Nickbishop
10-08-2009, 08:02 PM
I had typed this a ways back when it was rather late and I was pretty juiced on a Redbull.
Just some thoughts on how good the multiplayer scene could be with this game, and some basic gameplay thoughts:
I see HUGE potential for an amazing multiplayer experience. All they need to do mimic the table top game engine really. Make the casters fun to play as, but not to powerful that you forget about the warjacks. A hit from a heavy would pretty much have to be game over, or require some sound tactical play to recover from. Spell targeting via arcnodes would be done automatically; say you are a ways back with an arc node way out to your left, and you target an enemy in range of the arcnode but out of your range, you could have cool animations of magic arcing from the caster to the arc node and finally off to the target. Feats would have to slow the game down for maybe 2 seconds or so and provide much graphical splendor to announce that you have pulled out the big guns.
I could see not having direct control over the jacks working pretty well. You could use the bumper buttons to select a jack and the dpad to issue an order. Attacking and move to commands would just be by targeting the ground or an enemy unit. While you also have a jack selected for orders, you could use focus to boost the jack. To keep the game fast and simple, boosting would increase the jacks run speed, accuracy, and power. Power attacks would automatically take focus when you assign the jack to perform it. Like you would select a jack, target an enemy and press down on the dpad to order a slam. Focus would be taken away and the jack would speed up a bit, and you could further boost the jack to ensure he hits the target. A boosted jack could have a cool glowy graphic like a woosh.
The speed of the game could even be designed around the focus mechanic. For example, every caster regens focus at the same rate and you could balance how fast everything moves around the time for focus to regen. A warjack would receive boosted stats for one regen cycle.
I can see games of WM playing out just like the table top, with warjacks blocking each other from direct attacks on the warcaster. They would slug it out while lighter jacks try to feel out the flanks or assist in taking down a heavy blocking the front line. Warcasters with access to arcnodes would move those jacks into position. The game would quickly get frantic with players trying to balance positioning jacks/micro managing with casting spells and using focus to boost along with keeping their caster fighting- just like real warcasters do.
You would have to let players choose the caster and the jacks in the battlegroup.
A game that allows two new or casual players to just send in their jacks to mash each other and sling some spells, while at the same letting two experienced players dig deep into the game and practice advanced manuvering tactics would be entirely possible.
Or something like that.
Wow, sorry. Wall of Text. I'm excited and was drinking an energy drink and started typing.
Just some thoughts on how good the multiplayer scene could be with this game, and some basic gameplay thoughts:
I see HUGE potential for an amazing multiplayer experience. All they need to do mimic the table top game engine really. Make the casters fun to play as, but not to powerful that you forget about the warjacks. A hit from a heavy would pretty much have to be game over, or require some sound tactical play to recover from. Spell targeting via arcnodes would be done automatically; say you are a ways back with an arc node way out to your left, and you target an enemy in range of the arcnode but out of your range, you could have cool animations of magic arcing from the caster to the arc node and finally off to the target. Feats would have to slow the game down for maybe 2 seconds or so and provide much graphical splendor to announce that you have pulled out the big guns.
I could see not having direct control over the jacks working pretty well. You could use the bumper buttons to select a jack and the dpad to issue an order. Attacking and move to commands would just be by targeting the ground or an enemy unit. While you also have a jack selected for orders, you could use focus to boost the jack. To keep the game fast and simple, boosting would increase the jacks run speed, accuracy, and power. Power attacks would automatically take focus when you assign the jack to perform it. Like you would select a jack, target an enemy and press down on the dpad to order a slam. Focus would be taken away and the jack would speed up a bit, and you could further boost the jack to ensure he hits the target. A boosted jack could have a cool glowy graphic like a woosh.
The speed of the game could even be designed around the focus mechanic. For example, every caster regens focus at the same rate and you could balance how fast everything moves around the time for focus to regen. A warjack would receive boosted stats for one regen cycle.
I can see games of WM playing out just like the table top, with warjacks blocking each other from direct attacks on the warcaster. They would slug it out while lighter jacks try to feel out the flanks or assist in taking down a heavy blocking the front line. Warcasters with access to arcnodes would move those jacks into position. The game would quickly get frantic with players trying to balance positioning jacks/micro managing with casting spells and using focus to boost along with keeping their caster fighting- just like real warcasters do.
You would have to let players choose the caster and the jacks in the battlegroup.
A game that allows two new or casual players to just send in their jacks to mash each other and sling some spells, while at the same letting two experienced players dig deep into the game and practice advanced manuvering tactics would be entirely possible.
Or something like that.
Wow, sorry. Wall of Text. I'm excited and was drinking an energy drink and started typing.