High Voltage
04-23-2001, 12:40
I've been hearing a lot of people who want this era, and it's my absolute favorite time in history. I think for the next Shogun style game it should be based on the conquests of Philip II and Alexander the Great. This would be the ultimate game since, based on the time period, there would be many missions. And maybe we could even re-make history in this by actually finishing the Indian conquest that Alexander wanted to do(against his the will of his army). Here are some features that might work for this game:
1. Based in the 400BC-300BC time period. Your first mission is to unit the city states of Greece. Then after that an invasion of Persia would be your next goal. After conquering Persia, then invade India. After that who knows what, but instead of going back to Greece maybe go all the way into China.
2. Instead of turn-based on the economic level, have the whole game RTT/RTS. This will provide ultimate realism for several reasons. Like when an enemy is defending an area waiting for you, you can send scouts and scope out his position, making plans on what to do, and if you are defending, then you can dig in or clear trees for cavalry. This is exactly what happened in that time period. Sort of like moving between provinces, you would send your army on the march, with season, year, and month at the bottom, but real-time. Time should be fully customizable btw. This way it would take time to move across a province(or territory) and you can even be ambushed if you have no scouts.
3. Fully customizable formation and unit editor. Even in Greece, the armies were really different. For example, the Athens had the tradition Greek-style phalanx, only around 8 men deep with 6ft spears. But the Macedonian phalanx was more than twice as deep with 14-20ft spears. Different armies had different styles. The Persians had a huge army, but Macedonians had a small-skilled army. The Indian army was small too but they had elephants. With the formation editor, you can design formations which can be access via hotkey or menu. The unit editor is for designing armor, weapons, and ways to use different units. This would be limited by various factors though(technology, resources, time).
3. Training your army should be a factor. You can have a highly skilled trained army, but then your economy would be affected, since the army is trained all year or in battle. But if you have a not-so-trained army, it can be very large, give you better economy, but a weaker army.
4. Be able to ford rivers, burn farmland, pillage, loot, etc. If you conquer a region, you can loot it or leave it be, depending on the population and location this may affect you later on. The population will be less loyal if you treat the conquerd people like dirt, but your army will become happier with all the wealth gained, and your economy in your homeland will soar. Imagine the possibilities.
5. About the game always being in real time. Maybe have it so when your army is on the march or something, then the time goes by faster. Then when danger is approaching, the time is slowed.
6. Send out scouts to find the enemy army or rebels. If the land is unfamiliar then you will most certainly need scouts.
7. Have a throne room type thing. You should have advisors that give advice on where you should go next or if you should wait to attack.
8. Your army sleeps at night, and if not given enough rest, then they will get tired and angry.
9. You need to supply your men with food and money so they stay in service(and alive http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif).
10. Different races like Macedonians, Thracians, Spartans, Athenians, Persians, Indians, or raging Barbarians. The Barbarians would be similar to the Mongols in the expansion or STW. They don't build but they conquer and loot.
11. Finally, this is what I've always wanted. For multiplayer games, instead of creating and re-creating games, it would be sweet to have an everquest style multiplayer game. It would have different servers of course. But the game would never end. If your army is eliminated then maybe you can ally with your conqueror(mutual agreement), become revolting peasents, or start over. Actually I'm designing a game like this that will use this style multiplayer. Before you bash it, since there are a lot of factors that need to be considered(like what happens when you are not playing, can someone just kill you off?), I'm thinking on the almost-perfect way to implament something like this.
Ok I'm done typing. I have pages and pages of more ideas, but tell me what you think of these and feel free to criticize/add more.
1. Based in the 400BC-300BC time period. Your first mission is to unit the city states of Greece. Then after that an invasion of Persia would be your next goal. After conquering Persia, then invade India. After that who knows what, but instead of going back to Greece maybe go all the way into China.
2. Instead of turn-based on the economic level, have the whole game RTT/RTS. This will provide ultimate realism for several reasons. Like when an enemy is defending an area waiting for you, you can send scouts and scope out his position, making plans on what to do, and if you are defending, then you can dig in or clear trees for cavalry. This is exactly what happened in that time period. Sort of like moving between provinces, you would send your army on the march, with season, year, and month at the bottom, but real-time. Time should be fully customizable btw. This way it would take time to move across a province(or territory) and you can even be ambushed if you have no scouts.
3. Fully customizable formation and unit editor. Even in Greece, the armies were really different. For example, the Athens had the tradition Greek-style phalanx, only around 8 men deep with 6ft spears. But the Macedonian phalanx was more than twice as deep with 14-20ft spears. Different armies had different styles. The Persians had a huge army, but Macedonians had a small-skilled army. The Indian army was small too but they had elephants. With the formation editor, you can design formations which can be access via hotkey or menu. The unit editor is for designing armor, weapons, and ways to use different units. This would be limited by various factors though(technology, resources, time).
3. Training your army should be a factor. You can have a highly skilled trained army, but then your economy would be affected, since the army is trained all year or in battle. But if you have a not-so-trained army, it can be very large, give you better economy, but a weaker army.
4. Be able to ford rivers, burn farmland, pillage, loot, etc. If you conquer a region, you can loot it or leave it be, depending on the population and location this may affect you later on. The population will be less loyal if you treat the conquerd people like dirt, but your army will become happier with all the wealth gained, and your economy in your homeland will soar. Imagine the possibilities.
5. About the game always being in real time. Maybe have it so when your army is on the march or something, then the time goes by faster. Then when danger is approaching, the time is slowed.
6. Send out scouts to find the enemy army or rebels. If the land is unfamiliar then you will most certainly need scouts.
7. Have a throne room type thing. You should have advisors that give advice on where you should go next or if you should wait to attack.
8. Your army sleeps at night, and if not given enough rest, then they will get tired and angry.
9. You need to supply your men with food and money so they stay in service(and alive http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/smile.gif).
10. Different races like Macedonians, Thracians, Spartans, Athenians, Persians, Indians, or raging Barbarians. The Barbarians would be similar to the Mongols in the expansion or STW. They don't build but they conquer and loot.
11. Finally, this is what I've always wanted. For multiplayer games, instead of creating and re-creating games, it would be sweet to have an everquest style multiplayer game. It would have different servers of course. But the game would never end. If your army is eliminated then maybe you can ally with your conqueror(mutual agreement), become revolting peasents, or start over. Actually I'm designing a game like this that will use this style multiplayer. Before you bash it, since there are a lot of factors that need to be considered(like what happens when you are not playing, can someone just kill you off?), I'm thinking on the almost-perfect way to implament something like this.
Ok I'm done typing. I have pages and pages of more ideas, but tell me what you think of these and feel free to criticize/add more.