Game Modes Concept talk/discussion

Keep up the good work Uber!

This discussion is for idea-tossing for Game Modes for Planetary Annihilation. Before a developer has a panic thinking i'm talking about entire game modes like singleplayer don't worry, you guys are doing great with everything, seriously.

What i am talking about is a form of Multiplayer custom games that we could discuss about ahead of time. Even though we do not have the game in our Hard Drives, we have concepts and Confirmed Suggestions that we can weave some ideas from.

The custom games ideas would be based on an overall concept and not ideas for specific units styled play. Some large scale custom games that could be integrated in the released version or later modded into by the community, either way it would be nice to discuss it.

Here are some concepts i drew up (not literally, sorry for lack of Concept Art)

-"DoomsDay" (Planet Size) A set time limit for two players to destroy each other on one planet before the second interlocked planet collides with colossal force
-"The Chains That Bind" (Planet-Size) A player can only create so many supply chains at a certain time, forcing them to think tactically about their placement and their map awareness. There are plenty of geysers to create supply chains, but which style would be used; A closed circle? A defensive box? A scattered chain? Or a defensive line?
-"Playing the Hand Given" (System-Scale) Very limited resources, forces extreme decision that will either reward people or fill them with feelings of regret. Could have limited supply geysers with significantly reduced output
-"Blood Lust" (Planet-Size) Players are given a short amount of time to build up structures and defense until it starts running low, then they must go out and attack the enemy and kill units to add time to the clock. Bigger the units, more time. Unit-based values for reward of time.
-"The Grand Siege" (Galactic-Scale) Players must attack objectives/structures/units in a predetermined order into order to progress to the next objective. Attack/Defend style except you get to use asteroids to take out a commander.
-"Do the Wave" (Ground Based Combat) Players are given a finite space to create armies and move them to a set location, after a set amount of time. The gates between the two armies are lifted and the gates to the structure are closed. This is a good concept for a Mod instead of an actual gametype.
-"Extreme Tag" (Galactic-Scale) Multiple players are set into a Galactic game and one commander is given a 'tag' that increases their resource income. The other players goal is to kill that commander and claim the 'tag' for themselves. This will have a time limit and either one player survives or the person 'tagged' lives long enough.
-"Luck of the Draw" (Galactic Scale) More of a mod idea, players are given a set of 5 cards in the beginning that have special attributes and abilities to them. Each card could either help the player build, help him attack, destroy an area, or even help the enemy. The player can draw a card after a certain amount of time, so you can either spend all your cards in one go or save them for a tactical advantage.
-"Phased Out" (Galactic/System Scale) In time intervals, there are phases in which you can release units to attack, build structures, expand locations, etc. This would also be more of a Mod since it would require setting limits and characteristics.

What's a supply depot?

I have no idea what the "supply depots" will be called, but i have seen Concept Art that it is geysers, i am not sure what the true name of these are called so i replaced the names with "Supply depots"

I mean, are you saying that there would be buildings that set the upper unit cap for you? Because in a TA-style game, there's no such thing . . .

In any case, Doomsday is has been suggested, (The sun going nova, for example) and several interesting ideas have come up.
Playing the Hand Given wouldn't really need to be a game mode, just create a map consisting of low resource/slow resource planets. (Though I think this may end up slowing down a system-scale game too much.)
Blood Lust is interesting, though I think it will be eschewed for no-rush maps. In TA-style games, once you start attacking, you don't really stop . . .
The Grand Siege would be like a Team Fortress 2 control map, I'm guessing? I'm not so sure artificial limitations on progress like that would work in PA, but that's just me.
Do the Wave seems to me like Blood Lust.

Poor choice of title, will revise.

What i mean is that there is a limited amount of areas where you can get a "supply chain" going and utilize that area to the best that you can, but you can't expand to another resource, say, closer to the enemy. Not without sacrificing the ones you have.

I wasn't trying to imply about starcraft 2 style "supply cap"

I like the idea of doomsday (and all the other related styles of it)

I added 3 more ideas to the list, feel free to discuss your idea or discuss ones i put up!

After playing Starcraft 2 mods loads I certainly appreciate the replay ability offered by additional game options. Supcom 2 had the right idea with exclusions and victory conditions, which could presumably be expanded upon. I would assume most would not be used very often, but adds some varied gameplay. Some of these could very easily be mods, but official ranked games with scoreboards and achievements encourage greater participation, and set the standard for modders to reach.

Take and hold – hard to envision how it would work, maybe better when its only on one large planet.

Economic victory – yes the game is about annihilation but simple enough to add in a target metal and energy level for players to reach first (maybe just to produce in total, rather than store up). Puts greater emphasis on targeting enemy production facilities, and a bit of a race.

Seek and Destroy – destroy a specific building on the enemy team to win, eg a fortress, immovable, tough – similar to assassinate but the entire team will work together to protect/destroy it.

Hold the Line – team verses exceptional hard AI – how long can you last – similar to last stand in Dawn of War 2 (but with base building), but no skill progression – still the basic game mechanics, enemy is on another planet and so strong you cant reasonably defeat them, but perhaps weakening them is a tactic - or there is no enemy base, just an enemy spawn location and predetermined waves spawn every 2 minutes. (randomised location so you cant turret camp it?).

Crack the Nut – similar to hold the line, but in reverse. Heavily entrenched turtling AI – time how long it takes you to destroy it.

Linked battles – in Battleforge in some scenarios 3 games would take place simultaneously vs the ai. Game 1 would be difficult, so the players have to just hang on in there, whilst games 2 and 3 would be in the players favour, but it’s a question of how quickly they win – when they win all their units are transported into the Game 1 world, so can help turn the tide. All players can chat to one another to update them opn progress, but they cant see each others games until they get there.

Hurdle battle – in larger games, say 6 v 6, each starts on their own planet, and there are spares to expand to. But each player cannot leave their planet and join the wider battle until they have killed the basic ai on their planet. You can also donate units to ‘your’ ai which is holding up someone on the other team. If you get ‘out’ first do you go for expansion, or help your teammates, or help the ai holding up the other team? Adds an extra level of teamwork and strategy.

Castle wars / Tug of War / dot wars – 1 planet only, all units other than builders immediately attack the enemy base, and you have no control over them – they simply walk in a straight line to the nearest enemy unit. I imagine this wouldn’t be too hard to hard-code as an option into the game. Your job is to build the base and set the build order of the factories. Still have normal economy and build options. may need to exclude defensive structures in this as they would likely be too strong as you cant order the troops to engage them effectively. Would have move interesting tactics to most line wars games in that it’s a spherical map, so the angels of attack are many, rather than purely left to right.

Space Race – two identical lines of 4 planets. Ai on each planet. Your team can only move to the next planet in their line once the ai is dead. Race to defeat the ai on the forth planet. First wins. The longer you take the more time the ai has had to build up a base.

Wall of text over.

Soviets versus United States

First to the Moon, then first to Neptune? (That is based on Sol System model, not a new simulation's unique planets)