Active Campaign Voting Map

[Taffeh]

Hey guys, had a bit of a lightbulb moment for a WW2 game, n thought i'd share it with you as i'd like to see it implemented.

It hasnt been done before (to my knowledge on any of the popular games) n I may see if I can implemented it using HL2 SDK coding with standard HL2, and at least if I cant, the idea is here so someone can always pick up the idea if they think its any good.

Basically its a new way to vote for nextmaps based on a campaign style gameplay to 'conquer' or 'liberate' europe / africa / italy etc. A turnbased-esque totalwar (rome etc) part of gameplay that is switched to after a map has been won.

So naturally, a server would begin with say the AEF (allied exp. force) landing in europe and moving to defend against the german blitz or maybe the dunkirk retreat. The first map would be a default, or you may have the strat map up where players can vote for which part of the 'line' they wish to fight, and the winning choice is played.

At the start due to germans having the upper hand they have advantages that would be specific to the game, and it may or may not be harder for the allies to win maps forcing the course of history to some extent, but not ruling out the possibility of winning still.... (so it could be possible if maps are implimented to fight to berlin by the campaign time of say 1940 or whatever....) Of course, the campaign map is updated by 'dads army' style lines / arrows at the end of each FPS game and before the next one, allowing ppl to return to the map, and choose which map they wish to fight next.

When a Country / Sector is lost, the server players have the option / move to a different front (and could be a server var where to start)...

So the course of the war could play out (this one below based on the actual war) where:

starts in Europe
Germans overpower Brits
Brits loose Europe
Africa starts
Brits push on africa, nearly win,
Germans fight back, push Brits back
Brits fight back before loosing, Germans loose africa
Italy starts
Brits storm straight through (forgive my knowledge of the Italy campaign)
Europe Starts, the only strongpoint of Germans left...
Brits storm through
Germans fight back at Arnhem
Brits choose different root, and gain a foothold
etc etc....

Of course, when each sector of fighting (europe / italy / africa) is won, the players could choose which 1 to fight in next.....

Also the possible question of weather a player must choose they're side at this point or for all of the campaign - they dont, the choice can be made from a neutral point of view.....

Finally with the strong possibility of not so many maps being included the players on the server can have the choice of the nearest location to wher they are to 'withdraw' or 'advance' to fight next.....

[Dillinger]

An idea like this is something that is desperately needed in online games IMO. The only problem is repetition. Though if "Campaign" was a separate game mode, it would be a different story.

Regardless, I like the idea of the next map being based on what happens in the previous map.

[Pierog]

Oh god, I can't fathom how much art that would need.

[Jed]

Yeah what Pierog said.

It *IS* and interesting idea and would be fun but to make a capaign proper you're going to need all those maps, models, etc. and thats a LOT of artwork to create, not excluding all the additional menu artwork and logic.

About the only time we'd sensibly be able to add this is when we have about 8 maps and 5 nations - and that could be another 18 months from now! :(

[Pierog]

Yeah what Pierog said.

It *IS* and interesting idea and would be fun but to make a capaign proper you're going to need all those maps, models, etc. and thats a LOT of artwork to create, not excluding all the additional menu artwork and logic.

About the only time we'd sensibly be able to add this is when we have about 8 maps and 5 nations - and that could be another 18 months from now! :(

and even then, i wouldn't expect a very logical linear progression, although some offshoots into resistance movement would be interesting.

[Trp Dutch]

An idea like this is very nice, but ..... The Battle for Europe model for DOD as used a long time ago (does this still exist by the way?) could be a starting point. Group certain maps in campaigns that can be played and according to win-loose one could alter the map order. A number of Campaigns then could be grouped into a "Battle". Apart from the maths involved (you need to devize a certain model for randomizing maps) and logistical issues (servers, numbers of players needed, formation of Armies, Companies, Platoons etc. etc.) this does need a huge number of maps to stay interesting.

[zone trooper]

I love the idea but then you got to think about how many people you need to make it and to get it released in a time scale. It can be done but it will take alot of time, something which the top game devs will not have due to the publishers wanting money. Modders can take this chance as its free and they should have quite alot of time, many of the ideas you see in the main games do come from many modded games.