Well recently I've hit a problem in a design document i'm writing in my spare time (which i'm writing mainly to just organise my thoughts and stuff that I've jotted down at various times over the past couple of years, rather than because I am actually going to make the game, but who knows...) The game is a squad-based Action\Adventure RPG (not a MMORPG, purely offline only), where the player commands upto four individuals at any one time (one of which represents the PC). At first, I was going to go for a Kill.Switch\Gears of War\G.R.A.W (XBOX 360 version) type control system, whereby a player, in a 3rd person perspective, by either tapping a 'mount' button or by running against certain objects and/or walls, would then hug against it and use it as cover, being able to fire blindly or use the objects to partially hide them as they fired on. your squad would be controlled completely by the AI, and you could direct them to take cover, assault, hack open a door, etc. At the same time, I also thought of having a similiar system but from a first person perspective, removing the ability to mount against walls and use cover in the same sense as GRAW etc but allowing a far more streamlined interaction with the story, in the same sense that Half-Life 2 and its predecessor kept you captivated. However, I soon realised that these mechanics wouldn't work too well with the storyline, which is a far future setting, but along with the usual high tech weaponry, would be a warrior caste who use swords. designing the combat system so that the player would feel compelled to use them over conventional weapons, would feel too much as if the game was unbalanced, rewarding those who had swords over those with projectile weapons. To combat this, I thought of a third system. This system would be similiar to that used in the KotOR series of games. It would be third person and would be similar in a combat model. The game will pause and you can direct each of your team memebers to attack which individuals and the player can also assign 'tactics' to each PC, examples being flank the enemy, covering fire, defensive position, melee combat, etc. the difference with this system is the underlying framework can be turn-based, allowing for the use of swords to be much more balanced. The game will then play in real time, and using advanced AI the characters on both sides would dynamically use the environment to get cover, outflank the enemy, close in for melee combat, etc. i believe this would add a really cinematic quality to the action on the screen. The last system is the type of i think im gonna go for, and i think would also suit the RPG crowd as it allows completely control over the squad, but i'd like your suggestions on ways to improve it?! sorry if this all sounds muddled too, its been banging around in my head and its all sort of exploded onto the screen. i need to really write it out and analyse it properly, but anyones input would be appreciated.