Eliminate the commander role.

Post by **BackTrak** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 2:46 am

So, Night removed tresures from XC, and it's been percolating in my brain for a few weeks that perhaps the answer to the lack of skilled commander matchups is to elimate the commander role all together and replace it with treasures.

Hear me out.

Miners will be eliminated. They serve as mobile points of contention in the current game. These points of contention will be replaced with bases.

Suppose that every sector starts with a light base and a tech base already built in it that belongs to no one. The unowned bases are non-destructable. In order to expand, you must cap you way out. Each faction starts with scouts only. You will need to pick up tech from the treasures. Every tech item will appear as a treasure. TTs (and later HTTs) will not be handed out by a commander, rather you pick up (and keep) cash boxes and buy them yourself. Same with bombers, cap ships and everything else that costs money. Each pilot will need to scavange up the cash to buy ships. You can donate to other pilots if you get a lot of extra cash or want to set up a figbee run.

Treasures appear at the current level of tech you own. If you cap a basic tech base, you will find basic tech for that base. IE: if you have a basic exp, you will only see MG2 floating. If you cap an advanced exp, then you will see MG3, while the other team would see the tresure as MG2 is they only have basic or no exp captured.

I was thinking that for more competitive games, maps would be made such that sectors 1 hop away have base tech bases, and 2 hops away have adv tech bases. Adv tech would only appear in basic tech sectors. This would make controlling air space more interesting. Perhaps there would be a single sector that all tech appears in with no bases, and tech will only appear in uncontrolled sectors. This would mean that by the end of the game there is only one place to get into to get money / tech. That would lead to some big show downs.

Booting would be accomplished via the voting system we currently have.

Auto balance would be required. With ACSS, a better AB system will be possible based off of the sigma and mu allegskill values.

Much of this could be done in the core, and the rest of the code changes should be much smaller and easier to do than a full blown AI that has to work against expert human players. How long did it take you to figure out the starcraft AI, and beat the crap out of it everytime? Now imagine if you were an expert comm as we have running around here, its going to take a lot of effort to make such a thing.

As many of you who have tried commanding know, usually a vet quickly joins who starts suggesting strategy. In this version of the game, this behavior would be encouraged. Self organization happens in current Alleg games, so this trend will continue.

I release that this effectivly turns the team into a herd of cats, but if it means games starting quickly, so be it.

I also think having a game on each server launch X minutes after the last game completes would help. People can join a game in progress. And without having to wait for comms and stackers it should get things moving. A map randomizer function would be required. Resource settings would no longer matter.

I've been playing on World of Tanks a bit recently. It has several key concepts that Alleg could benefit from:

* Auto launch.
* No long lobby selection process.
* No commanders (people still manage to organize a strategy in the 30 second countdown before the game starts).

I also recognize that we've been playing this game for a good long time now, and it's the format we like. So, maybe this should be a new game type.

TL;DR: Get rid of the commander role, let the team decide what to do via capping and bombing. Tech path is chosen by the team via capping and tech pickups.

Whaddya think, sirs?

DonKarnage · Post by **DonKarnage** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:03 am

So each team starts with scouts, how do you acquire the initial bases? If an HTT is needed, how do you get the first one?

Malicious Wraith · Post by **Malicious Wraith** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:24 am

fuzz_windows · Post by **fuzz_windows** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 3:43 am

I think it would be fun as an additional game mode.

Post by **BackTrak** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:20 am

DonKarnage wrote:QUOTE (DonKarnage @ Jun 5 2011, 10:03 PM) So each team starts with scouts, how do you acquire the initial bases? If an HTT is needed, how do you get the first one?

TT would be in the garrison, you would need to pick up enough cash to get one.

TurkeyXIII · Post by **TurkeyXIII** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 5:12 am

fuzz_windows wrote:QUOTE (fuzz_windows @ Jun 6 2011, 01:43 PM) I think it would be fun as an additional game mode.

Maybe. I foresee a lot of running around picking up tech. That and bombing. Not a whole lot else to do.

DonKarnage · Post by **DonKarnage** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 5:16 am

What about if you got bounties for killing enemy ships?

Heyoka · Post by **Heyoka** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 10:55 am

Wait I have a better idea.

Lets replace the ship with a gun that is static on your screen at all times.

Then lets add gravity and ground based maps. Then lets redesign tech, to resemble firearms and other weapons. Then we can have enemy ships look like monsters or terrorists or something, and if you kill them you get points and some cash that you can buy more guns with.

Wait...I think this game already exists. I think it's called DoomCODCounterstrikeCrysisBFBF2BFBCBFBC2 or something.

DonKarnage · Post by **DonKarnage** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 11:42 am

but in spaaaaaaaaaaaaaace

Post by **BackTrak** » Mon Jun 06, 2011 1:23 pm

TurkeyXIII wrote:QUOTE (TurkeyXIII @ Jun 6 2011, 12:12 AM) Maybe. I foresee a lot of running around picking up tech. That and bombing. Not a whole lot else to do.

This phase would be about as long as the current "scout until tech comes on line" period lasts currently. The team would have to decide how long to scavage for before they go for the first cap to expand. Maybe there should be a SY in the middle, and let the teams bomb/cap their way to it for the end game.