An idea for a new style of multiplay!!!

[IceFire 0]

I know I posted an idea like this in another thread.

But I rethought it and thought it would make an excellent multiplayer game. It is basically identical to my other dynamic campaign, only meant for multiplayer. Instead of fighting the computer, you would be fighting another player online. This would be MUCH more interesting.

I have an idea as how to design a multiplayer campaign.

The player would have to act as both General, Soldier, and basically the general designer of his own campaign.

Basically at the beginning of the game, the player would be informed as to how many total troops, tanks, choppers, crew, special operations units, boats, and other vehicles he has available for total for the entire campaign, and where on the island(or wherever) they are positioned. And a figure of how many units the enemy player has and where on the island they are.

Before the first mission, the player would have to decide what to do first. He would most likely spot the closest and most vulnerable, or perhaps most valuable enemy defense and decide how to attack it. He would have to determine how much of his forces(troops, tanks etc) to send in and in a large scale .. what troop/tank/ chopper formation. That meaning where will the different platoons attack from, from where and when will the tanks and choppers strike. Once all the major planning for the mission is complete, the player would then actually start the mission.

In the mission, the player would have the opportunity to play one of the squad leaders in the battle. How well the mission goes would depend on how well he planned it out and how well the opposing player had his defenses set up at that base. Did he use choppers? Are there enemy Anti Air systems in the area?

After that mission, he would recieve 2 mission complete reports. One for the player as the soldier who was fighting, and one for player as the general who planned out the mission. This would be something like how many of his troops died, how many are left in the area, how many enemies were killed. He would also be updated if during the mission YOU played the enemy already attacked another base of yours.

Then the player would plan out what he wants to do next. Where to move more troops, again like before the first mission.

In the end it would be up to each player to use what he has wisely to acheive the objective and win the game.

Basically this would work like a turn based strategy game, something like "Lords of the realm". But using a large zoomable map to plan out the "mission" portions of the game where the action actually take place.

Nothing happens except for during the missions when the player is actually out in the field.

Each player would actually have to determine how to react to eachothers actions. Each player would plan out it's own actions during the same time the other player is planning out his own.

I think this form of a game would have alot of possibility. The actual missions would still be from the same perspective as OPF is now. You would play as the same squad leader or tank/chopper man as you can now. But you would have the opportunity to plan out the whole campaign and how and where you want to attack, and using which forces.

When players want to leave for the time being, they could save the game at its current position and later come back and continue and a prearranged time.

What do you all think?

I think this would be loads of fun if someone could make a mod of this type.

[Rune 0]

Sounds loads of fun.

But is this only for 2 players? If not won't somebody get bored during planning?

I really like the idea and it seems not too complicated to implement the 'savegame' with saveStatus(like suggested by CrashDome of SOW) to simply bring back units remaining, areas controlled, time of day and such, but not such things as individual positions of units or their ammo/fuel/health details.

[IceFire 0]

Well I do suppose 3 players could do it too.   After all, there are Russians, Americans, and the Resistence.  But that should only be for experienced players.

Anyhow, this could be very exciting.  I mean you are planning attacks against another player opponent, and he would be planning the same against you at the same time.    You would have to plan out your attacks and think about your defences at the same time.  

Remember, both sides have a limited amount of troops, air, armor etc..    If you decide to ignore large scale strategies and just go jump in a chopper, you could risk getting shot down by well placed AA by the enemy AND lose several(hundreds) of units because your opponent planned out a large scale coordinated assault using many tanks, air, and infantry to spearhead a few of your main bases that you did not have units set up defensively.  Therfore by completely wasting a precious turn you are now at a huge disadvantage.

Also remember, you do not always know where the opponent has his bases and units set up.   Both sides will have to do reconnaisance at the beginning of the game to know where the enemy is located.   You could use spec ops for this, or use choppers/planes to do recon, or you could even zip around in a jeep to find them.  In the mean time your other units could be following your orders such as moving into defensive formations or setting up different bases.

[IceFire 0]

Cmon people! I didn't think all this up and type it all out for NOTHING!

[Rune 0]

I think it would be best if there was the option of bringing in players other than the commander on each side. Other players could be sent on critical missions by the commander but would not be needed to make it work.

It would be nice if it could be played cooperatively, even though it might be hard to make a decent AI-commander...

Also it would be good to have some form of on the fly commanding involved, simple stuff like cancelling an attack because you've found mines that weren't planned for.

[IceFire 0]

Yeah, I actually thought about the on the fly commanding thing. There should be some sort of command screen you can switch to(just like pressing map) to let you make ingame commands to react to things happening during gameplay.

I should have added that to my original post but forgot.

[Rune 0]

...Well if you make it, I'll play it.  

[nubbin 0]

yeah, me too!

[IceFire 0]

This sounds like the beginning of a project!

Any experienced modders want to help make this vision become reality?

Anyone else interested in seeing this idea become a real playable game? Voice your opinion.

[IceFire 0]

Not a SINGLE response.

Maybe I should have posted this in OFFTOPIC? Noone really seems to look in here.