Collecting possible and usefull battlemodes...

[Magyar Khan]

Im trying to collect possible and usefull battlemodes to enlarge our online game experience.... in the past we had things like king of the hill and some others but altho fun for a while they werent well programmed to have a bigger lifespan....

i think my favourite is the home and away battles for ranked battles.... where a hosted map is played 2 times as defender and attacker and the outcome of both in (kill+routed units) and worth value of them is compared.... and decide who wins the duel....

pros and cons on this.... and lets collect some more

eventually i may do a poll ....

[Major Robert Dump]

I think a built-in engine where you could make typical adjustments/limitations that applied, instead of the old method where you had to state the rules and hoped all abided. I am talking about rules such as certain unit type max; certain unit types only, certain unit types banned etc. You can already choose the amount of koku, this would just be an extension of that. So if I, for some weird reason, wanted to make an Archers only game, I could set it so no one had the choice to even select cav or infantry. I always got a kick out of doing musket or archer only games, then your opponent brings an army full of cav and monks.

[Major Robert Dump]

- I don't know what it would be called a a 2-game battle mode where after the first match the two players auto-swapped armies would be fun.

- I would also like to see a 2v2 or higher where the additional players came in as reinforcements at either a random location or location determined in advance by the individual players. Random locations would prevent players from backing up and spawn-camping their own reinforcement point. Chosen spawns would make for some interesting mobile armies, tug of war battles and creative use of terrain features.

[UglyElmo2]

- I don't know what it would be called a a 2-game battle mode where after the first match the two players auto-swapped armies would be fun.

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Maybe call that a "Mirror Image" game. You are playing the 2nd game as a mirror image of your first, but you are the image of your opponent this time around. :)

ELMO: aka Namer Of All Things Total War


1. I would like to see something similar to a "Zone of Control" game. Similar to the old Company of Heroes games, with several VP points on the map, which give bonuses to your army while you are holding them. I would love to possibly see a mode where you gained points for holding VP zones, which you could use to bring in reinforcement units to replace those already routed earlier. Or maybe have a "Heroe" mode, where you could spend those VP points earned on some bonus such as increased defense or offensive bonuses for those units attached to the "Heroe" unit. I admit the "Arcade-ness" of this type of mode would turn off a portion of the hard-core historical gang, but it still could be a fun alternative for many others. Would appeal to the "console" crowd, and might be the game mode which moves them into the more complex historic mode.

2. Maybe a Coop "Endless Wave" mode, where 2 to 4 players could team up against an endless wave of AI enemy units. Could have a ladder mode which keeps track of how long a team lasts or how many enemy Ai they kill.

3. I might even enjoy playing a "Realtime" MP campaign mode, which played more like an RTS than the regular TW game. You would start out on the big campaign map, owning a faction's normal provinces. You would then purchase buildings which allowed you to build certain units, or increase your koku output, or add to your units' stats. Once these units were produced, you could move into neighboring provinces, and take over more territory, just like the regular SP campaign game, but the campaign map is in realtime. When you move into an adjacent area, you would take it over, but if there was an enemy unit in the province, the game would then immediately bring up the regular battle engine and the battle would be fought. After the battle any remaining partial units would be put in the nearest province and the players could pay to bring them back up to full strength. The won province would now be added to winning team's provinces (with an increase in koku, and any other special benefits the region offers (maybe a +1 to monk units' honor).
The interesting thing about a game like this is it could be done on a grand scale: You could have teams set up to where players could be assigned provinces to control (They would be responsible in governing all aspects of that province). Another player could be the Commander, moving armies across the campaign map. Other players could be assigned individual armies to fight with and that would be their sole responsibility.

This could also be done on a much grander scale and be set up as an MMO-type of MP mode, where the campaign could be ongoing, something similar to the WoW Alliance vs. ???? (Sorry, I don't know much about World Of WarCraft online). :)

I will see if I can use my old STW map and maybe "mock-up" a few examples of what I am speaking of. The "Realtime" mode would definitely interest the console crowd, and if done right, would also be fun for the historic crowd and TW vets.

If CA set something up like this, and did it right, I could see myself finally paying out a monthly fee to play an online game.

[drone]

Maybe a bidding type of tourney, where one player (X) will choose a map and an army value (Y koku), and a number of other players will bid koku anonymously to beat him, bidding based on the Y value and the perceived skill of player X. Lowest bid gets to play first, the winner of the bid-war is either the first player to beat X with his bid, or player X if he beats all bidders. Player X can change his army for each match, but would always be limited to Y koku.

To make it continuous, have the bid-war winner become player X for the next round of bids.

Edit-> To make it more interesting, you could also substitute "player X" for "clan X" in 2v2, 3v3, or 4v4. Bragging rights galore.

Edit 2-> The more I think about it, the more this is better suited to a sponsored tourney, rather than a battlemode per se. Take in a certain number of player entries, set a number of rounds to play, randomly select an entry to be player X first, and the entry with the most wins after all the rounds are played wins the tourney.

[Gregoshi]

How about a "blind" match? You cannot identify your opponent's units until they engage in combat. The enemy units appear as some kind of generic block figure or all the units in your army appear as a particular type of unit of your choosing until their actual unit types are revealed via combat. Missile units would have to fire before being revealed and melee units would have to engage in h2h combat. You would have to carefully observe your opponent's army to guess the type of units they are using while you would have to try to not give away clues about your units as you move/position your army.

Another idea: a set of 2 or more games with a designated koku value to spend for the whole set. Units that survive first game are available for the second game - but only with the number of warriors the unit had at the end of the game. However, these units would get an increase in honour due to their veteran status. Remaining koku not spent in the previous games of the set can be used to purchase replacement units for the next game. Routed units could either be discarded or return for the next battle with a decrease in honour to reflect that they fled the previous battle. Like in the SP campaign, partial units could be combined to create full units or koku could be spent to fill up the ranks with replacements. In addition to the skill of fighting the battle, you would have to consider how much koku to ration for the later battles. I'm not sure what would be a fair way to determine the winner of these "mini" campaigns though.