Assimilation Game Mode

First time poster here. I am very excited about this upcoming game, and can't wait for the combat reveal coming up!

Also, I wanted to post a suggestion for a game mode which I think would add a tremendous amount of fun to the game: The Assimilation Game Mode

The idea behind the mode is simple, when a player's commander is killed, his remaining forces are permanently allied with his killer. The game ends when there is only one commander remaining, and that player is the primary victor. Players previously conquered by this player, by virtue of being in an alliance, would also win a sort of secondary victory.

In a large game with many players and multiple planets, this allows a player to conquer a world, assimilate the enemy forces, and then move on to the next world with his new allies.

Of course, if a player refuses to help their new emperor in his conquest of the galaxy for whatever reason, the emperor could always launch an asteroid at their base... ;P

In the words of the Borg, "Resistance is futile." Thoughts?

+1

i would also suggest shared control option when you're conquered to ease coordination, like starcraft 2's shared control, maybe even require shared control when conquered

this is great because it forces a balance between bolstering your own forces and gambling on attacking your neighbor for much more benefit.

+1

I don't see the harm in having this. I know it is quite fun with the SC2 arcade game Empires and Conquest.

yup just like that, day9 demonstrates it pretty well if it's not clear by the OP.

although to clarify, you still have your own separate economy even when you're annexed

+1

I don't have much to say except great idea. Definitely something that I would like to play.

sounds like a prime candidate for a 40 player mode

I like it

+1 for good idea

I like thuis idea woulod be a fun game mode for larger games!

This was my thought exactly, would allow huge wars between massive alliances. Fun!

sounds like a fun mode!

free bump for op, this is an old idea and comes up periodically in different forms,

here's an old PA thread and zero-k thread on similar modes

viewtopic.php?f=61&t=39544
http://zero-k.info/Forum/Thread/3515

the application being when a commander dies it drops a "control core" that another player can then recover.

The Control Core could be a mechanic of this but I'm not even sure that that is needed. As long as the eliminated player joins the victor and gets to keep playing.

One interesting idea I see though is the effect of a resignation. If you are not yet conquered, could you resign to anyone at any time, giving them direct control over your troops? And if you are conquered, what is the effect of the resignation? Would it give the Emperor direct control, or should he have an option to give control to another player?

Your units either explode or can somehow be claimed by another player.

Emperor gets direct control, he can then share control with any of his allies.

It will be important to easily switch shared control/income/etc on and off for battles or base management. You should always be able to manage what was originally yours though.

+1

This isn't mentioned in the OP but many of the games that employ a similar gamemode also allow conquered players to be reconquered by others. Reconquest keeps the game dynamic and allows momentum to shift. For example, instead of the binary "kill their single commander or lose" you could conquer their main air force player or economic power house and cripple them.

For reconquest to be possible a proper capture-to-control mechanic should be thought out. Simply killing a player and gaining control of their units doesn't address what happens in the event of a simultaneous commander death. Simply killing an opponent's commander for control also does not allow for unique player experiences - instead of being a player fought over many times your experience is entirely tied to whomever conquered you first.

A capture-to-control system could be as simple as a (sub)commander spawning in place of your old (sub)commander. It could also take the form of a control-core that must be claimed. A player could for example send a unit to reclaim a defeated player's core which would then become the player's command-unit or the core could "rebuild" into a loyal (sub)commander. Having a commander peewee or krogoth would be pretty funny though.

Even without player-reconquest some problems should be considered e.g. simultaneous commander deaths, planetary annihilation, resignation, player annihilation. A control-core system would address simultaneous deaths such that both players could be claimed by a third. An interesting race would follow if the players already belonged to larger factions. The units of a non-commander player would be inactive until claimed.

If there is a special (sub)command unit it should not be abusable, e.g. team killing yourself to respawn with more HP or com-bombing enemies.

Hmm... The danger I see here is someone not wanting to be conquered and taking their new commander and simply running in and get killed again by the other team. I'd think I'd almost rather have people be strictly on one team after being conquered even if it means it would be harder to shift momentum. This would prevent the "screw these guys who conquered me" mentality, and replace it with "well, I'm on this team anyway, so I may as well make sure this side wins" mentality. Even with control cores, you would still be likely to try to avoid helping your sovereign/overlord because you "hope" to be reconquered. It also has the side effect of making games faster anyway, which I think might be important in a 40 player game.

Yes, this can happen in the assimilation games I have played. As you noted though, forcing players to stick with their conquerer doesn't prevent spite. Someone could still refuse to help, ctrl+k, or worse actively sabotage you.

There is merit to making the games faster though, if you join a 40 player match you may be in for a long game but that's no reason to over complicate things. I do cede that the assimilation-style games I have played have generally been 8-14 players, so player reconquest and momentum shifting was necessary to keep the game interesting. That may not be necessary with 20+ players but I do think player reconquest as an option would add a lot of replay value for smaller games.

Perhaps the conqueror should be able to compel direct control of their victims' units? It wouldn't be the most friendly way to treat an ally, but it could help quell rebellion.

You could also allow an emperor to wrest control from his victim/vassal entirely, or allow one him to designate those units to another player, allow the emperor to attack the vassal but not allow the vassal to attack the emperor... Heck there are plenty of solutions to the possible rebellion. But honestly in assimilation games I have played you rarely see this problem anyway. The point is to get assimilation mode in the game!

+1