we have formed up a team of 3 people with several support members to create the game we have always wanted to play. Design docs are in works now. The concept goes somethingl ike this. Recreate the Greek warring city states era circa 400 - 500 bc. To do this we intend to use a 3d battleifled with heavy historical concepts, connected to our web based campaign application to allow a virtual persistant environment to battle in. So that players could log on to our server and enter a campaign room and start a camoaign game where players would challeneg each other for territores and initiate the 3d battlefield engine to do battle. After the battle unit numbers, exp etc etc would be adjusted to show the results and the winner would own the province. We are aiming for a historical wargame merged with 3d battledfield. and we mean history. This is not a commcerical game but rather a labor of love to create the wargame we have always wanted to play. We are planning on using wild tangent/java for the battleifield engine and coldfusion for the web based campaign application and a server to run the chat/player interface. We really want to take the 3d RTS environment into real historical territory, with the history that goes with it. We are stilol pulling together a team to help, we are looking for programmers, 3d modelers and graphics artists to help out. We have a small but commited team of programmers on the project so far with the will and drive to spend the 1-2 years it will take to make this thing work the way we want. Our goal is nothing less than to revoilutionize the RTS gaming world with a the first true 3d wargame, no arcade elements and no monetary pressurs to divert us from our goal. Our inspirations are the myth series and shogun, both of which failed us in several ways, but they came close and we could almost taste the wargame possibilites but they dropped the ball on us. We are not commited to any particular language or engine , we intend build the whole concept in a modular fashion that will allow us to change course mid stream and swap out for a better 3d engine or server code if we need. until we get it right Bludhall bludhall@hotmail.com

I''m not quite sure what your post was about. Are you looking for input? Feedback? Or just looking for programmers to help you out?

Well, here''s my critique if that is what you are looking for. I''m all for true wargaming genre''s, but from being on the forum board for about a year now, I can tell you that I''m in a small minority. You''ll probably attract the grognard sector and that''s about it. But if you don''t mind that, more power to you.

In terms of technology, is Wildtangent/Java a good way to go? Java as an interpreted language is slow enough as it is, but then you want to put a coldfusion front end for web based game play along with Wildtangent''s 3d engine? I think that''s asking for it to be very slow.

This is my line of questioning....why create a web based game to reach the masses if only a small minority will be intrigued by it, then saddle it with a resource hungry 3d engine? I think you''s be better off with a 2d engine game if you want to have this format of game play. The modular object oriented code design is a good one, but you''ll still have to take the vagries of differing engines into consideration. Will you be thinking of licensing an established game engine? Or are you going to build one in house?

I can tell that you are a brand new member of the forums, so sift through some of the RTS posts here on ideas about true wargaming. There''s some interesting ideas put forth by a lot of people, but perhaps more importantly, you''ll get a feel of how many people do or don''t like realistic wargaming. That way you can tailor how far in the realism vs playability field you wish to go.

quote: Original post by bludhall
Our goal is nothing less than to revoilutionize the RTS gaming world with a the first true 3d wargame...

I''ve heard that only about a 100*10^1000 times before, 100% of the project have failed. How are different?

well i think, there is never a guarantee of success is there.
Thats why we have no intention of doing it in a commercial way, its to be a labor of love by people who want a game like that.

We really don''t care if the masses like it or not, there is already a AOE and a quake for them.

I think if 100 people love the game it will be worth it.
I was really looking for a critique of the idea anyways.

wargamers = loves history, history = wargames
we just want to make the game we have always wanted to play.

we plan on it taking years to perfect

coolness.

id help you with modelling if you want, and any AI you might want.

coolness, again.

my email is qatal@nr.processreporting.com

Hi!

Actually I have thought of this a lot before since I first played Command&Conquer. The problem usally ends up in how you make the infantery as mobile and powerful as it really is in real warfare.
A game which is realistic is Real War however the game itself isn''t that much fun. A question is if realism always is the best. However I do wish you good luck on this one! Let us know how you are doing!

//Daniel

I tend to agree that any modern warfare simulators are boring when done too realistic.

However ancient, medieval and rennaissance warfare is quite exhilirating when done historically accurately.
Indeed thier sole value lies in thier connection to history.

We now have a website (construction) up
http://www.strateia.org
our game name is Strateia the ancient Greek word for warfare.

We have a development team of 6 members so far.

Our intention is to pursue this vision until we succeed in making the game we have always wanted to play.
We also have faith that a certain percentage of people will also enjoy it.
The Free part should help us remain focused exculusivly on game mechanics and the game itself.

Wish us luck, if we do what we intend this will truly be the first 3d wargame, finally merging the wargame concept with the 3d battlefield and tieing it all together with a semi persistant world.

Bludhall@hotmail.com

3d wargames already exist. Ever heard of Dark Reign 2? Theres one other one i know of but i cant think of the name. Those are futuristic though and your game is historical. I don''t want to discourage you. Your idea still sounds fun. I would even help make it if i had the time.
-Robert

i thought the close combat adaption was fun. close combat as a game has always been crazy bout realism. its fun to tell your guys to advance and have them start running the other way. COWARDS! errr wait i digress.

this thing bout "game over realism" is getting cliche.

realism in one stroke provides context that you can relate too and complexity that could never be thought up by a designer in a vacuum.

two very strong elements that come out "fun"

I wish you good luck with your project, it sounds very ambitious, but I don´t think that you´re going to revolutionise the genre (witht the elements you mentioned), because "true 3d" wargames are already out and about, some without any management part. Still, sounds like it could be a cool game.

@declspec:
And I think the "game over realism" thing is not really cliché, it´s just a deceision you have to make at some point, because realism and fun (the term game is somewhat off) do get in each others way sometimes. Complete realism is real life, and many things are a rather boring affair. Especially when it comes to wargames. The fun part are the battles. You can let the player spend some time moving troops around to build up tension, but if you let him wait for hours and days until some action happens, he´s going to get bored. And nobody said that "fun" means tossing out everything which is realistic. The task is simply to make the realistic be fun, without losing too much of it.