Concept idea for a strategy game, need some advice
Hi guys, i have had an idea for a game for quite some LONG time, but i think one aspect of it can get boring fast, so i would like to know your opinion. Would you play this?
Style:
- 3D with low poly pixel style models
- Unity3D as engine.
The story: (fantasy setting)
The intro relates how the undeads come and conquer most of the country, they are defeated into a big battle but the king dies on it and its heir is betrayed by all of his "loyal" followers. He is saved from certain death on a way, depending of what faction you want to control.
The nobles cant agree on a new ruler due to their greed and so they break down into many provinces ruled by a human faction (knights, church, mages...), but the undead are far from defeated and with the human union shattered the war is at a stalemate.
Gameplay mechanics: (simplified)
The game would put you in charge of one minor faction out of three (humans, undead and goblins), the goal is to conquer the country.
To do so, you are put in control of a capital, where you can recruit basic units, build different buildings and research (resembling Xcom a bit).
All your units start as a basic class, and then when they get enougth XP are promoted to higher ones, if you have the related contruccion built at the capital and can affort the upgrade cost (militia->squire->knight \ militia->apprentice->mage). Kind of like "Disciples 2".
The world map would play like "mount and blade", you assemble an army (size depending on your ruler level/skills and units quality) and get to roam freely on real time, killing whatever crosses your ways and running away from stronger foes. The different factions would be at each others throats meanwhile and from time to time agree to throw a holy/dark crusade agaisnt the undeads/humans. Enemy units also move in squads that can engage with whatever they consider a menace (enemy factions or dungerous critters/neutrals), run away while patrolling or be performing a mission like attacking a city or hunting down enemy armies.
When you are strong enought you can start taking provinces from any side, until you have conquered everything and ultimately win the game. This would be tied to certain events/researches that allow you to get stronger and stronger.
Cities would have a pseudo-economy where they get resources from nearby buildings likes mines/villages/farms... that allows them to replenish troops and field armies faster with number and quality depending on city level. With enought time and resources cities can upgrade their levels, so crushing their economy by attacking resources spots is an option to weaken a future capture.
With time you will graduate from being a lone warband and will be able to deploy and order your own fields generals to defend/patrol/attack provinces to lessen the burden on the player to be everywhere at the same time.
Your leader doesnt participate in combat, but can master one of a few magic schools and cast spells in battle/provide bonus to troops, fields generals would also get bonuses depending on which class they are (Warrior, Guerrilla, Magi)
The combat (PROBLEM HERE), would be played in turns on a hex map, "Battle for wesnoth" being a clear inspiration of what i want it be. Units have differents skills resistances and attributes. Each cell has a terrain type that affects battle, Melee cant attack fliers, fliers ignore terrains, ranged and magic are weak agaisnt flanking troops like calvary, forest terrain protects against arrows but are to travel except for tracker units, undead have bonus at nigthtime, faster units attack and move first...
Regarding units you would have to recruit them one per one, at their basic form at first, with random characteristic on creation to each one, that would affect their stats growth (like strong, stupid, sneaky) so they are not generic troops of the same kind, making them somewhat unique.
I plan to make it fast paced and adding an autoresolve option at combat start.
But since im also planing to make your units "inmortal" (they can be resurrected on cities) losing a combat isnt a matter of life and death, its a grindy mechanic im inserting to get the player to engage and level up their troops, losing will have its penalties of course, you will have to wait until the units you took are healed back and forced to take others meanwhile(possibly lower level or class), loss of materials....
So, i am conflicted about adding a grindy gameplay mechanic in there, you need the grind to upgrade your units and get a nice rooster troop (heavies, lights, fliers, siege...) ready for each occasion, my way to fix this is unlocking the class promotions by research and trying to give the progression a nice pace.
Thanks to anyone who wastes his/her time reading this. And i repeat it; Would you play this?
My opinion is that grinding is fine as long as its requirement is relatively low. I imagine as the difficulty of the encounters increase, the skill required of any given military unit must also increase in order for that unit to continue overcoming the battles. The reasonable skill level of each unit can be charted as a curve. The line represents what a unit's skill level should be at any point in the progression of the game in order to achieve a stalemate. If a unit's skill is below the curve, they will probably lose more battles than they're winning. If above the curve, that unit can be expected to win more battles then he loses.
If the player does no grinding at all (spends only the time absolutely required in combat to move on to the next battle, ignoring all optional combat encounters), they should start falling under the curve. This will require the player to do some grinding in order to level up their troops enough to be above the curve. I don't think it should take very much grinding to put their troops above the curve, though. If they must voluntarily spend 50% more time in optional encounters in order to have enough extra experience to fall above the curve, they'll probably get sick of grinding pretty fast. Even requiring as little as 10% extra time grinding seems small enought that they will value the extra work and challenge, but not feel it gets monotonous.
I'd give this game a try. :)
--Medicine Storm
The line between fun and boredrom is pretty thin, isnt it? :)
Thanks for your opinion, i dont want to devote time to something that fails rigth at its very concept.
I think the art will be a lot like this model ill upload to OGA soon, but fantasy themed, im still deciding between a more detailed pixel look than this or simple colored textures (toon shader included, a blach outline sure can spice up any model).
untitled.png 215.9 Kb [2 download(s)]
Sounds cool. I would play it.
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No mind to think;
No will to break;
No voice to cry suffering.
Thanks Umplix, maybe someday I will get to make it; in these recent years a few games emerged that are pretty close to what I envisioned, "Mount and blade 2" being the best and next closest "Sands of Salzaar". Have a look, you might like them.
sounds a little like age of wonder 3. instead of a faction you pick a class. units you get are based off that class. you have a starting city you expand on a hex based grid. you occupy neighboring citys. you can use dipllomecy to negotiate with hostile units.
I played that one long ago, I had a total LOL with goblin and dwarf sucubies :D