davemongoose wrote:It looks really cool... but if the game runs 24/7, what if there's no one online from a particular team? Won't it be too easy to just go destroy their city?
(Sorry if it's a stupid question, I haven't played a warcon planet before.)
well, it's a bit more involved than that, since there's several factors you'll want to consider that i haven't posted about yet.
a] building capture is also enabled, but
only when the building's owner is online. before destroying a building, you'll have to weigh if you actually want to destroy it: your team might want those resources. this is where the team balancing thing plays in a lot: if team 2 is better at making fuel and team 1 is having a fuel crisis, if you see a power plant owner come online, that's the time to make your move. although there's little to no hunger/thirst when offline, buildings go up for sale after four days of inactivity, so you'll still see building owners on often enough.
b] only certain vehicles / weapons can damage buildings. regular infantry guys and supply vehicles can't, though tanks and bombers can. this will all be in the vehicle data chart and the driver manuals that you can read in-game. the downside is that primary attack vehicles are horrible on fuel, so even to get to an enemy area to blow buildings up, you'll need to organize a squadron of at least 2 or 3 players. because:
c] the map is *enourmous*. you wouldn't want to waste an expensive vehicle like a battleship, tank or bomber by driving all the way over and getting killed by defense fire, or having to walk home on foot because you're out of fuel.
that said, it's intended that it be a bit more strategy-based. organize an attack party or search party for valuable hidden resources throughout the map. there are various "hot points" around as well (an abandoned oil rig, a mysterious food source, a massive water source), that each team will have interest in capturing close to the time it's ready to produce goods. these are probably the locations you'll encounter the most enemy fire around, as team 1 fights to control the oil rig so that they can fuel an impending tank battle, etc etc.
the capture time is 60 seconds, which is also rather brutal. one guy isn't likely to capture any key building alone. bring backup.
more on all this in a few :]
I was thinking that in such games of war... it'd be interesting to have FLEETS and ARMIES instead of 6-10 people fighting.
with a few players, more than likely the focus will just be setting up the economy and such. i'll be doing some independent promo specifically for roja however, so ideally we'll fill it up with enough players that it supports parties of a number of people banding together for a goal.
how many employees you have is a huge issue as well, which would require you guys to also recruit friends, form alliances with other players, etc. if there's only a few people on each team, it'll work, but it'll be a slower paced econ where your goals would be much more immediate than large-scale war.
the planet's primary goal is recruitment really. it'll bring people in to help out, and maybe when they make a few bucks they'll stay around. additionally you have to pay your employees well. there's a really low employement time so if they're not happy in a job, chances are they'll take off and go to your competitor in a day or two. "mit mode" is enabled, so employees have to transfer product and keep a building emptied out, or they don't get paid. or maybe they'll make the owners do it. and maybe the owners form a business owner's alliance and price gouge. i dunno, that's all up to you guys
additionally since employment is a key determination on a buildings efficiency (i'm using all that efficiency calc stuff), you'll want to move employees from an industry that's doing well to another that needs help. whether a few power players control the movement of this kind of thing or it's a more democratic process between all the active team players, who knows. after we see how the first month or two goes, i'll look into adding features to the mini-site that'll better allow communication between team members.
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