What game modes should we start with?

We spent some time today going over game modes. Some feedback at this point would be useful. So throw it out there, what should the first set of game modes we create be?

When I say game modes I'm mainly talking about things like victory condition. E.g. commander death ends game type stuff.

In addition things like standard sliders or other config options in the lobby. For example unit restrictions lists, starting energy/metal, handicapping of various kinds etc.

We have our own ideas here but I'm curious if the community can come to a consensus.

tech note:
The current intent is to setup this stuff so that multiple mods and victory conditions can work together and extend the lobby. So for example multiple victory conditions that can all trigger, economy mods that do different things, unit stat mods etc. Each of these could then expose some config options to the lobby so they can play nice together.

Hmmm, I'll give this some thought.

Until I get my thoughts down, I'd just like to say this game is going to be a PC gamer's wet dream come true.

Victory Conditions:
Sandbox (For Testing no victory condition)

Total Annihilation (Destroy or capture all enemy units and structures)

Assassination (Destroy Enemy Commanders and/or X unit, Or all buildings)

Race (First to build marker/anything on spot X and/or all planets in game)

Achievement (To complete a task example:Store X amount of metal and/or Energy, Build X number of units, Build X unit first) (Multiple victory conditions required would a good option not just one but do X + X + X = Victory)

For the modding aspect, have you tried out TA:Mutation? I'm referring specifically to the mutator aspect of the program. Open up the {}mutator files (text), and you'll find that enormously powerful mods can be made with like 2 lines of code.

If I understand it correctly, a mutator starts with original unit stats and modifies them according to the directions in the mutator file. It's an ancient program that saves everything to disk, but it seems a small leap to make the changes during loading.

I do have a little bit of nostalgia on it, but it was fun playing around with the mods a bit.

It also includes a special game mode. The warp gate mod gave players a singular resource structure with fixed income. All tactical decisions had to be made around using those fixed resources to destroy the enemy gate.

Unit restrictions should of course be an option. Face it, balance is never perfect. Having options to allow/disallow any unit is a good thing, and is consistent with previous TA/SC titles as well. Better controls for that and the option to save presets would be a good addition here.

Time Limits I think are important. The scale PA is aiming for is truly epic, perhaps more epic than many people are really prepared to deal with. Which makes the option for time limits crucial I think. In a recent thread I also discussed backing up this idea with cosmic events (meteors, expanding stars, supernovas, black holes, etc.) to reinforce the idea of why that time limit exists. I think it adds some color to the idea, and would be nice to see in the randomized campaigns as well.

Scale. Big systems, small systems. single planet battles. Anything from multi system battles to even a single lonely airless moon, should all be options. There should be plenty of options to scale up or down the size of the battles, both to adjust game length, and also to keep things interesting.

Weather effects. It's another concept that's been kicked around, both as a random hazard to units/structures as well as a potential justification for unit restrictions. It's one of those ideas that some people like, and some don't. So I think it should be optional at game select.

Also, for any selection, there should also be a random option as well. It can be fun going into a battle blind not knowing what to expect. You should be able to random specific fields, or random all as desired.

EDIT: victory conditions. Of course commander death or not should be an option. Some new options might be interesting to see as well. Might be nice to see an option for an economic win, i.e. producing 400% more metal/energy than your opponent after a reasonable build up time could be an alternate win saving the need for hunting down every single unit.

What about the "tech/wonder" victory? I am of course referring to the successful completion, charging, and utilization of a galactic gate to get the hell out of dodge! :lol:

Edit: Cut+Paste. See post below.

A list of brainfarts:

- first one to blow up a planet wins
- loose if homeplanet is blown to smitherines
- commander dies you loose
- sandbox
- kill all units
- kill all buildings
- one building captured = loose

I dig this one. I've been thinking about it more from the standpoint of building new commanders to send off to conquer new systems. After all isn't the entire point for them to spread throughout the universe and conquer all? If it takes the resources of an entire system to build a commander...

Whoop, time for some cut+paste magic.

For the tech victory you have a 3 step project. The special gate costs a ton of resources to build and probably triggers a warning. When complete, it consumes all excess energy until charged (so more generators = faster charge time). The third step is to walk your Commander through the gate. This would probably reset the gate if more than one Comm is needed.

A ton of players are fighting over the system, and are using a ton of resources in the process. I sure hope there's enough leftovers to build more than one Comm.

Hmm. First to 5 successful Commanders out the gate wins? It could be any number, really.

I quite enjoyed the phantom mod in FA so something along those lines would be enjoyable.

An aside, the idea of building a commander is quite intriguing. For games where you want people to join on the fly, what if you had to build a commander first for the joining player to use?

Definitely an intriguing idea although there is no reason everyone needs a commander anyway.

One of the things I always thought would be interesting would be a forced surrender condition if you're weak enough. I realize that some people like fighting the enemy to the bitter end, but most often after a certain point it's clear the enemy/you simply can't win. I've always wanted to play a game like this, but playing a meta game where you win by economy mostly. Basically if you total unit power is x % more than theirs you win. It's always annoyed me that often times in games I'll spend a reasonably large amount of time trying to track down the last few units/buildings/etc... when clearly I've obliterated the enemy and there is no realistic way they could win.

My first instinct was to hate this idea, but putting it that way, you may have a point. Build a commander, build and power a galactic gate? I could easily see that kind of project being epic enough to justify a game over situation.

Of course, not everyone will agree, so it should be an optional victory condition that can be turned on/off.

I agree. I'd like to see this as one of the optional victory conditions. Players that prefer a total victory hunting down every last unit can of course turn that option off.

Yes, we talked about this today. No hunting for the last wall piece type crap.

The concept of time limits is really important to me. With the epic scale PA is going for I'm really concerned it's going to end up being too epic for many players if we don't plan on making some shorter game play modes available right from the start.

And when talking about time limits, I like justifying them with actual game play elements. Rather than a sudden pointless time limit, make it fun with cosmic events (Meteors, Comets, Expanding Stars, black holes, etc.) The idea there is to provide a more tangible reason to justify why the time limit is there. Win before everybody dies. Good luck.

My vote for Phantom/Murder Party (very similar in concept, minor differences in the rules between the two).

Who is familiar with that Zone Control map/mod back in the hay-day of GPGNet? That's probably something left for the community to bring in.

Setup two planets in the same orbit but going opposite directions. When worlds collide...

Yes we used these game modes as a sample in our discussion. Well Phantom anyway, I kind of like the murder party concept better.

Oo oo. Add some small moons to the map.