ROMA - A preliminary game design. In search of team members.
Ok, so I've been mulling this project for quite some time now, theorizing and writing stuff down. Finally I've decided to make it public and see what kind of help I can get from other interested people in the forum.
Some time back, when Paradox's Rome was made public, I started to think of the 'perfect' Roman-era strategy game. Looking at either RTW or Rome:EU one can find some inconsistencies or absences that make the games less enjoyable for people like me, those looking for the ideal harmony of realism and history.
At the same time, both games had a great deal to offer to the gamer. On the one hand, Paradox's Rome approaches the period from a grand strategy perspective, with the player essentially controlling his nation top-down, abstracting warfare and most military details in favour of the big picture. On the other hand, RTW focussed on the 'total war' aspect, the military, units, and battlefield interaction, abstracting strategic concepts such as trade and the economy.
My first idea was to somehow bridge these two concepts to create a game that is enjoyable to both camps. As I thought and wrote down some of the ideas, I realized that to approach such a game realistically, one had better stick to the grand strategy perspective, at least most of the time. It is evident that if one combines battlefield graphics and realistic army sizes of 20, 30, 40,000 or even more, most modern computers will be brought to a standstill. AI is also a problem in this case, as many RTW players very well know.
This meant that I had to solve warfare in a different way. Although the battlefield arena with 40k men is not viable, neither does the abstract way feel realistic, especially since the gamer has no control whatsoever on the battle. Hence I came up with a different approach.
All the other game concepts are also tackled. The final objective, as I have already said, is to create as realistic a game as possible. This does not mean that the game will be determined by scripted historical events (though allowing the user to have the choice of activating historical scripts wouldn't be a bad idea). It means that the core gameplay mechanics have to be realistic.
The game design as it stands now is quite complex; more complex than either RTW or Rome:EU. Many of the central game concepts and mechanics do not appear in either, such as the warfare system, military logistics and supply, the objective system and campaigning system, detailed economy (an emphasis on agriculture), advanced diplomatic/faction relationship concepts, and more.
A word on the time period. The intention is to model the period 396 BC - ~0 AD, starting right after the fall of Veii to the Romans, with Rome essentially possessing only two major cities. Though tentatively named Roma, the game will not merely focus on the Romans. You should be able to enjoy controlling most if not all other nations, which are to be depicted as accurately as possible, using historical sources. Obviously, some blanks have to be filled in with hypothetical information, but we would make this known if possible.
I have created a very preliminary game design document with much more details than I have mentioned here, ~11 pages long, which I'd give to anyone interested enough to help. I apologize but I am not going to post this here for obvious reasons. If you want to know any more details on any particular bit you can just ask me publicly, and I'd reply best I can. However, I suggest anyone that is interested in joining to PM me with some background info on his preferred parts and skills (nothing too detailed as yet), but please read the rest first.
I expect quite a big part of the development process to be spent on the historical aspect of the game, adapting it from a game design perspective. Second most important should be AI development and programming. AI needs to be worked on big time to make the game any challenge to the serious strategy gamer. Then comes the rest, core programming, graphic design, sound engineering, etc.
My intention is that this project be a community project, free of charge when, and if, it is finally completed; but who knows? For now all I can say is that it requires the help of anyone interested enough and dedicated enough to invest some time every week on his or her section. You wouldn't be working to a tight schedule, as I expect this to be a fun project as much as a dedication, but I'd expect a great deal of teamwork and organized 'division of labor' :)
The game needs to be built from scratch, so a lot of work is required, but I believe a dedicated community can do miracles, as we've seen with some user mods :). Obviously, building a game from scratch and writing a mod are two completely different things which one cannot really compare, so I have no delusions that this will be an easy task. But I believe the challenge is worth giving a try.
So, at the moment we need:-
1) Historians or serious history buffs who would like to contribute to some or all of the following historical aspects: the culture, geography, subdivisions, military, economy, characters, technology, and events pertaining to any of the following culture groups: Celt, Italic, Greek/Hellenistic, Semitic/North African, Germanic peoples. Other smaller culture groups too. At least one person, ideally more, will be needed for each culture group, since each culture culture group is divided into several factions.
2) Everyone else is welcome, but especially anyone willing and preferably experienced in game/AI programming and also willing to help developing something unseen from scratch.
Everything else, like graphic designers, more programmers, etc., in time. Again, anyone who is willing to give it a try, PM me, even if your competencies are not exactly those that are needed right now. Thanks, and please excuse the extra-long post!
(awarded to undevastate me)
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Originally Posted by TosaInu
Re: ROMA - A preliminary game design. In search of team members.
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