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GENERALS
Strategic Modern War Simulation

Generals takes place in a war-torn future, amidst a large deterministic battle. Two factions, Omega and Epsilon, reside on opposite ends of the 256x256 tactically designed battlefield, with one goal: destroy the other faction's HQ. Two players take the role of Generals for each faction (for a total of 4 players).

At the start of the game, players select one of 12 uniquely classed General units:
Sniper, Bio-Tech, Mech, Infantry, Technology, Nuclear, Black Ops, Pyro, Plasma, Psi, Disease, Bombardment

ABILITIES
Each class has an average of 3 or 4 abilities in addition to a radically different gameplay style. For example, the Sniper General is usually dependant on it's sniper rifle ability, accessable at any time by moving an automatically centered observer off the General...

Sniper Rifle Aiming
Sniper Rifle Firing + Returning

...This ability also has 4 types of ammo, .50 Cal, .65 Cal, Neutron Shell, and an undecided type (see my request for suggestions below).

There are eight abilities available to all the Generals:
Normal
- Capture, a single nearby neutral (P12, found in excess around the map) structure or unit, or already captured command point is captured by your General.
- Item: MedSynth, fully heals a 3x3 square centered on your General.
- Item: Mine, deploys a mine from your inventory.
- Undetermined slot(s).
Reinforcement
- Ground Assault, a squad of men are deployed from the faction HQ towards your location.
- Drop Pod, after loading a 2x8 area with units in your Troop Deployment area, an automated dropship is launched from your HQ and arrives with your men.
- Carpet Bomb, a heavy bomber (BC most likely) is deployed to your location and drops a series of kill-all explosions in a line.
- Undetermined slot.

RANK
The Generals can progress through 30 ranks, though it is not expected for a player to reach full level unless the game progresses for a relatively long time. Each rank increase affects these things:
- Salary, a set amount of mineral income per couple seconds.
- Authorization, an auto-resetting gas amount that dictates various game aspects.
- Types of troops you can call in for reinforcement. (This is also affected by your General's class. Ex. Mech General can recieve a small amount of Goliaths whereas the Infantry General can recieve a horde of Marines.)
- Structures and technology. More on this later...

COMMAND POINTS
The battlefield is speckled with variously sized bases and fortifications, known as Command Points. Each Command Point base has a beacon and various structures.
Each faction starts with a handful of small outlying Command Points, and many more await in the battlefield. Once a General (and only a General) captures a Command Point, they recieve a bonus, and the Command Point goes under their faction's control. Units will now spawn on intervals at the Command Point and attack towards the enemy faction's base. (I'm considering a tech-deterministic building system where the structures that are near a Command Point affect what units are spawned for attack waves.)

BUILDINGS
There are a limited amount of buildings you can enter and walk around inside in the game.
At your Faction's Main Base:
- HQ Building (CC). Provides radical strategic options such as superweapon deployment and mass-suicide )
- Mothership Bay. At high levels, around 20 and above, your General can invest in a Mothership. A powerful air unit (or even a ground unit in some cases) is purchased here. You can only have one Mothership. A small set of extremely powerful abilities become available when you own one of these units, and are a method of bringing a long game to a definite end. (Things like onboard superweapons or stat-modifying fields around the unit achieve this)
- Armory. Purchase items like MedSynths, Ammo Cartridges (for gun abilities), Mines, AA Autoseeking Missles, Grenades, and more.

On the Battlefield:
- Bridgepoint Mall. (There is a large urban environment in the center of the map.) Civilians have taken cover in this structure and various shops and resources can be found here.
- Abandoned Army Base. Third party guerilla forces have taken over this abandoned base and are using it as an indoor third faction HQ.
- More.

MORALE
Morale is a custom score of 0-100 for each player displayed in the top left. Various things, such as kills, ability usage, and losses can modify the number. If you General dies, the number decreases by 10 and he respawns. If the number ever reaches zero, you lose.

Other Leaderboards
Yes, the leaderboard is a switcher. Sorry if you think it's cluttered, but there are 4 stats displayed: Morale, Kills, Troops, and Rank. You are alloted 50 men in your Troop Deployment area, and the Troops leaderboard shows "X / 50 Troops Ready for Deployment." The rest are self explanatory.

SUGGESTIONS NEEDED
At the time of this posting, map version is 0.3 and is in Alpha. At version 0.9, a testing beta will be released, then version 1.0 will be completed based on review and testing. This map is not intended for the hordes of mindless B.Net kiddies, but instead for the select few who enjoy long, complicated strategy. Enjoy.

If you have an idea, post it!! Things to think about: abilities, items, large scale concept changes, structures, new features. Let the inspiration flow! If you idea is incredible and makes a big impact, I'll mention you in the credits.

If you need to talk with me personally, my AIM is PsiShock3 and my e-mail is thewards@sbcglobal.net

I used to play game's similar to this all the time... Yet, well, this just looks a hell of a lot better! Really I think the only suggestion I have for you is to go back into StarForge and pretty up those menu areas. (Troop Deployment) Looking forward to it.

Sounds interesting...I'll be glad to help you test it. I've got an idea for the sniper shells. You can use a "Cluster Shell" for the sniper, where you will only have 1 and you will have to buy more, but once shot out it will explode and KILL anyone and/or anything in a radius...perhaps 10x10 or something. and it will be hella expensive

Wow, this looks great. It's one of the few development threads I've seen that I'll actually bother checking from time to time.

Sound really really great... i just loved that kind of games

There will be "age" Like Zerg=past, Terran=Present, Protoss=Future?

Im waiting for the final release! There will be a Demo Or Beta?

Wonder where you got some your ideas from dare i say Command and Conquer:Generals lol the whole system is just like generals with some changes that help make this idea of yours better . It sounds good if you can pull it off though. Lot of triggers involved and lots of testing. Key advise always test with good friends early on to catch annoying bugs. You should probly set up some small areas first then set up your system and get it working then finish placing units and such or at least thats wat i do to make sure my system works b.c i haft to go back and changle more triggers than i would have had too. Some ideas to add hmm for Morale I used that b4 in one my maps and when your Morale got better I had it where you got better troops which you could add. For balance you need to leave upgs out unless its simple upgrades liek Rine range and stuff you want people to purchase or could be a power up you gain. I love complex maps and ideas and whats you name on BNET and wat server??? I am always willing to help.

This resembles the Neutron Shell. It is a single shot, medium range shell that kills all organic matter in it's huge blast radius. Armored unit's pilots are killed inside the vehicle, giving the vehicle to player 12, and making it available for capture by a General.

Huge 10x10 kill-all blasts are more of a superweapon type of ability.. expect something of that degree in the higher ranks somewhere.


I did get some original inspiration from the C&C game, but this is in no way a remake of it.

BNET: Psi.Fusion @ USWest

You know the sniper? Why not also make him a recon unit of some sort. Like if hes at certain places he can get a bit more range with maybe the observer able to go certain range but then a trigger takes him right back to the sniper if he goes too far.

For one of those abilities that all generals can do how about something that makes a small amount of random units come out from buildings to the generals aide.

The fourth shell, why not make it a targeter for some type of laser in the main base? Like They get this type of bullet when they get to a pretty high rank or something.

For items how about some kind of radio that has limited uses with different types of calls, like an air strike for rank 10 or supply drop when they need it of some sort.

Another item how about some tactical nuke.

Will there be deeds? Like if the general does something like kill the third faction leader, or they stop a large army of some sort by doing something and tehy get the exp or w/e to progress in ranks.

For the the all general abilities how about like at a certain rank there able to rig one useless building or maybe a couple more at a time to explode when they activate a trigger button for it to explode.

I'll try to think of something some of the other general classes can do.

Just some things I thought of.

P.S.I dunno I can't remember but is the observer suppose to be reticle, reciticule, reticule. My bad if I'm wrong.

The observer is run by a timer, and it can only go as far as you can move it in five seconds, apon which time whatever round is currently equiped fires. This is cancelable (i think) simply by returning the observer to the sniper-general.

if you move the observer away from the sniper at any time, the timer starts up. if yoiu don't plan on attacking, you'd best only move the general. the observer will follow.

there is already a nuke general, you know. =)

I didn't see lol and oh I was wondering how the observer worked for the shooting process.

Now I know.

i'll use Location 1 as my referance.

if you move the sniper general out of location 1, but the observer is still there, it centers location 1 on the general and then moves the observer onto the location. If you move the observer from location 1 but the sniper is still there, it starts the countdown until it fires. does that make sense?

If you haven't notice already, Azure has been working on this with me. Although he doesn't touch the map. I would stab him.

Hmm..This sounds oddly like a Unit in CandC:Generals.....But.I can't...Ahaa That GLA sniper hero...forgot his name though..GAH >_<

Sounds Uberly Fruity..Sweet...Wakka Wakka...This map sounds And Hopefully will look good...I'm hoping to seeing it

Current thumb. The terrain is incredibley complex and I consistenty have to deal with SC's "your terrain is too damn good to load" error. Featured in the map is a blend of isometric terrain that is both visually appealing and strategically evident, with SCMDraft-added features like ladders onto outpost, hidden mountain paths that are almost unnoticeable but give new movement. Sprites and/or hand-done square terrains will be added once the map is fully playable, near the end of production.

You do know I said "Now I Know" lol...

Nice terrain...I'm sad I don't have nothing to do for like 10 hours of the day I just end up sitting here looking at the comp, Staredit, StarCraft channel, and some maps. So if I can help in any way tell me lol.....seriously it's boring were I am.....

Wow. My first impression upon reading the first couple of lines was that this was just going to be a bigger version of SC Fortress. But theres a lot of concepts in here thatll make it more than that.

I also like that you can take over some abandoned stuff. I had some of those ideas for my maps, but never got to using them. Hope yours works out well.

I'll now post the Rank-determined salary and authorization levels, as well as 2 General's abilities and their costs... tell me your ideas and I will gladly use them if they're good! I'll be posting the General's ability sets two at a time, so everyone can synergize better.

Rank | Salary | Authorization Level
(X .... 5X .... 100X)
1 .... 5 .... 100
2 .... 10 .... 200
3 .... 15 .... 300

And so on until 30

Rank 30 .... 150 Salary .... 3000 Authorization

AUTHORIZATION LEVEL

In Generals, your gas is equivelant to the authorization level of your rank. Say you have rank 5, and therefore your authorization level is 500. You will have 500 gas available. If you were to use an ability that requires 500 authorization or less (and whatever other reqs), the gas is subtracted and the ability commenses. Every four or five seconds, your authorization level is reset to your rank-defined amount (so in this case, 500. And FYI, players recieve salary every two authorization resets). Authorization is also used for structure construction (ex a Supply Depot is 765 minerals and 100 gas, which means you can build it at rank 1.)

ABILITIES

Sniper
Sniper Rifle (Constant): An observer constantly centers on your General when you walk. If you ever move the observer off without walking, it activates your sniper rifle. You will proceed to fire a round of whatever ammo is loaded. To cancel the ability, move the observer back to the General before the timer is up and your shot fires.
.50 Cal Ammunition: Loads a 8 second range shell that kills 1 unit. 100 Auth + 1 Ammo
.65 Cal Ammunition: Loads a 7 second range shell that kills units in a 2x2 location. 400 Auth + 1 Ammo
Neutron Shell: Loads a 6 second range shell that kills all organic units (marine, firebat, ghost, zeal etc.) and the pilots of vehicles--as explained earlier--in a large radius. 1000 Auth + Neutron Charge Item
In consideration: Cluster Shell: Loads a 7 second range shell that creates a mine field with 7 mines in a circular pattern.



BioTech
Genesis (Constant Ability): The BioTech General spawns BioPods (larvae) that crawl around nearby at all times. If one ventures too far, it dies. They can be instructed to develop into one of various lifeforms at any time. BioPods are the primary tool of the BioTech General in this game. Lifeform costs and auths vary.
Endo Synthesis: Activates a healing energy field that heals nearby organic matter to 100% HP. Kills all nearby eggs and larvae. 200 Auth
Hibernate: Freezes all your nearby BioPods (they will convert to P12 but are not capturable). They become unusable for the time being. 500 Auth
In consideration: Xeno Wave: All hibernating BioPods on the field explode and spawn an unstable Xeno lifeform (broodling). This is done almost instantly using hypertriggers, which are enabled in this map. Drains 5 minerals per BioPod + requires 1400 Auth



I'll release 2 more General's abilities lists after these two recieve your feedback and ideas. Think radically, and think anew.

Keeps looking better, I really like the Xeno idea... for... personal reasons.

Do you have a release date in your head somewhere?

Not too soon, but I make a lot of progress almost every day.

Do like Blizzard, set a day of release, then release it 2 month later !

Look really interesting, will be better than diplomacy and Starcraft2... Yea!

Drink to this Map!

Please post ideas for abilities and other things you'd like to see! Brainstorming will create a better map than if I were to make all of this myself.

Okay i got 1: What about an Engineer? He could: instantly repair any kind of building, Take control on a building.

Or: Spy, He could: infiltrate a building to stole information: (Vision, new unit(hero), broke the power line)

[-Play Command and Conquer: red alert 2: Yuri revenge (this game rock!)]

The Black Ops General can infiltrate the enemy faction's base and cut the power to all of that faction's traps and turrets across the map already. SCVs are field engineers but they don't have any abilities than those already given to them... repair is very important in this game though, especially to the Mech General. I like the idea of capturing enemy structures, so I'll extend the Capture ability to affect them.

And you're right about YR (or any other C&C game); they are good inspiration. Although we can do better than them.

My other reply had some dunno if you want to use them but I also like the heros abilities...post more lol.

Anyway looks great keep working on it. Is there anything I can do...It's really boring where I am...

GL with map

hey, you can help me on my map... check your PM Fu Leng