posted 10-12-13 08:52 AM EDT (US)
It's somewhat getting ahead of myself (I was wondering, before getting hold of R2TW about changes that I'd like to see by the time M3TW comes out - so it can be 'different' from M2TW without making me just miss M2TW) but what do you think about this?
Currently every faction takes their moves in turns and there are some fairly odd effects as a result, such as armies being able to slip past each other and either being unable to move defeated/retreated armies the next turn or having crazy effective movement distances.
I'd previously wondered about a realtime map but having tried the demo for whichever paradox game it was I think that turnbased feels a bit simpler/more strategic and also differentiates it from Paradox.
If, like in the gameDiplomacy, you issue orders on your turn and then the orders for all factions execute at the same time then that would, I think, present some interesting opportunities.
There would need to be some thought put into some areas that are either tricky or give opportunities such as:
- if an enemy army moves into a zone of control do you pop up a dialogue box giving the option to intercept or make it automatic? Do you allow either side to choose the location of the battle on the campaign map or do an arbitrary position?
I'd say you give options including location and allow garrisons to sally out for field battles, possibly with several garrisons joining up if a suitable position is chosen
- related question, should armies be able to retreat from an unexpected fight and if so can you choose the direction of withdrawal?
- can you set armies to defend areas, if so how? (drawing an area on the map? would the order remain in place until cancelled?)
- how do you handle armies joining up / travelling separately? Not actually an issue in the current version given the army limits
- how do you show moves? I was thinking that you leave arrows visible on the map, not too messy with a max number of armies
- can it be workable to suggest moves to other factions, say asking allies to attack something, offering to make a joint attack with armies joining as reinforcements (assuming they actually make the move rather than just agreeing - let the AI lie and back stab you (if it does it sensibly)...); why not also ask other factions to get off your land in a similar way
This could also address issues about waiting for AI moves/thinking time (although I understand that's not as much of a problem in R2TW as it was at launch) - the AI can be working on its plans and orders at the same time as the player. For people with lots of processor cores, it should also be easier to thread - all factions' AI could be given a thread and can think in parralel.
This is the part that led me to think it worth posting as I was quite pleased with it.
Putting this in would be quite a large step for the TW series and there's no telling how people would like it. So rather than do this for a new game, make it DLC for R2TW - an optional significant change to the game engine.
It would probably be a good idea first, of course, to allow a beta test with a small group of rational public (TWH!) to hone the idea.
Even if it doesn't work brilliantly there would, I expect, be a lot of people willing to pay say £5 to effectively end up with a new game using almost all of the same content.
Then for the next full game it could either be abandoned if horrendously unpopular, given as an option or replace the current turn based mechanism if everyone thinks it's amazing. If it's in as a new feature for the next game then it gives a reason to buy it and not just play M2TW instead
So, thoughts?
The idea
Currently every faction takes their moves in turns and there are some fairly odd effects as a result, such as armies being able to slip past each other and either being unable to move defeated/retreated armies the next turn or having crazy effective movement distances.
I'd previously wondered about a realtime map but having tried the demo for whichever paradox game it was I think that turnbased feels a bit simpler/more strategic and also differentiates it from Paradox.
If, like in the game
There would need to be some thought put into some areas that are either tricky or give opportunities such as:
- if an enemy army moves into a zone of control do you pop up a dialogue box giving the option to intercept or make it automatic? Do you allow either side to choose the location of the battle on the campaign map or do an arbitrary position?
I'd say you give options including location and allow garrisons to sally out for field battles, possibly with several garrisons joining up if a suitable position is chosen
- related question, should armies be able to retreat from an unexpected fight and if so can you choose the direction of withdrawal?
- can you set armies to defend areas, if so how? (drawing an area on the map? would the order remain in place until cancelled?)
- how do you handle armies joining up / travelling separately? Not actually an issue in the current version given the army limits
- how do you show moves? I was thinking that you leave arrows visible on the map, not too messy with a max number of armies
- can it be workable to suggest moves to other factions, say asking allies to attack something, offering to make a joint attack with armies joining as reinforcements (assuming they actually make the move rather than just agreeing - let the AI lie and back stab you (if it does it sensibly)...); why not also ask other factions to get off your land in a similar way
This could also address issues about waiting for AI moves/thinking time (although I understand that's not as much of a problem in R2TW as it was at launch) - the AI can be working on its plans and orders at the same time as the player. For people with lots of processor cores, it should also be easier to thread - all factions' AI could be given a thread and can think in parralel.
Making the experiment plausible
This is the part that led me to think it worth posting as I was quite pleased with it.
Putting this in would be quite a large step for the TW series and there's no telling how people would like it. So rather than do this for a new game, make it DLC for R2TW - an optional significant change to the game engine.
It would probably be a good idea first, of course, to allow a beta test with a small group of rational public (TWH!) to hone the idea.
Even if it doesn't work brilliantly there would, I expect, be a lot of people willing to pay say £5 to effectively end up with a new game using almost all of the same content.
Then for the next full game it could either be abandoned if horrendously unpopular, given as an option or replace the current turn based mechanism if everyone thinks it's amazing. If it's in as a new feature for the next game then it gives a reason to buy it and not just play M2TW instead
So, thoughts?
