-------------------------------
'This is starting to come together. It was just the initial shock that got me.' Atlas exhaled softly, taking in the information section by section.
'Top three appear to be my basic resources, the others are specials.'
His eyes lingered on Primordial and Eldritch points. Atlas was a little excited to see what kind of creatures he could make and how they would interact in this world.
Checking the time, he only had a few hours left until work started in the morning. Atlas groaned in protest, reluctantly saving and closing out of the game before going to lay down in bed.
It was an interesting game, but outside of the initial customization, how much fun was it actually going to be?