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Tell me what you guys think of this.

desocupado

Magister
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
1,802
I've got this stupid idea of making a game. I've wrote this piece as a design document. It's alright, but I think it lacks something. Can you guys take a look at this and tell me what you think?

The document is kinda badly written, but it's a work in progress, although I gotta finish this soon because I already started coding. I gotta add I don't give much of a fuck to realism, my aim is to make the gameplay as fun as possible.


The game consists on various scenarios (maps) where multiple (up to 8) weapon platforms (henceforth WP) (controllable units in the game) clash against enemies (other weapon platforms or creatures, depending on mission), on a turn-based fashion, on a continuous (as in, non-square, non-hex, also depending on technical viability) map. Each weapon platform has a main gun (henceforth MG) and two customizable weapon racks (henceforth WR) along with a set of subsystems, with a weight limit, and will be able to fire at different targets with the main gun and each weapon rack.

To keep track of what can be done in a turn, each unit will have an amount of action points (henceforth AP). All actions (moving, firing weapons, using subsystems) will use up AP, and when those reach 0, this unit can’t act until its next turn.

The scenarios will be in groups of 3, each group with a theme of sorts, as in, similar geography and enemy types. The game is planned to have 7 different themes, or 21 different scenarios.

The weapon platforms will consist of the following parts:

Subsystem array – Carries vision arrays and subsystems. If heavily damaged may cause accuracy penalties, vision reduction, and subsystems shutoffs.
Reactor – Powers the WP. If damaged may cause power failures, if destroyed, causes the WP to be destroyed.

Legs –Provides movement. If damaged may double/triple movement costs if destroyed makes the robot immobile. There are 4 leg types, and each type is tied to the amount of weight the WP can carry and the movement costs on the various terrains. The leg types are:
Hover – Light tonnage, no impassable terrain, very low movement costs universally.
Treads – Heavy Tonnage, low movement costs on roads/cities.
Spider – Medium/Heavy tonnage, medium movement costs all around, can pass over mountains.
Amphibious – Heavy Tonnage, can pass deep water.

Weapon racks and Main Gun –Lightly armored, if destroyed, weapons on it are lost. If the weapons carry ammunition, there’s a 10% chance per weapon it’ll damage the WP further upon destruction.
Gameplay:

Each WP AP’s will be reset to 100 at the start of each turn. Movement costs a certain amount of AP depending on the terrain and distance. Firing a the main gun/weapon rack takes a certain amount of AP, fixed for the main gun and based on the most “AP demanding” weapon in the weapon racks, and all three weapon groups can be fired in the same round provided the unit still has enough AP, but no group can be fired twice. Units can fire and move in whatever order they desire, provided they have enough AP.

To-hit chance: weapon accuracy + subsystem bonus + WP accuracy – dodge chance – cover value.
Damage: Weapon damage - target armor in the part hit.

After being fired at, a unit can retaliate, and it will do so using the MG, at a free AP cost, but of course, expending ammo if the weapon uses ammunition.

All weapons have a range value, and except for missiles, they still can hit after that value, but their accuracy decreases the farther you get from it. You can aim at a specific part with your MG or WR, doing so increases AP firing cost by 1,5x, gives bonus accuracy depending on the part targeted. Missiles, artillery and rapid fire weapons cannot be aimed. If you have a weapon that can’t be aimed on a rack, it will fire normally, but will get no bonus value accuracy, nor will it target the desired part.
Reactor: 20% bonus accuracy
Legs: 10% bonus accuracy
MG, WR, Subsytem array: 0%

Each WP will also carry a pilot/crew who will add minor bonuses to it, and a "quirk". For example, a certain pilot might reduce the enemy's armor by 2 when he shoots, but have a lesser dodge chance, another pilot might be able to take slightly less time moving, so his AP costs for moving might be lessened by 10%.
Pilot effects should be minor however, because if a WP is destroyed, the pilot is killed, and it's necessary the player be able to finish the game with rookie pilots in case of heavy casualties.

------END OF RHINE-----

Right now there are 12 WP chassis (3 variations of the 4 basic leg types), 21 weapons, 15 subsystems, 9 terrain types. The weapons and subsystems were designed with being viable throught the entire game in mind. If this was achieved (very likely not), only testing and tweaking with the numbers can tell.
The game will also feature line of sight and indirect fire.
The numbers and names of all that stuff are in a excel sheet, what I pasted above is not the only place, it's mostly to keep my ideas in line.
 

Jaedar

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,838
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Bonus to accuracy when firing on reactors? Seems a bit strange considering reactor death kills the WP.

Any "metagame" elements such as gathering money, gaining experience, etc?
 

desocupado

Magister
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
1,802
Reactors are there to fill the "torso" part of the WP, so I figure it's bigger, but it's also the part with most HP and armor in all WP types.

There will be money, for sure, that's how you're buying the new shiny stuff. You'll get money when you finish missions.

Experience will be there in a limited way, with the pilots. They'll have three skill tiers, and each tier will give a small bonus to the relevant skill.

For example, a pilot with a firing skill at "novice" will get a 0% bonus accuracy. The next tier, "experienced" will give him a 4% boost to his accuracy, and finally a "veteran" pilot will get 8%.

This part is much less solid than the rest tho, I'm still figuring this one out. For one, the passive bonuses are kinda boring, but if I add some special move, it might break the game balance (not all adversaries will be WP's), and the AI will have to be able to use those special moves too.
 

treave

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
11,370
Codex 2012
You might want to elaborate more on the armor system. Does terrain affect accuracy as well as movement cost? A WP in an urban area would be harder to hit than a WP in an open field.

Maybe demonstrate a writeup of how a single match or round would go with this system of yours, with all the calculations? It could help to uncover any flaws in the rules.

This part is much less solid than the rest tho, I'm still figuring this one out. For one, the passive bonuses are kinda boring, but if I add some special move, it might break the game balance (not all adversaries will be WP's), and the AI will have to be able to use those special moves too.

You could provide drawbacks for special moves. For example, a pilot that can push his WP to move three times faster would reduce his own accuracy when he does so. More powerful shots but with a risk of the ammo dump combusting spontaneously, and so on.
 

desocupado

Magister
Joined
Nov 17, 2008
Messages
1,802
Terrain does affect accuracy. It's a cover value, added to the defender's dodge chance. The armor system is a simple deduction from the damage done. The armor values are different for each part, though.

Let's take a real example, suppose WP1 is a treaded type 1 who fires a cannon at WP2 which is a hover type 3 standing in a city, let's say WP1 also has 2 "Correctional modules" a subsytem which increase accuracy by 5% each. Let's not add pilot bonuses here, to keep things simple.

To-hit chance: 65% + 10% + 6% – 35% – 40%. = 6% chance. Quite low.

But let's say WP2 was standing in a open field, and WP1 used a dual-laser, it's a weapon which is a lot heavier than the laser, but more accurate and deals more damage.

To-hit chance: 90% + 10% + 6% – 35% -0%. = 71% chance. Much better now.

It might seem that stuff is hard to hit in the game, but Treaded type 1 and Hover type 3 are the least accurate and most dodgy WP's, respectively. On the other hand, treaded type 1 has a 165 ton limit, while hover type 3 has a 100 ton limit.

Let's say the Dual-Laser hits. It does 29-31 damage. The RNG rolls and gets a 31 and a body part, let's say a weapon rack. The Hover type 3 has a 2 armor value on its weapon racks (the least of all WPs. At most, it reaches 10 on the reactor of Treaded type 1).

Damage: 31-2 = 29. Damage is then removed from the Weapon Rack hp, simple stuff. If the damage reaches a certain amount, some weapons might start malfunctioning, if it's destroyed, you can't fire that weapon rack anymore, obviously. All parts have a effect on being too damaged or destroyed.

A weapon rack can carry as many weapons as your weight allowance allows, so that calculation is made separately for each weapon fired.
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
Sounds like a pretty technically achievable project. There's plenty of inspirational material out there for similar systems from tabletop games.
 

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