a little while ago a friend and I had an idea about an RTS. so you know how alot of RTS's (Empire Earth and Age of Empires) cross through ages? however, they start in the stone age and build up to a later age. the Idea was what if you start in a futuristic age and work towards building a WMD of some sort. The WMD gets build and launched and BOOM, all of your technology is now defunct.

The WMDs are not traditional. I have come up with a list:

-Electronoc-magnetic field

-Zombies

-severe weather

-Global warming/freezing

-Gravity Shift

-Mutagen radiation

-Tectonic destabilizer

-Mind Control

-Deadly air

If some of these seem a little OP, they are supposed to. these are world changing events that change the global age. The Tech trees that I am thinking of start just a it before WMDs and each branch has an offensive string and a defensive string. example: your spies have foundout that your enemies are working on an EMF. therefore you decide to research the defensive tree to EMF, maybe mechanical or something. the point is that if you are prepared you can weather the worst and come out on top.

so what do you all think? any tips?

This sounds good.

I'm assuming then that these weapons are mutually assured destruction. If so you need a good plot device as to why they would ever contemplate pushing the button.

We've had nukes as a society for over 60 years yet only two have ever been used in anger and the horrors of seeing them used was enough to they haven't been used since.

When the horror of unleashing the superweapon can come back and ruin your own day what makes it so important that you really must pull the trigger (e.g. a zombie virus).

If you can believably answer that question the game will work well I think.

Good luck!

Could be neat if you have really fleshed out tech trees (at the start) with plenty of redundancy in roles.

I'm assuming the WMD use would be as a defensive measure?

For example, a player makes tons of infantry, and since you don't think you can win, you unleash a zombie plague?

Which wouldn't affect you because you built robots (for example). The enemy sees your robot army, and unleashes a global emp attack.

So the result would be both factions trying to get viable units that can deal with bolth zombies and not use electrical systems?

I'm assuming then that these weapons are mutually assured destruction. If so you need a good plot device as to why they would ever contemplate pushing the button.

Absolutely! I'm hoping that an already started WW3 and arms race would be a good enough reason. That way, there is a reason to push the button and work fast on developing your technology

I'm assuming the WMD use would be as a defensive measure?

Yes and no. I haven't fully fleshed out the strategies involved yet but I plan on giving the player a choice on if they want to use the WMD offensively or defensively. Say you want to take over the world using an EMF. you would build the EMF and also work towards mechanical units. once you have built up to a good point, you would launch the EMF and attempt to roll over everyone with your non electrical units. on the other hand, if you are being attacked by electrical units, you could launch your EMF and save yourself from destruction.

And yes, the Tech tree is going to be very in depth.

I had a thought today about this game.

As a single player plot, how about you start off with lots of robotics and AI and you use it without second thought as infantry. You also have lots of genetically engineered soldiers who you also throw into battle without thought, etc. Each technology you can research can and is encouraged to be abused.

Eventually you get to the point where the technology turns on you. For example the AI becomes skynet or the genetically engineered soldiers mutate into zombies etc.

It could be a moralistic story about abuse of science for the greater bad... :)

Not a bad idea. I could randomize it to some degree so every single player campaign is different. I might use that but right now I'm just testing the waters. I still need the tech tree before I even think about what happens. I want that to be the major theme.