Ideas for a new game

Published on May 13, 2009 By Samurye In Everything Else

I've been thinking of ideas for a new RTS. This RTS would take place in either the present or very near future. This RTS would deal with a war between the U.S., China, and the European Union. Here is a tenative list of U.S. forces:

ARMY:

1) Infantry - Basic troops. Their default weapon is the M-16 with grenade launcher attachment, although they can be specialized to carry rocket launchers or sniper rifles.

2) US Army Rangers - lightly armed recon teams. Hard to detect.

3) Green Berets - One of the most skilled Elite units in the game, their only drawback is their tendancy to either go Native or Completely crazy. Oh and they sometimes collect the skulls of their victims.

4) Humvee - A light transport, the Humvee can be upgraded with light armor.

5) M1 Abrams - A main battle, tank, the Abrams offers firepower, armor and mobility.

6) M2/M3 Bradley - The Bradley is a well-armed troop transport, useful for scout missions.

7) Marines - The marines are a more powerful elite version of normal soldiers.

Navy:

1) DDG class Frigate - The only frigate class unit currently avaliable the the United States, it boasts the abiliy to switch combat roles on a dime, thus making up for its somewhat limited numbers

2) Nimitz Class carrier - The largest Warship on the Earth, the Nimitz can be deployed anywhere in the world. It also has a large compliment of Hornet and JSF fighter bombers to deploy at a moments notice. This is definitely a tough nut to crack.

3) US Navy SEALS - One of the best special forces teams in the game. They are specifically trained to Insert and Complete their objective as silently as possible. They are the Stealthiest Land based unit in the game.

4) Ohio class submarine - a large nuclear powered submarine, the Ohio class is an important part of the United
States nuclear deterrence policy.

Air Force:

1) F-15 Eagle - A Superb Multirole Fighter for its day, the F15 is gradually being phased out of frontline service due to its Age and limitations. Nevertheless, it still has a kill ratio of 5:1 agains most modern fighters.

2) F-16 Fighting Falcon - An Excellent Ground attack aircraft, it has the speed and manouverability that other ground attack aircraft lack. Unfortunatley this means that while its less expensive than other aircraft, its less versatile and more fragile in dogfights.

3) B-52 Stratofortress - A Massive Nod to the archaic bombers of WW2, the Stratofortress has been in most american conflices during the Late 20th century. The type is not yet ready to be phased out, so this model will remain in service well into the 21st century

4) F-22 Raptor - America's 5th generation fighter, the design skips ahead of other countries. Capable of fluing high and Silent, its drawback is its incredible cost to operate and maintain.

5) JSF (F-35 Lightning)/ JSF-STOL (Navy Version) - The JSF is a joint venture to expand on American Military Technology by adding a stealthy multirole Fighter. its drawbask is its relatively young age and Cost to operate.

6) AC-130/AC-135 Herculese - a close in air support artillery platform. if you see it, and youre not from the US, odds are you are already dead

7)B-2 Spirit - The B-2 is a stealth bomber, undetetectable by radar and difficult to see. The B-2 can drop 40,000 pounds of bombs. The only drawback of this aircraft is its stratospheric cost.

8) A-10 Thunderbolt II - The A-10 is a haeavily armed tank killer that can slice effortlessly through enemy armor. The A-10 can also sustain extraordinary amouts of damage and still fly.

9) EC-135 Spook - A Modified AC-130 airframe used to instill Shock and Awe within the warzone capable of broadcasting propaganda and instilling fear

10) E-3 Sentry - An advanced Radar/Command interface utilizing the most sofisticated technology avaliable, this unit relays orders and infromation in real time.

11) E-8 JSTARS - An Airborne battle platform designed to provide logistics for ground forces.

12) YAL-1 - An airborne laser platform designed to destroy enemy missles with advanced lasers. usually paored up with E-3 or E-8 aircraft.

13) RQ-4 Global Hawk - An Advanced Robotic Observation craft designed to go long distances

14) KC-135 Stratotanker - an aerial refueling craft, the KC-135 allows U.S. aircraft to remain airborne much longer

15) AH-64 Apace - A powerful attack helicopter, the AH-64 can devestate enemy forces while remaining in the same spot.

16) UH-60 Black Hawk - A transport helicopter, the Black Hawk is fairly fast, and infantry inside can fire out ate forces below.

17) CH-47 Chinook - The Chinook is a heavy transport helicopter. It is relativly fast, but cannot defend itself in any way.

18) V-22 Osprey - The Osprey offers the hover and short take off area of a helicopter along with the range or a turboprop aircraft.

Here is a starting list of the forces of the European Union

Army:

Congolomerate forces - This body is made of the combined armies of all EU countries. The multinational forces work almost smoothly. their drawback is the different weapons they use, seeing that this is the only way to tell individual forces apart.

SAS - The British Special Air Service is the most decorated of all EU operating units. Trained to do everything from flanking attacks to tactical assaniations, they serve the multirole purpose of being the only Elite force in the EU.

Navy:

County Class Destroyer - This destroyer was an offshoot for anti aircraft defense for the Royal Navy's Fast but poorly armed fleet. Although gradually being phased out, it still proves pivitol versus attack aircraft.

Leander Class Frigate - The "bread and butter" unit of the EU Navy. Capable of Anti-Submersible and interdiction duties, its drawback is its poor firepower versus newer types such as the American DDG class. Nevertheless, it is a sturdy workhorse that will continue until the 21st century.

Resolution Class Ballistic Submarine - This aging submersible is being replaced by the newer Vanguard Class, but still retains its role as a nuculear deterrent.

Vanguard Class SSN - This class of submarine is multirole to the max, capable of Nuculear assualt, ship destruction, and Criuse Missile launching (albiet, nowhere near as accurate as the United States Tomahawk III).

Albion Class Landing Dock - This relatively unarmed ship is meant for one duty only, to carry enough aircraft to a point of conflict as rapidly as possible.

Invincible Class Carrier - This carrier is among the smallest of any ship under this designation, but it's compliment of Harrier Aircraft makes it formidible.

Air Force:

Eurofighter Typhoon - Using advanced Thrust Vectoring technologies, this fighter has been confirmed to be one of the best multirole 3rd generation fighter, superseeded only by the F-15 and F-22.

Saab Drakken: This high speed interceptor was developed to combat subsonic fighter bombers swiftly and accuratley.

Tornado GR4 : Used extensively in late 20th century conflicts, this strike aircraft proves to be an important asset, when it has adequate fighter cover.

Harrier GR7A : This Update on the Jump Jet classic includes improved engines, greater stability and improved thrust vectoring. Weapons payload and survivalibity is improved to compensate for its subsonic speed.

Sentry AEW1 : Comissioned to be an early warning scout, this aircraft provides support and jams enemy radio transmissions

Nimrod : A true classic from the cold war, capable of recon and ground ops observation. however it is prone to being shot down.

KDC-10 : This in-air refueling jet allows E.U. forces to remain airborne for long periods of time.

These lists are not complete.

Samurye.

Comments (Page 4)

Sybertronic

on May 16, 2009

Silveus

reply 12

Alright, i got an idea for logistics. This is also going to take the places of resource gathering.

Instead of going out and harvesting resources and what not, you need to get "Supply" Supply can be gathered in 3 different ways, finding a stockpile of supplies, manufacturing, or delivery. On certian maps there will be armorys, depots, and other forms that contain supplies your army can use, but that can not be renewed.

Also, certian maps might contain factories, or farms that if captured provide a steady but small stream of supply. the reason why they would provide small amounts of supply is because they wouldn't be able to quickly make things, and 1 specific factory would only be able to produce 1 thing, say munitions. you would still need food, oil, armor, and othe things to keep your forces moving.

The other way is through delivery. Almost all maps while allow suppy to be trucked in. to create a supply convoy all you need to do is set up a loading pay on the side of an actual road (has to be on a road, not the middle of no where) as long as your loading dock is there trucks will come from outside of the map and drop of supply.

If there is a railroad and you capture the train station, supply can be sent through the tracks, railways give the greatest amount of supply but are the most vulnerable to enemy attack. you can also have supply brought in via airlift, the larger the airport the more supply that can be sent in. obviously if there is no airport on the map you will have to make a small runway which will get very little supply. If the map contains a seaport or dock you can have supply shipped in aslong as your in control of the docks. and finaly you can create helicopter landing pads and have helicopters bring in the supply.

Before i finish explaining Supply i am going to hit on how I think buildings and unit recruitment should work.

First off, units come in the same way supply does, so if you have no supply routes, then your not going to get any reinforcements.

They way i see buildings working is that instead of producing units they are more like the home for the units. so lets say a small barracks holds 2 squads of infantry. using the stacked fleet idea from GC2 your 2 squads could be 2 full sized squads of 20 soldiers each, of just 2 single infantry men. With your barracks up and running you can request your soldiers to be shipped in with the next batch of supply, however it is being sent. Obviously if your bringing in heavy tanks they wouldn't be able to come in on a helicopter and there would be limits to the amount of soldiers that could come in also. 100 soldiers aren't comming in on a airplane, but they could on a train.

When units are damaged they can return to their home building and regenerate, providing they are resciveing enough supply. Back to supply.

when the supply is being brought in it can be delayed or destroyed. helicopters and planes can be shot down, trucks and trains destroyed and so on. if the road the trucks use is mined your going to see a large delay as the trucks have to navigate past the mines and sometimes even get destroyed. the trains are vulnerable becuase their tracks can get destroyed, if you don't repair the tracks the train wont function. futhermore, after the supply gets brought onto the map it then needs to be transported to the buildings where your units are. so if your only supply point is a train station on the far left of the map and your forces are on the far right, your going to have problems.

Now for this to work there will have to be some kind of time system. i think some one said something like 1 minute being equal to 1 hour, so make it like every 4 minutes your units use up supply.

So lets say you have a barracks with 2 active squads, and you have a helicopter pad for supplies. every 4 minutes you need 2 supply for your infantry squads upkeep. you helicopter brings in 1 supply, but makes the trip every 2 hours. (the frequency of the trips is unique to each map. Being really deep in hostile territory means it takes longer for the trips) In this scenario, assuming your helicopters aren't getting shot down and that the supplies are getting to the barracks your going to be ok.

Now lets say your helicopter eats a RPG on its way in and crashes, your now short 1 supply. so you get to choose which squad gets the supply and the other squad takes a 10% decrease in stats. For each additional 4 minute block that it doesn't get its supplies it takes another 10% hit. back to this example, squad A misses its supplies and is now operationg at 90% efficency. next supply block your helicopter doesn't get shot down and you get all your supplies, so Squad A is back to 100%.

However lets say the helicopter goes down again. now your at 80% efficency. and the next helicopter gets show down, now your at 70%. finaly a helicopter gets through and squad A gets supply, they get one of the 10% losses back, so 70% + 10% = 80%. Squad A needs to get their supplies 2 more times in a row to get back to 100%.

Now lets say your helicopters are comming in easy now, your not loosing any supply anymore. so you build another barracks and call in another squad. you now have 3 squads that need 3 supply, but your hellicopters are only bringing in 2. one of your squads is going to take a hit. you can alternate and try to keep them even, or let 1 squad take it all. IF the squads rateing gets low enough and goes past its hardiness number, then the squad starves and dies. the hardiness number is different for each faction (I picture the arabic league forces being able to go pretty long with out enough supplies.) and the EXP level of the squads commander all factors in. So if the squad that hasn't gotten supply in a few days gets lower than 30% it dies.

BAck to the example again. you build another helicopter pad. so every supply cycle your using 3 supply and bringing in 4. You HQ can hold up to 3 extra units of supply. so the extra supply will be stored there, however any supply over the limit of 3 is wasted. if you build suppy depots you can hold more. So you have a stockpile of 3 extra supply in your hq, you have 4 more comming in every cycle, and your 2 barraks hold 3 squads and use 3 supply.

Gonna add something else here too.your units most spend atleast 6 minutes resting for every 24 minute "Day" every minute less they take a -5% penalty. no sleep at all gives them a -30 that stacks with other negatives. for every extra minute that they rest up to 10 minutes they get a +2.5% bonus. which also adds on to the negatives. by having your guys rest 10 minutes you can make up for the no supply penalty.

Lets say your soldiers are out and about. while they are away from base some bad guys sneak in and blow up one of your barraks. Now squad C is with out a home. You soldiers still need their rest but if you force them to rest with out a home. they take a flat -25% penalty, and that accumulates until they get into a home, so 2 nights spent homelss is -50%. your homelss soldiers can still get supply from the HQ but without their home with in 4 "days" they will be dead. if you can't get a new barracks up and running intime you can make a tent camp. tent camps wont remove any negatives from being homeless that the squad might have picked up, but it will prevent them from getting any more.

Your also going to use Tent camps on the front line where its not really possible to send the soldiers back and forth.

Also, you can intentionaly bring in more squads than you can house, or supply. if your scouts pick up a large enemy force moving towards you, you can bring in extra squads to help fight. IF there not given a home or supply they take the negatives like normal, but if you time it so they arrive right as the enemy comes in they will still be fresh. after you have beaten the enemy back you can send them back on the next supply shipment, after all if they die they loose their EXP, and each side in the war only has so many soldiers.

Well thats my idea.

PS. I am ultra tired right now so there is a chance that this idea might be alot stupider than i think.

Good but do you really want to keep bulding a lot of barracks i mean it would take up to much space unless they were small i think the barracks should hold more or instead of barracks since barracks usally train people why not just have a sckyscraper to hold a lot more people or be able to upgrade your barracks to hold more.

ps:no offence

Sybertronic.

Samurye

on May 16, 2009

Silveus

reply 20

I haven't played supreme commander, but i know the general idea. one of the things that have always sorta anoyed me in RTS was that the size of units scales really wierd. Some times heavy tanks are only slightly larger than infantry, and infanry are often the size of trees. I haven't played many newer RTS but in the old ones it was pretty common. look at Age of empires 1 and 2. a single ship produced at the docks was almost as large as the entire building, and these ships are supposed to have like over 100 people manning them, but they are only slightly larger than a single horse unit. Logicaly, a massive factory that produces tanks is going to have enough room to hold several hundreds of soldiers.

So idealy i would like to scale things better. A factory would be huge, and lots of people would be able to fit in it. Infact the factory itself could be considered part of the terrian.

And the reason why i said you wouldn't have room to do alot of buildings, is first because i envision the buildings being rather large, and second, because things would already be there. Plus unlike most RTS where you just slapping down a factory and some one comes over and builds it, well that doesn't really make sense. You need to get building supplies, and then the building needs energy, water, and all sorts of other things, that other RTS games ignore.

Realalisticly, you would have a hard time finding a stretch of land sutiable to build a factory on in the town you just invaded. plus the factory wouldn't get up and running in time to make any kind of difference. years latter in Iraq the USA is still having problems rebuilding the main infastructure. It takes time and isn't something that can be done inbetween enemy raids on your base.

And specificaly on the Airport, air fields would require an awfull lot of flat ground in a line. you could put some barracks or AA guns on the side of his and mountains, but not so much an air field.

Of course if you take over an airfield that is an entirly different situation. If you move into a city and take over the civilian international airports than your going to be bringing in tons of supply and extra troops.

I also would like to have realistic sizes for units, and the reason that I think that it would be possible to have large factories is because I want to make the terrain to scale to. Even a large factory is still fairly small compared to the land around it. I agree that building a structure should be more realistic. You would need power plants, water, food and all of those things. The only reason that I even consider creating structures is because they would only be used on big maps and in long, drawn out games. By long drawn out games, I mean that instead of the 1-10 day timespan of a normal game, time would be a bit compressed, and it would be as if you had had many years to plan and build. It would be like you were in a cold war rather than an onging conflict. As I said, there would be two gametypes. The kind of gameplay that you suggested would be the tactical gametype: the buildings are already there, and it is more of a matter of controling the high ground and keeping your enemy on the run. That would be the more realistic type. For those of us who wanted a more strategic approach at the cost of a bit of realism, there would be the strategic gaemtype: you have to build your buildings, placing them in strategic positions, create your units, and finally attack. The strategic gametype would be much less realistic, but it would also be the gametype where the most powerful units came into play: weapons of mass destruction, B-2 bombers, SLBMs, that kind of stuff would be much more common.

Samurye.

Sybertronic

on May 16, 2009

so you would be able to choose what type of game right?

and maybe on campaighn choose to do startegic campaighn or tactical campaighn that would be cool.

Sybertronic.

Silveus

on May 16, 2009

Barracks are actualy defined as such,

–noun Usually, barracks.

1.	a building or group of buildings for lodging soldiers, esp. in garrison.

2.	any large, plain building in which many people are lodged.

Barracks aren't used to train anyone, just mearlly people storage. Bassicaly a barracks consits of some beds, bathrooms and shower area, and maybe a small eating area. And since each Barracks holsd 2 squads by defualt, and each squad can contain 21 soldiers by default (20 "grunts" + 1 commander) a single small building is actualy holding 42 people.

Also, if you capture a skyscaper you could use it to store people, and your barracks can be upgraded to hold more, and certian factions would have greater capacity by default anyway. Side note tho, you really wouldn't want to use a skyscrapper to hold much of anything. Assuming the skyscrapper is filled and holds lets say 100 squads, thats 2100 people. and then a bomber comes by and blows it to kingdom come and now they are all dead.

Also i haven't thought about a skirmish mode. The way i envisioned the campaign didn't involved any unit production at all. each side would have a preset amount of each unit, and more would not be forthcomming.

USing my story sample from above, Task force bravo went rouge and attacked the Arabic League through the persian gulf. The forces they brought with them is all they have. They can get reinforcements from another allied fleet, but TF bravo is sorta surrounded, the closests allies are the EU forces fighting in and around turkey and greece. IF the devision of TF charlie that went neutral and is hidding indonesia comes to help then their forces would be added on.

Since the arabic League was caught off guard they don't have many forces there, however since they are fighting in their own territory they can reqruit millitia forces from their own people. But a millitia is only going to stall a regualar army, so while the millitia is teaming up with what ever Arabic League forces where there, the Arabic league will have to divert forces from somewhere else. however if they pull forces off their front with the EU, then they will be weaker there and the EU can choose to push in, or to divert forces to better battle the Eastern US forces in the UK ireland and iceland.

The amount of forces that each side has is for the most part set in stone at the begining of the campaign. This forces the player to be stratigic with the movement of forces, and it also makes retreats way more of a usefull response. Also it forces you to actualy think about what your doing. Sure grabbing 10,000 soldiers and just doing a mass charge right off the bat on the enemy's super fortified mountain top, might work. But your going to take massive looses. and if you do that often your going to find yourself further in the campaign with no infantry because you kept sending them on suicide charges. Instead consider surrounding their mountain and destroying the supply trasnports so they starve.

JuleTron

on May 16, 2009

Great ideas here as to how logictics could work. I also think that India could be one of the factions along with the EU, China, Russia, Islamic League, Israel (?) and the U.S.

More real-life units that the game could have:

Kamov Ka-58 Black Ghost: Russian attack helicopter with stealth capabilities. Strangely, this chopper is an anti-attack helicopter helicopter. It also has great anti-tank qualities.

Merkava IV: Israeli main battle tank. Its design is optimal for rapid battlefield repairs.

Eurocopter Tiger: Extremely agile German attack helicopter. It can even fly upside-down!

CAIC WZ-10: Chinese attack chopper with advanced radar and laser warning systems and electronic defenses. It is heavily armed with gun turrets, chain guns, missiles and rockets.

HAL Light Combat Helicopter: Indian attack chopper. It is equiped with air-to ground missiles, air-to-air missiles, bombs, rockets, 20 mm cannon and a grenade launcher.

HAL Tejas: Indian stealthy air-superiority fighter. Not yet in service.

Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle: American amphibious APC with a very long range and relatively high speed. It is armed with a machine gun and 25 mm cannon that can beat any vehicle shy of a main battle tank.

MADUSA: Mobile Energy Device. Information here: www.p2pnet.net/story/12661 It might be made-up, but it sounds cool!

Stryker: American armoured infantry-fighting vehicle that is immune to land-mines.

Type 212 U-boat: Very advanced non-nuclear German sub.

NLOS Cannon: American artillery.

Aardvark JSFU: British land-mine clearing vehicle.

Non-Line-of-Sight-Launch-System: American self contained missile launcher that looks like a fridge. Easily portable.

Dragon Fire: 120 mm mortar for the U.S Marine Corps.

Grizzly APC: American armoured troop transport. Designed for urban combat.

Crusher: American unmanned combat vehicle. Weighs in at 6.5 tons. Can move over ANY terrain.

Protector USV: Israeli unmanned fighting ship. Stealthy, fast and very agile.

If you want more info, look it up on Wikipedia or google search FutureWeapons.

Samurye

on May 17, 2009

Silveus

reply 24

Ah, I believe that that is where we were having communications breakdowns. I was thinking of skirmish. As for campaign, that does seem like a good idea.

I'm now swamped with new vehicles and weapons to sort out and post. This will take a while....

Samurye.

Silveus

on May 17, 2009

You might wanna limite the amount of units for each faction. from what i've seen so far you've got like like 100 thigns for each faction. If you also conisder that most vehicals have more than 1 weapon and that they can use different kinds of ammo, having 10 different kinds of tanks is going overboard.

Sybertronic

on May 17, 2009

Silveus

reply 2

how about 3-4 different stuff for navy,airforce,infintry,and artillery thats only 12-16 units per faction.

Sybertronic.

Scoutdog

on May 17, 2009

Here is the story for Israel:

As part of their treaty with the Islamic league, the US supplies a large amount of munitions and funding to Hamas, turning them into something resembling the Afghan Mujahadeen. They succeed in destroying the Israeli government and create a Palestinian state in its place. Israeli settlers either leave or just stay as (reluctant) Palestinians.

Some thoughs on IL units:

Generally higher morale than others.

Decreased ability to work with US untis, as they were enemies until recently.

Silveus

on May 17, 2009

With isreal i'd have to say that before the start of this they most have lost the support of the USA. if the plan was to team up with the Arabic League, then america couldn't leave isreal there. With isreal no longer getting US support and that support instead going to its enemies, and with the Arabic League probably putting an embargo around isreal, they would have quickly died. Isreal has almost certianly been destroyed, or atleast removed from power prior to the start of the war.

Samurye

on May 17, 2009

How about a 35 unit per faction limit? that would leave us with 140 units.

Scoutdog, that story will do for now.

Samurye.

Mr_Blunt3d

on May 17, 2009

i have a list of Buffs and Debuffs for each faction.

USA

PROS: Highest Tech level, greatest reaserchable morale mitigation, fastest supply refreshment, Greatest logistics.

CONS: Lowest Morale Amount, Highest cost, Highest supply Prerequistes, Slowest Unit Construction

PROS: Most versatile units, Powerful Navy, Cost effective army, Low Supply Prerequesites

Cons: Weak Air Force, Weaker Armour, Army Difficult to keep Supplied, Lowest Morale Mitigation.

Hack78

on May 17, 2009

Isreal has almost certianly been destroyed, or atleast removed from power prior to the start of the war

Haven't read the whole thing, but Israel is nuclear armed - they could glass 1/2 the arab countries and only the other nuc countries could do the same to them. I just can't see them rolling over...

Silveus

on May 17, 2009

I think it would be sorta funny if the EU units each had random benefits and penalties. British tanks are heavily armored but slow while german tanks are pretty fast and light. the EU has lots of different millitary cultures in it so units that are from the Ukraine would be way different from French units, who would be different from Swiss units (Who wouldn't fight, and take every ones money)

Silveus

on May 17, 2009

Hack78

reply 8

Isreal has almost certianly been destroyed, or atleast removed from power prior to the start of the war

Haven't read the whole thing, but Israel is nuclear armed - they could glass 1/2 the arab countries and only the other nuc countries could do the same to them. I just can't see them rolling over...

Isreal is only supposedly armed with nukes, they never actualy said they had them. for the sake of the game you could say they bluffed, but your right, Nukes are something we need to deal with. Perhaps Isreal just looses to terroirsm like Scoutdog came up with. Hopefully they wouldn't Nuke the Gaza strip and such.

As for the rest of the worlds nukes, perhaps make it pretty easy to intercept and destroy them. And in campain mode break the map into regions that are like 50 miles by 50 miles (maybe more) and if a nuke goes off in one region, all units with in a 4 region radius take combat negatives. The closer to the point of impact the worst the negative. Certian tech and factions would have more restiance to radiation. Multiple nukes would have double the radiation effect.

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