Turn Based FPS Idea

[sinkoman]

Ok, now that i've got your attention (what with the title that screams flame), here's my idea.

I wasn't too sure if this should go in the mod forum, since it's not really a mod, and since i'm not really putting out a full blown game pitch, but here goes...

Ok, so you start out with a server, full of guys. The came starts off with a traditional 1 round FPS battle, using I don't know, let's say the Source engine. The last two people alive in this fight (or if everybody/all but one dies, the top two scorers) will become the "generals".

Now the game switches off to the Civ 4 engine, an overhead, Top down view of a giant world. The formentioned "generals", are the ones playing the game. They are the ones leading the nations. The other people in the server, play as soldiers. Each man can recomend a unit for himself (IE somebody who knows he's good as a medic basically goes "I'm good at this, can I do it?") and is placed in que.

Now, each general takes men from his "que" (where all the soldiers are waiting) and can assign each soldier to a unit. Unit types would be Medic, Soldier, Cavalry, the basics. Each unit can have anywhere from 3 to 6 men in it, depending on the server size.

Now, the two Generals, playing in Civ 4 mode, play well... Civ 4 basically. Of course, the maps would be much more constricted, and would focus moreso on combat than on Nation Building.

Now, here's where things get interesting. Combat.

When a general attacks another generals unit, the game switches from the Civ 4 engine to the Source engine. The soldiers assigned to the attacking unit, get the benefits of whatever terrain type they were last on tacked onto their normal health, armor, and weapon damage values. Each soldier gets a weapon assigned to him based on his unit type and the current age (soldiers in the classical era use swords, while those in the modern era CAR 15's).

Same goes for the defending soldiers, BUT, the defending soldiers also get the benefit of fighting on whatever tile type they were attacked on. Basically, the map the fight takes place in is decided by whatever type of tile the defending unit was on.

When a fight involves unit stacks, all soldiers from any units on the attacking/defending tile are involved. Medics have standard medic equipment, sans defibs (these battles should be short and sweet).

When men die, it takes away from a units Health score (not attack value, as in Civ 4). If a unit is healed, then whoever was killed in the skirmish is revived back with his unit. Those who were injured are healed to max health after every fight.

Fight's over, game switches back to Civ 4 engine, soldiers watch and wait for the next skirmish, generals clash, rinse, repeat.

What do you think?

 

[Edcrab]

That sounds awesome. Reminds me of the system Deadlock used ("realtime" combat when opposing units met).

As you say it's not so much turn based as round-based, really, as the combat would still happen at a normal pace. All you'd need is a timer to stop the commanders spending the whole game on the strategical map and you're onto a winner!

 

[Septih]

I can forsee a lot of the soldiers getting bored whilst they're not in fights, how would you combat that?

 

[Gargantou]

Septih, couldn't one put'em in a state of cryo-sleep!?

 

[Vegeta897]

Nothing new here, besides the battles being in FPS.

Things are a little shaky... I don't like the idea of the general being the guy who won one single match... That is really not a good measure of what a good general would be at all.

It just seems too shaky to work well, the players have nothing to do while waiting for a skirmish, and it just seems too broad of an idea to work well. The Civ4 part of the game should be very simple, nothing but a fighting scenario, where combat tactics win the game. If you make it any more complicated than that, it will just take too long to make, and will be far too broad of a game.

Plus, this idea isn't too online friendly, with people joining and leaving the server, you know? I mean, what happens when the general leaves? How is a new one picked? And how would an empty server function, and what happens?

It just seems like it has a ton of quirks to work out, but I would really like a game like this if it could work.

 

[Edcrab]

Well, Natural Selection also had to deal with the problem of a tactical game where key units could drop out at any time :O

And I don't see how hard it'd be to limit the commanders to, say, thirty seconds per move- although you would have to think of a better way to choose one. But, citing NS again, all they do is let the first man in the box play as comm- although you can vote him off at any time.

 

[Vegeta897]

NS is much simpler than this idea.

The fact that it switches engines and maps so quickly will lead to problems.

What about people with slow computers who can't load maps that fast? Boring as hell to have to wait a full minute or more just to do a skirmish EVERY time.

 

[Edcrab]

Switching engines? Hah, I'd just have the "Civ" portion as a simple VGUI menu layer.

As for loading maps repeatedly, you just have core maps with seperate segments- similar to how Half-Life managed teleporters in some stages (i.e., a big Xen cavern on OpFor is actually part of a Black Mesa map, just not connected to the rest of it).

So if it's a forest, you all spawn at the forest segment (and it wouldn't have to be that big, either). And if the enemy being attacked is in, say, a fortress territory, the game just spawns a fort model/brush/whatever at their end of the map...

 

[Sulkdodds]

Waiting times would also force people to chat. It'd be a nice 'waiting for battle' kind of atmosphere with everybody talking...and then WAR BREAKS OUT! D:

I like it.

 

[sinkoman]

Waiting times would also force people to chat. It'd be a nice 'waiting for battle' kind of atmosphere with everybody talking...and then WAR BREAKS OUT! D:

I like it.

Exactly.

As I said, the civ4 portion of the game would revolve around tiny maps, mainly combat based.

I could see how slower PC's would be an issue though. Perhaps the soldiers don't actually switch between engines, just stay in the Source engine. Same for generals. They just stay in the Civ 4 engine.

It'd create a realistic sense of "WTF is george bush doing!!1/?!!?!" and "Zomfg Wtf happened to mY solders?".



ERHRRM. Joking aside.

Yeah, i'm not too sure what would happen between games. Maybe the server and the generals save the current game state, and can continue at any point in time later (IE vote for this scenario), sorta like how Civ4 handles online games (minus the voting).

 

[Vegeta897]

It would be cool if each little faction of troops had a leader themselves, and when they got into a battle, the faction leader would have a view of the battle area, and able to do stuff like give orders. Only it would be f**king sweet if you could draw arrows and stuff on the map and have your troops see them hovering in the sky or on the ground, to make things much better than something like in BF2 with just an icon.

Also, your idea about putting in brush-based or model-based forts or whatever will be quite ugly looking, because it would have to re-compile the map in order to get the lighting to look even close to good.

 

[Edcrab]

Hey, I thought this was complete fantasy- if we live in an age where we can get MMO on UE3, I'm sure we'd sort something out that wouldn'e be so graphically hideous

But that idea about tactical directions and suchlike rocks. And to stop it being arbitary (and also to persuade people to actually listen to their commander), you could have that the unit(s) in question gain bonuses if they follow the command. I.e., you move faster if you follow a movement arrow, and stuff...

 

[Vegeta897]

But that idea about tactical directions and suchlike rocks. And to stop it being arbitary (and also to persuade people to actually listen to their commander), you could have that the unit(s) in question gain bonuses if they follow the command. I.e., you move faster if you follow a movement arrow, and stuff...

Woah, excellent idea there!

And you could give an attack bonus to people who follow attack orders and stuff!

But there would have to be a way to limit the amount of orders you can give, otherwise people would just spam it

Not really hard to do though, you know? Just say like you can only have a certain number of attack/move/defend orders on the map at one time.

 

[Edcrab]

Yeah... like, one movement/attack/special tactic arrow per unit or something!

Hahah, we're hijacking this thread with gameplay ideas but not doing much to help with their actual implementation

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Switching engines? Hah, I'd just have the "Civ" portion as a simple VGUI menu layer.

Easily done. Hell, the VGUI panel could even be done in 3D without leaving the Source engine.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Vegeta897]

Then I expect to see that in ZM
D;

 

[ChiChi]

Nice idea, like the "Generals" idea, however the gameplay experience that he'd had would be more akin to something like Ground Control or Myth instead of Civ4.

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Then I expect to see that in ZM
D;

ZM's more fast paced.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[Steven]

Woulden't that take out all the fun, being the general, and think about all thhe n00bs, dieing on you.

 

[Edcrab]

Maybe the general can play too! He can spawn as one of the base unit types as well as handing out orders.

 

[Sainku]

I think it would be a better idea to have commander selection handeled via a vote and an ejection option available. Using a cut up map of premade landscapes and model spawning for forts would work. Maps could be small, and attackers could have a time limit to take the area or kill the enemy. Maybe have a flag that must be held for a short amount of time by the assaulting team, and a time limit to make sure the assault side does what it is supposed to. Bonuses could be handled by quality of fortification for the defensive side, and maybe quality and quanity of equipment for the assault. I think this is a very broad idea, if you really thought it out I think it could be done as a source mod. But would it be fun?

I would still like to see a FPS/RTS done right.

 

[pvtbones]

... I would still like to see a FPS/RTS done right.

www.empiresmod.com they released a low quality trailer not to long ago, go check it out (it was really only meant for their forums but word got out).