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Magister
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2008
- Messages
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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.
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.