General Direction of Game Development

What's On the Initial Public Release

• Authentication - Registering, Logging in, Logging out.
• Empires (basic functions) - Joining empires, Attacking other empires, Inability to attack own empire.
• Map Loading - Map tiles, Recognizing coordinates, Highlighting coordinates.
• Map - Provinces, Terrain. Basic Map Images.
• Basic Military Units - Infantry and Cavalry
• Army Movement - Basic A* movement. Land units stay on land, Water units stay in water.
• Battles - Armies of different empires attack each other. Formulas specify remaining units. Winning army occupies coordinate of battle.
• Economy - Province-specific economy. Very basic.
• Interface - Hovering over coordinates reveals basic data - Terrain, Coordinates, Ruling Empire, Occupying armies (if any), commands to MOVE TO or ATTACK said coordinate. ATTACK option only available if enemy armies on coordinate.
• Chatting - Chatting amongst players of same empire. And if possible, game-wide chatting channel.

Note: As is obvious, IPR is playable but very limited in planned features. This is merely Alpha-stage development. But the IPR will set the framework for all other features to be implemented, thus, making development after IPR way faster.

What's Not on the Initial Public Release

• Smarter Battles - Morale, Experience, Retreating, etc.
• Advanced Empire Functions - Inter-empire relations: Peace, War, Embargoes, etc. Advanced diplomatic options governed by player voting and support. Conscription.
• Fog of War - A system for effective fog of war.
• Cities - Formulas and system to govern rise and fall of cities.
• Special Resources - Certain provinces possess certain special resources. Possibly revealed at different times in the game too.
• Advanced Army Functions - Special battle tactics (Shock and Awe, Attrition Warfare, etc.), Special non-battle tactics (Scorched Earth, Razing cities, Temporary fortifications). Delayed movement commands.
• Non-military units - Like scouts
• More Military Units - Artillery, Range, Automation, Ships, Transport Ships, SLAVES.
• City-specific Economy - Province economy is affected by state of city, special resources, etc.
• Forum style Intra-Empire Communication - Creating threads, commenting to discuss tactics.
• Population Control - Depending on conscription, city economy.
• Custom Army Movement - Players can choose their own paths for army, probably using checkpoints.
• Technology Advancement - Moving from antiquity to gunpowder stage to automation, etc.
• Finalized Game Graphics - Self-explanatory.
• Performance - Any and all possible optimizations for speed and server resource usage.
• A Name for the bloody game...

All the above features must be added before the game can be pushed from Beta and be recognized as a complete game.

What's not required for full game release - but possible for the future

• Inter-server warfare - Bidirectional portals from one point in a server to another point in another server. This is instantaneous travel. Or, interstellar travel using ships - This takes time, but can be safer.
• Monetizing beyond advertising - Paid servers, with monetary rewards.
• Advanced Coop Function - Army grouping between factions, player grouping within faction.
• Advanced Planning Functions - Collaborative Map Whiteboard.
• Inflation - Money inflation.
• Rebellions - Groups of players could defect some pre-assigned empire.