The ultimate strategy game

[Nick]

Hello. This is the first new thread I created in months.

I`ve been designing this strategy game for years now. I`m trying to come up with the design for the ultimate strategy game. Not a simple game, though easy to use at first. I like games where it takes ages to learn everything, but easy to learn the basics. It`ll be 3D, as 2D won`t allow for everything I want to be included.

One day I`d like to start making this, but for now I`m still coming up with ideas and fitting the jigsaw together. It`ll be a hightech strategy game, Dune like (completely different, but just to clarify its not turnbased and not like a realtime UFO etc).

Has anybody got that thing that you really like in a strategy game, or something that you`ve always wanted?

Anyway back to designing it.

Thanks

[bloodline]

I too have spent many a long night designing my own strategy game... it just seems that I get boged down in ideas, and I hoave megabytes of code that doesn't really work the way it should and I give up... until the newxt time...

I'd like to see it written in C using SDL :-)

[Nick]

Hehe I`m a graphic artist with limited programming knowledge. That wouldn`t be my department. I`m determined to do something with this. SOme of the ideas I`ve got would kick anything I`ve ever seen, by far.

[KennyR]

Line Of Sight is very important in a game like this. Have you got any calculations for it yet?

And...

It`ll be a hightech strategy game, Dune like (completely different, but just to clarify its not turnbased and not like a realtime UFO etc).

No, that didn't clarify it at all. :crazy: ;-)

Strategy games I've seen (I've played them since the 80s) are either realtime or turn based. Dune was more or less turn-based (although in a different way). Dune2 was realtime. If you don't mean either, what do you mean?

[bloodline]

Nick wrote:
Hehe I`m a graphic artist with limited programming knowledge. That wouldn`t be my department. I`m determined to do something with this. SOme of the ideas I`ve got would kick anything I`ve ever seen, by far.

You'd be surprised how many times I've visited your site and wondered about giving you a call and getting some gfx done...  but really I don't have the time.
 :-(

-Edit- Which reminds me I've still got the beginings of an Avro Vulcan simulator on my A1200... I never finish stuf :-(

[Nick]

Line of sight is alreadyd part of my plane, though I haven`t done anything about it. I haven`t got to any indepth stuff.

Well I`m "fully booked", graphics wise at the moment. After I`ve done my current stuff I`d like to start my owm project, though If I do I don`t know.

Speaking of graphics for strategy games. Anybody interested in helping me create the units for Realms Of Power? (not related to my strategy design).

[odin]

Like I said:

Axe wielding redbearded Vikings doing stuff to innocent maidens.



I'll be under my rock in you need me :-).

[tumash]

Heh.. creating a REAL asskicking strategy game (turn based) was my biggest dream ever since I've discovered that one can do more on computers than  simply staring at the next game.
About three years ago I started writing my own documentation to the game.
Its currently over 100 pages of ideas, rules, algorithms, sketches.. hell, I even have got multiplayer engine created (on which some released MMORPG runs).

And.. it should be rewritten from scratch. Because the games technology didn't stood still...

IMHO, If you REALLY really wish to create such project, split it to steps. At first, start with simple projects. This will tell you what is the best approach to the problems you'll encounter.

I went the other way and ended up with a gigantic project nor me nor my company can handle.

[JetRacer]

StarCraft

It's the ultimate strategy game. Everything about the game is just perfect. No hype, no lack of feeling, the fun doesn't end with the campign.

It's only got one flaw; it havn't got 24-bit gfx.

[iamaboringperson]

Nick wrote:
Hehe I`m a graphic artist with limited programming knowledge. That wouldn`t be my department. I`m determined to do something with this. SOme of the ideas I`ve got would kick anything I`ve ever seen, by far.

oh dear!
i dont mean to sound insulting, but do you have a lot of experience creating games?
or would sombody else do the programming?

3D is a bit more difficult than 2D - esspecially on the amiga

[Im>bE]

>It's only got one flaw; it havn't got 24-bit gfx.


HAHAHAHAHA!!! LOL!!

playability is far more important than gfx and sound.

if it had been 24 bit, it would go slow on most pc setups, thus become much more boring, thus not get so well liked, thus maybe not even reach you.
Think about that for a moment.


earlier on this thread the 'line of sight'
was mentioned, and I am currently in a team
that develops -In My Opinion- the best strategy game of all time. It has PERFECT line of sight,
if we mean the same thing.

Alltho' I feel that playability is everything in a game, I mainly help with gfx to it, (but that is only because I have no coding skills outside BASIC), And I have realized that it makes the game more beatiful, but has overall no effect on playability. That is; IF this game CAN get more playability. That I don't know.

I won't say its name,
because there is a (very) old version of it on aminet that I now think is somewhat crappy compared to its present state.

[Karlos]

KennyR wrote:
Line Of Sight is very important in a game like this. Have you got any calculations for it yet?

Implementation of visibility depends very much on the design of the 3D engine. For BSP models there are ray/leaf intersection techniques that are optimised for line of sight.

But BSP is not well suited for terrain.

I have a 3D engine (development suspended atm) for a syndicate style game  that has a simplification for line of sight, but it depends on the fact that the world is composed of 3D prefabs - i.e. just like building a 2D map from a set of prefabricated tiles.

Each prefab is a cubic block that contains a list of polygons (that cannot overlap the block).

The blocks have a visibility fraction (0.0 to 1.0) assigned to each face that is precalculated.

This precalculation is performed by estimating how obscured the view through the block is looking through it axially from each face and various diagonals. Nasty gaussian elimination to get it down to six face factor values, but hey, what is precalculation for?

So a totally empty block has a visibility fraction of 1.0 for each face. If there was a solid wall on one face it would have a fraction of 0.0. Varying degrees of obstruction from polygons inside the block result in interim fractions for each face.

At runtime, a sight probability is calculated by simulating ray of light passing through the block. The ray is attenuated by multiplying by the visibility fraction for each face of the block it intersects (easy to calculate).

We trace a line through all the blocks it crosses(algorithm similar to Breshenams line draw)  to arrive at our final probability which is then compared to a random value in the range 0.0 - 1.0.

There are several optimisations that skip lots of multiplications. For example the world is composed of repeating prefab blocks. Once we trace the beam through one block, the overall attenuation is cached and recalled each time we cross a matching one. The trace can also early out if the overall attenuation falls below a certian threshold.

This is imprecise but simplifies line of sight calculations immensely and adds a nice touch of unpredictability that was rather fun ;-)

[Matt_H]

The two features I'd like to see in an Amiga game:

1. A campaign editor like in Starcraft, with optional "simple mode" to quickly create a "just kill your enemy" map.
2. Easily replacable graphics for user customization. That could be difficult with 3d graphics though... maybe a texure editor option?

Gameplay suggestions:
Maybe have certain units lose functionality as they become damaged.
An army morale counter would add an interesting element as well.
Allowing ground troops to take over vehicles from enemy crews.
Varying damage based on how much cover units have

[vanmev]

well i always like startrek armada the game is now over 3 years old. A clone could be easyly made from freely available 3d modes on web you could easy include other scific shows ships again most 3 d models are on the web.  to get around legal trouble just change the ships abilty and make people get the 3 d models for graphics. who knows activision might release code.

[Micha1701]

Hi!

Speaking of graphics for strategy games. Anybody interested in helping me create the units for Realms Of Power? (not related to my strategy design).

For informations about Realms of Power have a look at Realms of Power - Homepage.