Constantly Evolving Units in a Strategy Game - Eh?

[auStrategyGamer]

Im planning out a strategy game and Im looking at making the units 'freeform evolve' through out their lives.

basic story...
Humans & aliens grouped into two factions locked in a millennia-long war which began when a group of explorers discovered a artifact in the center of the galaxy. When touched by an ungloved hand, the artifact released an energy wave which rippled throughout the galaxy. The energy wave had a strange effect on all organic life causing the cells in the vertebrae to mutate in what scientists are calling "Freeform Evolution". This mutation transforms the individual's physiology based on emotion, self thought and environmental interaction - including their moral choices and social interactions. The mutation somehow absorbs this and uses the brain's self projection to physically modify the molecular & cell structure of the subject.[FONT=&quot]In addition to aesthetic changes, whom the individual interacts with can also influence these physical changes. [/FONT]


Basically, freeform evolution is about your soldiers physically and mentally adapting to their roles on the battlefield. As soldiers gain experience with a particular type of weapon or are continually getting shot, their bodies alter their very physical or mental structure to solve their weaknesses. These adaptations only occur while using equipment or items powered by the energy of the ancients. Spacecraft, consoles and other interfaces only become active when the soldier interacts with them using this special power. There are also consequences for using it too frequently or committing acts of genocide or atrocities.


Im stuck on whether or not its a good idea and im trying to give it more depth in a 'X-COM' kinda way.


Thoughts/ suggestions?

 

[KaOTiK]

Sounds like another take on perks when a unit levels up like in Civ.

 

[Zorander]

I'd say it depends very much on the execution itself.

XCom does this very well even if soldiers don't truly evolve beyond their shoot-with-a-gun nature. Disciples is probably more along what you are thinking of but I found II too boring and generic (units from different races are too similar at a given class). I have not played III yet.

 

[auStrategyGamer]

Sounds like another take on perks when a unit levels up like in Civ.

I'll have to make sure its not too close.. unless that was a feature you liked?

 

[auStrategyGamer]

I'd say it depends very much on the execution itself.

XCom does this very well even if soldiers don't truly evolve beyond their shoot-with-a-gun nature. Disciples is probably more along what you are thinking of but I found II too boring and generic (units from different races are too similar at a given class). I have not played III yet.

Xcom is a great game and the basis of mine comes from XCOM. I'll detail some more info out and post it when I can.

 

[Agent11]

lots of modern strategy games have units gain abilities, experience and moral as they survive, and or as you progress through a tech tree... Would have to put some serious effort into it to make it unique.

 

[Zorander]

You could borrow the experience system of The Elder Scroll series, e.g. use laser guns a lot = more skilled in them than gauss rifles. The same can be applied to armor types, experience fighting in different terrains, experience vs different monster types, etc. The TES levelling system has always been among the most interesting one and it'll be interesting to expand that beyond just one central character.

 

[CPA]

Yeah, definitely sounds like Skyrim-type character evolution. My only concern is the speed in which you evolve. For Skyrim, I always thought you evolved too quickly.

 

[auStrategyGamer]

You could borrow the experience system of The Elder Scroll series, e.g. use laser guns a lot = more skilled in them than gauss rifles. The same can be applied to armor types, experience fighting in different terrains, experience vs different monster types, etc. The TES levelling system has always been among the most interesting one and it'll be interesting to expand that beyond just one central character.

Exactly! As each unit gains experience in the field using particular weapon/item they get better at it. I want to also make reversals of skills- i.e. if you get good a Gauss weapons but you dont use grenades, then your throwing skills suffer.

I was planning on using RPG 'character attributes' to help determine the methods to which a unit evolved. Also use them to influence the character's actions and abilities. I.e. +Strength means the soldier can carry more items and take less of a 'time unit' penalty..

Im also wanting it to be a long evo path, so the player values each squad member and grows attached to them - more likely to use more thought out tactics. I personally feel the pain when I lose men in XCOM (originals)
I want to really drive this home to the player.

love the feedback!

 

[auStrategyGamer]

Hey guys

Thanks for all the great feedback on the posts an on email. I used your feedback to improve my strategy game.

I have released the project with details on my site http:www.tier2games.com

There you will find all the latest updates. Also you will see mention of it on kickstarter - I will not link it here as I dont want to get into trouble (I want to stay on this forum!) but I cant contain my excitement!

thanks again and keep up the support!

ash

 

[KaOTiK]

Just a suggestion. I don't think mixing a tabletop stuff into a video game kickstarter is a good move imo. Something like that would probably work for established games, like Warhammer/40k/Warmachine but for something new you should really just concentrate on one thing. The kickstarter page ends up being a lot longer then it should be because of it as well for someone looking for the game info. Really detracts from the kickstarter overall when you have 2 different products (tabletop and the actual video game) as parts of stretch goals.

The game sounds interesting, do you have any assets done outside of concept art and mock imagine.

I play tabletop games and so you would think having a mix of the two would be great and aimed towards someone like me. However it does the opposite for me at least. I rather see the video game become the best possible and not see anytime resources wasted on the tabletop stuff when I am looking at a video game kickstarter. Maybe that is just me, but I can only imagine people that aren't in to tabletop are at the least bit discouraged as well.


Best of luck. I hope the Kickstarter is successful for you.

 

[Red Storm]

Honestly I have never really liked seeing this in RTS games. I get more anxious about using upgraded units and end up hoarding them more than I normally would. I do think I'm in the minority though, I'd rather have mostly static units that can be upgraded universally, not individually.

 

[JDNIGHT]

Exactly! As each unit gains experience in the field using particular weapon/item they get better at it. I want to also make reversals of skills- i.e. if you get good a Gauss weapons but you dont use grenades, then your throwing skills suffer.

I was planning on using RPG 'character attributes' to help determine the methods to which a unit evolved. Also use them to influence the character's actions and abilities. I.e. +Strength means the soldier can carry more items and take less of a 'time unit' penalty..

I like your ideas. However, it is not very realistic that someone would become worse with a skill just because they chose to use a different gun. I went 10 years without throwing a baseball, and then when I did it again, I was just as good as I had ever been. I certainly didnt get any better at it, but not worse either. Most mechanical skills are not forgotten for many years. Knowledge based and mental skills however can go much more quickly without practice.

Otherwise, the idea of evolving and developing team members sounds great! Much will hinge on the execution. My personal feelings are:

1) ability gains should be quicker at low level, but slow down considerably later on
2) there should be many options
3) a given soldier/character should not be able to achieve even 1/5 of the options given a long, successful game

These will allow for a wide variety of characters and will make getting them up in rank/level all the more rewarding.

Also, because no character can have even close to all of the options, losing even a high level one is not a game ender.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I like the idea. You need to make sure you fully exploit the mutation side of it. Continued evolution in certain directions could open up skill trees with crazy special abilities. Like using sniper rifles could eventually cause you to develop psychic abilities that allow you to shoot guys through certain walls, or killing guys with melee weapons could make you develop bony spurs for extra damage. I could see a lot of ways to make the evolution aspect pretty exciting.

I'm more hesitant about the idea of abilities atrophying with non use. Seems like it could get wearying very quickly trying to squeeze in all the skills you want to keep at a certain level and keeping up with everything going on with the skillsets in a large group of soldiers. You don't want the process to become tedious.