Spring RTS Engine

So, I was recently reminded of "Black&White" and was remembering it fondly... while also remembering how freaking stupid it was in some areas... then I also having the "Secret Invasion" on the brain, in particular the "Our gods teaming up to kill their gods" thing...

So I am hereby donating to the Universe my idea:

Egads!?
- - The God Mod - -

Theology:
There is a hole in the mainstream's attempt to co-opt religion and it is the same hole that religion falls into when they try to co-opt the mainstream.

There is only really room for one All-Powerful God, and we humans really can't be awesome enough to figure out what he would do in this position. So, the Christians write stories where God is an unknowable force (controlled, incidentally, by the opinions of the author), some religions (certain Islamic sects for example) just forbid the writing of fiction because of it, Atheists and Agnostics tend to invent corruptible Super-Humans forming a pantheon and providing a metaphor for humanity... I've even seen a supposedly christian CCG where opposing players control rival big G Gods, acting as both divine and demonic to first "corrupt" people away from your opponent and then "save" them to your side.

So, all that said, if you get offended by a game about rival Gods, I'm sorry, but you'll need some pretty good philosophical arguments to convince me that if it's any more wrong to make up fake gods within a fictional universe is any worse then supposing you know how God's will would manifest in your fictional universe... without then managing to prove that both are wrong.

That said... moving on...

General Concept:

You are are consciousness who draws its power from humanity, You may directly control certain aspects of the reality in which those who you have influence over exist. Basically You are a High Level Deity who get's to act to affect the lives of your followers, the more followers you have the better so... those other High Level Deities have to go.

Units:
Basic Humans: Humans have free will and will act on what they believe to be your will, to the extent that it serves their own purposes (which are namely, to be happy and healthy). Humans Generate power to the extent that you have influence over them.

Priests: Priests inspire Humans in their vicinity to be influenced by their preferred deity and are less likely to switch allegiance to other deities, otherwise they act like basic humans.

Prophets: Prophets are your standard means of communicating your will to the people. When you give an order to a Prophet they will try to get the people around them to act on it.

Avatars: (Angels, Minor Deities (aka Herculese/Thor), Dragons Etc.) Are like super-prophet/priests, they inspire allegiance and act as conduits for your will, unlike other units in the game, you exert direct and constant control over these units and they cannot be swung over to the other side.

Resources:
Wood (Represents all raw material)
Food (Represents everything a living creature needs to remain alive)
Power (Generated by the worship of your people)

Miracles:
These are special abilities... though some of them are quite utilitarian, like making crops grow better and giving orders directly to people and otherwise directly influence the affairs of men.

Winning:
Steal/Kill all your opponents basic humans, priests and prophets.




Okay, in retrospect... that's almost identical to Black&White... might need to tweak a bit to avoid lawsuits.

Isn't a closer comparison Populous?

Okay, in retrospect... that's almost identical to Black&White... might need to tweak a bit to avoid lawsuits.

ideas are not copyrightable, as long as you don't use any of their content or use their trademarks, i'd be very suprised if they had any patents but that's easy to check so lawsuits are not an issue.

but yes it does sound very black and whitey, but that's not a bad thing, it was a pretty awesome game.

He's stealin ma ideas!

sabu aus, aus sag ich

Not bad, but I think you can switch it up abit.

Humans, for instance, should be free, the more influence you exert (miracles, etc), the more the majority believe in you but at the same time a small minority starts to actively oppose you. But if you only influence minor things (Like healing the sick, but not openly spreading your godjuice around) then you get overall faith, but no active opposition.

Things like that would make it better than B&W's: "AND NOW ITS YOUR VILLAGE" all or nothing style.

inb4 show us your model because no one is bothered with requests.


Also move this to feature request!

Tits or - ah no, wrong board, lets try again Models or, yes that┬┤s way more appropriate..
No seriously it is a great idea- how about a Gameplay-Prototype with Placeholders?

Mesh deformation would make this idea so much better...


...Everyone go bug Alphabeta to implement it in 0.8!

KDR_11k wrote:Isn't a closer comparison Populous?

that game was SO good. baptismal font and roadspam ftw!

KaiserJ wrote:

KDR_11k wrote:Isn't a closer comparison Populous?

that game was SO good. baptismal font and roadspam ftw!

Hell yeah. Not to mention zapping someone with a personal lightning cloud. I found the full thunderstorm to be so impersonal. The single cloud allowed a face-to-face experience that let you really connect with the person you're electrifying to death. Great for zapping enemy heroes.

Just to be clear here, I have no and never had any intention to make this game... hence the "off-topic" post... if someone acctually wants to make it I would totally be available for creative support and play testing however.

I think I'll need to look into populous, it sounds kinda fun.

If you were to ask me where to start developing I would suggest the following:


Take the Spherebot (or other, freely licensable anthropomorphic unit) and make it your Humans, when a human is a Prophet or a Priest, they are the same model with a ground paint or floating symbol above their heads. Avatars would be those bigger sphere bots with different symbols above their heads.

Your presence would be a nano-tower that can build Avatars and provides sight/radar.

Make Humans self-motivated, gaia owned contructor units... give Player a gadget driven ability to convert Humans to player owned priests (generate energy based on the total alligience a player has) or Prophets (mobile contructors)... Humans would have some kind of variable indicating allegiance to each player in the game, then, every few tics, if a human is within proximity of a priest of their player they will gain more of that allegience... if they are within a certain distance (inversely proportional to the influence of the player) of a building under construction by that player they will attempt to assist build it.

Avatars will have attacks, thus you will be able to wipe out the units and towers and followers of your opponent.

Add to all this a few nifty Gadget based "Miracles" (like, insta build a tower, AoE Allegience boost, attacks etc.)...

Don't balance or anything fancy... I estimate a "good" modder with LUA knowledge could manage this much within a month or tow, at this point you should be able to use this technical demo to attract the attention of more advance artists and coders to work out any kinks.

My thread is on page four of "View new posts" so...

Concept Art/3D Models
The hand-balls would move when walking, the Priests would have big hats the prophets would be carrying staffs.

Avatars would be bigger and have things like wings and halos for angels, big hammers and helmets for a "Thor" like avatar, a skull for a head and a sickle for Death, be fatter and have a helmet and spear for a Valkyrie, maybe a beard and crooked staff for a shepherd of men, Along with stylized versions of other things like dragons and cows (Holstein patterned sphere with four spears for legs and a rectangle for a head on one "end")

Oh here's an idea.

the Ai 'human's could, given that they are left alone for abit, start constructing buildings randomly and also start reclaiming them randomly (Maybe without consuming resources), like we do in real life based on our needs for entertainment/signs of allegiance to a particular player and so on. But if they start getting poached by other players, humans could reclaim their various allegiances and replace them with the enemies sign.

That'll spice it up abit.

Thunder Avatar Concept Art/Model

knorke wrote:

I nearly LOLed :D

Also, I was thinking about making the Valkyries have ample bosoms...

Also, Also, so... does this mean you are going to make my game idea

if the missioneditor had just some few extra features it would probally not be too hard to make a quick prototype...