What game modes should we start with?

There's a Russian game called Defenders of Ardania, we should use it as a reference to analyze the model implemented and make better one then.

I just had a brainwave after reading a thread discussing experimentals/Krogoth.

-UberBot Mode
What if there was a game mode where key pieces required to build an Ultra Krogoth Experimental (let's call it an UberBot) were scattered across the solar system.
The objective is to collect all pieces and assemble them to get an UBERBOT :twisted:
Do you build up an army to defeat the UberBot or focus on retrieving the UberBot pieces or can you balance both? The choice is yours.

-A variation on Race/Wonder
So there is a master planet with the "Galactic Gate" or wonder but say another 2 planets with special tech also are required.
only when all three planets align and controlled by the same player do you get to warp and win.
For a twist, perhaps you could also add that if the other player owns the 2 auxiliary planets/tech he can beam pure energy onto the master planet annihilating anything there upon alignment :shock:

MMOs have stat increases over time, which means that PvP is inherently unfair. In RTS or FPS (amongst others) everyone starts off equal, so it's a totally different experience.

That's a capture point victory. Players capture the points to win.

A tech/wonder victory is unique from other win conditions in that it is not map dependent. It is a purely economic goal, with the player reaching extremely high tech and building a "victory project" at the very end.

A relic hunter mode? AoE2 had it, but it wasn't a mode I ever played.

In AoE2, you grabbed relics and stuffed them in your church. If you had a majority, it started a victory timer. In addition, the relics provided free gold as a resource.

Could such a thing work here? Maybe. Ancient, powerful relics, which provide free resources are always a good thing. That makes every piece valuable and worth fighting over. It also provides a resource that is not dependent on land capture, or land existence, so even a ruined galaxy will have some resources.

We don't need an uber robot, because we already have an uber metal world. Make the relics part of the metal world. You can not simply rush to the world and power build it, but instead must travel the sector in search of its working components. After you find an "adequate amount", then you can plug them into the world to turn it online. More parts might improve the world by increasing its firepower or engines, or simply giving big resources to the owner. A metal death star with tons of resources sounds like a relic victory to me.

There is a slight problem if players start deliberately nuking or destroying relic pieces. A relic only victory could end up impossible if there are no relics remaining. I'm not sure there's any way to stop this other than making the pieces out of invincible magic material.

It would be nice if you could set metal extraction locations to have limited amounts (IE, you can only extract X metal for each location) as a type of sudden death.

Well one thing is clear, there will be plenty of territory for modders to cover.

It's realy much work, and pretty difficult.... but an editor like in WC3 or SC2 would be outstanding.
Making it possible to make nearly everything with the engine.

Simple one:

finite/infinite resource toggle

what about a game mode that is a bit like star wars empire at war like have 40 planets and you start at one your opponent stars at another and 1st person to be wiped from the galaxy or maybe make it a bit smaller and say solar system 8 planets =D

That's potentially the same as Galactic War.

Mike

Thats kinda what I was trying to say couldn't remember the game mode would be kinda fun to see something like this

Preservation- The goal of this game mode is to keep an area of the map pristine and unaffected by the ravages of war i.e. no tire tracks through the area, no buildings, no craters from shelling. This game mode could have everyone protecting an area or just one person defending an area with a resource boost.

Victory conditions- You annihilate the enemy, you destroy a % of their preserved area.


Spy- The goal is to completely scout out the enemies bases, you start out in complete fog of war. The first person to find all enemy structures wins, if a structure is built near a previously identified structure it does not count as invisible.

Victory conditions- You annihilate the enemy, you find all of their structures.


Chaos - Every 5 minutes you switch who you are trying to kill. You can only attack your target and who is trying to kill you. You get points for killing commanders, assisting with a kill, damage received to your commander, damage done to other commanders and last commander standing. You can repair your commander.

Victory conditions- Either last commander standing or most points.

King of the hill/hills.
There would be a metal planet in between two planets where the players spawn.
The metal planet would have a certain number of "stations" that must be captured by engineers/commander.
When in control of all stations, the metal planet reveals itself to be a high technology super weapon, and annihilates the opposing players planet.

*Apologises if any of this is extremely similar to past suggestions! I haven't had a chance to really read through every single page.*

Leaders:(Attempt at claiming awesome mode title?) :lol:

Even number of players required to play properly.

Each has a dedicated Leader/s. However my feeling is the majority of players should always be normal not leaders.

Player format example:
6 players: One leader on each team.
8 players: Two leaders on each team.
Etc

Each team has Leaders commander/s (however it's not game over until all commanders are destroyed so a team without any leaders left could still win).

The Leader players would only have their commanders at the start of the game.

Whenever the Leader commander is destroying enemy units or structures this gains his team bonuses.

Which he can select quickly to either aid his commander or team or both!

Exp points naturally goes up slowly without leader player doing anything but staying alive.

Exp given to killing units, objectives, defending.

Exp purchases ideas:

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Calls in tough transport for leader commander.
Calls in drop team of mechs or tanks near allies units or leader commander.
Calls in air force backup.
Timed or one shot high powered blast bonus for leaders commander.
Timed invincibility, however after use commander is briefly frozen. (activated by hockey after purchase one time only).
Resource boost to ally.
Jet pack addon to commander.
Shield to commander.
Sword Added to commander (randomly used from that point on, i remember
Metal Fatigue now, this really wasn't a serious one).
Base drops (eggs).
Environmental destruction ability.
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Idea being a leaders commander gets more powerful as time goes on, could have a timer for when more powerful abilities would become available.

Units could still be given to Leader players, maybe after a certain time frame allow them to build defensive structures as well. It would probably work better on a big planet or have at least one opposing leader on each planet.

Leader players would focus far more on the overall battle and focus on building up experience from either destroying enemy units and completing objectives. Defending bases should provide a bonus of some sort too, not to give a complete advantage to leader players pressing an advantage. What I mean is if a leader commander is helping defend an allies base that ally gets a bonus and so does the commander.

Feel air shouldn't be a complete counter to a leaders commander and that they should be able to shoot them down in this mode, by all means make leaders more at risk from some units but not just air completely destroys them every time. Leaders have a slight area of effect bonus to nearest units which like anything else can be be improved.

I mentioned exp a few times but want to clarify that I don't mean levels. I think the regen on leaders commanders should quite quick though, while it's fun and nail biting to watch vet increases in health I think it should be less about taking on endless waves just to level up and more to do with putting your commander where it can do the most good and where you can aid your team most.

To help with the leaders not getting completely overwhelmed, maybe a timer system could be implemented for their upgrades 5 minutes in, pick either health and firepower increase or area of effect increase. 10 minutes Area of effect increase and more powerful drops or more powerful commander stats again.

This could be adjusted before the game for however long people felt it gave the leaders enough of a boost to make the game fun. So leader commanders get to improve their commanders stats the longer they survive. (Maybe they get slightly bigger too!) :lol:

As mentioned as a leader player you can select unit drops or maybe even a base drops (maybe giftable) later on. You could allow surprise drops this way but i'll leave that to whoever decides to balance or even make the this mode/mod.

Leader players special ability on their commander charge while gaining exp like a brief wave of missiles/a powerful uber cannon shot. The way I envision the mode. A leaders commander could march over to one of the normal players bases and cause them endless trouble at the start maybe even kill them if they didn't get help or retreat. The the fact would remain that you know the mode allows for an unfair fight at the start against a leaders commander. As such complaining about a leader using his commander at the start to take out one of the weaker commanders shouldn't be considered a non valid tactic or even something to complain about if you play the mode.

The mode would have to adaptable and allow the leader players to always be able to make a difference on the battlefield at the start but not be unbeatable by teams playing smart, especially if the leader lacked a teams backup for too long. The leaders would also have to be scaled depending on the number of players/leaders in-game and unique tastes of the people playing the mode/mod.

While i feel the idea is pretty fleshed out, there's probably going to be people questioning balance, among other things. I felt the mode was quite different to most of the ones I read so far though. I thought i'd expand it out as I wrote about it.

If anything maybe it will give inspiration to another idea. Nevertheless if you managed to read all the way through without frowning I'll be most pleased!

Lastly i'm anti passive veterancy from kills, i think the alternatives could work well though. It could be recognised that leaders are usually short game pieces and as such you know your overall objective as a leader is to do as much damage to the enemy as you can and not necessarily live as long as you can. To really drive this home you could have a toggle that no matter where a leaders commander was it would eventually explode. The time frame for that could be decided before the game as well.

The main idea being a good leader player could really help set his team on the road to success. Similar to the front player in Setons in Fa only less fiddling with a base and more focusing on hit and run tactics and giving short boosts to your team and commander and generally causing no end of problems for the opposing team. :lol:

I've been thinking about how to make RTS more friendly to players coming and going during the game, like an FPS server.

I end up on something like Europa Universalis. AFAIK Paradox's games still use the standard lobby system, but coming-and-going could work very well in EU4 multiplayer due to the game design.

The idea is basically FFA with dozens of prebuilt bases that cover the whole map. All metal spots are covered with mexes. Buildings can neither be created nor destroyed, just captured.

Those bases which are not controlled by players are controlled by the AI. When a player joins he can choose which AI commander to take control of. When a player leaves the AI takes over.

This way, even if you join late and one player is dominating you can always gang up on him. And since economy is much more static you won't be as disadvantaged joining late as in a normal FFA.

To shake things up, maybe joining players can also choose to start as a 'rebellion' within another player's territory?

This is of course just a game mode using the standard units and mostly standard rules. My dream is a full EU mod on a giant globe. Imagine 40 players as European powers, competing to colonize... Hopefully we'll get an editor with triggers at some point so coding noobs like me can contribute

It sounds like it could be fun. However, what you have outlined is an entirely new resource. PA already has 2 major resources: Metal(mass) and Energy. There is no third resource to buy new things.

It is possible that a separate level of metagame resources may be used for galactic conquest. While they may contribute to any single match, they are not part of the in game economy.

not sure what to call this one, but you start the game with x amount of resources, but are not allowed to gather any more. The army you build is all you will have to use, so you really have to plan the best way to use them, because you won't get any more.

It was called chess, and it was in FA.

Good news, that was one of the kickstarter goals.

"Flood"

global warming is causing the ice caps to melt, which will result in the entire world becoming flooded.

you could also have a "drought" variant where all the water receeds until there is nothing left.