So every once in a while we all get a great idea for a game, and forget to follow-through with it. Lurking on Gamedev, I am always reminded: "You should not create an MMORPG as it is lots of work." However, my favourite games are those which are multiplayer, so maybe I can just take the MMO concepts I like, and put them into a text-based applet. Title: Game Idea Concept: Players control a unit by queueing actions. By moving in two directions, players can explore and conquer terrain tiles, which produce computer-controlled minions. By sending computer-controlled minionsto take over the centre of the map, a player can win a small cash prize. Terrain tiles and players can level-up through combat. Programming Language: html or flash Key Features: - Simplistic 1-dimensional exploration - Queueing of actions while offline - Automated minions - Teamwork to control objectives - Multiple accounts and botting are supported Design Needed: - Minion vs. minion combat-sytem - Minion-production system - Player vs. Player combat-system - Player vs. minion combat-system - Capturing system - Movement system - Cash-prize system - Turn-regeneration - Action-queueing system - Teamwork integration with combat - Moving to teammates - Benefit from losing terrain - Terrain experience from combat-system - Player experience from combat-system - Player level integration with combat skills and movement Example: Turns per computation = player level One computation per 5 minutes Player controls his/her starting terrain, which produces minions he/she can combat. Fighting system where attacking allies --> XP is functional Level / Skill Description / Turn-Requirement 1 / Target weakest minion owned by self / 0 1 / Attack target minion / 1 1 / Conquer this terrain / <level of terrain>, requires friendly minions present 2 / Move out / 3 3 / Move in / 5 4 / create minion - type- / terrain required, required terrain multiple of 2 5 / Target weakest minion not owned by self / 0 6 / Set teleport location / 6, friendly terrain required 6 / Teleport to teleport location / 8 7 / create minion - leaf elemental / terrain required 8 / Set all conquered land within # spaces to attack here / 4 9 / Repeat last action on next computation / 0, requires that last action is not a repeat 10 / Move out if no targets detected / 10 12 / Target strongest minion / 0 13 / Create -type- minion / requires terrain being multiple of 13 14 / Create -type- minion / terrain required 15 / Move out instantly / 15, does not require waiting 15 / Move in instantly / 15, does not require waiting 16 / All minions/players conquering this terrain now target you instead / 0 17 / Move in if no targets is present / 10 18 / Target <playername> / 0 requires player present 19 / Move out if no target is present / 10 20 / Heal <playername> if he/she is present / 20 21 / Create - type minion / requires terrain being multiple of 21 22 / Go to most recent summon / 1, does not require waiting 25 / Attack strongest minion without its player here / 1, does not require waiting 29 / Summon nearest friendly minion with no orders / <distance of minion> 30 / Summon target player / <distance of target> 40 / Engagement - all minions here stop moving for 2 hours / 40 50 / Attack all (up to 250) minions present without their player here / 50 65 / Gain your turns for the next computation; gain no turns next computation / 0, does not require waiting 80 / Barrier - no minions can leave this space for 8 hours (must be cast 8 times for full-effect) / 80 100 / Create terrain in direction out / 150 Note: Players gain experience for destroying minions. Terrain locations gain experience (and thus faster production) for losing minions. Interface: Title Image -----------------------1-dimensional map showing adjacent terrain----------------------- Skills----------------------Current Skill Queue--------------------Minions present skill(add)------------------Queued skill(remove)-------------------Minion image skill(add)------------------Queued skill(remove)-------------------Minion image skill(add)------------------Queued skill(remove)-------------------Minion image Chatbox--------------------------------------------------------Timer until next Computation Feedback Requested: Which language should I use? I would like for this to be browser-based, and for there to be minimal load-times. Higher level players should be able to play in real-time (not waiting for computations) when they are online, in order to buff each other and destroy large groups of minions (e.g. conquering a terrain location where a player has let minions generate for weeks). Also, what should I do if a player dies? How do I encourage people to login at the same time so that they can buff other online players? How difficult should it be to level-up? What attributes should minions have? Should I have an output or even an interface for player vs. minion combat? Minion vs. minion combat?

What do you mean by a 1 dimensional map? That would be a line of pixels :S

I'm not sure I understand, you say "1 dimensional exploration" and "by moving in 2 directions, the player can explore..."

Can you clarify? Is the prize real, or just an in-game reward? Do you fight your own minions?

Nope, just a line.
Assigning a value of X, "in" would be towards x=0, and "out" would be towards whatever the maximum X-value on the map was. Different X-values would have different terrain values (e.g. every 100th terrain could produce unique units).

The ultimate goal of the game would be to conquer the x=0 terrain, and to do this, you would need your minions present. Minions can move one terrain per 5 minutes, and with skills like barrier, and area-of-effect damage, players are encouraged to stop minions for experience-gain. By modifying the minion-production of x=0 terrain, I would make it hard enough to capture so that players would have to use teamwork.

Your hero occupies one x-value on the map, where we can see all minions that are at the same x-value. You can then program your hero to attack minions whilst you are offline (using the Queue feature), or attack in real-time using the "does not require waiting" skills. Thus, a minimal amount of time is actually spent playing (which allows you to do other things).

My main worry here is that the benefit of creating multiple accounts will exceed the benefit of playing with others, so I need a real-time component to the combat-system. How can I make an automated combat-system difficult that players need to be online to use it? This is what I see as the largest problem, as the objective of the idea was to create a simplistic game.

If each terrain on the map were represented by pixels, then each pixel would represent the terrain-type. Terrain affects which unit can be produced (I am going for a fantasy-theme, so units could be good, evil, or follow a faction-system like in Wesnoth).