Captains, Bandits, and Zombies oh My! (The Classes in SPAZ 2)

Hi Everyone,



Well, I have been working on the metagame pretty much solidly for the last month and now it is finally time to come up for air and talk a bit. I had been meaning to do this for a while but I was stuck in a mode thrashing between excitement and horror as the metagame AI slowly formed. Now they are all (mostly) happily working away so the needle is firmly pointing at excited and I will talk again :)



At a high level: SPAZ 2 is like a zombie movie. We have both been watching as much as we can of them (Thanks Netflix) and here's the idea. Zombie movies are about the people and how they face the apocalypse, not so much the zombies themselves. The zombies are really an environmental hazard that brings people into conflict. So for SPAZ 2 the real major interaction is Captain to Captain. That is why there are 200 of them and they each have a unique personality and face and can do everything you can do. There are rarely heroes in a zombie movie, just bands of survivors, who usually end up having to turn on each other. You are meant to get to know at least some of them, love them, hate them and feel bad or good when you see them as a zombie. So Captains are the Characters we get to know.



Next there are the Bandits. There are always faceless bandits it seems. The lawless groups who never really form a faction, make a lot of noise and generally are horrible people. Now don't get me wrong, some of the Captains are equally horrible, about 33% of them right now, but those guys have a plan at least. Bandits just take and take and really end up making it easier for the zombies in the long run. The Bandits of course end up becoming fodder first and swell the zombie ranks.



Then there are the zombies. Zombies really aren't that bad. They are instinctual and can even be used if you understand their behavior. We see the zombies in SPAZ 2 as part of the eco system. Not a part we really are happy is there, but it is the reality so how do we form an equilibrium with them or at least stay healthy and out of their way.



So now we have a total eco system on the Starmap with 3 classes. Captains, Bandits and Zombies.



I will write a post about each of these so this overview doesn't get too long as well.



