CRourke Posted May 10, 1999 Share Posted May 10, 1999 Just wondering if you guys had given any thought to including a bidding system for two player scenarios.. The sort of thing where both players get a peak at the map and the objectives, and then bid on how many "points" worth of units the require as the attacker against a defender of fixed strength. Lowest bid wins (possibly being award the average of the two bids to "buy" forces). Its a nice way of a) rewarding players for having good operational sense (no way I can do this without a huge force) and automagically balancing a randomly created scenario. On a more unnecessary level, wouldn't be cool if the "preview" you got of a battlefield before the battle was a military topo map? I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult to translate CM's terrain, though nothing I'd want to see coding time wasted on at this point. I'm also curious about the orders phase timer. It would be nice if you could specify differant times for the attacker and defender. After all, its a heck of alot harder to run an attack as the amis with tons of squads than it is to sit back in your foxholes as the germans and give the occasional "make that plt disapear" order to your MG43's. Similiarly, it would be nice if you could set differant times for the initial turn. Obviously the attacker is going to do a bit more planning here. Changing the values of the timers could even be used to simulate defender surprise or poor C&C. Chris R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted May 11, 1999 Share Posted May 11, 1999 The bidding idea is kinda cool, but we don't have time to put it in. Ditto for the topomap idea. Different timers... well, the idea has been kicked around a bit. We shall see. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sten Posted May 11, 1999 Share Posted May 11, 1999 I really like the bidding idea. I know you are under a lot of pressure AND have umpteen other things to finish, but please consider it. It would be THE way to balance scenarios and the perfect way to conduct tournaments. Sten [This message has been edited by Sten (edited 05-11-99).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted May 11, 1999 Share Posted May 11, 1999 Of course the easiest way to simulate the bidding would be to simply allow both players to preview the battlemap. As far as I understand all the units have point values anyway. Both players then could bid over the internet (e.g. ICQ) and agree on a number of points to spend before they start buying units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Deych Posted May 11, 1999 Share Posted May 11, 1999 Hrm. I'm actually not sure if I would be interested in a feature like this. It somehow does not jibe with my understanding of how WWII worked. Plus, you automatically assume that everybody wants to play the attacker, which I'm sure is not true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRourke Posted May 11, 1999 Author Share Posted May 11, 1999 Greg: No, its not exactly realistic ("Well, Colonel, if you won't give me a company of armor for this attack, maybe I'll just go play for the germans."). But on the other hand, when an attack was being conceived, someone had to sit down and decide just how much firepower are we gonna need to pull this thing off. The bidding system encourages you to bid low (make do with the least resources) because you don't to totally overbid your opponent, and have to play against the avg of the two bids. Though I didn't mean to suggest that bidding would be the only system, just an option. I don't even think it could be made to work with the AI. I don't think it assumes everyone wants to be the attacker. Heck, I usually prefer to be the defender. So chances are, I'd put in a slightly high bid to increases my chances of being the defender. If I really really want to be the defender, I could put in a much larger bid, but that gives extra pts to the attacker, my penalty for getting the side I want. You could turn the system around and let the bids be on the defending force, but its less realistic to have an overall commander going "Well, we know a 200pt attack is gonna take place here.. whats the absolute minimum we need to repel it" Moon: Thats true, it doesn't really need to be hard coded in, does it. But it would be nice, and I dont think it would be too complicated to code. BT: Understood, you guys have alot to do. Please keep the bidding system in mind, possibly for future updates. I've always believed that what goes on outside of the "game" is usually overlooked by most game designers. They go and create a wonderful combat system, but then hobble it with bad scenario setup options, or a unbelievable campaign system. Making the space before or inbetween battles deep and realistic does wonders for the immersion factor. Adding lots of options to how the game is played does wonders for the replay value. Anyway, CM obviously has the combat engine of my dreams, I just wanna make sure it has a supporting structure worthy of it. Chris R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Big Time Software Posted May 11, 1999 Share Posted May 11, 1999 Combat Mission won't have formal support for the "bid" style game, but it will allow players to do it themselves by creating a map (either manually or auto-generated). Both plyers can look it over, and then (outside of CM) "bid" with each other however they want, then (in CM) pick sides and forces (in secret) however they arranged it. Charles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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