#30. Sudden Brainstorm: Turn-Based Strategy Game

Weirdo Whoever here, back for a long while. I'm still at my service (Gah!) but at least I'm almost always online, it's just my slacking nature that keep this blog more or less un-dead.

So I was doodling with (yes, again) Kriegspiel the other day, and came up with an idea that, if I get the hang of it, might be more interesting to someone else than myself. I'm a big fan of turn-based games in general (you should be knowing this by now) and I was always fascinated at how X-COM: Enemy Unknown pulled it nicely. Add that with Warhammer 40,000, Infinity Wars (fun fact: I must be the only one around here who knows this game), and for some reason Dungeon & Dragons, and the result is something like this:

- I chose the overall motif as Dice. I'm really into tabletop RPGs and board games, and want that spirit in this game.

- The map is made out of hexagonal tiles. Some tiles may have covers on their sides, some tiles may have heights, and some tiles may be left blank, which needs Flying ability to access.

- Players build their Rosters before the game, but they can improvise their armies before the main game begins. A Roster is consisted of Slots (4, 6, 8, 10, 12, and 20, continuing the dice motif) on which the player places one type of Units or Abilities on each. You may abandon some slots if you find it unnecessary (e.g. you want your army more elite) and you may receive additional points for your choice. My current idea for slot-point system is something like this: You receive 10 points per slots, and you receive additional points equal to your maximum slots for each slots you abandon. (e.g. if you start with 12 slots, and you abandon 2 of them, you receive 24 points.)

- Units are, well, exactly what it is. Your army needs at least one type of Units. Units have stats, which defines them in many ways. Here are some ideas I have for now:
　- Name. Exactly what it says on the tin.
　- Type. Self-explanatory. Examples of Type will be Infantry, Vehicle, Human, Beast, Psychic, etc.
　- Initiatives. Every Units and Abilities have Initiatives, which defines their priority when battle starts loose. Units with high Initiatives strike first, but they also get hit first.
　- Attack. There are three types of attacks I have prepared so far - Melee, Ranged, and Artillery.
　- Save. There are two types of saves I have prepared so far - Cover and Reflex.
　- Health. You lose your Unit when it hits zero Health.
　- Special Ability. This is tricky one, I'll let you know when I'm ready.

- Abilities are, well, this one's just the same, only Abilities are fire-and-forget type, i.e. you can only use your Abilities just as much you have prepared. I'm taking some leaves out of D&D rulebook - Vancian Spell is just awesome!

- I'm currently considering D20 for battle system. Yes, that D20. I'll explain this later when I'm more confident with my decision.


I'm still working on this one, I'll let you know when it's more complete. End transmission.