I've gone through a lot of different iterations trying to find a perfect focus for entertainment. For example:

• Space Roguelike where the player plays a 21st century human revived from cryogenics to a future gone horribly wrong.
• Hacking game where the player plays a hacker who coordinates the corporate exploitation of the universe via remote control robots.
• Space Exploration game where the player plays a space explorer seeking out and exploring new planets.

I've no excuse to not see one or the other through to completion as they each could produce a servicable game. However, I can't help but feel that for the most part they don't offer a significantly new experience.

• I don't think I'll be able to do "revived from cryogenics to a future gone horribly wrong" any better than System Shock already has.
• The hacking/space exploration hybrid ends up playing like the typical 4X game.
• The space exploration genre is too ambiguous, it's not a game I can make in and of itself.

Currently, I'm thinking to myself that a good focus might be Tigel's Mercenaries done right.

Screenshot of Tigels Mercenaries, a real time strategy game that put you in control of a band of space mercenaries.

So, what do I mean by "done right?" I think that Tigel's Mercenaries was a bit of a tease in that they hinted towards a universe being out there but forced the player into close-ended, prefab scenarios. I'm hoping to come up with a game which is completely open-ended, with randomly generated maps and content, where you can explore freely and upgrade your merc company as you see fit, and the universe actually changes based off of what you've done.

Basically, your mercenary band preforms missions for various galactic interests who are engaged in a bit of a 4X game struggle over the universe. You're the commander of a talented mercenary group who has the specialized hardware and knowhow to turn the tides. Because this is an online game, you won't be the only such commander out there. The result should be ripe for potential awesome.

Basically, I'm going for Teardown's Alien Assault, online, real-time, with a 4X game exterior, without the Games Workship influence, and some life simulation aspects. Gee, good thing I'm keeping it simple so it's something a one man band has a good chance of pulling off.

Fortunately, this change of gears won't require I burn down much of Project Shock's code, only that related to controlling the individual player character perspective. That's just about where the least code was anyway, since I was struggling to decide on the kinds of RPG mechanics I wanted to add. I'm keeping the vast majority of the code related to a current working base prototype that uses an energy generation and flow model to drive devices placed on the maps.

I spent about 4-6 hours of coding on Sunday to perform the necessary code adjustment. I've disconnected the player's perspective so they're now free to pretty much wander the entire map so they can give orders to their mercs. I've also got a good start on the interface revamp - though there's a lot of GUI loose ends right now, but given that I've done that sort of thing before, there's no threat that I don't know how to do it again.

Having applied liberal turpentine to remove having painted myself in a corner, the main question now is what to repaint first. I hope to have something playable before Spring Break is out, at least the ground experience without the all-important 4X outer shell, and it seems achievable. Time will tell if I'm able to stick to my guns.