I started making an engine for what I at first wanted to be a CTF game. I have a 3D landscape and different kinds of soldiers that you can move around in different formations and tell them to shoot. You can't build anything. But after all that work (It took me a long time to get to this step) CTF seems a little to boreing. Can anyone think of a more exiting and orignal game that can be made with that framework? I wasn't sure what details to add so please tell me if I'm leaving anything out. Thanks.

Genre? Is it Sci-Fi, fantasy, other? Might help inspire us, but isn't exactly necessary.

Well, you could have it be a multi-round game and you can buy in more units based on the number of points that you accumulate through playing the CTF(eg: you get 50 points for returning the flag, 10 points for killing someone with the flag, 5 points for killing anyone else, etc.).

My mind is kinda dead right now, so thats all I can think of.

The genere is sort of sci-fi, I mean, there are 3 different kinds of units - laser gun, machine gun and rocket. Also, I don't just want to make CTF more interesting, I want to try to think of a totally different (hopefully original but it doesn't have to be) game. I didn't implement the CTF part yet so I'm free to try anything.
Thanks.

Ahh okay. I'll post anything if I have a sudden brainwave(but don't count on it).

Allowing new trooper deployment after holding a certain spot for some time (or gaining points otherwise) could provide some interesting gameplay - take the risk to occupy several spots with fewer troopers, which contains a greater risk but promises a larger army sooner, or take a spot at a time to be sure, or attack the opponents troops while they try to hold some spots?

Hmm, how about changing that reward to a shared bonus? I mean, a firepower upgrade or an armor upgrade, where the total upgrade is shared over the occupying troopers. So occupying a spot with fewer troops gains them a higher bonus per trooper, while putting every single trooper on a single spot only gains them a marginally small bonus each.
Bonusses could reach beyond stat increasements - a revealing powerup or a bombardment one, where the range of the terrain revealing or the power of the bombardment is decided by the amount of troops (though this would be the inverse of the previously mentioned bonusses as more troopers give better results now, so perhaps adding some sort of limiting factor to these spots like disabling troopers fire might add to the game?)

It's sort of a multiple-king-of-the-hill thing. These idea's may not be enough for a complete game, but maybe they inspire you or can be used in a different way. Good luck with this. :)

I like the idea of capturing control points. Maybe there's a base you have to take over, but to get through the defenses there are smaller objectives such as taking out a shield generator or damaging missile silos. You're still essentially capturing things (just not flags) and this would definitely fit in the framework you already have.

I've always liked heavily goal-oriented strategy games, like Enemy Territory. Basically, you have a "large objective" like "destroy the fuel dump" or "load ammo on the Really Huge Gun and fire it." The attacking team, in order to finish the objective, has to finish smaller goals: build a bridge, move a tank across it, shoot a hole in a defensive wall, send troops in to plant dynamite in the fuel dump; open the gates, take a train out to the ammo loading area, load the ammo, bring it back, switch the ammo to another train, drive the second train to the gun, load the gun, fire the gun. The defensive team tries to keep the attackers from doing all these things, and might have some objectives of their own: destroy the invader's camp, destroy bridges that allow the invaders to get into the base, etc.

Large objectives give the game a goal: what players do to "win." Small objectives help to make sure that players are localized - if the attackers are trying to build a bridge, all the action will be at the bridge. Some will try to build it (engineers), some will try to bomb it, etc. - but everyone will more or less be fighting at the bridge. This lets you have huge, expansive maps and levels without worrying about players getting spread out too far or lost. It also provides short-term goals that help players see how to achieve the large objectives.


It would be interesting to combine this concept with the reinforcement idea that Captain P suggested; one "small goal" might be to destroy a SAM group so that reinforcements can be airlifted in (this kind of concept is used quite a bit in the Command and Conquer series, for instance). As long as the SAMs are clear, more troops can be brought in over time; but if the enemy rebuilds the SAMs, reinforcements stop coming. Each small goal should be like a binary advantage: either it favors the attackers, or it favors the defenders. This makes it important for players to pay attention to the goals and handle them properly.

You've mentioned a formation system in your game; one thing I've always wanted to see in a strategy-type game is the ability to easily order units into certain tactics. For example, you might consider an easy and simple way to have some soldiers "cover fire" on an enemy position, while others move up to a closer and more useful attacking point. This "fire and maneuver" leap-frog-style tactic is very common in actual warfare, but it isn't really present in most games. That sort of thing could be a really interesting and novel use of the "formations" concept, which IMHO is lacking in most games these days.


Just some food for thought [smile]

this would be a game I'd want to play. Try looking at older games like Mech Commander series for ideas. They have 'control points' and strategic locations depending on terrain, that goes beyond regular 'stat pumps'.

i.e., control defences, refuel points, medic zones.

setting traps.
maybe recruitment center.
resource gathering facility.
high vantage point, for scouting or 'line of sight' advantage.

Ever played the Commandos series? The one made by Pyro Studios.

They never continued on the series after Commandos 3, mainly because the game gets easier and easier with each new game coming out.

Commandos' gameplay fits almost all of your discription