Cognisant
cackling in the trenches
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- Dec 12, 2009
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An idea for a new game genre.
This has been done to a limited extent already with tactical shooter games in which you get to command a squad, and in Battlefield where the commander player gets to call in UAVs, artillery strikes, supply drops and so forth. What I'd like to see is an RTS in first person with a charisma/moral dynamic and units that can act more or less independently, maybe even have their own agendas.
Imagine a game where you're captian whoever, in first person, aboard your ship, in a coalition fleet like the pirate fleet near the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 3, nobody's really in charge on a fleet wide level, everyone has their own interests, but unless you work with them the enemy fleet is going to overpower yours by picking off ships one at a time, or something like that.
Having to work with the other captains would be interesting, communication would be limited to flag signals (so you would actually have to look at their ships through a telescope and read the flags) and you can't just give them orders and expect them to follow, some might be friends of your, others might respect your reputation, some might dislike you or have a vendetta against you for something you did to them in the past. So the tactical element isn't very complex compared to something like a turn based strategy game, rather the challenge is in being a leader itself, so you have to consider things that you otherwise wouldn't.
At the back of the fleet your ship might be safest but if you want others to follow you then you need to earn their respect and one of the best ways to do that is to lead by example, and keep your friends close, close enough to relay your orders to the rest of the fleet but not so far away that they can't discourage dissenters from attacking you or shepherd indecisive captains into following you.
The same dynamics could be involved in several ways, on a fleet level you're dealing with the politics of managing people who have reason to work with you but no desire to work for you, meanwhile on board your own ship you've got to manage your crew among whom you will make friends and enemies as your choices affect them, for example if a coward begs you to turn the ship away from the forefront of battle you can shoot him, decisively restoring discipline to the crew, but increasing the chance of an attempted mutiny later on, which again is something you would discourage by surrounding yourself with your loyalist.
Likewise on a large scale your actions can affect the political landscape between nations, the more powerful and influential you become the more different sovereigns will try to buy your loyalty or have you killed.
An important thing for this sort of game would be the sense of agency, I don't want the game world to revolve around the player, they have to make it revolve around them, the other captains should have their own goals, their own agendas, and pursue them autonomously, even giving orders of their own to the player.
The same ideas could be applied to games based in space or with private military contractors, wouldn't it be awesome to be Darth Vader walking past legions of his assembled troops in an empire he practically built himself or to be to be the leader of a mercenary company negotiating terms with a North African dictator, I'd love to see a game where a player may have to consider "insurance" like stationing a unit within the client's palace to ensure that when the time comes he can be pressured into paying up.
This has been done to a limited extent already with tactical shooter games in which you get to command a squad, and in Battlefield where the commander player gets to call in UAVs, artillery strikes, supply drops and so forth. What I'd like to see is an RTS in first person with a charisma/moral dynamic and units that can act more or less independently, maybe even have their own agendas.
Imagine a game where you're captian whoever, in first person, aboard your ship, in a coalition fleet like the pirate fleet near the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 3, nobody's really in charge on a fleet wide level, everyone has their own interests, but unless you work with them the enemy fleet is going to overpower yours by picking off ships one at a time, or something like that.
Having to work with the other captains would be interesting, communication would be limited to flag signals (so you would actually have to look at their ships through a telescope and read the flags) and you can't just give them orders and expect them to follow, some might be friends of your, others might respect your reputation, some might dislike you or have a vendetta against you for something you did to them in the past. So the tactical element isn't very complex compared to something like a turn based strategy game, rather the challenge is in being a leader itself, so you have to consider things that you otherwise wouldn't.
At the back of the fleet your ship might be safest but if you want others to follow you then you need to earn their respect and one of the best ways to do that is to lead by example, and keep your friends close, close enough to relay your orders to the rest of the fleet but not so far away that they can't discourage dissenters from attacking you or shepherd indecisive captains into following you.
The same dynamics could be involved in several ways, on a fleet level you're dealing with the politics of managing people who have reason to work with you but no desire to work for you, meanwhile on board your own ship you've got to manage your crew among whom you will make friends and enemies as your choices affect them, for example if a coward begs you to turn the ship away from the forefront of battle you can shoot him, decisively restoring discipline to the crew, but increasing the chance of an attempted mutiny later on, which again is something you would discourage by surrounding yourself with your loyalist.
Likewise on a large scale your actions can affect the political landscape between nations, the more powerful and influential you become the more different sovereigns will try to buy your loyalty or have you killed.
An important thing for this sort of game would be the sense of agency, I don't want the game world to revolve around the player, they have to make it revolve around them, the other captains should have their own goals, their own agendas, and pursue them autonomously, even giving orders of their own to the player.
The same ideas could be applied to games based in space or with private military contractors, wouldn't it be awesome to be Darth Vader walking past legions of his assembled troops in an empire he practically built himself or to be to be the leader of a mercenary company negotiating terms with a North African dictator, I'd love to see a game where a player may have to consider "insurance" like stationing a unit within the client's palace to ensure that when the time comes he can be pressured into paying up.
