Hello, I've been working for awhile on an indie Total War-like real time formation tactics game, but that is a bit slower paced and involves more wargaming rules like anarchy charges, ZoC, priority shooting targets, pursuits/evades, delayed commands with couriers, etc...I have a very early build up here:
updated to itch.io page:
https://gabe1010.itch.io/formation-tactics-game-prototype-battle
There are no win conditions currently, and the ai is quite primitive. You can restart with the 'r' button, move the camera with mouse movement, right click and hold, double left click and hold middle click, and WASDQE. You can single click or loop highlight units, and give them commands to move with right click and drag (hold control to queue up waypoints). You can only give manual shooting or attack commands once already within anarchy charge range (for the most part you move the units and they pick their targets). There are advantages to flank attacks, bowmen are poor in melee, light foot evade, cav are more effective on charge except vs spears, etc...bowmen can only shoot over allies if at a higher elevation. The game is just a single scene/battle currently. Swordsmen and cav are impetuous and anarchy charge at a greater range, and spearmen are not and instead end up 'zoc locked' if facing an enemy nearby without a charge command. Units show their current state and level of disorder on their banners. Routed units do not rally. There are bits of terrain that disorder non light units, and overlapping units disorders them.
It is in a very early and brittle state right now with plenty of issues, but I thought I would post a build to gauge interest and get some feedback.
Thanks for your time!
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxcfSPTctnQ
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTg2MzQwNy8xMDk4MjA4OS5qcGc=/original/PvrNpi.jpg)
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTg2MzQwNy8xMDk2NDQwNS5qcGc=/original/IG2Oy2.jpg)
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTg2MzQwNy8xMDk2NDQwNC5qcGc=/original/1OIxDC.jpg)
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTg2MzQwNy8xMDk2NDQwMy5qcGc=/original/1nBVw9.jpg)
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTg2MzQwNy8xMDk4MjA4OC5qcGc=/original/PEHXIU.jpg)
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTg2MzQwNy8xMDk4MjA4Ny5qcGc=/original/M4Y0RE.jpg)
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Hey! Welcome to the forum and congrats on this first public build.
Any chance of posting some screenshots to build interest? Maybe provide some details on roadmap, features, etc.?
Good luck with this. I personally am very interested in seeing how it develops.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 04, 2023, 07:28:43 PM
Hey! Welcome to the forum and congrats on this first public build.
Any chance of posting some screenshots to build interest? Maybe provide some details on roadmap, features, etc.?
hello! of course, here's video (may not be fully uploaded yet):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_kpyt5sb1w
it obviously has a lot of problems, but hopefully it's starting to take shape enough you can see where I'm going with this.
^cool! Looks like it has a lot of potential. Good luck!
Ditto. O0
build is significantly improved here:
https://gabe1010.itch.io/formation-tactics-game-prototype-battle
better, larger map, more units, simple AI (you only control blue side now, red is AI), lots of improvements to bugs and some to performance.
let me know what you feedback you have, especially concerning the basics of movement, command, control, attacks/charges/flanks etc...
Well, you certainly have my attention.
I posted some screenshots and an updated video to give a better idea of what it looks like. There are more pictures and downloads to the latest build on the itch.io page:
https://gabe1010.itch.io/formation-tactics-game-prototype-battle
Roadmap wise, I want to keep working on the basic mechanics of formation movement, charges, flank attacks, coordination of men in combat, and animations to get things working better, while also improving performance and adding a few more unit types, to really hash out the core experience and 'find the fun'.
Longer term, I want to try and add multiplayer, a campaign, multiple different factions, more maps (and/or maybe a tabletop style map selection process where players place terrain features), general types and levels (command vs leadership). Those things will all take a long time and I won't start on them for awhile. For now, I want to get to a point where the game consists of one polished single-player vs AI battle as a vertical slice to see if there is some appeal to this Total War style real time 3D formation tactics game with tabletop rules like ZoC, anarchy, order delays and so on.
Man, good luck with that development!
The latest build on this (build11) is substantially improved with a larger map, more units and unit types, lots of bug fixes, better performance, and a basic AI controlling the red team btw, if anyone is interested in giving it a try. I'm very interested in getting any feedback on the basic gameplay and mechanics from wargaming veterans.
I've uploaded a substantially improved build14 with more units, better performance, various bug fixes, and added tooltips describing why a unit can or cannot charge/fire, and increased manual charge range, making it a lot easier to understand and control units. There are shift mode options now where, if a unit is winning, you can have it either pushback (more than normal), hold position (guard), fallback, or recoil from combat altogether, depending on what that unit type is capable of.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3prwA6b3sA
(https://img.itch.zone/aW1hZ2UvMTg2MzQwNy8xMTA4ODY1OC5qcGc=/original/7%2FbN79.jpg)
above shows some of the new UI that should give the player more control and options.
Latest build21 fundamentally rewrites a lot of the movement code, adds top down view banner info, adds concealment of units based on LoS (through hills and other units), and fixes a bunch of random issues. See other devlogs since build14 as lots of things have improved.
the latest build25 has unit selection, larger armies, horse archers (with model variation and weapon swapping prototype for them), and a large variety of gameplay fixes and improvements (see devlog).
I love that you can actually see the troops fairly well from that camera height in your last shot. Total War lost that ability a long time ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjT3P36l78g
build 49 up with more factions and lots of bug fixes and improved UI on unit and card selection.
Also, if you'd like to join the discord it's here:
https://discord.gg/6FCqHuP3
much newer build 77 is up now btw, with many more factions, especially medieval factions, and more unit types like nights, cataphracts, elephants, slingers, crossbowmen, etc...
https://discord.com/invite/6cMrSmXbUA
https://gabe1010.itch.io/formation-tactics-game-prototype-battle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sz7c0Iq6TOQ