ok so this is basically a proposal for a forum game, and i'll lay out the mechanics in this post to see if it sounds interesting.
the premise is that everyone is on control of a mech/robot/machine/whatever and everyone is vying for control of a region on a map. more precisely, the game takes place on the 2-d euclidean plane. whenever a mechanism is the sole mechanism within the unit circle of this plane, it gains one point per round. whomever has the most points at the end of the game wins.
each mechanism is basically a collection of nodes. there are various types of nodes, and a mechanism can have multiple or none of each type of node. you are out of the game when your mechanism is destroyed, which happens when all nodes of the mechanism are destroyed. each node starts off with a thin armor plating which gives it some hitpoints.
each node has a cost, energy usage (or production), control usage (or production), and mass.
cost is well, the cost of your node. the total cost of the mechanism is the sum of the final cost of all the nodes. the final cost of each node differs from the cost of a node in that you add on a constant base cost per node, and also pay a cost linear in the amount of hitpoints given to the node. this prevents people from making a mechanism with a trillion nodes. everything will start off with the same budget to purchase their mechanism.
energy is obviously needed to operate the mechanism. i don't think i need to say any more here.
control is used to control parts. you can think of it as the amount of computers / pilots / operating skill onboard.
mass affects your movement speed and capabilities
now to keep things simple, each node also has a <value> attached to it, and the cost, energy, control, and mass of that node is linear in the value of the node. the constants attached to each of those factors depends on the type of the node. for example, mass might have a large constant attached to it for armor nodes, but less so for control nodes, since a pilot is likely lighter than a chunk of armor.
without further ado, let's review the five node types.
control nodes
- provides <control>
- uses <energy>
- generates <strategy>
- the value of a control node is
sublinear in the amount of <control> it provides
linear in the amount of <strategy> it generates
armor nodes
- provides protection to other nodes
- has a certain <width> (# of nodes it can defend)
- has a <depth>
- has a <speed>
- has a <leakage> factor
- uses <energy>
- uses <control>
- the value of an armor node is
sublinear in <depth>
linear in <width>
superlinear in <speed>
inverse proportional to <leakage>
generate nodes
- provides <energy>
- provides energy <storage>
- uses <control>
- the value of a generator node is
linear in <storage> provided
sublinear in <energy> production
sublinear in energy
weapon nodes
- uses <control>
- uses <energy>
- can do damage to nodes of enemy mechanisms
- has a <width>
- has a <power>
- has a <range>
- has a <speed>
- the value of a weapon node is
linear in <width>
superlinear in <power>
linear in <range> (but with base cost for 0 range)
superlinear in <speed>
linear in <power>
propulsion nodes
- uses <control>
- uses <energy>
- provides <thrust>
- the value of a propulsion node is
linear in <thrust>
during your move, you deecide how to *operate* each node.
rules of operation:
1. with control, propulsion, and generator nodes, you can pick a percentage to operate them at. 0% disables them for the turn, 100% means they work as normal, and 50% means they produce/consume 50% as much <control> or <energy> as normal. simple stuff.
2. armor nodes and weapon nodes are all or none
3. each weapon node can target up to <width> components on the same enemy mechanism (two weapon nodes can target two different mechanisms)
4. each armor node can defend up to <width> components on your own mechanism
each turn happens in 3 phases
the first phase is the only phase where you can operate control, propulsion, and generator nodes
the second phase is the only phase where you can operate attack nodes
the third phase is the only phase where you can operate defense nodes
now for some game mechanics
0. you can't use more energy/control that you have. this should be obvious
1. movement is accomplished by <thrust>, which gives you acceleration equal to <thrust>/<total mass>. standard physics applies at this point, your acceleration, velocity, and position are all 2d vectors and shit. also, speed decays by a constant factor each round to simulate air resistance.
2. energy interacts with (energy) storage exactly how you'd expect it to
3. control nodes accumulate strategy (as specified), and n units of strategy may be spent to boost a single stat of any node by a factor linear in log2(n) for a single round. for example, spending 16 strategy could quadruple your attack speed for a round.
now for some combat mechanics
3. if you're out of range a weapon does no damage. duh.
4. the probability that a defense node successfully protects a node is <speed of defense>/<speed of attack>
5. the damage to an attacked node is computed by the following procedure
order the defending nodes protecting the attacked node by speed, descending
repeat the following steps for each defending node
the 'absorbed power' is the depth of the defending node or the remaining power of the attack, whichever is less
both the defending node and the attacked node take damage equal to the absorbed power multiplied by the leakage factor
subtract the absorbed power from the remaining power of the attack
any remaining damage is applied to the attacked node directly
random notes
- i say linear and a constant factor very frequently. the precise constants for everything is still to be chosen. i'm open to suggestions. the goal is, obviously, balance.
- when i say superlinear, i mean functions like x^1.1, x^2, 2^x, and so on.
- when i say sublinear, i mean functions like x^.9, sqrt(x), log(x) and so on.
Topic: attack on mechanisms (Read 1546 times)
