Is it possible to make a true "massive" battle game?

Legendre · 2014-02-25T22:05:17

I am hoping to get ideas for a very small indie project, so "massive" here does not mean the same thing as the "massive" in "MMO". What I am thinking of is perhaps 100-200 players fighting on a single battlefield. The setting could be medieval war, space ship combat, modern army etc. The graphics could be 3D, 2D or even text-based. The dream scenario is to have 100-200 players (or possibly 1000+) fighting a war, some of them might rise up to be leaders, planning strategies and scoring minor victories However, when trying to actually implement such a game, we run into many problems. For example: 1) As the number of players rises, the actions of individuals or even groups of individuals diminishes and no longer matters. 2) 1000+ players in an area leads to overcrowding and latency. E.g. if I recall correctly, eve online require massive battles to be scheduled in advance. 3) No one wants to be on the losing side. If one side starts to lose the war, people might all jump ship to the other side. Also, keep the number of players on both side balanced is challenging. 4) The side with the most players online tend to win the most. Some times, it boils down to one side having 100 players online while the other side has 50 and could not hold the fort. I have played games that tries to implement a "massive battlefield" scenario, and they all resorted to very artificial mechanics. E.g. one game made it so that while a faction can lose specific areas to another, the headquarters can never be taken. So, factions will go back and forth, each taking turn to win all the areas, except for the HQs, depending on who has the most players online. E.g. another game pretended that there was a huge battle going on in the background, but players take part in skirmishes (FPS team death matches). No impact is actually made on the "battle" alluded to. Is it truly possible to design a big battle game? Or is this a hopeless goal?

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by Legendre February 19, 2014 07:27 PM

21 comments, last by jefferytitan 10 years, 1 month ago

Acharis

5,990

February 24, 2014 07:32 AM

Are there kingdoms of some sort? What's the point of the king? I'm not sure how the parishes/countries/provinces/kingdoms fall into the faction & houses setup.

Who controls provinces (the king/kingdom, house, faction?)

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Havikz

February 25, 2014 07:57 PM

The game you're talking about has already been made, and it's called Planetside 2. It's literally the exact thing you described. 500 player battles are common, and military tactics are often used in organized platoons.

Legendre

985

Author

February 25, 2014 09:02 PM

The game you're talking about has already been made, and it's called Planetside 2. It's literally the exact thing you described. 500 player battles are common, and military tactics are often used in organized platoons.

Can one side ever achieve complete victory ("win") or are there regions that cannot be conquered, resulting in a perpetual war?

P.S.
I didn't downvote you lol.

jefferytitan

2,525

February 25, 2014 10:05 PM

Apart from the obvious technical issues, e.g. server load and networking, I have a few thoughts:

Balance
- Make the battle have many tipping points, e.g. there is a way the losing team can suddenly turn the battle around.
- Add external events that affect everybody, e.g. natural disaster or creature attacks. Launch one to pause the battle and cause chaos.
Importance
- Tipping points again (true importance)
- Spectacular set-pieces (sense of importance, maybe no global effect)

Is it possible to make a true "massive" battle game?

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Is it possible to make a true "massive" battle game?

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