I am trying to make a solo game that tries to re-implements game ideas from Forbidden Star(FS) and Star Craft(SC). The primary goal is to be a strategic game which is playable in solitaire, multiplayer is optional.
I currently have a problem with the map size/type, mobility in a game where each player will have a large amount of unique unit type (8 per faction so far) to create a kind of Rock-Paper-Scissor relationship between units. I have many options to deal with and I am not sure what could fit best. So I was wondering:
In games with many unit types, what are the strategies of the game? Is it just about moving the right combination of units in the battle, or there is more? Do you have game examples that uses a large variety of units?
Here are some dilemmas I have with the map:
Large vs small maps: It seems that for AI, having a limited amount spaces is easier to implement. But it's less strategically interesting when there is little place to moves into. Humans like tactical movement, but not board game AI. I don't mind using less space, but how to make it strategically interesting with many unit types?
Shared areas: Like Star Craft and Forbidden Star, areas could be shared between players. That could be a way to keep the low amount of areas required by the rule above, but I am not sure if it will be AI friendly. It adds many exception rules with situations where battles can be fought between or within areas.
unit limits: Another issue I have: should the areas be limited in number of units. Forcing players to build better units to reinforce a position if be cannot bring more unit. That creates a problem that the defender will always have a number of unit equal or higher than the attacker. If for example each area can have 4 units, Then I can send at most 4 units to match your up to 4 defending units, and I must empty a region to attack yours making it vulnerable. Those units could be pooled from multiple areas, but that makes it even more AI unfriendly. So I was thinking maybe only limiting the global pool of units and/or make player do all their actions at once, allowing emptying a region and reinforcing immediately the empty region.
Terrain: I was thinking having indoor and outdoor areas for the terrain. Indoors area could protect from bombardment and collateral damage, but I am not sure what could be the benefits of outdoor areas. I cannot boost movement, since its constrained already from tile to tile. Originally, I wanted to make in between tile movement work only with connected matching terrain. Unfortunately, some tile placement could lead to impossible movement between 2 tiles. Also the amount of connected sub areas varied from 2 to 7 which was problematic with unit limits.
no map: Another solution that could work but greatly change the direction of the game is to remove the tactical map. It would make it solo friendly, but would greatly change the strategy of the game.
I think I said enough. If you have any suggestions let me know. I could just copy the mechanics from FS an d SC, but I was wondering if there was something better for solo gaming.
I played age of wonders a couple of time in the past. It does not replace Master of Magic, but it's an OK game.
The theme is a game featuring factions of rats fighting against each other.
For the RPS between unit, I intend to make a matrix of all units duel combination and see which unit can defeat which unit using basic stats or with upgrades. I don't want strict 3 way RPS, but rather some units more efficient vs certain type of units. Ex: my fire rats has bonus vs biological unit. This way, it will be possible to evaluate the efficiency of a unit. The more unit it can destroy and the less unit that can kill them , the stronger is the unit.
In the past, I made a solo variant for the starcraft board game. It used a very small map, and it seems that the sub-divided planet areas makes it easier for the AI to play. The AI was basically invading an area, flooding it and moving else where. Here is a picture guide I made to play the solo variant to give you an idea:
http://bgd.lariennalibrary.com/index.php?n=Guide.StarcraftInvasions
Maybe I should stick close to the original game design, but make it more AI friendly(less special abilities involving choices). I was thinking in using Forbidden star's map design, but with maybe only 4 tiles/planets. It seems that in solo mode, putting more "planets" is not easy for the AI to navigate. So the system above is removing any planet to planet movement. At most, I could add movement to adjacent "planets", if there are few planets, the AI should be able to cover the entire map.
I think one advantage of using subdivided areas is the possibility to pool units from multiple territories into the same territory. Avoiding the bug that when you have unit limits, the attacker will always have a number of units lower equal to the defender. For the unit limit, a user on BGG suggested that indoor areas had less unit capacity than outdoor areas. That could be an interesting solution. I don't really like the idea of unit size. By making all units takes the same space, you could strength your position by putting better quality units rather than more units.
If the map has no subdivision, not only it makes AI navigation harder, but it kind of makes the strategy dull. It seems like the game is just about moving in the right combination of units which most of the time is the entire stack since you don't have much more option. Else, I would need to allow pooling from multiple tile into the same target tile.
It's really surprising how much impact, subdividing areas could have on the gameplay.