What is Throughput?
Throughput is a factory game that I set out to specifically be different from others. It's an age-based RTS as well.
What do you mean?
To describe what I'm going for in terms of other games, imagine if Spore was combined with Boom Beach and also Factorio.
I love the unique age-based progression of Spore, and I think it can be expanded upon.
Boom Beach is something of a copy/paste mobile game but it has a good aesthetic and... Well it's not actually an RTS in the traditional sense. So let's use Lego Mars Mission Crystal Alien Conflict as a better example (the true best RTS look it up).
Yes, Factorio, Spore, and LMMCAC
Factorio is just the only 2.5D factory game I've played so that's my only option, but Throughput will definitely be a factory game!
One thing that's driving me to do this is a single scene in my mind of automated giant artillery shells being distrubuted between an array of batteries providing a shower of flame and vengence upon my enemies from afar.
What is the Progression System?
Not research research is a bad dumb game mechanic made to stretch gameplay longer than the amount of contentcan really support and I hate it
The progression system for throughput will be through combat.
There are AI settlements spread throughout the world whose difficulty scales with their technology.
Once the player defeats a settlement, they obtain their tech and resources. While the resources simply act as a small bonus, the real reward is technology.
One common item in factory games is the Conveyor. Truly a fundamental component of logistics. At the start of the game, the player will not have access to it. But the settlement beside them does >->
Yeah, yoink, mine now. That's the tutorial basically.
This allows for a few things! Mainly, skill factors into it, as someone with epic combat skills would be able to spend less on raiding and progress significantly faster than intended. (meaning Throughput will be speedrunnable if anyone wants to do that ig)
Some technologies would include furnaces, sawmills, splitters, fusion reactors, and the humble 800mm Beta Cannon
World
It's pre-made so it looks pretty. None of that world gen bs.
I'm definitely willing to sacrifice variety for quality, and anyway I vastly prefer drawing to coding world gen with masking and perlin noise. Ew.
Eventually I'll have multiple worlds with different aspects, but in the mean time you should lower your expectations, Jeez.
The world itself is largely biome-based and caters to a storyline. I won't tell you anything about the storyline but I promise it's interesting.
Combat
While I do want raids to be fast-paced and engaging, there are a few caveats. First thing is that I don't want there to be an option where if you lose, you lose all your progress. However without some significant loss there will be no punishment for being reckless.
Another thing is... this is a factory game. How does combat really factor into it? There is something of an easy transition from building barracks and constructing pylons to having these fed from logistical infrastructure and supplying a large military with mass-produced equipment of your choosing.
However, once in combat the factory element somewhat breaks down. How do I use it dynamically? Do I really have to build an extend-o conveyor over to my units to supply them with bullets?
No that's dumb. I was watching a war movie and wondered about trench warfare. Maybe not, but there are alternatives that call for permanent artillery installments, and by extension a permanent need to produce shells and whatnot.
I have yet to mention outposts, but they will be permanent remote segments of your factory meant to act as supply stations, process volatile materials, or simply as a means to harvest distant ore deposits.
This will factor into warfare, as you're not the only one with outposts. Knock knock, who's there? Oh, it's a war of attrition!
In the end, more advanced settlements won't go down without a fight, and so you can avoid a lot of the fight by destroying a key supply line of theirs and bulldoze them when they can't make bullets any more. They're gonna try and take it back, though so you better defend their own outpost from em!
Outposts
Look at that it's my original idea.
Outposts prevent the player from planting turrets like trees around the map and just watching enemy troops flail and collapse as they're gunned down by 137 .50 cal miniguns on sticks.
How they do this is with one of the only hard restrictions I have to progression: build distance.
The player headquarters allows building in a certain radius, and it requires materials to directly upgrade the HQ to allow for an increased build distance. Distance is an isometric square so technically you have more space in the diagonals, but the radius will increase linearly for each HQ upgrade. Because it's a square, the increase in area will increase twice as fast as the HQ level due to math. This means upon unlocking new technologies, you have the option to go back and optimize previously optimized factory layouts using new, more compact components, allowing for more processing.
HQ upgrades themselves are fairly straightforward, as they do not require vastly more resources each time, but rather more refined resources and sometimes exotic materials. For example, the difference between the final upgrade and the first upgrade's wood requirement may only differ by a factor of 10, but level 1 requires logs while level 25 requires a set amount of different cuts of wood. If that's too annoying, there's always balance changes. The raw material cost is just enough to merit a change in harvesting infrastructure, but the real reason to expand is the need to produce a larger variety of items with limited resources.
As a result of this system, combat can result in better tech early and accelerate HQ upgrades and create a loop of accelerating progression. This is intended and something I want to preserve.
TL;DR
Throughput is the opposite of a mobile game. No timers, few restrictions, and a combat-centered gameplay loop designed to have a different take on factory sims.
