Machines 2 – Rampaging Robots is a 3D real time strategy game. It has a simple resource collection model, manufacturing of buildings and machines, research tree and first person control.
The game may be played in one of three modes: Single Player Campaign, Single Player Skirmish and Multiplayer.
The player must guide the Machines civilisation through a number of missions to ensure the civilisation’s survival. The missions will be varied in nature and consist mainly of war, infiltration and other special mission types.
In these levels the player will start with one or more machines, a home pod, possibly some other buildings and a default research and construction tree. By finding, mining and refining resources the player may spend the resultant resources on further research and construction (both machines and buildings). Using the machines to destroy the opposition machines or home base then results in a win for the player and progressing to the next stage.
Here one or a set of machines will be assigned a specific mission, for example locating and destroying a certain building or enemy machine on the landscape.
By clever use of “conditions” that may be checked for a whole raft of possible mission types could be constructed. With a simple “timer” and “how many machines exist of which race” you could easily build a “survive 10 minutes to win” scenario.
The game will support one basic resource type “BMUs”. This is literally Building Material Units. BMUs may be converted (with constructors) to buildings and (with factories) to other machines.
BMUs are present under the ground and must be located (using a locator machine), then mined (with a mining building) to bring them to the surface. Once they’ve been mined they must also be transported (with a transporter Machine) directly to a Smelter where they are finally converted to useful BMUs.
Research must be performed by Technician machines that are sequestered inside laboratories. Each technician has a certain limit as to how much it can research i.e. it has a research rate. Certain technologies only become available once you have a technician of an appropriate level and once you’ve researched the previous item(s).
Successfully researched items then become available to build in an appropriate factory.
In line with the Machines 1 – Wired for War implementation – only “complete” research items may be chosen. E.g. I wish to research grunt level 3 with this gun combination.
The full version of Machines 2 would allow partial research combining to create “new” machines types. E.g. I want a “knight level 3 body, constructor capability and a level 2 plasma cannon”. You would then research the complete brand new machine type which would then come online to be built at an appropriate factory.
Factories in Machines 1 were divided into Military, Civilian and then further divided by a number of levels which specialised in “types” of machines. The same metaphor will be maintained for this implementation. So machines will be buildable in one or more factory types.
All military machines or buildings are known as aggressors. All aggressors will have a scanner limit range and a weapon range. The weapon range and the scanner range are not necessarily the same value. Aggressors may target machines within scanner range and may fire on them. All machines and constructions have both an energy shield and an underlying number of hps. As the weapon hits the initial damage will be “soaked” up by the shield. Any remaining damage will be taken directly from the hit points. Once hit points are reduced to zero the machine or construction will be destroyed. The shield will then recharge and each machine will have an associated shield recharge rate. Machines 1 also had a rule such that at least one point of damage for each shot will come directly from the hps irrespective of how much was soaked up by the shield. This was modelling the Star Trek effect that even when you have shields left damage can still be caused!
This is a “one off game” player vs the AI. The AI will have a strategic brain and be capable of building a base and launching attacks on the player or other CPU players.
This is simply “War mode” but the game will provide an initial lobby location where the players “log into” the game, parameters may be set and the play commences. The winner is the player or team who destroys the opposition.
For the purposes of designing this engine we shall limit ourselves to the following:
1. Two levels of single player campaign (you need two levels to prove
campaign progression / menus).
2. Support for following machines and buildings:
2.1. Locator
2.2. Level 2 grunt
2.3. Level 2 reaper (assault cannons and plasma rifle)
2.4. Level 1 Transporter
2.5. Level 2 Transporter
2.6. Level 1 Technician
2.7. Level 1 Constructor
2.8. Level 1 Mine
2.9. Small Civilian Factory
2.10. Civilian Lab
2.11. Level 1 military factory
2.12. Pod
3. Multiplayer
4. Enough AI to play
the scenario games