I'm looking for some feedback on a idea I'm developing for a Tug of War space battle I'm very very loosely basing on the Forever War book by Joe Haldeman where Humans are fighting an alien race called the Taurens and the effects of relativistic travel have on the solders fighting the war.
Idea
The idea is to have 3 or 4 players (or maybe 3 or 4 teams, 2 to a team) each with a home planet on the edge of the map. Every tick your fleet takes off to attack the enemy. The fleet starts composed of just a transport ship carrying marines. As the game progresses you gain escorts, battleships and can upgrade the transport to carry larger armies. Currently I am just planning a Terran race but once the game is working I'll add in the Protoss and Zerg. The game will focus more on technology than building large armies with all units being heavily upgradeable and customisable, and forward planning with regards to fleet orders that are unchangeable once they leave base.
Out in space there will be planets to conquer, wormholes to fortify (wormholes will be orbited by a small planet) and eventually the enemy home worlds to destroy. The map will be split into several areas linked by wormholes. Planets will be off the "lane" between wormholes so to capture them you effectively miss a turn with your fleets from attacking the enemy. So far my idea for planets are for them to be mining posts, sending a container ship of resources back to your homeworld. This means if a player captures the wormhole linking the planets region to your homeworld, this planet will become cut off and your container ships will probably get shot down, so you need to balance capturing planets with defending wormholes and attacking the enemy.
When arriving at a planet or wormhole your transport droops the ground troops. Ship to planet combat will be limited or non existent. On capturing a planet you will be able to loosely fortify it. Reinforcing a planet captured would involve spending resources to send a "Fortification ship" to a specific planet. This ship would contain updated tech for the planets defences which may be a stronger bunker, extra men etc. The risk is the planet could be captured en route wasting the fortification ship.
The main idea behind the fleets is to keep the army size small and focus on making it more important to upgrade. I'm thinking a maximum fleet size of 1 Battleship, 2 escorts and 1 transport with the largest transport with a cargo size of 14-16ish. All units will be upgradeable, weapons, armour, shields, sensors etc. However I intend for upgrades to only effect newly created units and not units already in the field. So as your army progresses further and further towards the enemy, their fleets will get stronger and stronger compared to yours. This also means if you capture a planet early in the game and don't reinforce it, the planets defences will be very weak compared to the hi-tech units coming to attack you.
Basically I'm not looking for massive battles, I'm going for smaller more tactical skirmishes were you have to risk strategic locations to progress. There is no faster than light travel or communication so once a fleet leaves your homeworld, the fleet is on its own with its increasingly outdated tech and old orders. Planets should feel isolated, if they come under attack there's no hope for quick reinforcements.
Anyway if your still reading I'd be really greatful for some feedback on any of the above and more specifically the points below where I'm stuck trying to balance gameplay with my ideas:
Navigation
Originally I was aiming for a large map full of planets in different areas linked by wormholes. When you arrive at a new area you could send probes through to scout around but you could only attack planets you had discovered. This would also mean rushing to discover the enemy homeworld. However I feel this doesnt fit into the tug of war style that well where units follow a set path. I am also worried that having to select where you want your fleet to attack would result in a messy interface or end up being too complicated. My idea for a solution to this is to the player will have the option to change the orders of the next fleet to leave the homeworld. The options would be attack the enemy or capture planets.
Attacking the enemy will order the fleet to attack directly from wormhole to wormhole until it reaches the enemy homeworld much like the standard tug of war following lanes.
Capture planets orders the fleet to attack a planet not currently owned by the player starting with planets closest to your homeworld.
Units
Basically I'm trying to choose between the army is fixed with units being unlocked through tech until you have them all, and the primary variation between armies is through your upgrade choices, or allowing you to pick the composition of your army.
I would prefer to allow the player to pick their army but this is not going to be about spamming buildings that auto spawn units. If the player can pick units they need to be able to change the build up quickly and easily in an obvious manner and I'm looking for ways to do this. There would be separate supply for ships and ground troops. Otherwise I intend to go down the fixed army approach.
So this turned out to be a lot longer and more rambling than I intended. I would be really interested to know what people think and any ideas on the concept etc.
I'm looking for some feedback on a idea I'm developing for a Tug of War space battle I'm very very loosely basing on the Forever War book by Joe Haldeman where Humans are fighting an alien race called the Taurens and the effects of relativistic travel have on the solders fighting the war.
Idea
The idea is to have 3 or 4 players (or maybe 3 or 4 teams, 2 to a team) each with a home planet on the edge of the map. Every tick your fleet takes off to attack the enemy. The fleet starts composed of just a transport ship carrying marines. As the game progresses you gain escorts, battleships and can upgrade the transport to carry larger armies. Currently I am just planning a Terran race but once the game is working I'll add in the Protoss and Zerg. The game will focus more on technology than building large armies with all units being heavily upgradeable and customisable, and forward planning with regards to fleet orders that are unchangeable once they leave base.
Out in space there will be planets to conquer, wormholes to fortify (wormholes will be orbited by a small planet) and eventually the enemy home worlds to destroy. The map will be split into several areas linked by wormholes. Planets will be off the "lane" between wormholes so to capture them you effectively miss a turn with your fleets from attacking the enemy. So far my idea for planets are for them to be mining posts, sending a container ship of resources back to your homeworld. This means if a player captures the wormhole linking the planets region to your homeworld, this planet will become cut off and your container ships will probably get shot down, so you need to balance capturing planets with defending wormholes and attacking the enemy. When arriving at a planet or wormhole your transport droops the ground troops. Ship to planet combat will be limited or non existent. On capturing a planet you will be able to loosely fortify it. Reinforcing a planet captured would involve spending resources to send a "Fortification ship" to a specific planet. This ship would contain updated tech for the planets defences which may be a stronger bunker, extra men etc. The risk is the planet could be captured en route wasting the fortification ship.
The main idea behind the fleets is to keep the army size small and focus on making it more important to upgrade. I'm thinking a maximum fleet size of 1 Battleship, 2 escorts and 1 transport with the largest transport with a cargo size of 14-16ish. All units will be upgradeable, weapons, armour, shields, sensors etc. However I intend for upgrades to only effect newly created units and not units already in the field. So as your army progresses further and further towards the enemy, their fleets will get stronger and stronger compared to yours. This also means if you capture a planet early in the game and don't reinforce it, the planets defences will be very weak compared to the hi-tech units coming to attack you.
Basically I'm not looking for massive battles, I'm going for smaller more tactical skirmishes were you have to risk strategic locations to progress. There is no faster than light travel or communication so once a fleet leaves your homeworld, the fleet is on its own with its increasingly outdated tech and old orders. Planets should feel isolated, if they come under attack there's no hope for quick reinforcements.
Anyway if your still reading I'd be really greatful for some feedback on any of the above and more specifically the points below where I'm stuck trying to balance gameplay with my ideas:
Navigation
Originally I was aiming for a large map full of planets in different areas linked by wormholes. When you arrive at a new area you could send probes through to scout around but you could only attack planets you had discovered. This would also mean rushing to discover the enemy homeworld. However I feel this doesnt fit into the tug of war style that well where units follow a set path. I am also worried that having to select where you want your fleet to attack would result in a messy interface or end up being too complicated. My idea for a solution to this is to the player will have the option to change the orders of the next fleet to leave the homeworld. The options would be attack the enemy or capture planets.
Units
Basically I'm trying to choose between the army is fixed with units being unlocked through tech until you have them all, and the primary variation between armies is through your upgrade choices, or allowing you to pick the composition of your army.
I would prefer to allow the player to pick their army but this is not going to be about spamming buildings that auto spawn units. If the player can pick units they need to be able to change the build up quickly and easily in an obvious manner and I'm looking for ways to do this. There would be separate supply for ships and ground troops. Otherwise I intend to go down the fixed army approach.
So this turned out to be a lot longer and more rambling than I intended. I would be really interested to know what people think and any ideas on the concept etc.