In my base builder you see every disaster coming. The hard part is deciding what burns.

[u/VitaliyIvanovich]

We're a small indie team making Expansion Protocol, a turn-based roguelite base builder on a hex map.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyNcGSjMMuU

Every run gives you a quota and a deadline. Miss it and the run is over. Buildings can be rebuilt. The deadline can't be moved.

Disasters never surprise you. Solar storms, fault lines and asteroid rain are announced turns before they land, and you see exactly where. You can shield buildings and shoot asteroids down. But defense costs the same matter the quota needs, so you can't save everything. Sometimes you even let a building burn on purpose, because it pays out more on the way down.

And when you're behind on the last turns, you can overload your own buildings: double output, then they explode.

When a storm is coming and you can't shield everything, what do you save first: the buildings you love, or the ones the deadline needs?

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5171440/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=page_launch&utm_content=basebuilding

[u/loulo88]

Honestly I'd save whatever the deadline needs almost every time, and I think that's the interesting tension you've built: the buildings I 'love' are usually the ones I invested in early, which makes them sunk cost by the last turns. The overload mechanic is a great pressure valve for that. One thing I'd watch in playtests is whether announced disasters turn into a solved spreadsheet once players learn the patterns; a small amount of uncertainty in damage or spread could keep the 'what burns' choice from becoming obvious. Letting a building burn for a payout is a really nice twist though.