Thanks for the replies so far.
I want to go kinda Opensource. I will put my whole project online, I just don't let anyone submit codechanges.
To the fight mechanics
I am leaning towards realtime, here is what I came up with(by the way, the game should be isometric):
- The Game view supports three zoom factors, for long range the player zooms out.
- The player has a "sight" sector, where he can see enemies. This sector has a limited length and radius.
- By aiming down for example a scope, I decrease the sector to a small "tunnel", but the length of the sector increases dramatically and so does the accuracy.
- As a sharpshooter, each shot without leaving his position, he gets an additional accuracy bonus.
With this I want the player to balance out two decisions: 1. what accessories he wants on his weapon. 2. Choose his sniping position carefully
What do you think, could it be fun?
To the strategy and overworld gameplay
The gamer has first his overworld map, where he sees the position of his soldier/squad. supply routes and the positions of the evil force, i call them monsters until i have more on the lore ;).
The gamer has a base, where he can choose his soldier, his 7 privates and all the equipment and supplies he wants to take on the journey. The group travels more slowly, with all that stuff. Then he chooses where he puts his basecamp, here he has his main stash of weapons, accessories and supplies. Then a squad of 4 soldiers can set up 1 preliminary camp with a small stash of supplies and some extra weapons. From these camps, they attack, do reconaissance, quickly resupply, change weapons for a different tactic...
If the monsters find a camp, they destroy it with eveything in it. So when they get attacked, the player should make a decision to, run away, get his equipment and try getting away slower, or fight.
Now after his reconaissance, he can plan his moves direct in the level. The player sees the patrols, outpost and gathering of the monsters. He can plan path of the soldiers, escape route and who shoots at what. The paths and alleged enemy positions are also marked when he really starts the fight. There is also a chance for change (player planned to move him and soldier 2 to position x and kill the overseer, but the overseer isn't there!) and the player has to improvise.
I don't want to force the player to plan, but I want to punish him for making mistakes. And the planning should be powerful enough to reduce his mistakes.
I thought of a ressouce system, each monster kill gives the player ressouces for buying supplies and new items. I plan to make High Caliber ammo, high power explosive... expensive, so the gamer has to use less powerful equipment for less powerfull enemies.
I'm not sure if the monsters should drop anything or not.
The Monsters fortifications have attributes like "organisation","troop strength", "awareness" and "aggression"
- By eliminating Monster "overseers", the monsters are less well organised. If the monsters have a low "organisation" level, then they do not attack in groups, do not know how to counter attack or in what direction to send hunter-troops after you.
- By eliminating Monster convoys on supply routes and by defeating large amount of Monsters in the level, you decrease their numbers. when the lower it is, the fewer monsters are defending the level and the hunter-troops are smaller.
- The longer you stay in the area and plan attacks, the higher the "awareness" level of the Monsters. They fortify their partrols and increase their outposts.
- When you do "loud" attacks (with Power weapons like Machine guns, demolition...), the aggression level rises of the Monsters, they are more likely to send hunter troops after you and they send stronger troops, which can be a strategy as well ;).
here is a bit of a problem, the ultimate goal is to destroy the powersource of the monsters, freeing this part of the map from them. I want it to be very hard, but rewarding. But I have no intermediate goal yet.
I also like the suggested idea (thanks stormy) that you build up on your previous successes, but you may also loose some again. Now you simply have 'something less to worry about' if you defeat a position. And you have something more to worry about if the monsters retake it.
I noticed, now its more a multiplayergame, it's not such a cool singleplayer game anymore, only with intelligent companions.
I think if you can incorporate this successfully into an ebb and flow of warfare design
I'm sorry, english isn't my native language, what do you mean with ebb and flow?