Environment RTS

You are going to have to be a little more specific. I don't really understand how environmental conservation would play out as a Real-Time Strategy game. What does the player do? Send people out to recycle cans and wash oil off of pelicans?

Some more background would be good to best help you out, what sort of setting is the game in, what sides are fighting?

Other than that a few ideas crop up how it can be added to game play:

- Conserving a resource (lets say a forest) provides you with resource X, which is needed for Y class units, structures and special abilities ... as long as the forest stands it generates a slow amount of X over time, alternatively you can chop the forest down for resource Z which cuts off your access to Y class stuff but is quicker and more profitable.

- Mining/Harvesting leaves the area (or surrounding area) barren/polluted and units slowly take damage when in these areas. Alternatively units themselves pollute the area as they pass through, destroying natural resources, making small attack groups best.

- The doomsday countdown ... not sure how this would work in multiple missions, in my mind its more of a single multiplayer game mechanic. The more resources you harvest the closer you come to doomsday, the more resources you expend to conserve the environment you start to get further away from doomsday ... if either player consumes to much than everything dies ... think of it sort of like the Global Warming thing in Civilization.

How about making conversations & relationships with various grass root organizations and established political parties a key feature of the game?

Civ style diplomacy screens

Leader of Peengrease, Mooni Kaidoo:
"Welcome to our booth, Enviro-con leader! I have this toxic materials -producing plant that I'd like to shut down."

Respond with:
"Me too. I'll finance rocks and bombs woth 100.000 cts"
"Ahem, ok. -better make it look like an accident, then!"
"Hmm... not this time, thanks anyways!"
"I won't have any more trouble with you guys. Get off my back!"




Leader of Peoples Movement Socialists, Miriam Cakemunch:
"Hey Enviro-con leader. I'm calling you to ask you a favour. I'd like to look good at the upcoming election, but we can't afford extra funding for you yet
-can you announce that we're increasing funding for you already, although we don't? And how green I am yadda-yadda? You'll have the cash in due time."

Respond with:
"Alright, It's for the good of the environment in the long run."
"Your devious schemes know no bounds. I will not announce."


Well, I'm going to be using animals as units (different types of animals for each side). The animals will actually be continent based, so if a player is the Africa player they will have African animals, North America, etc. Now that I think about it though the story line doesn't so much need to come off as a hardcore in your face conserve the environment thing. It actually should be more subtle. I like the idea of [color="#1C2837"]Conserving a resource (lets say a forest) provides you with resource X, which is needed for Y class units, structures and special abilities ... as long as the forest stands it generates a slow amount of X over time, alternatively you can chop the forest down for resource Z which cuts off your access to Y class stuff but is quicker and more profitable. That would actually be a nice subtle way but in, say the tutorial, there would be a quick sentence saying something to this effect.
[color="#1C2837"]
[color="#1c2837"]However, with [color="#1C2837"]Mining/Harvesting leaves the area (or surrounding area) barren/polluted and units slowly take damage when in these areas. Alternatively units themselves pollute the area as they pass through, destroying natural resources, making small attack groups best.
[color="#1C2837"]
[color="#1C2837"]I could actually get really creative with the units, and could actually get quite in depth with it. I think I'm actually leaning towards this at the moment. This is a good idea.
[color="#1C2837"]
[color="#1C2837"]I'm going to sit down and kind of plan out how I would like this to go. I will be checking this thread often so any additional ideas would be nice. I hope to have something general worked out in the next couple of days with this game mechanic.

How about making conversations & relationships with various grass root organizations and established political parties a key feature of the game?

Civ style diplomacy screens

Leader of Peengrease, Mooni Kaidoo:
"Welcome to our booth, Enviro-con leader! I have this toxic materials -producing plant that I'd like to shut down."

Respond with:
"Me too. I'll finance rocks and bombs woth 100.000 cts"
"Ahem, ok. -better make it look like an accident, then!"
"Hmm... not this time, thanks anyways!"
"I won't have any more trouble with you guys. Get off my back!"




Leader of Peoples Movement Socialists, Miriam Cakemunch:
"Hey Enviro-con leader. I'm calling you to ask you a favour. I'd like to look good at the upcoming election, but we can't afford extra funding for you yet
-can you announce that we're increasing funding for you already, although we don't? And how green I am yadda-yadda? You'll have the cash in due time."

Respond with:
"Alright, It's for the good of the environment in the long run."
"Your devious schemes know no bounds. I will not announce."


Thanks for your reply, however I don't plan on implementing too much diplomacy in this game. I don't want to make this project more complex than I need to, and the vision I have in my mind doesn't really have a need for diplomacy.

The various traditional resources, trees/plains/mountains/etc, could be habitat. The more habitats you secure/preserve the more creatures you can control. This could be as simple as controlling X amount of plains area provides Y amount of vittles for your creatures. So you move on to area control rather than developing structures.


Or you could work it where you "create" a forest, an individual structure sadly, and you can upgrade it like normal RTS structures. You need natural resources, rather than refined, to develop your population.

Wow Caldenfor, that's a great idea. Kind of like Company of Heroes? I'm really going to be sitting down in the morning when I wake back up and trying to get a working document going. Please keep the ideas coming!