RTS/FPS Combination?

[UnspoiledWalnut]

I was talking with one of the guys I've been working with on some mods and we've been talking about incorporating if the game we've been working on is successful at all, and we were talking about things that haven't been done much and one of the things we came up with was an RTS/FPS combination.

The idea of it is you can be in an RTS mode and control an army like that, and then choose an individual unit and take control of that one in first person, and if that dies you go back and forth. I was wondering if anyone's played a game like that, or what you think about the idea of it? I've been playing a bit with the UDK in making an RTS system like some other people have done, although it's a pretty bad version of it right now because I'm not very good with that aspect. But anyone think it would be a good idea of done right?

[ambershee]

I've played a couple of games like that, and to be honest, they're always awful. RTS and FPS games are very different in how they are structured, and they don't mix well.

[Phopojijo]

Not really... C&C mods for UT are always fun... Battlezone was great... technically Battlefield 2 could be SLIGHTLY considered that.

It mostly depends on HOW you implement both ideas... and what aspects of each are you willing/going to give up.

[immortius]

Dungeon Keeper had the possession of monsters as well, although that was kind of pointless for the most part.

[Hitpawz]

That's the point, you have to make it so it's not pointless to go into FPS mode. If you can stay in god camera and just watch the battles take place and you do just as good at the game, why spend effort taking control of any characters?

One of the funner RTS games I've played that incorporates player controls is actually Fat Princess on the PS3 where every player is a peon, soldier, archer or mage or whatever. I think a good approach would be to base the game off of it being mainly an FPS, but have heavy RTS elements present. It's not always a good idea to grant one player the "hand of god" where he's in major control because not only do players resent his position, but he gets ****** off at players that don't follow his master plans. Instead, you should have ever player be just as important and the whole game play out based on what the whole team does together as a whole.

A very simple breakdown would be to let players switch roles depending on what the team needs. Give each team a set of resources that all of the classes will pool from and that way all players will value it and will make going into peon mode more important and worthwhile. So you spread wood, rock and metal around a level and require those to spawn vehicles from buildings that require those things. Make it so if players join in on the build, it goes faster....etc. Take all of the things from an RTS and put it into an FPS game but don't have the overlying gameplay of an RTS present by not granting anybody the master controller position and you might make a game we'd all like to play.

[UnspoiledWalnut]

Yeah we thought of the balancing issues for it. If we did online play we'd thought that it wouldn't be one person is in RTS and everyone else is in FPS, it would be a gameplay element that everyone had, so each person would have a base or whatever to control in the RTS instead of just a god player. I would probably try and make it so that both are used as essential elements, like make an interior kind of thing for buildings, where you would have to go into FPS mode and take control of a squad or team to actually go inside and take it over, but in the RTS mode you would have a strategic view of the world and would be able to move the rest of army around and set the orders and build things.

The idea that we came up with was set in a future space thing in the universe the other games we're working on are set. So, for instance if you're in a space based level, you could be controlling your ships in the RTS mode, but then go into the FPS mode if you want to take over a ship and gain control of it, and you could gather a squad like in Rainbow Six and board it to get inside and take over the bridge or destroy the power core to render it useless, or just blow the **** out of it in the RTS view.

Another idea I had revolving around that kind of system was a game that would basically be like a DEFCON kind of atmosphere, with a world map where you could control things like missiles, your navy fleets, air force, etc. There would be major cities that you could zoom into and control the individual units like most other RTS games except from a top down view like from a satellite, and then take control of individual units or squads or something and fight like that in a 3D environment. Not sure how I would do this one, probably try and get into contact with Microsoft or Google and see try to work out a deal to use their imaging data of the world, but the way I see it in my head is a digitalized like wireframe kind of environment, not photographic.

I mean these are obviously more of an undertaking than we can do right now, given that we have a small indie team and most of us work other jobs or are looking for another one, and I have a couple of projects that I'm working on right now, but it was an idea that we threw around for a bit and ended up getting developed a bit more than the others did so I figured I would get some input on it. Might make another post on some of the other ideas if they get a bit further along in conceptual design.