Had a number of ideas crop up for WC Generals this afternoon (while I was beating the snot out of Kitabatake playing Nobunaga again when I shouldn't have been). I'll go ahead and share them with you and see what you think about them. Hopefully nothing here is too far off from the spirit of Panzer General; my main concern was coming up with a solution for turning what was essentially a single-player game into one that could support twenty. I'll be kinda rambling here (i.e. I'll be typing this stuff up as I go), so I won't be editing myself. Lemme know if anything I say is confusing or needs clarification.
1) The game will have two sides - the Confederation (Terrans) and the Empire (Kilrathi). Each side will have up to ten controllable fleets stationed at various points around their respective empires at the game's onset, with fleet actions controlled by bots unless the given fleet is ultimately assigned to a player.
2) The game should be able to begin with a minimum of one player; this player is the "field marshal" that ultimately holds sway over the command actions of whichever side they choose (i.e. the field marshal). Other players may join the game as it progresses, either joining this first player as a team or electing to join the other side; the first player to select the other side automatically becomes that side's field marshal. A system of invites may be used to allow players to join a side, or it could simply be something done automatically.
Ron - Agree. Its a good idea to allow upto 10 players per side. The first player can join with limited credits to create his first fleet. He can then assign ships to new players as they join breaking into multiple fleets. Command and control will have to be worked out. Every turn planets, mining facilities, refinarys, merchant ships will generate new credits with which the fleet can expand. This gives the players incentives to control more planets etc.
2A) Alternatively, a group of players may elect to play the game together prior to the game's onset; the game will automatically select a field marshal from among the available candidates in this case.
Ron - Yes. Starting credits will have to be calculated accordingly.
3) When it comes to non-combat movement (i.e. a fleet travelling through an area that has no hostile forces or zones of control), the number of turns it takes to travel through that system to a destination system may be pre-determined (this on the notion that most capital ships in the WC universe travel no faster than about 100 kps). The end result is that all movement and fighting takes place on the same time scale.
Ron - Will have to think about this.
4) Players have three minutes to commit their orders to the server; if all players commit prior to the end of that time limit, the server may commence with execution of orders at that point. If a player does not enter their orders in that time frame, their fleet performs no actions (or only actions that carry over from previous turns).
Ron - Will have to think about this.
5) A player may elect to turn over control of their fleet to a bot if they so choose, selecting whether to allow other players to take control over their fleet or if they are simply taking a break and intend to resume control over the fleet at some point. When a player resumes control over the fleet, they will receive a report of the actions in which their fleet has been involved since the last time they took control.
Ron - Designig bots that handle the fleet intelligently while the commander is away might be too difficult. Instead the fleet can remain dormant or be handled by a team player.
5A) The field marshal may command more than one fleet at a time.
I guess that's expounding a bit on the ideas I had yesterday night. Anyways, I'll throw those out there and see what you think.
Ron - I think an intelligent strategy is crystallizing. We will have to work out the kinks. Of course actual alpha and beta tests will also help.
