gamesSo now that my employer has been absorbed into the Deltek collective, I find myself awash in a sea of TPS forms, SMART evaluations and reams of paperwork. It's making me very homesick for the bad old days of game programming. In fact, I find the urge to write a computer game almost irresistable.
I've had this idea for a "minesweeper" level of complexity wargame for a few years now. I can't choose between turn-based and realtime, but the essence is that it's a graphically simple hex based wargame that portrays warfare in the "ancient" (pre-gunpowder) age. It might work for rennaissance warfare, but first things first.
The player would grab a scenario from a list and the game would pop up with a stylized hex map of the battlefield. The player and computer would take turns placing their units (defined by the scenario), and once everyone was on the board, the game begins.
The player then selects a leader (the whole game is driven by leaders) and that leader's units are highlighted. The leader will have a small number of "action points" that he can spend. Each point moves a single unit one hex in any direction, or the leader can move ALL units the exact same way for one point. So if you want to redeploy it will take you a while, but advancing on the enemy won't be so bad. Play will alternate between players with each side selecting an inactive leader until they've all moved. Then the turn will end, win conditions will be checked, and the whole sequence starts over again.
When a missile unit stops next to an enemy unit, it shoots whatever weapons it has. If you stop two hexes away and spend a point, some units can volley fire. When you attempt to move into an enemy's hex, a combat results and you are either repulsed, destroyed, or the same happens to the enemy.
Units will take a certain number of hits before they dissolve, and those hits will decrease their melee resilience. So (like in real life) if you can't hit the enemy with a superior trooper, then wear him down with missile fire until he's no longer better than you.
Of course, multi-player over the net will be important, and I have some crazy ideas about limited visibility and AI, but then again, who doesn't these days? ;-)
I envision this as a game that you could refight, say, one of Alexander the Great's battles in 20 minutes or less.
The realtime version would involve the player basically "running" the general behind his lines and spending "command manma" points to order around brigades. This command manna pool would refil at a prescribed rate, and it would cost a certain number of points to goad a brigade forward, wheel it, make it charge, rally it, etc. This is the more complex but faster playing game of the two, though it promises to have the simplest game play. There wasn't a lot of redeployment in the ancient world, so your initial setup would be very critical (as in real life). Then, you'd have to make sure your general was in the right place to cast "hang in there" and "hit em now!" commands. There would naturally be some whole-army orders (advance, halt, etc.) that would be relatively cheap to cast, but then you'd have to run around and goad parts of your line into advancing again if yo wanted to do anything tricky.
This game could play VERY quickly, and each brigade would have a certain personality. For example, your viking berserkers wouldn't need an order to attack, they'd just leap out if anyone got too near. A pike phalanx would only advance, halt or hold, though if they advanced into the enemy there would be some fighting. Spartans would favor the slow steady advance, whereas other Hoplites might break into a run over the last few dozen yards if they didn't lose their nerve!
I really like the RT idea, though I also love playing turn based wargames, so it's a real toss up. The games are different enough that I probably can't base them off of the same engine, though I might be able to re-use some of the artwork.
LOL, now that I've written it down, it's probably out of my system for a while so I can stop thinking about it and get back to work.
