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Warhammer Dark Omen Forum | The Remake Project | General Suggestions
Wilbefast's Dark Omen/Myth/Total War game engine

[olly]

Check out Wilbefast's early thoughts on developing a Dark Omen/Myth/Total War game engine ->

http://www.ogre3d.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=71409

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUqik2ZgGd0

I have contacted him and asked him to post his ideas/thoughts for us all to enjoy and assist.

"Thanks for the message: I'm certainly looking to make something that will be inspired by Dark Omen, but I don't plan to create a direct clone/port I'm afraid. I'm also experimenting with various pieces of Open-Source technology before I pick which one I'll end up using: I'll be making a little demo similar to the one I did for Ogre for jMonkey Engine and perhaps also Panda3D.

Since you're a fan of DO, would you mind taking a look at the brief analysis I wrote of its gameplay (what applies to Myth applies to DO)?

http://wilbefast.com/2011/06/04/dissecting-real-time-strategy/

It's obviously a simplistic view, but I do find that that game mostly is about luring enemies into a cross-fire. I'd like my gameplay to have situations where the enemy outguns you rather than the other way around to shake things up".

[Darkmancer]

Nice quick summary thou a few points.

Rock, Paper, Scissors is a really boring game, if you’re going to do anything interesting there will usually be a range of counters, combined arms, and/or incomparables.

Saying the game (myth 2, and dark omen) is mostly about luring enemies into a cross-fire is a little disingenuous while yes it is usual central tenant to the players strategy, I can’t think of a single level that doesn’t force you out of it.  Dark Omen in particular while “glass cannon” is paramount in order to reduce casualties most kills will not be achieved by cannon/mortar crews in most levels.  

The outnumber/wave structure in both games comes down to the level designer sitting down  and creating a puzzle for the player to figure out.  This has 2 effects, one good a.i. is really hard to produce, with this method you can almost skip it, two, It makes the player feel powerful.  Slaughtering wave after wave of troops does that, thou it needs to be done right not to feel dumb/cheap.

Also of interest is that the multiplayer component of these games is completely different, okay they use the same world rules but they are both totally different game experiences.  

Thinking about it you could futher split RTT games into the puzzle & wave types (myth, dark omen, nexus), and the I dunno “world simulation??” or games with actual a.i. types like total war, close combat, Gettysburg, etc.

[wilbefast]