Poll on socomish type mod

Ok......So I've been posting a lot in here recently looking for help with or posting my model updates for a potential mod. It is going to be based loosely on games like socom and Raven Shield. I'm big into mil-sim and tactical shooters, but I also liked warcraft.

That said, there are some issues that I have with it. First, I hate resource management. Quite frankly, I find it to be a pain in the ass. Second, I'm really bad at micro-managing. I like things to be a bit more user friendly, w/o 100 simliar looking units polluting the screen. As such I wanted to make a small military unit who cannot be made (i.e. the ones you get at the start are the only ones you have). And I really wanted them to move like they would in formations in real life. It'll be standard mil-sim material.....most likely some terrorist hunts and hostage rescues.

With these things in mind, I'm setting out on making this. I've already assembled about 80% of the team....pretty much all locals to my area. And all with a hell of a lot more experience with war3 maps/mods than me. So this is a good start. But I'd like to know if there was any interest in a tactical rts like this. Since it doesn't really fall into the fantasy/sci-fi realm of warcraft or starcraft, would anyone even be interested in playing it? Please let me know your opinions and thoughts.

I think you've got a lot of work to do, given that you're making a squad based strategy game in a fantasy RTS. If you can do it, great, go for it, but over-ambition is the common killer of mods and campaigns these days.

The idea is pretty good, but it won't be easy to make the game realistic. Here are my comments and ideas:

In Socom and that Raven Shield, and most other 1+ Player games, there are "bots" that sometiems form the enemy team, or part ofyour team. To accomplish what you are trying to do, it will require you to either, create an AI sript system for the AI, or make maps that have THOUSANDS of possible paths for the ai to work in and do.

In other words, if you make one map for this mod to be in, you will have to program the "team" to make "decisions", this way, the player isn't the only one telling them what to do, they also have a life. And if you order them to go kill themselves they send back a real sound effect that says like "I'm not going in there!" "No way!" "Stop playing god you bastard!" and anything else that sounds good.

This way, even though you are basically telling them what to do, your units also follow their own lives, so when you tell them to go into one region, the game checks if there are enemies int he area, o r snipers on the walls, if so, it randomly decides whether to send him in or retreat. Also, the players are "intelligent" they make decisions and react on whats happening, if they see a huge force of enemies coming in, they will retreat to the nearest bunker to stop the enemies.

you may also want on the map "bunkers" and special "guns" that can be activated by any unit standing next to them. These would add a lot to strategy, also, if you really want major a.i. stuff, have it so if your units are not nearby their "commander unit" (you) they will be less brave. (The randomization is more for not going into fights)

I wasn't planning on having them wimp out or anything, but your scripting ideas are more or less what I'll be shooting for. Basically, Seal teams never move alone.....always in 2's 3's or 4's. So I'd need to make animations of the units walking backwards and covering the primary's "6". So a script making partners move with you is necessary; I'm told that shouldn't be too diffcult. Then it's just a matter of setting up paths such that teams will use cover to move to an objective as opposed to taking a straight line to the destination.......a daunting task, yes, but doable.

The real problem is combat and damage. I'll need to have the UI overhauled to make it useful.........and figuring out how to make fighting and damage realistic, but not unfun. After all, it would suck if the terrorists killed your entire team 2 minutes into the mission becuase of a wrong move........but at the same time, getting shot is getting shot. I'll have to work out a system to balance this. As always any input on this would be welcome.

Considering the caliber of the guys I have working with me, I'm not super worried about getting it done. I am more concerned with designing it correctly such that it's fun to play. We'll see. Thanks for the suggestions. I like the idea of having mountable turrets and such.....that'd be pretty cool.