... and maybe some other games thrown in the mix for good measure.
(Links to Disgaea, Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms, and FarmVille on WikiPedia.)
I have, over the course of my life, played a diverse variety of games that caught my attention and then proceeded to wring it dry. Ikariam, Civony/Evony/Ceasary, *Ville, Atlantica Online, Kingdom of Loathing and and countless other web games have stolen hours of my life that I cannot get back.
Most recently I tried out "Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms" and while I may give it a bit more of a shot... it's not what I'm really looking for.
First, despite myself, I like those "online" games where you have a constant stream of stuff that you "can" do, and a short list of things that you "have to" do in order to progress in the game. I only want to "have" to spend a few minutes every few hours but I want to be able to "grind" when I feel like it.
In addition, these games tend to take most of the "strategy" out of the strategy game. You really just build the next thing and then build the next thing. When I worked out a optimal profit schedule for FarmVille such that I was planting crops that would be harvested in the morning before work, immediately after work, and then short crops every few minutes until bed time... but all that really didn't make a difference in the long run. In FrontierVille, Mafia Wars and Treasure Isle they coupled these mechanics with a slowly regenerating energy bar that could be spent right away but you would only "lose" it if you didn't play for over eight hours or so. Basically it was like they had built a machine that's only purpose was to ensure your kept looking at it on a regular basis... their ad-impressions stats must be astronomical... but still, just knowing when and how often to log-on isn't strategy.
Another problem in the "empire management" genre is that the battles are very hands off... I attach an impersonal horde of troops to a hero and send them off to complete a mission. One of the things I really liked about "backyard monsters" was that I felt like I had some strategic control over my troops... at least where and when they landed.
So, All this leads to THE IDEA:
Tactical Empire Management Strategy Role Playing Game
You get control of one quadrant of a grid and can expand your empire by claiming new quadrants... this might actually be more like a Massively Multiplayer Real-Time Civilization game in my mind. Groups of monsters would constantly be encroaching on your territory and impeding your production of resources. They could never drop production down below something like 20% and their defence could be improved... but their would always be something to fight. Combat would be handled similar to a "Tactics" game (like Disgaea) in these combats with very fine control over which units to send into the fray and how they fight. Units that were included in these combats would need to "cool down" between matches in order to recover hit-points and earn experience points. They could be called back into action again immediately if they took less damage but this would negate much of the previous combats experience points. Similar mechanics would be used to capture new territory or fend of sieges. Player vs Player combat would also exist in an "arena" environment while attacking another players buildings would have their units simply defend using the systems AI.
Other then that, its all just flavour and gravy... would need to be hooks into all the most popular social media streams, pay for perks to increase income stream, ads to generate primary revenue... all that kind of stuff you'd expect from a web game.
Though I'm kinda partial to monster raising and card collecting... so we'd have to work that into the troop management system somehow.
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