So i was thinking about ways to make empires more fun. The problem is people tend to come up with something that has been done before, but only in another game. I wanted something new, that would change something unimportantly that is already present, and bring it to the foreground changing everything all by it's own, yet leaving everything intact at the same time.
Only people with time to read it and to actually think about this (picture it ingame) should read it. It's too much to read for people being busy really.
This is what i've come up with (it's written for the empiresmod forum, but i decided to see how you guys reacted first):
Ok, possibly my first suggestion.
Firstly, i know this is a crazy idea, and that it will require (balancing) changes to be made.
Secondly, this just hit me, and i liked it so much, that if anyone knows a game that exists that does it this way he/she should tell me cause i'll just have to play that game.
And last, this is just a suggestion, among many (stupid) suggestions, so i don't mind if people shoot it down with VALID reasons. Mind the word valid.
Subject: i would like the implementation of a realistic stamina system. I don't even fully understand that word but from playing games i assume it has to with vitality/getting tired/...
The problem
What - to my understanding - ALL games that implement a stamina system have in common, is that the stamina bar empties insanely quickly, and recovers insanely fast.
So while games start to get ultrarealistic, you still see incredibly stupid situations like:
- Look i'm running 20m, now i have to rest (i can sprint - empires running speed that is - for at least a mile, more if my life depends on it)
- Look, i've jumped 3 times half a meter high, now i have to rest
- Look, i'm completely exhausted and unable to move very well, let alone defend myself. Oh wait nevermind, i recovered in half the time it took me to say that, so i'm as fresh as i was before the war started hours ago.
- Look, i'm walking dressed in a heavy but safe uniform, with it's pockets filled with heavy ammunition, and many weapons on my back, yet instead of getting tired i recover completely in mere seconds.
- Look, i'm crouching with my ass almost at the ground, with 60kg of extra weight on top of my own weight, while i have to hold my gun steady and looking through it in iron sight making it extremely hard to not lose balance now that i can't use my arms, but instead of getting tired i recover in mere seconds
- Look, i'm proned, having to stay flat to the ground in order to not get hit, i have at least 60 kg to carry with me, and i should watch carefully not to make a move that attracts someones attention, but luckily this makes me recover in mere seconds
Got the point? Try crouching 100m with a mortar, pistol and lots of heavy ammo, with your ass almost against the ground. Then look me in the eyes and tell me that made you recover your strength.
Nowadays you have insanely awesome graphics, animations, models, effects, ... yet you see someone standing against a box like some enemy in quake1 that hasn't seen you yet, see him jump 3 times, wait 4 seconds, jump 3 times, wait 4 seconds, ... etc. I mean what the fuck is that all about??
The idea:
What i would LOVE to see, is a realistic stamina bar. This means:
- instead of a bar that goes to 100, you'll need one that goes to 10,000. More than that, i did NOT exaggerate when i said 10,000!
- sprinting will take away stamina, crouching (+moving) will take away stamina, proning (+moving) will take away stamina
- walking will not take away stamina but it also will NOT refill it, same goes for crouching and proning while not moving
- ONLY standing/sitting/.. still will make you recover.
This would mean:
- at mapstart you are fresh, like a real soldier, totally in shape, what a full staminabar (10,000).
- Like a real person you'll have to decide how you'll use it. Chosing the right path might get you somewhere with less effort (less obstacles, shorter, less defense, ...)
- You can sprint for multiple minutes straight, but in real life people who do that will find out quickly that they shouldn't have. There comes a time when you can really use some stamina.
- At the end of the map (if played wisely + but balanced fairly) the bar will be at like 50 instead of 10,000. You've been running around, fighting, hitting people with your gun, repairing thick layers of vehicle armor, dodging shell and missiles, running for your life .. ==> you are TIRED (as it should)
- Strategic decissions concerning stamina will help teams win the war (probably for the first time in a game ever - if not tell me). Being able to sprint several minutes can be used to get to places fast to build a base, but if that fails you have an entire squad that's out of breath and can't be used for fast operation in the future, unless you have them rest (defend) for a while
Other beneficial stuff:
- People keep complaining about how not all skills and squadleader skills are equal to eachother, or just not fun (skills like +10% this or that or not really noticable ingame). Having a realistic stamina system helps to make those skills important for your tactical decissions. A skill that makes you recover stamina while walking for example would be good for that squad that used up most of it strength on that failed 2 minute rush.
- It's ONLY an altered stamina system, yet it brings that system to a level that it's not only important in the next 4 seconds for one person, but that even your first decissions become important to the entire team for the entire match (if they want teamwork that is, they can still play solo if they want as well) and gives the commanders a chance to implement tactics that go far beyond what we've seen in ANY game ever. Especially if skills would get adjusted to make use of this system.
- !! It's just fun (IMO) having to decide about running to the middle or not. If you do you might take it before the enemy, however even if you succeed you will be more fatigued (which for the first time would actually mean something). Should you do it and fail you got fatigued for nothing (respawning does NOT reset the bar, i want people to get tired after hours of escortlike battles).
- Unique (probably)
- Fits the empires universe. Having read some of the stories people have written on the forum, and noticed words like 'dirty', 'exhausted', ... all good stories made the nf and be soldiers look realistic. They do not all those things from those stories without getting tired, and they surely don't recover in 4 seconds while crouching towards the enemy defense!
Problems with this:
- I'm not a coder so i don't know how everything works, but you'd have to make it so that when people disconnect and reconnect they still have the same amount of strength left. Otherwise people would run 4 minutes, reconnect and have a full bar again. This might not be possible to fix?
- While i think it's the best idea ever (yeah yeah, ... but seriously i DO love it), it makes early rushes (right after map start) more of a problem.
- Requires balancing and redoing some of the skills. Though i think this should happen anyway, so the result should be definately worth it.
hmm, although, come to think of it, it might help against early rushes. A rush is a rush after all, and an apc is still faster then someone who runs, so they will not be more effective with this stamina system. More than that, if it's succesfull the map ends just as it would now, but if it fails those who ran all the way will have gotten tired, so rushing could actually be more of a risk now.