Quote Originally Posted by WILL
Yup that sounds like a great sort of system to me. You could use a sort of simplified ranking system like they use in X-Com where the more kills, etc you have the higher they 'promote' you. Each unit class having their own rank titles? That'd be neat keep your heroes/units unique... Naming system would be cool too. Name your characters so you can individually keep track of them. It'll allow you to hone your party and ultimately make it more fun to keep playing and playing to improve your characters/army/party as you play the game.
For the names, no problem Everyone will be able to call his characters "Eriken" and then use them as cannon fodder :mrgreen:

About the ranking, it depends on how we distinguish between "types" of characters.
My original idea was that there are two types of characters: men and creatures.
- Men are all equals. The differ only for random stats. Then, you equip them with different things (which make them really different).
- Creatures are all differents. A dog, a wolf, a goblin, a ghost, etc. They don't use items.
You can then have a party of men and creatures mixed as you like..

This would be easy to implement.. For example, you could use the same animation set for each man, that is very good
The only problem is that it is a little limitative and rigid.

We could expand it in some ways.. for example different classes of mans:
humans, dwarfs, undead, etc.

This needs a bit of brainstorming i think
Only, since this is main point of the game, it must be easy to build.. we should be able to create lots of characters and items..
We cannot have a complete set of animations for each type of character.. It will take too work to do one..

Anyway i'm not very happy with this solution.. any hint ?

Ah just to be clear, for animations i mean 3d model animations that will be used in the 3d combat scene. These are not connected to the gameplay.

Example of animation i can think:

for man:
:arrow: stand
:arrow: walk
:arrow: hit
:arrow: dead
:arrow: attack generic
:arrow: attack_sword (attack with something like a sword, axe, or such)
:arrow: attack_bow (attack with bows and the like)
:arrow: attack_spear (some kind of attack with spears, alabards, tridents, etc)
:arrow: use object
:arrow: cast spell
:arrow: throw something

for creatures:
:arrow: stand
:arrow: walk
:arrow: hit
:arrow: dead
:arrow: custom attack

I think that perishable items should be just that... use them and they are gone... This includes potions, one time use scrolls, staff charges, arrows(this fits with a squad-type combat game as you can purchase different types and even magic)
Ok, that could be good. Only, i fear that people will be tempted to choose only non-perishables to avoid the continue expense of replenishing. Who will use a bow if it always require to buy arrows? It's better a nice sword
We could possibly make arrows and the like very cheap.

I think that you should be able to hire new bottom level(Level 1) characters and then as you go into combat you can pick a party to do battle out of all of your lot of retainers(or army/guild, etc) and those that gain experience in battle go up in level and develop as individual 'heroes'. Make a character generator and get random stats as you would when hiring a new 'Soldier' in X-Com... You can have a non-multiplayer guild and shop that you visit to hire and purchase people and weapons/armour/items, etc... but you gain no gold so to continue to equip and build your army you have to battle other players armies... you start out with some money when you create a 'new party' or profile, just enough to make a starting party. Maybe the server options will allow you to find beginner games only when you start out? It might help to fix that experience gap issue... or set points level maximums for some games the player sets up...?
Yes, that's about what i think

For the match, to keep opponents balanced, i've thought to use a tecnique like Warhammer: each characted and item has a value based on its power. When you build an army, you sums all values and get the army value.
When players will create a game, they can set a max value for entrants.
For example i can create a game for armies of no more than 200 points.