Playing with Atoms

The Atoms of Total War : Rome II

In this game there a 6 core game atoms that when blended together provide a fluid experience that is both fun to play in the short term and provides a long lasting experience over the course of an entire game.

Empire Management:

Empire management is broken up into protons which are:

1. Empire management requires preparation in the form of planning your actions. 
2. The solid core mechanic is to manage your empire successfully.
3. There is a a range of challenges that you must complete on the empire level, including food management.
4. These challenges require various skill sets.
5. There is a feedback system provided through a empire score ranking.
6. Failure to properly manage your empire will result in disaster.

Province Management: 

Province management is broken up into protons which are:

1. province management requires preparation in order to decide what buildings to construct and what troops to raise in any one province, with the former effecting the latter.
2. The solid core mechanic is to create a province that can run by itself without too much micromanagement.
3. There are a range of challenges presented to the player including dealing with unhappy provinces which can lead to a rebellion, and provincial tax rate management.
4. These challenges require a good deal of though process and can often rely on your empire management as input factors.
5. The feedback system is provided through your province happiness and income.
6. Failure here would be denoted by losing your province to a rebellion or even a province that does not generate enough income caused by building to many buildings that effect on of the feedback values.

Economy: 

Economy management is broken up into protons which are:

1. Preparation is required in the form of thought on what type of economy you want to have.
2. The solid core mechanic is money because everything revolves around money. Well and food.
3. There a range of challenges thrown at the player from food shortages to insufficient tax revenue.
4. A player has different ways to deal with these challenges.
5. The way in which a player handles the challenges can effect the overall game.
6. There is a feedback system in place by listing your budget and food stocks.
7. The mastery problem is dealt with because there are effective and less effective techniques each harder to learn, but once a player masters them going back would be bad for the game.
8. Failure can result in food shortages which make regions unhappy, weaken armies and bankruptcy. \

Diplomacy:

Diplomacy management is broken up into protons which are:

1. Diplomacy management requires preparation because the player needs to carefully consider who he wants as allies, enemies or neutral relations with it.
2. The solid core mechanic is to manage your diplomatic relations in such a way that you can successfully defend your empire.
3. The AI will be provide a range of diplomatic challenges.
4. A range of diplomatic options are open to the player to deal with these options.
5. Unfortunately there is not much skill in using the abilities.
6. A feedback system is in place in the form of AI relations to you.
7. The mastery problem is not dealt with because there are a limited number of options and the AI responds to them the same.
8. Failure to have effective diplomacy would result wars that can cost you troops and regions.

Military Strategy: 

Military Strategy is broken up into protons which are:

1. Preparation is required to raise armies and decide on what campaigns you will undertake and how many at a time.
2. The routes you choose to move your troops and the locations you decide to attack will effect the battles so locations will be important.
3. The core mechanic is moving your troops around and placing them in strategic positions to benefit your cause the best.
4. There are a wide range of challenges associated with military strategy around placement and movement of your armies, as well as knowledge collection on your enemies and allies.
5. The player is given different tools to solve the various situations he will in. 
6. The better able the player is able to use the tools he has at his disposal the better his empire will preform
7. The mastery problem is dealt with because if a player uses poor strategies that are easy to learn they will not be as effective as harder to master by more effect strategies.
8. Failure can result in the loss of a region or armies which can set a player back greatly.

Military Tactics: 

Military Tactics is broken up into protons which are:

1. Preparation is required on the battle field so you can inflict many enemy causalities while minimizing your own. A player needs to deploy his troops intelligently.
2. The physical locations on the map will effect the battle outcome.
3. The solid core mechanic is the battle itself, everything revolves around it.
4. There are a range of challenges that the player will face that vary based on terrain, weather, buildings and the nation you are fighting.
5. A range of different abilities is required to solve the different challenges put forth.
6. Depending on the skill of the player he will be able to perform the abilities better.
7. The feedback system is in place in the form of a battle results screen.
8. The mastery problem is dealt with because if a player uses poor strategies that are easy to learn they will not be as effective as harder to master by more effect strategies.
9. Failure can result in the loss of a battle and many casualties which can also result in the loss of a city.

Grind Quest: Objectives

A list of my favorite games in no particular order:

Total War Series: The objective of this game is become the most power nation in the game, you achieve this through military, financial or shrew diplomatic means.

Diablo II: The objective of this game is to defeat the forces and hell and save the world from destruction.

Settlers of Catan: The objective of this game is to acquire 10 victory points before any other player. You achieve this by building villages & cities, gathering resources, building roads and raising armies.

Survive: The objective is to get the highest point value people to safety before the island is destroyed.

Empire Earth: The objective of this game at its most basic level is to defeat your opponent(s) on the field of battle.

Dungeon Siege: The objective of this game is to prevent the destruction of the world by the forces of evil.

Zombie Flux: The objective of this game is to be the player to who completes the current goal that changes and the game progressed.

Small World: The objective of this game is to collect money from provinces over the course of the game, at the end the richest person wins.

Minecraft:  There is no single objective to this game, you basically set your own objective based on what you want to achieve. For mean I like making complicated machine with redstone in Vanilla minecraft.

Pandemic: The objective of this game is to purge the world of various diseases and viruses.

Starcraft: The objective of this game at its most basic level is to defeat your opponent(s) on the field of battle.

Ticket to ride: The objective of this game is to collect the most victory points by building long railroads.

Civilization Series: The objective of this game is to rule the world through various means, whether by conquest, cultural or space race means.

So the first thing you will notice is I picked 13 games, in order for you to get a better picture of the type of games that I enjoy.

So what games do I enjoy, aside from breaking them down into real time strategy and role playing games, I tend to enjoy games that have epic goals like civilization and total war where games can take many weeks or months of time to complete. The strategy of these games really appeal to me. Of course I am a huge fan of real time strategy games, and I only listed two above, but really I have never met an real time strategy that I do not like. My favorite part of real time strategy is the story element, although I also enjoy the online competitive play. When it comes to liking role playing games I have more selective tastes, I prefer the more traditional older ones, than the new ones which try and do something new. The best ones are the ones that channel dungeons and dragons. Of course Minecraft gets it's own special category where I can basically do whatever I want, I prefer to play around with redstone and creating adventure maps. Nest we come to board games and card games. I am a huge fan of these types of games, the best times being playing them at my cottage with friends and family while enjoying some beer and the like. There are several categories that I like. There are the games where you have to collect victory points over a set period of time using various means, this appeals to me because I like the strategy and competition involved. There are also games like pandemic where the players are all competing against the system in order to obtained victory, the teamwork really appeals to me in this case. One of my favorite games is zombie flux where you are a human trying to survive the zombie apocalypse. The game is a funny more than a serious game, with lots of jokes hidden throughout the cards. Survive is another good game where you play as a group of survivors trying to escape the the destruction of Atlantis to the surrounding islands, you have to navigate the dangerous seas filled with sea monsters, whales and sharks.

That pretty much wraps up my favorite games and why I like them.