Battlefields - An idea to encourage field engagement

[LordStark]

It is always cool to see large armies go head to head in a battle, but I find this rarely happens - usually the enemy is attacking you or you are attacking them and the battle is more like a chaotic melee.

Battlepoint Mode

One possibility is if there was certain "Battle Points" on the map that a player/AI can occupy with troops for a certain benefit (taxes?) the larger the Army at the location, the greater the benefit. When troops are occupying a battle point all players are alerted and can choose to assemble their Army and go to the Battlepoint (or the enemy base). From there, the first Armies incentive is to remain at the battlepoint for as long as possible to continue obtain benefits (perhaps the benefits can increase as time goes by). The attacking Army will obviously want to destroy the defenders or at least force them to retreat.

Battlepoint availability could be temporary events where you can only get the benefits for a certain length of time.

It would be awesome to assemble a large Roman Legion to face off against an expected attack and tell the soldiers to hold their ground. 

I am aware that some players want battalions, perhaps this could also be a situation where battalions are allows in order to help a player organise their forces on the battlefield.

[Stan`]

So... a king of the hill game mode ?

[Lopess]

29 minutes ago, Stan` said:

So... a king of the hill game mode ?

 

I think like captures strategic points.

Edited June 30, 2022 by Lopess

[Lion.Kanzen]

Capture flag.

[LordStark]

12 hours ago, Stan` said:

So... a king of the hill game mode ?

Not quite. It would not be a victory condition. It would simply create situations while playing the game where two Armies could face off against each other. The first player would assemble his troops knowing in advance that he will be confronted (rather than the enemy simply going around him). So he has time to get them into a formation.

There are no buildings and no capuring of flags - this is the total opposite of what I am proposing as the players soldiers would all encircle the flag. The player simply assembles his troops in a random location on the map and keeps them there for five minutes to earn some kind of significant reward. When he assembles his troops, other players are informed and the part of the map becomes visible to everyone.

There could even be some additional features where soldiers behave differently on the "battlefield" - more likely to stay in formation etc etc

[Stan`]

You can probably do that using trigger scripts.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

In a hypothetical RTS I designed many years ago I came up with the idea that once you hit a certain military size you could challenge your enemy to battle and you'd pick a spot on the map that then gets set up like a Total War battle map, with two end zones where you each can assemble s certain amount of your troops. In the middle of the playing field there'd be a capturable  flag or Tropaion.  At the appointed time the end zones turn off and whomever holds the Tropaion after a certain amount of time wins the battle and gains a large number of benefits. The losing player can choose to forfeit the battle at any time so that they can save their troops from death, but doing so carries a penalty. In this game, troops are relatively expensive (compared to 0 a.d.).

Such a pitched battle might only happen once or twice in a match, and would be a good way to end a stalemate. In this game, msssacring an enemy town isn't exactly the goal, but rather their surrender.