nico71
Posts: 121
Joined: 9/2/2003
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Check this out!
http://www.totalwarcenter.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7829
A cool idea to turn RTW into a hardcore multiplayer wargame! I hope that some talented people are willing to make this idea reality one day!
quote:
I think that it's about time to be a little bit more specific. What I have in mind is a full map campaign with MANY players. How can this be done? There are certainly many ways to do it. I have an idea of one way to do it. This idea is certainly interesting for seasoned wargamers, but might not be suited for RTS-players. It would require some things that would have to be done first!
1. a new map! The game style that I have in mind requires a hex-map for turn-based PBEM. The map should cover all of Europe, Middle East and North Africa. This has been done before already in Century of Warfare with some 300x300 hexes, for example. I don't want to go too much into detail about hex size, turn length, etc.
2. a code that controls the main aspects of the game. The code should provide the save files for each player, sent out by the host of the game to the other players. Furthermore the code should do the necessary math that goes on in the background, so the players can concentrate on more interesting things.
3. a website along with a forum.
The game:
Regarding the game itself, it will be a classic wargame. The players have to manage their factions, trade, move their armies, supply them, do all that diplomacy stuff, etc.
I want the game to be independant from players. A long-time match would only last until the first player leaves. So it's important that new players can take over the faction when this happens. To make things more interesting, I would like to have two or more players within a faction (optional)! There's one faction leader, and there are his generals or whatever he want to use the other players for. Let's say, someone is good in managing his country, but is not that good on the battlefield, he can assign another player to fight the battles for him! In this way the faction leader doesn't even have to own RTW!
All players of a faction get the same savegame, but with their individual passwords they can only access the parts that they have been assigned to by the faction leader, i.e. only moving and managing the armies (or one of them), or an individual province of a faction along with its armies (tribes). The faction leader, OTOH, has no control over the parts he has delegated to other subordinate players. Those players can only report to the faction leader and the faction leader can only give orders to them. This makes civil wars possible if the faction leader loses control over his armies. Changing leaders would also mean a change of playing stlye and politics! This will keep things more interesting!
Furthermore if a faction leader dies in the game, one of his generals can take over. In this way generals can accelerate their own career if they manage to get the faction leader out of the way. However, to make it more difficult and to prevent total chaos, there should be a serious penalty for that (i.e. uprisings and/or a entry into the public player file).
However, the faction leader has the final say who becomes a general. He can refuse to accept other players in his game that he doesn't like for whatever reasons. He can play completely on his own if he wishes to do so. The purpose of the subordinate players is to make things more interesting for clans.
The turns:
As stated above, one host generates a savegames that goes to all faction leaders. Those can forward it to subordinate players that might play the same faction. All players can make their adjustments to their turn within the allowed limits set by the faction leader. This hierachy prevents problem of too many cooks, and the possibility that two players might try to change the same parameters within the game. When the subordinate players return the turn to the faction leader (after all real time battles have been fought), he sends the whole thing back to the host.
The host creates a combat replay and sends it back along with the new turn. All turns have to be sent back within a given time frame. If a subordinate player doesn't send his turn back in time, the faction leader can access his part and finish the turn with a master PW. If a faction leader doesn't send his turn back, the host might give a subordinate player (if available) or a new player total access to the faction in question and make him the new faction leader, again with a master PW. If everything else fails he might take control of that faction himself.
The armies:
I think it should be possible to build many more units than in RTW. Everything that is possible within the limits of the budget, manpower, etc. This makes huge wars possible. In one hex, however, there can only be as many units as RTW allows. Huge wars might require several battles within the same turn, all of them part of a much larger battle. This in return requires some operational movements of the armies into individual hexes in order to surround enemy armies, retreat or whatever!
The battlefields:
Each hex has an individual battlefield number of the TW game assigned to it that resembles the terrain on the 2D map. New maps can be created manually if needed with the editor.
The battles:
The battles are fought within RTW, according to the data that RTW receives by the 2D game. Unit types, strength, etc, buildings, and so on. So there's continuity between the 2D and 3D part of the game, just like the single player campaign. A turn can only be closed and sent back to the host when all battles have been fought.
To make all of this happen, it would need some talented people that can set up the code, etc. Such things have been done in other games already, so i think that it's doable. And RTW is not really a niche game.
Nevertheless I would like to hear others ideas as well. The more ideas, the more potential coders might be interested! And it doesn't matter if the final thing doesn't look even remotely close to what I have described above! The main purpose was to show that a mp campaign can be done without the help of CA. At least a turn based one. I think real time campaigns are more difficult to do.
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