The game Project Visitor is sort of like this, it might be worth checking out...

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Original post by gn0m3
The game <a href = "http://www.projectvisitor.com">Project Visitor</a> is sort of like this, it might be worth checking out...

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WOW some one is making a 10Six server emulator thats cool!

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Original post by Anonymous Poster
WOW some one is making a 10Six server emulator thats cool!

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Yeah, they''ve replaced all the in game textures and all the copywritten material, Marty''s got servers and the like all set up and the game''s been up for a while now. Check out VBCnetwork for more information

Dungeon Keeper 1 and 2.

I loved posessing an imp then running through one of my friends'' dungeon (when I was playing against them in multiplayer) and just bashing down all of their walls.

Also, it was fun to posess a unit with a projectile weapon and join in a battle as a sniper in the back lines.

While designing my wargame, I eventually realized that what I really wanted was essentially a Commander Simulator. In other words, I wanted the player to experience what commanders on the battlefield must actually think about. Naturally, a logical extension of this idea is to get rid of the whole top-down, bird's eye view of the battlefield and replace it with whatever is technologically feasible given the technology of the time. Since my game setting takes place in the future, a commander could have a top-down view if he has orbital supremacy. One of the overriding design goals of my game is to eliminate the player as a god-like being when it comes to control of units, information gathering (even from his own units), and communication capacities.

So I too thought about having the avatar...the manifestation of the player...in a first person camera perspective, and acting with the environment to control units as technology permits. So in a pre-radio environment, messengers, runners or flags would be used to communicate orders with appropriate lag times for response and the possibility of orders not getting through. Another aspect that appealed to me is the ability to experience the first hand horrors of war rather than being a detached REMF (rear echelon mother f*cker). If your position is about to be overrun by enemy forces, it creates a much more tense situation. Conversely, seeing dead troops littering the battlefield is more visceral than just seeing a little icon go poofy.

The real trick in handling something like this is the interface between the player to the avatar, and the avatar to his Commanders which in turn give orders to his subordinates on down. I think by borrowing concepts from roleplaying games and adventure games, you can have interactive tools that the avatar can use to give orders such as radioes, mobile command vehicles, command bunkers, CCC 3d HUD rooms, etc.

[edited by - dauntless on August 24, 2003 2:49:05 PM]

Check out Activision''s Battlezone. It''s an excellent FPS+RTS hybrid, though far from perfect.

Now, I've just been reading this post, and I may have come up with an idea that would lessen the interface issue. I havent exactally meditated on it, but here goes!

Instead of first person view, you see 3rd person. You are in control of one unit at a time in this view. However, you can zoom out to the bigger picture like in most RTSs. You can then build buildings, all that stuff. However, units are trained as part of a platoon that can only be controled by you being one of those units; the view zooms in to this unit that you now control. From there you order the other units in your platoon. The idea being you split up the action into two stages having relativly little overlap in your abilities in either mode. The action wont be as epic because your armies are small and divided, but it would be more squad-based. This obviously wouldn't work for some instances (Civilization - 10 soldiers can't exactally conquer a contenent), but it could fit in very well in others (Red Alert - think how many times you had Tanya, a medic, and 5 other units with the mission of destroying the fortified Soviet base).

[edited by - SubQuantum on August 25, 2003 12:04:54 AM]

Heres my take on a fps and rts mix

My games it basically in the traditional rts view collection resources building a base and building an army but you can zoom into the world and take direct control of any of your units and control it like you would if you were playing a fps imagine command and comqure if you could do this with thw commando or tania

I find with RTSs in general, I often end up hovering over a single unit or group, carefully guiding them to maximise their effectiveness... then get wiped out by the large army my opponent built up while I was carefully degrading his defences...
Anyway, my point is that to a certain extent people already play RTSs as though they were FPS with a really weird interface - especially in small group no-construction type missions.

Perhaps Operation Flashpoint has some pointers for what you''re looking for. Obviously it''s closer to the FPS genre, but once you''re in control of a squad you can zoom out and issue orders - anything from moving them about and making them take cover to entering vehicles and so on. Taking that format in mind, it wouldn''t be too great a leap to put building construction and other features more associated with RTS games in there