Adding game play functionality

[mrgenie]

Hello everyone.

I'm quite capable of programming in c++ and c# as well as javascripting(although that's only limited to my own webpage demands)

I'm also a lover of games like Civilization, Supreme Ruler 2020, Europa Universalis, but also I love Empire Earth, Total Annihilation, Age of Empires, etc..

Simply put: Real time strategy and Turned based strategy.

I'm aware this project is focussed on Real time strategy. Which is great!

But what I'd love to see, is a project being able to switch from real time to turn based and other way around..

I've been looking for some open source solution for a long time, which incorporates a nice 3d engine. Although I could do it from scratch, I'm not into starting a project for 1 or 2 years before I actually get the basics done..

This is the first project which is both open source, and fulfills my demands.

written directly in c++ (IMHO this is the best way to go to keep things fast)

it allows scripting (although I really don't prefer scripting, interpreters always cost you performance) it's nice that it adds this possibility.

and it offers a, at least at first glance, nice implemented 3d engine

to point this out:"I'm not trying to divert this project to something else"

the idea is, the writers of this game, can continue to include improvements, which will be included in my project as well! It's the easiest way to go to use what other have made for you.

However, the modification I'm thinking about is more in the civ-style. Not a round map, but an earth map.

Yes, my goal is only 1 map. A true earth map. To cope with different CPU's on the market, maps should be small, medium, large, huge, gigantic.. all earth maps though.

The game should start as turn based, every player has his/her own turn..

But, you can set the game to run on real-time.. players choice..

Also it's about world building.. you build up cities, but not like in civ, city = 1 hex and build more and more,

but more in the sense like Supreme Ruler 2020, every tile has people, at some point (100.000 citizen) a small town representing here live many people, 1.000.000 a larger city representing.. etc..

you build utilities to your lands, factories, musea, etc.. just like in civ, giving bonus, but not just to a city, but also to surrounding lands(employment, happiness, etc)..

well you see what I get at.. if enough people are interested, things can be worked out more thouroughly..

the supply chain must be same as in supreme ruler 2020, only better!

resources, you don't get oil, and that's it!

no, oil will be spread(like all other resources) around the earth map as in reality! AI and human must fight for resources, or trading by international stock markets.. those are raw materials, nothing you can do with them.. stick to oil, you need refineries.. you need cracking processes, you need several techs to achieve this.. you then get monomers, with tech you can get different plastics, those plastics help you improve economy, trading benefits, raise productivity, etc.. economy should be real! complex enough to make it look like it's real, but still stick to simple equations to keep CPU demand low..

anyway, after this chain of resource processing, you get stuff your country needs, your people want, and you need to build up armies(production requirements and demands)

as resources diminish, you get new technology (recycling tech) where you get xx% back for goods..

where you can go to waste deposits as new ore supplies, energy will slowly moving towards nuclear, solar, water, hydrothermal, etc.. Desertec for example as final solution.. real future techs...

anyway, as you can see, we're planning something very complex, but only if we can keep equations simple(like I said, any next turn, or in real time modus increments, must be fast!)

war, combat..

this could be done in real time/turned based as well..

you can use an auto-battle resolve as used by most games, including civ and also by most real time games..

but the idea is, a tile representing an area of 50x50km.. so you can have let's say have an army of 50.000 to 200.000 people there.. (in modern times, the old ages didn't have such huge armies)..

hwoever, a unit represents a division, or larger(not familiar with the exact terms).. so 1 tank representing a battle group of 200 tanks, with 1000 personell.. an infantery unit representing 5000-7000 soldiers.. or similar.. so on 1 tile you'll have a max of maybe 5-15 units.. to avoid stack of doom! and too keep it more realistic.. they can engage in combat against other units like in a normal game... unless, you decide the battle will be VERY important.. then you can switch to turned based, the game stops, you accept the battle in a real time 3d landscape(a new landscape representing the tile the battle takes place, with true landscape elements impacting the battle).. here you can use winds, forrest, rivers, bridges, etc to your advantage(or disadvantage).. actually, I think the game 0ad as it is right now would already fit perfect to such a scenery! only that in this setup it will only be used to resolve the battle..

I don't want to write 2 hours now for the idea..

We are a group of modders from civilization.. We have coders on the team.

and Artist people..

We wrote own AI code and many other stuff..

We are capable pulling this off..

Time is critical here.. it's not something you do in 1 year..

the question to the devs of 0ad is..

would it be ok, if we used your code and work?

Would it be ok, to see if we can streamline your work with ours, parallel development..

I mean, your work on the game, fits perfect for the battle scene...

leaving out buildings..

so the idea is more or less, we have a huge earth map.. civ alike gaming..

but when important battles gome, this huge map is frozen, and we step into your game on a new map, to resolve the battle..

if you're not interested in such a parallel development(I think both the battle resolve scene and the stand alone version of your RTS can both be implemented in 1 game, just the buildings, animals, etc not loaded for the battle resolve feature)

I also added a poll here online, to see if people would be interested in such a game..

to make it clear..

if you know civilization, Supreme ruler 2020,.. the game overlay would be a combo of those 2..

if you know medieval total war, the battles there also go into a 3d scenery to resolve the battle.. this is where 0ad comes in place..

it would be, more or less, a Real Time - Turn Based, universal strategy game combining all features of all games..

Of course we are aware this project, idea, would take at least 2 years development with a good group of coders..

but then again, we're into strategy! We don't need modern art fancy 3d.. what is on the market today, will be enough also in 20 years for Strategy gaming.. meaning, 10 years ago, any development wouldn't be sufficient for future graphic demands.. but today.. there isn't anything you really want more in a strategy game, everything exist today.. so this development, could be final..

freeciv is a nice development, but it was started in old days, graphics simply not nice..

but ever since civ3, maybe 4.. graphics are just all you need..

so, this development, I personally consider it an EPIC development, something you don't start to be ready in 2 or 3 years..But something that might evolve over 2 or 3 decades.. something others will say:"wow, you are part of that?"

Hope to hear from you..

anyone and everyone..

[Ykkrosh]

Hello everyone.

...

Hi - sounds like an ambitious project

would it be ok, if we used your code and work?

Would it be ok, to see if we can streamline your work with ours, parallel development..

The code and data are open source so you can use them however you want (with the usual restrictions of providing credit and not misrepresenting the original work). We want to keep focused on just developing 0 A.D. - I think we probably wouldn't want to incorporate features that add significant complexity to the engine that won't be used by our game (since complexity will hurt when we're adding other features), but if there are simple changes that make the engine work better for other games then I'd be happy to include those. If you need more radical changes then it'd probably be better for you to maintain a separate fork of the engine code, so you'd have the freedom to do whatever you want with it, and you should still be able to merge improvements to 0 A.D. back into your copy of the code.

Using an existing game engine definitely sounds easier than starting from scratch, and hopefully 0 A.D. is reasonably extensible so it shouldn't be an impossible starting point - it'd be interesting to see what happens with this project

[bill2505]

i am very interested to see a mod like this . for inpiration see medival total war 2 .they blend the rts and the city managment great

Edited March 2, 2011 by bill2505

[AuroN2]

TL;BR

I've given this sort of suggestion before, or more like, the question of "Would total wars campaign map kind thing be possible to recreate in the 0ad System".

U got a more negativo response than your getting here

Though, i haven't read more than the first few lines. meh.